Walter S. Niles

Walter S. Niles was born in 1842 and was a native of New York. At the time of the Civil War, His family had a farm in Lexington, Michigan. Walter was working the Lexington area as a "laborer" possibly helping his parents, possible working as a hired hand. In any event, Walter decided to the 24th Michigan, the "Detroit and Wayne County Regiment". This is very unusual since Lexington is in Sanilac County, about 90 miles north of Detroit.

Walter S. Niles enlisted in company A on August 4, 1862 at Detroit. He was 20 years old. For the moment most of his early service remains a mystery. He was wounded on July 1, 1863 during the first days fighting at Gettysburg. O.B. Curtis indicates that he was wounded in the "bowels". His daughter recounts that he was wounded much higher in the chest. His wound was severe. A Confederate surgeon removed the bullet and dressed his wounds. The surgeon gave Walter the bullet that he removed. This somewhat grisly souvenir is still extant is and is in the collections of the Sanilac County Historical Museum.

There wasn't much comfort for the wounded soldiers. Many of his possessions were taken from him. It is easy to understand why some barefoot Johnnie would take his shoes; taking his Hardee hat, though was probably pure site. Although potentially a prisoner of war, the retreating confederate army left most of their prisoners behind. Walter was eventually sent to one of the large hospitals in the Washington D. C. area.

His wound prevented Walter from returning to filed duty with his regiment. He was transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps on August 3, 1864. He remained in Washington for some time, at least a year. He may have been assigned to Camp Convalescent, also known as "Camp Misery" to regain his health. His letters indicate that Niles was pressed into service in the fortifications of Washington during Jubal Early's raid on Washington in 1864 and apparently witnessed the famous scene on July 12, 1864 where Lincoln was ordered off the parapets because he made an appealing target. Walter Niles ended the war as a guard at the infamous POW camp at Elmira, New York. He was finally discharged on July 14, 1865.

After the war Niles returned to Sanilac County, eventually acquiring a farm in Croswell, a few short miles west of Lexington. He married a woman named Martha, 13 years his junior. Walter S. Niles died in 1923. He is buried in the Croswell Cemetery.

The Sanilac County Historical Museum has a series of letters sent home by Walter and his friend John C. Coy, another Lexington boy. The letters discuss army and hospital life, but--interestingly--do not contain detailed descriptions of battles. Niles was an active correspondent to his family in Michigan until a couple of days before Gettysburg, and he resumes on July 6, when he is recuperating in the field hospital located temporarily in McPherson's Barn. Naturally, many of the letters deal primarily with Niles' recovery from his wounds.

The following excerpt is taken from Twice Told Tales of Michigan and Her Soldiers in the Civil War, p. 30-31.

A Souvenir

Walter S. Niles, son of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel C. Niles of Croswell, enlisted at the age of twenty in Company A of the Twenty-Fourth Michigan Infantry, the regiment which later became a unit of the famous Iron Brigade.

Niles remembered that as the regiment went into battle at Gettysburg the fifes and drums were playing "The Campbells are Coming." and that as they came to the front the boys shouted "We have come to sat." And they stayed with such valor that they left seven distinct rows of dead and wounded. Three-fourths of them were struck down.

Niles was wounded on the first day, a bullet passing through his body just below the heart and lodging under the skin of his back. A Confederate surgeon removed the bullet as he lay on the porch of a house on the battlefield, and gave it to the boy, advising him to keep it as a souvenir. Niles thought then that it was a poor souvenir, yet he managed to hold on to it through the three days that he lay on the field while the battle raged on. The Confederates, short on supplies, took his hat shoes and musket but they left him his canteen. He regretted most the loss of his black hat with the black plumes that was the distinguishing marl of his regiment. They were called the "Black Hats".

After the battle, Niles still holding on to his bullet, was sent to the great hospitals at Washington and Philadelphia. Somewhere along he decided the bullet was a worthy souvenir and he sent it home to his parents. When recovered he served out his enlistment as a guard at a camp for Confederate prisoners at Elmira, New York. He lived on his farm at Croswell until he died at the age of eighty-one years, on October 27, 1923. His daughter, who wrote this story, still treasures the bullet bearing on its surface the scratches it received when it tore through the young soldier's ribs.

- Mrs. Charles W. Corry

Some information for this biography was provided by Walter's distant Relative: Ronald Scott SCOTRR@bracepatt.com