Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Civil War Oddities #9


Two brothers, Jack and Jasper Walker, of Charlotte, North Carolina, fought at Gettysburg with the 13th North Carolina. Jasper, the younger, was wounded on July 1, as the fifth color bearer of his regiment to be shot. A surgeon amputated his leg. Jasper was captured and sent to a Northern prison.

On the retreat from Gettysburg, Jack Walker was also shot and lost his leg by amputation. He went to another Federal prison.

The brothers returned home after the war to become prosperous citizens, familiar in the town as they stumped about on cork legs. On Jasper’s wedding day, when he accidently fell and broke his artificial limb, he borrowed the leg of his gallant brother – a perfect fit.

This, as Confederate veterans were fond of telling youngsters, was the only case on record in which one man married while standing on the leg of another.