Tru here.

This is Memorial Day weekend, and today I am working with a Pate cousin on military records for our Pate ancestors.  Enjoying a sense of comradery for the project.

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Memorial weekend two years ago (2018) I published a page on Joseph Pate at https://truthfulkindness.com/about/life-other/family-history-index/ffp06-joseph-pate-civil-war-death/ ,
and today Brian and i have been working on the prior Pate generation.

Since the two families moved around the country together, several Pate researchers have debated whether Jacob or his brother Henry was father to Joseph Pate.  But my dna shows consistently higher dna concentrations thru cousin matches with Jacob’s descendants, than the amount of dna matched with Henry’s descendants, so revised my Ancestry tree to now show Jacob as Joseph’s probable father … and Henry as probable Uncle.

Both Pate brothers (Jacob & Henry) from Indiana have pension applications for participation in War of 1812, then …

When Union recruitment for Civil War was dwindling during the fall of 1862, Iowa’s Governor (Kirkwood) and Adjutant General (Baker) approved a proposal for a regiment of men 45 years and older.  This was a tool to motivate standard recruitment for the Union Army.  These men were to be in good physical condition. Per Central Iowa genealogical Society, they were “Required to hike in the mud and sleep in the rain like other soldiers, the Graybeards were spared none of the rigors of army life”.  –But they had a three-year enlistment, and were primarily tasked with guard duty.  The “Graybeard Regiment” succeeded as tool to dramatically increase recruitment of sons and grandsons … but mixed results as a military unit.

Nine men in the new regiment were 70 or older.  We don’t have Henry Pate’s exact birthdate, but he was approximately 70 years old when he enlisted in Company I, Iowa 37th Infantry Regiment in the fall of 1862. (Some records have his enlistment date as 22Sep1862, … and others as 19Nov1862.  Maybe one was enlistment, and the other date was reporting for duty.)  Severe lack of blankets and clothing to keep warm caused many of the older soldiers to become disabled.  Many others simply went home.  After staying in the unit during winter months one year, it only made sense to get out before winter.  Many of the men were not approved to leave, but Henry was mustered out on 08 May 1863 at St Louis, MO,  per Roster & Record of Iowa Soldiers in the War of Rebellion .  Wish I had more information on WHY his request was approved when others were not … but that’s all I’ve got.

Wonderful article for civil War Times was re-printed at HistoryNet. >> https://www.historynet.com/greybeards-in-blue-february-1998-civil-war-times-feature.htm .

More LINKS:
Dubuque Co >> http://www.encyclopediadubuque.org/index.php?title=GREYBEARD_REGIMENT ;
WikiPedia >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/37th_Iowa_Volunteer_Infantry_Regiment ;
Iowa GenWeb >> http://iagenweb.org/benton/civil_war/37th/37th-history.htm ;
Central Iowa Genealogical Society >> http://www.manorweb.com/cigs/graybrd.html ;
YesterYearsNews >> https://yesteryearsnews.wordpress.com/tag/graybeard-regiment/  ;

And … “Th-th-that’s all, folks!”

.  (Above is portrait of my great-great grandmother Caroline Pate-Frey, daughter to Joseph Pate).

Relationship: Either Jacob or Henry was father to Joseph Pate who is …

Family History index at https://truthfulkindness.com/about/life-other/family-history-index/ .

Tags: Graybeard Regiment, Henry Pate.  Posted 24May2020.

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