LANE, Daniel T. died 1864

LANE, DALY

Posted By: Carl Ingwalson (email)
Date: 4/13/2018 at 16:50:14

DANIEL T. LANE

Daniel Lane was born in the town of Newmarket in County Cork, Ireland. On February 28, 1843, he
married Ellen Daly and, on April 3, 1844, a daughter, Jane, was born. The family of three immigrated to the United States during Ireland’s potato famine and arrived in New York on September 20, 1850.

They lived in Glen Falls, New York, and Fulton, Illinois, before traveling by prairie schooner to Iowa where they settled in Mitchell County in 1855. A book published that same year, “Iowa As It Is in 1855; a Gazetter for Citizens and a Hand-book for Immigrants,” told readers that Iowa held out “inducements such as no other State in our Union can boast, nor is any other at this day being so largely flooded by the onward tide of immigration.” Newcomers were advised that “there are in Iowa nine Land-offices, each of which represents several counties” and it was through the land office in Dubuque that Daniel purchased forty acres.

Southern guns fired on Fort Sumter on February 12, 1861, and a war that no one had expected escalated rapidly. On January 1, 1863, Jane married George W. Hyde and that fall President Lincoln called for 300,000 more volunteers with Iowa to provide five regiments of roughly 1,000 men each.

Pursuant to this call, the state’s 21st Infantry was mustered into service on September 9, 1862, with 985 men (officers and enlisted) and left for war on the 16th.

A year and a half later - due to deaths from wounds and disease, resignations, transfers, discharges and a few desertions - their ranks were greatly depleted despite having added fifty-nine more recruits. On February 24, 1864, there were only 675 men on the rolls and many of them were no longer able for duty.

On the 25th, forty-four- year-old Daniel Lane signed a Volunteer Enlistment in Mitchell and swore “that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the United States of America, and that I will serve them honestly and faithfully against all their enemies or opposers.” Dr. Edward Guilbert said Daniel was “free from all bodily defects and mental infirmity” and Daniel was mustered into service while $15.00 was paid to J. H. Merrill for having secured the new recruit.

By the time Daniel started south, the 21st Infantry had been stationed along the Gulf Coast of Texas for almost five months. Daniel and several other recruits reached the regiment, then on Matagorda Island, on April 27, 1864. On June 11th, the right wing of the regiment, including Daniel, left Texas on board the Alabama and, on the 15th they arrived in New Orleans. Daniel died the next day.

Alfred Jones, Captain of Company A, explained that Daniel “was accidentally drowned in the Mississippi River at New Orleans while attempting to fill his canteen with water on the 16th day of June 1864.

The regiment being camped in Hamilton Square near the river. My knowledge of the above facts is obtained from the following source: Private M. Delany being present with him at the time immediately informed me and every effort made to save him but in vain.” Charles Gibeant, also of Company A, said they were camped on the bank of the river and “compelled to get water from the river. While private Lane was filling his canteen he sliped off a log he was standing on & fell into the water and was drowned.” Hamilton Square, now known as Palmer Park, is in the Carrollton neighborhood where the regiment had camped before going to Texas.

On September 13, 1864, Ellen applied (by mark) for a widow’s pension. The following January, the
Adjutant General’s Office verified Daniel’s service and, in February, the Surgeon General’s Office confirmed that Daniel had drowned. A pension still not having been granted, Ellen secured an affidavit from Eliza (by mark) and John Beecher who said they had lived in the same neighborhood in Ireland and had known Daniel and Ellen since childhood.

They had not attended their wedding, but knew of the wedding, said Daniel had always treated Ellen as his wife, and they had lived as husband wife. Children were entitled to pensions until reaching the age of sixteen, but Ellen said their only surviving child, Jane, now Jane Lane Hyde, had her twenty-first birthday on April 3, 1865.

On November 1, 1865, Ellen was finally admitted to the pension rolls at a rate of $8.00 monthly, payable quarterly and retroactive to June 17, 1864 (the day after Daniel’s death). Her pension had been increased to $12.00 by the time she died on November 11, 1910. Ellen was buried in Mitchell’s Oak Grove Cemetery where a stone reflects both her name and Daniel’s.

No records have been found indicating that Daniel’s body was transported north for burial and, as to him, the stone is probably a cenotaph. Jane died on September 5, 1914, and, like her parents, is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery.