You just never know what you'll find!

Doing family history research often results in surprises. Such was the case recently when I was just fooling around seeing what might be "new" in the way of Elting family history information. This is what I found: a letter from Oscar Elting to his nephew Warren B. Keator, son of Lavina (Elting) and Calvin Keator of Rosendale, Ulster County, NY. The 1867 letter was offered for sale on the http://www.artfact.com/ Internet auction site. It requires membership so I don't know if the letter has been sold, or if so, the amount of the purchase price. 

From the auction details:

Letter, dated December 16, 1867, Fort Selden, NM, and cabinet card offered from the Eric C. Caren Collection on September 15, 2011.

Oscar Elting(1831-1902) was a native of New Paltz, NY who served in the 1st New York Cavalry through the Civil War and then joined the 3rd U.S Cavalry as a career officer. His first posting as a second lieutenant was to Fort Selden in Apache country, and he was quickly put to the test : "18 days after my arrival here, had a fight with the Apaches which I will briefly describe. At 3 1/2 o clock p.m. about 75 attacked a few soldiers guarding a herd...within half a mile of this post. My company was quickly in the saddle and in pursuit and after a chase of 15 miles and fighting them in three mountain ravines we recaptured the whole herd, killed 3 indians and dismounted 13 savages...The last Indian was killed at sundown by a detachment of 5 men under my immediate command, this detachment being the advance party...I secured his scalp besides other trophies...It was a close desperate and exciting chase, our cavalry fighting them from behind rocks and driving them until night came on."

For those who do not  have a copy of my book, Answering the Call! An Elting Military Tribute, this is a brief description of some of the information I included about Oscar:

  (His name was actually Stewart Oscar Elting and that is the way he appears in Jim Elting's genealogy book under his number: 1533).  Oscar was the son of Abraham Jacobus and Jane Vernooy (Bevier) Elting. Born August 1, 1831 in Ulster Co., NY and died November 6, 1902 in Burlington, Vermont of a heart attack. Buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA. He married Fanny Barton Stewart and had three children. Oscar was an 1861 graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point, NY. Since there are at least 900 pages of Capt. Elting's military records in the National Archives, (too expensive for my research budget for the book) I listed the information that was submitted to the government for his pension request in which his service locations and dates were detailed. According to that list, he joined his unit on November 2, 1867 and reported to Fort Selden. Of course official records also show him as a prisoner of war in June 15, 1863 having been captured at Winchester, VA. Either those records are incorrect or whoever (probably his widow) failed to mention his having been a prisoner of war when filing on his pension on January 14, 1903, a few months after his death. The full records would probably, but not necessarily, solve this mystery.

In Answering... I focused more on the health and injury issues of Civil War era Elting soldiers and Oscar's list is one of the longest. Indeed, the Angina Pectoris that killed him after retirement was reported by his physician to have been service related based on Oscar's prior testimony of "hardship and long service."

Lest anyone feel "uncomfortable" with my reporting Oscar's battle with the Apaches, I repeat here a portion of the disclaimer in my book:  "There was no attempt...to glorify---or to denounce---anyone, or any action. This is simply a tribute to those descendants of Jan and Jacomyntje Elting who served in this nation under the laws and politics of their time..."  Family history is just that---history.