William Savage
3rd Great-grandfather of Tanya Savage
Private Co. B 23rd MI Infantry
Dates of Service: 11 Aug 1862 - 11 Dec 1863
William Savage was born in 1835 in Genessee Co., New York, the seventh child of William and Urania Simmons Savage. William Sr. was a native of Massachusetts and Urania of Maine. Both of young William's grandfathers had served in the Revolutionary War, and their families had deep New England roots. William and Urania married in Buffalo, Erie County, about 1818, and by 1819 resided in Batavia, Genessee Co., where over the next 26 years they had eleven children. Urania died in 1850, leaving six of her children still of minor age to be cared for by relatives. Young William, aged 14, and his brother Ansel, 17, went to work as laborers on a relative's farm in Pennsylvania. William Sr., widowed and without occupation, moved with his oldest son Isaac who had recently married to Livingston Co., Michigan. By 1860 most of the Savage siblings had followed Isaac and their father to Michigan, settling in Saginaw, Bay, Isabella and Genessee Counties.
On 31 Jan 1858, when he was 23 and she was 17, young William Savage married Lucy Ann Terry in Deerfield Twp., Livingston, Michigan. Two years later, on 15 Jan 1860, their first child Joel Leslie Savage was born in Genessee Co. When the 1860 Federal Census was counted, William's small family was enumerated in Taymouth Twp., Saginaw. On 11 Aug 1862, 27-year old William enlisted in Co. B 23rd Michigan Infantry at East Saginaw.
23rd MI Reg Roster
From Michigan in the War: 23rd Regiment Michigan Volunteer Infantry: "The 23rd left Saginaw the 18th of Sept. 1862 under the command of Colonel Chapin, proceeding at once to Kentucky, its muster rolls showing a force of 983 officers and men. Soon after its arrival, it was assigned to the Tenth Division of General Rosecrans' Army, then pushed forward to Bowling Green. While there a detachment of the Regiment was attacked by a superior force of Confederate guerrillas, but were repulsed….The 23rd remained at Bowling Green until May 29,1863, employed in guarding the trains. On the 31st of May they set out in the pursuit of Confederate General John Morgan's cavalry, then in the area. The 23rd proceeded with the pursuit to Glasgow, Tompkinsville, Munfordsville, Elizabethtown, then Louisville. They then proceeded into Ohio through Cincinnati, Portsmouth, Chilicothe, then to Paris, Kentucky, just in time to save a railroad bridge from destruction. On the 4th of August the Regiment proceeded to Lexington, Louisville, Lebanon thence to New Market….They were here assigned to the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division of the 23rd Corp. Leaving New Market they proceeded on the advance into Eastern Tennessee. During the first 2 weeks in November, the Regiment was in camp at Louden,Tennessee…."
The below letter was written by William's commanding officer, Capt. Henry Woodruff, to Lucy on 3 Jan 1864 from Knoxville to inform her of her husband's death. Although he mistakenly gave William's date of death as 11 Oct 1863, he reported that William was sent from Louden, Tennessee, on 16 Oct to Knoxville with the initial complaint of dysentery but that he succumbed to inflammation of the lungs, which the hospital surgeon later confirmed as pneumonia. [Letter from "Civil War Widows Pensions", fold3.com]
This image from Ancestry of the "US, Registers of Deaths of Volunteers, 1861-1865, Indiana S-Z" is from the ledgers created by the Adjutant General's Office of the returns of regimental losses and housed at the National Archives. Pvt. William Savage (2nd up from the bottom of the page) was somehow incorrectly recorded on the rolls of Indiana rather Michigan, but all the other facts support that he was the soldier from Co. B 23rd Michigan.
William was interred in the National Cemetery at Knoxville. This letter dated 20 Jan 1864 written by the clerk of the Hospital Steward informed Lucy that she "could find his grave at any time as it is marked with full name Regiment &c…" [Letter from "Civil War Widows Pensions", fold3.com]
In 1936, new headstones replaced the old Civil War grave markers in the National Cemetery at Knoxville.
On 15 Jan 1864, William's widow gave birth to their daughter, Adaline Williamette Savage.
Lucy filed for and received pension benefits for their two minor children.
On 25 Nov 1865 Lucy married Thomas Little in Tawas, Iosco Co., where both were residents. By 14 Jun 1866, when Lucy filed an affidavit and proof of guardianship for her children due to her name change, she stated that she was widowed again. One month later, on 19 Aug 1866, Lucy gave birth to a son Thomas Arthur Little.
By July 1870, when the federal census was taken, Lucy had remarried to a Canadian-born carpenter William A. Darling, fifteen years her senior. They lived in Grant, Iosco Co., with Lucy's three children. Together they had a son Daniel in 1873 and a daughter Minnie May in 1875. In 1880, the extended family all resided in Albee, Saginaw, Michigan, where William worked as a carpenter. Adeline "Addie" Savage married Harmon Drumm in the fall of 1880 and had four children within five years. In 1882 Joel Savage married Charlotte Lockhart and settled in Schoolcraft Co., Michigan, where they raised four children and spent the remainder of their lives. He died in 1942 at the age of 82.
Lucy and William Darling relocated in the 1890's to the Tacoma, Washington, area where Lucy died in 1896 and William in 1900.
ADDITIONAL SOURCES: Ancestry dot com; wikipedia; nps.gov; fold3; findagrave; Time-Life “The Civil War”
GRAVESITE: Knoxville National Cemetery, Knoxville, Knox County, Tennessee, USA
Written by Dorotha Simmons Piechocki, August 2020