A. Bennett Munger Papers, ca. 1835-1890; bulk, 1862-1865
SC23381

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Biographical Note

Alvin Bennett Munger was born October 27, 1817, in Agawam, Massachusetts, the son of Gaius (1781-1858) and Abigail (Button) Munger (1783-1869). Known as Bennett Munger, there is little information about his life prior to being certified to teach in the common schools in Clarendon, Orleans County, New York, in 1835 and 1836. From 1837 to 1840, he was certified to teach in schools in Canandaigua, Ontario County, New York, and in 1846 he received a teaching certificate from Byron, Genesee County, New York. He eventually took up farming and settled in Milo (near Penn Yan), Yates County, New York, where he occasionally was elected to serve as justice of the peace.  Letters and invoices in the collection indicate he also was employed as an agent for Schanck & Downing, a distributor of plate and window glass in 1859; later, with his brother, he operated a house-painting business, which was dissolved in March 1861.

Munger married Mary Wilcox (1818-1888) on September 22, 1841. They had one child: Ida May Munger (Case), who was born November 26, 1853.

Soon after the Civil War erupted, Munger was called upon by the Yates County War Committee to assist in raising a company of volunteers to fight on behalf of the Union Army.  Public records show he enlisted for service on August 14, 1862, and mustered in at Albany, New York, on October 3, 1862, as captain of Company C of the 44th New York Volunteers, which was known as Ellsworth's Avengers. He was commissioned with the rank of captain on November 11, 1862, and witnessed action in battles at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Rappahannock Station, and Mine Run.  He was wounded in action July 2, 1863, at Gettysburg, which sidelined him for a brief period. In October 1864 he was detailed for special assignment as inspector of the prison at Elmira, New York, where Confederate Army prisoners of war were detained.  He was mustered out of service October 11, 1864, because of injuries he had sustained in an accidental discharge of a weapon.

After the war, Munger worked from April through August 1865 as an agent for the Penn Yan-based Union Oil Company near Oil City, Pennsylvania. Thereafter, it appears he took up farming with members of his family near Canandaigua, New York.  He died in Canandaigua on October 27, 1877, survived by his wife and daughter.

Some of the information in the preceding biographical note was taken from A History of the Forty-forth Regiment Infantry in the Civil War, 1861-1865 by Eugene Arus Nash (Chicago: R.R. Donnelley & Sons, 1911)

Scope and Content Note

Bennett Munger responded to the call from Ellsworth Avengers in 1862 and, because of his age (44) and stature in the community, he was made captain in charge of raising a company of volunteers.  The letters and documents saved by his heirs represent the scope of his military service. The letters he wrote to his wife and daughter – many being eight pages long – are quite revelatory.  Being somewhat older than most recruits, he tended to express a steady conservative view: finding battlefield casualties "buried like a dog" made him sick; feeling court martial punishments were too punitive; and noting the pervasiveness of hand injuries seemed rather suspicious. He often wrote separately to his young daughter, describing the smallest detail of camp life in a manner that might interest her and writing about local farm animals and the landscape, and commenting on the food available to the troops, including pilot bread which the men had taken to calling hard tack. I his letter of April 20[?], 1863, from "near Falmouth, Va.," he wrote "Here there are no singing birds … I do not blame the poor birds & if they knew how to cry I have no doubt we should hear from them …"

He vividly described the action he witnessed on the battlefields at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Rappahannock Station.  He also detailed protracted marches such as Burnside's "Mad March" and the afflictions and ailments that kept him away from active duty for short periods of time.

Munger retained copies of officials reports, orders, memoranda, and other records related to his position as captain of Company C of the 44th New York (Volunteers) Regiment of Infantry, including muster rolls, which were compiled quarterly with details about each individual present in the camp at the time; and ordnance reports, which provide information relative to the weapons used and munitions consumed by Company C while engaged in battles and skirmishes.  For example, the ordnance report turned over after the engagement at Gettysburg reveals that 650 ball cartridges had been used. Another report provides a detailed accounting of ordnance lost during the heat of battle at Rappahannock Station.  Munger also retained copies of reports detailing types and quantities of clothing and camp and garrison equipment issued to his company from the Army quartermaster store; special orders and accounts related to payroll matters; and special reports detailing the nature of the wounds Munger received at Gettysburg and other afflictions that resulted in his being furloughed for brief periods of time.

Munger's service as inspector of the prisoner-of-war camp in Elmira, New York, generated a series of papers that provide insights into the operations of such camps during the war. The documents include special orders, draft rendezvous, accounts of camp and garrison equipage, instructions to officers in command of the guard house, and a report sent to Thomas Raynesford Lounsbury on conditions in the prison camp.

The period after the war, April-August 1865, when Munger was acting as an agent for the Penn Yan-based Union Oil Company in the environs of Oil City, Pennsylvania, is also well represented in these papers. The letters sent to his family detail his frustration with the engines Union was supplying and his problems with the poor output of various oil wells. His diary, which he began at Elmira on January 1, 1865, contains further insights into his activities as well as detailed accounts of his expenses. Other related papers include Munger's account of expenses with Union Oil of Penn Yan, oil drilling contracts, and printed circulars.

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