Finding Arthur Conlin

I've been on the trail of Arthur Conlin for years now. He was one of my mother's great uncles, and I became interested in his story when my mother came back from the National Archives with copies of his company muster sheets from the Civil War. He had served in two different Ohio infantry regiments, but never returned home from the war. His second regiment, the 170th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, returned from West Virginia to Columbus on August 27 and was mustered out on 10 September 1864. My uncle Arthur always assumed that he was waylaid and probably murdered on his way home.

A schoolteacher in Minerva, Ohio, Arthur Conlin enlisted in Co I, 86th Ohio Volunteer Infantry as a private on June 1, 1862 in response to President Lincoln's request for "100-day-men" to supplement Army troops by guarding railroads, Army stores, and serving as garrison troops in various camps. The 86th Ohio was attached to Gen. Kelley's Railroad Command  in Clarksburg, WV on their arrival in mid-June. (Kelley had worked for the B&O Railroad before the war. Reading Union war correspondence, Kelley seemed to be the only one involved who always knew what was going on and had a plan worked out to solve whatever problems arose. I was very impressed.) Co I (w/ 3 of the other companies) moved to Parkersburg on July 27 till August 21. The regiment returned a few days later to Camp Delaware, north of Columbus, where they mustered out on September 25, 1862. Arthur apparently returned to his teaching job in Minerva.

Among mother's family photographs is this one, undated, purporting to be brothers Arthur, James, and Thomas Conlin. Though mother labeled the men differently, their relative ages suggest James and Thomas (a year apart) are the bookends, with Arthur (five years younger) in the middle. Am I sure? No, but I'm satisfied it's the best answer I can come up with.

The second time around, Arthur enlisted in Co B, 170th OVI in Belaire on May 2, 1864 for 100 days service. The regiment mustered at Belaire on May 13 and left for Washington DC on May 17. These hundred-day-men were, for all practical purposes, untrained. If they were healthy and followed orders, their service could free up veterans for Grant's campaign then raging against the Army of Northern Virginia. The regiment was split up to garrison several camps in the Washington defenses and I've been unable to determine which camp hosted Co B. But on July 4, the regiment was re-consolidated and proceeded to Sandy Hook, MD to man the Maryland Heights defenses protecting Harpers Ferry.

Jubal Early and his Confederate troops were once again threatening Washington at Lee's behest in an effort to force Grant to release troops around Richmond to defend the capital. Everything I've read suggests that Lee's plan was working beautifully. Washington was in chaos with companies and regiments being shifted sometimes daily to plug holes in its defenses. Many veterans recently released from Richmond found themselves anchored in the various camps around Washington, while National Guard troops , which should have been protecting Washington or Harpers Ferry, were soon attached to the veteran brigades, trying to chase down General Early and blunt his latest invasion of the North.

The picture above is from Google Earth, looking north across the Shenandoah River towards the Virginia/West Virginia state line. I've marked the position of Gordon's Division, guarding the ford. The Union troops that managed to cross, did so downstream from the bridge at Island Ford.

Without enough strength to capture the city, Early took his leave of Washington, crossing the Potomac near Leesburg, VA then crossed back into the Shenandoah Valley through Snickers Gap. He left his rearguard, Gordon's Division, at nearby Snickers Ferry (also called Snickers Ford, Castleman's Ferry, and several other names) while his invaders continued westward towards Winchester.

Underestimating the strength of the rearguard, a portion of the Union Second Brigade under Col. Thoburn, 1st WV Inf, including the 170th OVI forced a crossing of the Shenandoah in the early afternoon. Near dark, when their promised support had failed to materialize, they withdrew back across the river  - a perfect example of SNAFU, 85 years or so before WWII when the term was coined. Estimated casualties for both sides were 819 total (US 422; CS 397). Among the notations in the Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio in the War of the Rebellion, 1861 - 1866 were these references to the price paid by the 170th for its part of the encounter at Snickers Ferry: Henry F. Clark (32), wounded July 18 at Snickers Ferry, VA; Arthur Conlin (22), wounded; Stephenson Creal (21), wounded; George Harper (19), killed; and Daniel Warner (19), wounded July 18 at Snickers Ferry - died of wounds August 24 at Sandy Hook, MD.

*****

One of my favorite characters in the Civil War was C A Dana, loosely attached to Grant's staff. Ostensibly a spy for Edwin Stanton, who was concerned about rumors of Grant's drinking, Dana quickly found Grant to be ideally cast as the Union commander. He was wide-ranging, as one tends to be with carte blanche; he was effectively Grant's spy as well as Stanton's. Dana's comments about the fiasco related above pretty much cover the whole affair:
"The pursuit of Early, on the whole, has proved an egregious blunder, relieved only by Averell's success at Winchester, in which he captured 4 guns and some prisoners. Wright and Crook accomplished nothing, and Wright started back as soon as he got where he might have done something worth while. As it is, Early has got off with the whole of his plunder, and Hunter will hardly be able to break up the railroad beyond what can be repaired in a short time. Had Wright remained in the Valley the combined forces might have made a sure campaign, at least against the railroad and the crops."

