Willard P. Woolson (1811 - 1865)

Born 20 Jun 1811 in Herkimer, Herkimer, New York, United States

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 30 Jun 1865 at age 54 in Windom, Minnesota, United States

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Biography

Private Willard Woolson served in the United States Civil War.
Enlisted: 1861
Mustered out: 30 Jun 1865
Side: United States of America
Regiment(s): Fourth Regiment of the Minnesota Infantry

Private Willard Woolson Died of wounds in the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee during United States Civil War.

Willard P. Woolson was a Private in the Civil War, serving in the Fourth Regiment of the Minnesota Infantry, Union Army from 1861 to 1865. He died from wounds received in the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee. Fold3 has the following information regarding his death:

Willard Woolson was a carpenter in Water- town NY and apprenticed his son to this trade. The senior Woolson had, however, a second vocation. He was a musician in the band of a traveling circus. When President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers in 1861, the father and his fellow musicians enlisted as a body. When his family did not hear from him for more than a year, they traced him through Army records to a hospital in Minnesota. The younger Woolson and his mother undertook the difficult journey by Great Lakes boat and stage coach to Win- dom, where they found the father suffering from a leg wound received at the battle of Shiloh. Shortly after the family was reunited his leg had to be amputated and he died."

The article on his son, Albert, in the Civil War Saga has this amazing quote:

“One day father and I went to the capitol building at Albany, N.Y. There was a meeting there and one man was tall, had large bony hands. It was old Uncle Abe, and he talked about human slavery…When I was nine years old, I went in with my father to Ford’s Theater. Two brothers, actors on the stage, the youngest one is the one that shot Lincoln, later on. We were that evening at the theater, the first time I was in there. About a week later, one evening, the President of the United States and his wife were sitting in the audience, and he walked up and shot him right through the back of the head. He lived about three, four hours…Poor old Abe.”

Sources

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K6QK-1HQ

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F9TT-LYC

https://www.fold3.com/page/632602592/willard-p-woolson/stories

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Woolson