Why did the family of Benedict Sherer live under an assumed name for more than a decade?
I’ve learned from Benedict Sherer's pension file that according to Benedict his parents were John Sherer and Catharine Miller. He was born 13 Oct 1844 or 1845 in Berne, Switzerland and had one living brother as of 1900 named John. He landed in NY on a spring day in 1863 or 1864. Although the transcription of the passenger list for the ship on which he travelled says he arrived on 20 May 1864 and his enlistment in the Union Army was dated 20 May 1864, he says he enlisted the day after he arrived. He spent his first night in America in a hotel with no family or friends here to meet him. The next morning he walked into the street and a man told him he had a job for him driving a bread wagon. Instead, the man took him to a military hall where he was induced to enlist in the Union Army. Benedict’s regiment spent 2 months training at Hart’s Island, NY. From there the regiment went by steamboat to Fortress Manor and City Point, and then to Petersburg, VA. They moved about Petersbur...