Civil War Veterans in Australia

George Johnston Fairweather was born in 1838 at Woodstock, New Brunswick, Canada. George was the son of Benjamin Fairweather, born around 1800, also in Woodstock and the second eldest of sixteen children born to Benjamin Sr. and Martha Beardsley. One brother, Andrew, having been born on October 6, 1829. George’s mother was Margaret Currie, born on July 20, 1829. George’s father Benjamin hanged himself in 1850, precipated by his wife’s death. Sometime between 1851 and 1861 George and his family migrated from Woodstock, New Brunswick to the state of Maine in the U.S.

George was a true “river man” and when at Bangor, Maine and at 21 years of age, he enlisted in Captain Cunningham’s Rockland’s 4^th Maine Infantry Regiment, Company A; on May 31, 1861 for a period of three years, not June 15, 1861 as has been reported.. The 4^th Regiment was organized at Rockland and mustered in June on 15, 1861; leaving Maine for Washington, D.C. on June 20^th. It was attached to Howard's Brigade, Heintzelman's Division, McDowell's Army of North Eastern Virginia until August 1861, then to Heintzelman's Brigade, Division of the Potomac, to October 1861, transferred over to Sedgwick's Brigade, Heintzelman's Division, Army of the Potomac until March 1862 and to the 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, 3rd Army Corps, Army Potomac until July 1862. It was then decided it would operate more efficiently with the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, 3rd Army Corps, with which it stayed until March, 1864, then sent to the 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, 2nd Corps.

Fairweather's Regiment camped on Meridian Hill in the Defences of Washington, until July 16, 1861, advanced on Manassas, Virginia from July 16 through 21, participated in the Battle of Bull Run on July 21^st, resumed duties in the Defences of Washington, D.C., until March, 1862, then advanced on Manassas, Virginia again from March 10 through the 15^th, participated in the Peninsula Campaign from April until August, participated in the Siege of Yorktown from April 5^th through May 4^th, participated in the Battle of Williamsburg on May 5^th, the Battle of Seven Pines or Fair Oaks from May 31st. through June 1^st and numerous other battles, including Malvern Hill, Pope's Campaign in Northern Virginia, the Battles of Groveton, Bull Run, the Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, participated in the Mud March", the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Gettysburg Campaign, the Battle of Gettysburg and the Mine Run Campaign from November 26^th through December 2^nd.

On December 23, 1863 George accepted a reenlistment bounty and reenlisted as a veteran volunteer. In l861 many Union regiments were raised for a term of 3 years. Hence in the spring of l864 many of these regiments would be eligible for discharge. To promote reenlistments the War Department came up as an enticement that if a certain number of men reenlisted in a regiment then that regiment would retain its number and be called a Veteran Regiment. Further, those who reenlisted were entitled to a 30 day furlough and a bounty. They were also entitled to a special chevron which they could wear on their uniforms signifying them as veterans. That was how the “Veteran Volunteers” unit came about. He was listed as absent, however, on a 35 day furlough, having deserted when he failed to report back on March 24, 1864. But for what ever reasons, his service records reveal instead of returning he enlisted in the 19^th Maine Infantry. The 19^th Maine was organized at Bath, Maine, mustered in on August 25, 1862 and saw a lot of action before Fairweather joined it. But George survived some of the fiercest battles of the Civil War, with the 19^th. He saw action in the Chancellorsville Campaign, the Battle of Gettysburg from July 1^st through the 3^rd, the Battles of the Wilderness May from 5^th through the 7^th, the Siege of Petersburg from June 16, 1864, to April 2, 1865, at Deep Bottom, the Appomattox Campaign and was at the Appomattox Court House on April 9^th for the Surrender of Lee and his army.

Eventually George made his way out of the service and all the way to Australia.

Little is known of George’s life in Australia, except he never married, remaining single his entire life and lived in the Bowral area of New South Wales. Bowral was a grant of 2400 acres made to John Oxley by the Governor in 1823 in recognition of his services. With later purchases converted to an outright grant to his sons in 1829, Oxley's holding comprised 5000 acres.

It extended from Mt. Gibraltar in the north and from the Old South Road in the east, to the new line of road between Mittagong and Berrima in the west, today, the Old Hume Highway at Bendooley Hill, and south to the Wingecarribee River at Burradoo; about 5km from Bowral today, towards Moss Vale.

John Oxley himself never lived in the area, sending his sons with herds of cattle to graze on the land after it was granted. In 1858 Henry Oxley conveyed his share of the grant to his brother John, who promptly subdivided 200 acres in the path of the proposed railway.

Although the first lot was not sold until 5 years later, John stood to make 50% profit on his purchase, from only 5% of the land. Smaller farms to the south were also let, but only on 99 year leases.

The town subdivision stood to the left of the present railway line, and ran five blocks from Bowral Street to Bundaroo Street, and two blocks east to Bendooley Street - the area presently occupied by the commercial centre of the town. The 133 hardy souls who lived there in 1871 considered it a dream. The first hotel, the Wingecarribee Inn, was built in 1862 on the corner of Bong Bong and Boolwey Streets, a church school was built in 1861 and there was a blacksmith, bakery, general store, newsagency, and a butchery, and more substantial houses were being built every year. In the 1880s a tannery operated at the corner of Bong Bong and Wingecarribee Streets, behind where the Commonwealth Bank stands today.

Fairweather applied for a military pension in a letter he wrote, addressed to Orlando Baker, Esq., American Consul, Sydney. It was attested to in a “Wollondilly Press” newspaper article written on him on August 19, 1908, around the time of his death in 1908, certificate 8773, AT 70 years of age. They described him as “an old man living alone in a hut near Burrawang” that was “brought to the hospital at Bowral by Constable Webb shortly after midnight on Thursday, in a condition of collapse, and died shortly afterwards”.

An inquiry was shortly held but little was learned, as George had no known friends or relatives. It is not known if George ever received a pension, or any consideration for his years of service. He lived and died alone at 84 years of age and was buried in a pauper’s grave in Bowral Cemetery; without even having a headstone. Eventually, interested parties in New South Wales discovered that fact and made an application for a proper headstone and obtained one from the American Veterans Administration in Washington D.C. in 1992; and had it erected on his gravesite to honor his memory.