Alden Orren Dane: Wounded While Fighting with the Vermont 10th Infantry
Alden Orren Dane: 1844-1923 (Maternal First Cousin 4x Removed)
Today is Memorial Day, a holiday that was created to honor
the Civil War dead. Therefore, it seemed fitting to write about my first cousin
four times removed, Alden Orren Dane, who bravely fought with Company K of the Vermont
10th Infantry. He was wounded in battle on November 27, 1863.
Fortunately, he survived and returned home to build a life.
Alden Dane was born August 18, 1844 in Derby, Vermont to
parents Joseph Dane and Jane Wheeler Dane. Joseph was the son of my fourth
great-grandfather, Francis Dane, and the brother of my third great-grandfather
David Dane.
At the age of 18, Alden enlisted in the Union Army on July
21, 1862, a year after the start of the war. He served as a private in a
Vermont infantry unit, so was probably serving with people from his hometown
and surrounding areas.
Some of his fellow Vermont 10th soldiers kept
journals and wrote letters home that describe what life was like for Alden.
Writing from Culpepper, Virginia in November 1863, Herbert George told his
family:
… While we are in
camp I feel just as well contented as I ever did at home but when we are on the
march and I get awful tired and can’t stop to rest I feel a little ugly. Some
times we are not allowed to get anything to eat in all day and then have to get
up at 4 o’clock in the morning and get our breakfast in the dark. Then is the
time when a soldier will curse the rebellion.
…If I should be lucky enough to get a furlough next
winter should want to go home with decent clothes on, don’t want to wear any
home out of the field for they will be lousey. The ground here is covered with
old clothes & lice & no man can keep them off only by picking them off
when they bite. If we take off any of our clothing nights we have to hitch them
to a steak or they will crawl off where we can’t find them. We can drive a pair
of pants or a shirt anywhere with a little patience…
“When we fill up
our haversacks we have to be careful to put the string over a stump or
something to keep them [worms] from running away haversack and all Ahem!…”
Alden probably shared Herbert George’s frustrations as the
war dragged on.
On November 27, 1863, General Meade ordered the Union forces
to attack Lee’s Confederate forces in the Mine Run Campaign. The Union underestimated
the size of the Confederate army they faced, and suffered losses. The 10th
Vermont, part of General Joseph Carr’s division, was sent to support General
Prince’s left flank. A soldier in the 10th Vermont recalled the
fight as “a deluge of lead and iron that swept over us. The musketry was not in the least of a jerky
or intermittent sort, but one continuous roll.”
According to a website on the Mine Run Campaign, “Carr’s
men, though inexperienced, performed admirably, and became veterans that
afternoon. Their arrival stabilized the Union line, which was then in danger of
collapsing under pressure from the ever-aggressive Johnson…. Col.
Charles T. Collis of the 114th Pennsylvania judged it “one of the sharpest and
best fought affairs of the war. The musketry was the most terrific any of us
had ever heard, and the chances of getting off without a decent wound was about
as poor as it possibly could have been.”
The Union suffered 1400 casualties in the battle, and one of
them was Alden Dane. His injury was apparently not severe enough for him to be
sent home. He must have been sent to the rear to receive treatment and recover,
for he continued to serve in the war until he was mustered out on June 22,
1865, a month after the war had ended. His unit participated in several
important battles and campaigns later in the war, including Spottsylvania
Courthouse, and the siege and capture of Petersburg, Virginia. The unit was
near Appomattox Court House when Lee surrendered to Grant. The unit lost 149
officers and soldiers in battle, and another 203 to disease. Alden Dane was
fortunate to have survived.
Alden returned home, and eventually moved to Massachusetts. He
married Martha Saloma Bliss, another Vermont native who moved to Massachusetts,
on January 21, 1868. They settled in Billerica, Massachusetts, and appear on
the 1880 census. Alden was working as a “Superintendant of Farm”. The couple
had no children, and Martha died November 15, 1893 at age 53.
 |
| Marriage Record |
Alden remarried to a younger woman named Lucy Parker.
Tragically, she died of complications from childbirth on February 16, 1899,
just two days after Alden and Lucy’s baby son Arthur died of a heart defect on Valentine’s
Day, 1899.
 |
| Death record of wife and son. |
Alden did not marry again. He continued to live in the Billerica
area, boarding with other families. By the 1900 census, he was working for the
railroad, and the 1910 census shows him 65 years old, working as a livestock
dealer.
On February 24, 1882, Alden had filed for a military pension
as an invalid. He received a pension and is listed on an 1890 Veterans
Schedule, which noted that he had been wounded in the left ankle during the
war, and in 1890 suffered from chronic diarrhea, a diseased lung and “rheumatics”.
Without access to his full pension file, I am not sure how much he was
receiving as a pensioner.
Alden was active in his community, serving in the local GAR
chapter, the Masons, and the Odd Fellows.
Alden should be remembered for his service to our country in
the Union Army. He suffered a wound in battle, but still returned to duty
following his recovery. His determination to continue serving his country after
he was injured demonstrats courage.
Sources:
Bully for the Band: The Civil War Letters and Diary of
Four Brothers in the 10th Vermont Infantry Band. Davis, James A. ed.
McFarland and Company. 2012.
Union Vermont Volunteers. https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-battle-units-detail.htm?battleUnitCode=UVT0010RI
Alden O Dane, Billerica, Dies. Boston Evening Globe.
Boston MA. 28 September 1923.
Marriage, Birth and Death Records. Vermont and Massachusetts.
Ancestry.com.
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