Company D, 4th Regiment Minnesota Infantry Volunteers (Martin L. Webb I & George W. Van Syckle)
Compiled by Jonathan Webb Deiss, 2001
Martin Luther Webb undoubtedly saw his older brother Lester leave to join the ranks of the Goodhue County Company of the 1st Regiment Minnesota Volunteers in April of 1861. He was too young to join the Goodhue volunteers and must have yearned to join the gallant men as they marched off to fight. By October it is certain that he was not able to stay at home any longer and obtained permission to join the same company and regiment as his brother in law George W. Van Syckle, who had married Martin’s sister Eliza in 1859. George was older and it seems likely that Martin’s parents agreed to allow him to join considering that George would be there to look after him.
Martin was still too young though and had to obtain a note of consent from his parents giving him permission. Martin was 16 years 6 months and 4 days old when he enlisted on 6 October 1861 into Captain Inman’s company, and he was likely the youngest man in his company. Martin was tall and fit, so the surgeons admitted him and he was mustered 10 October 1861 at Fort Snelling, Minnesota.
Shortly after or possibly during the Battle of Iuka, Martin was assigned to duty with 11th Independent Battery Ohio Light Artillery (under Lieutenant Cyrus Sears, CMH). This seems natural as Martin was born in Ohio and it may have been ‘appropriate’ at the time to assign him to an Ohio unit; also the fact that the 4th reinforced the 11th’s position at the battle lends more credibility.
He served on
detached service with the Battery until it completed it’s term of service and
he was discharged and transferred back to 4th Regiment Minnesota Infantry 15
August 1864 to finish his last two months of his three year enlistment. Ironically, although he had weathered the
entire war without a single significant wound, his term tainted only by
illness, he was wounded by gunshot wound to the left shoulder or upper arm at
Allatoona Pass, Georgia on 5 October 1864, six days before his discharge date,
while engaged against 35th and 39th Regiments Mississippi Infantry as they
attacked the fortifications. He
mustered out, 11 October 1864, at Allatoona, Georgia (likely in hospital there
or nearby), returned to Fort Snelling, Minnesota. It was there that he volunteered
for Company A, 9th Regiment U.S. Volunteer Veterans Infantry on 10 March 1865,
mustered in 11 March 1865 and served his one-year term in the Quarter-Master’s
Office in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was
discharged and mustered out, 9 March 1866.
Notes : His Compiled Service Record is extensive and contains many
useful documents and a great deal of intriguing information. A considerable disappointment and stumbling
block in my research is the fact that the National Archives has, by their own
account, mislaid his pension file. He
applied for an Invalid's Pension, filed in Minnesota 27 April 1889 (Appl #
701802, Cert # 488848). His widow
applied for a Widows Pension, filed in Oregon 11 August 1923 (Appl # 1209.374,
Cert # 946521). Three in-person requests
for the documents have resulted in a ‘File not found’ response. NEW (September 2001)
– Ok, so I’m an idiot. Nat’l Archives
never had the file; it is held by the Department of Veterans Affairs at a
regional office somewhere. Each time
before when I requested the file, I failed
to include an extra filing number included in the Microfilmed index; so
they could not even tell me they didn’t have it. Anyhow, I have to apply to the VA for the file. NEW (October 2001) –
I have filed a FOIA request with the VA, so now its only a matter of waiting
for a reply.
Carte de visite
image of Private
Martin Luther Webb in the uniform of the 11th Independent Battery Ohio Light Artillery.
(more images pending)
Sources :
Brown, Alonzo L. History of the Fourth Regiment of Minnesota Infantry Volunteers during the Great Rebellion 1861-1865. The Pioneer Press Company. St. Paul, Minnesota. 1892. Reprinted by Higginson Book Co., 2001.
Catton, Bruce. The Army of the Potomac. Mr. Lincoln's Army.
Doubleday & Company. Garden City, New York. 1951
Catton, Bruce. The Army of the Potomac. Glory Road. Doubleday & Company. Garden City, New York. 1951
Dyer, Frederick H., Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, compiled and arranged from official records of the Federal and Confederate armies. Dyer Publishing Company. Des Moines, Iowa 1905. Courtesy of the U.S. Military History Institute, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Located online http://carlisle-www.army.mil/usamhi/DL/
Webb, Loren. Diary of Captain Loren Webb, 1861 - 1863, Firelands Historical Society. Norwalk, Ohio. 1995. Transcribed by Matthew L. Burr.
Service Record of George W. Van Syckle, Co. D, 4th Reg't Minnesota Infantry, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC. Compiled 1890's, viewed February 2001.
Service Record of Private Martin L. Webb, Company D, 4th Reg't Minnesota Infantry, National Archives & Records Administration, Washington, DC. Compiled 1894, reviewed 2001. *includes cards for regimental returns from 11th Independent Battery Ohio Light Artillery.
