[[[PLEASE, OUT OF HONOR FOR TWO CIVIL WAR VETERANS DO NOT UPLOAD PICTURES PURPORTED TO BE THAT OF JESSE J. CRAPO EITHER TO THIS CENOTAPH OR TO JESSE'S SEVEN PINES MEMORIAL. THE PICTURE WILL NOT BE OF JESSE J. CRAPO WHO WAS ONLY 18 YEARS OLD WHEN HE DIED. RATHER THE PICTURE IS THAT OF WARREN G. HILL WHO WAS CLOSE TO 40 YEARS OLD WHEN THE FAMILY PORTRAIT WAS TAKEN. IT IS FROM THE FAMILY PORTRAIT THAT HIS PIC HAS BEEN EXCERPTED. LOOK THROUGH THE PICTURES ON WARREN'S MEMORIAL TO SEE THE FAMILY PORTRAIT IN A BOOK.]]]
JESSE J. CRAPO CENOTAPH:
This memorial is a cenotaph for Jesse J. Crapo (April 19 1844 – June 17, 1862). Jesse died of disease during the Civil War. Since the burial location of Jesse J. Crapo is unknown, we plan to have a stone made for him to place in the Lot of his parents, David and Mercy "Marcia" Crapo, at Lakeside Cemetery, Lake Odessa, Michigan. This is the cemetery in which he would have been buried had his body been returned.
Another memorial also exists for Jesse Crapo. There has been a long history of dispute with the original creator of that memorial over whether or not Jesse Crapo was buried at Seven Pines National Cemetery, in Henrico County, Virginia. Between this author and his wife, both memorials are now managed by us. The Seven Pines memorial still contains the original manager's bio and can be seen at the bottom of the page. The Seven Pines memorial can be seen here: Jesse J. Crapo.
JESSE J. CRAPO BIO:
Jesse J. Crapo was born April 19, 1844 in Bloomville, Seneca, Ohio to David Crapo and Mercy E. Sowle. Jesse was named after his grandfather, Jesse Crapo, who lived his entire life in Massachusetts. Shortly after the birth of their daughter Sophia on 25 May 1833, David and Mercy Crapo moved their family from Bristol County, Massachusett to Bloom Township in Seneca County, Ohio.
During that same year of 1833 and before winter set in Phebe Howland Crapo traveled from Dartmouth, Massachusetts to Seneca County, Ohio to visit her son David and his family who had settled in the small town of Republic. There he and his family lived in a log cabin.(1a) By 1860 David had moved to a farm in Odessa Township, Ionia County, Michigan where Jesse is recorded on the census as a farm hand, likely on the family farm.
Over the years tensions between the North and the South had been growing. On December 20, 1860 the secession of southern states from the Union began with South Carolina being the first. By February 4, 1861 the seven of the states who had seceded met and formed the Confederate States of America.(1b) One month later on March 4, 1861 Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as the 16th president of the United States amid a growing conflict. The bloodiest war in American History would begin only one month later on April 12, 1861 when Confederates fired on the Union held Fort Sumpter in South Carolina. Three days later on the 15th President Lincoln issued a call for "militia of the several States of the Union, to the aggregate number of seventy-five thousand, in order to suppress said combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed." (2) Quotas were assigned to each state; Michigan Governor Austin Blair pledged his state would do more.(3)
The Third Michigan Infantry was formed in May of 1861 at Grand Rapids and ultimately included troops from the areas of Lansing, Lyons, Saranac, and Grand Rapids.(4) It was officially recognized by Michigan on May 13, 1861, mustered into State service May 21, 1861, and mustered into United States service June 10, 1861.(5) As the men trained for war at Camp Anderson, located at the Kent County Agricultural Fairgrounds, the women of the newly formed Grand Rapids Soldiers' Aid Society went to work making and sewing items that would be useful for their men to take along with them. Their most noted achievement was the creation of the infantry flag that the Third would carry into battle:
Their final product was six-foot square made of blue silk with heavy yellow fringe. On the front, embroidered in "corn-colored silk," was the U.S. coat of arms with the words "Volunteers, Third Regiment, Mich." On the obverse, the same coat of arms was accompanied by the words "The Ladies of Grand Rapids to the third Michigan Infantry." ….The flag was placed on a mahogany pike with a gilt spearhead and silken tassels.(6)
On June 3 the ladies with great pomp and circumstance presented the flag to the men of the Third at Camp Anderson. A week later on June 10, 1861 the Third Michigan Infantry was mustered into service.
On June 13, 1861 at 8:30 in the morning the 1040 officers and men of the Third Michigan Infantry left Camp Anderson in their blue-clad uniforms and marched to the Grand Rapids train station. Some 15,000 people lined the streets cheering and waving handkerchiefs while the young girls showered the men with flowers.(7) The Third Michigan Infantry website gives an accounting of their departure:
…ten companies of the 3rd Michigan Infantry Regiment of Volunteers, led by its regimental band and the field and staff officers, left their quarters at Cantonment Anderson on the site of the Kent County agricultural fairgrounds, about two and a half miles south of the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The regiment marched north up the Kalamazoo Plank road (present-day Division street) into the city.
The companies turned down Monroe street to Canal street and headed north to the Detroit & Milwaukee railroad depot, near what is today the corner of Plainfield and Leonard streets. Upon reaching the train station, more than 1,000 men boarded two special trains heading east. The trains passed through Ada, St. Johns, Owosso, Pontiac and terminated in Detroit, where the 3rd Michigan was feted by the citizens. The men then boarded two boats for a night cruise to Cleveland, Ohio.
From Cleveland they went by rail to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and then on to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Baltimore, Maryland, and arrived in Washington, DC, on Sunday June 16. They marched north out of the city and set up their first camp, Camp Blair (after then Michigan governor Austin Blair) near the Chain Bridge, overlooking the Potomac River....(8)
At every station from Michigan to Ohio to Pennsylvania the men were met with wild enthusiasm.(9)
Nine months later on March 11, 1862, but without any of the fanfare, Jesse Crapo enlisted for three years in Company E, Third Michigan Infantry at Saranac, Michigan. On April 19th he would become 18 years old, the minimum enlistment age in the North. He was mustered on March 31, 1862.(10) Jesse "stood 5'10" with gray eyes, dark hair and a light complexion."(11) Jesse's journey to the South likely took the same route taken by the Third a year prior.
During the month of March 1862, the Third Michigan Infantry, commanded by Col. Stephen G. Champlin, was assigned to General Berry's Third Brigade, Major General Philip Kearney' Third Division (assigned Apr 30, 1862), Brigadier General Samuel P. Heintzelman's Third Army Corps. The entire Army of the Potomac made up of all the corps was led by Major General George Brinton McClellan. Their assignment was the Peninsular Campaign whose goal was to take the Confederate Capitol of Richmond.(12)
Jesse was just in time for the Peninsular Campaign in Virginia. In less than two months after his enlistment Jesse found himself at the Battle of Williamsburg on a day of heavy rain, May 5, 1862. While the Third only lost one man, a total of about 1300 men were killed and some 3000 wounded on the side of the Union that day; but the Army of the Potomac won the battle.
The Third Michigan did not so much play an offensive roll in the battle as a defensive one. The Third "was part of a reserve that Heintzelman positioned to support an artillery battery that had changed hands several times during the battle." George Miller of the Third said, "We did not go down to the battle field till just about dusk when the fighting ceased…."(13) Major General Philip Kearney, a.k.a. "The One Armed Devil," had ordered the men of the Third Michigan into battle, but just as they were about to engage, the general called it off because of darkness. However, during that short period of time the Third Michigan Infantry suffered its only casualty of the day. Private David Stone of Company H was killed in action.(14)
After the battle the men camped in the Chickahominy Swamp. Ezra Ransom of Company B in the Third Michigan Infantry wrote that many of the men "got fever, some died, many sent to the rear."(15) Daniel Crotty of Company F in the Third Michigan Infantry, records that "the night after the battle was a fearfully wet and muddy one. We try to take care of the wounded the best we can, and have to wade in knee deep mud on the roads and in the fields; but the longest night must have an end, and so did the night after the battle of Williamsburg…and the morning of the 6th dawns lovely and bright. The birds sing over our heads, we build fires, cook our coffee, and are happy again."(16)
Early the next morning on May 6th it was discovered that the Confederate troops had abandoned their positions. The men of the North were exuberant and confident that Richmond would now be theirs in a few days. Meantime, their task now was to bury the dead who were everywhere.(17) This was the first real battle for the men of the Third and the battlefield scene of dead bodies strewn about was emotionally disturbing. Once completed they marched through Williamsburg on their way to Richmond slowly slogging their way on the Richmond Road knee deep in mud at places. Marching was difficult because of the heavy rains that had fallen the day of the battle.
About five miles east 5 miles of Richmond ran the Chickahominy River in a southeasterly direction. The fleeing Confederates had burnt all the bridges across the river. The bridges could be rebuilt fairly quickly because it was not wide except during heavy rains. Its real difficulty was the swamp that surrounded both sides of the river. For purposes of strategy General McClellan had sent two of his five corps, the Third and Fourth, to the south side or the Richmond side of the river which was under the control of the Confederates. The men who crossed took only the essential items needed for fighting. The rest of their supplies were left on the north bank where the majority of the Union troops remained.(18)
General Heintzelman's Third Corps, which included the Third Michigan Infantry, was one of the two corps that crossed the bridges to the south bank. It was a risky move to split the troops, since the south side of the river was still controlled by the Confederates.(19)
By the end of the month the Third Michigan Infantry would find themselves at Fair Oaks Station near Richmond, Virginia. Here on May 31-June 1, 1862 a battle would take place which would come to be known as the Battle of Seven Pines by the Confederates and the Battle of Fair Oaks by the Union.
At the Battle of Fair Oaks Jesse would encounter and survive his second battle despite the heavy losses encountered by the Michigan Third. Thirty of the Third's men were killed with 134 wounded and 15 missing. Both sides claimed victory. Both General Berry, commander of the Brigade, and General Phil Kearney, commander of the Division gave the men a special commendation for having fought gallantly.(20a)
On May 31, the 1st day of the Battle of Fair Oaks, Dr. Zenas E. Bliss, assistant surgeon of the Third, who was from the same Michigan county as Jesse, initially set up a field hospital near the battlefield. However later that same day, he moved it well behind Union lines at Savage's Station, just over five miles from the battle front. Savage Station "was the wartime name of a supply depot, ammunition dump, field hospital, and command headquarters of the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War....[It]was located in Henrico County, Virginia on what was the Richmond and York River Railroad....A farmhouse is known to have been located in a copse of trees on a small knoll next to the railroad track and is visible in several period drawings and photographs made during the war. The farm house served as the nucleus of a large field hospital during and after the battle of Seven Pines and the Seven Days Battles. The house also functioned as the headquarter for General George B. McClellan during the battle of Savage's Station on June 29, 1862."(20b) In his official report Dr. Bliss states the rationale for moving his field hospital to there on the day of the Battle of Fair Oaks:
For the triple reason of securing an abundance of good water, better security for the wounded. As well as to have them near the railroad station for removal after operations, I established a depot, erected a table in a large log tobacco house, without floors, about fifteen rods from the railroad depot, and night and day was almost constantly engaged in dressing and operating upon the wounded from various regiments, from Saturday evening, May 31st, until Wednesday evening, June 4th.(21)
At some point after the battle the wounded were then taken across the Chickahominy River, loaded onto railroad flatcars, and taken to White House Landing located about 30 miles away on the south side of the Pamunkey River. From there they sailed down the York River on a small steamer to Fort Monroe some 65 miles away where a makeshift hospital had been created. It was manned by hospital stewards because all the doctors were on the battle front. From this would eventually emerge the Hampton Virginia Medical Center. Some of the wounded were transferred by ship to more adequately staffed hospitals in Philadelphia or Washington DC eight days later.(22)
That month, the month of June 1862—only 3 months after he enlisted—Jesse became sick with Typhoid Fever; he was sent to the field hospital at Bottom's Bridge, Virginia. Bottom's Bridge was a bridge that spanned the Chickahominy River in Virginia.(23) From there the army moved on to Savage Station.
According to Third Michigan Infantry researcher and writer Steve Soper, Jesse "died of typhoid fever at either Fair Oaks or Savage Station, Virginia on June 17, 1862" and is presumably buried at one of those locations. "The Record of Service of Michigan Volunteers in the Civil War, 1861-1865," published by the Michigan Legislature in 1905 only mentions that he "Died of disease at Fair Oaks, Virginia, June 17, 1862.(24)
By the time the Third Michigan Infantry was disbanded on June 20, 1864 some 1432 men would have joined this regiment, 110 would be killed in battle, 65 would die of wounds, 15 would die in Confederate Prisons, 81 would die of disease, and 404 would be discharged due to battle wounds.(25) Disease was a major factor in the death's of men in the Civil War and Jesse was no exception. "For every three soldiers killed in battle, five more died of disease."(26) The primary illnesses were typhoid fever, diarrhea, dysentery, and pneumonia.(27) Jesse died of typhoid fever.
