White male, about 75 years old when he died in Pensacola, FL of pneumonia on 22 April 1907. He was a machinist by trade. His place of birth and information on his parents were entered as “Unknown.” His marital status was left blank. The attending physician was J.H. Pierpont, and he was buried by F.R. Pou in the Escambia County Poor Farm cemetery.
His death was included in the vital statistics for the previous week in the Pensacola Journal, with no information other than his name, age, and cause of death.
An Isaac C. Bush who was about the same age and who appeared in records for Jacksonville, FL, died in 1886, so is not the same Isaac Bush.
An Isaac R. Bush appeared in the Pensacola Daily News in 1905 after having gotten police involved in a missing federal pension check (in the amount $227.27). He was described as an “old soldier.” The article mentioned he lived at a boarding house, and there is an entry in the Pensacola City Directory for 1907 for Isaac R. Bush, machinist, boarding at 198 E. Main St. (owned by Peter O’Brien) in Pensacola. There are no entries for this man previous to 1907. I conclude with reasonable certainty this is the same man who died on 22 April 1907.
There are military records for an Isaac R. Bush, 1st Sergeant in the 2nd Artillery, Company G. This Isaac R. Bush was born in Shrewsbury, Vermont, on 12 June 1834, making him the right age. He enlisted in the Army as a carpenter in Rochester (presumably New York?) on 20 July 1855 for a five-year period. He was described as being 5 ft., 5and 3/4 inches tall, with hazel eyes, brown hair, and a dark complexion (this could imply olive-toned and/or sun-darkened skin on a White person, as well as unknown or undisclosed mixed race heritage). His first enlistment record shows his discharge as a re-enlistment on 26 May 1860, at the post where he was stationed at the time, Barrancas Barracks in Pensacola.
The second enlistment record shows he was re-enlisted by Lt. Eddy at the age of 26 for another 5-year stint. However, he was transferred to Fort Jay in New York in August of 1860. He apparently deserted from Ft. Schuyler in New York on 15 March 1861.
There are no records of an Isaac Bush after that which I can say with any certainty are the same man. An Isaac R. Bush who lived in Onandaga County, New York, during the lifetime of the Isaac R. Bush who died in Pensacola, himself died in 1896.
There is a single record of a federal pension from an Isaac R. Bush or Isaac Rosebush (the transcriptionist could not decide) in Flomaton, AL, but I find no other records for this Isaac, nor can I link him definitively to the Isaac R. Bush from Vermont. I have not yet located any records for an Isaac Bush born in Vermont in the 1830s. There is a marriage record for a Captain Isaac Rosebush who married Margaret Jensen on 6 November 1893 in Escambia County, FL; however – again – I cannot verify this is the same man nor locate him (or Margaret) after this record.
I am inclined to see a connection between the Isaac R. Bush once stationed at Barrancas and the man who died in 1907; however, further verification is desireable. If he feared prosecution for desertion, he may have either hidden his true identity and/or avoided official documentation, such as censuses, for many decades. (If the pensioner living in Pensacola is the same Isaac R. Bush who deserted, one wonders how he successfully applied for a pension.)
SOURCES:
Pensacola births and deaths, 1891-1910, Escambia County (Florida) Health Department. Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1973.
Ancestry.com. Florida, U.S., Death Index, 1877-1998 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.
Ancestry.com. U.S., Army, Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007.
Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
National Park Service. U.S., Civil War Soldiers, 1861-1865 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007.
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; Returns from U.S. Military Posts, 1800-1916; Microfilm Serial: M617; Microfilm Roll: 537 (citing Barrancas Barracks, FL, August 1860; Fort Jay, NY, August 1860; Fort Columbus, New York Harbor, NY, September 1860; Fort Jay, October 1860; Fort Columbus, NY, December 1860; and Fort Schuyler, NY, March 1861.)
Ancestry.com. U.S., Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940[database on-line]. Lehi, UT. USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2019.
Escambia County (FL) Marriage Records, Book MN, page 288. (accessed via index on wfgs.org September 14, 2023).