George Henry Patch

A 16 year old farmer from Littleton, he gave his age as 18 and enlisted in Company F, 19th Massachusetts Infantry on 24 August 1861. He transferred to Company I in December 1861.

He was captured in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862. Lt. Adams of his Company later wrote:

I also missed my boy Patch. He was last seen helping a Sergeant from the field. He turned up in Libby Prison a few days later.

He was released 1 November 1862, and was appointed Corporal, date not given. He was wounded in action at Spottsylvania, VA on 12 May 1864, and was then a patient and guard at the US Army's Haddington General Hospital, Philadelphia, PA to the end of his term of service. He mustered out 28 August 1864.

He was in "railroad service" before becoming a reporter at the Boston Globe in 1879. He was military editor and State Senate reporter at his death. He was a charter member (1870) of GAR Post #142 (Burnside) in Saxonville, and also member of Post #63 (General Wadsworth) in Natick, MA. He was Department of Massachusetts Commander, GAR, in 1881. He died relatively young, of pneumonia, not yet 43 years of age.

Service information from Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines.1 The quote above from J.B.H. Adams' Reminiscences of the Nineteenth Massachusetts Regiment (1899) - thanks to Jim Buchanan for posting it. Details from a bio sketch in William Ward's Records of Members of the Grand Army of the Republic (1887) and from his death notice on page 1 of the evening edition of the Globe on 26 July 1887. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

A collection of his letters [finding aid] are in the Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Richmond.

12/08/1844; Lexington, MA

07/26/1887; burial in Lake Grove Cemetery, Holliston, MA