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NEW October 21, 2004, from the Candor Courier, Thursday, July 2, 1914.
Captain H. Well Hand, a civil war veteran who had been failing since his return from the Gettysburg reunion a year ago, died in Nunda. He was the author of the "Centennial History of Nunda," a volume of 600 pages, published in 1908. (p. 2)
Hiram Jerome, a Civil War veteran, 75 years old and formerly in the government employ as cattle inspector in New York city, died last week at Carton station. (p. 3)
Survivors of the 104th New York regiment (the Wadsworth Guards), of which there are about 75, will hold their annual reunion on August 13th at the home of H. W. Burlingame, Warsaw. (p. 3)
A newspaper account of the 50th Reunion of the Battle of Gettysburg, from The Fairport Herald,
Fairport, N.Y., Wednesday, July 9, 1913. Vol. XLII, No. 15.
ANECDOTES AND NOTES FROM
REUNION OF BLUE AND GRAY
Many Incidents, Touching and Amusing, at Gettysburg Celebration
General Daniel E. Sickles, Only Surviving Corps Commander, A Picturesque Figure.
GENERAL DANIEL E. SICKLES, now nearly ninety-three ears old and the only surviving
corps commander of either side who participated in the battle, was one of the most
picturesque figures at the Gettysburg celebration. His quarters were in a big tent on
the grounds of the Rogers House and only a few score yards separated him from the spot where he
lost his leg half a century ago.
Directly in front of the Rogers House Sickles avenue turns from the Emmitsburg road and leads
off toward Devil's den, at the foot of Little Round Top. In a little triangle at the junction
stand some polished but antiquated cannon, the effigy of a federal battery belonging to
Carr's brigade, which the Confederates took and then relinquished. Carr's brigade was a part of
the corps which General Sickles commanded.
The line of the corps bent almost in front of the house in what is now known as the Bloody Angle.
Here on July 2, 1863, the men, who in 1913 met and fraternized on the lawn, the porch and in the old
farmhouse, fought like wildcats.
Chaplain Joe Twitchell, who accompanied the general, related again and again how that game old soldier lost his leg.
"It was after the fight had been going on about half an hour," said Chaplain Twitchell, " that
the general was struck by a shot below the knee. It came from so squarely in front that it didn't touch his horse,
but it tore his leg all to flinders.
"I met an aid, Captain McBlair, and his horse was so exhausted with the day's work that he laid his head right
down on the ground the moment the captain stopped him.
"The general is shot!" he cried to me.
"Where is he?" I asked.
"In the ambulance."
"I went to the ambulance, and there he lay. The floor of it was flowing with blood, and the sides of it
were all splashed with blood. They took him to the corps hospital at Rock creek, and there his leg was amputated
by Surgeon Sims. As he lay on the pine operating table I administered the anaesthetic. He said a pretty good thing at that
time, I thought for he thought he was going to die. He said:
"In a war like this one man's life is of small account."
"He thought he was making a fine dying speech," chuckled the chaplain, "but he didn't die after all.
As we weren't sure then that the Confederates wouldn't be swarming over our quarters the next day, they
carried him on a stretcher to the nearest railroad after the operation and shipped him to Washington. And the day after
he arrived there Mr. Lincoln went to see him."
General Sickles great infirmity brought many a tear to the eyes of all who saw him. It was plain that he
was in almost constant pain, but with grim determination he insisted on receiving his old soldiers as well as those of other
commands. During the day his tent was constantly filled with visitors.
Once a stranger, with ill timed solicitude, was heartless enough to ask the general whether he was afraid of dying on
the field where he was wounded fifty years ago.
"Sir," came promptly from the little withered man, "I know of no place on God's green footstool where a man, a
soldier and a gentleman had rather die. The leg I lost is in the grave, and the foot I have is in a similar fix."
After Fifty Years.
Two G.A.R. men of Pennsylvania met on the first day at Gettysburg and after recounting various war time experiences each recognized
in the other fellow prisoner at Andersonville. They had lived in Pennsylvania within a few miles of each other during most of the
intervening half century.
They were Sergeant H.R. Anthony, formerly of the Fifth Pennsylvania volunteer infantry, and Sergeant Herman J. Hambleton,
formerly of the Fourth Pennsylvania cavalry. Sergeant Anthony lives at Collingswood, Pa., and Sergeant Hambleton is from Morton, Pa.
Both had been at Andersonville prison and recalled the same experiences of the killing of prisoners too near the dead line
by the guards on the stockade walls and the methods of avoiding starvation employed by the imprisoned men of the north.
