veteran
Soldiers’ Stories: Sergeants Durgin and Wray
For William Durgin of Maine, April 20, 1865 was a typical day. He was garrisoned at the Camp Frye Barracks in Washington, D.C., assigned with the 10th Veterans Reserve Corps. His typical duties with the regiment consisted of nothing more than garrison duty after suffering from rheumatism in his arms and being struck in the ankle with a cannonball during the amphibious landing at Fernadina, Florida in 1862. Yet, when he received his orders for that day, they looked far different from his daily duties. The order read as follows:
Special Order No. 88
Pursuant to orders from Headquarters, 1st Brigade Veteran Reserve Corps requiring four First Sergeants should be selected with reference to their age, length of service and good soldierly conduct for escort duty to the remains of President Lincoln to Springfield, Illinois.
1st Sergeant William W. Durgin of Company F 10th Regiment V.R.C. is hereby detailed for that duty and will report to Capt. McCamly 9th Regiment Vet. Res. Corps at Camp Frye at 9:00 o’clock A.M. this day.
By command ofMajor George Bowers Commanding Regiment
From his clerical duties at Camp Frye Barracks, Durgin’s place in history rose greatly as he became one of Lincoln’s pallbearers, traveling across the nation with the casket. His war-record carries on his roll call for April 1865 “Absent – on escort duty with remains of President Lincoln.”
While Durgin seems to be a typical soldier offered the honor as a token of great luck, in many ways the assignment was and did boost the prestige of one of the most neglected regiments in the U.S. Army: the Veterans Reserve Corps (VRC).
Created in 1863, the VRC started as the Invalids Corps, and began as a project to give disabled veterans like Durgin a second chance at active service. Yet their corps did not go unscathed. Other soldiers derided the corps as a group of cowards and rejects; the initials of the Invalids Corps matched a stamp of the Quartermaster’s Department that stood for “Inspected – Condemned.” Soon after, to boost the morale of recruits and entice more volunteers, it was renamed “Veterans Reserve Corps.” The disabled veterans that re-enlisted were assigned various rear-echelon duties, ranging from guard duty to censoring mail.
To honor one of the corps members as a pallbearer presented in a greater sense a place for disabled soldiers in American military history alongside regular soldiers in memorializing the Civil War, and recognizes the potential of disabled veterans, or civilians, as capable individuals that can still contribute despite their sacrifice.
Enlistment in the corps did not always entail monotonous, clerical duties. For Sergeant William Wray, fate would lead to a reprisal of his combat duties. After losing his right eye and parts of his nose at Fredericksburg, Wray joined the 1st Veterans Reserve Corps. While stationed at Fort Stevens, he miraculously found himself at the center of a surprise attack by a corps of 10,000 men led by Jubal Early. In the midst of battle, while a number of his VRC comrades were confused and scattered, Wray rallied his men to the defenses during a critical attack, and helped prevent the fort from falling. Although his actions did not go recognized until much later, with some speculation regarding the fact that he was a member of the undesirable VRC, Wray was eventually awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions.
After the Civil War, programs for injured soldiers and disabled veterans returned around World War I, when the massive amounts of casualties and disabling injuries permitted for the resurrection of the Veterans Reserve Corps. In the age of modern warfare, disabled veterans have been able to carve a niche for themselves with the Continuation on Active Duty program, allowing wounded soldiers to serve their country within the limits of their abilities. Thus, heroes like Sergeants Durgin and Wray show what makes a soldier a great leader and a hero is not how well or straight a soldier stands, but what a soldier stands for in fighting for their country.
Jonathan van Harmelen is currently studying American History at Pomona College, and has conducted research with Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. He also works at Pomona College as manager for the Orchestra and as assistant to the History Department. He enjoys collecting military antiques, playing drums, and attempting to learn French, German, and Dutch all at once.