The absolute devastation disease had on the Third Michigan Infantry is clearly reflected in this article published by the Daily Press. In the article they discuss the exact area in which Jesse fought and died:
Few American armies have been more humbled by the reality of war than the Army of the Potomac during its summer 1862 march up the Peninsula from Fort Monroe to Richmond….Beginning with the May 5 Battle of Williamsburg — and continuing in clash after clash during the struggle for Richmond — the grim ferocity of the rifled musket and .58-caliber Minie ball exacted a toll no one expected. Still more crippling was the fearful number stricken by typhoid, dysentery, malaria and Chickahominy fever, which swept through the Union ranks so relentlessly that the camps of the sick and wounded swelled to 20,000 soldiers….
So dire was this unprecedented medical crisis that Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan plead for help, spawning a fleet of hospital ships that evacuated the sprawling wards on the Pamunkey River first — and then the epic expanses of tents at Harrison's Landing on the James River.
When that flood overflowed the hospitals to the north in early August, the steamers ferried thousands to the east bank of the Hampton River, where hundreds of carpenters labored to complete the vast triangle of wards that soon boasted the second largest number of beds in the North's hospital system….
Hampton hospital got its start in the small 4-ward clinic that served the garrison of 350 men defending Fort Monroe at the start of the war.(28)
According to one unsubstantiated story that currently circulates, the body of Jesse Crapo was supposed to have been returned home to his parents who lived in Odessa Township, MI, but it was lost in the confusion of war. Supposedly David Crapo's brother, Governor Henry Howland Crapo of Michigan, was involved in the effort that proved to be futile to have his son's lost body recovered and returned. Instead the body of Jesse ended up being buried at an unidentified location instead.
The facts are these: Henry Howland Crapo was not governor yet when Jesse died on June 17, 1862. He was governor from 1864-1868. So any effort by Henry Crapo to find Jesse's body if true would have been more likely during his term as a state senator (1862-1864). However, I have not yet seen any documentation for this. Governor Crapo's part in the story if any needs to be researched yet.
It is true that Jesse's body ended up being buried at an unknown location which is currently lost to history. There is absolutely no historical evidence for Jesse being buried in the Seven Pines National Cemetery. My extensive research has born this out. It is only one of several places in which his bodily remains could be buried.
The Seven Pines National Cemetery was established in 1866, some four years after Jesse's death. The bodies of soldiers who had been buried in known locations throughout the Fair Oaks area were exhumed in re-interred in the newly established cemetery. The original burial records of the Seven Pines are a sad commentary on the casualties of the Civil War. The number of unknown soldiers it contains is shocking and staggering.
I wish I could locate Jesse's final resting place whether in Seven Pines or elsewhere, but so far the evidence has eluded me. Jesse was likely buried at Bottom's Bridge, Savage's Station, or Fair Oaks. If he was disinterred and reburied 4 years later at the establishment of Seven Pines National Cemetery, he would most likely be one of the many unknown soldiers buried there.
Another alternative is that he may have been loaded on a flatbed railcar to be transported east to a medical facility for treatment as happened regularly with the sick and wounded only to die along the way or to die in the medical facility as an unknown soldier. Regardless, his remains may never have been recovered and may be buried in their original location to this day.(29)
On July 4, 1866 a large ceremony, with at least 70,000 people in attendance, was held in Detroit, Michigan. "Michigan's scarred, bloody, and bullet-torn battle flags were presented to the state by the men who had carried and fought under them. General Willcox spoke on their behalf, remarking that the flags were 'tattered but not stained, emblems of a war that is past. We shall ever retain our pride in their glorious associations, as well as our love for the old Peninsular State.'"(30)
On behalf of the state of Michigan, Governor Henry Crapo, Jesse Crapo's uncle, accepted the flags and promised that "they will not be forgotten and their histories left unwritten. Let us tenderly deposit them, as sacred relics, in the archives of our state, there to stand forever, her proudest possession."(31) On Jan 1, 1879, at the opening of the new Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, the flags were proudly displayed in the new military museum within the Capitol building.(32)
On 18 May 1885 Jesse's mother, Mercy, applied for his military pension, but for reasons unknown it appears never to have been granted.(33)
___________________________
FOOTNOTES
1a. "Certain Comeoverers," Vol. 1 (pub 1912 by Henry Howland Crapo, Jr., p. 228.
1b. "Fort Sumter and the Opening Shots of Civil War," (https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/problem-charleston-harbor).
2. "Fort Sumter and the Opening Shots of Civil War," (https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/problem-charleston-harbor); President Lincoln's 75,000 volunteers.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_Lincoln%27s_75,000_volunteers).
3. "Michigan in the American Civil War," p. 3 (https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Publications/CivilWar.pdf)
4. "FIRST MICHIGAN LIGHT ARTILLERY TO THIRD MICHIGAN INFANTRY" (http://capitol.michigan.gov/SlideShow2 ); The"Glorious Old Third" A History of the Third Michigan Infantry 1855 to 1927 by Steve Soper, p. 90..
5. Union Regimental Histories, Michigan: 3rd Regimental Infantry (http://www.civilwararchive.com/Unreghst/unmiinf1.htm#3rd).
6. "Grand Rapids and the Civil War" by Roger L. Rosentreter (The History Press, Charleston, SC, 2018), pp. 12-13.
7. "Grand Rapids and the Civil War" by Roger L. Rosentreter (The History Press, Charleston, SC, 2018), p, 14.
8. See Steve Soper's "History of the 3rd Michigan Infantry and its men" at https://thirdmichigan.blogspot.com/p/a-very-brief-history-at-830-on-morning.html.
9. "Fours Years Campaigning in the Army of the Potomac" by Color Sergeant, D. G. Crotty, Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry (Dygert Bros. & Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 1874), p.14 (https://archive.org/details/fouryearscamp00crotrich/page/n6/mode/2up).
10. "Record of service of Michigan volunteers in the Civil War, 1861-1865," Vol 3, p. 30 (by Michigan, Adjunct General's Office & George H. Turner, pub. 1905): https://archive.org/details/recordofserviceo03mich/page/n83/mode/2up.
Michigan. Adjutant General's Office; Turner, George H
11. https://thirdmichigan.blogspot.com/search?q=Jesse+Crapo, formerly at http://www.oldthirdmichigan.org/thirdmichigan-news/2008/05/jesse-i-crapo.html?rq=Crapo.
12. Union Regimental Histories, Michigan: 3rd Regimental Infantry (http://www.civilwararchive.com/Unreghst/unmiinf1.htm#3rd); "The Virginia Campaigns March – August 1862" by Christopher L. Kolakowski (Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington, D.C., 2016), p. 26 (https://history.army.mil/html/books/075/75-5/cmhPub_75-5.pdf); "Major General Philip Kearny" (https://armyhistory.org/major-general-philip-kearny/).
13. "Grandpa Hill's Civil War: The Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry, 1861-65" by David Robinson, Chapt. 9.
14. "Grandpa Hill's Civil War: The Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry, 1861-65" by David Robinson, Chapt. 9.
15. "Grandpa Hill's Civil War: The Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry, 1861-65" by David Robinson, Chapt. 9.
16. "Fours Years Campaigning in the Army of the Potomac" by Color Sergeant, D. G. Crotty, Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry (Dygert Bros. & Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 1874), p. 44 (https://archive.org/details/fouryearscamp00crotrich/page/44/mode/2up).
17. "Fours Years Campaigning in the Army of the Potomac" by Color Sergeant, D. G. Crotty, Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry (Dygert Bros. & Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 1874), p. 44 (https://archive.org/details/fouryearscamp00crotrich/page/44/mode/2up).
18. The Virginia Campaigns March – August 1862" by Christopher L. Kolakowski (Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington, D.C., 2016), p. 31 (https://history.army.mil/html/books/075/75-5/cmhPub_75-5.pdf); The"Glorious Old Third" A History of the Third Michigan Infantry 1855 to 1927 by Steve Soper, p. 274; "Peninsula Campaign of 1862," Military History Encyclopedia on the Web, (http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_peninsular1862.html).
19. The Virginia Campaigns March – August 1862" by Christopher L. Kolakowski (Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington, D.C., 2016), p. 31 (https://history.army.mil/html/books/075/75-5/cmhPub_75-5.pdf).
20a. "Grandpa Hill's Civil War: The Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry, 1861-65" by David Robinson, Chapt. 9; "3rd Regiment Michigan Volunteer Infantry" (http://www.migenweb.org/michiganinthewar/infantry/3rdinf.htm).
20b. Wikipedia contributors. Savage's Station, Virginia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. March 12, 2022, 17:09 UTC. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Savage%27s_Station,_Virginia&oldid=1076732826. Accessed September 16, 2022.
21. "The 'Glorious Old Third' A History of the Third Michigan Infantry 1855-1927" by Steve Soper (Published by Old Third Publishing, http://www.oldthirdmichigan.org, 2007), p. 279.
22. "Grandpa Hill's Civil War: The Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry, 1861-65" by David Robinson, Chapt. 10.
23. "Men of the 3rd Michigan Infantry, Abbott to Cutler," by Steve Soper, p. 477. Can also be found online at Steve Soper's website (https://thirdmichigan.blogspot.com/search?q=Jesse+Crapo). According to Steve Soper Jesse "was sick with typhoid fever in the hospital at bottom's Bridge, Virginia in June of 1862, and in fact he died of typhoid fever at either Fair Oaks or Savage Station, Virginia, on June 17, 1862. He was presumably buried near Fair Oaks or Savage Station," p. 477.
24. Jesse I. Crapo by Steve Soper, May 18, 2008. ("Jesse I. Crapo" by Steve Soper (https://thirdmichigan.blogspot.com/search?q=Jesse+Crapo); In Steve Soper's "The Glorious Old 3rd: Biographical Sketches of the Men who Served in the 3rd Michigan Infantry Veteran Volunteers 1861-1864, Abbott-Cutler," p. 477, it is footnoted that "Franklin Everett noted that Crapo died at Fair Oaks; see Memorials of the Grand River Valley, p. 305." In Franklin Everett's book Jesse's name appears in a long list of names under the heading, "The Martyrs of the War. Ionia County," and the full entry says, "Jesse I Crapo; 3d I., Co. E. Fair Oaks" (Everett, Franklin. Memorials of the Grand River Valley. United States, Chicago legal news Company, 1878., p. 305 as found online at Google Books). Franklin says he partially obtained information for his list from the following record: "The Record of Service of Michigan Volunteers in the Civil War, 1861-1865," Vol 3 published by the Michigan Legislature in 1905, p. 30 says, "Crapo, or Krapo, Jesse I. or J.,….Died of disease at Fair Oaks, VA, June 17, 1862." Any original handwritten documents giving proof of date and place of Jesse's death have yet to be found and researched by the author of this document.
25. http://www.migenweb.org/michiganinthewar/infantry/3rdinf.htm
26. "Civil war Casualties," (https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-casualties)
27. Myers, Robert C. "Mortality in the Twelfth Michigan Volunteer Infantry, 1861-1866," p. 46-47 (Michigan Historical Review, vol. 20, no. 1, 1994, pp. 29–47. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20173432. Accessed 21 Apr. 2020).
28. "Huge Hampton military hospital spawned by the Civil War opened this week in 1862" by Mark St. John Erickson (https://www.dailypress.com/history/dp-nws-civil-war-hospitals-20120817-story.html)
29. Steve Soper says, "Many of the 195 men buried in Virginia are probably interred in unknown graves scattered throughout the state, like so many thousands of soldiers. For example, it is likely that of the estimated 35 men who died at Fair Oaks, Virginia, on May 31, 1862, all are interred in Seven Pines National Cemetery, although we know exact locations for only a fraction of that number. And the men who died at Groveton on August 29, 1862, their remains were reportedly brought to Arlington National Cemetery and interred in a mass grave very close to the Custis-Lee mansion" (http://www.oldthirdmichigan.org/burial-sites/). According to the University of Virginia the burial place of Jesse Crapo is unknown, per conversation with the University of Virginia in about 2011.
30-33. Excerpts from "Michigan in the American Civil War," prepared by the Michigan Legislature, pp. 18-19 (https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Publications/CivilWar.pdf).
33. The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Record Group Title: Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, 1773 - 2007; Record Group Number: 15; Series Title: U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934; Series Number: T288 ; "Jesse I. Crapo" by Steve Soper (http://www.oldthirdmichigan.org/thirdmichigan-news/2008/05/jesse-i-crapo.html?rq=jesse. The article can also be seen at http://thirdmichigan.blogspot.com/2008/05/jesse-i-crapo.html).
