Alden S. Carr
Ordinary Seaman, USS Chickasaw
Alden S. Carr was born c1845 in Searsport, Maine. Carr initially enlisted as a private on 9 December 1863 in Company H, 2nd Maine Calvary. He was transfered to the Navy on 1 July 1864 as an ordinary seaman at New Orleans and attached to the USS Chickasaw.[1],[2],[3]
On 25 May 1865, surrendered ordnance was being loaded into Marshall's Warehouse in downtown Mobile by Army personnel when a shell exploded, igniting an explosion that left a crater where the warehouse stood and flatting or damaging much of the city. Sailors from the various ships in the bay responded to the fire to fight it and rescue civilians, including Alden Carr. The reprinted Mobile News article in the 10 June 1865 New York Herald and a line in Army-Navy Journal notes that Alden Carr joined the crew of fire company Engine No. 8 to help fight the fire. While working with the firefighters, Carr was struck by an exploding shell and killed. [4],[5]
Interment
Mobile National Cemetery. Section 2, grave 340.
Dependents
Alden Carr's invalid father, William A. Carr, was financially dependent on his son and applied for a Navy "widows" pension under his son's name.
Awards and Memorials
References
[1] Return of the United States Naval Rendezvous, New Orleans, LA summer 1864
[2] Case Files of Approved Pension Applications of Widows and Other Dependents of Civil War and Later Navy Veterans ("Navy Widows' Certificates"), 1861-1910
[3] Muster Rolls, USS Chickasaw, National Archives
[4] "The Mobile Explosion." New York Herald, 10 June 1865.
[5] "Various Naval Matters." Army-Navy Journal, 17 June 1865.