James Welch

An unmarried 18 year old laborer in Chicopee, MA, he enlisted on 9 September 1861 in Springfield, MA and mustered as Private, Company D, 5th New York Cavalry on 19 September. Companies B and D of the regiment "suffered terribly" in action at Front Royal, VA on 23 May 1862 and they, including Welch, were detailed to serve as artillerymen in Battery F of the 4th United States Artillery (Lt. F.B. Crosby) in June 1862.

He was with the Battery in action at Antietam in 17 September 1862.

Welch the other men of Companies B and D returned to duty with their regiment in October 1862. He reenlisted in December 1863 but was captured in a skirmish at Ely's Ford, VA on the Rapidan River two days before he was due to take his reenlistment furlough, about 19 January 1864. He was held at Belle Isle, Richmond, VA, then sent to Andersonville, GA in February 1864. He died there of disease on 18 October 1864.

Basic service information from the State of New York,1 which has him as James Welsh and James Walsh. Military details from his Soldier's Record in the Chicopee Archives Online, and Chaplain Beaudrye's Historic Records of the Fifth New York Cavalry (1865). His gravesite is on Findagrave.

c. 1843 in IRELAND

10/18/1864; Andersonville, GA; burial in Andersonville National Cemetery, Andersonville National Historic Site, GA