March 25 Ceremony In Georgia Will Honor Canadian Veteran From 136th New York

By Ginny Gage

Feb/Mar 2006

MARIETTA, Ga. — A Medal of Honor headstone will be dedicated in an 11 a.m. ceremony on March 25 at the Marietta National Cemetery for a veteran from Canada. Descendants of 136th New York Infantry veterans arranged to place the headstone at the grave of a unit member and hope to locate his descendants.

Dennis Buckley was born in 1844 in Lindsay, Victoria County, Ontario, Canada, and came to the United States to join Mr. Lincoln's Army at the age of 18. He was sworn in for a three-year enlistment on Aug. 12, 1862, at Avon, N.Y. He mustered in Co. G, 136th New York Infantry, at Portage, N.Y., on Sept. 25, 1862.

On Jan. 11, 1863, at Bank's Ford, Va., he was captured by Confederate pickets, then paroled and sent to a camp in Annapolis, Md. For the remainder of 1863 and into February of 1864, he is listed on the rolls of the U.S. Army General Hospital, Annapolis, as "employed as a nurse, attached to hospital June 1, 1863."

Buckley had returned to the 136th New York by May of 1864, and is shown as "present" on the May and June 1864 company muster rolls, with a notation that he "returned to Reg't May 31, 1864, restored to rolls by order Lt. Col. Faulkner."

On May 15, 1864, as part of Butterfield's Division, the 136th New York Regiment was actively engaged at the battle of Resaca, Ga., where it sustained losses of 81 killed and wounded. A battery of four Napoleon 12 pdrs. was captured in the battle.

After daily skirmishes — the principal ones occurring at Cassville, Dallas, New Hope Church, Kennesaw Mountain, Pine Knob, and Lost Mountain, some of which involved the whole regiment — the division found itself in position at Peach Tree Creek on July 20. Here the line of the Twentieth Corps was attacked by Confederates under Gen. John B. Hood, who made repeated and desperate assaults on the Union position only to be repulsed with terrible loss.

The men of the 136th bore a distinguished part in this battle, during which Pvt. Dennis Buckley captured the battle flag of the 31st Mississippi, knocking down the Confederate color bearer with the butt of his musket and wrenching the colors from his grasp.

While Buckley was waving the captured flag defiantly at the ranks of the enemy, a bullet glanced off the flagstaff and struck him in the forehead, killing him instantly.

Buckley was awarded a Medal of Honor for his gallantry, but because he was buried in the Marietta National Cemetery in Georgia under an incorrect spelling, he never received the proper Medal of Honor headstone. The Medal of Honor was delivered to his mother on April 7, 1865.

John DuBois of Caledonia, N.Y., whose ancestor, William DuBois, served in Co. G, is the driving force behind a loosely knit group of 136th New York Infantry members' descendants. This group has met twice at the Old Parade Grounds in Portage, to honor their ancestors.

After finding and confirming Private Buckley's final resting place and his eligibility for the Medal of Honor headstone, DuBois contacted Sandra M. Beckley, Director of the Marietta & Georgia National Cemeteries, to have the oversight corrected. Subsequent research at the National Cemetery Administration by historian Darlene Richardson determined that the records needed to be corrected, and that Dennis Buckley should receive a proper Medal of Honor headstone.

DuBois is hoping some of Buckley's descendants will be present along with other members of the group when the new stone is placed. Buckley was not married; his parents both lived in Canada, and he had an older brother, Andrew, and two sisters, Mary and Bridget.

It is hoped that someone descended from them will be located. If anyone is descended from the Buckley family or has information that might help, please contact John DuBois, 4272 Caledonia Avon Rd., Caledonia, NY 14423, (585) 226-9397, or e-mail phyl1frontiernet.net.

(Editor’s Note: Lewis Gage, the husband of writer Ginny Gage, had two ancestors in the 136th New York Infantry. One, Elias Gage, was killed in action at the Battle of Gettysburg and is buried in the National Cemetery there. The other, Joshua Gage, died of typhoid fever in a Washington, D.C., hospital in July 1863, and is buried in the Asylum National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. The Gages live in Cornish, N.H.)