Leroy H. Bisbee Civil War Pension File 

Leroy H. Bisbie enlisted at Rochester, New York, on January 10, 1864, as a Private in Company E, 22nd Regiment, New York Cavalry Volunteers. While on duty at or near Winchester, Virginia, about January 1865, be became disabled by a severe pain in his left side near the region of his heart, and was excused from riding and other hard duty (symptoms appear consistent with rheumatic fever.)

Leroy was discharged at Camp near Winchester, Virginia, on or about the 1st day of August, 1865. On November 18, 1865, he married Martha Soul of Otselic, at Norwich, New York. On the 4th of July 1866, Leroy and a friend, Stephen Campbell, undertook to walk from Hamilton, New York, to Lebanon. After walking a short distance a little fast, Leroy would put his hands on his side and bend over to the left side to ease the pain his walking caused him. It soon became evident he had heart disease, described by one witness as chronic muscular rheumatism which affected the heart.

According to his wife, Leroy was a very ambitious man and for a long time would not admit to her that there was anything the matter with him physically. She began hearing of his disabilities from other people, and he finally had to admit to the facts, including the fact he had visited a doctor to get relief. An aquaintance stated that Bisbee was no hand to call doctors for his trouble and that he doctored himself considerably. Because he could not engage in vigerous manual labor, he and his wife lived in meager circumstances, and they never had children.

Leroy died on May 11, 1889, from organic heart disease, leaving his wife with no means of support. She was assisted by neighbors and by the Arthur L. Brooks Post 272, G.A.R., until she began receiving her pension of $12 per month from June 1891 until July 1894, when she remarried.