Second Lieutenant GEORGE H. CROSBY

Second Lieutenant GEORGE H. CROSBY was born at Barnstable, Mass., Nov. 23d, 1840. In 1850, he removed with his parents to Middle Haddam, Conn., where he resided until his enlistment. As a school boy he gave great promise. One of his former teachers writes, “I remember distinctly the enthusiasm and spirit of perseverance with which he pursued his studies. He was ever anxious to improve.” Leaving school he was employed as a clerk in Middle Haddam, but continuing a course of study after two unsuccessful attempts to get an appointment to West Point, entered Wesleyan University, in Middletown, in the Fall of 1861. Having decided military predilections, he joined the Mansfield Guard of Middletown, and there studied the tactics.

   In the summer of 1862, he decided that his country needed his services, and to a dearly loved mother loath to part with him said: “I feel it is my duty to go.” Opening recruiting offices in Middletown and Middle Haddam, he took a squad of men to the camp of the 14th, at Hartford, where he was chosen 2d Lieutenant of Co. K—with rank from Aug. 18th, 1862.

   Marching with his regiment to Washington, Lieut. Crosby was left with a large guard over the camp at Arlington, when the regiment marched up to Fort Ethan Allen. The government not supplying sufficient rations, he purchased them for his men from his own limited means, declining to be repaid by them. When the regiment marched from Ethan Allen on the Maryland campaign, he rose from a sick bed in the hospital to join and march with his company. A letter written about this time from Sergeant Goodwin of his company (killed later in the war), to his friends, praises his coolness under fire, and states that his men were growing very fond of him.

   During the battle of Antietam, Crosby was walking from one end of his company to the other, encouraging his men, when a bullet struck him in the side, passing through his lungs just in front of the spine, and lodging on the opposite side just under the skin. He was carried back to hospital, and in a few days sent home. Dr. A. B. Worthington, of Middle Haddam, who attended him during his illness, writes us, “From this time to his death, he was a great but a very patient sufferer.”

   He talked much of his country during his illness, and but little of himself. He died, Oct. 22d, 1862, and was buried the 24th of the same month, from the Episcopal Church in Middle Haddam. Rev. Dr. De Koven preached a funeral sermon from Ezekiel, xxxvii, 3. “And he said unto me, Son of Man, can these bones live.” President Cummings, of Wesleyan University, added a eulogy, and a series of resolutions by the class of ‘65, at the university, was read. The funeral was attended by the Mansfield Guard, his classmates at Middletown, and a large number of his townsmen. And so they laid him by the smooth Mowing Connecticut, whose waters murmur a gentle requiem for the fair haired, frank-hearted lad we loved so well.