THEORDORE WINCHELL -- 83rd and 97th INFANTRY MOVED TO MINNESOTA FROM PLATTSBURGH - In 1863, twenty-five-year-old Theodore Winchell, who was living in Plattsburgh with his father, Martin, was drafted. It is noted on the 1863 draft registration list that he was a black man. His father came to Plattsburgh from Connecticut by way of Whitehall and Burlington after his wife died. Theodore enlisted in the 83rd Infantry in Plattsburgh and was mustered into Company I on July 7th. His Muster Roll abstract lists him as mulatto with black eyes, black hair and 5' 6½" tall. During July and August about 85 men from the Plattsburgh area joined the regiment. They went to the Army of the Potomac in Virginia a couple of months after the 83rd had sustained 82 casualties at Gettysburg. In November, the 83rd was in the Mine Run Campaign with their new recruits and had 29 captured in action. Their first engagement of 1864 was at The Wilderness where nine of their number were either killed in action, wounded or were taken south to die in Confederate prisons. After Spotsylvania in May and then Cold Harbor in June 1864, the 83rd was mustered out, but the 3-year men like Theodore, were transferred to the 97th Infantry who were alongsid them in the field. The 97th spent the rest of their service in the Petersburg area with the Army of the Potomac. After the Fall of Petersburg on April 2, 1865, Theodore was promoted to corporal on April 3rd. The regiment then chased Lee to Appomattox Court House where he surrendered on April 9th. The regiment returned to the Washington area and they mustered out a Ball's Crossroads, VA, on June 18th. By 1880, Theodore had married a girl from Franklin County, Jane Hayle, and they were living in Beaver Valley, MN. The 1890 Veterans Schedules show he was suffering from heart disease and a rupture in his stomach, however he lived for 40 more years and, in all the subsequent censuses, he is enumerated as being white. Jane died in 1911 and Theodore joined her in the Beaver Valley Cemetery in 1930.
