Elnathan Fellows (1840-1863) was born in Maryland, Otsego County, New York, the oldest son of Gideon Ebenezer Smith Fellows and his first wife Rachel Cook. In 1855, the family moved 865 miles to Wisconsin from Schenevus, a hamlet in the town of Maryland in Otsego County, New York. They settled near Geneva in Walworth County.

Elnathan had three older sisters, Susanna, Betsy and Clarissa, and two brothers, Amos and Arthur, all born in New York. After a short time as a teacher, Elnathan enlisted as a Sergeant in Company C of the 22nd Wisconsin Infantry Regiment of the Union Army on 14 Aug 1862, nearly two weeks after his 22nd birthday. The next day, his brother Amos also signed up for the same regiment. Their mother had sadly died the previous year.

After six months of service, Elnathan was among the 200 soldiers in his regiment captured on 5 Mar 1863 at the Battle of Thompson's Station, Williamson County, Tennessee. His brother Amos was also taken prisoner at the Battle of Brentwood on 25 Mar. After a prisoner exchange on 5 May, 1st. Sgt. Elnathan Fellows died of "mortification from a relapse of acute dysentary" on 19 Aug 1863 in Murfreesboro, Rutherford County, Tennessee, according to the U.S., Registers of Deaths of Volunteers, 1861-1865.

His brother Private Amos C. Fellows, who was in the same regiment, arranged to have his body sent home to Wisconsin, where his grieving family buried him in North Geneva Cemetery, Como, Walworth, Wisconsin.
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"... I attended the funeral of a soldier boy today, he died at Murfreesboro. His brother sent him home, his body came Tuesday, his funeral was preached today. His name was Elnathan Fellows, he died for his country ..."
- Lydia (unknown) to her friend Adeline, from Geneva, Wisconsin, 30 Aug 1863
Civil War Gazette Blog
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Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, Wisconsin, 31 Aug 1863, Mon, Page 2:
“Again we have to record the loss of a comrade. Fever has taken away Elnathan Fellows, orderly from Co. C, from us. He was from Delavan, Walworth Co. He left the teacher’s desk for the soldier’s life, and, reflecting honor upon each profession by his discharge of duty, will be remembered long by his associates. Now and then a private or officer is carried in the ambulance from the camp to the hospital. We may never see them again, but we part as a matter of course, and I say now, that there are many in the regiment who do not know of the recent death.”
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A year later, his brother Amos was wounded at the Battle of Resaca in mid-May 1864. Private Amos Fellows died of a gunshot wound to his right knee on 19 June 1864 at the hospital in Kingston, Bartow County, Georgia. It was a sad time for the family, as their sister Susannah (Fellows) Perry had also died at home in Wisconsin earlier in the year.
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231 total casualties in 22nd Wisconsin Infantry:
- 35 killed in action
- 32 died of wounds
(included Private Amos C. Fellows, Co. C, 19 June 1864, Kingston, Ga.)
- 163 died of disease
(included 1st Sergt Elnathan Fellows, Co. C, 19 Aug 1863, Murfreesboro, Tenn.)
- 1 died in accident

Source of statistics:
Estabrook, Charles E., Wisconsin Losses in the Civil War, 1915, pp. 111-115
(http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/tp/id/41196)

Bio created by Joan Stewart Smith, Amos and Elnathan’s 2C3R cousin;
Their grandfather, William Fellows (m. Martha Smith), was the brother of Joan's 3G grandfather, Warner Fellows (m. Lucinda Winslow).