Thomas Milton Hightower.

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Thomas Milton Hightower.

Birth: Sep. 11, 1834, Georgia.
Death: Apr. 23, 1910, Polk County, Georgia.

Parents: Elias Dorsey Hightower (1808 - 1892), Mary Ann Peek Hightower (1813 - 1887).

Wife: Lucelia E Darden Hightower (1844 - 1912).

Children: Fannie R Hightower Borders (1865 - 1933), Archie J Hightower (1867 - 1873).

Siblings: William Henry Hightower (1832 - 1898). 2 Lt. Vincent Marion Hightower (1836 - 1920). Martha Ann Hightower Carter (1841 - 1910). Nancy Ann Elizabeth Hightower Moore (1843 - 1930). Elias Green Hightower (1850 - 1852). John Dorsey Hightower (1853 - 1921). Daniel Newman Hightower (1855 - 1896).

Burial: Greenwood Cemetery, Cedartown, Polk County, Georgia.

Doles-Cook Brigade.

Cedartown Guards Co. D., Twenty-First Regiment, Georgia.

HIGHTOWER, THOMAS M.

Private. June 27. 1861. Promoted Junior Second Lieutenant, Second Lieutenant and First Lieutenant. Surrendered at Appomattox, Va. Living in Cedartown, Ga.

Royal Ordway.

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Royal Ordway.

Birth: Feb. 6, 1832, Vershire, Orange County, Vermont.
Death: Jan. 30, 1915, Vermont.

Wife: Ann B Hall Ordway (1843 - 1893).

Children: May Ada Ordway (1869 - 1892), Fraddie C., Wife Linda A Rowell, Frank Eugene Ordway.
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Burial: Cheney Cemetery, Washington, Orange County, Vermont.

Vermont Thirteenth Infantry, Regimental History.

 

MILITARY SERVICE.

Age: 30, credited to Middlesex, VT

Unit: 13th VT INF

Service: enlisted 8/25/62, mustered in 10/10/62, Pvt, Co. B, 13th VT INF, mustered out. 7/21/63.

Royal Ordway, born in Vershire, Vt., enlisted from Middlesex. He was 30 years old, medium size, dark complexion and black hair. He was a carpenter by trade. He was an able-bodied man and a faithful soldier. For a time he acted as Company cook. His residence is Washington, Vt., where he has lived most of the time since the war.

Robert K. Reese or Reece, Ohio.

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Robert K. Reese or Reece.

Birth: January 3, 1832.
Death: July 2, 1916.

Wife: Ann Reece or Reese, ( 1850-1893 ).

Burial: Big Darby Cemetery, Plain City, Madison County, Ohio.

Ohio First Cavalry, Regimental History.

Robert K. Reese or Reece, First Ohio Cavalry, Co. K., First Lieutenant
, age 29, enlisted September 1, 1861, for 3 years.  Appointed Q. M. Sergeant from Sergeant; promoted to First Lieutenant to date December 14, 1864.  Mustered out with company September 13, 1865; Veteran.

George Chester Beckford.

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George Chester Beckford.

Birth: 1834, Rhode Island.
Death: unknown, Providence County, Rhode Island.

Wife: Minerva (Cook) Beckford.
Married January 9, 1853, Johnston, Providence, R. I.

Burial: Oak Grove Cemetery, Pawtucket, Providence County, Rhode Island.

Rhode Island Seventh Infantry, Regimental History. 

 

George C. Beckford, residence Providence, enlisted August 7, 1862, mustered in September 4, 1862; transferred to company I., Company I., Transferred from company D., February 1, 1865; mustered out June 9, 1865, at Alexandria, Virginia.

Pages 279-80., It was a custom of the cooks late at night to visit the well just outside the stockade entrance and fill their camp kettles for the next morning's coffee. It chanced on a certain bright moonlight night the well-known and popular comrade George C. Beckford, who at that time was cook for an officers' mess, went out with his kettle at the weird hour of eleven p. m. Near the top of the slope up from the well were some scattered graves. Now just as this man had raised his filled kettle to the well flooring he chanced to glance toward the graves, and there he saw or thought he saw a ghost looking over one of the wooden headboards. As he had been a sailor, this was too much for him. He dropped his kettle, rushed back to the fort and to his quarters, threw himself upon his bunk, drew his blanket over his head and never again went outside the fort after dark. But there is another side to George C. Beckford.

