JOSEPH DOUGLAS -- 95th and 96th INFANTRYCARPENTER ON THE UPPER PENINSULA - In the 1840s, Benjamin Douglas andFélicité Dupuis brought their family from La Prairie, Quebec, to settlein Black Brook. One of their sons, Joseph, enlisted in the 96thInfantry in December 1861 as the regiment was forming in Plattsburgh. Hewas married to Marguerite Thibault in Keeseville in November 1861.He spent almost two years with the 96th before being transferred tothe Veteran Reserve Corps in early 1864. After leaving the Corps, hethen enlisted in the 95th Infantry in Plattsburgh in September 1864 asa substitute for his elder brother, David who was on the DraftRegistration Record of 1863. He got a county bounty of \$300 forenlisting.The 95th lost over 300 men in the fighting of 1864, and Joseph wassent with seventeen other men recruited in the Plattsburgh area to thePetersburg area. Their first battle was at Hatcher's Run at the end ofOctober. The battle was also known as the Battle of the Boydton PlankRoad, and they had one man injured and seven men captured. He heardabout the death of his brother, Henry, in Andersonville, in December1864, while he was in winter quarters at Brandy Station.The 95th fought at Hatcher's Run again in February 1865 and hadthirty-seven casualties including six resulting deaths. In March theyparticipated in the Appomattox Campaign and were there when General Leesurrendered.By 1870, Joseph, Marguerite and their two children had establishedthemselves on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and he supported hisfamily as a carpenter in the local mines.Joseph died in 1912 in Ishpeming, MI, and he was buried beside his wifewho had died of heart disease in 1904. His brother, David, for whom hehad substituted, died a year after him.
