ASA EVERLETH – 16th INFANTRY and WILLIAM EVERLETH - 91st INFANTRYLOST 2 SONS IN 3 YEARS TO TUBERCULOSIS - Asa Everleth and Sally Brown came from Massachusetts to farm in Schuyler Falls. Asa gave up his job as an overseer in a papermill in Chicopee to get his own farm. Their two eldest children, Asa and William, enlisted to fight in the Civil War.Asa, who was 24 years old in 1861, enlisted in the 16th Infantry in Plattsburgh on September 20th. When he got to Virginia, he was assigned to Captain William Wallace Wood’s Company K. Almost as soon as he joined the regiment in November, he died of tuberculosis in Alexandria, VA, on November 26th. He was buried there. After she was widowed, Sally applied for a pension based on Asa’s service in April 1865. She died in 1870.William was 35 when he enlisted. He joined the 91st Infantry in Plattsburgh after he was placed on the Draft Register in 1863. The regiment had just returned from fighting in Louisiana, and they were sent to maintain order and guard railroads in Baltimore. For a while, William was on detached service at Monocacy Junction near Frederick, MD, and the record shows he was sent then to hospital. He somehow got home and died of tuberculosis in late 1864. In January 1865, his wife, Clarissa, applied for and started receiving her Widows Pension.Approximately 14,000 soldiers died from tuberculosis during the Civil War and countless more had latent forms of the disease. Treatment for tuberculosis during the Civil War included sending the troops for some "fresh air" or performing surgery to decrease lung capacity.
