JOSEPH WRENNIN AND OUT OF HOSPITAL - On October 10, 1861, a 5' 7" Irishman with grey eyes, dark brown hair and a dark complexion enlisted in the 9th Cavalry in Champlain. His name was Joseph Wrenn and he was born in Ireland in 1826. He was assigned to Company M with men from the Rouses Point area and additional men from Troy, Geneva and New York City. They left from Washington on November 26th, soon after the regiment formed in Albany.The regiment patrolled the capital and then were sent to Yorktown and then traveled up the Virginia Peninsula in 1862. In 1863, they had engagements every month in northern Virginia. They were in the Petersburg/Richmond area when Joseph was wounded severely in his left forearm which was subsequently amputated. He was discharged for disability on January 19, 1865 from Lincoln General Hospital in Washington, DC.After the war, Joseph returned to the North. By the time he was admitted for the first time to the Soldiers Home in March 1871, he was widowed and he gave his next of kin as his brother, Charles, who was in the U. S. Navy.Joseph was a difficult patient. In April 1871, he was readmitted to the home after he was drunk and absent without leave. After leaving the home he was readmitted for drunkenness in May 1862. He was in and out of the home for being absent without leave and being readmitted for being drunk, until he died in 1886. The last note in his medical history from the Soldiers Home in Milwaukee states -- Died in hospital -- January 21, 1886 -- Exhaustion from a debauch.
