Hayes Lowe
Geagan brothers.
Fri Mar 2 09:05:20 2001


Their names were Thomas and Patrick (middle initial not known). I've found the Geagan name spelled many ways. The most common variations are Gagan, Gagen, Keegan, and Gehegan. The family was living in New Orleans at the outbreak of the war. They also had a brother named James, but the family story does not mention him. I do find a James from New Orleans in a La. artillery battery, though.

I'm not sure that they were in the U.S. Vols., but I suspect that they were. They were captured and taken to Fort Laramie. They were in the Louisiana artillery, and had been sent on a mission to capture two brass cannons. They knew the commandant of Fort Laramie (from their days in the California gold fields), who paroled them and sent them to Montana. (As soldiers? I don't know.) Their families, from New Orleans, were allowed to join them at Fort Laramie, before being sent West. The above information came from the son of Patrick Geagan.

Thomas is found on the 1860 census, living in a boarding house near Fort Laramie. His wife and family are not with him...they must still be in New Orleans. At any rate, this shows that there was a prewar tie to the Fort Laramie area.

Thomas and his family remained in Montana after the war. Patrick and his family returned to the Fort Laramie area to live. None of the family returned to New Orleans to live until the 1940's.

I haven't made a final determination which La. artillery battery to which they belonged. There are several possibilities so I'm having trouble narrowing it down.

There's much more to this story, but these are the most pertinent facts as to the question at hand.








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