(The above is a copy of "A BIOGRAPHY OF JESSE CRAPO" By David D. Burns, M. Div., updated 28 May 2023. His Find A Grave member# is 47319474)
JESSE J. CRAPO CENOTAPH:
This memorial is a cenotaph for Jesse J. Crapo (April 19 1844 – June 17, 1862). Jesse died of disease during the Civil War. Since the burial location of Jesse J. Crapo is unknown, we plan to have a stone made for him to place in the Lot of his parents, David and Mercy "Marcia" Crapo, at Lakeside Cemetery, Lake Odessa, Michigan. This is the cemetery in which he would have been buried had his body been returned.
Another memorial also exists for Jesse Crapo. There has been a long history of dispute with the original creator of that memorial over whether or not Jesse Crapo was buried at Seven Pines National Cemetery, in Henrico County, Virginia. Between this author and his wife, both memorials are now managed by us. The Seven Pines memorial still contains the original manager's bio and can be seen at the bottom of the page. The Seven Pines memorial can be seen here: Jesse J. Crapo.
JESSE J. CRAPO BIO:
Jesse J. Crapo was born April 19, 1844 in Bloomville, Seneca, Ohio to David Crapo and Mercy E. Sowle. Jesse was named after his grandfather, Jesse Crapo, who lived his entire life in Massachusetts. Shortly after the birth of their daughter Sophia on 25 May 1833, David and Mercy Crapo moved their family from Bristol County, Massachusett to Bloom Township in Seneca County, Ohio.
During that same year of 1833 and before winter set in Phebe Howland Crapo traveled from Dartmouth, Massachusetts to Seneca County, Ohio to visit her son David and his family who had settled in the small town of Republic. There he and his family lived in a log cabin.(1a) By 1860 David had moved to a farm in Odessa Township, Ionia County, Michigan where Jesse is recorded on the census as a farm hand, likely on the family farm.
Over the years tensions between the North and the South had been growing. On December 20, 1860 the secession of southern states from the Union began with South Carolina being the first. By February 4, 1861 the seven of the states who had seceded met and formed the Confederate States of America.(1b) One month later on March 4, 1861 Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as the 16th president of the United States amid a growing conflict. The bloodiest war in American History would begin only one month later on April 12, 1861 when Confederates fired on the Union held Fort Sumpter in South Carolina. Three days later on the 15th President Lincoln issued a call for "militia of the several States of the Union, to the aggregate number of seventy-five thousand, in order to suppress said combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed." (2) Quotas were assigned to each state; Michigan Governor Austin Blair pledged his state would do more.(3)
The Third Michigan Infantry was formed in May of 1861 at Grand Rapids and ultimately included troops from the areas of Lansing, Lyons, Saranac, and Grand Rapids.(4) It was officially recognized by Michigan on May 13, 1861, mustered into State service May 21, 1861, and mustered into United States service June 10, 1861.(5) As the men trained for war at Camp Anderson, located at the Kent County Agricultural Fairgrounds, the women of the newly formed Grand Rapids Soldiers' Aid Society went to work making and sewing items that would be useful for their men to take along with them. Their most noted achievement was the creation of the infantry flag that the Third would carry into battle:
Their final product was six-foot square made of blue silk with heavy yellow fringe. On the front, embroidered in "corn-colored silk," was the U.S. coat of arms with the words "Volunteers, Third Regiment, Mich." On the obverse, the same coat of arms was accompanied by the words "The Ladies of Grand Rapids to the third Michigan Infantry." ….The flag was placed on a mahogany pike with a gilt spearhead and silken tassels.(6)
On June 3 the ladies with great pomp and circumstance presented the flag to the men of the Third at Camp Anderson. A week later on June 10, 1861 the Third Michigan Infantry was mustered into service.
On June 13, 1861 at 8:30 in the morning the 1040 officers and men of the Third Michigan Infantry left Camp Anderson in their blue-clad uniforms and marched to the Grand Rapids train station. Some 15,000 people lined the streets cheering and waving handkerchiefs while the young girls showered the men with flowers.(7) The Third Michigan Infantry website gives an accounting of their departure:
…ten companies of the 3rd Michigan Infantry Regiment of Volunteers, led by its regimental band and the field and staff officers, left their quarters at Cantonment Anderson on the site of the Kent County agricultural fairgrounds, about two and a half miles south of the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The regiment marched north up the Kalamazoo Plank road (present-day Division street) into the city.
The companies turned down Monroe street to Canal street and headed north to the Detroit & Milwaukee railroad depot, near what is today the corner of Plainfield and Leonard streets. Upon reaching the train station, more than 1,000 men boarded two special trains heading east. The trains passed through Ada, St. Johns, Owosso, Pontiac and terminated in Detroit, where the 3rd Michigan was feted by the citizens. The men then boarded two boats for a night cruise to Cleveland, Ohio.
From Cleveland they went by rail to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and then on to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Baltimore, Maryland, and arrived in Washington, DC, on Sunday June 16. They marched north out of the city and set up their first camp, Camp Blair (after then Michigan governor Austin Blair) near the Chain Bridge, overlooking the Potomac River....(8)
At every station from Michigan to Ohio to Pennsylvania the men were met with wild enthusiasm.(9)
Nine months later on March 11, 1862, but without any of the fanfare, Jesse Crapo enlisted for three years in Company E, Third Michigan Infantry at Saranac, Michigan. On April 19th he would become 18 years old, the minimum enlistment age in the North. He was mustered on March 31, 1862.(10) Jesse "stood 5'10" with gray eyes, dark hair and a light complexion."(11) Jesse's journey to the South likely took the same route taken by the Third a year prior.
During the month of March 1862, the Third Michigan Infantry, commanded by Col. Stephen G. Champlin, was assigned to General Berry's Third Brigade, Major General Philip Kearney' Third Division (assigned Apr 30, 1862), Brigadier General Samuel P. Heintzelman's Third Army Corps. The entire Army of the Potomac made up of all the corps was led by Major General George Brinton McClellan. Their assignment was the Peninsular Campaign whose goal was to take the Confederate Capitol of Richmond.(12)
Jesse was just in time for the Peninsular Campaign in Virginia. In less than two months after his enlistment Jesse found himself at the Battle of Williamsburg on a day of heavy rain, May 5, 1862. While the Third only lost one man, a total of about 1300 men were killed and some 3000 wounded on the side of the Union that day; but the Army of the Potomac won the battle.
The Third Michigan did not so much play an offensive roll in the battle as a defensive one. The Third "was part of a reserve that Heintzelman positioned to support an artillery battery that had changed hands several times during the battle." George Miller of the Third said, "We did not go down to the battle field till just about dusk when the fighting ceased…."(13) Major General Philip Kearney, a.k.a. "The One Armed Devil," had ordered the men of the Third Michigan into battle, but just as they were about to engage, the general called it off because of darkness. However, during that short period of time the Third Michigan Infantry suffered its only casualty of the day. Private David Stone of Company H was killed in action.(14)
After the battle the men camped in the Chickahominy Swamp. Ezra Ransom of Company B in the Third Michigan Infantry wrote that many of the men "got fever, some died, many sent to the rear."(15) Daniel Crotty of Company F in the Third Michigan Infantry, records that "the night after the battle was a fearfully wet and muddy one. We try to take care of the wounded the best we can, and have to wade in knee deep mud on the roads and in the fields; but the longest night must have an end, and so did the night after the battle of Williamsburg…and the morning of the 6th dawns lovely and bright. The birds sing over our heads, we build fires, cook our coffee, and are happy again."(16)
Early the next morning on May 6th it was discovered that the Confederate troops had abandoned their positions. The men of the North were exuberant and confident that Richmond would now be theirs in a few days. Meantime, their task now was to bury the dead who were everywhere.(17) This was the first real battle for the men of the Third and the battlefield scene of dead bodies strewn about was emotionally disturbing. Once completed they marched through Williamsburg on their way to Richmond slowly slogging their way on the Richmond Road knee deep in mud at places. Marching was difficult because of the heavy rains that had fallen the day of the battle.
About five miles east 5 miles of Richmond ran the Chickahominy River in a southeasterly direction. The fleeing Confederates had burnt all the bridges across the river. The bridges could be rebuilt fairly quickly because it was not wide except during heavy rains. Its real difficulty was the swamp that surrounded both sides of the river. For purposes of strategy General McClellan had sent two of his five corps, the Third and Fourth, to the south side or the Richmond side of the river which was under the control of the Confederates. The men who crossed took only the essential items needed for fighting. The rest of their supplies were left on the north bank where the majority of the Union troops remained.(18)
General Heintzelman's Third Corps, which included the Third Michigan Infantry, was one of the two corps that crossed the bridges to the south bank. It was a risky move to split the troops, since the south side of the river was still controlled by the Confederates.(19)
By the end of the month the Third Michigan Infantry would find themselves at Fair Oaks Station near Richmond, Virginia. Here on May 31-June 1, 1862 a battle would take place which would come to be known as the Battle of Seven Pines by the Confederates and the Battle of Fair Oaks by the Union.
At the Battle of Fair Oaks Jesse would encounter and survive his second battle despite the heavy losses encountered by the Michigan Third. Thirty of the Third's men were killed with 134 wounded and 15 missing. Both sides claimed victory. Both General Berry, commander of the Brigade, and General Phil Kearney, commander of the Division gave the men a special commendation for having fought gallantly.(20a)
On May 31, the 1st day of the Battle of Fair Oaks, Dr. Zenas E. Bliss, assistant surgeon of the Third, who was from the same Michigan county as Jesse, initially set up a field hospital near the battlefield. However later that same day, he moved it well behind Union lines at Savage's Station, just over five miles from the battle front. Savage Station "was the wartime name of a supply depot, ammunition dump, field hospital, and command headquarters of the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War....[It]was located in Henrico County, Virginia on what was the Richmond and York River Railroad....A farmhouse is known to have been located in a copse of trees on a small knoll next to the railroad track and is visible in several period drawings and photographs made during the war. The farm house served as the nucleus of a large field hospital during and after the battle of Seven Pines and the Seven Days Battles. The house also functioned as the headquarter for General George B. McClellan during the battle of Savage's Station on June 29, 1862."(20b) In his official report Dr. Bliss states the rationale for moving his field hospital to there on the day of the Battle of Fair Oaks:
For the triple reason of securing an abundance of good water, better security for the wounded. As well as to have them near the railroad station for removal after operations, I established a depot, erected a table in a large log tobacco house, without floors, about fifteen rods from the railroad depot, and night and day was almost constantly engaged in dressing and operating upon the wounded from various regiments, from Saturday evening, May 31st, until Wednesday evening, June 4th.(21)
At some point after the battle the wounded were then taken across the Chickahominy River, loaded onto railroad flatcars, and taken to White House Landing located about 30 miles away on the south side of the Pamunkey River. From there they sailed down the York River on a small steamer to Fort Monroe some 65 miles away where a makeshift hospital had been created. It was manned by hospital stewards because all the doctors were on the battle front. From this would eventually emerge the Hampton Virginia Medical Center. Some of the wounded were transferred by ship to more adequately staffed hospitals in Philadelphia or Washington DC eight days later.(22)
That month, the month of June 1862—only 3 months after he enlisted—Jesse became sick with Typhoid Fever; he was sent to the field hospital at Bottom's Bridge, Virginia. Bottom's Bridge was a bridge that spanned the Chickahominy River in Virginia.(23) From there the army moved on to Savage Station.
According to Third Michigan Infantry researcher and writer Steve Soper, Jesse "died of typhoid fever at either Fair Oaks or Savage Station, Virginia on June 17, 1862" and is presumably buried at one of those locations. "The Record of Service of Michigan Volunteers in the Civil War, 1861-1865," published by the Michigan Legislature in 1905 only mentions that he "Died of disease at Fair Oaks, Virginia, June 17, 1862.(24)
By the time the Third Michigan Infantry was disbanded on June 20, 1864 some 1432 men would have joined this regiment, 110 would be killed in battle, 65 would die of wounds, 15 would die in Confederate Prisons, 81 would die of disease, and 404 would be discharged due to battle wounds.(25) Disease was a major factor in the death's of men in the Civil War and Jesse was no exception. "For every three soldiers killed in battle, five more died of disease."(26) The primary illnesses were typhoid fever, diarrhea, dysentery, and pneumonia.(27) Jesse died of typhoid fever.
