Bvt. Maj. (USA), Sartell Prentice

• Sartell's birth and death information is available at https://www.myheritage.com/matchingresult-51d61d2298ca9931bec845a20... and at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/184451449/sartell-prentice and at https://www.myheritage.com/matchingresult-1717b2732f080baecc9e39108...
• Sartell's photograph is available on page 277 of Memorials of Deceased Companions of the Commandery of the State of Illinois Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. From July 1, 1901 to December 31, 1911, Vol. 2. Chicago, Illinois, 1912.
• During the Civil War, Sartell served in the 12th United States Infantry Regiment of the Regular Army. He was a lieutenant and a captain in the regiment, before being brevetted to the rank of major for his gallantry at the Battle of the Wilderness (5-7 May 1864), on the Overland Campaign (mid-May to mid-June 1864), and during the Siege of Petersburg (15 June 1864 to 5 April 1865). See the inscription on his gravestone: https://images.findagrave.com/photos/2017/292/184451449_1508545802.jpg. Also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12th_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States)
• Per Sartell's obituary in The Chicago Sunday Tribune, September 3, 1903, page L 7:
  • "MAJ. SARTELL PRENTICE IS DEAD
  • "Former Manager of Chicago Branch of Connecticut Mutual Insurance Company Dies in New York.
  • "Maj. Sartell Prentice, a resident of Chicago for fifteen years and the father of Mrs. H. H. Porter Jr., died suddenly Friday night at the house of his son, the Rev. Sartell Prentice, Nyack, N.Y. Maj. Prentice had been an invalid for a number of years.
  • "The news reached Chicago yesterday morning in a telegram to H. H. Porter Jr., who started east immediately. His wife has gone on to Nyack, where the funeral will be held tomorrow. The burial will be at Manchester, Vt.
  • "Maj. Prentice was born sixty-nine years ago, in Albany, N.Y. He was graduated from Williams College in the class of 1859. When the civil war broke out he enlisted in the Twelfth United States regulars. He was brevetted a major in recognition of gallant service in the battle of the Wilderness.
  • "Shortly after the war Maj. Prentice was married to a daughter of Judge lsham of Vermont, who survives him. In 1890 the family removed to Chicago. Maj. Prentice being for many years in charge of the Chicago branch of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance company. During the last three years Maj. Prentice had spent much of his time In New York, and last spring he returned to make his permanent residence in the east. Another son, who survives the deceased, is E. Parmelee Prentice of New York City."
• From pages 277-282 of Memorials of Deceased Companions of the Commandery of the State of Illinois Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. From July 1, 1901 to December 31, 1911, Vol. 2. Chicago, Illinois, 1912:
  • "SARTELL PRENTICE.
  • "Brevet Major United States Army. Died at Nyack, New York, September 2, 1905.
  • "Captain and Brevet Major Sartell Prentice, a Companion of this Commandery, died on the 2nd day of September, A. D., 1905, at the home of his son, Rev. Sartell Prentice, in Nyack, New York.
  • "Companion Prentice was born at Albany, New York, on the 29th day of May, 1837, the son of Ezra Parmalee Prentice, a well-known citizen, who was subsequently President of the Commercial National Bank of Albany and had been closely connected with the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad which he was in a great measure instrumental in constructing. In earlier life he had engaged in the fur trade and been very successful, his posts extending from Nova Scotia to the Pacific. He also became largely interested in shipping and his firm had at one time eight vessels on the Pacific besides its Atlantic fleet. The grandfather of Ezra Parmelee Prentice, Sartell Prentice, served in the Revolutionary War as Major of a New Hampshire Regiment.
  • "Sartell was fitted for college at schools in Albany and Sing Sing, and entered Williams College in due course, but left before graduating, going abroad where he continued his education at the University of Gottingen. On his return from Europe he began the study of the law at the Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, which he entered in 1860, but left on the breaking out of the Rebellion in 1861.
  • "Our Companion entered the service of the Union as First Lieutenant of the Twelfth Regular Infantry on the 14th of May, 1861. He was promoted Captain May 10th, 1864, and Brevet Major August 1st, 1864, "for gallant services at the battle of the Wilderness and during the present campaigns before Richmond," and resigned his commission on May 3rd, 1865, on account of ill health. His service was in West Virginia on the staff of Brigadier General Roberts operating against raiding forces under Imboden, Jones and Jackson, and in 1861 with his regiment in Grant's campaign against Richmond in the battles of the Wilderness May 5th to 7th, Laurel Hill May 8th to 13th, and Bethesda Church June 1st to 3rd, 1864, where he distinguished himself as a gallant officer and won his Brevet as Major.
  • "The following extracts from a letter written by General Elwell S. Otis, his intimate friend, in November, 1905, tell the story of his military service by one who knew him well in those days which tried men's souls:
  • "I first knew Major Prentice at the Harvard Law School when we both were students in 1860 and the early part of 1861 and where his accomplishments and courteous bearing made him a general favorite. We exchanged visits frequently. His buoyant spirits, his keen appreciation of surroundings and delicate wit, his genial manner, hearty laugh and his never failing practice of all the amenities of social life, were a tonic to a brain tired or confused by reading and speculating upon the origin and development of our legal institutions. He was a conscientious student, quick of comprehension and excellent in analysis, and our conversations were, I think, mutually beneficial in our studies as well as a profitable relief from work.
  • "At the outbreak of the Civil War in the Spring of 1861, he resolved to enlist for the defense of the Government. One month after the surrender of Fort Sumter he was appointed a First Lieutenant of the Twelfth United States Infantry, just then authorized by an act of Congress, and was sent out to recruit for his regiment. He was ordered to Rochester, New York, my then place of abode, where he remained on recruiting duty for several months and where he was extremely popular as an army officer and gentleman...
  • "At this period of his life his knightly bearing, polished address, his accomplishments, correct deportment and manifest sincerity won for him a host of friends, old and young, among the best people of Rochester where his acquaintance and attendance at social gatherings were very much sought. He married and brought his bride to that city shortly before I left it for the Army of the Potomac in the Fall of 1862 as Captain in a New York Volunteer Regiment. I did not meet him again until the early Spring of 1864 when he joined his regiment, the Twelfth Infantry, in the field, in which he was promoted to a Captaincy. This regiment and, indeed, all the regular regiments serving with the Army of the Potomac, together with three New York regiments with one of which I was connected, composed, at that time, the First Brigade of the Second Division of the Fifth Army Corps. We were, therefore, in close relationship once more and I saw him very frequently. The hardships of camp, the deprivations of the comforts and most of the so- called necessaries of life, the tiresome marches and nightly vigils, and the anticipation of a bloody campaign which we knew would soon be realized, appeared to heighten his spirits and give him a greater field for his keen witticism and mirth provoking laughter.
  • "The presence of such a man in command of troops, if he ably performs his military duties, as Major Prentice did, is worth more than a score of fault finding or pessimistic officers, however competent in other respects they may show themselves to be.
  • "On May 4th the Army of the Potomac crossed the Rapidan river and passed into the Wilderness. On the night of that day the pickets of the Second Division of the Fifth Corps were taken from our Brigade — Major Prentice commanding the picket detachments of the regular regiments and I those of the Brigade. We had a weary, sleepless night in establishing our lines in the thick undergrowth of brush and connecting them with the pickets of other organizations on our flanks. Early the next morning two Confederate Corps confronted us and the second Wilderness Battle commenced. Of it Major Prentice wrote and read before the Loyal Legion Commandery of Chicago a few years ago, one of the best accounts I have ever read, and the article shows that he was a cool, keen observer of whatever took place at the immediate front before and during the first day of that battle.
  • "Subsequently I saw him only occasionally. The marches, daily fighting and demand for continued presence with troops at the firing line (for the opposing armies maintained close contact on that long campaign), did not give leisure or opportunity for visiting. Moments of comparative quiet were devoted to necessary rest and sleep. Day succeeded day with a repetition of mighty endeavor and deathly struggle without radical result, until the rank and file of the depleted armies, worn out in body and spirit, appeared to be devoid of intelligence or volition-practically automatons, moved without protest or criticism at the will of those who exercised the general direction of affairs. There was no rest until after Petersburg was invested.
  • "Meanwhile, Major Prentice had been called to a position on the staff of the Provost Marshal General of the Army of the Potomac whose headquarters were nine miles distant from the Fifth Corps at City Point, also the headquarters of General Grant. While, with the aid of earthworks and covered ways, our lines were slowly closing in on Petersburg in spite of the stubborn resistance of the Confederates, when they had approached those of the enemy at a distance of from three to five hundred yards, and when every man who exposed himself to view from the rebel forts and parapets, became a target for their infantry, Major Prentice arrived in our midst laden with cigars and good things to eat and drink. He had run the gauntlet of rebel sharpshooters along a good portion of our extreme front at the peril of his life for our sakes and was heartily welcomed, but scolded for his temerity. His response was a hearty laugh and a humorous account of his narrow escapes which he seemed to consider trifling.
  • "On May 29th, 1862, Major Prentice married to Mary Isham, who with two sons, our Companion E. Parmelee Prentice of New York, Rev. Sartell Prentice of Nyack, New York, and one daughter, Mrs. Henry H. Porter of Chicago, survives him. On leaving the army Major Prentice spent some years traveling for his health which was so far restored that in 1879 he settled in Chicago where he represented investments of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company until his health, again failing, sent him East sometime in 1903.
  • "As a business man his life in Chicago was successful and he possessed in his highest degree the respect and trust of those with whom he had dealings, while his long service with the Insurance Company attests its confidence in him and satisfaction with his services. Major Prentice became a member of this Commandery in 1880, his insignia number being 2000, and his presence at the stated meetings was a pleasure to his Companions; death has taken him from us but his memory will remain as the memory of one who was faithful to the best ideals of humanity and who did his duty during life to his family, friends and the country, whose integrity he helped to preserve.
  • "WM. ELIOT FURNESS, WALTER R. ROBBINS, JOSEPH J. SIDDALL, Committee."

