IN DEFENSE OF THE FLAG
H. C. STAFFORD,
Captain of Company C.
Eighty-Third Pennsylvania Volunteers.
Erie, Pa., Aug 25, 1903.
IN DEFENSE OF THE FLAG.
A TRUE WAR STORY
(ILLUSTRATED.)
A Pen Picture of Scenes and Incidents during theGreat Rebellion.—Thrilling Experiences DuringEscape from Southern Prisons, Etc.
By DAVID W. STAFFORD.
All Rights to this Story Reserved by David W. Stafford of Company D,Eighty-Third Pennsylvania Volunteers
1904.
IHLING BROS. & EVERARD, Printers,
Kalamazoo, Mich.
A True War Story.
By David W. Stafford.
Now in the commencement of this narrative and tale of my early life, Imust say that a good part of my life has been somewhat gloomy. At thetime of my entering the service of my country I was seventeen years ofage. It was just after the first and second engagements at Bull Run.
My father was a poor man, the father of some nine children, and ashoemaker by trade. I had left home early in my youth, when aboutfourteen or fifteen years old, and at this time, just before the war,a boy’s chances for labor and wages paid were very small. I worked foronly seven dollars a month. This was the first labor I ever performed,working by the month. Oh, how my mind goes back to childhood days!
Now in the fall of 1862, on the