CHAUNCEY BREWER CROCKER IN THE CIVIL WAR
Drawn Chiefly from His Military and Pension Records
Chauncey B. Crocker was drafted into the army (from Johnson, Vt.), and was mustered in as a Private, Company C, 4th Vermont Infantry, at Burlington, Vt., on July 17, 1863. He was forwarded to his regiment from Brattleboro, Vt., the next day. His description at the time was as follows – Age: 25 years; Height: 5 feet, 7 inches; Complexion: light; Eyes: grey; Hair: brown; Where born: Lowell, Vt.; Occupation: farmer. His term of conscription was for three years.
A handwritten document (not in Crocker’s handwriting) preserved by Crocker’s family reads as follows:
Mr. Chauncey Crocker
Co. C, 4th Vt. Regiment
Fought in the battle of
Wounded May 13 [sic], 1864, In the battle of Spottsylvania, Va.
In what was probably a reference to the Mine Run campaign of November and December 1863, Crocker stated in 1898 that in
the fall of 1863 and winter of 1864 while at Brandy Station some time in Feb. [sic?] we was ordered to Richmond. We started and was gone eight days. It rained and snowed nearly all the time we was gone. I caught a severe cold and rheumatism settled in [my] left side and arm [and] shoulder. It has grown gradually worse ever since.
More serious was the disfiguring wound that Crocker received in battle on May 12, 1864. In 1867 Crocker described this wound as follows: “I was engaged in the Battle of Spottsylvania, Va., on the 12th day of May, A.D. 1864, when I was shot in [the] right hand & the ball severed the second finger of said hand near the hand & said wound caused not only the loss of said finger but a weakening of the whole hand.” Also in 1867 he described the intense fighting in which his regiment had been engaged up until the time when he was wounded:
My Capt. & 1st Lieut. were both killed in battle a few days previously and my Second Lieut. lost an arm in battle a few days previously. My Colonel was also disabled by wounds a few days previous... & we were so terribly cut up in the battles of the few preceding days & at Spottsylvania that my Co. was almost annihilated...
Crocker was admitted to Emory U.S.A. General Hospital in Washington, D.C., on May 17, 1864. The records of this hospital describe his condition as follows: “Wound of 2nd joint of index finger & loss of two joints of second finger of right hand.” From here he was sent to Cuyler U.S.A. General Hospital in Germantown (Philadelphia), Pa. He was well enough to be granted a furlough from this hospital, beginning sometime in June. He returned from leave on Aug. 15, 1864. He was transferred to Augur U.S.A. General Hospital near Alexandria, Va., on Aug. 22, and then to Sloan U.S.A. General Hospital in Montpelier, Vt., on Sept. 11.
On Nov. 22, 1864, at Sloan Hospital, Crocker was listed among the men from his regiment who were “unfit for active field service,” but “fit for duty in the Invalid Corps.” Soon thereafter he was transferred to Company G, 2nd Regiment, United States Veteran Reserve Corps. He was discharged at Indianapolis, Ind., on June 13, 1865, for disability. Soon after the war he was granted a disability pension primarily because of his wound, and also because of “chronic diarrhoea and piles,” the onset of which apparently occurred during the time of his military service.
