1854 – Letter requesting assistance in acquiring a pension for the widow of a Georgia militiaman who claimed her husband died as the result of wounds while in federal military service
Milleville, Georgia: 1854. This one-page stampless folded letter is datelined “Clarksville, Habersham County, Georgia /July 10th, 1854.” It was sent by Jesse Sanford to Dr. John. R. Foster, postmaster, Millville, Cherokee County, Georgia. It bears a faint circular Clarksville postmark, dated July 12, and “Paid” handstamp in blue along with a manuscript “3” rate mark. In nice shape.
In this letter, Sanford asks for Foster’s assistance in verifying the military related death of Moses Mulkey. It reads in part:
“Moses Mulkey, who it is said, died of an injury or hurt, he received, whilst in the military service of the United states, on his ankle. I was informed, that you, with some other Doctor, was sent for, to cut off his leg, but when you saw it, you thought it to late; or from the opposition of some of the family; you did not cut it off: and it soon mortified and killed him. Please inform me what you know of this matter. I do not know where, or when he died, probably in Cherokee, Co Geo. He was Step father, to Solomon Dykes, who went to Florida, in Capt. Sutton’s company, [who] says he is acquainted with you. . ..“
A second document, “U.S., Army, Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914,” records that Mulkey enlisted in the elite U. S. Rifle Regiment when it was first activated in 1808, and served until he was discharged from active duty in 1813 due to a “fractured ankle.”. Item #010797
The “American Militia in the Frontier Wars, 1790-1796” database at ancestry.com identifies Moses Mulkey as a member of the Georgia militia who served in Lieutenant John Stonecypher’s Detachment at Fort Maurice Georgia in 1796, during the Oconee War, however his mortal wound occurred after that date as it notes he, along with the rest of the unit, departed on 26 December of that year.
A second document, “U.S., Army, Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914,” records that Mulkey enlisted in the elite U. S. Rifle Regiment when it was first activated in 1808, and served until he was discharged from active duty in 1813 due to a “fractured ankle.”
Although much of the U. S. Rifle Regiment served in the northern theater of the War of 1812, a large contingent that had originally been stationed in Savannah, Georgia, served at Fort Point Peter and St. Marys, Georgia until 1815. There they guarded the strategic international border with Spanish and British Florida and provided some support to American rebel units in their attempt to annex part of northeastern Florida during the so called ‘Patriot’ War. Mulkey’s injury would have occurred during this time. However, he did not die of sepsis at this time as his record would have indicated that instead of a discharge.
There is no record of Mulkey’s widow having received a pension.
A fascinating letter that highlights two little known and scarcely remembered early American conflicts in Georgia.
Price: $500.00