Arthur Moffatt

He arrived from England with his parents in about 1848, and they lived in Milwaukee, WI. He enlisted in Company G, 6th Wisconsin Infantry on 15 June 1861. He was wounded in the right wrist in action at Gaines Mill, VA (probably on 27 June 1862). According to later testimony by his widow ...

Hearing field surgeons decided to amputate his right arm, and believing his family doctor, who was an expert surgeon, could save it, he left for home without asking permission. His arm was saved, but as the leaders were severed at the wrist his hand was drawn stiff and his fingers unbendable and useless. A Government recruiting officer told him he was unfit for service when he tried to reenlist, and that was the reason he never returned to his regiment.

He was officially listed as absent without leave on 8 September 1862 and later considered a deserter for failing to return to his unit. He was not present, however, on the Maryland Campaign.

He acted as President Lincoln's private door keeper in the US Senate (to 1865). He was a clerk in the Interior Department, and married Rosalie McKaraker Dyer (1849-1933) in Washington DC in 1870. He was Indian Agent at the Sioux Indian Agency at Standing Rock, Dakota Territory (1872-74). He then returned to Washington. He was a professor at Bryant & Stratton's Business College (1875) and went to Kansas in 1876 and lived on his farm near Yates Center for more than 20 years. He moved to Montevallo, MO in April 1897 and ran the Montevallo Roller Mills. He was mayor of the town in 1900.

Basic information from State of Wisconsin1. Much further detail provided by GGGranddaughter Teresa Crowl from his obituary (courtesy Georgia Moffatt Gramlich) and the US Senate Report on a bill for the Relief of Arthur Moffatt (1931) - legislation seeking to reverse the War Department finding of desertion so his widow could get a pension. On 3 March 1931 Arthur Moffatt was confirmed to be honorably discharged as of 7 September 1862. Teresa also shared a postwar photograph of Arthur.

12/24/1842; Liverpool, ENGLAND

08/02/1902; Kansas City, MO; burial in Graceland Cemetery, Yates Center, KS