CASTLE NOBLE TEMPLETON -- 1st ENGINEERSINN KEEPER FROM ELLENBURG - In November 1861, the son of an innkeeper inEllenburg enlisted in the 1st Engineer regiment, known as Serrell'sEngineers. Castle Noble Templeton was 21 years old when he enlisted, theson of Castle Noble Templeton and Abigail Vandebogart.There were only three regiments of engineers recruited in New York --the 1st, 15th and 50th Engineers. Castle's Company I was made upof men from six villages in Clinton County and two downstate villages.The first five companies and companies G, I, and K left for Port RoyalSound, about seventy miles south of Charleston, SC, in December 1861where they served with the Department of the South. The remaining fourcompanies were sent to the Petersburg/Richmond area.While the regiment was forming, the men were promised one third more paythan regular troops, but the Paymaster General refused to pay theadditional rate, so the men decided not to take any pay. It took eightmonths for the government to capitulate, and they finally received thepre-arranged amount.While Castle was on the east coast with his company, they built gunplatforms to prevent Confederate ships brining cargoes inland. He onlyworked at this occupation for five months before he was discharged fordisability on May 8, 1862, at Hilton Head ten miles to the south of PortRoyal.Castle returned to Ellenburg and married Olive Potter, by whom he had ason, Charles Castle Templeton. Castle lived until 1885 and his widow,married Herbert Morgan in Massachusetts in 1888. After Morgan's deaththe applied for and received a Remarried Widows Pension based on hisservice. She is buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Clinton, MA.
