On a previous post about Rufus Davidson (Confederate soldier buried in Westmoreland County Pa.) I stated that he was with the 2nd Maryland Cav. and wondered why he was buried here. And now a little bit more to the story.
While searching newspaper archives on Google News Archives http://genealogy.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=genealogy&cdn=parenting&tm=3&f=11&su=p284.9.336.ip_p504.1.336.ip_&tt=2&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//news.google.com/archivesearch I came across a story written in the Greensburg Daily Tribune dated April 6 1920 called Veteran,
A Daily Tribune reporter recently had a most interesting chat with tho Confederate veteran. " Yes, I had a mighty close call and I put in my toughest winter, but I am slowly coming back and I expect to work my garden lots again this summer" the veteran said. comrade Davidson belongs to Captain George A. Cribbs G.A.R. post and was particularly distress at the death of his personal friend Col. James Reed, for many years, one of the most prominent men in Westmoreland county G.A.R. circles.
During the chat with veteran Comrade Davidson said he served two years and six months in the Second Maryland Cavalry under General Early. This regiment did much raiding to harass the Union army as well as to get foods. "ah yes, I well remember our regiment riding into Fredericktown in "That cool September morn which the poet Whittier so prettly described, when the boys caught sight of Barbara Fritchie waving 'Old Glory', a beautiful American flag from an upstairs window in her home. Up went rifles to shoot the flag from the woman's hands, When Barbara shouted, 'Shoot if you must, this old grayhead, but spare your country's flag, she said'."
This defiant challenge from the gray haired patriot touched Stonewall Jackson, who thought that if conditions were reversed, hundreds of Southern women would unfurl the 'Stars and Bars' in the faces of Yankee soldiers in perfect safety and he ordered his men to "March On."
Comrade Davidson is a native of Washington, D.C., and he was driven to enlist in the Southern army when a lad sixteen years old through police persecution in the Capital city. He served two years and six months and participated in many of the big battles that were fought on Virginia soil including Gettysburg. He says the cavalry to which he belonged had a most wholesome respect for General Phillip Sheridan.
Comrade Davidson has been a resident or Greensburg for thirty years. He always marches with the members of Captain George A. Cribbs G.A.R. post in this city on Memorial and other G.A.R. occasions. One son, Mack, is a member of the Field Artillery branch of the army and he is doing duty down on the Mexican border.
Link to story;
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=OEFXAAAAIBAJ&sjid=7kMNAAAAIBAJ&dq=rufus-davidson&pg=4871%2C2327859
If link doesn't work copy and paste to your browser
I find it very interesting that he participated with the G.A.R. and I bet that they had some great conversations among themselves about the war.
This story is even more interesting to me because he lived just a short distance from my home and his wife later died just a few houses away.
Rufus was born abt 1845 and died before 1931 when his wife Anna E. Davidson died. Both are buried in the Union cemetery, Greensburg, Pa.
Veteran Has Had Rough Winter
Rufus Cassius Davidson, lone Confederate veteran living in this section, is slowly recovering from injuries he sustained last fall when his faithful and trusted old horse kicked him in the ribs, landing a cork of the shoe on the spot where a Yankee bullet, in the battle of the Wilderness more than fifty years ago, found lodgement. Then the old horse squeezed his master against the side of the manger and would have killed the veteran if help had not arrived. The flu, too, attacked the hardy veteran and confined him to his home in Orchard avenue most of the winter. Slowly recuperating the former member of Stonewall Jackson's and later of Early's cavalry, stimulated by balmy spring weather, has been able to walk about the streets in his section of the town during the past week.A Daily Tribune reporter recently had a most interesting chat with tho Confederate veteran. " Yes, I had a mighty close call and I put in my toughest winter, but I am slowly coming back and I expect to work my garden lots again this summer" the veteran said. comrade Davidson belongs to Captain George A. Cribbs G.A.R. post and was particularly distress at the death of his personal friend Col. James Reed, for many years, one of the most prominent men in Westmoreland county G.A.R. circles.
During the chat with veteran Comrade Davidson said he served two years and six months in the Second Maryland Cavalry under General Early. This regiment did much raiding to harass the Union army as well as to get foods. "ah yes, I well remember our regiment riding into Fredericktown in "That cool September morn which the poet Whittier so prettly described, when the boys caught sight of Barbara Fritchie waving 'Old Glory', a beautiful American flag from an upstairs window in her home. Up went rifles to shoot the flag from the woman's hands, When Barbara shouted, 'Shoot if you must, this old grayhead, but spare your country's flag, she said'."
This defiant challenge from the gray haired patriot touched Stonewall Jackson, who thought that if conditions were reversed, hundreds of Southern women would unfurl the 'Stars and Bars' in the faces of Yankee soldiers in perfect safety and he ordered his men to "March On."
Comrade Davidson is a native of Washington, D.C., and he was driven to enlist in the Southern army when a lad sixteen years old through police persecution in the Capital city. He served two years and six months and participated in many of the big battles that were fought on Virginia soil including Gettysburg. He says the cavalry to which he belonged had a most wholesome respect for General Phillip Sheridan.
Comrade Davidson has been a resident or Greensburg for thirty years. He always marches with the members of Captain George A. Cribbs G.A.R. post in this city on Memorial and other G.A.R. occasions. One son, Mack, is a member of the Field Artillery branch of the army and he is doing duty down on the Mexican border.
Link to story;
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=OEFXAAAAIBAJ&sjid=7kMNAAAAIBAJ&dq=rufus-davidson&pg=4871%2C2327859
If link doesn't work copy and paste to your browser
I find it very interesting that he participated with the G.A.R. and I bet that they had some great conversations among themselves about the war.
This story is even more interesting to me because he lived just a short distance from my home and his wife later died just a few houses away.
Rufus was born abt 1845 and died before 1931 when his wife Anna E. Davidson died. Both are buried in the Union cemetery, Greensburg, Pa.
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