Amy,

Since Daniel was a doctor, I assumed he was surgeon in the 29th MO Infantry Regiment, but a study of the 29th's officers in the 1864 Missouri Adjutant General's yearbook does not list him. This regiment seems to have been formed in September 1862, based on the earliest date several of the officers took their positions in the regiment.

Indeed, I checked with the little regimental history Frederick Dyer included in his landmark three volume "A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion," vol. 2, regimental histories, and Dyer wrote that the 29th was formed at Benton Barracks, St. Louis between July and October 1862. This little history says that this regiment was part of General Sherman's Yazoo Expedition in Mississippi between December 22, 1862 and 3 January 1863. After that, the regiment was placed in the 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 15th Army Corps, of the Army of the Tennessee until December 1863. So his death happened after the Yazoo Expedition and before or just after the regiment was made a part of the 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 15th Army Corps, Army of the Tennessee.

Since he died on a riverboat on the Mississippi River, I assume the boat was delivering the regiment to its next assignment, as stated above, but that is a guess.

I rather doubt Abbey's comrades would just heave him into the river, but they may have buried him at a wood stop; perhaps in a cemetery there, if there was one nearby. The ground in that region would not have been frozen hard in late January, as it may have been further north.

Sorry, I could not do more. If Abbey had been surgeon or assistant surgeon of the regiment, he would have been an officer, and then buried in the ground preferably in a cemetery at the river's side, and somebody would have sent word to his family if they wanted to recover the body later. I would hope Abbey's fellow soldiers would have done the same for a private, too. However, he died of pneumonia, and perhaps soldiers were fearful it would spread to more soldiers, as perhaps it already did.

I should add that I checked into the MO Sec'y of State's website in the Missouri State Archives which lists Daniel Abbey in the 29th MO Inf, but no service card was created, only his name on a list of the personnel of the regiment. I also noticed that Daniel Abbey and Edward T. Abbey were members during May 1861 in the Scott County Home Guard (Union) in or near the "Bootheel" of Missouri. That unit was disbanded later that year or early in 1862.

I don't generally step in on soldiers belonging to a "regular" unit such as an infantry regiment, but your mentioning the possibility of comrades simply dropping the deceased over the side grabbed me.

I wish you good hunting,
Bruce Nichols