“That was the Day I left Boyhood Forever”-- Gettysburg’s Last Veteran

John Hartwell

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James Marion Lurvey (1847-1950)

Lurvey2.jpg

[https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/17981778/james-marion-lurvey]
On the seventh day of April, 1950, in the little village of Goff’s Falls, New Hampshire (now part of Manchester) 103-year-old James Marion Lurvey quietly passed away. He was the very last of all those 160,000+ soldiers, of both sides, who had served on the Gettysburg battlefield those first days of July, 1863. He was also the last veteran from New England, and the last to have served in a Massachusetts unit. When he had passed,there were just 20 veterans left from all the Union armies of the Civil War.

He had arrived at Gettysburg on July 1st, a 15-year-old drummer boy, who shouldn’t even have been there. His regiment, the 40th Massachusetts, was back in Virginia, and would not join the Army of the Potomac until August.

He had been born in Palmyra, Maine, on December 2, 1847. A few years later, his family removed to Lowell Mass., where they were living at the time the war began. In the spring of 1862, his father, James T. Lurvey applied to Gov. Andrew for a commission in one of the new regiments just being formed. He was made Captain of Company A, 40th Mass. Vol. Infantry. He agreed to take his 14 year old son with him as drummer. So, on the 19th of July, 1862, James M. Lurvey was mustered-in as musician, at Camp Stanton, in Lynnfield, Mass.

That fall, the 40th Mass. served first in the defenses of Washington. “They had moved me from one fortress to one in another section. We’d be 10 or 12 miles from Wasington. We weren’t in any battle, but we were protecting Washington from raiders. The South had a colonel by the name of Mosby -- he was a guerilla. We protected Washington from Colonel Mosby,” is how he recollected it at the age of 101. [Berkshire Eagle, May 24, 1948]

In April 1863, when the 40th Mass. moved to coastal Virginia, to participate in the siege of Suffolk, young James was not with them. On the 15th, he was admitted to Campbell General Hospital in Washington, suffering from “general Debility.” James was a slightly built boy, and a number of records emphasize that he was “not robust.” But, by the end of June, he was considered to be sufficiently recovered for service in the field. But, rather than return him to his regiment, he was assigned to the Medical Department, Army of the Potomac, which he joined just before the battle.

In a 1948 interview, he recalled of Gettysburg:
“I never fired a shot. I was still a drummer boy. During much of that battle I served in the Medical Corps. Shot and shell and the screams of dying men and boys filled the humid air. A non-com told me to put away my drum. He tied a red rag around my left arm and told me I was now in the Medical Corp. I told him I was not big enough to lift my end of a stretcher, so he assigned me to a field tent. It was stifling inside. I thought I’d keel over when they told me my assignment. I Wished then I could have hefted a stretcher. I was to stand by and carry out the soldiers’ arms and legs as the doctor amputated them. I guess that was the day I grew up and left boyhood forever. And I wasn’t yet sixteen.”
Six days of this horrendous duty was quite enough to break young Lurvey’s health once again. He was sent back to Campbell Hospital, suffering from chronic diarrhoea. He was transferred (July 19th) to the Veterans Reserve Corps “by reason of youth -- age 15 -- and weak constitution.” Assigned briefly to the military hospital at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, he was honorably discharged on Oct. 3rd, “by S.O. No. 434, A.G.O. of 1863, by way of favor.”

But, young James M. Lurvey wasn’t finished with the army. Poor constitution or not, the following August 25, 1864, he enlisted once again, as a private in the 24th Unattached Company of Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, which soon became Company H of the 4th Regiment, Mass. H. A. On Oct. 9th, however (probably because of his age and lack of “robustness”) he was once again appointed “Company Drummer.” By that time, he was back in the defenses of Washington, where his regiment would serve until mustering-out on June 17, 1865.

Tracing James Lurvey’s life for the decades after the war has proved difficult. We find him at various places in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. He married, had two daughters.
Lurvey1949.png
We hear very little from Lurvey until about 1947, when newspapers picked up the story of his 100th birthday greeting from President Truman. Over the next few years, there are brief notices of his participation in Memorial Day events, and on each of his succeeding birthdays, sometimes with short interviews. In May 1949, Life Magazine published a special edition containing photographs of sixty-eight surviving veterans of the Civil War, including one of James M. Lurvey, sitting on his front porch in Goff’s Falls, drumsticks in hand. Shortly thereafter, he was interviewed by a young Jay S. Hoar, who would tell his story in greater detail many years later. He was quite deaf and nearly blind, but still lively and interested in the world around him. His wife having passed away two years before, he was being cared for by his daughter, Gladys.

