150 years ago today, Private Levi Pennington, of Company A, died of congestion of the brain and liver in Columbia, Missouri. When he enlisted at the age of 17 he was a farmer living in Warren County. He is buried in the Pennington Cemetery in Truxton, Lincoln County, Missouri.
Source: Columbia Missouri Statesman, December 16, 1864; 49th Missouri Infantry service records.
October represents the 175th anniversary of first campaign in which the 49th participated. Arriving in Jefferson City on October 3rd, 1865, the 49th began constructing earthworks to protect the city from Sterling Price’s approaching army.
On October 6th parts of the 49th apparently skirmished with the rebels near Moreau Creek and Private Henry T. Lefaivre, a 15-year old farmer in Company G, suffered a serious gunshot wound to his right leg from which he died on the 9th. He was buried in the small National Cemetery in Jefferson City. He has the unfortunate distinction of being the first soldier in the regiment to die while in service.
While the gravestone records the name “Lafeth” and enlistment records give his age as 17, a receipt signed by his father for $50 bounty based on his son’s service indicates that the proper surname is “Lefaivre” and that he was 15 when he joined the unit.
In 2009 the Sons of Union Veterans organized a ceremony in honor of Mary Hayes Carroll, the daughter of Private Samuel Gibson Hayes of Company I, 49th Missouri Volunteer Infantry. Below are three videos of this ceremony.
In early 1865 shortly before his death, President Abraham Lincoln received a visit from Missouri Senator John Brooks Henderson and Congressman Robert T. Van Horn. Senator Henderson asked the President to promote the 49th’s commander, Col. David P. Dyer, to the rank of Brigadier General. President Lincoln responded, as he often did, with a story:
“The name of Dyer reminds me of an incident that happened in the State of Illinois when the first railroads were being built. One of these road ran through a tract of land owned by a man named Dyer. It was decided to locate a depot on the land and to map out a town. The first question that came up was to find a name for the town. Various suggestions were made as name but none seemed to suit until it was finally with much unanimity, agreed to call the town “Diarrhea”.”
From David P. Dyer, Autobiography and Reminiscences . The William Harvey Miner Company, St. Louis, Missouri. 1922.