    ---

Sartell Prentice Head United States Census, 1900 birth: May 1838 New York residence: 1900 Precinct 11 Chicago city Ward 24, Cook, Illinois, United States spouse: I Mary Prentice children: E Parmalee Prentice, I Mary Prentice other: Ida Pearson, Julia Mcmahon NOTE: Sartell's parents born in New Hampshire.

Household Gender Age Birthplace Head Sartell Prentice M 62 New York Wife I Mary Prentice F 61 Vermont Son E Parmalee Prentice M 37 Iowa Daughter I Mary Prentice F 20 Illinois Servant Ida Pearson F 39 Sweden Servant Julia Mcmahon F 26 New York

• **** Sartell Prentice New York, State Census, 1875 birth: 1837 residence: 1875 Albany, Albany, New York, United States spouse: Mary Prentice children: Ezra P Prentice, Pierrepont Prentice, Sartell Prentice, Richard Prentice other: Pierrepont Isham, Ellen Sullivan, Bridget Hayes, Anne Galvin
  • *** PARENTS: 1860 Albany County, NY Census, Bethlehem Ozra P Prentice M 63 New Hampshire (EZRA PRENTICE) Philina Prentice F 57 New Hampshire William P Prentice M 25 New York Sartell Prentice M 23 New York Bertha Prentice F 15 New York Jessie Prentice F 13 New York
• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Apr 20 2016, 22:39:03 UTC