The Death of Ira Petty, Company F, 13th New York Heavy Artillery

ECW welcomes back guest author Jeff T. Giambrone

In February 1865, John Alcooke, superintendent of the United States Sanitary Commission’s Soldiers’ Lodge in Portsmouth, Virginia, related to a friend a particularly sad episode that he had witnessed:

About ten days ago a poor woman, who had never been ten miles away from her home before, was brought to us by a lady residing in this place; stating she had found her weeping bitterly on the landing. Her husband was sick in a hospital here, she said, but did not know where. The lady at once brought her here. After she had taken some refreshments, I went in quest of her husband. His name, Iram Pety [Ira Petty] N.Y.V., belonging to 13^th N.Y. Heavy Artillery. I at once went to the hospital of that regiment, taking her with me; but the poor man had died the night before. Words cannot tell her grief when I told her he was dead. We did all we could for her. His comrades had his body embalmed and she stayed here until all was ready. She then took him home. I was so much grieved when she opened her trunk to show what in her poor way she had brought for his comfort. All sorts of nice eatables which her means would allow, and which he liked when at home.[1]

The “poor woman” was Caroline Petty, the wife of Private Ira Petty of Company F, 13^th New York Heavy Artillery. The death of her husband was just the latest in a string of tragedies that had befallen Caroline since the start of the war. Son Oren Davis Petty died in 1861, daughter Lydia M. Clark died in 1863, and son Rufus R. Petty died of typhoid in 1864 while serving as a private in Company H, 160^th New York Infantry.[2] If this were not sorrowing enough, another son, William H. Petty, a private in Company A, 136^th New York Infantry, had been wounded in action at Atlanta on August 19, 1864.[3]

When he enlisted in the 13^th New York, Ira Petty was listed as 44 years old; this was incorrect.[4] In fact, he was more than a full decade older, having been born on February 19, 1809.[5] The question must be asked why a 55-year-old man left his home and family to fight in the Civil War. In the case of Ira Petty, the decision was most likely made for financial reasons. In the 1850 United States Census, Petty listed his occupation as farmer; the space where value of real estate owned was left blank. Ten years later when the next census was held, things were only a little better for the Petty family; Ira listed his occupation as day laborer and valued his real estate at $126.00 and his personal estate at $75.00.[6]

In 1864 the United States government was offering a $100 bounty for each year that a person enlisted, up to a maximum of $300 for three years.[7] The State of New York offered an even more generous bounty, averaging $200 to $300 or more depending on which district of the state the volunteer resided in.[8] For someone of Ira Petty’s limited financial means, this bounty money might have been an irresistible lure to join the army.

Ira Petty enlisted in the army on September 3, 1864, in his hometown of Rushford, Allegany County, New York.[9] At the time he joined the 13^th New York Heavy Artillery, Company F was stationed at Fort Hazlett, Virginia, located one and a half miles from the town of Portsmouth.[10] The unit didn’t see much combat in Virginia; during the entire war they only had 3 men killed and 12 wounded, two of them mortally. But the 13^th did suffer from the prolific killer of Civil War soldiers; disease. During the war the regiment had 3 officers and 144 enlisted men die of disease and other causes.[11] Among the many victims felled by disease in the regiment was Ira Petty.

Caroline found out her husband was sick when she received a letter from Private Eber Lafferty a friend of Ira’s in the 13^th New York. One can only imagine the poor woman’s dismay when she read the following:

Mrs. Petty with sorrow I take my pen to send you sad news not knowing what to do I have concluded to write I don’t know as I do right but I do it in good faith. I think Mr. Petty wrote you that he was not vary well he is some wors[e] his sickness is not much worse but he is out of his head a good deal of the times.[12]

Eber Lafferty closed his letter to Caroline with the following declaration emphatically written in large print so that it could not be missed: “HE DON’T KNOW I WROTE YOU THIS.”

On receiving Lafferty’s letter, Caroline made haste to reach her husband in Portsmouth, but unfortunately, she arrived just too late; Ira died on January 6, 1865, at the regimental hospital of acute hepatitis.[13] All that was left for Caroline to do was to see that her husband’s body was returned to New York for burial. On January 10, 1865, permission was given by Union authorities to ship Ira’s body north for burial.[14] The remains were interred at Bellville Cemetery in Bellville, New York.[15]

In a heart-felt letter, Philip S. Evans, chaplain of the 13^th New York, wrote to Caroline and tried to console the grieving widow:

His comrades speak well of him as a soldier – he was very unwilling to give up – and continued on duty longer than he was able – of course in his sickness he much missed the comforts of his home – but – my dear madam – we must remember that God has set the bounds of our habitation on which we can by no means pass – and as your husband told his comrade – Mr. Lafferty – ‘Heaven is just as near Portsmouth as it is near Rushford.’[16]

With a family to support, Caroline Petty wasted no time filing for a widow’s pension with the United States Government. On March 9, 1865, she went before an Allegany County court clerk and formally declared that she was the legal wife of Ira Petty who died in service to his country. Ironically as part of her official declaration a woman who had lost a son and a husband fighting for the Union had to take the Oath of Allegiance to the United States government.[17]

In securing what was due her from the government, Caroline was aided by several of her husband’s former comrades in the 13^th New York. William G. Ball, a first lieutenant in Company F, gave a deposition for Caroline’s pension application in which he said:

Ira Petty was a good soldier, sound and able bodied, until a short time before his death, and that the disease of which he died was, as I believe, the liver complaint, brought on by exposure, and contracted while in the service of the United States and while in the line of his duty.[18]

Another deposition given in the pension application was that of Ira’s friend Eber Lafferty who stated:

