Three Veterans

CDV by Hurlbut, West Greenville, PA

period pencil inscription on back

Mark L. Weastcott

David Minnis

C. N. Failes

Sarah Jane Westcott

Anna L. Failes

 

At first glance this carte de visite appears to be an ordinary photo of a small group of family or friends. Additional research reveals some exciting details as well as a minor mystery. On its face, the photo shows three young men and two women, all in civilian clothing. These people are identified in pencil on the reverse as Mark L. Weastcott (sic), David Minnis, C. N. Failes, Sarah Jane Westcott, and Anna L. Failes. Unfortunately there is no indication which name on the reverse of the photo corresponds to each person of the front. The photo was taken by Hurlbut, in West Greenville, Pennsylvania.

 

A preliminary search of the National Park's online Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Database revealed that all three men served in the Union Army from Pennsylvania: Mark Westcott and David Minnis in the 57th PA, and C. N. Failes in the 141st PA Infantry. Further research showed that Westcott was actually a common misspelled version of Westcoatt's actual name by omitting the "a", and that a typo on the website mistakenly identified Failes' unit as the 141st PA -- it actually was the 140th PA. But I still did not know who on the CDV was who.

 

I found the Westcoatt family in Trumbull County Ohio in 1850, Mercer County Pennsylvania in 1860 and Johnson County Iowa in 1870. The parents were Oliver P and Christiana Westcoatt. The children in the family were, in order of age Mary, Mark, Ann, Ezra, Amanda, John, Ida, Oliver Jr., William and Ambrose. Birth years ranged from about 1842 for Mary down to 1868 for Ambrose. The Minnis family showed up in Mercer County Pennsylvania in 1850, 1860 and 1870. The parents were Samuel and Narcissa Minnis. The children here were, in order, David born in 1844, William, John, Cynthia, James, Clara and Mary born in 1863. I had no such luck for finding census records for Failes or his family until he shows up in the 1880 census as head of his own household.

 

Next, I tried to put a name to a specific face on the photo. Through military records, I discovered that C. N. Failes was Caleb N. Failes and he was born in 1840. Westcoatt was born about 1843 and Minnis in 1844. So Failes was the oldest of the men by 3 or 4 years. That was clue number one. Next I noticed that one of the men appeared to be wearing what looks like a diamond shaped pin with a second circular pin and ribbon below it. This could be a Third Corps badge with a round ID tag hanging below it. Regardless of the nature of the lower pin, the upper one clearly reminds me of the diamond shaped lozenge used by the Third Corps. This was clue number two. Lastly, on close inspection, I could not decide if there was a photographic defect showing up on the cheek of the man on the left, or if the blemish was actually a scar. This was clue number three.

 

A trip to the National Archives in Washington, DC allowed me to pull the military, medical and pension records of all three men. (All three men's military biographies are presented in more detail below.) Here I learned that Failes did not serve in the 141st PA as I had been led to believe, but in the 140th PA instead. The 140th PA was assigned to the 5th Corps for the first few months, and then was transferred to the 2nd Corps. Failes thus did not seem to be a candidate for the man wearing the diamond shaped pin. But the 57th PA was part of the 3rd Corps at the time the other two men enlisted in February 1864. Even though the regiment was soon transferred out of the 3rd Corps, it is reasonable to assume that a new recruit could have been talked into buying an ID pin and corps badge before the transfer was announced. Therefore the man standing at the rear could be either Minnis or Westcoatt. The final piece of the puzzle fell into place when the medical and pension records for Westcoatt revealed that he had indeed been shot in the face, and was left with a rather large scar on his right cheek, matching what appears in the photo of the clean-shaven man seated on the left. Therefore, by process of elimination I have tentatively identified the three men in the photo as Mark Westcoatt seated at left, David Minnis standing in rear with lapel pin, and Caleb Failes, the oldest of the three, wearing a beard and seated in front.

 

The only times when all three men could have been together in West Greenville, Pennsylvania where the photo was taken, would have been either before August 1862 when C. N. Failes enlisted, or after June 1865 when all three men were discharged. At no time during their military service were all three men listed as absent at the same time. The presence of Westcoatt's scar and the Third Corps Badge worn by Minnis places this image in the post war period. The lack of a tax stamp on the reverse of the photo may further indicate that it was taken after August 1866 when the tax was repealed. However there is a faint stain that may be the result of a former tax stamp affixed to the back thus possibly dating this to the period 1864-1866, or it could just be the mark of a stamp on an adjoining CDV while held back to back in an album.

 

While I have an idea who the men in the photo are, I still have no clue as to the women. It is clear from the records than neither woman was a wife of Mark Westcoatt or C. N. Failes. Anna Failes might very well be a sister of C. N. Failes. Indeed, the woman sitting in the center seems to have a bit of a resemblance to the man with the goatee that I suspect is Failes, but so far I have found no census records for the Failes family prior to the Civil War. Sarah Jane Westcott remains a mystery. Her name does not correspond to any of Mark's sisters as listed in the census records for the Wesctoatt family. Although the woman at left bears a striking resemblance to the man sitting in front of her whom I believe is Mark Westcoatt I have not been able to figure out who she is. There is also the possibility that the first and last names of the women were inadvertently switched by whoever wrote the names on the back of the card. In that case, Ann L. could be Anna the sister of Mark L. Westcoatt, and Sarah Jane could be somehow related to C. N. Failes.

 

Military Biographies

 

Caleb N. Failes (1840-1921)

 

Caleb N. Failes was born October 22, 1840 in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. On August 15, 1862 he enlisted at Mercer County for 3 years in Company B, 140th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. This regiment was assigned to the 5th Army Corps until December 1862, at which time it was transferred to the 2nd Army Corps. The new regiment was ordered to join the Army of the Potomac in the field, and reached Aquia Creek, Virginia on December 15, 1862. But Failes failed to make it that far. On December 10, he had been sent from the hospital camp at Seward, Maryland to the U.S. Army General Hospital at York, Pennsylvania suffering from Typhoid Fever. Luckily he recovered enough to be returned to duty on February 11, 1863. His health did not last long, however, and on April 10 he was back in the regimental hospital and for the next two weeks he is listed as variously suffering from diarrhea, bronchitis, pains and rheumatism. Then, on April 21, 1863 he was admitted to the hospital of the 1st Division, 2nd Army Corps, Army of the Potomac near Falmouth, Virginia due to "Continued Fever." From there, on June 14, 1863 he was transferred to Carver U.S. Army General Hospital in Washington, DC and was finally returned to duty on August 8. Thus he missed the early fighting of his regiment at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg.

 

By the fall of 1863 it appears Caleb Failes had finally kicked the sick bug. He was back in the ranks for the advance on the Rappahannock in late 1863 and for the spring campaign in early 1864. The 140th PA fought its way through from the Wilderness to Petersburg. By this time the regiment's effective strength was down to about 150 enlisted men, with companies that once numbered 100 men reduced to little bands of 10 or 12 now clustered around a tattered and powder-grimed stand of colors.

 

In the June 18, 1864 attack on Petersburg Failes was wounded in action when he was felled by a large piece of artillery shell. The metal fragment must have been nearly spent because it bounced off his right shoulder rather than perforate his body. Failes was evacuated from the battlefield, and with nearly 600 other wounded was packed onto the steamer Connecticut to be transferred to the Division Number 1 U.S.A. General Hospital at Annapolis, Maryland where he was admitted on June 20. The wound was diagnosed as a "contusion of the right shoulder caused by a piece of shell" and the medical records indicate that it "Requires no treatment." But in those days before x-rays and MRIs, there may well have been internal bone or ligament damage, because it took a very long time for the injury to heal and for him to regain useful movement and strength in his right arm. On July 3, 1864 Failes was transferred from Division No. 1 Hospital to the General Hospital at Camp Parole, just outside the city of Annapolis, where he remained for some time, still listed as suffering from a gunshot wound of the right shoulder. He was granted a two-week furlough on October 31, 1864, presumably to visit his home, and was readmitted to Camp Parole Hospital from furlough on Nov 14, 1864. He was again granted a furlough on January 6, 1865, this time for 30 days, and "Returned on time" by February 3.

 

The 140th PA had finished out the war at Appomattox Court House and returned to Washington, DC in May 1865. Its members were mustered out of the army at Alexandria, Virginia on May 31. But Caleb Failes was still recuperating in the hospital at Annapolis at that time and missed the regimental discharge. He received his individual muster out at Annapolis on June 8, 1865. Discharged from the service, he returned home to Pennsylvania. About two years later, in 1867 he married Mary C. ("Lottie") Unger and the couple raised several children. Caleb N. Failes died on December 15, 1921 at Warren, Ohio.

 

Mark L. Wesctoatt (~1843-1902) & David A. Minnis (1844-1919)

 

Mark L. Westcoatt was listed as 20 years old and a laborer when he enlisted in Company B, 57th PA Infantry at West Greenville, Mercer County, Pennsylvania, on February 10, 1864. This was the same company in which his father, Oliver P. Westcoatt, had enlisted on October 21, 1861. At the time, the elder Westcoatt had given his occupation as a blacksmith and his age as 44 (one year below maximum military draft age). In the spring of 1862 Oliver was detailed as an ordnance guard. But army life was hard on the older man, and he was given a disability discharge for being "debilitated" while at White's Ford, Maryland, on October 28, 1862. Although only one year had elapsed since Oliver's enlistment, his age as listed in army records had inexplicably advanced from 44 to 51 years old. In early 1864, the veterans of the regiment came home on furlough and apparently took the opportunity to enlist new recruits, and among the new enlistees was Mark Westcoatt. Perhaps the younger man wanted to follow the example of his father, or maybe he felt the need to redeem the family's honor after his father's discharge. Mark Westcoatt was described as six feet tall with dark hair and dark or hazel eyes.

 

David Andrew Minnis was born on September 26, 1844 in Sheakleyville, Mercer County, Pennsylvania. He was 19 and a farmer when he enlisted just two days after Mark Westcoatt in the same company on February 12, 1864. Minnis was described as 5 feet 8 inches tall with gray eyes and light hair. Both men had signed on for a three-year term of enlistment and were mustered into Federal service with the 57th PA Infantry on March 1, 1864. The 57th PA had been part of the 3rd Army Corps up till now, but in March 1864 it was transferred to the 2nd Army Corps.

 

In early March the veterans and new recruits arrived in Virginia in preparation of the spring campaign. The new men would presumably have been given cursory military instruction in an attempt to bring them up to speed with the veterans. It would have been a tough introduction to life in the field for the new men, but within 60 days the regiment would be thrown into the meat grinder of combat at the Wilderness. David Minnis survived the battle unscathed. But in this, his first fight, Mark Westcoatt was seriously wounded. The regimental casualty sheet noted Westcoatt received a gunshot wound of the face on May 5, 1864. He was hit by a .58 caliber minie ball that struck "him in left cheek passing through & knocking out ten of his teeth, the ball coming out at the right side. Said shot fired by the enemy." Had the bullet hit him two inches behind and above, it would have penetrated his temple and killed him instantly.

 

Westcoatt was evacuated from the field and admitted to Stanton U.S. Army General Hospital in Washington, DC, on May 11, 1864. His treatment consisted of a "water dressing" in which the bandages were kept wet in the belief that it promoted healing. He was diagnosed with a gunshot wound to the face with fractured upper jaw. In fact, the front portion of his upper jawbone was completely missing. The bullet "passed latterly through the face carrying away the incisors canine & bicuspid teeth together with the alveolar process of superior maxillary bone. Ball entered left cheek just in front and below malar bone, making its exit at same point in right cheek." Not surprisingly, after blasting its way through his face and carrying away a large chunk of bone and several teeth with it, the bullet tore a much bigger hole on its exit through the right cheek than when it entered on the left side. Westcoatt had "a small round scar (of entrance) upon the left side of face a little posterior to the angle of the mouth: a large stellate scar upon the right side of face into angle of mouth and upward and back 2 1/2 inches and again back and down about the same distance." In all, Westcoatt lost all of his upper teeth "except two molars and the wisdom tooth on the left side and one molar and the wisdom tooth on the right side," either because they and the bone supporting them were directly carried away by the bullet or as a result of being loosened by the shock.

 

After a couple of weeks at Stanton Hospital, Westcoatt was transferred on May 27 to Saterlee U.S. Army General Hospital in West Philadelphia, being admitted there on May 28, 1864. It took six months of convalescence, but Westcoatt, although somewhat impaired in eating and chewing, was returned to duty with his regiment on November 26, 1864.

