Marriage and family life:
On Tuesday, July 4, 1854, about ten weeks after Amos debarked from the Harrison, Methodist Episcopal minister Asa Brooks (October 1, 1819 - May 20, 1897) married Amos to Philinda Betsy Ensworth Smith (February 1, 1831 - November 18, 1913) in a ceremony conducted at the home of Amos' brother Morris and his wife Sarah.
- Philinda, who was Sarah's first cousin, was a young widow.
- Wed on April 15, 1850 to Justin H. Smith, Philinda's first marriage lasted less than 9 months, ending with her husband's young death, at age 18 or 19, from unknown causes on January 10, 1851.
Within four and a half years, Amos and Philinda were happy parents of three children:
- Franklin, born on April 10, 1855, in Candor;
- Alice Eliza, born on March 30, 1857, about 60 miles west of Candor in Adrian, a hamlet in Steuben County;
- Frederick, born on January 17, 1859, in Portville, about 55 southwest of Adrian, in southwestern New York's Cattaraugus County.
By the time of last-born child Frederick's birth in 1859, Amos had opened his own harness shop in Portville, a village strategically sited at the confluence of Dodge Creek and the Allegheny River. The village's name -- and that of the same-named town in which it is located -- reflects the community's early role in riverine transport of lumber.
Enlistment:
The War Between the States, known popularly as the American Civil War, began on Friday, April 12, 1861, with the firing of shots by Confederates upon Fort Sumter, a nearly completed sea fort in the Atlantic Ocean's inlet in South Carolina at Charleston Harbor.
- Almost 14 months later, on Tuesday, July 1, 1862, Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865), as 16th President of the United States (March 4, 1861 – April 15, 1865), called for 300,000 volunteers to sign up as Union soldiers for three years.
- The War Department set a quota of 28 regiments for New York State, which, in turn, on Monday, July 7, 1862, issued an order for the raising of one of the requisite regiments in two southwestern counties, Chautauqua (Seneca: "bag tied in the middle") and Cattaraugus (Seneca: "foul-smelling river bank"), Amos' adopted homeland.
Although Amos' patriotic spirit surged, he held off volunteering out of concern as main provider for his family's well-being.
On Monday, July 14, 1862, Congress eased Amos' worries by setting monthly pension rates at $8 ($186 in 2014) for widows and totally disabled soldiers.
Twelve days later, on Saturday, July 26, 1862, Amos enlisted.
On the way to Gettysburg:
Within a month of enlistment, Amos was parted from his family by his assignment to Camp James M. Brown in Jamestown, in southern Chautauqua County, for regimental rendezvous.
On Wednesday, September 24, 1862, Amos was mustered as a corporal of Company C in the 154th New York Infantry Regiment.
- The descriptive entry for Amos in Company C's book at Camp Brown matched that recorded 21 months earlier on his seamen's protection paper, with the exception of his height, which was now listed as a quarter-inch taller at 5 feet 7 inches.
Five days later, on Monday, September 29th, Company C boarded a train heading for Washington, D.C.
- On Thursday, October 2nd, the 154th New York marched across the Potomac River's Long Bridge and into Arlington Heights, Virginia, where they set up a camp which they named Camp Seward in honor of William H. Seward (May 16, 1801 – October 10, 1872), who was appointed by President Lincoln to serve as 24th U.S. Secretary of State (March 5, 1861 – March 4, 1869) after serving as U.S. Senator (March 4, 1849 – March 3, 1861) and as New York's 12th Governor (January 1, 1839 – December 31, 1842).
On Sunday, October 12, 1862, the 154th's encampment was switched westward to Fairfax Courthouse, which served as a Union lookout and military outpost for the remaining years of the war.
The Regiment's winter headquarters were established, after a week's march, from Wednesday, December 10 to Wednesday, December 17, 1862, from Fairfax southward to the banks of the Rappahannock River near Falmouth.
On Sunday, January 25, 1863, Amos was promoted to sergeant, a rank which raised his monthly pay by $4.00 ($121.00 in 2014), from $13.00 ($394.00 in 2014) to $17.00 ($515.00 in 2014).
- Nevertheless, his military service continued to be plagued by poor health, by long delays in payment of his monthly wages by the Army's paymaster, and by disappearance of payments which he sent to Philinda.
Company C finally experienced the war's horrors on Saturday, May 2, 1863, as the ill-placed left flank of Union troops, under the command of Major General Joseph Hooker (November 13, 1814 – October 31, 1879), during the Battle of Chancellorsville (April 30 – May 6, 1863) in northern Virginia's Spotsylvania County.
- Afterward, in a letter dated Saturday, May 9th, to Philinda, Amos confided his close call of a bullet glancing off his ribs during the Regiment's forlorn retreat seven days earlier and expressed great pleasure in the receipt of an ambrotype (Greek: ἀμβροτός, ambrotos, “immortal”) of his three children, framed in a gilt matte.
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