William Hamilton Grape
William Hamilton Grape was born around 1836 in Baltimore, Maryland, to George and Charlotte Grape. His father died in the 1840s. He grew up in Baltimore, and by 1860, he was working as a carpenter.
He remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War. He enlisted in the Union army on August 26, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Purnell’s Legion of Maryland Infantry. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 7¼ inches tall, with dark hair and grey eyes. He was promoted to corporal in late 1861. Confederate forces captured him at Catlett’s Station on August 22, 1862. He was exchanged on November 19, and he rejoined the regiment. He was promoted to sergeant in early 1863.
In February 1863, he wrote that he was "proud that I ever did enlist to serve my country...I shall allways look back with pleasure to the time I was in the army to the three years I gave to my country to crush the Rebelion and help to build this Union up stronger than ever." He added that he "hope[d] the day is not far off when this war will be over when peace will dawn on this once happy land and the North and the South will be united and the negro question be forever settled." Union officials transferred him to Company K of the 1st Maryland Infantry in February 1864. The regiment took part in the siege of Petersburg. Confederate forces captured him again on August 21, 1864, and he remained a prisoner of war until the end of the war.
He returned to Baltimore after the war and resumed his work as a carpenter. He married Anna Baden on January 28, 1868. They had at least two children: Frederick, born around 1869; and John, born around 1873. By 1870, he owned $1,500 of real estate and $300 of personal property. A decade later, he was working as an agent for a coal company. He died sometime after 1910.
DATABASE CONTENT
| (3863) | Grape, William Hamilton | 1836 |
- Conflict Side: Union
- Role: Soldier
- Rank in: Private
- Rank out: Sergeant
- Rank highest: Sergeant
- Gender: Male
- Race: White
Documents - Records: 16
- (10856) [writer] ~ William H. Grape to Charlotte Grape, 6 December 1861
- (10857) [writer] ~ William H. Grape to Charlotte Grape, 20 April 1863
- (10858) [writer] ~ William H. Grape to George S. Grape, 1 June 1862
- (10859) [writer] ~ William H. Grape to Charlotte Grape, 19 June 1862
- (10861) [writer] ~ William H. Grape to Charlotte Grape, 12 August 1862
- (10862) [writer] ~ William H. Grape to Charlotte Grape, 2 November 1862
- (10863) [recipient] ~ George S. Grape to William H. Grape, 18 August 1862
- (10864) [writer] ~ William H. Grape to Charlotte Grape, 1 February 1864
- (10865) [writer] ~ William H. Grape to Charlotte Grape, 14 May 1863
- (10866) [recipient] ~ George S. Grape to William H. Grape, 12 February 1864
- (10867) [writer] ~ William H. Grape to Charlotte Grape, 4 June 1865
- (10868) [writer] ~ William H. Grape to Charlotte Grape, 1865
- (10869) [recipient] ~ Benjamin L. Simpson Jr. to William H. Grape, 12 October 1867
- (10873) [writer] ~ William H. Grape to Jim (?), 26 December 1908
- (10875) [recipient] ~ Benjamin L. Simpson Jr. to William H. Grape, 10 January 1868
- (15279) [writer] ~ William H. Grape Diary
People - Records: 3
- (3863) Grape, William Hamilton is the [aunt/uncle of] (3869) (?), Jim
Places - Records: 1
- (180) [birth] ~ Baltimore, Baltimore County, Maryland
Regiments - Records: 2
SOURCES
1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, and 1910 United States Federal Censuses, available from Ancestry.com; Military Service Records of William H. Grape, available from Fold3.com; The Baltimore (MD) Sun, 4 February 1868
