PETER E. BLOW -- 153rd INFANTRYNEVER SAW A BATTLEFIELD - Peter E. Blow (Pierre Bleau) was the secondgeneration of his family born in Champlain. His grandparents PierreBleau and Théotiste Paulint travelled south from Chambly, Quebec, tosettle in the Coopersville area of Clinton County.In 1853, Peter married Marguerite Dumas in Coopersville and, by the timehe enlisted in the 153rd Infantry at the end of August in 1862, thecouple was living in the Ellenburg area and had at least two children.The 153rd was a new regiment that organized in Fonda, NY, with tencompanies. Peter was assigned to Captain Fred Chitty's Company K withmen from Ellenburg, Altona, Mooers and Queensbury, the county seat ofWarren County. He was mustered in as what was to be a group of seventyprivates, however, one refused to be mustered and two never showed up tobe mustered.As soon as they were organized, they left for Washington by train inmid-October to become part of General Abercrombie's Provisional Brigadeof the Military District of Washington. Through the end of February1864, the regiment served as provost guard and did garrison duty aroundAlexandria and Washington. On October 28, 1863, just a year afterarriving in the capital area, Peter was discharged for disability andreturned home. In total, his service was one year, one month andtwenty-five days.He applied for and received an Invalid's Pension starting in 1866 andreceived it for the next. Peter's widowed mother died in 1880 and thefamily moved to Michigan. Four years later, Marguerite died, and hemarried Celia Alexander in 1886. The Veterans Schedules of 1890 showthat he was living in Petoskey County, MI, near where Lake Michiganflows into Lake Huron, and suffering from a lung condition. By 1900, hehad retired from farming and he and Celia were living in Spokane, WA.Peter died in 1911, when he was 83 years old. His wife immediately filedfor a Widow's Pension and received it until she died in 1924. He
