Otis family

Otis, Ferdinand

Rank : Pvt.

Regiment : 57th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment, Co. A (1861-1865)

Otis, Israel

Rank : Cpl.

Regiment : 57th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment, Co. A (1861-1865)

Roberts, Mortimer

Rank : Pvt.

Regiment : 57th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment, Co. A (1861-1865)

Otis, Dudley

Rank : Pvt.

Regiment : 57th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment, Co. A (1861-1865)

In 1832, farmer Erastus Otis (1806-1895) married Jane Davis (1810-1881) in Montrose, Pennsylvania. They had at least 10 children: Silas, Sally, Elizabeth, Louisa, Israel, Ferdinand, Cornelia, Fanny, [Sabra], and Byron.

Louisa Otis was born February 8, 1840. During 1861-1862, she kept in frequent contact with several family members serving in the Civil War, including her brothers, Israel (1842-1864) and Ferdinand (1844-1862), and her cousins, Mortimer Roberts (d. 1864) and Dudley Otis. All four died while serving in Company A, 57th Pennsylvania Infantry: Ferdinand at the Battle of Fredericksburg (December 13, 1862), Israel in Chancellorsville, Virginia (November 1, 1864), Mortimer after being wounded and imprisoned during the Battle of the Wilderness (May 6, 1864), and Dudley of a wound received in an unknown battle. In late 1862, Louisa married farmer Ezekiel Shelp (1836-1905), and they settled in nearby Forest Lake Township, Pennsylvania. They had three sons: Augustus, Frederick, and Alphonzo. She died February 26, 1894.

From the guide to the Otis family papers, 1861-1862, (William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan)