Elihu Cole

Name: Elihu Cole Company: A Discharged for disability
Birth Date: March 1846 Place: Wisconsin	Mustered In Date: February 4, 1862 Rank: Private Age: 15 (19 in military records) Residence prior to military service: Wisconsin, Minnesota Vocation prior to military service:
Death Date: October 15, 1915 Place: Meeker County, Minnesota	Mustered Out Date: October 18, 1862 Rank: Private Age: 16 Residence following military service: Belgrade Township, Nicollet County, Minnesota (1870); Forest City, Meeker County, Minnesota (1880); Litchfield, Meeker County (1900) Vocation following military service: River Ferryman (1870), Laborer (1880), Farmer (1900)

Elihu Cole Biography and Civil War Narrative

Edwin "Elihu" Cole was born in March 1846 in Wisconsin, the son of John Mason and Mary Marina (Rogers) Coles. John was born June 28, 1815, in New York; Mary was born October 18, 1820, in Pennsylvania. John and Mary were married April 17, 1839, in Wisconsin. Elihu Cole's siblings included Wealthy Anna, Willard Mason, Elizabeth M., Mary Marina, Albert Royal (born about 1851), William (born April 1853), Caroline Maria (born March 1855). His father died November 5, 1854, in Wyocena, Columbia County, Wisconsin, when Elihu was eight years old. Elihu's mother Mary then moved to Minnesota with her younger children.

Elihu Cole enlisted in Company A of the Fifth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment on February 4, 1862. Company A (along with companies E through K) was sent south in May 1862, where they reported to General John Pope near Corinth, Mississippi, on May 24, and were attached to the 2nd Brigate, 2nd Division of the Army of Mississippi. They immediately were put to work, participating in the Siege of Corinth (May 26-30), including the Battle of Farmington on May 28 in which four of his Company were wounded. That same year they were also present at the Battle of Iuka, Mississippi (September 19; held in reserve) and the (2nd) Battle of Corinth (October 4). On October 18, 1862, Private Elihu Cole was discharged for disability.

Two and a half years later on March 7, 1865, reportedly at the age of 21, Elihu Cole re-enlisted in Company D of the First Battalion Minnesota Infantry Volunteers. The First Battalion was formed when the First Minnesota Infantry Regiment concluded its service on April 29, 1864, and was made up of veterans of the First Minnesota who had re-enlisted, recruits whose terms had not yet expired, and new recruits. When in December 1864 the battalion had been reduced to thirty some men present for duty, two officers and five enlisted men were sent to Minnesota on recruiting service. Elihu Cole's Company D (under the leadership of Captain Thomas N. Whetstone) arrived at Appomattox shortly after General Lee surrendered there. In June 1865 after having arrived in Washington, the First Battalion was ordered to Louisville, Kentucky and became part of Brigardier General Henry A. Morrow's Division of the Army of the Tennessee. The next month they were ordered to Minnesota where they were hospitably and joyously received at St. Paul. Elihu Cole was mustered out of the First Battalion at Fort Snelling on July 14-15, 1865.

Returning to Minnesota, Elihu married Mary E. (aka "Libbie") about 1866. Mary was born September 1841 in New York, the daughter of a father born in Maine and a mother born in England. At the time of the 1870 U. S. Census, Elihu and Mary Cole lived in Belgrade Township, Nicollet County, near Mankato. Elihu worked as a River Ferryman, presumably on the Minnesota River. Elihu and Mary had two children: a daughter Eudora (sp? age 3) and a son Edgar (age 1). Meanwhile, Elihu's mother Mary lived in Manannah Township, Meeker County, Minnesota, along with three of her children: Albert R. (age 19), William N. (age 17), and Caroline M. (age 15). Next door lived 23-year-old Lysander Taylor.

The 1880 census shows E. E. and Libbie Cole living in Forest City, Meeker County, Minnesota. Thirty-four year-old Elihu worked as a Laborer while 37-year-old Libbie kept house. They had four children: daughter Edna E. (age 13), son Edgar H. (age 11), daughter Lillian P. (age 8), and son Chas. B. R. (age 2 months, born in April 1880). Next door lived the Henry Rogers family--possibly relatives from Elihu's mother's family. Also living nearby was the Henry N. Herrick family. Herrick was a Minister who had served as a Private in Company A of the 5th Minnesota from March until June 1864, when he was promoted to Chaplain for the regiment, in which position he served until September 1865.

By 1900, Elihu (age 54) and Mary (age 58) Cole had moved into the town of Litchfield, Meeker County, Minnesota. Elihu worked as a farmer, and their 20-year-old son, Charles, who lived with them worked as a Day Laborer. Four years later, Elihu's wife, Mary E. Cole, died on June 10, 1904, in Meeker County, Minnesota. The 1910 census shows Elihu E. Cole living as a widower (age 67?) on Sibley Avenue in Litchfield, Minnesota. Later that same year, his mother Mary Marina Cole died on September 8, 1910, in Meeker County, about a month before her 90th birthday.

Edwin Elihu Cole died on October 23, 1915, in Meeker County, Minnesota.

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This page is maintained by Tim Bode (timbode@juno.com ). Page created on 9/21/2009. Last modified on 9/21/2009.