George Edward Curtis

In 1860 he was a 21 year old laborer in Rehoboth, MA. He enlisted on 12 August 1861 in Company F, 4th Rhode Island Infantry. He was promoted and mustered as First Sergeant on 30 October and appointed 2nd Lieutenant on 20 November 1861. He was wounded in action at New Berne, NC on 14 March 1862 and was promoted to First Lieutenant to date from 11 August 1862.

Lieutenant Colonel Curtis described part of the action in his Report:

... [The 4th Rhode Island] found the Sixteenth Connecticut giving way and crowding upon its right, compelling it to move to the left, and rendering it almost impossible to dress the line, which an advance in line of battle across two fields of full-grown corn had slightly deranged. It was now subjected to sharp musketry fire from the front, but as the enemy showed the national flag (the corn concealing their uniform), and as our troops had been seen in advance on our right, moving diagonally across our front, the order to cease firing was given, and a volunteer officer to go forward to ascertain who was in our front was called for. Lieutenant George E. Curtis and George H. Watts immediately stepped forward, and placing themselves one on each side of the color bearer (Corporal Tanner, Company G), carried the flag up the hill within 20 feet of the rebels, when the enemy fired, killing the corporal. Lieutenant Curtis seized the colors and returned, followed by Lieutenant Watts.

He was promoted to Captain on 1 November 1862, and was wounded again, at Fredericksburg, VA on 13 December 1862. He was dismissed from the service by War Department order of 24 December 1862.

In 1870 he was a farm worker back in Rehoboth, but by 1880 and to at least 1900 was a laborer/teamer in East Providence, RI. In 1910 he was a retired grocer there.

Basic information from Dyer.1 Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860-1910. The Journal of the Eighteenth Annual Encampment of the Department of Rhode Island GAR (1885) has his burial in the North Burial Ground, Providence, RI. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture here from a photograph kindly provided by Robert Grandchamp, from his collection.

He married the widow Elizabeth Slade Horton Eddy (1836-1918) in November 1858. They had 8 children between September 1862 and February 1878, and also raised her son Walter Eddy from her first marriage.

07/09/1839; Sharon, MA

03/28/1918; East Providence, RI; burial in Lakeside-Carpenter Cemetery, East Providence, RI