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Jesse Comstock

Jesse Comstock, son of Sarah Elizabeth and William Weeden Comstock, and nephew of Major Joseph Comstock of the 14th RI, enlisted for three months on May 2, 1861, at Washinton, DC, with the 1st Rhode Island Detached Militia. Wounded at Bull Run on July 21, 1861 when a musket ball broke his leg near the ankle, he was taken as a prisoner to Richmond, Virginia. He died of "lock jaw" on July 31, 1861 at the age of 20, the result of poor medical treatment by his captors.

Jesse's mother, Sarah, widowed since 1854 when her husband perished on board the steamship Arctic in a horrific collision at sea collision at sea, filed for her son's pension and was granted $8.00 per month. Deeming that insufficient, since Jesse had been the family provider with an income of $50.00 per month, she requested reconsideration and was granted an additional $4.00 per month, which she collected and lived on with additional assistance from friends until her death on April 9, 1896. She was also buried at the North Burial Ground.

Erik Christiansen, PhD, Rhode Island College