The absolute devastation disease had on the Third Michigan Infantry is clearly reflected in this article published by the Daily Press. In the article they discuss the exact area in which Jesse fought and died:
Few American armies have been more humbled by the reality of war than the Army of the Potomac during its summer 1862 march up the Peninsula from Fort Monroe to Richmond….Beginning with the May 5 Battle of Williamsburg — and continuing in clash after clash during the struggle for Richmond — the grim ferocity of the rifled musket and .58-caliber Minie ball exacted a toll no one expected. Still more crippling was the fearful number stricken by typhoid, dysentery, malaria and Chickahominy fever, which swept through the Union ranks so relentlessly that the camps of the sick and wounded swelled to 20,000 soldiers….
So dire was this unprecedented medical crisis that Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan plead for help, spawning a fleet of hospital ships that evacuated the sprawling wards on the Pamunkey River first — and then the epic expanses of tents at Harrison's Landing on the James River.
When that flood overflowed the hospitals to the north in early August, the steamers ferried thousands to the east bank of the Hampton River, where hundreds of carpenters labored to complete the vast triangle of wards that soon boasted the second largest number of beds in the North's hospital system….
Hampton hospital got its start in the small 4-ward clinic that served the garrison of 350 men defending Fort Monroe at the start of the war.(28)
According to one unsubstantiated story that currently circulates, the body of Jesse Crapo was supposed to have been returned home to his parents who lived in Odessa Township, MI, but it was lost in the confusion of war. Supposedly David Crapo's brother, Governor Henry Howland Crapo of Michigan, was involved in the effort that proved to be futile to have his son's lost body recovered and returned. Instead the body of Jesse ended up being buried at an unidentified location instead.
The facts are these: Henry Howland Crapo was not governor yet when Jesse died on June 17, 1862. He was governor from 1864-1868. So any effort by Henry Crapo to find Jesse's body if true would have been more likely during his term as a state senator (1862-1864). However, I have not yet seen any documentation for this. Governor Crapo's part in the story if any needs to be researched yet.
It is true that Jesse's body ended up being buried at an unknown location which is currently lost to history. There is absolutely no historical evidence for Jesse being buried in the Seven Pines National Cemetery. My extensive research has born this out. It is only one of several places in which his bodily remains could be buried.
The Seven Pines National Cemetery was established in 1866, some four years after Jesse's death. The bodies of soldiers who had been buried in known locations throughout the Fair Oaks area were exhumed in re-interred in the newly established cemetery. The original burial records of the Seven Pines are a sad commentary on the casualties of the Civil War. The number of unknown soldiers it contains is shocking and staggering.
I wish I could locate Jesse's final resting place whether in Seven Pines or elsewhere, but so far the evidence has eluded me. Jesse was likely buried at Bottom's Bridge, Savage's Station, or Fair Oaks. If he was disinterred and reburied 4 years later at the establishment of Seven Pines National Cemetery, he would most likely be one of the many unknown soldiers buried there.
Another alternative is that he may have been loaded on a flatbed railcar to be transported east to a medical facility for treatment as happened regularly with the sick and wounded only to die along the way or to die in the medical facility as an unknown soldier. Regardless, his remains may never have been recovered and may be buried in their original location to this day.(29)
On July 4, 1866 a large ceremony, with at least 70,000 people in attendance, was held in Detroit, Michigan. "Michigan's scarred, bloody, and bullet-torn battle flags were presented to the state by the men who had carried and fought under them. General Willcox spoke on their behalf, remarking that the flags were 'tattered but not stained, emblems of a war that is past. We shall ever retain our pride in their glorious associations, as well as our love for the old Peninsular State.'"(30)
On behalf of the state of Michigan, Governor Henry Crapo, Jesse Crapo's uncle, accepted the flags and promised that "they will not be forgotten and their histories left unwritten. Let us tenderly deposit them, as sacred relics, in the archives of our state, there to stand forever, her proudest possession."(31) On Jan 1, 1879, at the opening of the new Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, the flags were proudly displayed in the new military museum within the Capitol building.(32)
On 18 May 1885 Jesse's mother, Mercy, applied for his military pension, but for reasons unknown it appears never to have been granted.(33)
___________________________
FOOTNOTES
1a. "Certain Comeoverers," Vol. 1 (pub 1912 by Henry Howland Crapo, Jr., p. 228.
1b. "Fort Sumter and the Opening Shots of Civil War," (https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/problem-charleston-harbor).
2. "Fort Sumter and the Opening Shots of Civil War," (https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/problem-charleston-harbor); President Lincoln's 75,000 volunteers.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_Lincoln%27s_75,000_volunteers).
3. "Michigan in the American Civil War," p. 3 (https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Publications/CivilWar.pdf)
4. "FIRST MICHIGAN LIGHT ARTILLERY TO THIRD MICHIGAN INFANTRY" (http://capitol.michigan.gov/SlideShow2 ); The"Glorious Old Third" A History of the Third Michigan Infantry 1855 to 1927 by Steve Soper, p. 90..
5. Union Regimental Histories, Michigan: 3rd Regimental Infantry (http://www.civilwararchive.com/Unreghst/unmiinf1.htm#3rd).
6. "Grand Rapids and the Civil War" by Roger L. Rosentreter (The History Press, Charleston, SC, 2018), pp. 12-13.
7. "Grand Rapids and the Civil War" by Roger L. Rosentreter (The History Press, Charleston, SC, 2018), p, 14.
8. See Steve Soper's "History of the 3rd Michigan Infantry and its men" at https://thirdmichigan.blogspot.com/p/a-very-brief-history-at-830-on-morning.html.
9. "Fours Years Campaigning in the Army of the Potomac" by Color Sergeant, D. G. Crotty, Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry (Dygert Bros. & Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 1874), p.14 (https://archive.org/details/fouryearscamp00crotrich/page/n6/mode/2up).
10. "Record of service of Michigan volunteers in the Civil War, 1861-1865," Vol 3, p. 30 (by Michigan, Adjunct General's Office & George H. Turner, pub. 1905): https://archive.org/details/recordofserviceo03mich/page/n83/mode/2up.
Michigan. Adjutant General's Office; Turner, George H
11. https://thirdmichigan.blogspot.com/search?q=Jesse+Crapo, formerly at http://www.oldthirdmichigan.org/thirdmichigan-news/2008/05/jesse-i-crapo.html?rq=Crapo.
12. Union Regimental Histories, Michigan: 3rd Regimental Infantry (http://www.civilwararchive.com/Unreghst/unmiinf1.htm#3rd); "The Virginia Campaigns March – August 1862" by Christopher L. Kolakowski (Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington, D.C., 2016), p. 26 (https://history.army.mil/html/books/075/75-5/cmhPub_75-5.pdf); "Major General Philip Kearny" (https://armyhistory.org/major-general-philip-kearny/).
13. "Grandpa Hill's Civil War: The Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry, 1861-65" by David Robinson, Chapt. 9.
14. "Grandpa Hill's Civil War: The Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry, 1861-65" by David Robinson, Chapt. 9.
15. "Grandpa Hill's Civil War: The Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry, 1861-65" by David Robinson, Chapt. 9.
16. "Fours Years Campaigning in the Army of the Potomac" by Color Sergeant, D. G. Crotty, Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry (Dygert Bros. & Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 1874), p. 44 (https://archive.org/details/fouryearscamp00crotrich/page/44/mode/2up).
17. "Fours Years Campaigning in the Army of the Potomac" by Color Sergeant, D. G. Crotty, Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry (Dygert Bros. & Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 1874), p. 44 (https://archive.org/details/fouryearscamp00crotrich/page/44/mode/2up).
18. The Virginia Campaigns March – August 1862" by Christopher L. Kolakowski (Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington, D.C., 2016), p. 31 (https://history.army.mil/html/books/075/75-5/cmhPub_75-5.pdf); The"Glorious Old Third" A History of the Third Michigan Infantry 1855 to 1927 by Steve Soper, p. 274; "Peninsula Campaign of 1862," Military History Encyclopedia on the Web, (http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_peninsular1862.html).
19. The Virginia Campaigns March – August 1862" by Christopher L. Kolakowski (Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington, D.C., 2016), p. 31 (https://history.army.mil/html/books/075/75-5/cmhPub_75-5.pdf).
20a. "Grandpa Hill's Civil War: The Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry, 1861-65" by David Robinson, Chapt. 9; "3rd Regiment Michigan Volunteer Infantry" (http://www.migenweb.org/michiganinthewar/infantry/3rdinf.htm).
20b. Wikipedia contributors. Savage's Station, Virginia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. March 12, 2022, 17:09 UTC. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Savage%27s_Station,_Virginia&oldid=1076732826. Accessed September 16, 2022.
21. "The 'Glorious Old Third' A History of the Third Michigan Infantry 1855-1927" by Steve Soper (Published by Old Third Publishing, http://www.oldthirdmichigan.org, 2007), p. 279.
22. "Grandpa Hill's Civil War: The Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry, 1861-65" by David Robinson, Chapt. 10.
23. "Men of the 3rd Michigan Infantry, Abbott to Cutler," by Steve Soper, p. 477. Can also be found online at Steve Soper's website (https://thirdmichigan.blogspot.com/search?q=Jesse+Crapo). According to Steve Soper Jesse "was sick with typhoid fever in the hospital at bottom's Bridge, Virginia in June of 1862, and in fact he died of typhoid fever at either Fair Oaks or Savage Station, Virginia, on June 17, 1862. He was presumably buried near Fair Oaks or Savage Station," p. 477.
24. Jesse I. Crapo by Steve Soper, May 18, 2008. ("Jesse I. Crapo" by Steve Soper (https://thirdmichigan.blogspot.com/search?q=Jesse+Crapo); In Steve Soper's "The Glorious Old 3rd: Biographical Sketches of the Men who Served in the 3rd Michigan Infantry Veteran Volunteers 1861-1864, Abbott-Cutler," p. 477, it is footnoted that "Franklin Everett noted that Crapo died at Fair Oaks; see Memorials of the Grand River Valley, p. 305." In Franklin Everett's book Jesse's name appears in a long list of names under the heading, "The Martyrs of the War. Ionia County," and the full entry says, "Jesse I Crapo; 3d I., Co. E. Fair Oaks" (Everett, Franklin. Memorials of the Grand River Valley. United States, Chicago legal news Company, 1878., p. 305 as found online at Google Books). Franklin says he partially obtained information for his list from the following record: "The Record of Service of Michigan Volunteers in the Civil War, 1861-1865," Vol 3 published by the Michigan Legislature in 1905, p. 30 says, "Crapo, or Krapo, Jesse I. or J.,….Died of disease at Fair Oaks, VA, June 17, 1862." Any original handwritten documents giving proof of date and place of Jesse's death have yet to be found and researched by the author of this document.
25. http://www.migenweb.org/michiganinthewar/infantry/3rdinf.htm
26. "Civil war Casualties," (https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-casualties)
27. Myers, Robert C. "Mortality in the Twelfth Michigan Volunteer Infantry, 1861-1866," p. 46-47 (Michigan Historical Review, vol. 20, no. 1, 1994, pp. 29–47. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20173432. Accessed 21 Apr. 2020).
28. "Huge Hampton military hospital spawned by the Civil War opened this week in 1862" by Mark St. John Erickson (https://www.dailypress.com/history/dp-nws-civil-war-hospitals-20120817-story.html)
29. Steve Soper says, "Many of the 195 men buried in Virginia are probably interred in unknown graves scattered throughout the state, like so many thousands of soldiers. For example, it is likely that of the estimated 35 men who died at Fair Oaks, Virginia, on May 31, 1862, all are interred in Seven Pines National Cemetery, although we know exact locations for only a fraction of that number. And the men who died at Groveton on August 29, 1862, their remains were reportedly brought to Arlington National Cemetery and interred in a mass grave very close to the Custis-Lee mansion" (http://www.oldthirdmichigan.org/burial-sites/). According to the University of Virginia the burial place of Jesse Crapo is unknown, per conversation with the University of Virginia in about 2011.
30-33. Excerpts from "Michigan in the American Civil War," prepared by the Michigan Legislature, pp. 18-19 (https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Publications/CivilWar.pdf).
33. The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Record Group Title: Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, 1773 - 2007; Record Group Number: 15; Series Title: U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934; Series Number: T288 ; "Jesse I. Crapo" by Steve Soper (http://www.oldthirdmichigan.org/thirdmichigan-news/2008/05/jesse-i-crapo.html?rq=jesse. The article can also be seen at http://thirdmichigan.blogspot.com/2008/05/jesse-i-crapo.html).
