The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.

Saturday, April 8, 2023

Otto C. Hager-- Part 3

Captain Hager returned to Galena, Illinois, but "itched" to fight and re-enlisted and marched with Sherman to the sea  His company was at Raleigh when Lincoln was assassinated  He was dipping water from a creek when he looked up and saw the camp's flag at half mast.  he knew at once what had happened

The war was over, but Sherman's Army had not been mustered out.  After taking part in Sherman's Grand Review at Washington, Hager and his company were mustered out in Chicago.

In 1866, he went to St. Joe and here hired out to a freighter  named Galbraith, an Atchison man.  He went with Galbraith's caravan of prairie schooners as far as Cottonwood Falls, where he quit his job and began splitting rails for the Union Pacific.

In 1867, he came to Atchison, Kansas.  At that time there was one brick building there, the rest of the city being made up mostly of frame shanties between Fourth and Fifth Street on Commercial Street.

--Old Secesh


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