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G.N. Emerson
(1843 - 1919)
Home State: Massachusetts
Branch of Service: Infantry
Before Antietam
A machinist's son, in 1860 he was a 17 year old clerk living with his parents in Waltham, MA. He enlisted in July 1861 and was promoted to Corporal on 1 April 1862.
On the Campaign
He was wounded by a gunshot to his hand in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862.
The rest of the War
He was admitted to US Army General Hospital #1 in Frederick, MD on 19 September and sent on to the Mount Pleasant Hospital in Washington, DC on 22 September. He was furloughed home for 20 days on 26 October and listed as a deserter when he did not return to his company. He was discharged by a New York City judge on 4 March 1863 due to his "minority" (young age) and in "appreciation" of his wound. The charge of desertion was removed by the War Department in 1891.
After the War
In 1870 he was a store clerk in Jersey City, NJ and by 1880 and to at least 1910 was a traveling salesman there, lastly in machinery supply. He was granted a veteran's pension for disability in July 1880.
References & notes
His service from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts1 and his Compiled Service Records,2 online from fold3. Wound and hospital details from the Patient List.3 Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1850-1910, and his pension payment record. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture, from a Company B photo album in Scott D Hann's collection, was published in the September/October 2002 issue of Military Images magazine.
He married Elsie (?, 1842-) in 1863 and they had a daughter Lucy (1866-).
Birth
02/18/1843; Waltham, MA
Death
05/13/1919; Philadelphia, PA; burial in Grove Hill Cemetery, Waltham, MA
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. 79 - 84 [AotW citation 6891]
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 34704]
3 National Museum of Civil War Medicine, and Terry Reimer, Frederick Patient List, Published 2018, first accessed 17 September 2018, <http://www.civilwarmed.org/explore/primary-sources/databases/frederickpatient/>, Source page: patient #4.269 [AotW citation 34705]