AMOS CHAMPAGNE-- 83rd and 97th INFANTRYRETURNED TO CANADA AFTER THE WAR - Amable Champagne was born in Quebecabout 1837. He enlisted in the 83rd Infantry as a private in 1863,under the name Amos. The 83rd suffered over 400 casualties in the yearprevious to his joining. The battles where they suffered their heaviestlosses were 2nd Bull Run -- August 30, 1862 -- 75, Antietam --September 17 - 114, Fredericksburg -- December 12 -- 126, and Gettysburg-- July 4, 1862 -- 82.Amable and the 69 other men with whom he enlisted in Plattsburgh, weresent immediately to Virginia and joined the regiment while they wereencamped at Liberty. Their first action was on the Mine Run Campaign inNovember where they lost 36 more men. Before winter set in, theyestablished camp near Brandy Station a few miles to the north of OrangeCounty, VA, where they were fighting.The 83rd participated in the Wilderness Campaign, quickly followed bySpotsylvania and 250 more men were lost to casualty. The regimentdemobilized in June 1864, so all the men who hadn't fulfilled theirthree years were transferred in the field to the 97th Infantry.By the end of the year, the 97th lost 150+ men in the Petersburg area.They stayed near the city for the winter and had their first engagementat Hatcher's Run in February 1865, where they had 34 casualties. At theend of March, they joined the Appomattox Campaign and had 29 morecasualties before Lee surrendered. The regiment marched back toWashington and mustered out on June 14, 1865.Amable moved back to Quebec after the war and before he died in 1911,was listed as a "mendiante" or beggar living as a widower with one ofhis relatives in Sorel, Quebec.
