Edward Marshall Messenger

A farmer's son, in 1860 he was an 18 year old Mass (?) agent living with his parents and 2 older siblings at Stoddard in Cheshire County, NH. He enlisted on 8 August 1862 and mustered as a Private in Company I, 9th New Hampshire Infantry on 15 August.

He was wounded in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862:

The wounding of Private E. M. Messenger was one of the remarkable incidents of the battle. Near the stone bridge, in the position first occupied by the regiment in this action. Private Messenger, while in the act of firing, received two wounds from the same bullet. The ball carried away a portion of the left thumb, and then entering the forehead over the right eye, passed out in front of the right ear, felling him to the ground. With the blood streaming from these wounds, he was removed from the field for dead, and was mourned as the first man killed instantly in Company I. Later in the day, however, he was discovered to be alive, and was carried to the Miller farm-house, where he slowly recovered.

He was admitted to US Army General Hospital #3 in the Presbyterian Church in Frederick, MD on 1 October and furloughed home on 4 October 1862. He was discharged for wounds on 24 December 1862 in Concord, MA and began receiving a pension for disability in February 1863.

By 1870 he was running a restaurant in Boston, MA with his brother Freeman, and was a dining, saloon, and hotel keeper there in 1880. In 1895 he told the regimental historian he "suffers but little inconvenience from these [Antietam] wounds, except from loss of sight of the right eye." In 1900 he was running a hotel in Winchester, MA. He'd retired there by 1910 and lived in Winchester to his death at age 93 in 1934.

His service basics from Soldiers and Sailors of New Hampshire.1 The quotes above from Lord's History,2 which also has a fine post-war photograph of him. Hospital details from the Patient List.3 Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860-1930. His gravesite is on Findagrave. Thanks to Jim Smith for the pointer to Messenger and his Antietam story, from research by Kevin Boyer.

He married Martha Washington Leach (1843-1865) in November 1864 and they had a son Edward Washington Messenger (1865-1918); Martha died very shortly after his birth. He married again, Mary A. Proctor (1863-1934) in September 1892 and they had a son Guy Holmes Messenger (1893-1957).

06/10/1841; Stoddard, NH

11/05/1934; Winchester, MA; burial in South Village Cemetery, Westmoreland, NH