In the Spring of 1862 he arrived in Liverpool after a three years' voyage. Pinning a small flag, the "Stars and Stripes," to his collar, he went ashore and made his way to one of the haunts of seafaring men. On entering he was greeted with a jeering reference to the colors he wore. His indignation was at once aroused, and, sailor-like, he was ready to resent the insult. "Hold on, shipmate," exclaimed the keeper, "I see you are not posted. The United States have all gone to pieces. They are fighting each other and the flag you carry is a thing of the past." He took the flag from his collar and sat down and cried. All at once an impulse seized him, and, holding the sacred emblem aloft in both his hands, meanwhile steadfastly gazing thereon, he apostrophized it: "Under your folds I was born. As a boy I grew to manhood beneath your protection. I have traveled the world over and have never for a moment had but one thought concerning you. If need be I will die for you !" He returned at once to his ship, settled his accounts and next day sailed for New York. During the esuing three eventful years he never faltered

Punishment In The Rhode Island Seventh Infantry.

Punishment was infrequent in the Seventh but occasionally it was necessary.  Bodily discomfort that did not infringe the laws of health was the chief penalty.  The precise from was various.  Confinement in the guardhouse was the most harmless and the most common.

The most brutal was tying a man up by his thumbs so he was obliged to stand tiptoe.  Sometime this punishment would be
terminated by a superior officer.

Another from of punishment was the knapsack drill, standing on a barrel in some conspicuous place, and the performance of camp drudgery.

One of the most aggravating forms of punishments was the digging of a specified number holes in the ground, the depth and breadth of a spade.  Each was to be filled before the next was commenced, and no rest was permitted except for a meal.

One punishment was mounting offenders astride a horizontal rail, supported twelve or fifteen feet from the ground by trees or post, this Punishment was known as "Riding Black Horse Cavalry."

But no matter what the punishment was a sentry was assigned in seeing the punishment was carried out.

 

"Riding Black Horse Cavalry."

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Colonel Charles G. Otis. .

The Maine Bugle, Volume 1, January 1894.

CHARLES G. OTIS.

Colonel Charles G. Otis, formerly of Yonkers, died at his residence, 131 Pacific street, in Brooklyn, N. Y., on Monday, Aug. 7, 1893. He had been confined to the house since last December.

Colonel Otis was born 62 years ago, in Troy. When the war broke out. he organized a regiment of cavalry there and became its colonel, serving throughout the war. He was once captured and spent several months in Libby prison before being released by exchange. History mentions that he and his troops entered a small town down South, and he registered at the hotel as "the first Yank in town."

After the war, Colonel Otis joined his cousins, Charles R. and Norton P. Otis, in the manufacture of elevators, and was an agent of the Elevator Company at the time of his death. He had been in Canada during much of the last two years, attending to contracts for elevators, and several years previous he spent in Buenos Ayres.

His wife died about three years ago. Two sons and four daughters survive him. Two of the daughters are married, being the wives of Cecil R. Thomas of Brooklyn.

Birth: 1832, New York.
Death: 1993.

Wife: Frances E. Otis.

Children: Frances J, Helen J., Carrie, Joseph H., and Charles W. Otis.

Burial: Unknown.

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Daniel E. Burbank, New Hampshire.

Picture taken 1861.
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Daniel E. Burbank.

Birth: 1841
Death: Aug. 3, 1920.

Father: Daniel W. Burbank.
Mother: Annie W. Burbank.

Wife: Ann or Anna H. White Burbank.
Married December 22, 1864, Keene, Cheshire County, N. H.


Children: Charles E. Burbank and Fanny E. Burbank.

Burial: Fitzwilliam Village Cemetery, Fitzwilliam, Cheshire County, New Hampshire.

New Hampshire State Records.

Daniel E. Burbank, Second New Hampshire infantry, Co. A., born Fitzwilliam; age 19; residence Fitzwilliam; enlisted April 30, 1861, for 3 months, was not mustered in; re-enlisted May 22, 1861, for 3 years; mustered in May 31, 1861.  Wounded and captured May 5, 1862, at Williamsburg, Virginia; released May 17, 1862; discharged Mat 22, 1862.  Post office address Worcester, Massachusetts.
Received a pension.