Civil War Union Army Soldier. Born in Richmondville, New York, he was a school teacher when he enlisted in the Union Army at the start of the Civil War. Serving as a Corporal in Company C, 87th New York Volunteer Infantry, he saw action in the Peninsula Campaign and at the Second Battle of Bull Run, he received wounds which required the amputation of both legs just below the knees. After he recovered, he was fitted with two wooden prostheses and in 1864, he obtained a clerkship as a stenographer in the War Department in Washington. On the evening of April 14, 1865, when President Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Boothe at the Ford Theatre, he was summoned to the Peterson House across from the theatre. He remained there throughout the night with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and took shorthand notes next to the President's deathbed. His notes that evening remain as the most comprehensive record of events that followed the President's shooting and were used in the court trials that followed. After the war, he studied of law in New York and was admitted to the bar in 1869. He held a post in New York Customs House (1869-77) and was Tax Collector in Brooklyn, New York, (1877-85). He was also was the Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic in New York and served as President Theodore Roosevelt's Register of Wills for the District of Columbia in 1904. In 1905, he was appointed the National Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. He died at the age of 83 in Washington, D.C.
Civil War Union Army Soldier. Born in Richmondville, New York, he was a school teacher when he enlisted in the Union Army at the start of the Civil War. Serving as a Corporal in Company C, 87th New York Volunteer Infantry, he saw action in the Peninsula Campaign and at the Second Battle of Bull Run, he received wounds which required the amputation of both legs just below the knees. After he recovered, he was fitted with two wooden prostheses and in 1864, he obtained a clerkship as a stenographer in the War Department in Washington. On the evening of April 14, 1865, when President Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Boothe at the Ford Theatre, he was summoned to the Peterson House across from the theatre. He remained there throughout the night with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and took shorthand notes next to the President's deathbed. His notes that evening remain as the most comprehensive record of events that followed the President's shooting and were used in the court trials that followed. After the war, he studied of law in New York and was admitted to the bar in 1869. He held a post in New York Customs House (1869-77) and was Tax Collector in Brooklyn, New York, (1877-85). He was also was the Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic in New York and served as President Theodore Roosevelt's Register of Wills for the District of Columbia in 1904. In 1905, he was appointed the National Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. He died at the age of 83 in Washington, D.C.
Bio by: John "J-Cat" Griffith
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