Sergeant Anthony weighed eighty-six pounds when he left the prison. He was five feet eight inches tall. When he entered he weighed
163 pounds. He claims to have been the lightest man ever discharged from the prison who survived the ordeal.
A Unique Banner.
One of the many unique banners seen at the reunion was that which flew before the headquarters of the Manassas picket post, D.A.R. and
Ewell camp C.B. The banner, which is commemorative of the peace jubilee on the battle field of Bull Run in July, 1911 at
which celebration President Taft delivered the principal address, displayed the Confederate flag on one side and the stars and stripes on the other.
In addition there appear the inscriptions, "Let Us Have Peace - Grant," and "Duty Is the Sublimest Word in Any Language - Lee."
A special guard of honor, composed of veterans from both sides, cared for the flag.
Oldest Survivor of War.
Major Daniel C. Boggs of Pittsburgh, ninety-six years old and believed to be the oldest survivor of
the civil war, was among those who came to Gettysburg to celebrate the semicentennial of the battle.
Major Boggs did not participate in the battle, but he bears an honorable record of service in the war and belongs to a family
of pioneers and soldiers which began in colonial times. His father was one of the first to settle in Pittsburgh, and his
grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War.
Although now close to the century mark, the major showed himself to be livelier than many of the veterans present at the
celebration a score of years his junior. He could read without glasses and recalled the names of many old comrades whom he had not
seen for years.
Slept In Same Room.
General F.M. Easton of Boston came to the celebration a day early in order the he might sleep in the same room in the Eagle hotel in which
he slept on June 30, 1863, the night before the battle opened. Finding it was occupied, he almost wept at the prospect of having his dearest
hopes defeated.
Fifty years ago he was sent to the town for supplies and being unable to get them that night, went to the hotel and spent the night.
The room had been engaged months before the celebration, but one of the men occupying it, hearing of General Easton's request, volunteered
to double up with another man, and let the veteran have his wish. So the general was not disappointed after all.
Died Where He Fought.
The first man to die at the celebration died near the spot where he fought fifty years before. He survived that battle, where thousands fell,
only to find his fate on the same field half a century later.
The man was Augustus D. Brown of Kimball post, Livermore Falls, Me. His death was caused by heart disease superinduced by the heat.
Key's Grandson at Celebration.
The grandson of the man who wrote the "Star Spangled Banner" was one of those who attended the celebration. It had looked for a time
as if he would not be there unless he walked the seventy-five miles between Pikesville, Md., where the state home for Confederate veterans is
situated, and Gettysburg. But just as he was about to start friends came to his assistance, and John Francis Key, the eighty-two-year old descendant
of Francis Scott Key, the poet, got this railroad fare and a snug sum besides. If he hadn't got it, being a "right smart man" for all his
years, as one of the friends remarked, "he'd 'a' come anyway."
Joe Trax's Cannon.
Joe Trax of Newcastle, Pa., brought a cannon with him to the celebration the like of which is seldom seen. As Trax himself said, he wouldn't
trade it for one of the modern artillery guns in the regular camp even if something were given to boot. When asked why, he explained that it was
composed of melted brass buttons from Federal and Confederate uniforms, field spoons, a key from Ford's theatre Washington, where Lincoln was
assassinated, twenty-five pounds of regulation silver watch cases and - he couldn't remember just what else was dropped into the melting pot.
"Junk, but historic junk," he laconically asserted.
Trax was a trooper in Company B, West Virginia cavalry. He was wounded at Lynchburg, and to top his story concerning the composition of the cannon
he said the bullet which lodged in his right thigh was part of the glistening muzzle.
From The Le Roy Gazette-News, LeRoy, N.Y., Wednesday, June 23, 1920. Vol. 95, No. 16.
H.J. Whiting, a Civil War veteran, of Silver Springs, is visiting his son, Frank Whiting. (p. 10)
G.D. Whitney has gone to Syracuse to attend the State Encampment of the G.A.R. to be held in that city and while there will be a guest of his granddaughter, Miss Jessie R. Malette. (p. 10)
From The Le Roy Gazette-News, LeRoy, N.Y., Wednesday, December 15, 1915. Vol. 90, No. 42.
SHEDD CAMP, S.O.V.
Shedd Camp, No. 6, Sons of Veterans, on Thursday evening elected the following officers for the ensuing
year: Commander, Royal Caswell; senior vice-commander, A.L. Stripp; junior vice-commander, George E. Dickinson;
camp council, Walter Clark, J.F. Everingham and Frank J. Nash; secretary, George J. Stripp; treasurer, William B. Doty. (p. 6)
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