Then, suddenly, in the summer of 1950, Lurvey became dramatically weaker, barely able to walk,he was admitted to the Veterans' Hospital in Bedford, Mass. During the night of September 16th, he developed pneumonia, and was placed in an oxygen tent. He died about 4:30 the following afternoon.

New England’s Last Civil War Veterans (1976), Jay S. Hoar
Callow Brave and True: a Gospel of Civil War Youth (1999), Jay S. Hoar
also:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/17981778/james-marion-lurvey
https://www.sunjournal.com/2009/05/24/jay-hoar-civil-war/
https://acrossthevalleytodarkness.com/the-american-civil-war-from-a-different-perspective-3/
 
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You have to wonder at his father's willingness to bring along a 14 year old son. It's always seemed to me no one understood what exactly was about to transpire.

That's a that's a thought provoking bio all the way around, isn't it? 1950. Dad always said " The Civil War was yesterday " and I get that now. He'd have been in grad school in 1950, as a kid remembered a few ancient men, Civil War vets sitting outside what had been the GAR hall in Tamaqua, PA. It makes it all so close. Well it is.
 
James Marion Luvray (1847-1950)

On the seventh day of April, 1950, in the little village of Goff’s Falls, New Hampshire (now part of Manchester) 103-year-old James Marion Lurvey quietly passed away. He was the very last of all those 160,000+ soldiers, of both sides, who had served on the Gettysburg battlefield those first days of July, 1863. He was also the last veteran from New England, and the last to have served in a Massachusetts unit. When he had passed,there were just 20 veterans left from all the Union armies of the Civil War.

He had arrived at Gettysburg on July 1st, a 15-year-old drummer boy, who shouldn’t even have been there. His regiment, the 40th Massachusetts, was back in Virginia, and would not join the Army of the Potomac until August.

He had been born in Palmyra, Maine, on December 2, 1847. A few years later, his family removed to Lowell Mass., where they were living at the time the war began. In the spring of 1862, his father, James T. Lurvey applied to Gov. Andrew for a commission in one of the new regiments just being formed. He was made Captain of Company A, 40th Mass. Vol. Infantry. He agreed to take his 14 year old son with him as drummer. So, on the 19th of July, 1862, James M. Lurvey was mustered-in as musician, at Camp Stanton, in Lynnfield, Mass.

That fall, the 40th Mass. served first in the defenses of Washington. “They had moved me from one fortress to one in another section. We’d be 10 or 12 miles from Wasington. We weren’t in any battle, but we were protecting Washington from raiders. The South had a colonel by the name of Mosby -- he was a guerilla. We protected Washington from Colonel Mosby,” is how he recollected it at the age of 101. [Berkshire Eagle, May 24, 1948]

In April 1863, when the 40th Mass. moved to coastal Virginia, to participate in the siege of Suffolk, young James was not with them. On the 15th, he was admitted to Campbell General Hospital in Washington, suffering from “general Debility.” James was a slightly built boy, and a number of records emphasize that he was “not robust.” But, by the end of June, he was considered to be sufficiently recovered for service in the field. But, rather than return him to his regiment, he was assigned to the Medical Department, Army of the Potomac, which he joined just before the battle.

In a 1948 interview, he recalled of Gettysburg:
“I never fired a shot. I was still a drummer boy. During much of that battle I served in the Medical Corps. Shot and shell and the screams of dying men and boys filled the humid air. A non-com told me to put away my drum. He tied a red rag around my left arm and told me I was now in the Medical Corp. I told him I was not big enough to lift my end of a stretcher, so he assigned me to a field tent. It was stifling inside. I thought I’d keel over when they told me my assignment. I Wished then I could have hefted a stretcher. I was to stand by and carry out the soldiers’ arms and legs as the doctor amputated them. I guess that was the day I grew up and left boyhood forever. And I wasn’t yet sixteen.”
Six days of this horrendous duty was quite enough to break young Lurvey’s health once again. He was sent back to Campbell Hospital, suffering from chronic diarrhoea. He was transferred (July 19th) to the Veterans Reserve Corps “by reason of youth -- age 15 -- and weak constitution.” Assigned briefly to the military hospital at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, he was honorably discharged on Oct. 3rd, “by S.O. No. 434, A.G.O. of 1863, by way of favor.”

