Died While Living In Milwaukee Soldier’s Home in 1892 And Was Interred In Wood National Cemetery.

The record of Thomas Claffeys’ service in the Union Army during the US Civil War was uncovered completely by chance. As with many other times during our research we became aware of his story while searching for another soldier with the same surname. That name of Claffey is, even to this day, a very common one in County Offaly, and when we noticed the incorrectly spelled version of the name, Thomas Claffy, on a list of soldiers being cared for at the Soldiers Home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the 1880s we dug a little deeper. That extra bit of effort was rewarded when we found the following extract written at the bottom of the section in relation to the pension payments still due Thomas at the time of his death.

“Forwarded to Denis Claffy, (brother), Cormore, Ferbane, Kings County, Ireland.”

This amazing record from the Milwaukee Soldiers Home included all the information needed to complete the story of any soldier but this particularly detailed final entry meant we could possibly link Thomas Claffey back to his native county in Ireland and even to the exact area where he had been born. Whoever had written that simple sentence at the bottom of this page over 130 years ago had left us the clues and a simple trail to follow.

The register also confirms Thomas’s service in the 13th Wisconsin Infantry from enlistment in September 1861 to discharge in November of 1865. His regiment spent a large portion of the war on guard duty protecting vital supply lines and railways links. At different times during the conflict they were based in forts located in Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama and Texas but seen little or no combat. Thomas Claffey was promoted to the rank of Corporal before his discharge and had by that time sustained a life changing injury. Thomas had lost his left leg but the available records do not confirm how, or where, he had sustained this serious injury.

After the war Thomas Claffey worked as a farm laborer and seems to have moved from location to location and remained unmarried. He was almost 51 years old when he was admitted to the Soldiers home in August of 1887 and the register confirms that his last place of residence before moving to the Soldiers home was in Crown Point, Indiana.

Thomas Claffey spent almost 5 years in Milwaukee and was 56 years old when he passed away on the 2nd April 1892 while “on a short furlough” away from the Soldiers Home. No details are included as to the cause of death but we learn that his body was interred in nearby Wood National Cemetery. From that extra information we then located his place of burial on the findagrave.com website. Originally his page had only indicated this soldiers place of birth as “Ireland” but as a result of us passing on the newly discovered information we are glad to say it has now been updated to now show Ferbane, County Offaly as his birth place.

It is interesting to note that while researching further into the Milwaukee Soldiers Home it became clear that, like many other Soldiers Homes throughout the USA in the 1890s, they were then struggling to cater for the large number of Veteran Soldiers looking for accommodation. Those overcrowding issues are mentioned in many newspapers at that time and there can be little doubt this was caused by so many of the soldiers who had fought in the Civil War reaching an advanced age and being at a point in their lives where injuries and sicknesses had begun to take its toll. Many like Thomas Claffey had remained unmarried and had no family to rely on in their old age and it likely meant their later years were marred by loneliness and ill-health.

Returning to that final entry in the Soldiers Home Register we can now add more details to the forgotten life of Thomas Claffey. As mentioned earlier his outstanding pension payments (amounting to $42) were sent to his Brother, “Denis Claffy” then recorded as living in “Cormore, Ferbane, Kings County“, Ireland. As we always remind our readers “Kings County” is today called County Offaly and today that area of “Cormore“, which is sometimes referred to simply as Corr, is in a rural area about 5KM outside the town of Ferbane and it is here where Thomas Claffey was born.

Cor More – Google Maps –2025

An 1890 listing of voters in the Ferbane Polling District further confirms the name of his brother, and the earlier mentioned, “Denis Claffy” living in Cormore and the later 1901 Census adds more details about Dennis and his extended family. The available Irish Civil Records further help to confirm that Dennis Claffey & his wife Mary died in 1909 & 1912 at their home in Cormore and that none of their children ever married. Their only son James Claffey died suddenly at 34 years of age in 1903 and on the passing of Ellen and Rose Claffey, also at Cormore, in 1939 and 1943 respectively the last direct connection we currently have to this Civil War Soldier was lost. It is our hope that the continuing popularity of the Claffey surname in Ferbane and its surrounding areas might help somebody to make a family connection to Dennis Claffey from Cormore and in turn to his brother Thomas Claffey who was once a proud Union Soldier in the US Civil War.

View Record – Irish Genealogy

There is one more fascinating piece of history connected to the record of Thomas Claffey that might indicate who the person was that added those vital extra pieces of information to the register and thereby allowed us to link Thomas back to his native county in Ireland.

The name of J.L. Mitchell is recorded on the entry connected to Thomas Claffey on two separate occasions. He is the person who admits Thomas to the soldiers home in August of 1887 and crucially his name is also included in the section relating to the approval of the outstanding pension payments being forwarded to his brother. J.L. Mitchell is also confirmed as the “Local Manager” of the Soldiers Home.

2 references to JL Mitchell on Register

Claffy, Thomas – US, National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 1866-1938 – Fold3

On further research we find that J.L. Mitchell was, during this period, not only the Manager of the Soldiers Home but its main benefactor. John Lendrum Mitchell came from a wealthy local family and would later become a member of the US House of Representatives and also serve one term in US Senate. He was a prominent member of the Democrat Party and was also a long time member of the Wisconsin Senate. Mitchell also served as an officer in the Union Army during the Civil War and as a result of those experiences he later became a huge advocate for the rights and the welfare of the Veteran Soldiers and was a major funder of the The Milwaukee Soldiers Home. In 1886 he was appointed by Congress to the Board of Managers for the National Homes for Disabled Soldiers and would remain a member of this body until his death in 1899. To see his name recorded in the page dedicated to Thomas Claffey is unusual and fascinating. Could it be that J.L Mitchell knew Thomas Claffey and made sure that he was admitted to the soldiers home in 1887 ? Was J.L. Mitchell the person who recorded the details at the bottom of the entry confirming the Claffey families home in Ireland?

The Wikipedia page for John L. Mitchell includes a copy of his signature and, while we could be wrong, it does look remarkably similar to the signature and hand writing recorded in the entry in question on the Soldiers Home Register. So maybe John L. Mitchell is the person we should thank, albeit over 130 years later, for adding those extra few details that allowed us to confirm that Thomas Claffey, a Union Army soldier, hailed from Cormore, Ferbane in County Offaly.

Kevin Guing

28th November 2025

For more on this soldier please visit his page at – Thomas Claffey – Americasoffalyheroes

**If anyone has any extra details in relation to this article please do let us know**