(The above is a copy of "A BIOGRAPHY OF JESSE CRAPO" By David D. Burns, M. Div., updated 28 May 2023. His Find A Grave member# is 47319474)
[[[PLEASE, OUT OF HONOR FOR TWO CIVIL WAR VETERANS DO NOT UPLOAD PICTURES PURPORTED TO BE THAT OF JESSE J. CRAPO EITHER TO THIS CENOTAPH OR TO JESSE'S SEVEN PINES MEMORIAL. THE PICTURE WILL NOT BE OF JESSE J. CRAPO WHO WAS ONLY 18 YEARS OLD WHEN HE DIED. RATHER THE PICTURE IS THAT OF WARREN G. HILL WHO WAS CLOSE TO 40 YEARS OLD WHEN THE FAMILY PORTRAIT WAS TAKEN. IT IS FROM THE FAMILY PORTRAIT THAT HIS PIC HAS BEEN EXCERPTED. LOOK THROUGH THE PICTURES ON WARREN'S MEMORIAL TO SEE THE FAMILY PORTRAIT IN A BOOK.]]]
JESSE J. CRAPO CENOTAPH:
This memorial is a cenotaph for Jesse J. Crapo (April 19 1844 – June 17, 1862). Jesse died of disease during the Civil War. Since the burial location of Jesse J. Crapo is unknown, we plan to have a stone made for him to place in the Lot of his parents, David and Mercy "Marcia" Crapo, at Lakeside Cemetery, Lake Odessa, Michigan. This is the cemetery in which he would have been buried had his body been returned.
Another memorial also exists for Jesse Crapo. There has been a long history of dispute with the original creator of that memorial over whether or not Jesse Crapo was buried at Seven Pines National Cemetery, in Henrico County, Virginia. Between this author and his wife, both memorials are now managed by us. The Seven Pines memorial still contains the original manager's bio and can be seen at the bottom of the page. The Seven Pines memorial can be seen here: Jesse J. Crapo.
JESSE J. CRAPO BIO:
Jesse J. Crapo was born April 19, 1844 in Bloomville, Seneca, Ohio to David Crapo and Mercy E. Sowle. Jesse was named after his grandfather, Jesse Crapo, who lived his entire life in Massachusetts. Shortly after the birth of their daughter Sophia on 25 May 1833, David and Mercy Crapo moved their family from Bristol County, Massachusett to Bloom Township in Seneca County, Ohio.
During that same year of 1833 and before winter set in Phebe Howland Crapo traveled from Dartmouth, Massachusetts to Seneca County, Ohio to visit her son David and his family who had settled in the small town of Republic. There he and his family lived in a log cabin.(1a) By 1860 David had moved to a farm in Odessa Township, Ionia County, Michigan where Jesse is recorded on the census as a farm hand, likely on the family farm.
Over the years tensions between the North and the South had been growing. On December 20, 1860 the secession of southern states from the Union began with South Carolina being the first. By February 4, 1861 the seven of the states who had seceded met and formed the Confederate States of America.(1b) One month later on March 4, 1861 Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as the 16th president of the United States amid a growing conflict. The bloodiest war in American History would begin only one month later on April 12, 1861 when Confederates fired on the Union held Fort Sumpter in South Carolina. Three days later on the 15th President Lincoln issued a call for "militia of the several States of the Union, to the aggregate number of seventy-five thousand, in order to suppress said combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed." (2) Quotas were assigned to each state; Michigan Governor Austin Blair pledged his state would do more.(3)
The Third Michigan Infantry was formed in May of 1861 at Grand Rapids and ultimately included troops from the areas of Lansing, Lyons, Saranac, and Grand Rapids.(4) It was officially recognized by Michigan on May 13, 1861, mustered into State service May 21, 1861, and mustered into United States service June 10, 1861.(5) As the men trained for war at Camp Anderson, located at the Kent County Agricultural Fairgrounds, the women of the newly formed Grand Rapids Soldiers' Aid Society went to work making and sewing items that would be useful for their men to take along with them. Their most noted achievement was the creation of the infantry flag that the Third would carry into battle:
Their final product was six-foot square made of blue silk with heavy yellow fringe. On the front, embroidered in "corn-colored silk," was the U.S. coat of arms with the words "Volunteers, Third Regiment, Mich." On the obverse, the same coat of arms was accompanied by the words "The Ladies of Grand Rapids to the third Michigan Infantry." ….The flag was placed on a mahogany pike with a gilt spearhead and silken tassels.(6)
On June 3 the ladies with great pomp and circumstance presented the flag to the men of the Third at Camp Anderson. A week later on June 10, 1861 the Third Michigan Infantry was mustered into service.
On June 13, 1861 at 8:30 in the morning the 1040 officers and men of the Third Michigan Infantry left Camp Anderson in their blue-clad uniforms and marched to the Grand Rapids train station. Some 15,000 people lined the streets cheering and waving handkerchiefs while the young girls showered the men with flowers.(7) The Third Michigan Infantry website gives an accounting of their departure:
…ten companies of the 3rd Michigan Infantry Regiment of Volunteers, led by its regimental band and the field and staff officers, left their quarters at Cantonment Anderson on the site of the Kent County agricultural fairgrounds, about two and a half miles south of the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The regiment marched north up the Kalamazoo Plank road (present-day Division street) into the city.
The companies turned down Monroe street to Canal street and headed north to the Detroit & Milwaukee railroad depot, near what is today the corner of Plainfield and Leonard streets. Upon reaching the train station, more than 1,000 men boarded two special trains heading east. The trains passed through Ada, St. Johns, Owosso, Pontiac and terminated in Detroit, where the 3rd Michigan was feted by the citizens. The men then boarded two boats for a night cruise to Cleveland, Ohio.
From Cleveland they went by rail to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and then on to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Baltimore, Maryland, and arrived in Washington, DC, on Sunday June 16. They marched north out of the city and set up their first camp, Camp Blair (after then Michigan governor Austin Blair) near the Chain Bridge, overlooking the Potomac River....(8)
At every station from Michigan to Ohio to Pennsylvania the men were met with wild enthusiasm.(9)
Nine months later on March 11, 1862, but without any of the fanfare, Jesse Crapo enlisted for three years in Company E, Third Michigan Infantry at Saranac, Michigan. On April 19th he would become 18 years old, the minimum enlistment age in the North. He was mustered on March 31, 1862.(10) Jesse "stood 5'10" with gray eyes, dark hair and a light complexion."(11) Jesse's journey to the South likely took the same route taken by the Third a year prior.
During the month of March 1862, the Third Michigan Infantry, commanded by Col. Stephen G. Champlin, was assigned to General Berry's Third Brigade, Major General Philip Kearney' Third Division (assigned Apr 30, 1862), Brigadier General Samuel P. Heintzelman's Third Army Corps. The entire Army of the Potomac made up of all the corps was led by Major General George Brinton McClellan. Their assignment was the Peninsular Campaign whose goal was to take the Confederate Capitol of Richmond.(12)
Jesse was just in time for the Peninsular Campaign in Virginia. In less than two months after his enlistment Jesse found himself at the Battle of Williamsburg on a day of heavy rain, May 5, 1862. While the Third only lost one man, a total of about 1300 men were killed and some 3000 wounded on the side of the Union that day; but the Army of the Potomac won the battle.
The Third Michigan did not so much play an offensive roll in the battle as a defensive one. The Third "was part of a reserve that Heintzelman positioned to support an artillery battery that had changed hands several times during the battle." George Miller of the Third said, "We did not go down to the battle field till just about dusk when the fighting ceased…."(13) Major General Philip Kearney, a.k.a. "The One Armed Devil," had ordered the men of the Third Michigan into battle, but just as they were about to engage, the general called it off because of darkness. However, during that short period of time the Third Michigan Infantry suffered its only casualty of the day. Private David Stone of Company H was killed in action.(14)
After the battle the men camped in the Chickahominy Swamp. Ezra Ransom of Company B in the Third Michigan Infantry wrote that many of the men "got fever, some died, many sent to the rear."(15) Daniel Crotty of Company F in the Third Michigan Infantry, records that "the night after the battle was a fearfully wet and muddy one. We try to take care of the wounded the best we can, and have to wade in knee deep mud on the roads and in the fields; but the longest night must have an end, and so did the night after the battle of Williamsburg…and the morning of the 6th dawns lovely and bright. The birds sing over our heads, we build fires, cook our coffee, and are happy again."(16)
Early the next morning on May 6th it was discovered that the Confederate troops had abandoned their positions. The men of the North were exuberant and confident that Richmond would now be theirs in a few days. Meantime, their task now was to bury the dead who were everywhere.(17) This was the first real battle for the men of the Third and the battlefield scene of dead bodies strewn about was emotionally disturbing. Once completed they marched through Williamsburg on their way to Richmond slowly slogging their way on the Richmond Road knee deep in mud at places. Marching was difficult because of the heavy rains that had fallen the day of the battle.
About five miles east 5 miles of Richmond ran the Chickahominy River in a southeasterly direction. The fleeing Confederates had burnt all the bridges across the river. The bridges could be rebuilt fairly quickly because it was not wide except during heavy rains. Its real difficulty was the swamp that surrounded both sides of the river. For purposes of strategy General McClellan had sent two of his five corps, the Third and Fourth, to the south side or the Richmond side of the river which was under the control of the Confederates. The men who crossed took only the essential items needed for fighting. The rest of their supplies were left on the north bank where the majority of the Union troops remained.(18)
General Heintzelman's Third Corps, which included the Third Michigan Infantry, was one of the two corps that crossed the bridges to the south bank. It was a risky move to split the troops, since the south side of the river was still controlled by the Confederates.(19)
By the end of the month the Third Michigan Infantry would find themselves at Fair Oaks Station near Richmond, Virginia. Here on May 31-June 1, 1862 a battle would take place which would come to be known as the Battle of Seven Pines by the Confederates and the Battle of Fair Oaks by the Union.
At the Battle of Fair Oaks Jesse would encounter and survive his second battle despite the heavy losses encountered by the Michigan Third. Thirty of the Third's men were killed with 134 wounded and 15 missing. Both sides claimed victory. Both General Berry, commander of the Brigade, and General Phil Kearney, commander of the Division gave the men a special commendation for having fought gallantly.(20a)
On May 31, the 1st day of the Battle of Fair Oaks, Dr. Zenas E. Bliss, assistant surgeon of the Third, who was from the same Michigan county as Jesse, initially set up a field hospital near the battlefield. However later that same day, he moved it well behind Union lines at Savage's Station, just over five miles from the battle front. Savage Station "was the wartime name of a supply depot, ammunition dump, field hospital, and command headquarters of the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War....[It]was located in Henrico County, Virginia on what was the Richmond and York River Railroad....A farmhouse is known to have been located in a copse of trees on a small knoll next to the railroad track and is visible in several period drawings and photographs made during the war. The farm house served as the nucleus of a large field hospital during and after the battle of Seven Pines and the Seven Days Battles. The house also functioned as the headquarter for General George B. McClellan during the battle of Savage's Station on June 29, 1862."(20b) In his official report Dr. Bliss states the rationale for moving his field hospital to there on the day of the Battle of Fair Oaks:
For the triple reason of securing an abundance of good water, better security for the wounded. As well as to have them near the railroad station for removal after operations, I established a depot, erected a table in a large log tobacco house, without floors, about fifteen rods from the railroad depot, and night and day was almost constantly engaged in dressing and operating upon the wounded from various regiments, from Saturday evening, May 31st, until Wednesday evening, June 4th.(21)
At some point after the battle the wounded were then taken across the Chickahominy River, loaded onto railroad flatcars, and taken to White House Landing located about 30 miles away on the south side of the Pamunkey River. From there they sailed down the York River on a small steamer to Fort Monroe some 65 miles away where a makeshift hospital had been created. It was manned by hospital stewards because all the doctors were on the battle front. From this would eventually emerge the Hampton Virginia Medical Center. Some of the wounded were transferred by ship to more adequately staffed hospitals in Philadelphia or Washington DC eight days later.(22)
That month, the month of June 1862—only 3 months after he enlisted—Jesse became sick with Typhoid Fever; he was sent to the field hospital at Bottom's Bridge, Virginia. Bottom's Bridge was a bridge that spanned the Chickahominy River in Virginia.(23) From there the army moved on to Savage Station.
According to Third Michigan Infantry researcher and writer Steve Soper, Jesse "died of typhoid fever at either Fair Oaks or Savage Station, Virginia on June 17, 1862" and is presumably buried at one of those locations. "The Record of Service of Michigan Volunteers in the Civil War, 1861-1865," published by the Michigan Legislature in 1905 only mentions that he "Died of disease at Fair Oaks, Virginia, June 17, 1862.(24)
By the time the Third Michigan Infantry was disbanded on June 20, 1864 some 1432 men would have joined this regiment, 110 would be killed in battle, 65 would die of wounds, 15 would die in Confederate Prisons, 81 would die of disease, and 404 would be discharged due to battle wounds.(25) Disease was a major factor in the death's of men in the Civil War and Jesse was no exception. "For every three soldiers killed in battle, five more died of disease."(26) The primary illnesses were typhoid fever, diarrhea, dysentery, and pneumonia.(27) Jesse died of typhoid fever.
