John E. Seacole was born around 1844 in Canada to George Seacole and Ann Stocker. They immigrated to America sometime in the antebellum era and settled in New York. He enlisted in the Union army on May 27, 1862, and mustered in as a private in Company D of the 47^th New York Infantry later that day. He mustered out in Brooklyn, New York, on September 1, 1862.

 

He returned to the Union army one month later, reenlisting on October 15, 1862. He mustered in as a private in Company I of the 176^th New York Infantry on December 22. Confederate forces captured him near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on June 24, 1863. He was eventually paroled, and he returned to duty on August 17, 1863. He was eventually promoted to corporal, and he mustered out in New York City on November 16, 1863. He joined the Union navy sometime afterward.

 

Seacole supported the Union war effort and favored “lickeing the south back in the union.” Nonetheless, he fiercely opposed Abraham Lincoln’s administration. In November 1864, he accused Republicans of suppressing Democratic sailors’ votes. After almost four years of war, he insisted, the Union military was not “any nearer to the end of the yarn than it was at the beginning.” He supported Democratic candidate George B. McClellan, writing that “who should be better verssed in warfare than he that has had Command of an army and led them to a glorious victory at Antietam.”

 

Seacole returned to New York after leaving the navy, and he married Mary Schneider around 1868. They had at least seven children: William, born around 1870; Albert, born around 1878; Howard, born around 1879; Mabel, born around 1881; Clarence, born around 1886; Emma, born around 1888; and Charlotte, born around 1891. They lived in New Rochelle, New York, and in 1870, he was working as a clerk in a boat shop. He applied for a federal pension in July 1890 but never received one. They moved to Eustis, Florida, in the late 1800s, and by 1900, he was earning a living by growing oranges. He died in Eustis on April 5, 1928.

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