Onondaga Yank was tough

By NANCY PFISTER 
Citizen Patriot Special Writer 
Shot in the left side, a Union 
soldier from the 36th Regiment of 
Indiana Volunteers lay wounded 
with the dead after the Battle of 
Shiloh in Tennessee, April 7, 1862. 
  Found more than a day later, 
Pvt. Albert A. Doxtader was tak-
en to the nearby Tennessee River 
to have his wound washed. Later 
he was taken to a hospital at 
Evansville, Ind. 
  He would fight in many more 
battles before leaving the service 
in 1865, and would die at Onon-
daga at the age of 89 with a patch 
on his side reminding him of the 
wound. 

  FRANCIS DOXTADER, of 
Onondaga, the soldier's grandson, 
is a self-made historian of his 
family and the Civil War. A veter-
an of World War II, Doxtader, 53, 
works at Fisher Body Division, 
General Motors Corp. Lansing 
Plant. 
  Doxtader was 6 years old when 
his grandfather died, and only 
remembers him in a rocking 
chair after a stroke. 
  Doxtader says his father, Guy, 
was an historian, public official, 
and school teacher and re-
searched the life of his great 

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grandfather,) Sgt. John Champe, 
who fought in the Revolutionary 
War. 
   Francis Doxtader became inter-
ested in the Civil War, Lincoln, 
and his grandfather's role in the 
war after reading two volumes of 
U.S. Grant's memoirs three or 
four years ago. 

  "FROM WHAT my father told 
me, I try to put together the Ar-
my career of my grandfather," he 
said. "For instance, I knew he 
was born in New York, so why did
 he enlist in Indiana?" 
  He learned that his grandfather 
had gone to Indiana to farm with 
one of his six brothers, Daniel. 
They had enlisted together. His 
brother died of typhoid fever Nov. 
5, 1862 at Nashville, Tenn. 

  Another brother Philander
joined a New York regiment and 
lost his right hand and forearm in 
the Battle of Deep Bottom, Va., in 
1864. Doxtader doesn't know if the 
other three brothers fought, too. 
  Doxtader has visited many of 
the battlefields his grandfather 
fought on more than a century be-
fore. With the help of the National 
Archives in Washington, D.C., and 
the Michigan State University li-
brary, he has collected copies of 
Army records listing his grandfa-
ther's name. 
  "It gives me kind of a thrill to 
see my grandfather's name in 
books and records," he said. 
  Doxtader said he also reads a 
great deal of history books, espe-
cially pertaining to battles his 

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grandfather fought. His house is 
filled with history books, maps 
and records. 
  "With all the books I've read, 
movies I've seen, and battlefields 
I've visited, I sometimes feel like 
I was at the battles myself."

AFTER BEING WOUNDED and 
hospitalized in Indiana, Dox-
tader's grandfather, then 23, fled 
the hospital to join his regiment. 
  "He was afraid he was going to 
be left behind," he said. "When 
he joined his regiment again, an 
Army physician sent him home 
because he wasn't able to keep 
up." 
  Home was Winchester, Ind., 
then, and after resting a few 
months, Doxtader's grandfather 
joined his regiment to fight sever-
al more major battles, including 
Murfreesboro, Tenn., Dec. 31, 1862
to Jan. 2, 1863; Chickamauga, 
Ga., Sept. 19 to 20, 1863; Chat-
tanooga, Tenn., Nov. 23 to 25, 
1863; and his last battle,. Atlanta, 
Ga., July 22, 1864. 
  Doxtader's grandfather re-
turned to New York, enlisted for 
another year, serving it in Wash-
ington, D.C. After being discharg-
ed from the Army as sergeant, he 
moved to Onondaga where he 
bought property from his father-
in-law. 
  "I think it's just amazing what 
my grandfather did. To be wound-
ed on the field, wait an entire day 
for help, and still live to be 89," 
said Doxtader. 
  During the Atlanta campaign, it 
rained for 40 days. After it rained, 

[caption under picture]

YANKEE — Albert A. 
Doxtader stands between two 
of his Union Army comrades. 
Doxtader was in at least four 
battles, and was wounded in 
the first.

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 the heat made that red clay turn 
to dust. The soldiers had to con-
tend with fleas, lice and disease. 
The things he went through, it's 
just amazing." 

[Written sideways on right side of page]

5 JACKSON CITIZEN PATRIOT Mondaq, March 8, 1976

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