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Federal (USV)

Private

Wesley Gould

(1844 - 1928)

Home State: New York

Education: Albany Law School

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 45th Pennsylvania Infantry

Before Antietam

After the Fall 1861 harvest, then a 17 year old student in Delaware County, NY, he crossed the Delaware River to Equinunk, PA with 4 classmates and enlisted. He mustered into service as Private, Company F, 45th Pennsylvania Infantry on 1 October 1861 in Harrisburg.

On the Campaign

He was wounded in action at Fox's Gap on South Mountain on 14 September 1862 and again at Antietam on the 17th.

The rest of the War

He was promoted to Corporal on 4 April 1863 and Sergeant on 8 July 1863. He was very ill late in 1863 and on furlough from December into May 1864, then rejoined his Company. He was captured in action at Poplar Springs Church, VA on 30 September 1864 and held in Libby Prison, Richmond, VA and in the camp at Salisbury, NC until released on parole on 25 March 1865. He was discharged 29 May at Annapolis, MD, but visited the regiment in Washington, DC and was commissioned there from civilian life as 2nd Lieutenant, Company F on 12 June. He mustered out with his Company on 17 July 1865.

After the War

He worked part of the family farm in Delaware County, NY, then studied the law, graduating in 1868. He practiced law and was an active politician, elected to several local offices. He served a term in the NY State Legislature (1894). He died in a hospital in Binghamton, NY following major surgery at age 83.

References & notes

Service information from Bates1 and the History.2 Details from family genealogists and Harris & Niflot's Dear Sister: The Civil War Letters of the Brothers Gould (1998). His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He was one of 7 brothers who served during the war.

He married Pamelia Brazie (1846-1921) in 1868 and they had two daughters, Flora Belle and Cora Belle. Pamelia's brother Jacob Temple Brazie (1839-1923) was a Sergeant in Company F of the 45th and was a POW with Wesley in 1864-65.

Birth

08/25/1844; Goulds, Delaware County, NY

Death

02/14/1928; Binghamton, NY; burial in Riverview Cemetery, Hancock, NY

Notes

1   Bates, Samuel Penniman, History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-65, Harrisburg: State of Pennsylvania, 1868-1871  [AotW citation 11489]

2   Albert, Alan D., editor, and Comrades of the Regimental Association, History of the Forty-fifth Regiment, Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteer Infantry, 1861-1865, Williamsport (Pa): Grit Pub. Co., 1912, pp. 247, 474  [AotW citation 23028]