PATRICK and THOMAS CURTIS -- 153rd INFANTRYBOTH SURVIVED THE WAR - As the new 153rd Infantry was forming in thesummer of 1862, they recruited 88 men for Captain George McLaughlin'sCompany G from Mooers, Altona, Plattsburgh and Essex. Two of the menrecruited at the end of August were Patrick and Thomas Curtis, sons ofJames Curtis and Jane Martin who had come from Ireland in the early1840s to farm in Quebec. Their first few children, including Patrick andThomas, were born in Canada before they settled in the Mooers area.The regiment, with the 22-year-old captain of Company G, organized atFonda and there mustered into the U. S. service on Oct. 18, 1862, forthree years and left the same day for Washington. They were part of thedefenses of the capital, stationed at Alexandria as provost guard/During most of the year 1863, garrison and guard duty about the capital.For a while, Patrick was detailed to the City Jail in Alexandria.Transferred to the Department of the Gulf in early 1864 the regimenttook part in the Red River Campaign, meeting with 33 casualties atPleasant Hill in April, their first battle. After Mansura, thecommanding general warmly commended them for their bravery. In July1864, the regiment returned to Virginia and on their arrival atWashington, they were ordered into Maryland on the western outskirts ofthe District of Columbia to confront General Jubal Early. They thenfought in the Shenandoah Valley. The regiment continued to serve in theValley until April 1865, when thewy were ordered to Savannah, GA, didmore guard and provost duty before mustering out there on October 2,1865.The brothers returned to Clinton County, married, and continued to farmwith periods in Massachusetts to work or live with family. Patrick isburied in the Riverside Cemetery in Mooers. Thomas' family had amilitary stone sent to Mooers Forks cemetery when he died.
