HIRAM, JEROME and JONATHAN BULL – 118th INFANTRYTHREE BULLS ENLISTED IN BLACK BROOK – Hiram Millard Bull, Jerome H. Bull and Jonathan A. Bull enlisted Black Brook in the 118th Infantry on August 11, 1862. Hiram was the son of Lot and Olive Bull, and Jerome and Jonathan were the sons of Jonathan and Eunice Bull. Their fathers were brothers. On August 30th, they were all mustered in to Company K, that was recruited mainly in Black Brook, Au Sable and Peru. In all 27 men enlisted and were mustered in at the same time.On September 3rd, they started up Lake Champlain on a steamboat and got the train at Whitehall. They spent the rest of 1862 in Washington and Baltimore in provost and guard duties. Jerome didn’t make it to the battlefield. He died with several others of typhoid fever on January 19, 1863, and his body was brought back to Black Brook. He was one of 9 men who died there that winter typhoid was the main killer, but measles and tuberculosis were other causes.It wasn’t until April 1863, that the 118th were sent to the battlefield – the Siege of Suffolk. After the Siege, they had 4 more battles in Virginia between May and July and had their first and only 11 casualties at South Anna Bridge on July 4th.They then performed garrison and guard duty for several months at Yorktown, Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Newport News, VA. In March 1864, they were again on the battlefield and had 15 more battles in Virginia – many of them with deadly consequences. During that year, they had 98 killed or mortally wounded, 232 wounded and 130 who went missing or who were captured in action. Their deadliest battle was Drewry’s Bluff with 40 men killed and 15 others mortally wounded. In October, at Fair Oaks, they had 89 men who were captured or who went missing with 22 other casualties.In 1865, it was engaged without loss at the fall of Petersburg, April 2, 1865. During the long period it was in the trenches before Petersburg it met with losses amounting to 43 in killed and wounded. It was on the skirmish line of the 3rd division when Richmond was finally occupied and claims to have been the first organized Federal infantry in that city. It was mustered out at Richmond, under Col. Nichols, June 13, 1865, haying lost by death during service, 6 officers and 98 enlisted men, killed and mortally wounded; 188 enlisted men by disease and other causes, a total of 292; of whom 45 died in Confederate prisons.Hiram went west to Wisconsin and died in King, Wisconsin in 1922. He married Frances Skinner the widow of Frank Doolittle who was once manager of the Peninsula State Park in the state of Washington. They had no children of their own. Hiram is buried in the Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery.Jerome was buried in the Black Brook Cemetery, and his inscription reads:“Still beautiful in death,The soldier’s corpse appearsEmbalmed by fond affections breathAnd by his country's tears,The arms of Mother earth,Receive the fallen brave,From her sweet cup he sprung to birth,And makes her heart his grave.”Johnathan, who spent a few months in the Ambulance Corps in 1863, lived in Clinton County until at least 1880. and then moved to Massachusetts with his wife, Cornelia Gooley. He died there in 1917 and is buried with his wife in Middle Farms Cemetery, in Westfield, MA.
