GEORGE WASHINGTON BENNETT12th U. S. INFANTRY, 16th CAVALRY and 3rd PROVISIONAL CAVALRYIN THREE REGIMENTS - George Washington Bennett, the son of Emmett Bennett and Jane Van Deusen, was born June 10, 1843, in Plattsburgh. He enlisted to serve for three years from Clintonville, on August 10, 1861, at the age of 18 years. He was mustered into service at Fort Hamilton, NY, as a private of Co. H of the 12th U. S. Infantry. The regiment was assigned to Syke’s Division of the V Corps of the Army of the Potomac. He was first discharged in early 1864 at Fort Hamilton, NY, with a Surgeon’s Certificate of Disability. A couple of months later, he re-enlisted on March 8, 1865, as a private of Co. E, 16th Regiment Volunteer Cavalry under Captain Edwin Doherty to serve one year. On August 17, 1865, he was transferred to Co. D, 3rd Regiment NY Provisional Cavalry and was mustered out a month later at Camp Barry in Washington, DC.George participated in twenty-five engagements, among which were Hanover Court House, Gaines’ Mill, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg on July 1-3, 1863, Battle of The Wilderness, May 5 to 7, 1864, Cold Harbor, June 1 to 12, 1864, and Petersburg, June 15 to 30, and August 1 to 31, 1864. He was honorably discharge on September 21, 1865, at Camp Barry in the District of Columbia.In 1863, he was married to Ellen M. Bow of Ellenburg. With their three children they emigrated to Wisconsin in 1874 to the Town of Weston in central part of the state and farmed there for the rest of their lives. Two of his daughters, Susan, and Georgiana, died in 1887 shortly after their marriages and were buried in the Lower Weston Cemetery. Ellen joined her daughters after she died on April 21, 1920.In June 1925, George went back to New York to visit his daughter, Carrie, in Homer, NY. He became extremely ill in October and was taken to the Soldiers’ Hospital in Bath, NY, where he remained until April 5, 1926, leaving to go to Carrie’s home. He was there for eight days before he died on April 13th.His body was taken to his home in Wisconsin and after his funeral was buried with full military honors with his wife and daughters. Surviving him were two sons in Wisconsin and two daughters in New York as well as twenty-three grandchildren and fifteen great grandchildren. George’s loving daughter, Carrie, lived until 1980 and died in the home where she looked after her father.
