Samuel Hungerford Montague, my great-grandfather, was born in Westminster Township, Middlesex, Ontario, Canada, 19 Jan 1834, to James Montague and his wife Laura Hungerford. His grandfather William immigrated with his family from Somerset, England, to Boston, Massachusetts, about 1800 and after seven years in the Boston area, settled in Biddeford, Maine, where Samuel’s father James was born in 1810. With the outbreak of the War of 1812 and hostility there toward the English, this English family left Biddeford for Buffalo, New York, where they lived during the war. William went to Canada to support the British. He was a metal worker doing fine forging and he worked in Canada repairing British guns and armament. He was at the Battle of Lundy’s Lane. After the war, William collected his family and moved to Canada settling in Westminster Township near London, Ontario. There at age 57, he took up farming.
When land opened up in Michigan, Samuel’s father as well as some of his brothers moved into Michigan to settle and farm. The James Montague family settled in Vergennes Township, Kent County, Michigan, in 1837 and Samuel grew up there. In the late 1850s, the family continued the westward movement. James moved his family to Mecosta County, Michigan, and left his eldest son Samuel on the home farm in Vergennes. At Vergennes on 2 May 1861 at the age of 27, Samuel married Merinda Whitehouse, age 16, the daughter of Maria (Underhill) Whitehouse Grindell. Their first son was my grandfather George Lehman/Lyman Montague from whom descends the member of Laura Belle Stoddard Tent 22, Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War 1861-1865. He was born at Vergennes on 9 February 1862. Their second son, Charles Henry, was born at Vergennes 15 April 1863.
On 18 Dec 1863, Samuel enlisted as a private at Lowell, Michigan, in Company D, Michigan 1st Engineers and Mechanics and was mustered in 5 Jan 1864. The Conscription Act of 1863 required all able-bodied men between 20 and 45 to register for military service. Draftees were selected by lottery. It is unknown if Samuel was drafted or enlisted voluntarily. However, it is more likely he was recruited. In 1862 Congress passed an act recognizing all volunteer engineer organizations mustered into the U.S. Service and placing them on the same footing as the corps of engineers of the regular army. This allowed the 1st Regiment of Michigan Engineers and Mechanics to have twelve companies of 150 men each. In the winter of 1863-4, each company sent recruiting parties home and by their work secured 913 more recruits. One of these was Samuel Montague.
Also enlisted as a private on 24 Dec 1683 and mustering into the same company on 5 Jan 1864 was Samuel’s father-in-law, his wife’s step-father, Andrew John Grindell, who was 55 years old but stated he was 45 at his enlistment. Andrew Grindell was an experienced soldier. He had enlisted at age 22 in the 3rd Artillery Co H on 28 May 1830 at Bangor, Maine, for 5 years and re-enlisted 23 Sep 1835 at Savannah in the 2nd Artillery Co. E for 3 years. He fought in the Seminole Wars in Florida, prior to his discharge 30 Sep 1838 at Fort Niagara, New York, which is where he met and married Samuel’s mother-in-law, Maria (Underhill) Whitehouse in 1845.
The 1st Michigan Mechanics and Engineers facilitated the movement of the great armies of Sherman, Thomas, and Rosecrans. The services to the union army they provided included the construction of bridges, pontoons, boats, forts, blockhouses, sawmills, and the destruction of the enemy’s railroads and other infrastructure deemed important to the enemy. They built bridges over rivers and chasms utilizing the resources of the local forests. They repaired and built roads to facilitate the movement of army wagon trains and troops. They often worked all night ahead of the army to facilitate the movement forward at dawn. They had two regimental commanders during the war: Colonel William P. Innes and Col. John B. Yates. Both were highly respected civil engineers. The men in the regiment were those who had cleared land, built homesteads, and had the construction and mechanical skills required for this work. Samuel Montague was a blacksmith. In June 1864, the regiment took up the march with the army of General Sherman on his advance into Atlanta. On Nov 2, 1864 Companies D and K were sent to Chatanooga where, joined by Company C, built pontoon and trestle bridges at Chatanooga and a pontoon bridge at Brown’s Ferry across the Tennessee River, opening up the well-known “cracker line” from Chattanooga to Bridgeport. “During the hottest and thickest of the fight, when the shells were falling thick and fast all around him, Captain Fox, Company D, Michigan Engineers and Mechanics, in command of three companies of that regiment, with forty of his men and ninety-eight of the 21st Michigan, volunteered to place the pontoon bridge in proper position across the river at the contested point, which they accomplished in just three hours, without the loss of a man; only eleven hours having been consumed in the construction of fifty-two pontoon boats and their transformation into a serviceable bridge.”
After the fall of Savannah, the regiment embarked for Beaufort, S.C. and started the long march to Goldsboro, N.C. During this march a vast amount of public property was destroyed, the men worked all night repairing and building bridges and roads so the army could march in the morning. The regiment was in front of the 17th Army Corps when Johnson surrendered to Sherman. After the surrender of Johnson, the regiment proceeded to Washington, D.C., where it took part in the grand review on May 24. The regiment was then sent to Nashville, Tennessee, until September 24 when it was mustered out of service.
During the time Samuel was in service in Company D, the regiment participated in battles at Atlanta, GA, July 22 to Sept. 2, 1864; Savannah, GA, Dec. 11-21, 1864; Averyboro, N.C., March 16, 1865; Bentonville, N.C. March 19, 1865. During the history of the regiment:
Total enrollment ………………………………………………..2920
Killed in action …………………………………………………….2
Died of wounds ……………………………………………………4
Died in confederate prisons …………………………………2
Died of disease …………………………………………………….280
Discharged for disability (wounds/disease) ………….279
Unfortunately, Samuel died of disease and did not survive the war. He fell sick in Washington, D.C. where he died 18 July 1865 in the Washington General Hospital of Bright’s disease (kidney failure). He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. His wife’s step-father, Andrew John Grindell, survived and was mustered out in Nashville, Tennessee on 22 Sep 1965. Samuel also lost a brother to the war: George Washington Montague died 25 Aug 1865 in Tennessee. He was in Company F, 15th Michigan Infantry.
Samuel’s death significantly impacted his family. His wife, Merinda married Allen D. Watkins, a Civil War soldier, on 4 May 1866 at Grand Rapids. This marriage apparently was not good and by 1870 she was living with her half-sister’s brother-in-law James Frank Booth, who was also a veteran of the civil war, as his wife. Samuel’s mother was ill with malaria when word of her sons’ deaths reached her. She never fully recovered and died 5 Dec 1870 followed very shortly by Samuel’s widow Merinda who died 18 Feb 1871 at Lowell. Without his wife James Montague could not take his grandsons so he supported their maternal grandmother Maria Grindell in obtaining their guardianship. As a result, the boys grew up amidst the Underhill family and lost contact with their Montague family. As a young man, George was invited to join an Underhill cousin in Bellaire, Traverse, Michigan, in business and so moved there and lived among the Underhill family.
There are no known photos of Samuel Hungerford Montague, Merinda Whitehouse, or Maria Underhill. A photo does exist of James Montague and his wife Laura Hungerford.