But, young James M. Lurvey wasn’t finished with the army. Poor constitution or not, the following August 25, 1864, he enlisted once again, as a private in the 24th Unattached Company of Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, which soon became Company H of the 4th Regiment, Mass. H. A. On Oct. 9th, however (probably because of his age and lack of “robustness”) he was once again appointed “Company Drummer.” By that time, he was back in the defenses of Washington, where his regiment would serve until mustering-out on June 17, 1865.

Tracing James Lurvey’s life for the decades after the war has proved difficult. We find him at various places in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. He married, had two daughters.
We hear very little from Lurvey until about 1947, when newspapers picked up the story of his 100th birthday greeting from President Truman. Over the next few years, there are brief notices of his participation in Memorial Day events, and on each of his succeeding birthdays, sometimes with short interviews. In May 1949, Life Magazine published a special edition containing photographs of sixty-eight surviving veterans of the Civil War, including one of James M. Lurvey, sitting on his front porch in Goff’s Falls, drumsticks in hand. Shortly thereafter, he was interviewed by a young Jay S. Hoar, who would tell his story in greater detail many years later. He was quite deaf and nearly blind, but still lively and interested in the world around him. His wife having passed away two years before, he was being cared for by his daughter, Gladys.

Then, suddenly, in the summer of 1950, Lurvey became dramatically weaker, barely able to walk,he was admitted to the Veterans' Hospital in Bedford, Mass. During the night of September 16th, he developed pneumonia, and was placed in an oxygen tent. He died about 4:30 the following afternoon.

New England’s Last Civil War Veterans (1976), Jay S. Hoar
Callow Brave and True: a Gospel of Civil War Youth (1999), Jay S. Hoar
also:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/17981778/james-marion-lurvey
https://www.sunjournal.com/2009/05/24/jay-hoar-civil-war/
https://acrossthevalleytodarkness.com/the-american-civil-war-from-a-different-perspective-3/

P23336.gif


post-war image of his father.
 
How fast he had to grow up - can’t carry a stretcher, but could carry an arm or leg. Mr. Lincoln’s Drummer Boy was 11 when his father took him off to war in December of 1861. Vermonter Willie Johnson got caught in the Seven Days Retreat in the Peninsula Campaign in 1862. I suppose if there was no one at home to look after the boys, the thought was to bring them along.
 
In the OP, I mention that James M. Lurvey "was interviewed by a young Jay S. Hoar, who would tell his story in greater detail many years later." Jay Hoar was a 16 year old Rangely, Maine youth who, having read that May 1949 Life Magazine spread about surviving Civil War veterans, was determined to meet at least one of them. Since Lurvey lived the closest to him, he set off, on his own, jumping freight trains, and hitchhiking until he reached Goffs Falls, N.H.The boy's visit with the 102-year-old veteran changed his life. It became his obsession to meet and interview as many of these men as he could. Time was running out, and he was able to personally visit only a few men before they were all gone.

But, Jay Hoar continued his research, visiting the families the last veterans left behind, delving deep into official records and local memory alike. Graduating from the University of Maine, he spent four years in the Navy. After that, he began his teaching career, first in secondary schools, then at Maine Maritime Academy, then at the University of Maine at Farmington where he taught for 33 years. All through that time his obsession with those few old men continued.

The result has been a remarkable series of books:
  • New England's Last Civil War Veterans (1976)
  • The South's Last Boys in Gray: An Epic Prose Elegy (1986, revised 2010)
  • Montana's last Civil War old-soldiery (1984)
  • Callow, Brave and True: A Gospel of Civil War Youth (1999)
  • Our Eldest and Last Civil War Nurses (2001)
  • The North's Last Boys in Blue: An Epic Prose Elegy: A Substudy of Sunset and Dusk of the Blue and Gray (2 volumes, 2006, 2008)
  • The South's Last Boys in Gray: An Epic Prose Elegy: A Substudy of Sunset and Dusk of the Blue and the Gray (2010, an expanded revision of the 1986 volume, published as vol. 3)
For anyone deeply interested in the last ACW veterans, these scarce and often costly volumes by Jay S. Hoar are indispensable. The 86-year-old Professor Hoar is still living in Farmington, Maine.
 
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