Christmas A. Pichette

Name: Christmas A. Pichette Company: E Veteran; promoted Corporal March 19, 1865
Birth Date: December 1842 Place: Quebec, Canada	Mustered In Date: March 18, 1862 Rank: Private Age: 21(?)
Death Date: January 24, 1910 Place: Swift County, Minnesota	Mustered Out Date: September 6, 1865? Rank: Corporal Age: about 24(?) Residence following military service: Appleton, Swift County, Minnesota Vocation following military service: Blacksmith, Landlord

Christmas Pichette in the Civil War

Christmas Pichette was born December 1842 in Quebec, Canada and came to the United States in 1859. He served for 3 1/2 years in Company E of the 5th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Coming from Shakopee, Scott County, Minnesota, Pichette enlisted as a private on March 18, 1862. Company E participated in the Siege of Corinth, Mississippi (May 26-30, 1862), the Battle of Corinth (October 3-4, 1862), Grant's Central Mississippi Campaign (November 1862 to January 1863), and the Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi (May 18-July 4, 1863), and the Meridian Campaign (February 3-March 2, 1864), and the Red River Campaign (March 10-May 22, 1864) including the Battle of Pleasant Hill (April 9, 1864). On March 25, 1864, Pichette re-enlisted as a veteran. After a veterans furlough in the summer of 1864, Pichette returned south, rejoining Company E for an exhaustive march through Arkansas and Missouri in pursuit of Confederate General Price (September 17-November 15, 1864), the Battle of Nashville, Tennessee (December 15-16, 1864), and the Campaign against Mobile, Alabama and its Defenses (March 7 - April 12, 1865). He was promoted to Corporal on March 19, 1865, and probably discharged with the regiment on September 6, 1865.

On October 31, 1865, less than two months after his discharge, Christmas married Irish-born Mary in Ramsey County, Minnesota. She was 10 years his senior. In 1880 Christmas and Mary lived in Appleton, Swift County, Minnesota. He worked as a blacksmith, and they had one daughter living with them: Jennie, age 7.

About 1883, Christmas Pichette married Harriet N., born August 1848 in New Hampshire. At the time of the 1900 U.S. Census, 57-year-old Christmas and 51-year-old Harriet continued to live in Appleton. Pichette's occupation was listed as Landlord.

Christmas Pichette died January 24, 1910, in Swift County, Minnesota. In the census record for that year, Harriet N. Pichette is shown as a 61-year-old widow. She died on May 27, 1913 in Swift County.

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