A uniform "... such as used to be affected by well-to-do gentlemen of the old school about 40 years ago..."

This is the sesquicentennial of the battle of Gettysburg, the turning point the the American War for Southern Independence*.  Lots of people are posting about the heroic happenings that day.  A forgotten hero is the subject of this post.

Image via Wikipedia

John Burns was a veteran of the War of 1812.  He tried to enlist in 1861, but was turned down because he was 67 years old.  Instead, he was sent to be Constable of the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  And all Hell broke out.

He heard the firing on the first day of fighting.  Grabbing his obsolete musket and powder horn, he ran towards the sound of gunfire.  Passing a wounded Union soldier, he asked if he could take his modern military rifled musket and cartridges.  The soldier agreed, and history was made.

Burns perplexed the Union commander, who sent him to fight in the woods - it was hot that July day, and Maj. Chamberlin thought it best if the old man were in the shade.  The Major remarked on  the dress of his new "recruit":

His dress "consisted of dark trousers and a waistcoat, a blue 'swallow tail' coat with burnished brass buttons, such as used to be affected by well-to-do gentlemen of the old school about 40 years ago, and a high black silk hat, from which most of the original gloss had long departed, of a shape to be found only in the fashion plates of the remote past."

He wore his finest clothes to what might have been his encounter with the Almighty.

Burns was wounded in the hot fighting that drove the Iron Brigade from the town of Gettysburg, and captured by the Confederate infantry.  They bandaged his wounds before putting him in the town Jail, and then graciously let him out again before they retreated.  Burn's reaction to their chivalry was to arrest them, acting as constable of the town.

Quite a man.

He became quite famous after the battle.  President Lincoln personally sought him out when he came to dedicate the national cemetery.  Forgotten today in most of the country, you will still hear of his fame in the town where he was constable: his is one of only two graves where the American flag is permitted to fly 24x7.  I'll post tomorrow about the other.  The inscription on his headstone reads: "Patriot".

Oooh rah, Robert Burns.  No matter the cause of that Late Unpleasantness, you were fighting for your home and hearth, and your fellow townsmen.  May flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest.

* My favorite term for that Late Unpleasantness.  It was not a Civil War, because the Confederate States of America did not seek to capture the northern states.  The term "War Between the States" is closer, but still ambiguous, as it might be possible that the South had wanted to conquer the North.  The "War of Northern Aggression" is similarly ambiguous; while both sides were spoiling for a fight and it's impossible to dispute that the Confederates fired the first shots.  They may or may not have been provoked - like I said, the term is ambiguous.  The term "American War of Southern Independence" is not.