Dear George

A Happy New Year to you and thank you for your Christmas card.

 

I have moved from Chicago and am now living in Hendersonville N.C. close to my sister who has not been well.

 

When I was getting ready to move I was rummaging through a few old trunks of my mother's and I found something that I think you should have. I would have sent it to Esther but you are a namesake of this George Curran, who is your father's brother. It is George Curran's Army discharge from the Civil War. In as much as we have kept it for 100 years I think your family can hold on to it for another 100 years. I know there are Currans in Chicago but your clan is closer and should have it, so I am enclosing it for you to dispose of as you see fit.

 

My mother and grandfather used to tell us some hair-raising tales about George's experiences and I will relate them to you on a separate paper.

 

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George Curran Enlisted Apr. 22, 1861 at Chicago.
was Discharged Mar. 8, 1864 at Greenland, W. Va.

George Curran enlisted in the 23rd Ill. Infantry-known as the Irish Brigade (Col. Mulligan's Irish Brigade). His Commander was Col. or General Meaghen & the Capt's name was Gleeson.

They fought at Antietam in 1862.
They fought at Vicksburg & Gettysburg.
They marched with Gen. Sherman from Atlanta to the sea.

While marching through Atlanta, they captured Conf. Troops, who were near starvation and who had lived on peanuts, which they had stolen thru the night, and they were carrying the peanuts in their knapsacks. They called these troops Gubber Grabbers (Peanut Eaters).

They fought at Gettysburg and, Col. Mulligan was injured on the battlefield, and the story as told to us was, that George Curran and a soldier named John Nugent carried Col. Mulligan off the field under heavy fire and that the Col. died in their arms. This John Nugent was related by marriage to Col. Mulligan.

George's regiment had a dog named Pinchie. Once when he had a furlough, he brought Pinchie back to Chicago with him and he gave my grandmother $7.50 which the regiment had collected to feed Pinchie and grandma said their order was steak every day for the dog. (I cannot imagine my grandmother spending $7.50 for Pinchie's steak.) After George and Pinchie returned to their regiment, Pinchie was shot and died during the Battle of Gettysburg and was buried on the field by the soldiers.

Grandpa said his sister volunteered as a nurse for the Confederate Army in Missouri and fell in love with a Union Army Capt, who had been injured and captured, and who she nursed back to health. The Confederates of Missouri were about to shoot her as a traitor. She got away somehow and later married him. I'm not sure if this was Sarah or Mary but I think the name was Drennan or something like that.

Grandpa said that your Grandfather was angry with George for enlisting with the North and there was bitterness for years after---with the result that your grandfather never visited Chicago after the Civil War. The story is that your Grandfather was wealthy and after the war, the Union Army would not redeem Conf. money and he was left with a trunk full of currency. Later called Shin Plasters. My mother used to tell us that when she visited your grandmother in St. Louis the children in the family played with the money. Too bad we did not have one of these bills, for a keep sake.

There is also part of a letter which was written by your grandfather to mine in 1880 in which he mentions James which I believe is your father.

I hope you do not think I'm off my rocker, relating all of this to you, but I felt you and yours should know something about their Yankee relations.

Hope you are well.

Regards

Bess Regan
Box 1465 Hendersonville

N.C.

Well all I can say is that we are a wonderful family and never ducked a fight.

Bess