Soon after arriving by boat on 31 Dec. 1864 at Jones’ Landing in Bermuda Hundred — a peninsula at the junction of the James and Appomattox Rivers in Chesterfield Co., Va. — my ancestor Union Pvt. Arthur Bull was back in the hospital.

He told pension doctors he became ill around 10 Nov. 1864 after the Battle of Cedar Creek in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, where his 6th New York Heavy Artillery regiment was stationed.

When his unit was transferred south in late December 1864 into the Army of the James, he appears to have traveled with them to Bermuda Hundred.

When Arthur applied for his pension nearly 20 years later, the U.S. War Dept., Surgeon General’s Office, Record and Pension Division provided the following information from their files — with a slight surname variant — on 27 Jan. 1884

Priv. A.T. Bell, Co. L, 6th N.Y.H. Arty. was admitted to hosptl at Bermuda Hundred, Va. Jan’y 3, ’65 with Disease of heart and transferred Jan’y 16, ’65.

A return to hospital

Remarks on his company muster rolls also indicate he was “Absent  – sick in Hospital” beginning in January 1865.

Was this a new affliction? Or was Arthur experiencing a recurrence of his irritable heart?

From June to August 1864, Arthur had been removed from his regiment and hospitalized for rheumatism and heart disease at De Camp General Hospital on Davids Island, Westchester Co., N.Y.

Union Army policy at the time was to return convalescents to their regiments as soon a possible — so Arthur was released back to the 6th NYHA in the fall.

Muster rolls in his pension file show him “present” with Co. L from September through December 1864 during the Shenandoah Valley campaign.

But the marching, fighting, and field conditions — along with the onset of cold weather — may have been too much for Arthur. He told pension doctors he began suffering from heart and lung complaints in mid-November 1864 — the same health issues that afflicted him the previous spring.

Was he under medical care during his transit to Bermuda Hundred? And what was this new hospital like?

More in the next post as the research continues.