“An Intelligent Man, a Good Fellow and a Brave Soldier”

from the series Tales from Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery…

Number 238 in a Series

By SUE HUNTER WEIR

This quote from the Leavenworth Daily Times sums up the life of Alonzo J. Brown, a Civil War veteran, and may be why, when his life was upended by illness, friends and colleagues came to his aid.

During the Civil War, Alonzo Brown enlisted in Company G in the 1^st Kansas Infantry attaining the rank of captain. He was wounded and mustered out in 1863, but re-enlisted in the 22nd Veteran Reserve Corps where he performed light duty until the War’s end.

Although he served in those two units for five years, Brown considered himself as having performed ten years of military service. The undocumented five years most likely refer to unofficial service during an attack on his hometown Lawrence, Kansas. In 1856, William Quantrill, leader of a band of lawless Confederate raiders, attacked the town, known as an anti-slavery stronghold. They killed more than 180 men and boys and burned most of the town to the ground. Years later, in a letter that he wrote to the Senator who represented Lawrence, Brown referred to himself as one of the Boys of 56, those who had tried to defend the town during what became known as the Lawrence Massacre, the bloodiest chapter in Kansas history. … Read the rest ““An Intelligent Man, a Good Fellow and a Brave Soldier””