I further declare that the above named company is the one to which we, the said Ira Petty and myself belonged, and that we both were constantly together, acting as privates from the time we were mustered into the service at Elmira, N. York, to the time the said Ira Petty was taken sick, and saw him several times in the regimental hospital when he died, which was on the 6^th day of January 1865… . I further declare that the said Ira Petty was a good and faithful soldier, and enjoyed good health up to the time of his sickness which terminated in death.[19]

The government pension office moved slowly, but Caroline Petty’s application was finally approved on March 1, 1867, with payments to start from January 6, 1865, the date of her husband’s death. For all that she had lost, Caroline received $8.00 per month from the government.[20] The widow never remarried, and she continued to receive the payments until her death on March 24, 1884.[21]

Jeff T. Giambrone is a native of Bolton, Mississippi. He has a B.A. in history from Mississippi State University and an M.A. in history from Mississippi College. He is employed as a Historic Resources Specialist Senior at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Giambrone has published four books: Beneath Torn and Tattered Flags: A Regimental History of the 38th Mississippi Infantry, C.S.A.; Vicksburg and the War, which he co-authored with Gordon Cotton; An Illustrated Guide to the Vicksburg Campaign and National Military Park; and Remembering Mississippi’s Confederates. In addition, he has written articles for publications such as North South Civil War Magazine, Military Images Magazine, Civil War Monitor, and North South Trader’s Civil War Magazine.

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[1] United States Sanitary Commission Bulletin, Numbers 25 to 40. New York, NY, 1866, pages 1099-1101.

[2] Findagrave.com listings for Oren D. Petty and Lydia M. Clark; accessed November 17, 2023. Information on the death of Rufus R. Petty is from the roster of the 160^th New York Infantry, accessed on the New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center website, November 14, 2023: museum.dmna.ny.gov.

[3] Roster of the 136^th New York Infantry, accessed on the New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center website, November 14, 2023: museum.gmna.ny.gov.

[4] Annual Report of the Adjutant-General of the State of New York For the Year 1897: Register of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Artillery in the War of the Rebellion. New York and Albany, 1898, page 238.

[5] New York Town Clerks’ Registers of Men Who Served in the Civil War, accessed on Ancestryinstitution.com, November 16, 2023.

[6] 1850 United States Census, Allegany County, New York, page 349a; 1860 United States Census, Allegany County, New York, page 866.

[7] The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington, 1880-1901), Series II, Volume IV, pages 472-473. Cited hereafter as OR.

[8] OR, Series III, Volume V, pages 740-743.

[9] New York Town Clerks’ Registers of Men Who Served in the Civil War, accessed on Ancestryinstitution.com, November 16, 2023.

[10] Supplement to the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies; Part II, Volume 42, Serial No. 54, page 84.

[11] The Union Army; a history of military affairs in the Loyal States, 1861-65 — records of the regiments in the Union Army — Cyclopedia of Battles — Memoirs of commanders and soldiers. Vol. 2. Madison, WI: Federal Pub. Co., 1908, page 216.

[12] Eber Lafferty to Caroline Petty, 23 December 1864. Located in the U.S. Case Files of Approved Pension Applications of Widows and other Dependents of Civil War Veterans, ca. 1861 to 1910; pension application of Caroline Petty, accessed on Fold3.com, November 13, 2023.

[13] Surgeon General’s Office, Record and Pension Bureau, 23 November 1866. Located in the U.S. Case Files of Approved Pension Applications of Widows and other Dependents of Civil War Veterans, ca. 1861 to 1910; pension application of Caroline Petty, accessed on Fold3.com, November 13, 2023.

[14] Letter from the Surgeon & Medical Director, District of Eastern Virginia [Name illegible] 10 January 1865. Located in the U.S. Case Files of Approved Pension Applications of Widows and other Dependents of Civil War Veterans, ca. 1861 to 1910; pension application of Caroline Petty, accessed on Fold3.com, November 13, 2023.

[15] Listing of Ira Petty on Findagrave.com; accessed November 21, 2023.

[16] Chaplain Philip S. Evans to Caroline Petty, no date. Located in the U.S. Case Files of Approved Pension Applications of Widows and other Dependents of Civil War Veterans, ca. 1861 to 1910; pension application of Caroline Petty, accessed on Fold3.com, November 13, 2023.

[17] Declaration of Caroline Petty, 9 March 1865. Located in the U.S. Case Files of Approved Pension Applications of Widows and other Dependents of Civil War Veterans, ca. 1861 to 1910; pension application of Caroline Petty, accessed on Fold3.com, November 13, 2023.

[18] Deposition of William G. Ball, 4 February 1867. Located in the U.S. Case Files of Approved Pension Applications of Widows and other Dependents of Civil War Veterans, ca. 1861 to 1910; pension application of Caroline Petty, accessed on Fold3.com, November 13, 2023.

[19] Deposition of Eber Lafferty, 1 December 1866. Located in the U.S. Case Files of Approved Pension Applications of Widows and other Dependents of Civil War Veterans, ca. 1861 to 1910; pension application of Caroline Petty, accessed on Fold3.com, November 13, 2023.

[20] Claim for Widow’s Pension, Brief in the case of Caroline Petty. Located in the U.S. Case Files of Approved Pension Applications of Widows and other Dependents of Civil War Veterans, ca. 1861 to 1910; pension application of Caroline Petty, accessed on Fold3.com, November 13, 2023.

[21] Statement of Pension Agent T.L. Poole, 4 October 1887. Located in the U.S. Case Files of Approved Pension Applications of Widows and other Dependents of Civil War Veterans, ca. 1861 to 1910; pension application of Caroline Petty, accessed on Fold3.com, November 13, 2023.