We learn from this marriage record that the chaplain of the 14 N. H. Regiment married William E Bunten and Nellie M Shackford on October 12, 1862, six days before his regiment mustered out.
Nellie (Mary Ellen) Shackford was the daughter of William Shackford and Mary Ellen Dame and probably met Capt Bunten in Concord where he had arrived to set up a recruiting station after graduating from Dartmouth. Because a few gentlemen involved in recruitment wanted the role of Captain, an election was held and William was chosen September 22 to become the captain of Company H, 14th Regiment Infantry. He was formally enlisted on October 2, 1862.
Nellie probably watched the departure of her new husband as the 14th Regiment marched to and boarded the train.
Their departure is described by Frances Buffum, author of A Memorial of The Great Rebellion; Being a History of the Fourteenth Regiment New-Hampshire Volunteers, Covering Its Three Years of Service, with Original Sketches of Army Life. 1862-1865 : "
"At seven o'clock, on the morning of Saturday, October 18, the last line was formed in Camp Cheshire. The great battalion stretched out, in a magnificent formation; and "by the right flank, file right," the column moved out to the music, first of drum corp, then of the band. It was an interesting spectacle - to see a thousand soldiers, but yesterday in civil life, arching away from their homes and the dearest objects of existence, to venture every hardship that a colossal struggle, covering a thousand battle-fields, involved, with a risk of life that amounted to a certainty of death for a large number."
Nellie's husband served with the 14th for a year, mustered out and then served as a clerk for the US Quartermaster in Washington DC 1863-1868 before becoming a teacher and then a principal for multiple schools in Marblehead, Massachusetts, Waltham, Massachusetts, Woodstock, Connecticut and Kingston, New York. He died in 1897 in Kingston, Ulster, New York where he was working as the Principal of Ulster Academy.
REFERENCES:
Buffum Francis Henry, A Memorial of The Great Rebellion; Being a History of the Fourteenth Regiment New-Hampshire Volunteers, Covering Its Three Years of Service, with Original Sketches of Army Life. 1862-1865. (Boston: Franklin Press: Rand, Avery, & Company, 1882), page 29, 30,; digital images, Google eBooks (http://books.google.com : accessed 1 January 2014
The General Catalogue and a Brief History of Kimball Union Academy, Plainfield, (Meriden P. O.) N. H. Also a Biographical Sketch of Hon. Daniel Kimball, Its Founder 1813-1880 (Claremont, N. H.: The Claremont Manufacturing Co, 1880), page 191; digital images, Google Books (http://books.google.com : accessed 1 January 2013
E-mail, Lee Ann Lawler, [[email protected]], 17 Feb 1999
New Hampshire, New Hampshire, Marriage Records, 1637-1947, , William Bunton m Nellie M Shackford, 12 October 1862; digital records, Family Search (http://familysearch.org : accessed 13 June 2013).
"United States Civil War Soldiers Index," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : accessed 1 January 2013), William E. Bunten
Copywrite 2014, Joanne Shackford Parkes