Hutchins, Dana Ebenezer, Pvt. – Co A, 18th Wisconsin Infantry
Dana E. Hutchins (1827-1901) fought in the Union Army during the American Civil War with Company A, 18th Infantry Regiment, Wisconsin volunteers. He was my third great-grandfather on my mother’s line.
Hutchins enlisted on February 17, 1864, when the war had been raging for 3 years. Dana was honorably discharged a little over a year later, on August 3, 1865, with wounds that would plague him for the rest of his life.
Private Hutchins fought in only one major battle, the little-known battle of Allatoona Pass on October 5, 1864, in Bartow County, Georgia. The bloody fight lasted but a single day. The Union Army soldiers fought the Confederates to protect the supply line railroad through the narrow Allatoona Pass. In addition to the critical railroad, there was the fort at Allatoona Pass, which housed men and critical supplies, including food and ammunition. At the end, the Union soldiers were down to only men enough to fit in one redoubt (small, self-contained fortification). The Union won the battle because the Confederates retreated when they heard that many more Union soldiers were coming. It turned out those soldiers were held up and did not arrive until the next morning bu the Confederate general did not know that, retreating because he did not want him and his men cut off from supplies. During this battle, Private Dana Hutchins was one of the few who survived, but he was struck by shell fragments to his head, to his spinal column, back, and left leg. Unfortunately, at the time of the battle, he did not realize how badly he was wounded, so he said to a fellow soldier that he needed no medical attention. This caused him problems later on with getting a disability pension. As a result of these wounds, he lived with increasing infirmity for the rest of his life. When he joined the Army, he was 37. Upon his release from the Army, Dana lived with his war injuries for the next 37 years, exactly half his life.
Dana was born in 1827 in Constable, New York, on the Canadian border, though his family soon moved to Whitingham, Vermont. By the time he enlisted in the Army, he had been married for 12 years to Sarah M. Brown (1834- abt 1864), also from Whitingham, Vermont, and they had two children, aged 10 and 8. The older child was Ida Mae Hutchins (1854-1915), who became my second great-grandmother. She later lived in Los Angeles.
The younger child was Frank Leonard Hutchins (1856 – 1923), later of Glendale, Los Angeles County, California.
By 1857, Dana’s family of four had moved to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where he worked as a carpenter. In nearby Larmartine, Wisconsin, he enlisted in the Union Army.
After the Civil War, Dana attempted to resume his job as a carpenter but found it difficult to work due to his war injuries. According to the affidavits in his pension papers, after ten years, Dana found he could not work a full day. Later, he had trouble working at all because of those injuries. He applied for, and was eventually granted, an “Invalid Pension” on June 17, 1881, which stated he was “partly disabled.” Dana was then 50 years old. In subsequent years, as his health deteriorated even further, he applied for and was granted a full disability pension.
During the time Dana was away at war, his first wife, Sarah Mariah Brown, had died in May of 1864, at age 29. The children went to live with Sarah’s parents. In 1867, he remaed to Charlotte Ribble (1848-1921). For a time, the two lived in Chicago, Illinois, where he worked as a carpenter and contractor.
Dana and Charlotte spent the last 6 years of his life in the boomtown of Bakersfield, California. There, they ran a boarding house in the downtown business district, for as long as he was able.
He died of diabetes at age 74 in August of 1901 and is buried in Union Cemetery in downtown Bakersfield. Dana’s obituary said he was provided funeral services by his family and by two organizations of which he was a member: the Masons and the fraternal organization, the G. A. R. (Grand Army of the Republic). The obituary further stated that his funeral “services in the church, home, and cemetery were very impressive and were witnessed by a large number of friends and sorrowing relatives. Members of the Color Guard acted as escort to the members of the G. A. R., and H. A. Blogett conducted the Masonic services at the grave.” (The Daily Californian, Monday Evening, September 2, 1901)
Gahr Emanuel Aanensen was born in Haegebostad, Norway on April 30, 1832, to parents Aanen Gahrsen and Anna Jakobsdatter. He married Agnete Tobina Jacobsdatter in Vange, Norway in 1859. They had two children, Anna Sophia and Jacob Alvig before emigrating to America. The family arrived in Madison, Wisconsin during the summer of 1861. There was a vibrant community of Norwegians in Madison. Hans Christian Heg, a prominent Madison resident put out the call for 1,000 Scandinavian immigrants to join him in forming an infantry. He wrote, “The government of our adopted country is in danger. That which we learned to love as freemen in our old Fatherland- our freedom- our government – our independence – is threatened with destruction.”
Nichols in Clinton, New York, four months after the sudden death of his father. Years later when his mother remarried and moved to the wilderness of Kenosha, Wisconsin Territory, she wanted Harvey to have a better education than would be possible in Wisconsin. She arranged for him to stay in New York and live with his aunt while attending school in Clarendon. During this time his step-father, Shubael Lewis, was killed by the Indians when he ventured to the gold fields of California, and Sarah was left alone with five small children. She moved to Columbus, Wisconsin, where her brother-in-law, James T. Lewis (Governor of Wisconsin 1864-1866), was living, and he looked after the family.