Person:Dillon Slater (1)

Dillon Pomeroy Slater was born in 1841 in Jay, Essex County, New York (in the Adirondacks, in the NE corner of the state, near Lake Champlain and Burlington, VT). His parents died when he was young, and the children were farmed out to various relatives. In 1860, at age 19, he was a commercial fisherman on Lake Michigan. He volunteered for a couple of tours of duty in the Union Army during the Civil War (see below). In the short break between his two tours, he married Marcia Parsons, and fathered their first son, Wayland. After his discharge in 1864, he returned home to have two more sons, Elmer (1865) and Warren (1868). They were in Waupaca, WI in 1880, and had settled in Crandon by 1900. He worked as a carpenter and also served as a Justice of the Peace and cemetery commissioner. He died in Crandon, Wisconsin, in 1920 (at age 79).

Civil War Service

Early in the war, on 20 April 1861, Dillon volunteered for the 1st Wisconsin Infantry Company I, when they were asking for 90-day tours of duty. The 1st Wisconsin was assigned to Maj. Gen. Patterson at Hagerstown MD. In the advance of Martinsburg VA, they participated in the Battle of Falling Waters, before their 90-day commission expired in August. (Civil War trivia: the 1st Wisconsin companies A thru H had left Wisconsin in state-made gray uniforms. Company I had proper Union blue.) He was mustered out on 21 Aug 1861.

After Slater's initial service, he re-upped in Aug 1862 into the newly formed 32nd Wisconsin Infantry Company H, where he was elected 1st Sergeant by the company. (His break in service was just long enough for him to get married and impregnate his new wife.) In fall 1862, the company was mustered into service under the command of General Sherman, and engaged in operations in northwestern Tennessee and northern Mississippi. During 1863, the company returned to Memphis, and was assigned to patrol and provost duty in that territory and in the vicinity of Grand Junction. (Back home, his first son Wayland was born in 1863.) In 1864, the 32nd participated in the Meridian Expedition into northern Mississippi under Gen. Sherman, and marched with Sherman into the Siege of Atlanta. Unfortunately, Slater missed all of the 1864 action as he was sidelined with dysentery and fever contracted in the course of duty, and was medically discharged in June 1864. (His discharge was approved by Gen. James McPherson, and was dated 29 July 1864, which was actually 7 days after Gen McPherson was killed in the Battle of Atlanta.)

Grave Rededication Ceremony

A local Forest County history buff, Ron Krueger, had been researching Civil War veterans who had lived in the area. He discovered that Dillon Slater was buried in an unmarked grave in Crandon, in a family plot with his son Warren and Warren's wife. He worked with a local boy scout troop to raise funds to get a proper veteran's headstone, and arranged a gravestone dedication ceremony that included descendants of Civil War veterans in period-style uniforms. The ceremony on 27 Apr 2002 in Crandon, Wisconsin, marked the grave of Union vet Dillon Slater and Confederate vet William Sparks, and was believed to be the first such ceremony of Union and Confederate vets being honored at the same time. (Link to an account of the ceremony on the Sons of Union Veterans newsletter, with photos.)

Dillon and three brothers

Dillon's gravestone in Crandon

1.   1920 US Census
   Wisconsin: Forest: Crandon City: 5th ward: ED 84, 25 Feb 1920.

   SLATER Dillon P, head, MWM 79 Wd, NY/NY/NY, retired, owns home free. No others in household, no other family nearby in enumeration.

2. ↑ 131276419, in Find A Grave.

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