Despite the awe-inspiring achievements of the engineers who served in the Civil War, their role does not often conjure grand ideas of heroism. The infantry, cavalry, and artillery made up the largest elements of the Union Army, and as combatants, their war stories have captured public attention and popular imagination. Engineers constituted less than 1% of soldiers, and building bridges or placing siege guns seemingly made for a less exciting narrative. In practice, however, the work of the engineer was not so clear cut, and just because they (usually) weren’t doing the fighting does not mean that their work was easy or safe. There are 22 engineers listed in the Rolls of Missing Men, including Pvt. Nathan Gilman, whose story is highlighted today.

Nathan Gilman (spelled “Gillman” in the Roll) was born around 1843 and grew up outside of Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was raised in a family of farm laborers with an older brother, Charles, and four younger sisters. By 1862 Gilman had moved to Solon in the northern part of Kent County, where he married Emma Ann Rose on February 27 of that year. Emma was pregnant soon after. Life was starting for this new family, but war would soon change their course.

The beginning of 1863 saw the Union Army of the Ohio in battle on the banks of Stones River in Tennessee. Nathan’s brother Charles, fighting with the 21^st Michigan Infantry, was pierced by a gunshot wound in his left side. He lingered until he passed at a hospital in Nashville on January 9. Nathan and Emma’s son was born just over a week later. He was named Charles Nathan Gilman.

On Christmas Eve 1863, Nathan Gilman made the decision to enlist in the Union Army. Instead of following in his brother’s footsteps to the infantry, the younger Gilman would enlist in the 1^st Michigan Engineers and Mechanics Regiment, Company B. Gilman became an artificer in charge of keeping equipment in good working order.

He was not an engineer or a mechanic by trade. He was a farmer. However, by learning this new skill, he was embodying the adaptive role of the engineer, where each day could hold something different: tearing up the enemy’s railroad track, laying pontoon bridges, placing artillery, or surveying terrain. Engineers could also be called into battle. In 1863 the 1^st Michigan had fought admirably at Stones River to start the year, then spent the following months building bridges over Elk River and Duck River that spanned hundreds of feet.

On November 30, 1864, Gilman was captured by the enemy near Louisville, Georgia. The unit history doesn’t denote a skirmish on this day; a correspondent traveling with them only noted that the regiment repaired a bridge and “encamped in the vicinity of Louisville” on this day. Gilman is the only man in the regiment listed as having been captured at that date and place. This is the case for many of the men from the 1^st Michigan Engineers who were listed as being taken prisoner. They worked in an active war zone, vulnerable to Confederate forces and guerrillas who could descend at any moment.

Upon capture, Gilman disappeared into the belly of the Confederacy. He emerges back in the record four months later, in Wilmington, North Carolina. By this time in the war, Wilmington had become a receiving point for the prisoners of war being exchanged. These returning soldiers were described as being filthy and in rags, starving, and ill. Gilman never left Wilmington. His time as a prisoner had damaged his body beyond recovery, and he would pass away on March 22, 1865. Today he is buried in Wilmington National Cemetery.

Engineers like Gilman literally laid the groundwork for the other elements of the Union Army to succeed. Their presence on the Missing Soldiers Rolls reminds us that their job was not only difficult, but dangerous as well.

About the Author

Lindsay Bencick is a volunteer docent at the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum. A member of the Society of Civil War Historians, she lives in Washington, D.C.

Sources

Ancestry.com

Find a Grave

Missing Soldiers Roll No. 2

National Archives

Sligh, Charles R. History of the Services of the First Regiment Michigan Engineers and Mechanics During the Civil War, 1861-1865. Grand Rapids: White Printing Company, 1921.

United States Sanitary Commission. Preliminary report of the operations of the U.S. Sanitary Commission in North Carolina, March, 1865, and upon the physical condition of exchanged prisoners lately received at Wilmington, N.C. New York: Sanford, Harroun & Co., 1865.