19th Century Firemen/Fire Zouaves Needed 8-11, Gettysburg, PA

[FranklinGuardsNYSM]

Kevin -

My 72nd ancestor was in Company N, too! He ran with Lafayette Hose Co. on 4th St. in Philly. He was shot in the arm at Savage's Station and sent up here to NYC for treatment at Bellevue Hospital. After losing the use of his arm, however, he was discharged in January, '63, and died in '66. What do you know of your guy?

[lowly-private]

Marc,

My guy was William H. Shinn, he joined up in May of 1862 I believe and was dead by September 1962. I have the company morning reports for his company and almost from day one he was in the hospital sick, seems he caught a diease and died of pleurisy. I have the paperwork from when his wife applied for his pension. I would love to find out if he was a fireman too and if so which company was he a part of.


Kevin

[FranklinGuardsNYSM]

I haven't had any experience looking for Philly fire rosters, though you may try contacting their fire museum -- I only found out about the Lafayette Hose connection from his obituary. Of course, his post-war death is a researcher's advantage in this case, as you don't see too many regular obituaries in the Philly Inquirer for wartime deaths of servicemen. Couldn't find anything about Shinn in the newspaper archive. Good luck in your search!

[Headlog]

Thanks for the info, Shaun and Marc (with a "c" this time... sorry for misspelling).

The initial post annoucing the event just said "fire zouaves" in a generic fashion with no mention of 11th NY specifics, hence my confusion. Mea cupla for not being aware of all that transpires in the various reenacting subcultures and sub-sub-sub-subcultures. I don't doubt that you two are among the reigning experts on all things Zouave, but I'm a bit behind the times, an old-fashioned type, and when I think Zouave I think Mike McAfee and the late Brian Pohanka.

The Daybreak B'hoys thing looks and sounds very interesting. Hope you get a chance to do that again. Good luck on Saturday.

[PrivateBrownfield]

Do you know where I can purchase a fez?

[fallstoomuch]

Dirty billy sells them as does Shane Miles and Rachel Kelly(they actually have a bunch on eBay right now)