Visiting Fayette Corner Cemetery all those years ago, I found my 3rd great grandparents and some of their children, including their son Charles Foster Kent who served in the Civil War. The inscription on his tomb stone indicates that he was a member of the 14th Massachusetts Battery, fought in the battles near Petersburg, sickened and died at L.I.N.Y. July 10, 1864, aged 20 years 11 months.
At the time, I found a book in a library "Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in the Civil War" which lists him as a Private, a resident of Fayette, Maine, enlisting in Feb 1864 and mustering that same month. It indicates that he died of disease July 10, 1864 at Long Island, Boston. I did not have a problem with this discrepancy. Long Island is a harbor island in Boston that has been home to many things, at one time a hospital during the Civil War.
Now that more records have become available through Ancestry, I recently came across the following two records. He did indeed die at Long Island, New York at Grants Hospital.
In the following record, it is listed as Grant's General Hospital Willet's Point, Long Island NY.
I am proud of this brother to my Great great grandmother for enlisting. I can only imagine the grief his parents and siblings experienced. The blow to his father to lose a son who helped with the livelihood of the family. I am grateful that communities still recognize and honor those who have lost their lives serving their country, long after their families have gone as well.
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