A Stanton Family Combat Death 158 Years Past

   

Remembering today the loss of a military hero and gallant American Civil War Veteran, our distant cousin Private Jay Cady Stanton. Jay was born March 23, 1828, in Middleburgh, Schoharie County, New York, the third son of eleven children to the prominent Middleburgh farm family of Mr. Freeman and Mrs. Maria (Lawyer) Stanton. Jay apparently never found the right lady to marry.

On October 15, 1861, Jay was moved to answer President Lincoln's call for Civil War federal military volunteers to help suppress the expanding southern state's rebellion. The aged 31 Jay Stanton enlisted in the U.S. Army, with Captain A.L. Swan's Company H, 76th Infantry Regiment of the New York State Volunteers. The 76^th New York is also remembered as the Otsego County Regiment, the Cherry Valley Regiment, or the Cortland Regiment, and was officially mustered into federal service on January 16, 1862. The regiment was first commanded by Colonel Nelson W. Green of Cortland, New York.

As a union combat infantryman, Private Jay Stanton was mortally-wounded-in-action (MWIA) on August 28, 1862, when his unit engaged rebel forces during the Battle of Gainsville, Virginia. The 76^th New York Regiment was then assigned to the 2^nd Brigade, 1^st Division, 1^st Corps, Army of the Potomac. The Gainsville fighting is the leading-edge action of the poor union generalship (General Pope's Campaign) and significant rebel victory during the larger Second Battle of Bull Run fiasco.

Jay died shortly after that August 28^th day in a Union field hospital. It was not uncommon for MWIA or KIA Civil War soldiers to be buried in shallow graves near locations where they fell. Dealing with deceased soldiers after one of these Civil War battles had to be tragically overwhelming -- and national cemeteries were only an afterthought early in that war. But Jay's remains were brought home by his loving family and interred in September 1862 at his hometown Middleburgh Cemetery, Middleburgh, New York, USA.

Rest In Peace Private Jay Cady Stanton,

New York State Volunteers.