150 years ago today: September 19th, 1864 The Third Battle of Winchester took place in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia during the Civil War on September 19, 1864. It is not an often remembered or celebrated victory for the Union Army of the Shenandoah over Confederate forces led by Jubal Early. But it is an important date for my family. Our story begins nearly a year earlier in Vermont. The Civil War had been waged for three costly years. Even the great Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg in July of 1863 had failed to bring an end to the conflict. More soldiers were needed for the final push towards victory for the United States. A call went out for volunteers across the nation and Vermont answered that call. Two brothers, twins actually, from Barre, VT mustered into Company E, 8th Vermont Infantry Regiment on December 15, 1863. John and James Averill were twenty-two years old. Both were members of the regimental band as well. The 8th Vermont was assigned to the Army of the Gulf and was sent to Louisiana to garrison the area around New Orleans. The regiment also participated in minor campaigns launched from Louisiana in unsuccessful attempts to defeat Confederate forces in the region. During their time in the swampy area surrounding New Orleans, John came down with an illness that would be severe enough to send him home to recuperate. James continued his duties with the regiment without his brother. The Union campaigns in the Eastern Theater in the spring and summer of 1864 were particularly bloody. Large numbers of casualties were taken at the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, and Spotsylvania. The Union Army of the Potomac finally pinned the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia down in the siege of Petersburg. To alleviate pressure on his forces, General Robert E. Lee ordered a corps of his army commanded by Jubal Early to march up the Shenandoah Valley and threaten Washington, D.C. General Grant issued orders for the reinforcement of the nation’s capitol from other districts, including the Army of the Gulf. The 8th Vermont found itself transferred to Virginia and attached to the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, XIX Corps, Army of the Shenandoah, commanded by General Philip Sheridan. The regiment participated in the successful effort to drive Early’s forces from the area of Washington, D.C. and chased them into the Valley region. On September 19th, the two armies found themselves facing each other at Winchester. It was an important entranceway to the Shenandoah and had been the site of two battles earlier in the war. James Averill was assigned to guard the rear area with many of his friends while the rest of the 8th Vermont marched out to the front lines of the battle. This should have been a safe posting for the young man but as he and his companions huddled around a campfire during the battle, a Confederate cannon shell overshot the battlefield and exploded among the Vermonters in the rear area. At least one man was killed, another was deafened permanently in one ear, and James was gravely wounded as a shell fragment sliced through his leg just below the knee. The war was over for the young man as he lost the lower portion of his leg due to his wound. James slowly recovered from his injury, was discharged from the army, and returned home late in 1865. He took a job as a clerk in his hometown of Barre. John had also survived his illness and the twins married sisters in the Trow family. James married Emma Trow on March 4, 1867. Shortly after that, he and his new wife moved to northern Genesee County in Michigan near the modern intersection of Vassar and Vienna Roads. They bought land and started a farm and a family. The loss of a leg did not slow James down, nor did he allow it to keep him from success. James would one day become one of the founders (and first president) of the Otisville State Bank. He and Emma would raise a large family. One of his daughters, Bertha, would eventually marry Edgar Stimson. And the rest is history.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 14:16:51 +0000
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