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Show ONE OF THE HAPPIEST REUNIONS I OF THE G. A. R. ENCAMPMENT One of the happiest reunions of the G. A. R. encampment was that ut the Knutsford hotel shortly after the great parado on Wednesday, when two mem-bora mem-bora of the Ninety-first New York infantry, in-fantry, who had not met since July .'!, 1S63, forty-live years ngo, recognized each other In an Instant and clasped hands, and then lived over again tho strenuous times experienced during the yeoman service they rendered for their country. A very strange fact In connection with the two men is that they had each attended at-tended a number of encampments in former for-mer years, but had never happened to meet until they reached Salt. Lake City, a thousand miles or more from their respective re-spective homes. Their names aro Capt. Edward R. Cone of Ransom post. St. Louts. Mo., and Sergt. Plntt. F. Vincent of Newton, la. They commemorated their meeting bj' having their photograph taken with clasped hands, which they will cherish until "taps" Is sounded and they are for"ver mustered out of servico In this world of strife. At the time of tholr enlistment Captain Cap-tain Cone was a boy of IS years, and Sergeant Vincent was about three years older. They enlisted In company O and Captain Cone was soon made first sergeant. ser-geant. They enlisted In New York on September 18, 1S61, and fought through a number of Important engugemento together. to-gether. In 1SC.1 they volunteered to storm Port Hudson and were in the company com-pany which .marched Into the port after a siege of forty-ilvo days, nnd received tho arms from tho Confederates who had held It during tho siege. Captain Cone related an Incident which occurred before the surrender of the port, concerning the quality of food which was furnished to the Confederate soldiers. Ho said that nbout two w'eeks after tho ulege began tho Union soldiers hoard In the night tlmo a steam onglne puffing, and. thought that tho enemy was about to escape. They hpnrd the engine each night for some tlmo and finally a rumor was afloat that the engine was used to I grind the corn for tho soldiers, whereupon where-upon the Union soldiers decided that some means must be discovered of stop-pine: stop-pine: tho englno so thnt no more corn could be supplied. Thcv trained their guns on the direction from which tho puffing of the engine came and at last a cannon ball landed on the mark and put the engine out of commission. The two men parted In 1S63 and kept up a correspondence for about three years, when they lost track of each other. oth-er. On .January 2-1. IStIC, Serercant Yin-cent Yin-cent sont his photograph io Captain Cono, and tho captain has preserved that ever since and has carried It to even encampment with the hope that he would meet his old comrade. When he arrived in Salt Lake City ho looked over the registers at the various headquarters and llnnlly found Sergeant Vincent's name. Alter a senrch he found his old comrade in the hotel lobby and both rocognlzcd each other almost Instantly. They spent a very happy afternoon and havo been together as ofton as possible pos-sible since then. Captain Cone produced tho photograph which his comrade sent h m in '06, but tho latter did not recog-nizo recog-nizo it at all, and It was some time before be-fore ho could bo convinced that It reallv was his likeness. There Is no doubt but that the old comrades will keep In communication com-munication during' the remainder of their livos and will meet at encampments In tho future and recall incidents of thHr servico in dofenso of the Stars and Stripes. Captain Cono was within a block of General Lee when ho surrendered, and witnessed that historical spectacle. Ho has attended every encampment, of the U A. P with the exception of tho one held In San Francisco, and Sergeant Yin-cent Yin-cent has attended no less than eight encampments, en-campments, but It scorns that Salt Lako City wus destined to bo their point of reunion. |
