Civil War Records of Thomas Kinsley, Jr.

Service

Co. Regiment / Ship From To Residence/ Credit Occupation Notes
E 26th MVI Feb. 26, 1864 Nov. 10, 1864 Acton laborer died of disease Nov. 10, 1864 at Camp Fry Hospital, Washington D.C.
MASSCW, 3:91

Service Record (select pages from the National Archives): 2 pages (PDF*)
Service Ledger (Town of Acton): page  58-59 (PDF)

Pension

Co. Regiment Date Filed Type App. No. Cert. No. State Beneficiary/Remarks
E 26th MVI Jan. 11, 1867 mother 140 294 119 701   Maria Kinsley

Pension File (select pages from the National Archives):  9 pages  (PDF*)

Grand Army of the Republic

x


Death

Date November 1, 1864
Place Camp Fry Hospital, Washington D.C.
Age 15
Cause

chronic diarrhea

(Acton death register, "Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841–1910," vol. 175, p. 40 [image], AmericanAncestors.org).
Obituary  
Funeral  
Burial Woodlawn Cemetery, Acton, Mass.
Survived by son of Thomas and Maria

Additional Information

Thomas Kinsley was born Dec. 24, 1848 in Acton to Thomas (b. Ireland) and Maria (b. Edington, Me.) Kinsley (Acton birth register, "Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841–1910," AmericanAncestors.org).

The 1860 federal census for Acton records the inhabitants of the Kinsley household as:
Thomas Kinsley, age 45, stone mason, born in Ireland
Maria Kinsley, age 40, born Massachusetts
Francis Kinsley, age 18, born Massachusetts
Mary Kinsley, age 15, born Massachusetts
Margaret Kinsley, age 13, born Massachusetts
Thomas Kinsley, age 4 [sic], born Massachusetts
Rosabell Kinsley, age 9, born Massachusetts
Theresa Kinsley, age 7, born Massachusetts
George Kinsley, age 5, born Massachusetts
Cathy Kinsley age 2, born Massachusetts
("1860 United States Federal Census," Ancestry.com).

Thomas Kinsley, age 6, is recorded in the 1855 Massachusetts State Census for Acton, in household (dwelling no. 137) of Thomas and Maria Kinsley (Lainhart, 1855 and 1865 Massachusetts State Censuses for Acton: 20) 

Thomas enlisted Feb. 26, 1864, which made him 15 at the time of his enlistment and still not yet 16 at the time of his death.

See transcription of letter from Maria R. Kinsley to the Sanitary Commission, dated November 3, 1864 seeking information on her son Thomas. An older son, Francis, died at home while on veteran's furlough the previous April. Thomas died Nov. 10, 1864, before his mother would receive a reply from the commission.

The death of Thomas Kinsley, Jr., soldier in U.S. Service, age 16 years, is recorded in the 1864/65 annual report for the Town of Acton: 17.

According to his pension file, his father was disabled and unable to work, and his mother to large extent was dependent on her son for support. For two years prior to his enlistment she received all of his pay "except what it took to clothe him." After his death his pay and bounty amounting to $395 was paid to his father and went to the liquidation of the family's debts.

Name included on the Acton Memorial Library Soldiers' Tablet, "Our Honored Dead."

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See also:

Hosmer. The Town of Acton in the Civil War: 2, 45.

 

 

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