Please don’t forget we are in the middle of our Kickstarter to raise funds to tell the story of the Invalid Corps; of soldiers with disabilities who continued to serve:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dayalmohamed/the-civil-war-invalid-corps-and-the-battle-of-fort
The Beginning
The Story page tells you about the Invalid Corps, who they were and what they did; it tells you about the film. What it doesn’t tell you about is how this film project began. There is so much involved in any origin story, but the best place to begin, I guess, is at the beginning. 🙂 It all started about five months ago with a film class and a blog post.
I love learning new things and as I’ve spent the last few years writing fiction I thought it might be an interesting aside to learn about writing for film. So I signed up for a video production class with Professor Adele Schmidt through Docs in Progress. What exactly is a production class? It means that the class was designed to include “hands-on opportunities to learn core filmmaking skills, including story development, video recording, and editing.” And the part that really excited me was this:
Participants will work individually on a video project (2:30 min. max) of their own choice (social media video, trailer, PSA, portrait of a person) combining existing and/or new footage such as interview and B-roll with stills and archival footage. Participants will use pre-existing media and/or record new media (interview, B-roll) with their own camcorder. Participants will use their own laptop and editing software (Final Cut Pro X preferred) to edit the project.
I would get to actually make a movie!
Of course, then came the problem, how does a blind person make a film? I wasn’t sure and will admit, it worried me. It worried me enough to convince my wife to take the course with me – just in case. Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly, I needed her assistance less than I anticipated. Yes, there were things with focus and getting shots “just right” that were challenging but I discovered that I could craft a story, direct exactly what kinds of shots and action I wanted, and be able to edit and organize what materials I had into a final, finished product.
It was exciting, it was thrilling, and it was fun.
But there’s more to the story. Why the Invalid Corps? The story of the Invalid Corps and their creation during the Civil War (though I am aware of the Invalid Corps of the Revolutionary War as well), came up as part of a discussion with my wife. As an archivist and librarian for a local disability non-profit, she provided content for their “Throw-back Thursday” blog posts, usually focused around some interesting and disability-related fact or image. A few months earlier she had written a few paragraphs about these soldiers and I couldn’t let it go.
The story was simple and yet there was so much to it: The Civil War generated thousands of casualties. It wasn’t unusual to have a 30% mortality rate after a battle. And of course this also created more soldiers with disabilities. Many of us are familiar with Civil War stories of the injuries and amputations that many of the soldiers suffered…60,000 of them in fact, but what happened after? “Federals and Confederates alike worried about the immoral and idle behavior that would arise if disabled soldiers did not return to work and provide for themselves.”
These men that were too disabled to return to their post but entirely too able to get into trouble with women and wine and cards. Or such was the concern. The answer came in 1862 when the Union’s medical officers decided to put “convalescent wounded and feeble men” to work around the hospital. It worked so well, a year later General Order No. 105, of the U.S. War Department made it official and thus was created, the Invalid Corps.
It is a story about disability that should be told, not just from a historical standpoint but to understand and recognize the efforts of men and women in uniform today.
“There are lots of people with disabilities who want to serve their country, and can serve…they may not be able to do exactly everything everyone else can do, but they can do within their abilities, and they can provide a lot of support.”
– Senator Tom Harkin (2013)
The Army’s Continue on Active Duty (COAD) program is putting military men with clear, visible disabilities back into combat, and retaining and retraining others for other forms of active duty. As of June 2013, sixty-nine amputees have returned to active duty. Also of note, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, a 100-year old, 47,000-man (and woman) garrison is now commanded by Colonel Gregory D. Gadson. Colonel Gadson is a double-amputee. Perhaps even more impressive is Marine Corporal Garret S. Jones’ recovery and redeployment to a combat zone after losing a leg.
I want the world to know what happened that summer in 1864. I want to tell this story about disability, and sacrifice, about honor, and devotion to duty.
And to leave you with something a little fun, the director of the movie Battleship, Nick Berg, was so impressed with Colonel Gadson, he even gave him a role in the film. Below is a clip from Colonel Gadson where he talks about returning to active duty (and a few snippets from the film too).