Henry Wheaton Washburn
Henry Wheaton Washburn was probably born in the late 1820s in New York to Noah Washburn. He married Harriet Grey on April 6, 1851, and they had four children: Mary, born on February 14, 1855; Charles, born on September 29, 1858; Henry, born on August 10, 1863; and Edith, born on September 9, 1867. They lived in New London, Connecticut, and Washburn worked as a cooper. By 1860, he owned $150 of personal property.
 
He joined the Union navy, and he became acting master of the USS Morning Light on March 12, 1862. The ship was part of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron. He received a gunshot wound in his forearm in November 1862. Confederate forces captured the ship on January 21, 1863, and Washburn remained a prisoner of war for the next two years. According to one acquaintance, he was “closely confined [in Texas] during the summer + autumn of 1863 in a filthy prison camp with no sanitary or police regulations.”  Nearly “every prisoner was suffering from billious diarrhea or dysentery,” and Washburn soon fell ill, as well. The following year, he was “again exposed to intense heat,” and his prison camp was “covered with every form of filth and the air filled with an intollerable stench. He was finally released in February 1865 and assigned to the USS Sabine that April. According to one officer, however, Washburn was “much reduced by his privations and disease.” He was detached from the Sabine in May 1865, and he was discharged in April 1866. 
 
He settled in Washburn, Connecticut, after the war and earned a living as a farmer. His health, however, never fully recovered, and he died on October 12, 1870.
4023
DATABASE CONTENT
(4023)Washburn, Henry Wheaton182X1870-10-12
  • Conflict Side: Union
  • Role: Sailor
  • Rank in: Master
  • Rank out: Master
  • Rank highest: Master
  • Gender: Male
  • Race: White

Documents - Records: 21

  • (3912) [writer] ~ Henry W. Washburn to Noah Washburn, 29 November 1862
  • (3974) [writer] ~ Henry W. Washburn to Harriet Washburn, 6 October 1862
  • (11676) [writer] ~ Henry W. Washburn to Harriet Washburn, 29 November 1862
  • (11677) [recipient] ~ John Dillingham to Henry W. Washburn, 16 December 1862
  • (11678) [writer] ~ Henry W. Washburn to Harriet Washburn, 10 January 1863
  • (11679) [writer] ~ John Dillingham and Henry W. Washburn Report, 20 January 1863
  • (11680) [writer] ~ Henry W. Washburn to Harriet Washburn, 23 January 1863
  • (11681) [writer] ~ Henry W. Washburn to Harriet Washburn, 7 October 1863
  • (11682) [writer] ~ Henry W. Washburn to Harriet Washburn, 4 April 1864
  • (11684) [associated with] ~ Henry W. Washburn Parole, 26 February 1865
  • (11685) [recipient] ~ Henry K. Thatcher to Henry W. Washburn, 2 March 1865
  • (11687) [recipient] ~ Gideon Welles to Henry W. Washburn, 23 March 1865
  • (11689) [recipient] ~ Gideon Welles to Henry W. Washburn, 24 April 1865
  • (11690) [recipient] ~ Stephen J. W. Tabor to Henry W. Washburn, 27 April 1865
  • (11691) [recipient] ~ Stephen J. W. Tabor to Henry W. Washburn, 6 May 1865
  • (11692) [recipient] ~ Gideon Welles to Henry W. Washburn, 28 July 1866
  • (11694) [recipient] ~ J. L. Bennett Jr. to Henry W. Washburn, 14 August 1866
  • (11695) [recipient] ~ Stephen J. W. Tabor to Henry W. Washburn, 4 January 1867
  • (11697) [associated with] ~ Owen O'Brien to William H. Tubbs, 16 March 1871
  • (11698) [associated with] ~ Henry Van Aernam to William H. Tubbs, 24 April 1871
  • (11700) [associated with] ~ Henry H. Starkweather to William H. Tubbs, 30 January 1871

People - Records: 2

  • (4024) Washburn, Harriet is the [wife of] (4023) Washburn, Henry Wheaton
  • (4224) Washburn, Noah is the [parent of] (4023) Washburn, Henry Wheaton

Places - Records: 2

  • (67) [birth] ~ New York
  • (294) [death] ~ Connecticut

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Regiments - Records: 3

  • (266) [officer] ~ Union Navy
  • (584) [officer] ~ USS Sabine
  • (1002) [officer] ~ USS Morning Light
SOURCES

1860 and 1870 United States Federal Censuses, available from Ancestry.com; Widow’s Pension of Harriet Washburn, available from Fold3.com.