Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 April 1885 — A Veteran’s Reminiscences. [ARTICLE]

A Veteran’s Reminiscences.

“I was in Washington in 1812; and while visiting over in Alexandria in that year I saw the first troops called out to fight the British as they entered Washington to be armed. I remember it as well as if it had been yesterday." The speaker, CoL S. D. Betton, of Cuthbert, Ga., is 79 years old and is still hale and hearty, as spry as a boy of 20. “I went with Lafayette to France in 1825,” continued the old gentleman. “How well I remember it. We sailed in the frigate Brandywine from the mouth of the Potomac River, Sept. 11, 1825. There were forty-two officers on board, and I can tell you their names and their fate —what became of each of them. Oh, we had a big time then. “In riding on horseback from Milledgeville, Ga., to Hartford, Conn., once I traveled sixty miles in one day and stopped at a big wedding where we danced all night, I went to school in Milledgeville in 1817' with 168 boys and girls, and of that number only three are living to-day.” Col. Betton was an officer in the United States navy some fifty odd years ago. He is a wonderfully well preserved old gentleman. He says: “I never had any pains at all. I am perfectly well, and have worked like a slave all the year.” And with that he held up his hands to show that they had become horny from work. He is just as jolly and full of fun as any boy, and bids fair to live to be 100 years old. — Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser.