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H.G. Bigelow
(1841 - 1936)
Home State: Massachusetts
Branch of Service: Infantry
Before Antietam
A bank teller's son, in 1860 he was an 18 year old bank messenger living with his parents in Paxton, Worcester County, MA. He enlisted on 12 July 1861 and mustered the same day as a Private in Company D, 15th Massachusetts Infantry. He was promoted to Sergeant Major of the regiment on 23 December 1861.
On the Campaign
He was wounded by a gunshot through his left hip in action on 17 September 1862 at Antietam, which cut a channel in his illium (pelvic bone).
The rest of the War
His regiment's Assistant Surgeon S.F. Haven performed surgery on 22 September to remove pieces of shattered bone from his pelvis. He was sent home on furlough on 15 December for care by local physician Dr. Frank A. Cady and by 15 March 1863 the entrance and exit wounds had scarred over and he returned to duty. While absent recovering he had been appointed 2nd Lieutenant of Company H to date from 28 October 1862.
He was promoted to First Lieutenant of Company C on 9 April 1863 (dated 27 January). He was sent to the Veteran Reserve Corps soon after, but resigned his commission, still suffering with his Antietam wound and unable to walk well, and was discharged for disability on 28 August 1863.
After the War
He went west to Ottawa County, MI by 1869 and married there. In 1871 a pension examiner at Grand Haven, Ottawa County noted of him that
numerous pieces of bone had been discharged through a fistulous opening, and a constant drain of pus had seriously affected his heath. He is a bookkeeper by profession, but will have to resign his position on account of ill health.In 1880 he was a (bank?) clerk and company Secretary in Grand Haven and by 1900 was again a bookkeeper, in Muskegon, MI.
References & notes
His service from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts1 and his Compiled Service Records,2 online from fold3. Wound and hospital details from the MSHWR,3 quoted above. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860, 1880, & 1900. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a photograph in the MOLLUS Massachusetts Collection4.
He married Amanda Maria Hopkins (1842-1870) in Grand Haven, MI in October 1869. He married again, Clarissa Evelyn Tibbits (1844-1916) in October 1872 and they had 2 daughters; only one survived to adulthood.
Birth
10/22/1841; Paxton, MA
Death
11/17/1936; Detroit, MI; burial in Evergreen Cemetery, Muskegon, MI
1 Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Adjutant General, Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in the Civil War, 8 Vols, Norwood (MA): Norwood Press, 1931-35, Vol. 2, pp. 154 - 162 [AotW citation 5698]
2 US War Department, Compiled Service Records of Soldiers who served in US Volunteer organizations enlisted for service during the Civil War, Record Group No. 94 (Adjutant General's Office, 1780's-1917), Washington DC: US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), 1903-1927 [AotW citation 32050]
3 Barnes, Joseph K., and US Army, Office of the Surgeon General, The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, 6 books, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1870-1883, Volume 2, Part 2, p. 234 [AotW citation 32051]
4 US Army, Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC), Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS)-Massachusetts Photograph Collection, Published 2009, <https://arena.usahec.org/web/arena>, Source page: pg. 4930 [AotW citation 6937]