Homer W. Moats, Civil War Soldier

 Homer William Moats was the brother of Virgil Moats, Captain of the 48th Army Regiment, Company F, sons of William and Mary Wilson Moats.  Homer, the younger son, also enlisted in 1861 into the same unit.

Before that, in the 1860 census, he was at home with his parents and siblings: William W., 21, a student of medicine, Lydia, 17, a teacher, Mary, 7, Harriet A. , 3, and Homer W., 30, a laborer.  He received a land grant of 160 acres through a military Warrant, in Section 32, as a result of his service in the Mexican War.  He had enlisted, at 21, with his brother, Virgil, and served in Capt. Duncan's Ohio Independent Company, being discharged August 2, 1848.  He received the land in 1851, so in this census his real estate worth was $800, he reported.

In the Civil War, Homer enlisted on October 31, 1861, as a sergeant.  He had married his wife, Elizabeth Coffman on February 17 of that year in Defiance County.  

John E. Richardson served with fellow sergeant, Homer Moats in the 48th and they shared a tent together when they camped at Pittsburgh Landing.  John wrote home to his wife, Rosetta:

"...and there we got of the boat and camp about a mile from the river, we got our tents up about dark, we eat our supper and went to bead, the stares are shining, moon also  I thot of you and drempt you fel in the river and I jumpt in and got hold of you and holard for help.  I waked up then and found I had hold of homer mots (Homer Moats) and the watter about thre inches deap in our tent, we had to get out and make a ditch around it.  in the morning we went and got some bords and laid down, that cept us out of the mud."  

John was the cousin of Virgil Moats' second wife, Eliza Richardson and is shown in the photo above.  The spelling is as he wrote it.

Unfortunately, Homer Moats contracted a very bad case of what was called "camp diarrhea" and he grew weaker and weaker.  On the troops' march back east, they sent Homer on home to convalesce.  He only grew sicker, and died on June 22, 1862.  His obituary appeared in the Defiance Democrat on June 28, 1862:

"Homer W. Moats, Sergeant in Captain V. H. Moats' Company, 48th Regiment, died at the residence of his father in Noble Township on Sunday last, June 22d.  He came home six weeks ago very feeble, soon took to his bed, lingering twixt life and death for near a month.  His age was 33 years and 6 months.  He leaves a wife and three children."

                                 He was buried in Brunersburg Cemetery.

That left Elizabeth and three young children to support.  So she filed for his widow's pension and it was received in October, 1862.  (She also filed for an increase in 1866.)

Then the investigations began to see if this was a legitimate claim to a pension.  An affidavit from Captain Coonrad claimed that the soldier died about 22 June 1862, of camp diarrhea of chronic form and that it was contracted while being transported from Paducah to Pittsburgh Landing in the month of March, 1862, and that he died at home while on regular furlough.

Neighbors and fellow servicemen wrote letters testifying to Homer's service, to his marriage, and confirming his sickness.  I. N. Thacker was his physician and cared for him during his illness.  He swore that he applied for an extension to his furlough "because it was impossible for him to report to his service."

Homer's daughters were those of the first wife, Samantha Lee, and they were Harriet, Mary and Eva.  HIs only child with Elizabeth, his second wife, was Laura, born in 1861, and died in 1862.  Elizabeth was granted an $8 a month pension.  It is unclear if that was to support the children, as well, or did the children go to live elsewhere?  In the 1870 census, an Evy Moats, 12, was in the home of Wm. and Elizabeth Gunsullas in Defiance County, and Mary Moats, 17, was a domestic servant in the home of John Tharp and his wife in Licking County.  Were these relatives who took the children in, as the ages were correct?  Harriet or Hattie Moats could not be found.  

Elizabeth Moats remarried in 1865 to Christian Althouse and in 1870, C. Althouse, 42, and Elizabeth Atlhouse, 32, were in Goshen, Elkhart County, Indiana without children.  She could not be found after that.