January 6, 1862 A Civil War Enlistment
With the outbreak of the American Civil War in April 1861 and the
battles that followed, President Lincoln had issued calls for over 115,000
militia to be recruited and trained. Throughout 1861 and into 1862 Seneca
County responded as men joined units and headed to training camps.
One
Covert recruit was Lyman B. Welton, born 11 July 1840. He was the son of
Josiah and Hannah Welton. The New York State Adjutant General’s report noted, he “enlisted at
Lodi, to serve three years, and mustered in as private, Co. H 102nd
New York Infantry, on 6 January 1862. [Later] promoted corporal, no date;
re-enlisted as a veteran, 30 December 1863; wounded in action at Pine Mountain,
Ga., on 15 June 1864; promoted sergeant, 25 July 1864. He was absent, wounded,
at muster-out of company.”
Additional
items add considerable information about his service. A news item in the Suffolk County
News
Sayville, NY 13 September 1912 tells of a letter Welton sent to William Kaler
of Sayville. The letter contained “a postal card bearing two photographs of the
same man…Lyman B. Welton…one as he was fifty years ago… and the other as he is
today. Mr. Welton was shot on the field of Gettysburg and would have died had
it not been for Mr. Kaler who carried him off the field, and according to army
surgeons, saved his life.” The article concluded with, “both men are planning
to go to Gettysburg on the first of next July, when they will celebrate the
50th anniversary of the battle.”
It is very possible that Welton was
discharged for disability following that July 1863 injury given the notation
that he “re-enlisted as a veteran 30 December 1863.”
As for when he got out of the service,
“fifty-two years last Tuesday—or on May 9th, 1865…was discharged from service
in the U.S. army after four years service in the field. The ceremony took place
at Hilton Head, South Carolina. Last Tuesday friend Welton celebrated the
event.” Interlaken Review 11 May 1917.
Following the war, he returned to Seneca County
and was an officer in the William E. Avery Grand Army of the Republic Post of
Interlaken. He attended the dedication of several of the monuments at
Gettysburg and one at Antietam. “Lyman B. Welton has been notified of his
selection as one of the 50 survivors of the old 102d regiment who are to be
sent to Gettysburg September 19th to attend the unveiling of the monument to
Gen. Slocum. The state pays the transportation of all these representatives.” Farmer
Review August 1, 1902
“John L. Ryno and Lyman B. Welton,
veterans of the Civil War and members of William E. Avery Post, G.A.R., will
leave tomorrow morning to attend the memorial exercises at the unveiling of
monuments to the memory of Gen. Alvin Doubleday and Gen. John C. Robinson on
the Gettysburg battlefield, which takes place Tuesday, September 25 [1917]. Ithaca
Journal September 22, 1917
In September 1920 “Lyman B. Welton and
wife arrived home Monday night from Antietam, Maryland, where they witnessed
the unveiling of the New York monument.” Interlaken Review, September
24, 1920.
Over the years Mr. Welton also provided
lists of local men who served in the Civil War. These were published in the
local paper and these lists provide a starting point for further research.
He died 12
December 1926, the last but one of the GAR Post, and is buried at Lake View
Cemetery, Interlaken. He was survived by his second wife Elizbeth who died in 1935.
They were married in 1895.
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