Preface
I first became aware of the Civil War letter written by my great-great-grandfather M. M. Thompson in 1964 when my mother, Edith (Gaylord) Muller, did a pen-and-ink watercolor of a map of the eastern United States tracing Grandfather Thompson’s ocean voyage from Boston to New Orleans in 1862 aboard the steam-powered paddle-wheel gun boat USS Mississippi.
Grandfather Thompson’s vivid and eloquent description of the Battle of New Orleans and daily life in the army was riveting, but ever since then I have wondered what his first name was, and who “Brother Amsden” might have been. Later, I wanted to know how his daughter, my great-grandmother Alice, came to be adopted by the Kendalls, and who Grandmother Thompson might be.
In 1999, I began discovering answers to these questions when I started doing genealogy research on the Internet. This brief sketch is one of the products of that research. I hope it adds some background to the amazing wartime letter that Grandfather Thompson took the time and effort to write.
I wish to thank and acknowledge my mother for doing the work that provided the initial stimulus for this work. I also wish to thank and acknowledge her brother, William Gaylord, for his help, encouragement, humor, suggestions, patience and endurance under the non-stop barrage of my questions.
Randy Muller, August 19, 2005
MARCUS MORTON THOMPSON was born on May 3, 1825 in Pelham, a small farming community in western Massachusetts.
Pelham (population about 900 at this time) was originally settled by a group of Scottish/Northern Irish Presbyterian families in 1738, and Marcus Thompson's great-great grandfather James Thompson was among this group, coming originally from Ulster, Northern Ireland. These families had emigrated to Boston in 1718 and after 20 years, founded Pelham.
Marcus Thompson's brother, Merrick Monroe Thompson, was born December 21, 1826. His sister, Rachel Caroline Thompson, was born April 18, 1829. Merrick died at the age of 3 1/2, 4 months after Rachel was born.
During Marcus' childhood in the 1820s, the minister of the Presbyterian church converted to Congregationalism, and the congregation followed, formally reorganizing the church in 1837 as the Evangelical Congregational Church. A Calvinist (Presbyterian) Church organized in protest against this change flourished from 1822 until 1827. These events probably had a significant impact on the family Marcus grew up in.
It is thought that Marcus' father Isaac died sometime around 1829, when Marcus was about 4. After this, the Thompson family relocated to the adjacent town of Prescott, which was originally part of Pelham. It seems likely that Marcus' mother Mercia (Hoar) Thompson took her remaining children to live with one of her relatives in Prescott. There were 4 Hoar households in Prescott at this time.
After about 10 years, Marcus Thompson's mother died in Prescott, leaving 14 year-old Marcus and 10 year-old Rachel orphans. They probably continued living with the same relatives or family friends, and Marcus was undoubtedly working as a farmhand by this time.
It is probably in Prescott that Marcus met his future wife, Charity Vaughan. Charity was born in nearby New Salem about 1830, part of a large clan of Vaughans, which were spread throughout several neighboring towns. There were 7 Vaughan households in Prescott by 1840, and she was either living with one of her aunts and uncles there or visited several of them regularly. They might even have known each other as children growing up. Marcus and Charity were 5th cousins.
Marcus and Charity were married in 1846 in New Salem, where Charity was born and where her parents still lived. By 1850, they had two children, Clara (possibly named after Charity's deceased mother) and Mercy (named after Marcus' deceased mother), and were living with one of Charity's cousins in Prescott. Charity's cousin Ebenezer worked as a carpenter, and Marcus worked as a farmer, farming the small plot of land they were living on. One of Ebenezer's 9-year-old children may have been named after Marcus. Ebenezer, his wife Lezette and Charity were all first cousins.
Charity had ten brothers and sisters, among them a half-sister Clarissa who was 10 years older, and Laura, who was about a year younger. Clarissa had married Ellis P. Amsden in 1837, and in 1850 they lived in Petersham (another nearby town), and had 6 children, including Jacob Ezban Amsden, born in 1842. Charity's sister Laura was also living in this household. 4 lots down the road, 22 year-old Orin Amsden is living with the family of his mother's first cousin. Orin's and Ellis' mothers were sisters. Orin and Laura married in November of 1850. Orin, Ellis and Marcus were brothers-in-law, having married 3 sisters.
Marcus and Charity had two more children, Alice Evelyn (our ancestor, born in 1854) and Cora Estelle (born in 1856). Sometime after 1856 and before 1860, Charity died, possibly as a result of complications during or after the birth of Cora. Marcus, as was customary, "put out" his children. It was common practice at this time for a widower to put all his children up for adoption, and to remarry and start a new family.
Alice was adopted by Henry and Cordelia (Buell) Kendall and was living with them in 1860. The other children were adopted by other families nearby.
In November 1860, Lincoln was elected President on an Abolitionist platform. Less than a month later, 7 Southern states seceded over a period of 40 days, launching the Confederacy.
In the North, fervor for preserving the Union and abolishing slavery grew, and reached a fever pitch in western Massachusetts by late 1861. General Benjamin Butler was actively recruiting for forces to open up a major new front in the war: The Mississippi River campaign.
Marcus, 36, with no immediate family, decided to respond to the call, and enlisted on November 5, 1861 into the Massachusetts 31st Volunteer Infantry. Ellis Amsden, 44, Marcus' brother-in-law, and his son, Ezban, 19, joined the same regiment on November 19, leaving their family of 7 behind. Ellis and Ezban mustered the very next day. Marcus mustered on February 19, 1862 and the account in the letter to his brother-in-law Orin Amsden begins on February 21.
Ellis Amsden died of disease on September 25, 1863, in Baton Rouge.
Marcus Morton Thompson died of disease on October 21st, 1863, in New Orleans.
Jacob Ezban Amsden re-enlisted on February 14, 1864. He was wounded in the battle of Yellow Bayou on May 18, 1864, and died of his wounds on June 3, 1864, in Baton Rouge.
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