Rescuing Charley

(as told by Elizabeth Perkins Buchheit)

All of the PERKINS’ sons were in the Northern Army in the Civil War. They all just happened to be that age, you know? What age you are is what you do in the environment. Of course when you’re a teenager you feel like you’re immortal otherwise you couldn’t get anybody for the Army or anything else. It is amazing, isn’t it?

In July of 1863, the Perkins got a telegram saying that their son Charley was missing at the Battle of Gettysburg. So these two teenage girls who were probably about 18 at the time, Charley’s sister, Jane, and his sister-in-law, ELIZABETH WALKER, jumped on the train and rode from Ohio to Gettysburg. They were little itty bitty creatures and they were feisty as anything and they never asked, never wrung their hands and never had fits. They just jumped on the train and went. That took a lot of courage and a lot of guts, if you want to put it correctly.

Anyway, the next morning Jane and Great-grandma got to Pennsylvania. They found out where the battle was and where their particular regiment from Ohio was. Gettysburg was a three-day battle. They walked over the whole doggone battlefield looking for Charley. Great-grandma said it was the worst thing you ever saw. There were people lying there, moaning. There were horses that were shot, you know, and just moaning and crying with no legs. That was the worse. She loved horses like anything. But by George they found Charley! Great-grandma said she recognized his hand over a log. He was shot above the knees through both legs. It’s remarkable that he didn’t die of shock or infection.

Jane and Great-grandma brought Charley to the train station, got people to lift him into the train and brought him home. And I’ll tell you what cured him. They made a compress of plantain leaves that grew in the backyard to pull out the poison. They just made a compress and put it on and changed it two or three times a day. And Charley survived! He always walked with a cane after that but it’s a miracle that he survived. He grew up, got married, had one daughter, Nina [Perkins Hanna], and got part of the farm.

My family visited Charley and his family on their farm [in Amboy, Michigan] and they entertained us. We sat at the table and they fed us right two or three entrees and a big bowl of squash or whatever they had in the garden. I remember they had three desserts at least. When the bread was passed around, my dad said, “No, thank you.” He couldn’t eat another thing. And the girls said, “What! No bread?” And that was a joke in our family forever. You know, “What! No bread?”

In 1936 Charley, Jane, my great-grandmother, my father and I went back to Gettysburg. They were about 84 years old at the time. All three of ‘em laid down with a big dog and I took their picture. I have it to this day. I think it’s one of the greatest stories of women’s courage.

See the Azuba Elizabeth Walker Photo Set for more pictures about the Gettysburg reunion!