David L. Stage

Age 24 years. Enlisted May 3, 1861 at New York City; mustered in as Corporal, Company A, May 4,1861, to serve two years.

[On 17 September]

David L. Stage, of Company A, was left on the field so badly wounded that he was unable to crawl away. At the opening of the campaign he was a patient in the Hygiene Hospital at Fortress Monroe, just convalescent from an attack of typhoid fever. Upon learning that his regiment was on the move, he sought for and obtained his discharge from the hospital with orders to rejoin his company, and reported for duty just before the command left Washington.

Being "soft" from life in the hospital he broke down, and being unable to keep up with the regiment, reported to the company commander, requesting to be excused from evening roll-call, and to be permitted to get over the ground in his own fashion, promising to be present at the morning roll-calls, and to be with the regiment in the next engagement. His captain recommended that he " report sick " and be ordered to an ambulance, which suggestion was declined. He was with his company at South Mountain and pulled through all right, but at Antietam he was wounded five times and left on the field when the regiment fell back. He was found by one of the above mentioned searchers, John W. Jacobus, of his own company, barely alive. For two days he had lain on the battlefield without food or drink with his wounds fly-blown and filled with maggots.

One wound was in the face, the jaw having been broken by a fragment of shell, making the mastication of soldier's fare an impossibility. Procuring a bottle, Jacobus, with much ingenuity and the aid of a quill projecting through the cork, improvised a very respectable nursing bottle, and espying a cow in the neighboring field obtained a supply of milk with which he fed Stage. This restored his strength to such a degree that he was able to bear removal, when with the assistance of others of the boys he was carried to the hospital, where, under the skillful and attentive treatment of Surgeon Humphreys, he was soon out of danger and ultimately made a complete recovery.

He was discharged for disability December 15, 1862 at Fredericksburg, VA.

He was listed as a machinist in Schenectady, NY in 1864-65. From 1872-84 he was chief engineer of the Schenectady waterworks. In 1883 he was receiving a US pension of $10 per month - as he had since September 1863. He co-founded the engineering and manufacturing firm of McQueen and Stage in 1884. He was granted a US Patent for a refrigerator [description] in 1896.

Service data from State of New York1. The quote above from Graham2. Professional information from Howell and Munsell's History of the County of Schenectady, N.Y., from 1662 to 1886 (New York: W.W. Munsell & Co., 1886, pg. 151). Further details from Boyd's City and County Directory (Schenectady, 1864-65), the US Pension Bureau list of 1 January 1883, and the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents (Washington DC: GPO, 1897).

c. 1837