TALBOT LETTER - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

Captain H.H. Talbot, has received a letter from an old comrade who served with him during four years in the Seventh Kentucky Cavalry which has the ring of true and unalloyed patriotism running through every line and sentence, from which we are permitted to make the following extract: You ask me what pension I get. I received $2 up to last fall then it was raised to $6. You make think that poor compensation for four years' service to my country's flag and being disabled for life by a rebel bullet shot through my body. My loyalty to the flag prompts me to feel that my pension was given more as a badge of honor than for its real value, and God knows in my poverty and old age the little I get comes as a blessing I saw in my county paper a few days ago that I had been granted a Mexican war pension of $12. It must have been done by my attorney. I know it was done without my authority for I have refused all along to receive a Mexican war pension and I shall stick to that resolution. In my young patriotic manhood I volunteered in that war with the sentiment, "my country against any foreign power,'" but judge of my mortification and chagrin when it dawned on me later that I had fought for the extension of slavery. I said to myself then, would there ever come a time that I could wipe out that record.

There did come a time, thank God, and I volunteered willingly as you know and fought, for the freedom of all. I received a pike wound on top of the. head during the Mexican war. In my younger days I combed my hair over the scar to hide it but old Time with his scythe has left my scalp bare and now I sit with my hat on to hide that scar. If that wound had been received in our late war I could stand proudly with uncovered head before the world. Must I say to my grandchildren that my government gives me $12 per month for this scar received in a war for the extension of slavery and only half as much for a bullet wound that has twisted this poor old body out of shape for life, and that wound got on the field of battle for freedom's sake? Perish the thought! No, my old comrade, I will go down to my grave, in poverty and rags before I will allow my name to stand side by side on the pension rolls with a set of men that fought on the rebel side. Living in the South as I am you may think this rather strong but I mean every word.". Ever your old comrade, J.H. Waldron. -