Assoc.to Commemorate the Chinese Serving in the American Civil War-part 1
Assosciatioin to Commemorate the Chinese Serving in the American Civil War, part 5

Posted by Marianne Beel, local Nebraska historian and writer.
Edward Day Cohota was also orphaned at an early age. One story of his life has him as a four-year-old stowaway on an American ship sailing away from China, while another version says he was living on the dock, near Shanghai, and was picked up as a stray. In both versions, his benefactor was Captain Sargent S. Day, of the ship Cohota.(out of Gloucester, Massachusetts) The year was 1852. The young man seems to have been both cabin boy and adopted son, and kept in close touch with the other Day children for the next seventy years.

Young Cohota seems to have been eighteen years old when he enlisted in the 23rd Massachusetts Infantry in February 1864. In his sixteen months of service with Company I, he saw combat at Drury's Bluff, Petersburg and Cold Harbor. At the latter place, a Minie ball grazed his scalp, leaving a permanent part in his hair. In that same battle, he saved the life of William E. Low, who had been struck in the jaw and rendered helpless by shock and blood loss. After the shooting stopped, Cohota carried the wounded man to a field hospital. In 1928, friends arranged for them to meet again. Low, now nearly deaf and blind, was at first unable to understand the purpose of the meeting, but, "suddenly his face flamed with recognition and his whole being was electrified, as he leaped to his feet with a cry of 'Cohota!' The two embraced with tears."

In the months after the war, Cohota was unable to find work, encountered a few old comrades in a Boston saloon and while drunk, enlisted in the 15th Infantry, where he served thirty years. His regular army enlistment papers catalog his life on the frontier. In 1866, his first papers describe him as five-foot, seven-inches in height, with black hair, black eyes and dark complexion, born in China, by the occupation of a seaman. He signed with an "X." Three years later, he re-enlisted at Fort Garland, Colorado Territory and in 1874 signed up again at Santa Fe, New Mexico, again signing with an "X." The year 1879 found him signing at Fort Stanton, high in the Capitan Mountains of central New Mexico. On his 1884 papers, completed at Fort Randall, Dakota Territory, he signed his own name, the first time in these records. Three years later, he was still in Fort Randall and his records note, for the first time, "Dancing girl tattooed on inner surface right forearm," and "Married with two children." He retired in August 1894.

At Fort Randall, he met Anna Halstensen, a Norwegian girl, and their marriage produced six children. They lived many years at Fort Niobrara, very near Valentine, Nebraska; there, after his 1894 retirement, he opened a restaurant, became a master Mason, and voted in every election.

Cohota passed his last days at the Battle Mountain Sanitarium for Veterans, at Hot Springs, South Dakota. He seemed to bear no ill will toward the country, which had denied him citizenship, and stood with his hat off "at attention, with reverence and respect," as the flag came down each evening in the gathering Dakota dusk.

The dark wings of Death, which had passed so close at Cold Harbor, finally touched him in 1935. His granddaughter recalls him dying on the front porch of the family home at Parmelee, South Dakota. He had always considered Valentine, Nebraska, to be his true home, and there his family took him; the last Masonic rites were performed by Minnechadusa Lodge No. 192. (Written by Thomas P. Lowry. Co-author Edward S. Milligan wrote about Chinese in the Navy.)
Edward Day Cohota; Co. I, 23rd Massachusetts Infantry; enlisted on Feb 1864; fought in Drury's Bluff, Petersburg and Cold Harbor. A Minie ball grazed his scalp.