Marcus Harris Ward

M, (24 November 1836 - 28 June 1864)
Father-Biological*Deacon Thomas Harris Ward b. 28 Mar 1814, d. 5 Jul 1891
Mother-Biological*Esther Kellogg Mayo b. 20 Mar 1814, d. 19 Aug 1895
Last Edited=27 Oct 2023
Pvt. Marcus Harris Ward
(1836-1864)
     Marcus Harris Ward was born on 24 November 1836 at Athol, Massachusetts.1,2,3,4,5,6 He was the son of Deacon Thomas Harris Ward and Esther Kellogg Mayo. Marcus Harris Wardappeared on the US Census of 1850 in the household of Levi Jones Ward and Eliza Whipple Temple at Orange, Massachusetts.7 Marcus Harris Ward, age 40 years, appeared on the Massachusetts State Census of 1855 in the household of Deacon Thomas Harris Ward and Esther Kellogg Mayo.8 Marcus Harris Wardappeared on the US Census of 1860 in the household of Deacon Thomas Harris Ward and Esther Kellogg Mayo at Orange, Massachusetts.9 According to the Federal Census in 1860, Marcus was a farmer.9 He began military service on 3 October 1861 enlisteing in the 25th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, Company I, as a private.10 On 20 December 1861, he sent the following letter home:

Camp Hicks Annapolis
Dec 20th 1861

My Dear Brother,

I got excused from drill this afternoon and I thought it best to answer your letter which I ought to have done before but have been rather unwell and took all the time besides drilling to rest but am feeling better and hope that I may be as tough as any boy in the Camp. I think that I have had bout my share of sickness for the time since I left home but it is not for me to say perhaps(?) I may be sick in to days but hope not to be. You wished me to write what our living was wel it is in the morning for breakfast most generally boiled salt met and bread and coffee for dinner fresh meat boyled and bread and water for supper coffee and bread.

We have had some fried meat three times and and it tasted good you had better believe boyled meat don’t go so good take it rite along. Three months together I suppose it makes a diferance wheather a man is tough or not bout such things. Sliping down now comes the work part in the morning at half past six the drum beats for role call and then we have to start our boots there is no laying a bead five or ten minutes after the drum sounds same as there is at home after a fellow had bin out at knight to see the women but according to what I have heard I suppose you wil not be going three or four miles every Sunday knight to see her because by your saying that you was going to leave home the first of the year it rather strikes me that I am going to have a new Sister by marriage my Dear Brother I would like to be there about new years but it can’t be so as it is getting to be into the evening I wil let you know a little something about the work part and then close. Well after the role call in the morning as I told you at seven we go out on drill stay out til about eight ten minutes past breakfast then nine go out on brigade dril get home about twelve dinner at one half past two go out squad drill stay stay til about four then come in and put on our overcoats fal in for role call then go out to dres prade it gets to be bout dark then. Then comes coffee and bread then half past eight come role call then you can go to bed set up til ten if you want to then comes the drum to tel us to put out the lights then we can go to bed or set up in the dark that is bout all the work we have to do I believe though Saterdays in the afternoon we have to clean up our equipments and then Sunday in the four noon we are inspected in the afternoon go to meeting. Our meetings are out doers on the Camp ground. Sunday is about as hard days work as we have it is not very easy work to be a soldier though my health has bin very poor since I inlisted though I am in hopse to be better now You wanted to know if there was any thing that I wanted. I don’t know as there is for we have after so long a time we have got our pay and I can by things cheaper than you could send them to. I am much obliged to you though and as it is getting to be about bed time I shal have to close by biding you good by. MHW


Please excuse mistakes for there is a number I presume.


His regiment was sent to North Carolina as part of the Burnside expedition. He was captured near Winfield, North Carolina on 16 April 1863 . The story of his capture is given by Denny in the regimental history of the 25th Massachusetts Volunteers:
Upon one occasion a "secesh woman" came within the lines with her bundles of luggage, desiring permission to pass into Dixie. Captain Parkhurst found that her luggage was contraband of war and refused to permit her to transfer her "dry goods" to the possession of the enemy, but "allowed" that she might go as soon as her pleasure permitted. The woman satisfied to leave her goods, if she could go without them, requested to be furnished with means of crossing the Chowan and an escort. The gallant captain not being proof against woman's eloquent appeals, consented to comply wither wishes and detailed Sergeant Lyman S. Wheeler and Private Marcus H. Ward both of Company I, with a couple of negro oarsmen, to convey the woman up the river and deliver her to the nearest Confederate outpost. At the enemy's outpost the woman was delivered up and then the Confederates seized Wheeler and Ward as prisoners of war! Company I lost two good men and two muskets, and the colored men lost their liberty, for a time at least. Wheeler and Ward were exchanged a long time afterwards. On 17 July 1863, he was paroled and returned to his regiment.



When his enlistment was up, he reenlisted and took a furlough back to Orange in January 1864.11 In on 3 June 1864, he was wounded in the breast during assault of the Star Bridgade at the Battle of Cold Harbor. He was transfered to a hospital in Washington, D.C.10,11,12,13 He died on 28 June 1864 at Washington, District of Columbia, at age 27 from a wound in the chest that developed into pneumonia.2,3,4,10,12,14,15 He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington (city), Virginia.2,12,14,15

Citations

  1. Martyn, Charles. The William Ward Genealogy - The History of the Descendants of William Ward of Sudbury, Mass. 1638-1925. New York: Artemas Ward, 1925.
  2. Miner, Beatrice M. History of Orange 1753-1976. Orange, Massachusetts: Orange Historical Society, 1976.
  3. Roy, Robert A. Extracts from the Genealogical Files of Barbara Crosby. Orange, Massachusetts:: manuscript, 1980.
  4. Mayo, Chester Garst. John Mayo of Roxbury, Massachusetts 1630-1688: A Genealogical and Biographical Record of His Descendants. Rutland, Vermont:: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1965.
  5. Athol Transcript, "Thomas Harris Ward" Athol, Massachusetts, 14 July 1891.
  6. Ward, Andrew Henshaw. Ward Family: Descendants of William Ward. Boston: Samuel G. Drake, 1851.
  7. Census Bureau. 1850 U.S. Federal Census. Provoi, Utah: Ancestry.com Operations, 2009.
  8. New England Historic Genealogical Society. Massachusetts, U.S., State Census, 1855. Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com Operations, 2014.
  9. Census Bureau. 1860 U.S. Federal Census. Provoi, Utah: Ancestry.com Operations, 2009.
  10. Adjutant-General of Massachusetts.. Record of the Massachusetts Volunteers 1861-1865. Boston: Wright & Potter, 1870.
  11. Denny, J. Waldo. Wearing the Blue in the Twenty-Fifth Mass. Volunteer Infantry with Burnside's Coast Division, 18th Army Corps, Army of the James. Worcester, Massachusetts: Putnam & Davis, 1879.
  12. Crosby, Barbara. The Ward Family of 11 Children. Orange, Massachusetts: manuscript, circa 1950.
  13. Killed and Captured of the Twenty-Fifth Massachusetts Volunteers at Battle of Cold Harbor, Va., June 3rd 1864. Online http://www.angelfire.com/ma2/25mass
  14. Stone, Margaret, letter. 1980, from Orange, Massachusetts, to Roy, Robert A.
  15. Find-a-Grave. Online https://www.findagrave.com/