William Gray Torrence (1799-1878)

William Gray Torrence (1799-1878)

Ancestry entry

There's a letter in the Tone miscellany album dated 1861 where William is turned down for enlistment during the civil war, though only because of his age. He was 62, and volunteers couldn't be older than 45. They even underlined that this was the only reason.

The letter reads:

Columbus, Ohio. May 2, 1861.

This is to certify that Mr. William G. Torrence was rejected as a volunteer on account of overage and on this account only. The law requires that a volunteer should be over 18 years of age and under 45, and Mr. Torrence's age is 62. His patriotism is fully appreciated and it is to be hoped he will be permitted to serve his country in a more necessary capacity, where his age will be no objection.

S. B[unreadable]

A second letter found in the 📄 McCabe family history reads

Columbus May 2 1861

Under the laws of the United States and the laws of the State of Ohio the ages of the soldiers received into service must be between 18 & 45. Under these regulations my partner William Torrance was rejected by the U. States officer-- the offer at the time remarked that Mr. Torrence would make as good a soldier as there was in the company and that he regretted the necessity of rejecting him-- but he had to do it under the regulations of the army.

I take further pleasure in saying that the company to which Mr. Torrence was attached parted with him with great reluctance.

We admired the patriotism of Mr. Torrence-- and regretted that his age prevented him from serving his country in the present unfortunate crisis.

A. S. B[unreadable]

So I thought he hadn't been in the war. It seems that he was, though, because there's some documentation (see 115th_oh_infantry_roster.pdf). He's listed in a roster of all members of the 115th Ohio Infantry, along with two of his sons. It's pretty suspicious that his age is listed as 45, the maximum age for volunteers, even though he would have been in his 60s by the time of the war. It might be related that one of his sons (Hugh Milo Torrence (1822-1895)) is listed as the second in command for his company in the brigade. It looks like he was so eager to serve that he lied about his age. He was the company postmaster.

After the war, he was repeatedly turned down for a pension. He seems to have suffered some vaguely described injury that caused him great pain on his left side. There's a ton of documentation on his pension claims (see W G Torrence Pension File.pdf) but none says how this might have happened. Some of the rejections mention that it's not clear his troubles were related to his service.

William Gray Torrence (1799-1878)

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