HIRAM WESLEY ADSIT – 96th INFANTRY8 MONTHS IN THE CIVIL WAR IN HIS 93 YEARS - In 1850, Hiram Wesley Adsit was living with his parents on a farm in the Town of Ellenburg near the Town of Mooers line. His parents, Jacob Adsit and Isabel Hall, and family had cleared 20 acres and still had 30 acres undeveloped. Their farm was worth $200, and they had farm implements worth $20. His parents would live with Wesley, as he was called, for the rest of their lives.Wesley was born on January 13, 1838, in Willsboro, NY. He enlisted in the 96th Infantry in Mooers when he was 23 years old on December 16, 1861. When he mustered into Company D on December 18th, promising to serve for 3 years, he was with 10 others who had enlisted in Mooers. In total 74 men were mustered into the 96th in Mooers in various companies before they left for Washington on March 11, 1862, after drilling in Plattsburgh. On the Muster-In Roll for Captain Addis E. Woodhull’s Company D, it says Wesley had to travel 22 miles to where the regiment organized - about the right distance to travel down the Military Turnpike or what is now Rte. 22.Like many regiments, they were sent to the Siege of Yorktown almost Immediately. they were there from April 17th to May 4th, with the Army of the Potomac. Wesley and his regiment fought through Virginia in the summer of 1862. Their worst battles were Seven Pines, and Fair Oaks where they had 63 casualties including 13 dead or mortally wounded, 30 wounded and 20 who were captured or went missing. In the Seven Day’s Battles of late June and early July, the 96th had 1 man killed and 90 men captured. They then went into hiatus at Camp Hamilton, VA, to recoup until November.While they were at Camp Hamilton, Wesley was discharged for disability on August 25th, after having been in the military for just 8 months - 5 months in the field There is no record whether his discharge was based on injury or disease.Wesley returned to farm with his parents in the Mooers Forks area for the rest of his life and joined the McGregor Post 463 of the G. A. R. He applied for and received a pension starting in 1863. After several increases, his pension was $22.50 a month in 1916. He received two more increases before he died - 32¢ a month in 1918 and 30¢ in 1920.His obituary was in the Plattsburgh Sentinel, December 16, 1930 – “Wesley Adsit, a veteran of the Civil War, died at the home of his niece, Mrs. J. E. Greenough at 4 Durand Street on Saturday night. He was in his 93rd year and formerly lived in Mooers. Funeral services will be held in the Baptist Church in Ellenburg Depot on Monday at 2:30 o’clock. Interment will be in Sheldon Hill Cemetery.”Wesley is buried with several family members.
