The Death of a Single Soldier in the Civil War Devastated Families

WHEN PRIVATE GUSTAVUS PRATT DIED OF DISEASE IN 1862, HIS DEATH FOREVER ALTERED THE LIVES OF HIS FATHER, BROTHER AND WIFE

More than 360,000 U.S. soldiers and about 260,000 Confederates died in the American Civil War. Each death forever altered their families, friends, and communities.

When Private Gustavus Pratt of Company D of the Third Maine Infantry Regiment died of disease in a regimental hospital in 1862, his death sent life-altering ripples through his family.

His wife, Lavonia, sank into depression and despair, abandoning her two sons, and became enmeshed in scandal, and ended up married to two men at the same time.

At age 57, his father, Samuel, lied about his age to circumvent age restrictions and volunteer for the Twenty-Fourth Maine Infantry Regiment. He shipped off to New Orleans and never returned home.

His brother, Nathaniel, deserted from his post with the First Maine Cavalry Regiment to help his family through its grief, and then ended up volunteering for military service three more times, working out his own grief through violence and warfare.

The full episode, “The Awful Hole Left by Gustavus Pratt,” drops on January 14.

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