Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1908 — Two Veterans Reunited. [ARTICLE]

Two Veterans Reunited.

Capt. J. M. Wasson returned Tuesday evening from Greenville, Ohio, where he had been attending a reunion of his old regiment, the 40th Ohio. He met about forty-five of his old comrades while away, and upon his return to Rensselaer found another member of his company and regiment awaiting him. It was Thomas M. Boyd, now of Vancover, Wash., who was on his way to Greenville, but who was not aware that his regiment was holding a reunion there. It was 45 years ago last Sunday since Comrade Boyd and Wasson had met On that day the battle of Chickamaugua was being fought and Mr. Boyd was wounded in the head and was never again able to perform active duty, and was transferred from his regiment to the hospital and later discharged. Two days as er he was wounded Mr. Wasson, who was the second lieutenant of his company, was sent out in charge of a detachment to perform some outpoet duty, and while they were out the union army retreated to Chickamaugua, and word which had been dispatched to him to follow, never reached him. As a result he and his detachment were captured and served the remainder of the war in the southen military prisons, being at Libby and Andersonville. Captain Wasson once made his escape, but after being out two or three days he was re-captured. The harrowing details of Captain Wasson’s prison experience have been related by him at several reunions of old soldiers in Rensselaer, and it seems wonderful that any man could live through the ordeal of fourteen months’ imprisonment in the south. Captain Wasson was finally discharged from the prison at the close of the war. During all these years he and Mr. Boyd had not seen each other, and as they were close friends during the time they soldiered the reunion was a most cordial one. Mr. Boyd is engaged in the prune farming business in Washington and is quite prosperous in business. He will go from Rensselaer to Greenville, Ohio, to visit his old home, and may stop off in Rensselaer again on bis way back to Washington.