From The Lincoln Star,
Friday June 14, 1935.
(copied exactly from newspaper article)
Jerry Wilhelm, Last
Gettysburg Survivor Here, Anticipates Big 91st Birthday Party on
Saturday
The only survivor of his Civil War company of 1500 men, and the only man now in this vicinity who saw service at the battle of Gettysburg, Jerry Wilhelm, 1310 L. Street, pale and hearty, is looking forward to his 91st birthday Saturday, when the Daughters of Union Veterans are planning a little “affair” at his home.
Questioned about the features of the party, he twisted his mustache, blinked, and replied, “Oh they are going to have a big table in the back yard, with lights and everything. We will have a swell time.”
Jerry, as he prefers to be called, has lived in Lincoln for 16 years, batching it all of the time. He has lived in Nebraska for 58 years coming to Lancaster County from Dorchester, where he lived for 46 years, including 22 years, which he put in on the road as a salesman for the John Deere Plow Company. He was a postmaster for the Senate for twelve straight sessions of the legislature, and held the same job during the constitutional convention.
He enlisted in the Civil War as a drummer boy at the age of 17, joining Company A, Third Maryland Veteran Volunteers, beating time while his company surged through 17 engagements, including in addition to the Gettysburg fray (which was nearly his last), the struggles at Cedar Mountain, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, and Popular Spring Church.
“Seven thousand of our men were killed at 11,000 injured in 20 minutes at the battle of Cold Harbor, June 4, 1864,” he recalled, “and we were driven back twice, but I got through without a scratch.” He lost the tip of his nose, suffered a scalp wound, nearly had his left thumb severed, and his abdomen was punctured by an attacking Confederate soldier’s sword at Gettysburg.
“My bunkmate, George Snyder, later killed the man who cut me up, and a few years ago gave me the sword which came so close to putting me out. My boy W.G., has it out in Alhambra, Cal. now,” he added.
He has a daughter, Mrs. George A. Roberts, living in Omaha; and a granddaughter, Doris Jarrett, living in Lincoln.
“I’ve been smoking cigars and pipes for 70 years now,” he said “but I don’t think that that has had anything to do with my long life. I guess my orneriness has had something to do with that,” as he chuckled, puffing away on a dark filler. “I wish I lived a thousand miles from a cigar store so I could quit smoking,” he confessed.
Although he seldom needs a cane, he has a memento from the Gettysburg battlefield that he frequently carries. It bears a bullet scar, and is engraved with his name and the company, with the dates of the battle “which was fought so close to my home that mother could hear the cannons roaring each day.”
Another experience which he will never forget is the time that his company served as escort for President Lincoln, and he was complimented by the Emancipator for his “alertness,” when he expected to “ketch it” for not waiting for command to roll the drum.
Transcribed August 12, 2001
By Steve Pearce
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/p/e/a/William-S-Pearce/