Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1908-02-14

and at the age of fourteen was Shout
| dering a musket. He is fifty-seven
| years old.
But the most interesting of the
! youngest survivors" is John S.
| Kountz, of Toledo. Ohio. No youthful
| hero of dime novel ever led a more
| romantic career than was his before he
was even eighteen years old. He was
| fifteen years old when the war broke
out, and was working in a four-mill
at Maumee, Ohio He became a drum
mer-bOy in Company G. Thirty-seventh
Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and in De
cember, 1862, at the risk of his own
| life, rescued a member Of Simmons
Battery. who had gone out too far on
the thin ice that covered the Kanawha
River.
In July, 1858, Kountz was selected
by Colonel Riber as his sole Compan-
ion on a night trip to the outer line In
front of Jackson, Miss At Missionary
Ridge ON Nov. 25, 1863, his regiment
bore a conspicuous part In the battle
and suffered severely. He was shot
in the thigh and dropped near the enc
| my's works, just as the Federal forces
| fell back to the point of their first ad-
vance. His situation was perIlOus, and
| from his shattered regiment went up
a cry of dismay, as the soldiers saw
| the plight of the boy whose drum had
sounded for them in so many battles.
| 1t seemed as If his time had come to
| die.
William Smith, of Kountz's COM
pany. rushed out from the Union lines
| to rescue him Through hail of shot
and shell he made his way close up
| under the enemy's works and carried
| the boy back to a place of safety.
But that was the end of Kountz's
wartime career. His leg had to be am
putated, and with tears In his eyes he
| said good-by to his company after
leaving the hospital, and returned to
his home. He was then only fifteen
| years old
! The Grand Army of the Republic
| hOnored the drummer-boy in 1884, by
| electing him commander-in-chief.
Up to Kountz's time, the Grand
| Army's commanders-in-chief had, with
few exceptions, been major-generals.
| Since then the post has been held by
men of almost all ranks. Indeed. the
| officers of high rank are becoming
I scarce.
The present strength of the Grand
| Army is less than two hundred and
| thirty thousand. In 1890 it was four
hundred and nine thousand, yet there
have been thousands Of new members
elected every year It's strength in 1890
WAS the greatest in its history. 1t had
been gaining every year since its or
| ganization
It was a magnificent army when, In
September, 1892, it held it's greatest
encampment. Sixty-five thousand men
marched through Pennsylvania avenue,
| where twenty-seven years before they
had marched in the grand review at
! the close Of the war
| Yet even then, fifteen years ago, half
of their number were feeble old men.
Said General Green B. Raum, former
| Commissioner of Pensions, in a letter
| to the Congressional Committee on
Military Affairs in February: 81 no.
ticed that a large proportion of the
sixty-five thousand veterans in that pa
rade suffered from curvature Of the
| spine"
| While he was Commissioner of Pen
sions from 1889 to 1898, General Raum
became impressed with the idea that
| the long service veterans of the Civil
War were not living out their years of
reasonable expectancy An eXamina-
| ton of sixteen thousand cases of pen
sioners who had died showed that on
an average, they had expired twelve
years before their time
To-day probably half the members of
| the Grand Army are suffering from
| disease or the feebleness of old age.
There have been few sadder specta-
cles than the Memorial Day parade in
New York City in 1907. Hundreds of
veterans in that column were lettering
under the weight of SO many years
| that they could barely complete the
march. Hundreds dropped out before
going half the distance Nothing was
palmer to the spectators than the fact
that the feeble remnant of the army
| that saved the Union would soon be
| seen no more
| Yet there are still six thousand one
| hundred and sixty-five Grand Army
posts in the country, and even ten
| years from now the members will east
| ly be numbered by thousands.
1t has been estimated that fifty years
| from now there will in all probability
be one or two survivors Of the great
war The youngest of these survivors
would probably be not less than one
hundred and seven years old.
| Here are some facts about the ar
mics engaged in the Civil War that
will be of interest to the generations
that have grown up since the close of
| the conflict: