CHARLES and DUNCAN EVERETTS – 142nd INFANTRYBROTHERS WENT TO WAR IN THE SAME COMPANY - Charles and Duncan Everetts, sons of Stephen Hoyt Everts and Abigail Tucker, enlisted in the 142nd Infantry on September 2, 1862 in Plattsburgh. They were assigned to Company H on the same day to serve for 1 year. Both of them re-enlisted for $800 bounties, and both were injured, one so seriously that he lost a leg.The 142nd was formed in September 1862 and went to Washington on October 6th, and stayed there until late April of 1863, when they were sent to southern Virginia and saw their first action at the Siege of Suffolk on the James River. In August, they were sent to besiege Battery Wagner 400 miles south in South Carolina, and later they continued their operations in South Carolina around Charleston. They suffered no casualties in 1863.In 1864, they had one battle after the other and had over 300 casualties including 131 killed in action or mortally wounded. They were in some of the most horrendous battles of the war Swift Creek, Chaffin’s Farm, and Darbytown Road. Duncan was one of 79 wounded in action on October 27, 1864, at the Battle of Fair Oaks and Darbytown Road. He was so badly wounded that his wound led to the amputation of his right leg. He ended up at the DeCamp Hospital on David’s Island in New York Harbor and was discharged from there on June 26, 1864. The battle was a decisive Confederate victory in which General Benjamin Butler engaged Confederate General James Longstreet’s troops. The North sustained 1,603 casualties, 600 of whom were captured, and the South only had 100.Charles continued with the regiment and the Campaign of the Carolinas. They were at Fort Fisher, the Gibraltar of the South, in January 1865, and ended their war at Bennett House and the Second Surrender on April 26th. Shortly thereafter Charles was absent from his regiment and in hospital in Raleigh, NC, from May 2, 1865. The regiment mustered out on June 17, 1865, in Raleigh without Charles.Charles died at Stoney Creek, NY, on January 21, 1879, and is buried with his wife, Martha, in the Blackwood Cemetery in Hadley, NY. Martha lived until 1912. Duncan died of Bright’s Disease in 1914, and is buried in Warren County with his wife, Emily Harris, who had died the year before.
