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Corcoran, John

Place of Birth: Staffordshire

Date of enlistment: 8 October 1873

Age given at enlistment: 21

Rank: Private

Company: C

Location on 25 June 1876: In confinement - Fort Abraham Lincoln

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Comments:

Name and place of birth not yet verified.

Insobriety saved his life!

Staffordshire - a green and pleasant county.

  • Not yet fully researched.
  • He may have been John, son of Catharine Corcoran [name of father not given] who was baptised on 21 June 1851 in St. Gregory’s Church, Longton, Stafford, although that would make his age 22, not 21, on enlistment.
  • Corcoran had blue eyes, dark hair, a ruddy complexion, was 5′ 8″ tall, previously employed as a bolt maker.
  • He served several terms in confinement during his single 5-year enlistment in the regiment.  Being incarcerated [for being drunk on main guard duty] at Fort Lincoln at the time of the battle certainly saved his life. Company C, one of Custer’s doomed five companies, lost three officers and 36 enlisted men at the Little Big Horn. Additionally, four enlisted men were wounded one whom, Private James C. Bennett, died of his injuries on 5 July 1876 on the steamer Far West.
  • John Corcoran discharged on 8 October 1878 at Camp J. G. Sturgis, Dakota Territory, a private. Character “intemperate but otherwise an excellent soldier.”
  • He was recorded as a teamster, Sturgis, Dakota Territory, age 29. Born England. Father born Ireland. Mother born England (Federal Census, 1880).
  • His fate is not known to this writer.  
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