Luman Chase and the Civil War

Luman Chase, my 2nd great-granduncle, was born in Connecticut May 11, 1846. So when the Civil War began in April of 1861, Luman was almost 15 years old. The family was living in Ohio at that time and Luman's older brother, Ralph, enlisted the next year in August 1862. By Luman's 18th birthday in 1864, he was living in Mercer County, Illinois. It is unknown how much Luman knew about his brother's service, but the history of Ralph's unit (23rd Regiment, Ohio Infantry) shows they were involved in the Battles of Cloyd's Mountain in western Virginia on May 9th and New River Bridge and Doublin Depot on May 10th.
It was only a few days later, May 14th, when Luman enlisted as a private in Company E of the 138th Infantry Regiment Illinois. This was one of the groups of the "Hundred Days Men." See the article on Wikipedia about them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Days_Men

He was mustered in June 21, 1864 at Camp Wood, Quincy, Illinois. On June 26, they were moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and were on duty there till October. It appears there were no battles fought there but there was concern that the Confederate Army would try to attack so they needed to be ready. Luman was mustered out October 14, 1864 at Springfield, Illinois. On his pension application filed in 1912 in Nuckolls County, Nebraska, Luman stated that he lived in Illinois until 1873 and then moved to Nebraska. That application also stated that he was 5' 8" tall, had light complexion, gray eyes and light hair.

In 1915 Luman and his wife Lucy moved to Deer Park Washington area. Evidently Luman joined the GAR (the Grand Army of the Republic, the Union Veterans organization) in that area. His obituary in 1932 stated that he was the last survivor among the GAR veterans in the area. You can read the entire obituary on my website: http://www.joanneskelton.com/p288.htm