Defenders of the Union [pp. 434-462]

DEFENDERS OF THE UNION.
of Lincoln Post of San Francisco, and is
now Adjutant of the Veteran Guard.
There is hardly a Comrade in the De partment who is better or more popularly
known than Masteller.
Comrade Eugene Wiegand, Assistant
Quartermaster General, Department of
California and Nevada, since I890, en listed on the I s5th day of April, I86I, in
the First Pennsylvania Volunteer Artil lery (which was almost immediately
changed to the Seventeenth Infantry),
the first regiment of Pennsylvania troops
to leave Philadelphia for the front. After
serving for three months he was discharged and joined the Seventy-fifth
Pennsylvania Infantry as a private, promoted to First Sergeant and May 2d,
i862, to Second Lieutenant of Company
B. In March, I863, he was made First
Lieutenant of Company E, and as such
was mustered out May 15, I865, after
four years of service.
With his regiment, he was in the second battle of Bull Run, Chancellorsville,
Gettysburg, and many minor engagements, while serving with the Army of
the Potomac. When Hooker, with Howard's and Slocum's corps, was ordered to
the relief of the Army of the Cumberland at Chattanooga, Comrade Wiegand
was a part, and with his command had a
share in the preliminary movements
which gave us Lookout Mountain. He
was at Missionary Ridge and throughout
the Atlanta campaign, and was with
Thomas when Hood invaded Tennessee.
At the battle of Franklin, Tennessee,
Comrade Wiegand's military service was
cut short by his being captured, and the
rest of his service he spent on an unenjoyable vacation in the prison camp at
Andersonville. He is Junior Vice Commander of George H. Thomas Post, a
Companion of the Loyal Legion, and
Quartermaster of the Veteran Guard of
VOL. xxvii.-33.
California, Grand Army of the Republic,
and is among the most popular and prom inently known men of the order.
Comrade W. H. H. Hart, when only a
child, came from England with his parents, and was hardly eleven years of age
when both father and mother died, leaving the lad no other legacy than those
indestructible teachings to do only what
is right. With these and an indomitable
energy and pluck the lad began a life
that was for years tumultuous enough.
He was just fourteen years old when
he entered the secret service of his
adopted country. With youth's natural
impulse he desired the dash of danger
which is indissolubly connected with the
life of a scout,-a service that calls for
intrepidity, compels men to cut loose
from their base of supplies and from the
support of reinforcements, and causes
them to rush through the highways and
byways in the enemy's country to learn
of the enemy's movements making or
contemplated. It is a duty always
fraught with great danger and sometimes
with reward. Young Hart joined Hinckley's organization of scouts, January 23,
1862, and acquired an experience that
only rare fortitude and devotion can sustain. He was engaged with that dashing
formation at the battles of Fort Donelson,
Shiloh, Champion Hill, Vicksburg, and
Missionary Ridge. In the latter engagement he was on detached service, and
under special orders from General Grant
was the bearer of despatches to General
Sherman, whose nearest force was more
than two miles away on the extreme
left. Well mounted, he started over the
wide open space in full view of many-of
his comrades, and at every jump of his
horse exposed to the shot and shell from
more than a dozen batteries of the enemy
on the ridge. From the time his mission
began until it ended he was a fleeting
449