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Federal (USV)

Private

Michael Ball

(c. 1845 - 1911)

Home State: Wisconsin

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 6th Wisconsin Infantry

Before Antietam

He'd come to America with his family by 1847, and in 1860 he was a 16 (14?) year old day laborer living with his parents and 5 siblings at Hanover, Rock County, WI. He enlisted on 12 May 1861 and mustered as a Private in Company G, 6th Wisconsin Infantry on 9 July 1861.

On the Campaign

He was wounded in action in September 1862, probably both on South Mountain on 14 September and at Antietam on 17 September 1862.

The rest of the War

He was discharged on 3 November 1862 to enroll in the US Regular Army and enlisted the next day in Washington, DC as a Private in Company D, 7th United States Infantry; he gave his age as 21. He was listed as a deserter as of 19 December 1862, but had probably been sent home as underage.

After the War

In 1870 he was living with his parents on the family farm at Cylon, St Croix County, WI, but by 1880 and to at least 1910 had his own place at New Richmond, St Croix County. He applied for an invalid veteran's pension by June 1890, and his widow received one after his death in June 1911.

References & notes

His service from the State of Wisconsin1 and the Registers.2 Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860-1910, and his Pension Cards, online from fold3. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Esther Donahue (1852-1923) in 1873 and they had 4 children.

Thanks to great-great-grandson Ryan R Ball for the poke to look further into Michael and for a c. 1879 photograph of him.

Birth

c. 1845; County Mayo, IRELAND

Death

06/03/1911; New Richmond, WI; burial in Immaculate Conception Catholic Church Cemetery, New Richmond, WI

Notes

1   State of Wisconsin, Adjutant General's Office, and Chandler P. Chapman, Adj. Gen., Roster of Wisconsin Volunteers, War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865, 2 volumes, Madison: Democrat Printing Co., State Printers, 1886, Vol. 1, pp. 521 - 523  [AotW citation 10385]

2   US Army, Registers of Enlistments in the United States Army, 1798-1914, Washington, DC: National Archives, 1956, Vol. 141, pg. 94  [AotW citation 29752]