JAMES BRANCH – 96th INFANTRY and 1st CT HEAVY ARTILLERYJULIUS and CHARLES BRANCH – 153rd INFANTRYCHANCY BRANCH – 2nd CAVALRYNELSON BRANCH 6th ARTILLERYFIVE BROTHERS FROM MOOERS IN THE CIVIL WAR - Fayett Branch and Adeline Profer who were farming in Mooers had five sons who went to war.The first to enlist was 18-year-old James. He enlisted in Mooers on March 1, 1861, but decided not to be mustered into Captain Alfred Weed’s Company G. More than two years later, in December 1863, James enlisted in the 1st CT Heavy Artillery in Windsor, CT. and was with them until August 1865, he deserted a month before the regiment mustered out.Two more brothers, Charles and Julius, enlisted in the 153rd Infantry in Mooers in 1862 – Charles on August 28th and Julius the next day. Charles remained with the regiment until it mustered out as a sergeant in Savannah, GA, in October 1865. Julius remained on the battlefield with his brother but became ill while they were in Washington. He was mustered out from hospital in Washington in June 1865.Another two brothers enlisted in 1864 and received town bounties of $600. Twenty-three-year-old Chancy enlisted in the 2nd Cavalry in Malone in August and mustered out in Talladega, AL in 1865. Nelson was almost thirty when he enlisted in the 6th Artillery in September and was discharged for disability at Petersburg in April 1865.Four of the brothers returned to the North Country – Charles and James settled in the Ellenburg area and are buried in the Ellenburg Corners Cemetery - Julius and Nelson to Franklin are buried in the Bellmont Cemetery in Franklin County. Chauncey, the last to die, went West. For a while he was in Minneapolis and toward the end of his life spent time in the veterans’ home in Los Angeles. He was buried in 1929 in the Los Angeles National Cemetery with two other soldiers who enlisted in Clinton County.
