After suffering from serious wounds at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on July 3, 1863 in what’s now called Pickett’s Charge, Captain Wells Waite Miller of the 8th OVI faced a long recovery. As the previous blog post in this saga shows, several months later, he still required medical care. On January 8, 1864, Miller received an honorable discharge from the U.S. Army. Clearly, he wasn’t in fighting shape. So what was next for this 21-year-old man? Invalid Corps On March 5, 1864 (just two weeks after his 22nd birthday), Miller was “allowed to appear before a Board of Officers at Indianapolis, Ind.

On July 3, 1863 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the U.S. (Union) and Confederate forces clashed, horrific fighting that served as the culmination of a three-day battle that many historians consider a turning point in the Civil War. In the the heat of the fierceness? Captain Wells Waite Miller. Slaughter at Gettysburg Nearly one in three men at Gettysburg suffered wounds or died in the fighting. More specifically: The United States forces lost 28 percent of their soldiers who were at Gettysburg while the Confederates lost more than 37 percent. Fatalities included 3,155 Union men and 3,903 Confederates. As far as injuries, 14,529

“ . . . a most barbarous massacre occurred at the head of Cold creek, now Castalia. There were living there at this time the families of Snow, Butler and Putnam, and a girl named Page. Snow had erected on Cold Creek, a grist mill in which he usually kept corn; this the Indians continued to steal in the night time. Snow, to stop this thieving, laid the boards of the floor leading from, the embankment to the mill in such a way, that when trod upon they would give way and let the Indians through. The Indians being caught

In the last installment, Amos and Emily (Graves) Miller had just lost three young children (Delia, Helen, and Amos) in a matter of weeks, probably to an epidemic. Shortly after that, Emily became pregnant with her last child: a baby boy they would name Wells Waite. He was born on February 20, 1842, carrying a family name; Emily’s sister Theda had married a man with the first name of “Wells” and the last name of “Waite.” More Loss in the Graves Family Although Amos and Emily were surely relieved when she, at the age of 40, survived yet another childbirth

On June 11, 1805, a baby named Amos was born to Revolutionary War veteran Aaron Miller, Jr. and his wife Bethiah (Dewey) Miller.  Aaron and Bethiah had gotten married on June 19, 1783 at the First Church of Pittsfield, located in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and this fruitful couple ultimately had twelve children. A daughter named Clarissa was born first on June 6, 1784 with Amos being the last child born—with seven sisters and three brothers born in between. Perhaps unusual for this era, ten of the twelve children lived to adulthood, including Amos, the father of Wells Waite Miller. More About