Disosway, Annie R., d. 1927

Cornelius Ryerss Disosway was born on Staten Island, New York, in 1801, and graduated from Columbia College (now Columbia University) in 1820. He received a master's degree from Wesleyan College in 1838, and worked as a lawyer until his retirement in 1873. He died on November 20, 1889. He and his wife, Eliza Wilkins of Baltimore, Maryland, married on May 8, 1832, and had four children: Annie R., Sarah Louisa (d. September 8, 1921), William Wilkins, and Mary.

Eliza Wilkins had at least two sisters, Louisa and Achsa, who lived in Maryland and Virginia during the Civil War. Annie R. Disosway married Henry Kingsland Adams of Bloomingdale, New York, on September 4, 1871, and had at least two daughters. She died on November 12, 1927, at the age of 91.

William Wilkins Disosway was born on October 9, 1843, and worked as a clerk before enlisting in the 1st New York ("Lincoln") Cavalry Regiment in 1861. He served in Virginia and later moved to Company C of the 1st New York Mounted Rifles, of which he became a first lieutenant in December 1862. He served as provost martial of Williamsburg, Virginia, in the fall of 1863, and died on October 13 after he was shot by a fellow soldier named Boyle.

Richard H. Lee served as a lieutenant in Company B of the 1st New York ("Lincoln") Cavalry Regiment until 1862, when he resigned his commission and joined the 16th Independent Battery of the New York Light Artillery. He was later promoted to captain.

From the guide to the Disosway family letters, 1861-1864, (William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan)