If you were looking for a Memorial Day post today you're out of luck. I will write something on the REAL Memorial Day, the 31st, and not on some weekend selected to make it easier on employers and to give people 3 consecutive days off. It is MEMORIAL day...
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| 134th monument, Gettysburg |
One of the people we are supposed to be memorializing on the holiday is my 2xGreat-Grandfather Barney Alonzo Parslow (1841-1920) . One of our many, many grandfathers who has served, Alonzo (as he was known to most) enlisted on 21 July 1862 to fight the slavers and served in the 134th New York Volunteer Infantry. He started as a private but quickly rose to First Sergeant and then was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in D Company. It was as a 2LT at Gettysburg that he was wounded on 1 July (the day before his birthday). A musket ball/bullet struck him 2" above the right nipple and exited just below the right shoulder blade. When the Confederates (North Carolina 21st Regiment was directly in front of the 134th) pushed his unit back, he was moved across Steven's Run and lay there, untreated, until 5 July. After being evacuated, treated and briefly assigned to the Invalid Corps in Washington, D.C., Alonzo returned to his unit, now in the western theater. Again with D Company and as 1st Lieutenant, Alonzo participated in the Chattanooga campaign. However, active duty was apparently too much for him and he was discharged for disability on 30 September 1864. A year later he married and lived out his life in Blenheim, Schoharie County, New York raising 9 children.
In 1913 Alonzo traveled back to Gettysburg for the 50th Anniversary of the battle where he pointed out where various members of the unit had been wounded, killed or gone missing. He was 73 and had 7 more years to live. While he didn't die during the war, he lived with the effects of his wound all the rest of his life.
1 comment:
Hi, My name is David Creighton Long, and live in Louisville, KY. My gg grandfather was Henry Creighton and gg grand uncle was David Creighton.
They were from the Blenheim Hill area of Schoharie County, and fought in the 134th NYV, Company E.
David died on July 2, 1863, at Gettysburg. I visited Gettysburg a year ago in April 2011, with my 10 year old son. Like your gg grandfather Henry was injuried by the cannon blast that killed David. Henry survived and join the regiment for the move west to TN.
Henry was discharged in June of 1865, married Mary Lyons in Richmondville, NY, and emigrated to Seward, NE, was a farmer, and lived until 1938. When he died he was 100.
My great uncle Ernie Hedges, who is 100 now, had lived with Henry Creighton in Seward, NE.
I thought of David Creighton this Memorial Day especially. Next year it will be 150 year since he made the altimate sacrafice! Most likely he is buried in an unmarked grave at Gettysburg.
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