Bush, Lorenzo W.
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MILITARY SERVICE Age: 21, credited to Brookline, VT Unit(s): 9th VT INF Service: enl 8/24/64, m/i 8/24/64, Pvt, Co. K, 9th VT INF, m/o 6/13/65 See Legend for expansion of abbreviations VITALSBirth: 04/14/1844, Bernardston, MA Death: 11/30/1925 Burial: Riverside Cemetery, Brookline, VT Marker/Plot: Not recorded Gravestone photographer: Bob Edwards Findagrave Memorial #: 144021782 MORE INFORMATION Alias?: None noted Pension?: Yes, 12/23/1876 Portrait?: Unknown College?: Not Found Veterans Home?: Not Found (If there are state digraphs above, this soldier spent some time in a state or national soldiers' home in that state after the war) Remarks: None Webmaster's Note: If this soldier enlisted before 9/1/62, and was with the regiment on 9/13/62, he would have briefly been taken prisoner along with the entire regiment at Harper's Ferry. Read the unit's Organization and Service for details. DESCENDANTS 3rd Great Grandfather of Brud Sanderson, West Townshend, VT (Are you a descendant, but not listed? Register today) |
BURIAL: Copyright notice  Riverside Cemetery, Brookline, VT Check the cemetery for location/directions and other veterans who may be buried there. |
Biography
Lorenzo W. Bush was born in Bernardston, Mass., April 14, 1844, one of nine children, all boys, of Jacob and Sarah (Root) Bush. His fraternal twin brother Alonzo Bush, a private in the 8th Vermont Infantry is also included in this website. When Lorenzo was six years old, he moved with his family to Brookline, Vermont where he remained for the rest of his life. He attended school at the famous Round Schoolhouse in Brookline and helped his father in their apple orchard. Five of the Bush brothers served in Civil War Regiments and the sixth, Lorenzo's brother Wright was drafted in the state militia just after he was 18 and was sent to the Canadian border at the time of the St. Albans raid, serving there a few months.
Lorenzo enlisted in the Union Army, Company K, 9th Vermont Regiment on August 24, 1864 and served until the close of the war. He and his fellow recruits joined Company K just in time to participate in the battle of Chaffin's Bluff and the attack against Fort Gilmer. Lorenzo was slightly wounded on his left leg in this battle. He participated in the defense of Petersburg and in April on 1965, Lorenzo's company was one of the first to enter Richmond when this Confederate capital was occupied.
Toward the end of the war Lorenzo was on picket in the field near the Mechanicsville turnpike when he sustained a severe sunstroke. He was left for dead in the shade of a tree but that night he crawled on his hands and knees for two and a half miles to camp. For a year after he came home he was unable to do manual labor and never fully recovered from the sunstroke.
In his first letter home after enlisting, Lorenzo talks about his difficult night of sleep "on the soft side of a hard wood plank".
Windsor
Sept. 4, 1864
Dear Parents and friends at home,
You may perhaps wonder at this time where I am today. Well, I am yet in Windsor and a miserable hole it is too, for the people do not care anything about a soldier, but after all, we live first rate. I suppose that you would like to hear what our living has been since we came here. Well, it has been meat and bread for breakfast, bread and beef and coffee for dinner and the same for supper, but it is good enough and enough of it. I suppose you would like to know why we have not gone down to New Haven. I will tell you, it is because that we did not muster in until yesterday about 11 o'clock, and did not get our uniforms until about 2 o'clock, so we shall have to stay here until tomorrow noon, then I expect we shall have to start for New Haven. We should start before if the boys had all of them got their uniforms, but they have not. I took the last pair of pants that they had, and this morning I have had to mend them. I have sewed on all the buttons and sewed up a place where they ripped.
The first night we camped in the tavern hall without any blankets or anything whatever to put over or under us. I lay on the soft side of a hard wood plank. Did not sleep much. It is now roll call for breakfast and must stop to answer to my name.
We have breakfast a nine o'clock. Not a very early breakfast, is it? I don't think it is. We get pretty hungry but it does not do any good to whine. We camp now in the town hall, it is a good place. I slept first rate last night. Wish that we could have as good a place all the time but don't expect that we shall. Some of the boys are lying down and some are in the street and some are running around in the hall and making a great noise, and I cannot write very well. I am well and feel as well as I did when I was in Brookline, only I should like to see all of the folks down there in Brookline, but cannot for one long year if I live. The time seems short so far.
The Brookline boys are well Thomas [Crane] is writing a letter now to his folks. John [Barrett] is sitting still, waiting for his breakfast for it is not nine o'clock yet. It is half past eight now. We have the privilege of going where we are a mind to in the village, only report ourselves in the morning at seven and then at noon, then at eight in the evening.
Give my respects to all enquiring friends, tell them all that I am well and should like very much to see them all. You need not answer this letter until you hear from me again as I do not know for certainty how long we shall stay here, but most likely we shall go away tomorrow. I will not write any more this time, so good bye with much love to all.
This from your son,
Lorenzo W. Bush
Been to church today, about fifty of the boys went, had a good meeting. I will write again when we get to New Haven. Good bye.
Camp 9th. Vt. Vols
Near Richmond, Va.
May 12th, 1865
Dear Brother Frank,
Your kind letter of the 7th is at hand and now I will try and write you a few lines. I am well and tough as ever and I hope that these few lines will find you the same. We are still encamped about 2 miles south from the city of Richmond but I do not expect that we shall stay here a great while, for I expect that we shall have to start for Washington before many days.
The 2nd, 5th, 14th, 15th, 17th, and 20th Corps have already gone or at least have passed through the city of Richmond. General Sherman's army passed through the city yesterday so I had the honor of seeing General Sherman. He is a very good looking General but looks older than I had an idea he was. I should think that he was about sixty years old, (that is by his looks).
I also saw General Morgan and General Jeff C. Davis but it was not the one there has been a hundred thousand dollars offered for. He is a General in Sherman's army. The way that I happened to see them, this Corps had to go down to the city to escort them through.
We had a very heavy thunder shower last night, it rained very hard all night and it thundered awfully. It cleared off very cold, it was cold enough this morning so a fellow needed another coat on and gloves. It was so cold that I could not lay warm under two blankets, but the weather has moderated so that it is quite pleasant tonight. Well Frank, it is almost time for roll call and I guess that I will not write any more tonight. The drums are now beating so I must close and fall in and answer to my name. Will try and finish this tomorrow so good night. Lorenzo W. Bush
May 13th, 1865 Saturday Morning
Frank, how do you do this pleasant but cool morning, hope you are well. I am as well as usual this morning. I have just eaten my breakfast and I will tell you it was cod fish, hard tack, and coffee. How would you like such a breakfast?
Well I shant have to eat such meals a great many months longer anyway. I received a letter from Erastus last night. I some expect to be on guard today but do not know yet. You ask if there is any fighting down here now a days. No, Frank, there is not for there is no army to fight and I guess that the fighting has about played out and I think that the whole Southern Confederacy has gone up or has gone to some other place where it can't do much mischief. Yes, I think that the word "Peace" will go over the electric wire in a hurry, but the word or at least the thought of peace will never die away in the human heart, but it will on the electric wire.
I suppose that you have got all done plowing by this time haven't you and perhaps done planting. Well, Frank, I must close and get ready to go on guard, but I do not know whether I have to go on or not, but I must get ready anyway. How are all the folks in Brookline now? The Brookline boys are all as well as usual. Give my best respects to all enquiring friends and excuse mistakes and bad writing for the above letter has been written in a hurry and I guess you will think so when you come to read it.
Please write soon as you can and accept this from your ever true brother,
Lorenzo W. Bush
With much love to all. Write soon. Kindest wishes.
Contributed by Gary Cooper, Palm Springs, CA
Anniversary
The Vermont Journal, November 16, 1917
Celebrate Golden Wedding
Mr. and Mrs. Lorenzo W. Bush, prominent residents of Brookline, celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, November 6, beginning with a family dinner at which the complete family circle was present. They were remembered with several substantial tokens of esteem.
Mr. Bush represented Brookline in the legislature of 1900. He has been a justice of the peace for 30 years and clerk of the Baptist church 20 years. He has held nearly all town offices, all the offices of Birchard Post, G.A.R., served a term as junior vice-commander of the department of Vermont and is now serving his second term as chaplain of the department. He served in Company K, 9th Vermont regiment in the Civil war and was wounded at the Battle of Chapins Farm, Va.
In June, 1865, he suffered a sun stroke and was left on the field for dead but at night he crawled two and a half miles to camp. He was one of the first four of the Union troops to step foot into Richmond when the city was evacuated, being in the picket line of the 9th Regiment. He is a native of Bernardston, Mass., and since his saw mill and grist mill were washed away in the freshet of 1888 he has been a farmer.
Mrs. Bush, who was Anna S. Crane, is a native of South Newfane. She is treasurer of the Baptist church, president of the Ladies' society, president of Birchard Woman's Relief Corps, a state officer in the W. C. T. U and is a member of the executive board and former chaplain of the Vermont department of the W. R. C.
Contributed by Cathy Hoyt.
Obituary
LORENZO W. BUSH DIES
Was President of Windham County Veterans' Association - Funeral in Home at 1:30 Yesterday.
Lorenzo Wright Bush, 81, of Brookline, president of the Windham County Veterans' Association, who had held offices in the Vermont department, G. A. R., had attended several national encampments and was widely known in Grand Army circles, died in his home in Brookline about midnight Monday after a short illness with bronchial pneumonia.
He was born in Bernardston, Mass., April 14, 1844, one of the nine sons of Jacob and Sarah (Root) Bush. He moved with his parents in 1850 to Brookline, where he had since made his home. He bought the Vermont Spring farm, which he carried on.
On Aug. 24, 1864, Mr. Bush enlisted in Company K, 9th Vermont regiment, in the Civil War, and served until the close of the war. Five of Mr. Bush's brothers also served in the war, no two in the same regiment.
His marriage to Miss Anna S. Crane of Brookline occurred Nov. 6, 1867. They celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in1917. Mrs. Bush died May 2, 1923.
Mr. Bush laves three sons, Herbert A., chief engineer for the United States Envelope company, Springfield, Mass.; Edward L., who lived with his father; and George B. Bush, rural mail carrier in Newfane. He also leaves four grandchildren, Grace, wife of Delard Perry, daughter of Edward L. Bush; and G. Barrett and Bradford Bush, sons of George B. Bush. There are three great-grandchildren, Afina, Nola and Nona, daughters of Mr. And Mrs. Perry. He also leaves two brothers, John A. Bush of South Charleston, W. V., formerly of Bellows Falls, and Frank E. Bush of Denver, Col.
He held many town offices, being justice of the peace, lister, constable and representative to the state legislature in 1900.
Mr. Bush was almost a lifelong member of the Brookline Baptist church, of which he was the clerk for many years, also a deacon. He has held every office in the Birchard post, No. 65, G. A. R., of Newfane. He served as junior vice commander of the Department of Vermont, G. A. R., and served several terms as department chaplain. He was secretary of Company K and for several years was president of the Windham County Veterans' association, which held its annual meetings in Brattleboro.
The funeral was held yesterday at 1:30 o'clock in Brookline, Rev. H. P. Simpson of Townshend officiating. The burial was in Riverside cemetery.
Source: Vermont Phoenix, December 4, 1925.
Courtesy of Tom Boudreau.