A Night Ride with Mosby

John Hartwell

Lt. Colonel
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George T. Burroughs, had enlisted as a private in Co. G, 71st New York Militia on April 19, 1861. The new recruit was in the hospital with dysentery when he learned that his company was marching to the front. He climbed out the window and caught up with his company -- he was reprimanded but was allowed to remain. In the advance on Manassas, June 16 to 21, he saw action at Sudley Springs and at the Battle of Bull Run. In the front rank of the Bull Run battle George felt a bullet pass through his blouse. It struck and killed the man behind him. After the disaster of Bull Run on July 21, the soldiers of the 71st, bewildered and in disorder, managed to reach Washington within the next two days. He was discharged on July 31st.

Before the end of the year, he enlisted again, being given a commission as 1st Lieutenant in the 43rd New York Volunteers. He spent the next 9 months as acting regimental quartermaster, before being detached as Acting Commissary of Subsistence on the staff of General F. L. Vinton. In February 1863, he was promoted Captain and Commissary of Subsistence, which post he held for the remainder of the war, being discharged with the rank of Major. He saw relatively little action during that duty, but it was not entirely without danger, as the following anecdote reveals:
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The story is included in a slim book entitled Memoirs of a War Bride, written by George's wife, Mary Evangeline Burroughs, and circulated just within the family, until being published in 2008. After the war, the couple moved to Portland, Maine, and later to Chicago. It was there, on Sept. 1, 1875, that their 4th (and youngest) son was born: Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Edgar, btw, graduated from the Michigan Military Academy in 1895, and took, but failed the entrance exam for West Point. He enlisted instead as a private in the 7th U.S. Cavalry at Ft. Grant, Arizona Terr., but was discharged in 1897 after being diagnosed with a heart problem. By 1911, Edgar was working as a wholesaler of pencil sharpeners (!). On one business trip he brought along several pulp fiction magazines to read on the train. He later recalled thinking that "if people were paid for writing rot such as I read in some of those magazines, that I could write stories just as rotten. As a matter of fact, although I had never written a story, I knew absolutely that I could write stories just as entertaining and probably a whole lot more so than any I chanced to read in those magazines." And the rest is history ... John Carter, Tarzan, and a host of less famous characters.

The complete text of Memoirs of a War Bride, is available online.
 
One interesting thing I read was he wasn't armed:cold:
 
George T. Burroughs, had enlisted as a private in Co. G, 71st New York Militia on April 19, 1861. The new recruit was in the hospital with dysentery when he learned that his company was marching to the front. He climbed out the window and caught up with his company -- he was reprimanded but was allowed to remain. In the advance on Manassas, June 16 to 21, he saw action at Sudley Springs and at the Battle of Bull Run. In the front rank of the Bull Run battle George felt a bullet pass through his blouse. It struck and killed the man behind him. After the disaster of Bull Run on July 21, the soldiers of the 71st, bewildered and in disorder, managed to reach Washington within the next two days. He was discharged on July 31st.

Before the end of the year, he enlisted again, being given a commission as 1st Lieutenant in the 43rd New York Volunteers. He spent the next 9 months as acting regimental quartermaster, before being detached as Acting Commissary of Subsistence on the staff of General F. L. Vinton. In February 1863, he was promoted Captain and Commissary of Subsistence, which post he held for the remainder of the war, being discharged with the rank of Major. He saw relatively little action during that duty, but it was not entirely without danger, as the following anecdote reveals:
The story is included in a slim book entitled Memoirs of a War Bride, written by George's wife, Mary Evangeline Burroughs, and circulated just within the family, until being published in 2008. After the war, the couple moved to Portland, Maine, and later to Chicago. It was there, on Sept. 1, 1875, that their 4th (and youngest) son was born: Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Edgar, btw, graduated from the Michigan Military Academy in 1895, and took, but failed the entrance exam for West Point. He enlisted instead as a private in the 7th U.S. Cavalry at Ft. Grant, Arizona Terr., but was discharged in 1897 after being diagnosed with a heart problem. By 1911, Edgar was working as a wholesaler of pencil sharpeners (!). On one business trip he brought along several pulp fiction magazines to read on the train. He later recalled thinking that "if people were paid for writing rot such as I read in some of those magazines, that I could write stories just as rotten. As a matter of fact, although I had never written a story, I knew absolutely that I could write stories just as entertaining and probably a whole lot more so than any I chanced to read in those magazines." And the rest is history ... John Carter, Tarzan, and a host of less famous characters.

The complete text of Memoirs of a War Bride, is available online.
Edgar Rice Burroughs never graduated from the old MMA, although he did go on to teach at the school for a year or two. He is initially listed as a graduate in the 1895 school catalogue, but is removed from later years of the publication. A recommendation letter from the president of UofM (written at the time ERB was trying to gain entrance into West Point) explains the reason why the young man did not graduate.
 
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