<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.6002.18167" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial" bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=role_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> <DIV>My 2nd great-grandfather volunteered to fight in the Civil War. While his age isn't precisely known, he was born about 1803 and volunteered in 1861 (about age 58). He served as his troop's fifer and volunteered along with two of his sons and a few cousins all living in the same township at the time. I suspect he did this because he was recently widowed (his wife is still living at the time of the 1860 census but he is listed as a "widower" on his death certificate in Feb. 1863--so my thought is he was at loose ends and went off to war with his sons and cousins. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>He shows up in the Army Hospital in Newark, NJ in early 1863 and is discharged for "debility and old age." His death certificate shows he died less than 2 weeks after his discharge. I have no idea what age he gave when he volunteered (he never listed the same age twice <g>) but he was definitely above the age we'd normally consider for someone going off to war. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Joan</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <DIV>In a message dated 1/24/2010 11:13:10 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, eshown@comcast.net writes:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">I’m no “Civil War expert,” but CW service at an “advanced” age is something I’ve encountered a number of times. </SPAN></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>