GREGORY BOSLEY -- 96th INFANTRYBECAME DISABLED ON THE MARCH - Five of the seventy-four privates inCaptain George Hindes Company K of the 96th Infantry were forty-fouryears old. One of them was Grégoire Beausoleil who was enlisted onNovember 6, 1861, as Gregory Bocelle. He was born in Quebec to GrégoireBeausoleil and Eliza Minie in 1817. Leaving his job as a blacksmith andwife Agnes at home with their son Andrew in Keeseville, he went off toPlattsburgh where the 96th was organizing and was mustered in onDecember 10th.The regiment left for Washington on March 11, 1862, by train. Gregoryand the 96th were at the Siege of Yorktown by April 17th and,following that, the started to march up the Virginia Peninsula.Between May 5th and the Battle of Fair Oaks just east of Richmond onJune 24th, they marched 60 miles and had been in four otherengagements -- Williamsburg, Bottoms Bridge, Savage Station, and SevenPines. After Fair Oaks, they were in the Seven Days' Battles includingWhite Oak Swamp and Malvern Hill and between the two series of battlesthey sustained over 140 casualties.The 96th then traveled back down the Peninsula to camp just outsideFort Monroe at Camp Hamilton, VA. On the way back, Gregory becamedisabled by constant diarrhea and was discharged for disability fromFort Monroe on September 18, 1862.Gregory returned home and continued to support his family as ablacksmith in Keeseville. He received an Invalids Pension in 1880 underthe name Gregory Bosley, and, when he died in 1888, his wife applied forand received her Widows Pension.Of the five 44-year-olds, one died in hospital in June 1862 and theother four were all discharged for disability before the end of 1862.
