The Last Dispatch Rider
by
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Introduction
CHAPTER 1 -The Day
CHAPTER 2 - Neversink Flats
CHAPTER 3 - Army Training
CHAPTER 4 - Campaigning East and West
CHAPTER 5 - Sherman's Battle
CHAPTER 6 - Marching North
CHAPTER 7 - Last Dispatch
CHAPTER 8 - The Big Parade
EPILOGUE
CHAPTER 1 - The Day
On a day better suited to peace than war a single soldier rode his horse at a break neck pace down a narrow rutted path. The swift delivery of an urgent message to Twenty Army Corps headquarters the rider's sole mission that Wednesday morning. A message intended to stop the fighting. The rider galloped toward Major General Joseph A. Mower, commander of Twenty Army Corps, more than sixteen miles distance. Private Collins readily volunteered for that dangerous mission, riding alone in the battle torn countryside of North Carolina. A truce in the fighting between Major General William T. Sherman's Union Army and remnants of General Joseph E. Johnston's Confederate forces would end in two hours. The distruction being visited upon the Carolinas would resume with huge casualties on both sides, if Collins failed his mission. That thought urged the rider on with abandoned determination. The urgency of his ride showed on his sun browned youthful face each mile covered.
The previous year saw the boys of the 143 New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment camped at Bridgeport, Alabama. The rebellion of southern states in its third year seemed endless.
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About the Book
A chronicle of the Civil War exploits of a teen soldier who joins the Union Army and earns the Congressional Medal of Honor before his seventeenth birthday. Private Thomas D. Collins' amazing story begins when he runs away from home at age 14, fakes his true age and becomes a recruit. Only to find three months later, the disillusioned youngster back on the farm with his mother. Collins' second attempt at manhood begins August 16, 1862, two days after his fifteenth birthday. The under age teenager this time enlists in the recently organized Company H, 143 New York Volunteer Infantry, Sullivan County. With new dedication, serving in a home county regiment, young Collins travels through fifteen states, survives two train wrecks, rescues a wounded Union soldier, captures a Rebel battle flag, delivers a war ending dispatch and rides in the Grand Parade at the invitation of Major General William T. Sherman, his commander.
Literary endeavers about the American Civil War owe a debt to the personal histories of its participants. Through the exploits on one such boy soldier, we were able to experience this major American historical event with a new understanding. Official records research of obscure source material, and personal recollections reveal the plight of one boy's successful journey to manhood.
About the Author
Robert F. Harris is a Vietnam veteran who spent three decades in public education. With a Ph.D. in educational administration from the University of Pittsburgh, he has served as history teacher, principal, superintendent of schools and adjunct professor.
Editor of Dear Sister: The Civil War Letters of the Brothers Gould, Praeger Publishers and author of several published articles, he created a first person interpretation, Captain John R. Leslie, 20th New York State Militia, for the National Park Service at Gettysburg where he is a Licensed Battlefield Guide since 1988.
Robert lives in Pennsylvania and is married with three professional daughters.