Civil War Roundtable of the Merrimack November Meeting

Our Civil War Round Table of the Merrimack member, Clay Feeter, will present a very visual and rich talk about his great, great grand uncle Gilbert Brown who was lucky in battle... until he wasn't. 

A private in the renowned 8th NY "Rochester Regiment" Cavalry, Gilbert, enlisted in the Fall of 1861, leaving his small upstate New York town for the seat of war with two things weighing heavily on his mind. One was surviving the next three years, and the other was Calista Parker, the pregnant girlfriend he left behind.
Horses had not yet been procured, so Gilbert and his "cavalry" unit would fight their first engagement on foot. They were then part of the most daring cavalry maneuver of the Civil War: the regiment's under-the-cover-of-pitch-black-darkness escape from Harpers Ferry, which was surrounded on all sides by Stonewall Jackson's army. Gilbert survived the unit's heaviest day of losses at the Battle of Brandy Station, and was then part of Stoneman's ill-fated Union cavalry raid on Richmond, followed by the opening scenes at The Battle of Gettysburg under General John Buford.

Actively engaged throughout Grant's arduous 40-day Overland Campaign, Gilbert and the 8th NY met disaster during an overly ambitious Wilson-Kautz Raid on Rebel supply lines south of Petersburg, Virginia that would send many New York troopers to Andersonville.

My 2nd Great Grand Uncle Gilbert Brown was not one of those singular Civil War heroes, he was a 26-year old farmer who became a private who did his job. After years of researching him, his regiment, and the daughter he would never meet, I'm excited to tell you his story. -Clay