Burial in Bo'ness

[Michael Hammerson]

Seeking information about Alexander M'Callum (possibly other spellings?), who was recorded in the Edinburgh Evening News for 14th Dec. 1896 as having served in the Union army in the American Civil War (1861-1865) and died at Kinneil, Bo'ness, a few days previously. His mother's maiden name could have been O'Neill and he may be the man who died at 30 Furnace Row on December 5. Keen to find details of his service and where he is buried.

[Rockford]

Hello,

There is also a story in the East of Fife Record on 18 Dec 1896 reporting on Alexander's quest to be paid a pension by the United States in respect of his service. It does not provide details other than to state that he was pressed into service with the Federal Army and passed through the war "being wounded in one of the engagements". I assume this might replicate the article you already have from the Evening News on the 14th?

The report stated that he had returned to Bo'ness shortly after the war, so it might be worth looking at the newspapers around 1865/66 as the return of someone who had fought in the war would probably have been newsworthy.

Best wishes

Rockford

[Michael Hammerson]

Thanks. My article is similar but doesn't mention his being "pressed into service" (not a few immigrants found themselves Shanghaied into the army) or his being wounded, so that could conceivably narrow it down if I can find any record of his pension.

[AlanBoyd]

The death of the old soldier is also reported in the East of Fife record of December 18th 1896 (a Friday). This article states that he was finally given the first instalment of his pension "on Friday last" and then died the following day. This suggests that his death date was Saturday 12th December.

The death certificate for the death at the address in Furnace Row, Bo'ness gives the date of death as December 5th.

The Edinburgh Evening News article of Monday the 14th is less specific and simply say that he received the first payment "the other day" and died the following day. If he did die on the 12th as suggested by the other newspaper report this would require the story to have reached the attention of the Edinburgh Evening News rather quickly.

Both reports agree that he died on a Saturday, which matches the death on December 5th. I think it is most likely that the Furnace Row death IS the Alexander McCallum who fought in the ACW, and that the East of Fife record made a mistake and placed the death a week later that it was–assuming that I have interpreted the meaning of 'Friday last" correctly.

[Michael Hammerson]

Thanks again. A colleague has also just found the Furnace Row death certificate, so, yes, I agree it does look like 5th December. We are keen to find where he is buried; we have a project (www.suvcw.org.uk) to locate the graves of veterans of the American Civil War in the UK, of which there are a large number, including many in Scotland.
A preliminary trawl; of the pensions records shows an Alexander McCullen, who filed a claim from Scotland on June 27, 1892 (re his applying for a pension "for many years"), who served in the 28th and 147th Pennsylvania Volunteers; but it doesn't give his date of death, so I'll need to pursue that; it seems the closest hit so far, given the wide range of possible spellings; recruiting officers were sometimes not too accurate, especially if the man had a Scots or Irish accent, and many volunteers from the UK used aliases to get round the Foreign Enlistment Act.
Sometimes researching these volunteers (we have over 1,200 of them so far) is straightforward; others are the stuff brick walls are made of.

[AlanBoyd]

Interesting that the unit he served with was the Pennsylvania Volunteers, since the newspaper articles imply he was somehow pressed or conscripted. I wasn’t aware of any conscription in the ACW; was there?

[AlanBoyd]

This link should take you to a 1890s map view of the Furnace Row(s) area. At the bottom left there should be a slider that will reveal a modern map. You will see that on the OS map there is a cemetery marked to the east (and slightly south) of Furnace Row, and on the modern map this is marked as Bo'ness cemetery. So that's one place to start at.

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=15.8&lat=56.01410&lon=-3.62183&layers=6&b=osm&o=0

The cemetery is listed at the link below and can be searched. I couldn't find a matching memorial. If you scroll down there are other nearby cemeteries listed, which I haven't looked at.

https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2204282/bo'ness-cemetery

[hanes teulu]

FindMyPast has a record set "Civil War Soldiers 1861-65". The records are transcripts only and contain the minimum of detail.

[Michael Hammerson]

Thanks, all. I'll follow up the Bo'ness cemetery lead; and I do have access to all the main civil war soldier websites, such as Fold3, CivilWarData, and also Ancestry - but they don't have everything, and a name like M'Callum could be spelled in a number of different ways by recruiting officers who didn't listen too carefully.
Yes, there was conscription in the American Civil War, certainly after 1863- it was called The Draft, and led to massive and violent riots in cities such as New York. But there are also many records of immigrants, and sailors docked in the east coast ports, being "shanghaied" by unscrupulous people - particularly tavern and lodging house keepers - who would drug their drink, bring in the recruiting officers, and steal the country money which the recruits would have been offered. The next thing the recruit knew was when he woke up in a barracks the next morning.

Bounty money, not country money - spellcheck strikes again...
I checked the four Bo'ness cemeteries on Find a Grave; no M'Callum's or McCallums (except two 21st century ones), but it only records graves with stones, and many of these veterans died in poverty and were buried in unmarkedgraves, I'll see if there's a local history society which can help.