Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-03-22

al Events.
Madison, March 49,
Gen. Henry Harnden, commander of
the Wisconsin department of the
Grand Army of the Republic, died at
1:1O o'clock Saturday evening, pass
ing away peacefully and painlessly
While in a comatose condition. He
had been i'll for nearly month, his
fatal sickness dating from his visit to
Blanchardville Feb. %, where ne went
to attend a camp fire and where he
was iionized almost beyond an ordi-
nary mans endurance. He reviewed
a Grand Army parade there and was
kept up late at night. When he re-
turned home the next day he COM
planned Of chill and was urged to
take proper precautions Shortly af-
terward he went to bed with the grip
which developed into pneumonia
Then followed a fight as gallant as
any the old warrior ever waged, in
which he was assisted by all the forces
that loving care and the science of
medicine could muster, but to no avail
Yet his marvellous vitality was the
wonder of his physicians. For days
he remained unconscious, still cling
ing to the slender cord of life which
was finally lOosed. His family was
about him, his sorrowing wife and his
n Z u No,
Flora Harnden of Madison and Mrs.
William Clarke, with her husband, of
Omaha, as we'll as his grandson, Henry
Harnden Noble of Madison and his
nephew, Edward Harnden of White
water
While of course the funeral ar
rangements have not yet been entirely
arranged, the obsequies will be under
the auspices of the Grand Army. Ser
vices will be held at 10 a. m. Wednes-
day in the Congregational church, Rev.
e. G. Updike officiating. Captain C.
A. Curtis assistant adjutant general
of the Wisconsin department, issued
notices to all posts in the state last
night of the death and urging a gen
eral attendance and suitable memorial
action by each post.
A Remarkable Career.
Gen. Henry Harnden, rugged, cour-
ageous, supplemented, had a most ro-
manticaily adventurous life. He was
born in Wilmington, Mass, March 4,
1928, of parents descended from the
earliest Puritan colonists of that state
He received a common school educa-
ton but found the New England mill
life, to which it was intended to ap-
prentice him, altogether too tame for
one of his vigorous spirit and at the
age of Is he ran away to sea on a sail
ing vessel bound for the coast of Africa
He remained on the ocean wave several
years during which time he doubled
Cape Horn twice and visited the pres
ent site of San Francisco in 1889, near
ly a decade before the gold discoveries
that later made that region famous
By the captain selling the vessel on
| which he was employed, he was left
practically stranded in Peru but final
ly succeeded in shipping home after an
absence of five years. On his return he
found the Mexican war in progress
and promptly started for the front and
was in the transport service for time,
helping to bring back the American
wounded from the battle of Palo Alto,
but was finally obliged to return home
on account of failing health. In 1850
he made an overland trip to California,
returning with many stirring adven-
lures, and engaged in gold mining un-
til 1852, when he returned to Massa-
chusetts. He had been married to Mary
A. Lightner of his native town previous
to his California journey and in 1852
they came to Wisconsin settling on a
farm in the town of Sullivan, Jefferson
county. He next moved to Ripon, Wis,
where he was operating a saWmill
when the civil war broke out.
At Lincolns call for troops Harnden
promptly summoned his hands togeth-
er and told them the mill must stop,
that he intended to enlist and advised
them to do so, and they did to man.
He enlisted as a private in the LIST Wis
consin cavalry July IS, 1861, was pro-
NOTED to sergeant in January, 1852,
then to captain, which rank he held
when the regiment went to Benton bar
racks, Mo-, where it was first sent. He
was in the campaigns in Missouri,
A,lra nd
participated in many battles and
skirmishes In January, 1865, he was
made major, then lieutenant colonel,
colonel and brigadier general. In
cavalry fight at Dallas, Ga, his horse
was killed and Col Harnden was shot
in the shoulder and had his right arm
broken He participated in the fight at
Duck Greek bridge, Tennessee, when
the bridge fell down, letting a portion
Of the regiment into the icy water. Col.
Harndens horse was drowned and he,
with a life already overlooking with
experiences, was carried down stream
two miles before being rescued. At
the storming of Fl. Tyler, Ca, he was
wounded by rife ball.
In May, 1865, he was selected by Gen.
Wilson to take a detachment Of the 1st
Wisconsin cavalry and cross the coun-
try towards Savannah and head Off
jeff. Davis, then a fugitive, who ~as
reported to be slyly making his way
south through South Carolina into
Georgia. Gen. Harnden rose from a
sick bed, suffering from his wound,
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