Thanks for the post 280! I was very interested in the Civil War when I was younger. It was an interested passed down to me from my father. He had collected some Confederate money, a Cavalry sword, assorted Minie balls, some buttons, etc. A couple years ago he picked up a couple of muskets converted from flintlock to percussion cap along with their bayonets. They are both Springfield, but I don't recall their years of manufacture. I haven't seen them yet, but I'm excited.
Anywho. I saw this picture and googled the guys name. Dude was a tough ol' coot! Fought in the War of 1812!
"July 1863. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. "John L. Burns, the 'old hero of Gettysburg,' with gun and crutches." Burns, born ca. 1793, was a 70-year-old veteran of the War of 1812 when he was wounded in the Battle of Gettysburg, having volunteered his services as a sharpshooter to the Federal Army. He died of pneumonia in 1872. Wet-plate glass negative by Timothy H. O'Sullivan."
Here is the story from a reporter at the time.
One week ago, seventy-two year old John L. Burns dropped everything to fight for his country in the battle of Gettysburg.
From his house, Burns could see the armies of the Union and the Confederacy locked in battle at Gettysburg. At first he stopped what he was doing and just watched. Then he grabbed his rifle and ran to fight when the 150th Pennsylvania came to reinforce the Union forces at the end of the first day.
Burns fought successfully on the second day, but he was wounded on the third, probably as he was defending the ridge against Pickett's charge. Even though wounded, he kept fighting until the battle was over. Since he was not a regular solider, he simply went home at the battle's end and resumed his normal life.
But his life soon became anything but "normal." The story of his bravery quickly got out among his friends and neighbors and then spread all over the nation as his cobbler shop was visited by many reporters, myself among them. Burns was now a national hero, "the old hero of Gettysburg," as the press calls him.
-- From the "Gettysburg Gazette," a student project posted on the Library of Congress Web site.
http://www.shorpy.com/node/4945