But it all started I guess at birth back in a place called Farnham Quebec in 1843. This little township, about 50 miles east of Montreal, got its start around 1800 when many Loyalists moved north from the United States. It would finally grow to an incorporated town in 1876 but by then Alonzo, the man of our story, would be long gone. He moved out in 1857 with his parents when he was 14 and travelled over 1200 miles south west and landed at a place called Dover Minnesota.
I recently noted a web references to Canadians in Minnesota regiments during the war which said that there were over 1,850 doing this. Not surprising when the well known figure of British North Americans (read Canada) in the war was at about 50,000 if not higher.
And one of these was the captain of another company in this same regiment. A Captain that would later be a full Colonel with the unit when it was fighting at Gettysburg and a General, one of at least 7 Canadians holding that rank despite oft quoted lower numbers.
That Canadian was George Nelson Morgan from St Catharines Ontario. His was a classic Pte to General story , and as important, his son was a Colonel, and Medal of Honor recipient who's names sake for years was the camp known as Camp Morgan in Bosnia and Herzegovina. (But more on him in another blog) This picture is of Alonzo at about 19 or 20 years old.
This 19 year old Private was to get his first chance at ..."seeing the elephant", actual fighting with the enemy, exactly two weeks to the day he first put his uniform on. It would be at the second battle at Bull Run, Va. between the 28th and 30th of August 1862. He would come out of that battle and the horrors of Antietam in Maryland unscathed. So to for both the first and second battles at Fredericksburg in Dec of 1862 and May of 1863.
But them came Gettysburg!
This three day battle saw the slaughter between 93,921 Union soldiers and 71,699 Confederates soldiers. When they decided to end it there were over 46,000 casualties and losses. Of these 8,000 were killed. That's about 2 combatants from the US and all around the world, including Canada, that were killed every minute for 3 days. There would be more than 6 wounded every minute over those same three days. And one of these was Alonzo who celebrated (not) his birthday on July 2 of 1863. It was his 20th when all those men...and not a few women gathered to greet each other... at the end of a barrel.
The above is a depiction of battle at Gettysburg, but not the charge that Alonzo was in.
After the war those that were left got many accolades... fellows like Alonzo with a bullet wound to the leg would later hear that even the President knew of their deeds that day. Indeed he did! President Coolidge would say that the men of that charge... ."are entitled to rank as the saviors of their country."
Then came the battles at Bristoe Station and the Mine Run Campaigns in Va. In February 1864 Alonzo's bravery was finally rewarded with a promotion to Corporal and a break from the battlefield when he was sent back to Minnesota on a recruiting drive.
BY May of 1864 his unit was mustered out, but he reenlisted to finish up his three year commitment with the same unit again but now in another company. In August the unit fought on the 13th to 20th at a place called Deep Bottom Va. It would be here that the unit was driven back after attempting an assault. But while most backed away he stayed because he saw his officer being knocked to the ground by bullets, he crawled out to save the man and brought him back to safety. Later that month he would be fighting at Reames Station and around this time he was promoted to Sergeant. An acting Sgt's position came to him in March of 1865, the rank confirmed in May and Alonzo finally got to hang up his uniform when his term of enlistment was finally up in June of 1865.
Alonzo moved back to Minnesota after the Civil War, live in several places, married and raised a family of six and in later life would spend 32 years in the insurance and real estate business.
Being very proud of his service and wanting to continue to served the veterans, he was a chartered member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Post # 71 at Sleepy Eye Mn, and in fact at the time of his death he was the last living member.
In June of 1895 The president awarded him a Medal of Honor for his bravery in saving his officer's life back in August of 1864 at Deep Bottom Va. He is pictured here wearing the later version of the army model of the Medal.
In 1913, again on his birthday, Alonza attended the 50th anniversary of the battle at Gettysburg. It was on the very lands that the Confederates charged across in Pickett's famous charge so many years earlier.
One can only wonder how many other Canadians were at that same ceremony.
They are at the 50th anniversary and are standing at the very wall of the Angle and reaching across to join hands in a token of friendship and healing from the stormier days of the past.
The angle was a piece if zigzagged real estate that was the actual target of Pickett's Charge on the 3rd day of the battle and the men in the picture are at a piece of that wall that outlined that area of the battlefield.
Alonzo PICKLE died at his daughter's home at Sleepy Eye Mn on 24 May 1925. Tomorrow is the 88th year since this Canadian hero passed away.