The Bintliff Family

Alfred Grundy Bintliff – son of Gershom – was born in Halifax, UK early in 1840.

He went with some of his family, later that year, to Utica, NY in the United States.

After death of his father, most of the family migrated west to Monroe, WI (Wisconsin) where they appear in the 1850 U.S. Census. By 1860, he was in Exeter, WI working as a labourer on the Ellis farm. Alfred was the youngest of his brothers but when the American Civil War broke out, he was the first of the four brothers to volunteer for the Union army and served the longest. He mustered in as Private on 19 September, 1861 with the 5th Wisconsin Artillery. The regiment eventually made their way to join the Army of Tennessee in Nashville and joined in the pursuit of the Army of the Mississippi commanded by General Braxton Bragg. They caught him in Perryville, KY, 3 October, 1862. Alfred was rendered mostly deaf by his service with the artillery unit and most of the damage occurred in Perryville. As he explained in his pension application:

At the Battle of Perryville, KY (Chaplin Hills) on the evening of the first day of the battle in (8) October 1862 by the discharge of the artillery. It was done in this way. I was a (spare) man and had no place and was awaiting orders. My comrade by the name of Smith*(Private John F. Smith) was shot and I ran to take his place and when beside the gun was stopped by the Sergeant and while speaking to him standing on my feet they fired the discharge and I felt a crack in my ear which rang for a long time and I have never heard a whit out of that ear since

The 5th Wisconsin Battery was involved in several pivotal actions during the War. Besides Perryville, they were at the Battle of Stone's River, the Battle of Chickamauga and the siege and Battle of Chattanooga, Tennessee. At the end of 1863, Alfred re-enlisted, this time as a bugler. Alfred took his 60-day veteran's furlough, returned to Wisconsin to visit family and then re-mustered with the reformed 5th in early March. From there, they joined General William Tecumseh Sherman's army where they marched to Atlanta, Georgia to take part in the siege of that city and then remained with Sherman on his march to the sea. After the surrender of General Joseph Johnston and the Army of the Tennessee, they marched in the Grand Review (a victory parade for the Union Army) in Washington, D.C. in May of 1865 and he then mustered out on June 6, 1865. Alfred was a tinsmith after the War but once he was approved for his pension, he sometimes lists his profession as painter or artist. He did spend some time in New York City and Chicago but mostly spent the rest of his days in and around Janesville, WI. He was a boatsman and there are accounts of him travelling to nearby cities by boat and even set out with friends in 1886 to see if they could find a water route from the Rock River to Lake Michigan. He was also said to collect Native American artefacts.

Although he never married and had no children of his own, he appears to have been a doting uncle to his numerous nieces and nephews.

Indeed, his nephew William Campbell Bintliff, whose father Thomas had died in the War, named his first son Erwin Alfred). He also left land and money to each of his nieces in his will. Alfred died after a long battle with consumption on 19 April,1900 in Janesville, WI. He is buried in Janesville near his brother General James Bintliff and his mother Maria Hanson Bintliff, both also natives of Halifax