ALFRED AMLAW (HAMELIN) -- 96th INFANTRYALMOST SEVEN MONTHS IN THE MILITARY - In the mid-1700s, Alfred Hamelin'ssecond great grandparents, Jacques Hamelin and Barbe Soulières, came toQuebec from Normandy and settled in L'Assomption, about 40 milesnortheast of Montreal on the St. Lawrence River. Within a generation,some the descendants of these first ancestors had immigrated to Chazy tobecome farmers.Alfred enlisted in the 96th Infantry in Plattsburgh when he was 18 yearsold and was mustered in as a private under the anglicized name of Amlaw.On March 11, 1862, the regiment left by train for Washington and, almostimmediately, were sent to the Virginia Peninsula to besiege Yorktown.After the siege, the regiment continued west in McClellan's PeninsulaCampaign. The 96th participated in five engagements before they ended upat Fair Oaks on May 31st.On the first day of the battle, Alfred was killed in action whilefighting in the 3rd Division of the IV Corps under BG Silas Casey.During the 3-day battle, seven men died -- five of whom had enlistedwith him in Clinton County just a few months before.There is no record of Alfred's grave. In 1870, his mother, JuliaPatenaude, started receiving a pension based on his service. Shereceived it until 1885 until she died, a widow, in New Hampshire wherethey had moved to live with family in the mid-1870s.
