Civil War Letter

From George Sturgess to Josiah Wood

Generously donated by Annie Tanyeri

William Wood (sitting)
(Click on image to enlarge)

This picture came from Hathaway family descendants, from Westport. Cynthia (Wood) Hathaway, married to Hiram Hathaway of Westport, was the sister of William Wood. They told me that they believe this is William.

I wonder if the lady behind him is Patty Culver, his mother, and the girl one of his sisters. My great grandmother, Amy (Wood) Thornton, was his sister and we have no idea what she looked like.

Below is a letter from George Sturgess of Long Lake, to the parents of William Wood of Raquette Lake, the day after William was shot and killed at Petersburg, Virginia, probably in the area known as the Bermuda Hundred. William was killed on 9 July 1864. He was a sharpshooter in the 118th NY volunteers and, I understand, the first soldier from the Long Lake area to die in the Civil War. The letter describes exactly how William was killed.

William's father was Josiah F. Wood and his uncle, William Wood, who, along with Matthew Beach, were among the very first settlers of Raquette Lake. William's file contained several letters from him to home during his two years in the war and affidavits afterwards from his mother, Patty (Culver) Wood, and neighbors and friends to the pension office to help Patty obtain his pension. I assume the reason there is so much in his pension file is because his mother had a little trouble claiming his pension, and had to submit much of this information in order to prove that William had been her only support prior to his death. William was not married.

--- Annie Tanyeri

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These are the Wood family pictures that I cannot identify. If anyone can identify these I would be forever grateful! --- Annie Tanyeri

(click on images for larger version)