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M—-The Berkshire County Eagle, Wednesday, May 24, 1950Region’s Last Union SoldierFading—Never Fired a ShotBy JOSEPH E. GARLANDBEDFORD () — Old soldiers ntver die; they just fade, fade •way,Just such an old soldier is drummer Jim Lurvey, U.S. Army retired of Goffa Falls, N.H. He is 202.Of all the young men who marched out of New England to fight in the War Between the States, he is the last alive. James M. Lurvey is one of a small handful of Civil War veterans left in the United States.The rest—hundreds of thousand* nf them—are in their craves.\ito ot er th shI*ark)erwfainshinincfwerthdioisiCfisrrvvtiH■irU1:1Worn and emaciated, he lies with lonesome weariness in a bed at the Veterans Administration Hospital here. He says he is tired of life. But the mysteriousstrength that has stretched his life across the century mark won’t release its grip.The aged soldier is almost totally deaf and blind. He lies flat on his back, the clean sheets pulled tight about his clean-shaven chin. The other patients in his ward-—some of them old enough to be his sons —have seen three wars since his great glory.They pay him little attention, for a man of 102 sleeps most of the time—and Jim Lurvey’s waking hours are compounded of memory.Pulling up a chair a welcome (visitor leans close to his ear and i shouts.Where did you fight In the Civil War, Mr. Lurvey? What was it like?“I enlisted in August, 1S62. I never fired a shot. I didn’t have a gun. I was a drummer boy at Gettysburg. There was a big, flat i plain between two high pieces of land. It was one of the greatest battles ever fought in the world, jThere were over 40,000 killed, j wounded and missing.”I Mr. Lurvey explained he enlisted ^ | at 14 with the 40th Massachusetts Volunteers.“I was in the defenses of Washington. They had moved me from one fortress to one In another sec-«tion. Sometimes we’d be 10 or 12 miles from the center of Washing* i ton. We weren't in the battle but, were protecting Washington from. raiders.'‘The South had a colonel by the name of Mosby—he was a guerrilla. We protected Washington from Colonel Mosby.”Did you ever see President Lincoln while you were there, Mr. Lurvey ?Oh, yes, many times. He was nogreat sight—tall and awkward, but he had a great mir.d. Abraham j Lincoln was one of our greatest ; Presidents.”How are they treating you now,i Mr. Lurvey?Now I’m the oldest man In New England, 102 Is years old,” he declared. I’m going strong, but 1 can’t stand on my legs. I have plenty to eat and plenty to drink and a good bed to sleep on. The bed’s changed every day, and I have a good thorough bath every morning. The nurse goes all the way tothe refrigerator when I ask for a drink or good, cool water.”Jim Lurvey is propped up in a wheel chair once in nan while and occasionally his doctors allow him a sniffer of brandy for his pleasure. Pretty regularly two of his daughters drive down from New Hampshire to visit him,Mrs. Lurvey died only a couple of years ago. Last June he entered the hospital, where he could be given the best of care.There'll be no comrade around to sound the roll when drummer boy Jim Lurvey departs, taking his personal piece of history with him.o:sie:tlUe:t iPeAr.Tlmp
Newspaper Details
The Berkshire Evening Eagle
Pittsfield, Massachusetts, US
Wed, May 24, 1950
Page 10
Full Page
Clipped by
Margaret I.
USA 17 Jul 2022
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