He gave his life to his adopted county. In turn, it committed sins against family left behind! Sins remaining to this very day!

Last week this blog started to tell you the tragic story of Robert Storr.

Within 2 years of his  London marriage, husband and wife   were blessed with the birth of a baby girl. But within 2 years the mother had passed away from illness. Within another few years Robert made the decision to move to America. His father Solomon agreed to be the interim guardian knowing the plan called for the child joining Robert as soon as she could be sent for.

But life had other plans.

In early May 1861 Robert signed up with the 15th New York Infantry as a volunteer. Within a month the unit was renamed the 15th NY Engineers and attached to the Army of the Potomac.

About 14 months later Private Storr's unit would find itself building bridges in the Peninsular campaign of south eastern Virginia, during the siege of Yorktown.

Here's a picture of one of the bridges they built, crossing the Anacosta River. It had a span of about 1,300 feet, and was built in an incredibly low...  25 1/2 minutes.  

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It was while building no doubt a similar bridge along the James  River that Robert Storr came utterly exhausted from labour in watery conditions that led to his taking a day to recover. But insisting on returning to be with his mates at work he would again almost collapse from exhaustion. This soon  led to a fever setting in, a trip to recovery and ultimately being shipped off to the New York city camp at Saint David where he would die from Typhoid Fever. He was only 27 years old and had completed only  12 1/2  months of service before losing his life for his adopted country.

This at the very time that the NY Council of Hygiene estimated that some 15,300 homes were affected by the fever.

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Here we see President Abraham Lincoln's 3rd son, age 5,  who would also lose his life before reaching the age of 13 from the dreaded fever at Washington DC. His remains would be put in the same funeral car, one of 8, that would take the long journey some 1,600 miles in 1865 to carry the body of the assassinated President from DC to Illinois for burial.

The funeral car used  was originally built as a touring car for the president, then  refitted as a funeral car. In both operations one of the labourers was an orphan from Canada, who later moved to the US. Upon entering the Civil War, he would earn the Medal of Honor.  His surname was Allen and his story had been in earlier blogs in this space.

So too with an Atlantic Canadian by the name of Hanna, also a Medal of Honor recipient, for guarding this very funeral car en-route to its final destination in 1865. (Stories also already appearing here.)

Robert was very well liked and respected in his regiment. In particular, his chaplain, his captain and even his commanding officer had powerful words of praise for his soldiering skills and dedication, no matter the cost, to the jobs at hand.

Read between the lines of this letter from his chaplain and know that that these sorts of traits can be found in the words of recommendation used in many a medaled soldier or sailor before they were later  awarded their actual Medals of Honor.

Four days later, and no doubt long before the letter arrived at the shores of London, Pte Robert Storr died at the hospital in New York. 

Here we see the dates of service of his regiment and from Muster rolls,  a brief description of his own service ending in death at St David's, and location being shown with the red balloon on above greater NY city and area map.

In the late 1860's Robert's father Solomon applied, successfully, from London for a guardians survivor pension to help support his parent-less granddaughter's care and upbringing.

In September 1871 the late Robert Storr was awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor. Here are some of the details of the struggle before the medal was awarded.

In 1873 Solomon Storr writes the pension office requesting an increase in the pension amount then allowable when applied for. Here's that letter... Note his pride of ownership in the Medal of Honor he then wore on occasion, though the wearing may have been limited by law to the recipient named.  

The real tragedy has yet to come, but I will need the next full blog to lay it out. So, while I am not schedualed to bring another blog next week, I will bring one to conclude this little mini series on Robert Storr, yet another forgotten hero.

so, see you next Sunday.
Bart