File:... History of Oswego County, New York (1877) (14764174102).jpg

Identifier: historyofoswegoc01john (find matches)
Title: ... History of Oswego County, New York
Year: 1877 (1870s)
Authors: Johnson, Crisfield
Subjects:
Publisher: Philadelphia, L.H. Everts & co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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nce at this .stage of one who maintains his hold uponlife with so tenacious a grasj), and the sight of whom carriesthe mind of the most unimaginative man back to the earliestdays of our national e.\ist<nce. Among the reminiscences furnished to the Oswego Jal-fadiiim during the centenary year by a .son of Dr. WalterColton, now resident in (Jliio, was one which we insert inalmost the language of the writer. Many accidents hap-pened in early times when vessels were piLs-sing into or out ofthe harbor. Lieutenant (afterwards CommoJore) FrancisII. Gregory, of the navy, fre(;Uently scouted along the lake-shore during the war in a light-draught cutter called the Black-Snake. When entering the harbor on one occa-sion a man fell overboard, was swept out by the current,and drowned. The body was soon after discovered on the east bar,when the gallant young ofticer dived to the bottom andbrought it up. His boat, however, had drifted away,through the mismanagement of the crew, but the li.utenaiit
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I HISTOKY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YOEK. 145 clung to the body, ami finally, by desperate exertions andwitli gi-eat peril, succeeded in carrying it ashore. Therewas a military liospital on the beach near by, and some ofthe invalids were outside. They were, or thought theywere, too feeble to help the lieutenant, who came very neardrowning. The moment he got ashore he laid down thecorpse he had rescued and went to throwing stones at thesoldiers with all his might, cursing them roundly for sittingidle while he was likely to drown. They soon made theirway within the shelter of the hospital. The most remarka-ble circumstance connected with the affair was that one ofthe sick soldiers in the hospital discovered the drownedman to be his brother, who had left home twenty yearsbefore and had never been heard from since. A few hours after Lieutenant Gregory had .shown suchcourage and humanity, the same passionate officer was en-gaged in flogging a sailor, for some breach of discipline, inthe loft o

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