Second Lieutenant JOHN T. BRADLEY

Second Lieutenant JOHN T. BRADLEY, was another of Madison’s offerings through the 14th on our country’s altar. Born in that town, April 28, 1827, he resided there until three years prior to the war when he removed to McGregor, Iowa, where he engaged in mercantile business with an uncle. The news that a company was organizing for the war at his old home, sent him speedily back to New England, and he at once enlisted as a private under his brother-in-law, Capt. S. F. Willard. He was by that officer’s side when he fell, and bore his body from the field. He was with the regiment in all its campaigns, and in the battle of the Wilderness in 1864 was one of three who manned a rebel gun captured in the great charge of the 2d corps, and turning it on the rebels, gave them back their own shot and shell. Having long been a non-commissioned officer, he was commissioned January 3, 1865, as Second Lieutenant. In the second battle of Hatcher’s Run, March 25, 1865, Lieut. Bradley was mortally wounded in the arm. He was removed to City Point, Va., where he died on the 28th of March, only a fortnight before Lee’s surrender.

Having almost seen the final lifting of the dark war cloud that had so long rested over the country, he was the last of our officers that died ere it rose. His funeral occurred at the Congregational Church in Madison, April 11, 1865, the services being performed by Chaplain Morris of the 8th regiment. Amid the excitement and rejoicing of the last week of the war, his body was committed to its native dust, by tender hands of those who loved him.

A letter from an old friend says of Lieut. Bradley, that “in 1854 he became hopefully pious,” uniting with the First Congregational Church in Madison. After he removed to McGregor, he was superintendent of a Sabbath School in which he became much interested. He had many friends, and was beloved by all who knew him. Upon hearing of his death at McGregor, an appropriate service was held, and an address to the Sunday School was read that he had written for them a few days before his death.