DEWEY WELLS -- 69th INFANTRY ACTIVE SERVICE OF LESS THAN 2 MONTHS - The 69th Infantry remained with the Army of the Potomac throughout the war. When it was first formed, it was made up of men from New York City, many of whom were Irish immigrants and thus earned their nickname -- the Irish Brigade. Toward the end of the war, men from many other ethnicities were enlisted in the regiment. Dewey Wells, the son of David Wells and Lydia Viele, from Warren County, enlisted on August 25, 1864. He gave his age as 17 but was really a year younger. On his Muster Roll Abstract, it says that he was the substitute for James P. Freligh of Queensbury. Dewey went missing in action in his first engagement in the Bristoe Campaign with Meade against Lee. His Muster Roll Abstract says he had been missing since October 30th, then it was amended to show he had been sick at the time. He ended up in hospital in Washington about 50 miles east of Bristoe Station on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad and was mustered out there per a telegram from the Adjutant General's Office on May 30, 1865. Dewey married and supported his family by being a carpenter. In 1885, he started receiving his Invalids Pension of $12 a month. About 8 years later, he checked himself into the veterans hospitals in Hampton, VA, and Dayton, OH, and stayed hospitalized for four years. He was released by his own request in 1897. On the hospital documents, it says he was a widower and his contact was his daughter Bessie Wells in Glens Falls. Dewey married again and was divorced in 1900. He worked in various jobs and lived in boarding houses and, in 1911, he was living in the Warren County Alms House.The Glens Falls Times carried his death notice and funeral arrangements - Dewey Wells, 80, died on May 23, 1928, at Batavia near Buffalo, NY. He was survived by three nieces and four nephews. Funeral services were conducted from Wilmarth's Funeral Chapel in Glens Falls. He was a Civil War Veteran, so Post Commander John Moriarty of the Edgar M. Wing Post No. 147 of the G. A. R. conducted the ritual service. His pall bearers were all members of the Sons of Union Veterans. Burial was in the Wells lot in the Glens Falls Cemetery.
