LUTHER WILKINS -- 2nd CAVALRY and 96th and 118th INFANTRYIN THREE REGIMENTS - When the 2nd Cavalry, the Harris Light Cavalry,formed in the fall of 1861, Luther Wilkins, son of George WashingtonWilkins and Amy Jaques, was one of its first volunteers. He was musteredinto the regiment on October 23rd and left almost right away forWashington. The regiment started with the Army of the Potomac and thenwas transferred to the Department of Rappahannock in the spring of 1862.On May 25, 1862, Luther was discharged for disability at Falmouth, onthe banks of the Rappahannock across the river from Fredericksburg.At the end of 1864, Luther enlisted in the 118th Infantry in BlackBrook and joined the regiment while they were in winter quarters atNewport News. He spent the next year in Company A, and in February 1865,found himself in hospital. Some how he was arrested for desertion, maybeto go home to get married, and \$30 was deducted from his pay tocompensate for his arrest and capture, before he was detached to the3rd Division XXIV Corps of the Army of the James as a butcher. Becausehe was a 3-year man, he was transferred to the 96th Infantry on June13, 1865 to complete his service and was finally mustered out at CityPoint, VA, on February 6, 1866.Luther returned to the North Country and his wife, Sarah Joy, who he hadmarried in April 1865. They had a family of six girls born between 1866and 1879. In 1876, he applied for and started receiving his Invalid'sPension based on his service in three regiments. By 1886, Sarah wasmarried to Moses Bashaw, who had also been in the 118th Infantry.In 1905, Luther was living with his nephew and his family in BlackBrook. He died five years later, in 1912, and was buried in the NorthJay Cemetery where one of his daughters, Abbie, was buried in 1872.Another daughter, Lydia Colby was buried in the same cemetery in 1957.Lydia had a son, Jack, who was killed in action in Italy on March 4,1945, who is buried in the Fairview Cemetery in Au Sable Forks.
