Remembering Eleazer Wilber - 150 Years Later

On this day 150 years ago my second great-granduncle, Eleazer Wilber, a private in the 27th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, died at Andersonville Prison in Georgia. Eleazer, with most of his regiment, was captured on May 16, 1864 at Drewry's Bluff, Virginia during an early morning reconnaissance in heavy fog. Eleazer died of disease resulting from starvation at Andersonville and is buried in Grave 6715 at Andersonville National Cemetery.¹ This was the second tragic event occurring in the Bates Family in less than one week, as Eleazer's brother-in-law Oliver Stanton Bates of the 20th Massachusetts Regiment died at Slough Barracks Military Hospital in Alexandria, Virginia on August 19, 1864 from a wound resulting in amputation at Petersburg.²

For more information about Eleazer, please visit his Find a Grave memorial. For more information about Oliver Stanton Bates please visit my blog posts labeled Oliver Bates. For additional information about the 20th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment please visit http://20thmassregt150.blogspot.com.

For additional information about Andersonville Prison please visit the Andersonville National Historic Site and the Andersonville National Cemetery website.

References:
¹Compiled service record, Eleazer Wilber, Pvt., Co. G, 27th Massachusetts Infantry; Carded Records, Volunteer Organizations, Civil War; Records of the Adjutant General's Office, 1780s-1917, Record Group 94; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

²Compiled service record, Oliver S. Bates, Pvt., Co. A, 20th Massachusetts Infantry; Carded Records, Volunteer Organizations, Civil War; Records of the Adjutant General's Office, 1780s-1917, Record Group 94; National Archives, Washington, D.C.