Judson Cheney
Born: May 11, 1838, Hopkinton, St. Lawrence County, New York
Died: September 29, 1864, Chaffin Farm, Virginia
Relation to Author: 2nd Great Grand Uncle
I just updated a previous post about Judson's time at Yorktown to include what he missed while his regiment stayed behind after the Seven Days Battles. I think it is worth mentioning here in a new post because you might not have noticed the update.
In the fall of 1862, while Judon's regiment stayed at Yorktown (remember - the Elysian Fields as Kreutzer called them), the rest of the Army of the Potomac under McClellan moved back up the Chesapeake Bay with the intention of joining Major General Pope in Virginia, halfway between Washington, DC and Richmond, Virginia.
During the rest of that summer and fall, those troops fought two major
battles (and should have joined at Second Manassas), both really bad for the Union: Antietam (12,400 Union casualties, though a
victory of sorts - or enough of one for Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation), and Fredericksburg (12,600 Union casualties).
I think what we'll see as we continue to follow the Cheneys through the war is how luck and randomness affect their lives. The chances of survival change depending on where your army is stationed, what tasks are asked of it, and more importantly, where on the battlefield are they located. Judson Cheney was lucky to be located away from fighting during the fall of 1862. But he eventually rejoined the Army of the Potomac and his luck ran out. Justice Cheney was very unlucky to be stationed on the front lines at Cold Harbor.
Although looking at these two examples, it feels that luck just meant when you died, not if.