*****

So, after Snickers Gap, Arthur Conlin and his fellow wounded were evacuated to Frederick, MD and on August 2, 1864 he was admitted to the Army General Hospital at Patterson Park, Baltimore (above). Among the few hospital records unearthed were a description of our soldier: Age 22 years, Occupation  Teacher. Eyes - dark, Hair - dark, Complexion - dark. Height  5' 10 3/4". On August 17, Arthur was released back to his unit which had returned to guarding trains in the vicinity of Harpers Ferry. A week later they started back to Columbus and mustered out on September 10, 1864 at Camp Chase.

So I studied some Civil War history and know now more than I ever thought I would about a sharp but relatively small action in Northern Virginia. I found a few new documents from the hospital, filled some holes in the record, and even came up with a few pictures from the 'net to help satisfy some of my curiosity about this missing relative. But essentially, I was back where I started - was Arthur waylaid on his way home from Columbus?

I found a new lead last December with a fairly unconstrained Google search that yielded a photograph of a grave marker for one Arthur Conlin. Within 24 hours, I was fairly certain that the grave - on a dry windswept hillside in Idaho of all places - was "my" Arthur. (He had been "our" Arthur; now he was "my" Arthur.) I knew or suspected most of the remainder of this tale, but I needed to find some official confirmation and some good images to include in the post. Here's the rest of what I know about Arthur.

The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) had chapters or "camps" all over the country from the end of the war in 1865 till the last few Union veterans gave up the ghost. This is a photo of the Phil Sheridan Camp in Boise from the early 1890's. I wonder if Arthur's in the picture.

While searching for veterans in Idaho GAR Encampment Journals and the Idaho State Historical Society's Civil War Index, I found Arthur Conlin listed in their records as a veteran of both the 86th and the 170th OVI regiments. That confirmed that the one Arthur was in both regiments since neither of the regimental records referenced service in the other. This research also identified Arthur as a GAR member of the Phil Sheridan Camp in Boise.

The Old Soldiers' Home in Boise. The statue is of Abraham Lincoln, a gift presented in 1915 to the State of Idaho by the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic of Boise. It was later moved to the VA Hospital grounds and, more recently, to those of the State Capital.

When I came across references to an Old Soldier's Home in Boise and, finding nothing in Idaho records to suggest that he might have had a family, I speculated that perhaps he had remained single and lived at the Old Soldier's Home. I got confirmation yesterday from the Idaho State Archives that Arthur entered the Home March 8, 1904 and died there less than a month later on April 6 at age 63. I still don't know when he arrived in Idaho or how he earned his living. Did he continue to teach? There are clearly still some holes in this story.

Arthur is buried at the Fort Boise Military Cemetery just over the hill from Fort Boise proper, the Boise Veterans Home, the Boise VA hospital and within a couple miles of the Idaho State Capital.

I found these lovely pictures of the cemetery on Flickr, in susankinidaho's photo stream. I couldn't find any way to contact her but, since she mentioned that she was honored by people's interest in her pictures and had no objection to their use, I was pleased to include them.

There's a government website - probably associated with the Veterans Administration - where I was able to interactively locate Arthur's plot in the cemetery. Of course, I can't find the website now but I'll renew my efforts and update this when I rediscover it.

This last picture is, I believe, one of the two I found online last December that led to all this recent research. Again, I tried to contact the lady who posted it, but received no reply. I trust she has no objection to my using it in this context but, if I hear otherwise, I'll go ahead and remove it.

I don't have a clue why this stone has Arthur Conlin in Co F, 85th Ohio Infantry. I checked the NARA Civil War database and found no Arthur Conlins in regiments other than the 86th and 170th OVI. I checked Ohio's Official Roster cited above and found no Arthur Conlin in the 85th. I went through the entire list of veterans in the 85th and found no names that might have been misread as Arthur Conlin. I don't see any reason to speculate. I'm convinced that I've found the man I was looking for. . . I just wish I knew why he never went home.

***** UPDATES *****

If anyone's read this far, they probably want to know whether I ever learned any more about Arthur's story. In fact, I needed to offer a few more comments in a second post concerning the photo of the three brothers. And now there's a third post with some information concerning events in the 20 years between 1864 and 1884. And finally, in 2015 I made a road trip to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. Boise seemed so close. How could I not visit Arthur's grave site in a fourth post after all this?