Trivia 9-28-18 & Bonus

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Crawling out of my hole for the Gettysburg question. He was William Wade Dudley who lost his leg near the 19th Indiana monument on Meredith Avenue just outside Gettysburg.

Bonus. I remember his first name was Mortimer had to look up his last name Leggett. He died while falling off a 37' cliff in a NY gorge.
 
Bonus: I think John Butler Groves was the first person to die in a college fraternity initiation. I'm guessing he had family members who enlisted and fought in the Civil War.

Edit - According to what I can find, although Groves died before Leggett, Groves' death was attributed to a "class hazing" incident, not a fraternity initiation.

hoosier
 
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http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/wwdudley.htm

William Wade Dudley 1842 to 1908, an officer in the 19th Indiana of the Iron Brigade.

Bonus:

http://cdsun.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/cornell?a=d&d=CDS19810320.2.18

wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortimer_Dormer_Leggett

Mortimer D. Leggett was accidentally killed on October 14, 1873, during an initiation to the Cornell chapter of the Kappa Alpha Society. He was blindfolded and walking along a railroad trestle with other initiates, when he fell, striking the back of his head. Leggett was the first person known to die in a college fraternity initiation. He was the son of Civil War Major General Mortimer Dormer Leggett, he was the US Commissioner of Patents from 1871 to 1881.
 
Bonus: Most likely that the the oldest fraternity group, the Delta Kappa Epsilon included Rutherford B. Hayes, a Brigadier general, in the group.
Source

Edit - Delta Kappa Epsilon avoided the unhappy distinction of being the first fraternity to have a pledge die during initiation. Mortimer Leggett was pledging Kappa Alpha.

hoosier
 
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John A. Bentley, Commissioner of Pensions

Bonus: The first person known to die in a college hazing was Mortimer M. Leggett, son of Major General Mortimer D. Leggett of the Civil War, died on the hard-packed clay at the foot of a cliff during a "moonlight stroll" while blindfolded, an initiation at Cornell University.

Edit - Bentley was originally named Commissioner of Pensions during the Grant Administration and continued to serve in that capacity through Hayes' term and a short time under Garfield. However, the other clues given in the question all apply to his successor, William Dudley.

hoosier
 
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main: William Wade Dudley

bonus: his father was Mortimer Dormer Leggett (April 19, 1821 – January 6, 1896) a lawyer, school administrator, professor, and major general of the Union Army.
one report says ...
Mortimer M. Leggett, was accidentally killed on October 14, 1873, during an initiation to the Cornell chapter of the Kappa Alpha Society. The younger Leggett was blindfolded and walking along a railroad trestle with other initiates, when he fell, striking the back of his head. Leggett was the first person known to die in a college fraternity initiation.
another says....
Mortimer M. Leggett was the son of a famous Civil War General and one of the first known hazing deaths in the US. He pledged Kappa Alpha during his first semester at Cornell University in New York in 1873. One night, as part of the initiation ceremony, he was blindfolded and taken out into the woods. He was supposed to make his way back to the chapter house in Ithaca. While he was out there, per the custom, he met other members of the fraternity who were removed his blindfold. The three of them started down a slope looking for the nearest road.

According to the Cornell Daily Sun,
"What they did not realize was that at the bottom of the slope was not a road, but a 37 foot cliff. There was not warning as they plunged over. Mort died on the hard-packed rock-like clay at the foot of the cliff. The other two boys were badly hurt."
 
William Wade Dudley (1842-1909) http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/wwdudley.htm

BONUS:
Mortimer N. Leggett was accidentally killed on October 14, 1873, during an initiation to the Cornell chapter of the Kappa Alpha Society. His father was Mortimer Dormer Leggett (19 April 1821 – 6 January 1896) who was brevetted Major General of Volunteers (US Army) July 1864 and commissioned Major General a year later.
 
Answer
William Wade Dudley (1842–1909).
Source
"General Dudley A Leading Citizen of Wayne County". The Richmond Item, December 16, 1909. http://19thindianaironbrigade.com/Dudley,_William_Obit..html
"Dudley, William Wade". John H. Brown, editor, Lamb's Biographical Dictionary of the United States. (Boston, MA: James H. Lamb Company, 1900), Vol. II, p. 537.

bonus: ANSWER: The initiate who died was Mortimer M. Leggett, son of Bvt. Maj. General Mortimer Dormer Leggett (April 19, 1821 – January 6, 1896).

SOURCES: http://cdsun.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/cornell?a=d&d=CDS19810320.2.18
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mortimer_Dormer_Leggett&oldid=826907481
 
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