JOSIAH H. ALLEN -- 192nd INFANTRYDIED ON WAY TO THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY - Until he was 19 years old, JosiahH. Allen lived on his father's farm in Peru. His parents, Isaac andEleanor Allen, had six children at the time, and it was only Josiah whoenlisted in the Army. On April 13, 1865, he enlisted in the 192ndInfantry in Plattsburgh, as one of the 130 men who had enlisted inFebruary, March and April. They were bound for the Shenandoah Valley aspart of the 3rd Provisional Division of the 2nd Brigade of the Armyof the Shenandoah under general Brigadier General Alfred Torbert who hadtaken over the command of Major General Philip Sheridan.Josiah was in the last group of men to be sent south by train. However,he became ill on the journey and ended up in hospital at Hart Island offthe coast of the Bronx. Hart Island had first been used as a trainingground for Civil War soldiers in 1864 and they were ferried back andforth to the island by a steamboat called the John Romer. The barracksbuilt there could house at least 2,000 troops at a time and included aninfirmary. The barracks were expanded in late 1864 so that it could room5,000 Confederate prisoners and included a hospital. Josiah was taken tothe hospital on the island where he died on April 30th -- 17 daysafter his enlistment.His record says he died of febris typhoides or typhus which is abacterial infection usually caught by eating food containing foodcontaminated with bacteria from feces or urine residue. Josiah's MusterRoll Abstract doesn't tell the whole story. It says he was mustered outwith his detachment at Hart Island on May 4, 1865.Josiah was taken back to the mainland by ferry and was buried in theCypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, which, in 1862, had dedicated 2acres of ground for the burial of Union soldiers. Through atranscription error, he was buried as I. A. Allen.In 1941 Cypress Hills was designated a National Cemetery. During theCivil War, unclaimed bodies of indigent solders were buried on theisland in soldiers' plots, but by 1941, they had been removed to CypressHills and other cemeteries. Today, Hart Island is used to bury indigentpeople and unclaimed bodies from New York City using prison labor.Recently, it has become the burial place of hundreds of unclaimed bodiesof people who have died in the COVID-19 epidemic. Because of theincrease in burials, a private contractor has replaced inmates from theNew York City Prison System that usually handled the individual burials.They are now buried in mass graves.By 1870, and after the loss of two of Josiah's younger siblings, Isaacand Eleanor moved West to farm, and are buried in the New RichmondCemetery in New Richmond, WI.
