Show i th 1 7 S tra liam arf A rf DEAD AND BURIED ALIVE PL experience IN THE ARMY ser bously injured by bullet in 16 battle veteran has had several M ra culous escapes from D ath indianapolis iwic p dead and each bitne bu d alive seriously injured tin es in the course of 16 battles pinioned to the earth b ta ling tree and hurt several times n other wab at daily labor this is the rema kable re ord of amuel cassell a resident of hartford city ind and a civil war veteran who apparently bears a charred life perhaps no other indiana man has faced almost certain death as many times as lias cassell certain it is that but very few it any have spent two days and two nights in a morgue awaiting burial to be rescued and restored to good health and yet samuel cassell lives to day hale and hearty always cheerful and optimistic and tearing death no more than he did when he shouldered a musket at lincoln s call mr cassell is a native 0 blackford Black tord county he was born in hartford city april 26 1843 and with the ex caption of five ears in kansas he has always resided in the county when the civil war broke out he enlisted as a member of company eighty ninth indiana infantry HP was 18 years old when he enlisted and at the close of the war he returned to hartford city his discharge papers show that he engaged in 16 different bat ties on one march his company hoofed t 0 O miles making an average of ul m les a day as shown by the colon els diar th s was n november of 1864 and on miles of the dis tance many of the soldiers tramped in their bare feet mi cassell was one of them tie snow was inkle leep and 1 is feet were frozen he carries the scars of man bat ties he was shot in the left der and in a hand to hand conflict with the enemy he was almost hacked to pieces two s ord cuts in his right knee felled him on the battle field and he was taken prisoner by the confederates and sent to nash soon after an exchange of ans boners between the armies was made but because of his injuries he was left with the enemy until he ered he with other prisoners was later released they started to tramp it to the union lines after a day out they were recaptured by a scout ing party and going to be shot bit they effected their escape and after walking miles reached the unon forces while facing file in another battle the stock of his gun was shattered by a bullet and he was seriously in aured the middle finger of his right hand was almost severed by the lead en ball and splinters from the gun stock were buried in his skull leav ing two deep depressions one at the back of the head and the other on top in 1862 he was taken sick while in camp at indianapolis and was carried to the dead room in the hospital where for two dag and two nights he was left with five other corpses when they came to bury him it was discovered that life was not extinct and he was taken back to t ie hospital where after a time he recovered he was mustered out of se vice at indianapolis and went back to black ford county in 1884 while living bre he had another serious illness again he was pronounced dead and arrangements were made or his t W II 11 gable at that time the only undertaker but now a re citi en was called to take charge of the body after visiting the cas I 1 one mr gable returned to his sop for hll but fore he got back tl I 1 s opposed dead ai cabrie to life ana the funeral ar range teats rad to be postponed mr cascell ays ie fully realized blat was going on about him but 1 not by a move make it known 1 at he was not dead the feeling he ape fenced however he describes as a pleasant oae he says he plainly heard his wife and daughter talking at his bed lie Is he deala he hea d his da abter ask of her mother and in a sobbing vo ce his wife replied I 1 m afraid so antei be re covered he described to them their positions around his bed and repeated cassell was P between the aronas their conversations but further than that he could remember nothing ex capt he sais thai he heard heavenly music and saw a host of angels hov ering over his bed it was a happy halt hour I 1 spent in the other world says mr cassell and I 1 have often regretted that I 1 wa returned to fight life s battles twenty five years ago this alpar antly immortal old man had another miraculous escape from death while cutting logs on his farm north of the city he vaa caught under a falling tree the tree was a large one and in the very top where three heavy limbs formed a fork the trunk was dead when the tree was cut it be gan to tall the wrong way and there was a scatter ment among the work men to escape being crushed the dead fork broke off and tell in just the opposite direction from the tree the prongs of the fork were several feet in length and mr cassell who thought he was on the safe side was caught under it after all danger had passed the other workmen rushed to his assistance expecting to find him dead but instead he was only held a prisoner the prongs of the fork had penetrated the earth to a depth of several inches and mr cas sell had been pinioned inside of them despite his many harrowing expert ances mr cassell at the age of 64 is hale hearty and happy through honesty and hard work he has amassed enough of this world s goods to keep him comfortably the rest ef his days |