LUCK, George Carroll

LUCK, George Carroll. (Dubuque, IA, May 2, 1836---Dubuque, IA, Sept. 24, 1903). Described as “one of the oldest native-born citizens in the city,” George enlisted in Company F on August 22, 1862. The company was mustered in the same day with 100 men and the regiment on September 9th with a total enrollment (officers and enlisted) of 985. On September 16th, after training at CAMP FRANKLIN THE men marched through town and from the levee at the foot of Jones Street boarded the Henry Clay, a 184' four-year-old sidewheel steamer, and two barges tied alongside. They spent their first night on Rock Island, debarked at Montrose, Iowa to low water, traveled by rail to Keokuk, boarded the Hawkeye State and reached St. Louis on the 20th. After an inspection on the 21st, they left by rail and traveled to the railhead in Rolla, Missouri where they would spent the next month.

From Rolla they walked to Salem, Houston and Hartville where they arrived on November 15th. They were dependent on supplies brought from Rolla on long trains of heavily loaded army wagons protected by armed guards. On November 24th, they were attacked by enemy cavalry and quickly overwhelmed. A few escaped and alerted their comrades in Hartville. The others, including George Luck, had been captured and paroled by the rebels who took what they could carry, burned the rest and quickly left.

George continued as a teamster for the balance of their service in Missouri but, at Milliken’s Bend on April 8, 1863, he was relieved and rejoined his company. From there, General Grant’s 30,000 man army walked south along the west side of the Mississippi until crossing to the Bruinsburg landing in Mississippi on April 30th. The Battle of Port Gibson, was fought the next day with Confederates withdrawing that evening. While the army started a movement inland before turning toward Vicksburg, George and several others were detailed as ambulance drivers. Near Little Bayou Pierre on May 5th (or 6th) they were captured by Wirt Adams’ Confederate cavalry. By May 19th, George was in Richmond’s Libby Prison. He was paroled at City Point, on the 26th, but it was October 24, 1863, at Vermilion Bayou before he rejoined his regiment.

Luck saw service along the Gulf coast of Texas and in Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee before participating in the successful Mobile campaign in the spring of 1865. Thirty-seven early enlistees were mustered out at Shreveport on June 10th and 110 who had enlisted as “recruits” after the regiment’s organization were transferred on July 12th to a consolidated 34th/38th regiment. Luck and 464 of the original enlistees were mustered out at Baton Rouge on July 15th. They started north the next morning and were discharged at Clinton on July 24th.

After returning home, Luck continued his pre-war profession as a plasterer and was active in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Order of Foresters and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. On June 13, 1866, George and Sarah Z. Harris, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, were married by a Baptist minister in Dubuque.

Luck did not apply for a pension until March 17, 1897. To prove his claim he had to demonstrate that he had served at least ninety days, been honorably discharged and was suffering from a mental or physical disability that at least partially disabled him from earning a living by manual labor and was not caused by “vicious habits.” The Bureau of Pensions verified his military service and George submitted affidavits from Thomas Mahone and A. J. Krise, two plasterers who worked for him and said he had rheumatism, mostly in the knees, “sometimes dropping out from under him and dropping him nearly or quite to the ground.” At times, they said, he had nearly fallen from scaffold. Examining surgeons felt he was partially disabled by rheumatism and deafness, but a Medical Referee decided that George had “no ratable disability” and a pension was denied.

Luck continued with his pension application and a board of surgeons said there was “no doubt” that his weak, rheumatic right ankle was interfering with his work as a plasterer and he couldn’t “hear normal conversation at any distance greater than three feet with either or both ears.” George’s personal doctor, Edward Jackson, agreed and said the physical problems made “manual labor difficult and painful.” The pension office was finally convinced and on February 25, 1899, a certificate was mailed entitling George to a $6.00 monthly pension payable quarterly.

On May 6, 1901, he applied for an increase saying he was suffering from a bad ankle sprain “caused by a violent fall incurred about 2 years ago, while engaged in plastering St. Luke’s Church in Dubuque.” George’s pension was increased to $8.00 and another application was pending when he died at home on the morning of September 24, 1903.

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Source:

Ingwalson, Carl, "George Carroll Luck," Dubuque County IAGenWeb. Online: http://iagenweb.org/dubuque/military/cw/Luck_GeorgeC.htm