 

Meanwhile David Minnis survived the brutal fighting in Virginia through the spring and summer of 1864 before the 57th PA settled in for the siege of Petersburg. But life in the trenches was not healthy for other reasons besides enemy bullets. On September 29, 1864 Minnis was admitted to the 3rd Division Depot Field Hospital, 2nd Army Corps, Army of the Potomac due to remittent fever. On October 4, 1864, he was sent on to an army general hospital and arrived at the U.S. Army General Hospital at Beverly, New Jersey on October 7. Two months later, on December 3, 1864, Minnis was transferred to the U.S.A. Gen Hospital at 16th and Filbert Streets in Philadelphia with what was described as "Functional Cardiac Disorder." He too was eventually returned to duty with the 57th PA, arriving back with his regiment on February 8, 1865. The regiment was present at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865 when Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. David Minnis was promoted to corporal on May 1, 1865. And the regiment marched to Washington, DC and did duty at Alexandria until the men were mustered out on June 29, 1865. With the war over, the government no longer needed thousands stands of arms and the former soldiers were allowed to purchase their weapons and take them home with them. David Minnis apparently decided to keep his army issued musket and accouterments in exchange for a $6 stoppage of his pay "for gun and equipment." He returned home to Salem Township, PA and became a boot and shoe maker.

 

Many years after the war, about 1885, David Minnis married Mary Elizabeth Porter who was about 22 years younger than him. In fact she would not even be born until 1867, almost two years after he was discharged from the army. David Minnis died October 4, 1919 at Franklin, Venango County, Pennsylvania. He was 55. His widow lived until 1954.

 

Mark Westcoatt moved to Scott Township, Johnson County, Iowa after the war with his parents and siblings. A few years later, he had moved out of his parent's home and shows up in the 1870 census as a 26 year old farmer living with Caroline Westcott, age 25, and Helen S. Westcott, age 2. However, ten yeas later he appears in the 1880 census at a boarding house in Cedar Township, Benton County, Iowa and is listed as single and a laborer. This raises the question, who were Caroline and Helen, and what happened to them?

 

Mark lived for a time in Mt. Auburn, Barton County, Iowa. The 1885 Iowa state census shows Mark living with his mother and his youngest brother, William Westcoatt, who was about 20 years younger than him.

 

Wescoatt's pension records indicate that he continued to have trouble due to his old wound. After examining him in 1881, a doctor wrote to the Pension Bureau stating, "The teeth of superior maxillary bone are all gone. His face is disfigured and mouth so deformed as to be unable to have a plate and false teeth fitted. Being unable to properly masticate his food for a long time he has now some dyspeptic trouble. While his wound in no way interferes with manual labor I am quite unable to fix the amount of pension which is justly due him. Taking the disfigurement of face and condition of mouth and inability to masticate food or wear false teeth into consideration I believe he is justly entitled to an increase."

 

Over the years, other doctors weighed in as well. "...he incurred gunshot wound of his face which carried away his upper front teeth and the alveolar process so he cannot make artificial teeth do duty. It impairs biting and chewing." 1881

 

"The exit of the missile tore the right upper lip and cheek as shown in the diagram. These scars are normal and cause no disability. We think the disability resulting from the loss of the upper teeth is rated correctly." 1886

 

"That at a result of G.S.W. of upper jaw he is unable to thoroughly and satisfactorily masticate his food and that his digestion is to some extent impaired as a result. That on account of condition of jaw he has been unable to secure a plate that he could wear...in our opinion a satisfactory plate is an impossibility." 1891

 

Pension records also indicate that on August 14, 1893, Mark Westcoatt married Elizabeth R. Kinsie, who at 50 was about three or four years older than him. Notwithstanding the prior census records linking Mark Westcoatt with Caroline Westcott in 1870, his pension records indicate that this was his first marriage. Elizabeth Kinsie, on the other hand, was a widow (her maiden name was Noble) and her 16-year-old son, William Kinsey, lived with them after they were married. Elizabeth died sometime before 1900. Mark Westcoatt passed away on July 24, 1902 in Blackhawk County, Iowa. He was about 58 years old.

 

References:

U.S. Census records for 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880.

Iowa State Census for 1885

Military, Pension and Medical records United States Archive and Record Administration

Dyer, Frederick H., A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Vol. III, Regimental Histories

 

Done