Jan Willem Gast in the Civil War

While quite a few of the American side of my grand kids ancestors served in the Civil War, one of their Dutch relatives was also a soldier for the North.

Jan Willem Gast (dutch link) was on both sides related to my ancestors. On his mother’s side he was a grandson of my paternal grandmother’s brother, on his father’s side he was a great-grandson of my paternal grandfather’s brother. Yes, Almelo was a very small town!

In 1858 he was listed in the General Police Blotter.

nr.434. Gast, Jan Willem, 19 years old, born and living in Stad Almelo, painter’s apprentice, height 1.71 m, brown hair and eyebrows, short forehead, grey eyes, ordinary mouth and nose, pointy chin, brown beard, oval face, healthy coloring. Has a stiff right arm. Probably gone to America. He has been sentenced on 4 May last to 3 months in prison.

According to family lore, he had stolen a watch, and his parents shipped him to America, rather than have him go to prison. His uncle Thomas had gone there about ten years before. Whether he ever found his uncle, I don’t know.

However, he enlisted on 4 Sep 1861 in Company E, 45th Regiment, New York Infantry as John Gast, and mustered in on 7 Sep. He (as William Gast) was discharged as a private in 1862 at Wheeling, Va for disability. He re-enlisted on 15 March 1864 (mustered in on the same day) as William John Gast. He was missing in action at Gettysburg, PA on 1 July 1863, but is present again as William Gast on 18 April 1863; he is in the hospital in Nashville from 9 Oct 1864 until his death on 26 June 1865. He was a corporal when he died.

His description is as follows:
Born: Almelo, Holland; painter; eyes blue; hair light; height 5 ft, 9 in; 7″ fist

He is buried in the National Cemetery in Nashville (grave 920, sect. J). Someday I would like to go there. And I wonder, whether his family regretted sending him overseas after he died in Tennessee.

There are still many questions: which ship did he come over on? What did he do between 1858 and 1861, when he enlisted? I cannot find him anywhere in the 1860 census. Some dates in his service record do not seem to make sense.

Some other links to the 45th NY Infantry “Fifth German Rifles”
Timeline on Civil War in the East
Regimental History from the NY State Military Museum