The absolute devastation disease had on the Third Michigan Infantry is clearly reflected in this article published by the Daily Press. In the article they discuss the exact area in which Jesse fought and died:
Few American armies have been more humbled by the reality of war than the Army of the Potomac during its summer 1862 march up the Peninsula from Fort Monroe to Richmond….Beginning with the May 5 Battle of Williamsburg — and continuing in clash after clash during the struggle for Richmond — the grim ferocity of the rifled musket and .58-caliber Minie ball exacted a toll no one expected. Still more crippling was the fearful number stricken by typhoid, dysentery, malaria and Chickahominy fever, which swept through the Union ranks so relentlessly that the camps of the sick and wounded swelled to 20,000 soldiers….
So dire was this unprecedented medical crisis that Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan plead for help, spawning a fleet of hospital ships that evacuated the sprawling wards on the Pamunkey River first — and then the epic expanses of tents at Harrison's Landing on the James River.
When that flood overflowed the hospitals to the north in early August, the steamers ferried thousands to the east bank of the Hampton River, where hundreds of carpenters labored to complete the vast triangle of wards that soon boasted the second largest number of beds in the North's hospital system….
Hampton hospital got its start in the small 4-ward clinic that served the garrison of 350 men defending Fort Monroe at the start of the war.(28)
According to one unsubstantiated story that currently circulates, the body of Jesse Crapo was supposed to have been returned home to his parents who lived in Odessa Township, MI, but it was lost in the confusion of war. Supposedly David Crapo's brother, Governor Henry Howland Crapo of Michigan, was involved in the effort that proved to be futile to have his son's lost body recovered and returned. Instead the body of Jesse ended up being buried at an unidentified location instead.
The facts are these: Henry Howland Crapo was not governor yet when Jesse died on June 17, 1862. He was governor from 1864-1868. So any effort by Henry Crapo to find Jesse's body if true would have been more likely during his term as a state senator (1862-1864). However, I have not yet seen any documentation for this. Governor Crapo's part in the story if any needs to be researched yet.
It is true that Jesse's body ended up being buried at an unknown location which is currently lost to history. There is absolutely no historical evidence for Jesse being buried in the Seven Pines National Cemetery. My extensive research has born this out. It is only one of several places in which his bodily remains could be buried.
The Seven Pines National Cemetery was established in 1866, some four years after Jesse's death. The bodies of soldiers who had been buried in known locations throughout the Fair Oaks area were exhumed in re-interred in the newly established cemetery. The original burial records of the Seven Pines are a sad commentary on the casualties of the Civil War. The number of unknown soldiers it contains is shocking and staggering.
I wish I could locate Jesse's final resting place whether in Seven Pines or elsewhere, but so far the evidence has eluded me. Jesse was likely buried at Bottom's Bridge, Savage's Station, or Fair Oaks. If he was disinterred and reburied 4 years later at the establishment of Seven Pines National Cemetery, he would most likely be one of the many unknown soldiers buried there.
Another alternative is that he may have been loaded on a flatbed railcar to be transported east to a medical facility for treatment as happened regularly with the sick and wounded only to die along the way or to die in the medical facility as an unknown soldier. Regardless, his remains may never have been recovered and may be buried in their original location to this day.(29)
On July 4, 1866 a large ceremony, with at least 70,000 people in attendance, was held in Detroit, Michigan. "Michigan's scarred, bloody, and bullet-torn battle flags were presented to the state by the men who had carried and fought under them. General Willcox spoke on their behalf, remarking that the flags were 'tattered but not stained, emblems of a war that is past. We shall ever retain our pride in their glorious associations, as well as our love for the old Peninsular State.'"(30)
On behalf of the state of Michigan, Governor Henry Crapo, Jesse Crapo's uncle, accepted the flags and promised that "they will not be forgotten and their histories left unwritten. Let us tenderly deposit them, as sacred relics, in the archives of our state, there to stand forever, her proudest possession."(31) On Jan 1, 1879, at the opening of the new Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, the flags were proudly displayed in the new military museum within the Capitol building.(32)
On 18 May 1885 Jesse's mother, Mercy, applied for his military pension, but for reasons unknown it appears never to have been granted.(33)
___________________________
FOOTNOTES
1a. "Certain Comeoverers," Vol. 1 (pub 1912 by Henry Howland Crapo, Jr., p. 228.
1b. "Fort Sumter and the Opening Shots of Civil War," (https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/problem-charleston-harbor).
2. "Fort Sumter and the Opening Shots of Civil War," (https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/problem-charleston-harbor); President Lincoln's 75,000 volunteers.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_Lincoln%27s_75,000_volunteers).
3. "Michigan in the American Civil War," p. 3 (https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Publications/CivilWar.pdf)
4. "FIRST MICHIGAN LIGHT ARTILLERY TO THIRD MICHIGAN INFANTRY" (http://capitol.michigan.gov/SlideShow2 ); The"Glorious Old Third" A History of the Third Michigan Infantry 1855 to 1927 by Steve Soper, p. 90..
5. Union Regimental Histories, Michigan: 3rd Regimental Infantry (http://www.civilwararchive.com/Unreghst/unmiinf1.htm#3rd).
6. "Grand Rapids and the Civil War" by Roger L. Rosentreter (The History Press, Charleston, SC, 2018), pp. 12-13.
7. "Grand Rapids and the Civil War" by Roger L. Rosentreter (The History Press, Charleston, SC, 2018), p, 14.
8. See Steve Soper's "History of the 3rd Michigan Infantry and its men" at https://thirdmichigan.blogspot.com/p/a-very-brief-history-at-830-on-morning.html.
9. "Fours Years Campaigning in the Army of the Potomac" by Color Sergeant, D. G. Crotty, Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry (Dygert Bros. & Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 1874), p.14 (https://archive.org/details/fouryearscamp00crotrich/page/n6/mode/2up).
10. "Record of service of Michigan volunteers in the Civil War, 1861-1865," Vol 3, p. 30 (by Michigan, Adjunct General's Office & George H. Turner, pub. 1905): https://archive.org/details/recordofserviceo03mich/page/n83/mode/2up.
Michigan. Adjutant General's Office; Turner, George H
11. https://thirdmichigan.blogspot.com/search?q=Jesse+Crapo, formerly at http://www.oldthirdmichigan.org/thirdmichigan-news/2008/05/jesse-i-crapo.html?rq=Crapo.
12. Union Regimental Histories, Michigan: 3rd Regimental Infantry (http://www.civilwararchive.com/Unreghst/unmiinf1.htm#3rd); "The Virginia Campaigns March – August 1862" by Christopher L. Kolakowski (Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington, D.C., 2016), p. 26 (https://history.army.mil/html/books/075/75-5/cmhPub_75-5.pdf); "Major General Philip Kearny" (https://armyhistory.org/major-general-philip-kearny/).
13. "Grandpa Hill's Civil War: The Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry, 1861-65" by David Robinson, Chapt. 9.
14. "Grandpa Hill's Civil War: The Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry, 1861-65" by David Robinson, Chapt. 9.
15. "Grandpa Hill's Civil War: The Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry, 1861-65" by David Robinson, Chapt. 9.
16. "Fours Years Campaigning in the Army of the Potomac" by Color Sergeant, D. G. Crotty, Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry (Dygert Bros. & Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 1874), p. 44 (https://archive.org/details/fouryearscamp00crotrich/page/44/mode/2up).
17. "Fours Years Campaigning in the Army of the Potomac" by Color Sergeant, D. G. Crotty, Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry (Dygert Bros. & Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 1874), p. 44 (https://archive.org/details/fouryearscamp00crotrich/page/44/mode/2up).
18. The Virginia Campaigns March – August 1862" by Christopher L. Kolakowski (Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington, D.C., 2016), p. 31 (https://history.army.mil/html/books/075/75-5/cmhPub_75-5.pdf); The"Glorious Old Third" A History of the Third Michigan Infantry 1855 to 1927 by Steve Soper, p. 274; "Peninsula Campaign of 1862," Military History Encyclopedia on the Web, (http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_peninsular1862.html).
19. The Virginia Campaigns March – August 1862" by Christopher L. Kolakowski (Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington, D.C., 2016), p. 31 (https://history.army.mil/html/books/075/75-5/cmhPub_75-5.pdf).
20a. "Grandpa Hill's Civil War: The Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry, 1861-65" by David Robinson, Chapt. 9; "3rd Regiment Michigan Volunteer Infantry" (http://www.migenweb.org/michiganinthewar/infantry/3rdinf.htm).
20b. Wikipedia contributors. Savage's Station, Virginia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. March 12, 2022, 17:09 UTC. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Savage%27s_Station,_Virginia&oldid=1076732826. Accessed September 16, 2022.
21. "The 'Glorious Old Third' A History of the Third Michigan Infantry 1855-1927" by Steve Soper (Published by Old Third Publishing, http://www.oldthirdmichigan.org, 2007), p. 279.
22. "Grandpa Hill's Civil War: The Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry, 1861-65" by David Robinson, Chapt. 10.
23. "Men of the 3rd Michigan Infantry, Abbott to Cutler," by Steve Soper, p. 477. Can also be found online at Steve Soper's website (https://thirdmichigan.blogspot.com/search?q=Jesse+Crapo). According to Steve Soper Jesse "was sick with typhoid fever in the hospital at bottom's Bridge, Virginia in June of 1862, and in fact he died of typhoid fever at either Fair Oaks or Savage Station, Virginia, on June 17, 1862. He was presumably buried near Fair Oaks or Savage Station," p. 477.
24. Jesse I. Crapo by Steve Soper, May 18, 2008. ("Jesse I. Crapo" by Steve Soper (https://thirdmichigan.blogspot.com/search?q=Jesse+Crapo); In Steve Soper's "The Glorious Old 3rd: Biographical Sketches of the Men who Served in the 3rd Michigan Infantry Veteran Volunteers 1861-1864, Abbott-Cutler," p. 477, it is footnoted that "Franklin Everett noted that Crapo died at Fair Oaks; see Memorials of the Grand River Valley, p. 305." In Franklin Everett's book Jesse's name appears in a long list of names under the heading, "The Martyrs of the War. Ionia County," and the full entry says, "Jesse I Crapo; 3d I., Co. E. Fair Oaks" (Everett, Franklin. Memorials of the Grand River Valley. United States, Chicago legal news Company, 1878., p. 305 as found online at Google Books). Franklin says he partially obtained information for his list from the following record: "The Record of Service of Michigan Volunteers in the Civil War, 1861-1865," Vol 3 published by the Michigan Legislature in 1905, p. 30 says, "Crapo, or Krapo, Jesse I. or J.,….Died of disease at Fair Oaks, VA, June 17, 1862." Any original handwritten documents giving proof of date and place of Jesse's death have yet to be found and researched by the author of this document.
25. http://www.migenweb.org/michiganinthewar/infantry/3rdinf.htm
26. "Civil war Casualties," (https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-casualties)
27. Myers, Robert C. "Mortality in the Twelfth Michigan Volunteer Infantry, 1861-1866," p. 46-47 (Michigan Historical Review, vol. 20, no. 1, 1994, pp. 29–47. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20173432. Accessed 21 Apr. 2020).
28. "Huge Hampton military hospital spawned by the Civil War opened this week in 1862" by Mark St. John Erickson (https://www.dailypress.com/history/dp-nws-civil-war-hospitals-20120817-story.html)
29. Steve Soper says, "Many of the 195 men buried in Virginia are probably interred in unknown graves scattered throughout the state, like so many thousands of soldiers. For example, it is likely that of the estimated 35 men who died at Fair Oaks, Virginia, on May 31, 1862, all are interred in Seven Pines National Cemetery, although we know exact locations for only a fraction of that number. And the men who died at Groveton on August 29, 1862, their remains were reportedly brought to Arlington National Cemetery and interred in a mass grave very close to the Custis-Lee mansion" (http://www.oldthirdmichigan.org/burial-sites/). According to the University of Virginia the burial place of Jesse Crapo is unknown, per conversation with the University of Virginia in about 2011.
30-33. Excerpts from "Michigan in the American Civil War," prepared by the Michigan Legislature, pp. 18-19 (https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Publications/CivilWar.pdf).
33. The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Record Group Title: Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, 1773 - 2007; Record Group Number: 15; Series Title: U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934; Series Number: T288 ; "Jesse I. Crapo" by Steve Soper (http://www.oldthirdmichigan.org/thirdmichigan-news/2008/05/jesse-i-crapo.html?rq=jesse. The article can also be seen at http://thirdmichigan.blogspot.com/2008/05/jesse-i-crapo.html).
