Filed for the following Disabilities: (1-3)
(1) Severe Sunstroke: (resulted from a forced
march into Maryland, July 31, 1864). The weather had been extremely hot
and humid, without rain for several weeks. The troops were forced marched
into Maryland and back to head off a reported Confederate Army. Roads were
extremely dusty, and men fell from the ranks in the hundreds from heat
exhaustion and/or sunstroke. On a top of a large hill, near Halltown, West
Virginia, Benjamin fell to the roadside and was assisted to the shade of
a nearby tree. At this point, Captain Newton Poling, a fellow Jackson Countian,
saw Benjamin and went to him. He gave the severely stricken private water
from his canteen and resumed the march never expecting to see Benjamin
again. He was picked up by the ambulance (wagons) train and transported
to the field hospital at Sandy Hook, Maryland. He eventually ended up at
Camp Parole Hospital, Annapolis, Maryland for further treatment. He returned
to duty, the following November (1864) to a surprised Captain Poling. [from
affadavits (John Stone of Jackson County, and others) Benjamin was described
as a hardy rugged man able to do a full days work in the fields prior to
the war.
(2) Benjamin was wounded from a minie ball at the Battle of 2nd Kernstown, July 24, 1864. He was guarding rebel prisoners with private Job Snyder (also of Jackson County) when a rebel sharpshooter shot him in his right side. He was sent to a field hospital for treatment and released.
(3) Private Benjamin C. Dewees was wounded slightly in the leg from a minie ball at the Battle of Hatchers Run, outside of Petersburg, March 31, 1865, and was treated for the slight wound at a field hospital.
Benjamin was present for duty as well as his brothers and cousins during the Appomattox Campaign, and at the front of the Army of the James, in the Independent Division (old Army of West Virginia) of the XXIV Corps, the Brigade of General Harris consisting of the 11th, came to the Federal Cavalry's aid (General Custer's men) at the Lynchburg/Richmond Road directly in front of and confronting the confederate Corp of General John Gordon CSA.
Geneological Information:
Benjamin Casto Dewees was married five (5)
times: [1-5]
(1) Grace Casto (married November 5, 1848)
the daughter of William Casto and Susanna Rollins - [children a-x]
one son from this marriage:
(a) James Robert Dewees b. 3/29/1850
[divorce]
(2) Nancy Anne Hershman (m. January 8, 1857)
the daughter of Christopher Hershman -
(b) Christopher Columbus Dewees (b. 8/6/1858)
(c) John Wesley Dewees (b. 7/12/1860)
(d) Benjamin Franklin Dewees (b. 1864)
(e) Joshua Dewees (b. 9/3/1865)
(f) Ulyseus Grant Dewees (b. May 1867)
(g) Jasper Newton Dewees (b. 1/10/1871)
[Nancy died]
(3) Caroline Runner (m. 10/9/1876)
[divorced]
(4) Marietta McDade (m. 4/19/1881 - Roane County)
(h) Samuel Dewees (b. 3/28/1886)
[Marietta died in 1889]
(5) Mary Peyton Clark (widow) m. 2/21/1898 (Pomeroy Township, Meigs County, Ohio - no children)
Brothers in Company K, 11th West Virginia: (Jackson Countians)
(1) Private Alfred E.S. Dewees (wounded in action at the Battle of Cloyd's Mountain)
(2) Private Henry Spencer Dewees (wounded in action at the battle of Fishers Hill, Virginia from a cannon blast during a charge)
Benjamin, Alfred, and Henry were sons of Samuel and Edith Dewees.
Cousins in Company K, 11th West Virginia Infantry: Jackson Countians.
(1) Private Joshua Kessel Dewees (son of William Dewees and Rachel Battin)
(2) Private William Jabel Dewees (son of William Dewees and Rachel Battin) Pvt. Dewees was also wounded in action at Fishers Hill from a cannon blast * see Henry Spencer Dewees.
Nephew of Benjamin Casto Dewees (Alfred & Henry) Company K, 11th West Virginia: (Jackson Countian)
(1) Private Moses Parsons (son of Mary Dewees [daughter of Samuel and Edith] and Moses Parsons Sr.). Moses fell from a steamboat carrying troops to mobilization site of the New River Campaign at Camp Piatt, near Charleston. He fell from the boat near Point Pleasant, West Virginia, April 24, 1864, and before the boat could turn around and rescue him, he was taken down from a strong current and drowned.
Benjamin Casto Dewees' pension was stopped in 1907 due to his death. He died June 4, 1907 in Munday, Wirt County, West Virginia and is buried atop a hill at Wolverton cemetery there.