My Family Research Adventures

Memorial Day is a day set aside to honor our war dead.

My 3great-grand uncle Wilson L Starkey paid that ultimate price. He died during the Civil War. 

Wilson was born in 1835 in Greece, Monroe, New York and his parents were Benjamin Starkey and Mary Ridgway. He enlisted in the Illinois Infantry Volunteers, Company C, 15th Regiment at its formation on 24 May 1861. After his father's death his mother remarried a Daniel Lewis.

He  died aboard the Hospital Ship Red Rover on the Mississippi River on 27 July 1862. Although there is a little confusion as to whether he died the 26 or 27. The official records state the 27th. Exactly how he ended up on the Red Rover is not clear. He had remained with his company until after Shiloh and then was detailed to the Signal Corps and assigned to the gun-boat Bragg. Now whether he remained on the Bragg until he got sick and then was transferred to the Hospital ship is unclear. The records do state that he died upon the Hospital ship Red Rover from Congestive Chills (Malaria) and was buried at Spanish Moss Bend on the Mississippi River. Although, where he is presently buried is not clear. His remains may have been moved to Helena Arkansas, but I have not been able to verify this. After the war many soldiers remains were transferred to cemeteries instead of being left in some field.

Wilson was married for a short time in late 1859 early 1860. The record states that he and Eleanora R Stone  were married but no date or place of marriage is given. The record does state that where ever they were they returned to Eleanora's parents home when she became sick. She died in March 1860. Wilson is listed with Eleanora's family in the 1860 Census in Illinois, but she is not. Her parents state in an affidavit that their daughter Eleanora died without issue and that Wilson never married again before his death in 1862.

**The above information came from a Mother's Pension applied for by Wilson's mother Mary R Lewis.