(The above is a copy of "A BIOGRAPHY OF JESSE CRAPO" By David D. Burns, M. Div., updated 28 May 2023. His Find A Grave member# is 47319474)
JESSE J. CRAPO CENOTAPH:
This memorial is a cenotaph for Jesse J. Crapo (April 19 1844 – June 17, 1862). Jesse died of disease during the Civil War. Since the burial location of Jesse J. Crapo is unknown, we plan to have a stone made for him to place in the Lot of his parents, David and Mercy "Marcia" Crapo, at Lakeside Cemetery, Lake Odessa, Michigan. This is the cemetery in which he would have been buried had his body been returned.
Another memorial also exists for Jesse Crapo. There has been a long history of dispute with the original creator of that memorial over whether or not Jesse Crapo was buried at Seven Pines National Cemetery, in Henrico County, Virginia. Between this author and his wife, both memorials are now managed by us. The Seven Pines memorial still contains the original manager's bio and can be seen at the bottom of the page. The Seven Pines memorial can be seen here: Jesse J. Crapo.
JESSE J. CRAPO BIO:
Jesse J. Crapo was born April 19, 1844 in Bloomville, Seneca, Ohio to David Crapo and Mercy E. Sowle. Jesse was named after his grandfather, Jesse Crapo, who lived his entire life in Massachusetts. Shortly after the birth of their daughter Sophia on 25 May 1833, David and Mercy Crapo moved their family from Bristol County, Massachusett to Bloom Township in Seneca County, Ohio.
During that same year of 1833 and before winter set in Phebe Howland Crapo traveled from Dartmouth, Massachusetts to Seneca County, Ohio to visit her son David and his family who had settled in the small town of Republic. There he and his family lived in a log cabin.(1a) By 1860 David had moved to a farm in Odessa Township, Ionia County, Michigan where Jesse is recorded on the census as a farm hand, likely on the family farm.
Over the years tensions between the North and the South had been growing. On December 20, 1860 the secession of southern states from the Union began with South Carolina being the first. By February 4, 1861 the seven of the states who had seceded met and formed the Confederate States of America.(1b) One month later on March 4, 1861 Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as the 16th president of the United States amid a growing conflict. The bloodiest war in American History would begin only one month later on April 12, 1861 when Confederates fired on the Union held Fort Sumpter in South Carolina. Three days later on the 15th President Lincoln issued a call for "militia of the several States of the Union, to the aggregate number of seventy-five thousand, in order to suppress said combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed." (2) Quotas were assigned to each state; Michigan Governor Austin Blair pledged his state would do more.(3)
The Third Michigan Infantry was formed in May of 1861 at Grand Rapids and ultimately included troops from the areas of Lansing, Lyons, Saranac, and Grand Rapids.(4) It was officially recognized by Michigan on May 13, 1861, mustered into State service May 21, 1861, and mustered into United States service June 10, 1861.(5) As the men trained for war at Camp Anderson, located at the Kent County Agricultural Fairgrounds, the women of the newly formed Grand Rapids Soldiers' Aid Society went to work making and sewing items that would be useful for their men to take along with them. Their most noted achievement was the creation of the infantry flag that the Third would carry into battle:
Their final product was six-foot square made of blue silk with heavy yellow fringe. On the front, embroidered in "corn-colored silk," was the U.S. coat of arms with the words "Volunteers, Third Regiment, Mich." On the obverse, the same coat of arms was accompanied by the words "The Ladies of Grand Rapids to the third Michigan Infantry." ….The flag was placed on a mahogany pike with a gilt spearhead and silken tassels.(6)
On June 3 the ladies with great pomp and circumstance presented the flag to the men of the Third at Camp Anderson. A week later on June 10, 1861 the Third Michigan Infantry was mustered into service.
On June 13, 1861 at 8:30 in the morning the 1040 officers and men of the Third Michigan Infantry left Camp Anderson in their blue-clad uniforms and marched to the Grand Rapids train station. Some 15,000 people lined the streets cheering and waving handkerchiefs while the young girls showered the men with flowers.(7) The Third Michigan Infantry website gives an accounting of their departure:
…ten companies of the 3rd Michigan Infantry Regiment of Volunteers, led by its regimental band and the field and staff officers, left their quarters at Cantonment Anderson on the site of the Kent County agricultural fairgrounds, about two and a half miles south of the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The regiment marched north up the Kalamazoo Plank road (present-day Division street) into the city.
The companies turned down Monroe street to Canal street and headed north to the Detroit & Milwaukee railroad depot, near what is today the corner of Plainfield and Leonard streets. Upon reaching the train station, more than 1,000 men boarded two special trains heading east. The trains passed through Ada, St. Johns, Owosso, Pontiac and terminated in Detroit, where the 3rd Michigan was feted by the citizens. The men then boarded two boats for a night cruise to Cleveland, Ohio.
From Cleveland they went by rail to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and then on to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Baltimore, Maryland, and arrived in Washington, DC, on Sunday June 16. They marched north out of the city and set up their first camp, Camp Blair (after then Michigan governor Austin Blair) near the Chain Bridge, overlooking the Potomac River....(8)
At every station from Michigan to Ohio to Pennsylvania the men were met with wild enthusiasm.(9)
Nine months later on March 11, 1862, but without any of the fanfare, Jesse Crapo enlisted for three years in Company E, Third Michigan Infantry at Saranac, Michigan. On April 19th he would become 18 years old, the minimum enlistment age in the North. He was mustered on March 31, 1862.(10) Jesse "stood 5'10" with gray eyes, dark hair and a light complexion."(11) Jesse's journey to the South likely took the same route taken by the Third a year prior.
During the month of March 1862, the Third Michigan Infantry, commanded by Col. Stephen G. Champlin, was assigned to General Berry's Third Brigade, Major General Philip Kearney' Third Division (assigned Apr 30, 1862), Brigadier General Samuel P. Heintzelman's Third Army Corps. The entire Army of the Potomac made up of all the corps was led by Major General George Brinton McClellan. Their assignment was the Peninsular Campaign whose goal was to take the Confederate Capitol of Richmond.(12)
Jesse was just in time for the Peninsular Campaign in Virginia. In less than two months after his enlistment Jesse found himself at the Battle of Williamsburg on a day of heavy rain, May 5, 1862. While the Third only lost one man, a total of about 1300 men were killed and some 3000 wounded on the side of the Union that day; but the Army of the Potomac won the battle.
The Third Michigan did not so much play an offensive roll in the battle as a defensive one. The Third "was part of a reserve that Heintzelman positioned to support an artillery battery that had changed hands several times during the battle." George Miller of the Third said, "We did not go down to the battle field till just about dusk when the fighting ceased…."(13) Major General Philip Kearney, a.k.a. "The One Armed Devil," had ordered the men of the Third Michigan into battle, but just as they were about to engage, the general called it off because of darkness. However, during that short period of time the Third Michigan Infantry suffered its only casualty of the day. Private David Stone of Company H was killed in action.(14)
After the battle the men camped in the Chickahominy Swamp. Ezra Ransom of Company B in the Third Michigan Infantry wrote that many of the men "got fever, some died, many sent to the rear."(15) Daniel Crotty of Company F in the Third Michigan Infantry, records that "the night after the battle was a fearfully wet and muddy one. We try to take care of the wounded the best we can, and have to wade in knee deep mud on the roads and in the fields; but the longest night must have an end, and so did the night after the battle of Williamsburg…and the morning of the 6th dawns lovely and bright. The birds sing over our heads, we build fires, cook our coffee, and are happy again."(16)
Early the next morning on May 6th it was discovered that the Confederate troops had abandoned their positions. The men of the North were exuberant and confident that Richmond would now be theirs in a few days. Meantime, their task now was to bury the dead who were everywhere.(17) This was the first real battle for the men of the Third and the battlefield scene of dead bodies strewn about was emotionally disturbing. Once completed they marched through Williamsburg on their way to Richmond slowly slogging their way on the Richmond Road knee deep in mud at places. Marching was difficult because of the heavy rains that had fallen the day of the battle.
About five miles east 5 miles of Richmond ran the Chickahominy River in a southeasterly direction. The fleeing Confederates had burnt all the bridges across the river. The bridges could be rebuilt fairly quickly because it was not wide except during heavy rains. Its real difficulty was the swamp that surrounded both sides of the river. For purposes of strategy General McClellan had sent two of his five corps, the Third and Fourth, to the south side or the Richmond side of the river which was under the control of the Confederates. The men who crossed took only the essential items needed for fighting. The rest of their supplies were left on the north bank where the majority of the Union troops remained.(18)
General Heintzelman's Third Corps, which included the Third Michigan Infantry, was one of the two corps that crossed the bridges to the south bank. It was a risky move to split the troops, since the south side of the river was still controlled by the Confederates.(19)
By the end of the month the Third Michigan Infantry would find themselves at Fair Oaks Station near Richmond, Virginia. Here on May 31-June 1, 1862 a battle would take place which would come to be known as the Battle of Seven Pines by the Confederates and the Battle of Fair Oaks by the Union.
At the Battle of Fair Oaks Jesse would encounter and survive his second battle despite the heavy losses encountered by the Michigan Third. Thirty of the Third's men were killed with 134 wounded and 15 missing. Both sides claimed victory. Both General Berry, commander of the Brigade, and General Phil Kearney, commander of the Division gave the men a special commendation for having fought gallantly.(20a)
On May 31, the 1st day of the Battle of Fair Oaks, Dr. Zenas E. Bliss, assistant surgeon of the Third, who was from the same Michigan county as Jesse, initially set up a field hospital near the battlefield. However later that same day, he moved it well behind Union lines at Savage's Station, just over five miles from the battle front. Savage Station "was the wartime name of a supply depot, ammunition dump, field hospital, and command headquarters of the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War....[It]was located in Henrico County, Virginia on what was the Richmond and York River Railroad....A farmhouse is known to have been located in a copse of trees on a small knoll next to the railroad track and is visible in several period drawings and photographs made during the war. The farm house served as the nucleus of a large field hospital during and after the battle of Seven Pines and the Seven Days Battles. The house also functioned as the headquarter for General George B. McClellan during the battle of Savage's Station on June 29, 1862."(20b) In his official report Dr. Bliss states the rationale for moving his field hospital to there on the day of the Battle of Fair Oaks:
For the triple reason of securing an abundance of good water, better security for the wounded. As well as to have them near the railroad station for removal after operations, I established a depot, erected a table in a large log tobacco house, without floors, about fifteen rods from the railroad depot, and night and day was almost constantly engaged in dressing and operating upon the wounded from various regiments, from Saturday evening, May 31st, until Wednesday evening, June 4th.(21)
At some point after the battle the wounded were then taken across the Chickahominy River, loaded onto railroad flatcars, and taken to White House Landing located about 30 miles away on the south side of the Pamunkey River. From there they sailed down the York River on a small steamer to Fort Monroe some 65 miles away where a makeshift hospital had been created. It was manned by hospital stewards because all the doctors were on the battle front. From this would eventually emerge the Hampton Virginia Medical Center. Some of the wounded were transferred by ship to more adequately staffed hospitals in Philadelphia or Washington DC eight days later.(22)
That month, the month of June 1862—only 3 months after he enlisted—Jesse became sick with Typhoid Fever; he was sent to the field hospital at Bottom's Bridge, Virginia. Bottom's Bridge was a bridge that spanned the Chickahominy River in Virginia.(23) From there the army moved on to Savage Station.
According to Third Michigan Infantry researcher and writer Steve Soper, Jesse "died of typhoid fever at either Fair Oaks or Savage Station, Virginia on June 17, 1862" and is presumably buried at one of those locations. "The Record of Service of Michigan Volunteers in the Civil War, 1861-1865," published by the Michigan Legislature in 1905 only mentions that he "Died of disease at Fair Oaks, Virginia, June 17, 1862.(24)
By the time the Third Michigan Infantry was disbanded on June 20, 1864 some 1432 men would have joined this regiment, 110 would be killed in battle, 65 would die of wounds, 15 would die in Confederate Prisons, 81 would die of disease, and 404 would be discharged due to battle wounds.(25) Disease was a major factor in the death's of men in the Civil War and Jesse was no exception. "For every three soldiers killed in battle, five more died of disease."(26) The primary illnesses were typhoid fever, diarrhea, dysentery, and pneumonia.(27) Jesse died of typhoid fever.
The absolute devastation disease had on the Third Michigan Infantry is clearly reflected in this article published by the Daily Press. In the article they discuss the exact area in which Jesse fought and died:
Few American armies have been more humbled by the reality of war than the Army of the Potomac during its summer 1862 march up the Peninsula from Fort Monroe to Richmond….Beginning with the May 5 Battle of Williamsburg — and continuing in clash after clash during the struggle for Richmond — the grim ferocity of the rifled musket and .58-caliber Minie ball exacted a toll no one expected. Still more crippling was the fearful number stricken by typhoid, dysentery, malaria and Chickahominy fever, which swept through the Union ranks so relentlessly that the camps of the sick and wounded swelled to 20,000 soldiers….
