Frederick Fuller Wead was a New York lawyer who enlisted May 3, 1861, just after the first call for men. He was commissioned as 1st Lieutenant of the 16th NY Vols. Infantry, but just a year or so later he was commissioned into Field and Staff of the 98th NY Infantry with a promotion to Lt. Col., and then to Colonel in Feb. 1863. Colonel Alonzo Draper was ordered by General Edward Wild to punish Confederates when he took Knotts Island. Draper apparently burned most houses on the island, but Mrs. James White, wife of a Confederate guerilla, threatened Draper. He decided to take her hostage, but as she was at that time nearing the end of her pregnancy, he took the White's 16-year-old daughter, Nancy, instead. When Wead found out about the civilian prisoner, he filed suit against Draper (rumor had it that a white woman was being held by black men, as Draper commanded 36th USCT, to which Wead took offense). Draper was involved in other conflicts during the war, but this seems to have been Wead's only "extracurricular" battle.