A walk in the Wilderness, where George Austin 'disappeared'

Saunders Field, where 140th New York charged on May 5, 1864. Below: An interactive panorama.
(CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.)

            Pan to the right to view the 140th New York monument in Saunders Field.

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To thousands of motorists who zoom past every day on Virginia Rt. 20, this scene -— a mile or so from McDonald's, a Sheetz gas station, E&M Auto Sales and Divine Nails -— is just another rolling field and patch of woods. Perhaps some don't have time to notice as they drive to their homes nearby in the upscale Fawn Lake subdivision, where streets are named for Civil War generals and signs mark "preserved" trenches and earthworks.

Augustus Meyer: 140th New York captain was
 mortally wounded during the charge at Saunders Field.
(Image courtesy 140th NYVI Living History Organization)

But momentous, and tragic, events occurred here in Saunders Field along the historic Orange Turnpike and in the woods nearby on May 5, 1864—- the first day of the Battle of the Wilderness. This is where 529 soldiers in the 140th New York, its ranks filled with immigrants from Germany and Ireland, burst from the woods on a wet, foggy morning that soon turned hot, charging an enemy entrenched near a distant woodline. Dressed in the regiment's colorful French North African Zouave uniforms, soldiers named McNamara, McVeen, Sprinkler, Seiger, Vanderhuff and Ziegler, among others, gained a foothold in that woodline. But after about 30 minutes, the Rebels forced them to retreat. The U.S. Army regiment suffered nearly 50 percent casualties.

Augustus Meyer's grave in Mount Hope Cemetery in
Rochester, N.Y. (Photo Joel Shore/Find A Grave)

This is where German immigrant Augustus Meyer, the 34-year-old father of 5-year-old girl named Therese, suffered a wound in the abdomen. Initially expected to recover, the captain died 19 days later at a hospital in Fredericksburg, Va., roughly 15 miles away.

The Genesee Valley Railroad transported Meyer's remains to Rochester, where the former clerk in a dry-goods company was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery. A newspaper described his well-attended funeral service as "of a most imposing character," probably little comfort to his wife of seven years, Augusta.

"An uncomfortable rain storm prevailed during most of the afternoon,"  the Rochester Evening Express, "and so large a turn out, under the circumstances, was an expressive testimonial of the respect in which Capt. Meyers was held."

This is where 140th New York 1st Sergeant Charles L. Taylor,  a blue-eyed, 36-year-old salesman and produce dealer, was killed. Nearly a month after the battle, a comrade searching the battlefield discovered his remains. The distinctive Zouave uniform and a brown beard were telltale signs the body was Taylor's, 140th New York veteran John B. Snyder noted shortly after the war. Elizabeth "Libby" Taylor left a light burning in a window in their house in Brockport, N.Y., according to an account, so her husband could find his way home. She died in 1918, having never re-married.

Saunders Field is where 24-year-old Sergeant Joseph Seiger suffered a mortal wounded. After he had mustered into Company E of the 140th New York in September 1862, he gave his widowed mother his $90 bounty and a major portion of his army pay. Before he enlisted, the unmarried laborer regularly gave more than $1 of his weekly $4 salary at Cunningham's Carriage Factory in Rochester to Mary Seiger, who had emigrated to the United States from Germany after her husband's death.

George Austin's marker in Lakeside Cemetery in
Hamlin, N.Y. (Find A Grave)

And this is where George Austin vanished.

Shortly after the 140th New York attacked that morning, the married private also suffered a mortal wound. When the regiment retreated about a half mile, it left its dead and wounded with the  enemy, noted Austin's friend, Private Charles W. Starin. George had "disappeared," according to an August 1865 pension affidavit signed by Henry Allen, a commanding officer in Austin's Company A, who added, "I have no personal knowledge of his fate." George's remains initially may have been buried by the Rebels, or, like many soldiers killed during this battle in the dense forests, his body may have rotted in the woods. A marker in Lakeside Cemetery in Hamlin, N.Y., honors the 27-year-old soldier, but it is unclear if he was buried there.

Shortly after dawn one recent rainy morning, I walk through the woods where the 140th New York gained its short-lived foothold. Dogs bark in the distance. Brown leaves crunch beneath my feet. A distinctive tat-a-tat-tat of woodpeckers echoes. An interpretive marker notes the mortal wounding nearby of a Confederate general. Remains of trenches from both armies zig-zag through the woods.

And near the end of my walk, I stop, briefly close my eyes and imagine the scene in May 1864.

The remains of Union trenches deep in the woods near Saunders Field.

 Confederate General Leroy A. Stafford was mortally wounded in woods near Saunders Field.

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SOURCES

• Widow's pension file documents for Augustus Meyer, Charles L. Taylor, Joseph Seiger and George Austin, National Archives and Records Service, Washington D.C. via fold3.com.