So dire was this unprecedented medical crisis that Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan plead for help, spawning a fleet of hospital ships that evacuated the sprawling wards on the Pamunkey River first — and then the epic expanses of tents at Harrison's Landing on the James River.
When that flood overflowed the hospitals to the north in early August, the steamers ferried thousands to the east bank of the Hampton River, where hundreds of carpenters labored to complete the vast triangle of wards that soon boasted the second largest number of beds in the North's hospital system….
Hampton hospital got its start in the small 4-ward clinic that served the garrison of 350 men defending Fort Monroe at the start of the war.(28)
According to one unsubstantiated story that currently circulates, the body of Jesse Crapo was supposed to have been returned home to his parents who lived in Odessa Township, MI, but it was lost in the confusion of war. Supposedly David Crapo's brother, Governor Henry Howland Crapo of Michigan, was involved in the effort that proved to be futile to have his son's lost body recovered and returned. Instead the body of Jesse ended up being buried at an unidentified location instead.
The facts are these: Henry Howland Crapo was not governor yet when Jesse died on June 17, 1862. He was governor from 1864-1868. So any effort by Henry Crapo to find Jesse's body if true would have been more likely during his term as a state senator (1862-1864). However, I have not yet seen any documentation for this. Governor Crapo's part in the story if any needs to be researched yet.
It is true that Jesse's body ended up being buried at an unknown location which is currently lost to history. There is absolutely no historical evidence for Jesse being buried in the Seven Pines National Cemetery. My extensive research has born this out. It is only one of several places in which his bodily remains could be buried.
The Seven Pines National Cemetery was established in 1866, some four years after Jesse's death. The bodies of soldiers who had been buried in known locations throughout the Fair Oaks area were exhumed in re-interred in the newly established cemetery. The original burial records of the Seven Pines are a sad commentary on the casualties of the Civil War. The number of unknown soldiers it contains is shocking and staggering.
I wish I could locate Jesse's final resting place whether in Seven Pines or elsewhere, but so far the evidence has eluded me. Jesse was likely buried at Bottom's Bridge, Savage's Station, or Fair Oaks. If he was disinterred and reburied 4 years later at the establishment of Seven Pines National Cemetery, he would most likely be one of the many unknown soldiers buried there.
Another alternative is that he may have been loaded on a flatbed railcar to be transported east to a medical facility for treatment as happened regularly with the sick and wounded only to die along the way or to die in the medical facility as an unknown soldier. Regardless, his remains may never have been recovered and may be buried in their original location to this day.(29)
On July 4, 1866 a large ceremony, with at least 70,000 people in attendance, was held in Detroit, Michigan. "Michigan's scarred, bloody, and bullet-torn battle flags were presented to the state by the men who had carried and fought under them. General Willcox spoke on their behalf, remarking that the flags were 'tattered but not stained, emblems of a war that is past. We shall ever retain our pride in their glorious associations, as well as our love for the old Peninsular State.'"(30)
On behalf of the state of Michigan, Governor Henry Crapo, Jesse Crapo's uncle, accepted the flags and promised that "they will not be forgotten and their histories left unwritten. Let us tenderly deposit them, as sacred relics, in the archives of our state, there to stand forever, her proudest possession."(31) On Jan 1, 1879, at the opening of the new Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, the flags were proudly displayed in the new military museum within the Capitol building.(32)
On 18 May 1885 Jesse's mother, Mercy, applied for his military pension, but for reasons unknown it appears never to have been granted.(33)
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FOOTNOTES
1a. "Certain Comeoverers," Vol. 1 (pub 1912 by Henry Howland Crapo, Jr., p. 228.
1b. "Fort Sumter and the Opening Shots of Civil War," (https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/problem-charleston-harbor).
2. "Fort Sumter and the Opening Shots of Civil War," (https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/problem-charleston-harbor); President Lincoln's 75,000 volunteers.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_Lincoln%27s_75,000_volunteers).
3. "Michigan in the American Civil War," p. 3 (https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Publications/CivilWar.pdf)
4. "FIRST MICHIGAN LIGHT ARTILLERY TO THIRD MICHIGAN INFANTRY" (http://capitol.michigan.gov/SlideShow2 ); The"Glorious Old Third" A History of the Third Michigan Infantry 1855 to 1927 by Steve Soper, p. 90..
5. Union Regimental Histories, Michigan: 3rd Regimental Infantry (http://www.civilwararchive.com/Unreghst/unmiinf1.htm#3rd).
6. "Grand Rapids and the Civil War" by Roger L. Rosentreter (The History Press, Charleston, SC, 2018), pp. 12-13.
7. "Grand Rapids and the Civil War" by Roger L. Rosentreter (The History Press, Charleston, SC, 2018), p, 14.
8. See Steve Soper's "History of the 3rd Michigan Infantry and its men" at https://thirdmichigan.blogspot.com/p/a-very-brief-history-at-830-on-morning.html.
9. "Fours Years Campaigning in the Army of the Potomac" by Color Sergeant, D. G. Crotty, Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry (Dygert Bros. & Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 1874), p.14 (https://archive.org/details/fouryearscamp00crotrich/page/n6/mode/2up).
10. "Record of service of Michigan volunteers in the Civil War, 1861-1865," Vol 3, p. 30 (by Michigan, Adjunct General's Office & George H. Turner, pub. 1905): https://archive.org/details/recordofserviceo03mich/page/n83/mode/2up.
Michigan. Adjutant General's Office; Turner, George H
11. https://thirdmichigan.blogspot.com/search?q=Jesse+Crapo, formerly at http://www.oldthirdmichigan.org/thirdmichigan-news/2008/05/jesse-i-crapo.html?rq=Crapo.
12. Union Regimental Histories, Michigan: 3rd Regimental Infantry (http://www.civilwararchive.com/Unreghst/unmiinf1.htm#3rd); "The Virginia Campaigns March – August 1862" by Christopher L. Kolakowski (Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington, D.C., 2016), p. 26 (https://history.army.mil/html/books/075/75-5/cmhPub_75-5.pdf); "Major General Philip Kearny" (https://armyhistory.org/major-general-philip-kearny/).
13. "Grandpa Hill's Civil War: The Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry, 1861-65" by David Robinson, Chapt. 9.
14. "Grandpa Hill's Civil War: The Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry, 1861-65" by David Robinson, Chapt. 9.
15. "Grandpa Hill's Civil War: The Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry, 1861-65" by David Robinson, Chapt. 9.
16. "Fours Years Campaigning in the Army of the Potomac" by Color Sergeant, D. G. Crotty, Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry (Dygert Bros. & Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 1874), p. 44 (https://archive.org/details/fouryearscamp00crotrich/page/44/mode/2up).
17. "Fours Years Campaigning in the Army of the Potomac" by Color Sergeant, D. G. Crotty, Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry (Dygert Bros. & Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 1874), p. 44 (https://archive.org/details/fouryearscamp00crotrich/page/44/mode/2up).
18. The Virginia Campaigns March – August 1862" by Christopher L. Kolakowski (Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington, D.C., 2016), p. 31 (https://history.army.mil/html/books/075/75-5/cmhPub_75-5.pdf); The"Glorious Old Third" A History of the Third Michigan Infantry 1855 to 1927 by Steve Soper, p. 274; "Peninsula Campaign of 1862," Military History Encyclopedia on the Web, (http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_peninsular1862.html).
19. The Virginia Campaigns March – August 1862" by Christopher L. Kolakowski (Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington, D.C., 2016), p. 31 (https://history.army.mil/html/books/075/75-5/cmhPub_75-5.pdf).
20a. "Grandpa Hill's Civil War: The Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry, 1861-65" by David Robinson, Chapt. 9; "3rd Regiment Michigan Volunteer Infantry" (http://www.migenweb.org/michiganinthewar/infantry/3rdinf.htm).
20b. Wikipedia contributors. Savage's Station, Virginia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. March 12, 2022, 17:09 UTC. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Savage%27s_Station,_Virginia&oldid=1076732826. Accessed September 16, 2022.
21. "The 'Glorious Old Third' A History of the Third Michigan Infantry 1855-1927" by Steve Soper (Published by Old Third Publishing, http://www.oldthirdmichigan.org, 2007), p. 279.
22. "Grandpa Hill's Civil War: The Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry, 1861-65" by David Robinson, Chapt. 10.
23. "Men of the 3rd Michigan Infantry, Abbott to Cutler," by Steve Soper, p. 477. Can also be found online at Steve Soper's website (https://thirdmichigan.blogspot.com/search?q=Jesse+Crapo). According to Steve Soper Jesse "was sick with typhoid fever in the hospital at bottom's Bridge, Virginia in June of 1862, and in fact he died of typhoid fever at either Fair Oaks or Savage Station, Virginia, on June 17, 1862. He was presumably buried near Fair Oaks or Savage Station," p. 477.
24. Jesse I. Crapo by Steve Soper, May 18, 2008. ("Jesse I. Crapo" by Steve Soper (https://thirdmichigan.blogspot.com/search?q=Jesse+Crapo); In Steve Soper's "The Glorious Old 3rd: Biographical Sketches of the Men who Served in the 3rd Michigan Infantry Veteran Volunteers 1861-1864, Abbott-Cutler," p. 477, it is footnoted that "Franklin Everett noted that Crapo died at Fair Oaks; see Memorials of the Grand River Valley, p. 305." In Franklin Everett's book Jesse's name appears in a long list of names under the heading, "The Martyrs of the War. Ionia County," and the full entry says, "Jesse I Crapo; 3d I., Co. E. Fair Oaks" (Everett, Franklin. Memorials of the Grand River Valley. United States, Chicago legal news Company, 1878., p. 305 as found online at Google Books). Franklin says he partially obtained information for his list from the following record: "The Record of Service of Michigan Volunteers in the Civil War, 1861-1865," Vol 3 published by the Michigan Legislature in 1905, p. 30 says, "Crapo, or Krapo, Jesse I. or J.,….Died of disease at Fair Oaks, VA, June 17, 1862." Any original handwritten documents giving proof of date and place of Jesse's death have yet to be found and researched by the author of this document.
25. http://www.migenweb.org/michiganinthewar/infantry/3rdinf.htm
26. "Civil war Casualties," (https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-casualties)
27. Myers, Robert C. "Mortality in the Twelfth Michigan Volunteer Infantry, 1861-1866," p. 46-47 (Michigan Historical Review, vol. 20, no. 1, 1994, pp. 29–47. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20173432. Accessed 21 Apr. 2020).
28. "Huge Hampton military hospital spawned by the Civil War opened this week in 1862" by Mark St. John Erickson (https://www.dailypress.com/history/dp-nws-civil-war-hospitals-20120817-story.html)
29. Steve Soper says, "Many of the 195 men buried in Virginia are probably interred in unknown graves scattered throughout the state, like so many thousands of soldiers. For example, it is likely that of the estimated 35 men who died at Fair Oaks, Virginia, on May 31, 1862, all are interred in Seven Pines National Cemetery, although we know exact locations for only a fraction of that number. And the men who died at Groveton on August 29, 1862, their remains were reportedly brought to Arlington National Cemetery and interred in a mass grave very close to the Custis-Lee mansion" (http://www.oldthirdmichigan.org/burial-sites/). According to the University of Virginia the burial place of Jesse Crapo is unknown, per conversation with the University of Virginia in about 2011.
30-33. Excerpts from "Michigan in the American Civil War," prepared by the Michigan Legislature, pp. 18-19 (https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Publications/CivilWar.pdf).
33. The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Record Group Title: Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, 1773 - 2007; Record Group Number: 15; Series Title: U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934; Series Number: T288 ; "Jesse I. Crapo" by Steve Soper (http://www.oldthirdmichigan.org/thirdmichigan-news/2008/05/jesse-i-crapo.html?rq=jesse. The article can also be seen at http://thirdmichigan.blogspot.com/2008/05/jesse-i-crapo.html).
(The above is a copy of "A BIOGRAPHY OF JESSE CRAPO" By David D. Burns, M. Div., updated 28 May 2023. His Find A Grave member# is 47319474)
Family Members
Siblings
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Sophia Crapo Tupper
1833–1909
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Anna M Crapo Ralston
1835–1863
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Hannah A Crapo Unger
1836–1893
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Phebe Jane Crapo Lovewell
1839–1901
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Mary Abbey Crapo Millison
1842–1868
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Thomas Henry Crapo
1846–1918
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Egara Crapo Shafer
1848–1926
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Alma Elizabeth Crapo Potts
1850–1928
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Martha "Mattie" Crapo VanHouten
1851–1912
Other Records
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