JOSEPH SURRELL -- 96th and 118th INFANTRYIN THE MILITARY FOR 10 MONTHS AFTER LEE'S SURRENDER - Nineteen-year-oldJoseph Surrell enlisted in the 118th Infantry on February 10, 1864. Likemany soldiers who enlisted in Clinton County, his parents were born inQuebec. Joseph was born 3 years after his mother and father, Marie-HelenBoucher and Joseph Sorell, were married in Plattsburgh in 1843. The 118th had been in the Washington area during 1862, and then innorthern Virginia in 1863. In the spring and summer of 1864, theregiment fought in and around the Petersburg/Richmond area. The 3-daybattle at Drewry's Bluff garnered 55 deaths. Then they went on to ColdHarbor and 2nd Fair Oaks. They ended the year with 473 casualtiesincluding 58 men killed in action, 43 mortally wounded 232 wounded and144 missing or captured. After winter quarters they went to Petersburgand they were there for its fall on April 2, 1865.Due to the consolidation of regiments after the war, Joseph wastransferred to the 96th Infantry on June 12, 1865. He was with them for7 months before he was mustered out on February 6, 1866, at City Point,VA.Joseph returned home, married, Olive, and started receiving an Invalid'spension in 1867. He was a member of the Charles H. Bentley G. A. R. Post659, until he died on March 20, 1903. He is buried in the Old St.Alexander's Cemetery in Morrisonville.The Plattsburgh Daily Press of March 27, 1903, contains this obituary -\"The remains of Joseph Sorrell, Jr., who died on March 20, in Cohoes,were brought to his old home in Morrisonville, on Monday the 23rd forburial. He was a veteran of the Civil War, serving as a private inCompany H, 118th Regiment NY Volunteers, participating in manyengagements. During the Battle Drury\'s Bluff, he received 3 gunshotwounds in the eye, hip and side, destroying the site of one eye, andcarrying one of the bullets in his side for life, which evidently wasthe cause of his death. His wife, 12 children and his father survivehim - his father being 90 years old.\"
