JPK Huson 1863
Brev. Brig. Gen'l
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2012
- Location
- Central Pennsylvania
Frank Leslie's eye-witness artist, Becker, did a terrific job conveying the magnitude of the crowd gathered November, 1863 for Gettysburg's National Solider's Cemetery Dedication. We came together in sorrow, in respect, in mourning and to honor our fallen. In that crowd was a bereaved father, Russell Briggs whose son, Corporal George Briggs, 72nd PVI died of wound July 3rd.
If there's already a thread about poor Allen Frazer, Russell and George Briggs and Soloman Powers, please excuse? Ran into several articles but dead-ended on a few things.
Union soldier, Corporal George Briggs, Co. G, 72nd PVI " died of wounds received " July 3rd, 1863. His father, Russell, according to census records a ' moulder ' traveled to Gettysburg in November for the Dedication of The Soldier's National Cemetery. Newspapers report Russell came to claim his son's body and carry it home, I have no idea whether this is true. Whatever the case, Russell also became a casualty of the battle. And yet another civilian joined Mary Virginia Wade in the list of civilian dead.
That it was in the home of Soloman Powers adds another layer to that family's battle history. The story oddly didn't make many newspapers- a few, and some gave Brigg's name as ' Williams ', no idea why.
I cannot find why Allen was living with the Powers family. In 1850 he was a child, a baby, living with his blacksmith father Thomas and mother Elizabeth, incidentally a few doors down from the Wade family back in the days before James Wade drank himself into a place inside Gettysburg's Almshouse.
You don't hear a thing about James Wade. At the time of the battle he was not in fact dead- he just wasn't mentioned much. In 1850 this seemed a street where young couples raised family- a blacksmith and a tailor living a few doors away.
I ' think ' Thomas died around 1858 although cannot find what happened- seems to have been a yellow fever outbreak in various areas although there were others, too- cholera seems to have been around without respite. Whatever the case, son Allen is living with the Powers family in November, 1863. He may have been an apprentice, hard to tell. In another census a young man is listed as ' apprentice ' inside the Powers household.
For what it's worth, Thomas's blacksmith establishment somehow housed a millinery, too- rented space or family member, who knows?
There's simply no follow-up I can find, whether both George and his father Russell were brought home to be buried in Philadelphia or both are buried in Gettysburg, I don't know. That Allen Frazer suffered the loss of both parents, made it through the battle only to fall victim to it months afterwards seems appalling, doesn't it? I know that, as ever, Gettysburg citizens opened doors and welcomed strangers during this momentous time in our history. It sounds typical of Powers that he did so, further imprinting the name over ' Gettysburg '.
And burying yet another casualty. There were others- warnings were posted but the lure of battle tokens was just too strong, boys tended to tempt fate- shells had almost literally rained over a landscape too vast to easily discover those hidden as they burrowed in farmed fields. One of the historians here will know when the last ( so far ) claimed a victim.