FRANCIS BURDO – 118th INFANTRYFROM SAILOR TO MILL WORKER - A boatman born in Champlain, Francis Burdo, enlisted in the 118th Infantry on August 10, 1862, at 37 years old. He enlisted in Champlain and was mustered into Captain H. S. Ransom’s Company I three weeks later in Plattsburgh promising to serve for 3 years or unless sooner discharged. Forty other men from the Champlain area also enlisted that August – 11 did not return – most died of typhoid.After leaving Plattsburgh with just over 1,000 men on September 1st, the regiment stayed in camp near Fort Ethan Allen just across the Potomac from Washington and then moved to Camp Adirondack about a mile north of the capitol. Until April 1863, they performed guard and provost duties, then started off by boat for the Siege of Suffolk on the Virginia Peninsula. They were in the field for 3 months, then set up camps and performed garrison and guard duty for several months at Yorktown, Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Newport News, VA.The regiment had 2 engagements in March and April 1864, and then Francis became ill. According to his Muster Roll Abstract, he spent the rest of the war in hospital from May 1864 and was discharged on June 9, 1865 from hospital at Fortress Monroe.After the war Francis moved to Springfield, MA, and worked for the huge Indian Orchard Mills in the city for many years. He died there on March 9, 1896 and was buried under a military headstone in St. Aloysius’ Cemetery there. His wife, Sally, applied for and received her Widow’s Pension.
