Troy Times - Veteran - Co. A, 110th Reg. O. V. I.

February 25, 1864

BARNES, PRIVATE SAMUEL T. - Died at the residence of his mother, on the morning of Feb. 9th, 1864, Private Samuel T. Barnes of Co. A, 110th Reg. O. V. I.--Aged 20 years, 5 months and 27 days. Another noble spirit has taken its flight! Another hero has fallen in defense of freedom and liberty. When in the summer of 1862, the call for more men to fill up the ranks of the Union army, reached him with his young heart, full of patriotism and love of country, he on the 18th day of August 1862, enrolled his name among his country's defenders in Capt. Alexander's company, then being recruited for the 110th Reg. O. V. I. The company was soon ordered into camp at Piqua. He went from here with the regiment into Western Virginia in the neighborhood of Parkersburg, their stay at this place was of short duration, from there they were ordered to New Creek Station, then to Moorefield, and lastly to Winchester. He participated in the first day's battle of Winchester. On the following day he being overcome with fatigue and excessive labor, was ordered to the hospital, and on the evacuation of the place by the Union forces, he was taken a prisoner by the rebels, and was taken with the rest of our prisoners to Richmond, he remained in their hands a prisoner three weeks. He reached the camp of paroled prisoners at Annaplis, Maryland, about the first of July 1862, and on the 27th of the same month he reached his home. Soon after his arrival at home, God in his wise providence laid upon him his afflicting hand, and on the 16th day of August, he took his bed from which he never again arose to walk. In the spring of 1863, God removed from him by the hand of death, his affectionate father this was a severe stress to the family, and especially to him who was far away from home, serving in the army of his country. He returned to his home on furlough to see his father before he died, but alas! he arrived too late, his father's body had been buried the day before his arrival. Soon after his return to his regiment, he professed a change of heart and a hope in Christ. In the early part of his sickness, all of his conversation seemed to be about his comrades in the regiment, and he hoped that if it was the will of God, that his health might be restored, so that he might rejoin those with whom he had volunteered to serve his country. From the commencement of his illness until the time that his happy spirit took its flight from its clay tenement, he was never heard to murmur or complain, but on the contrary, he appeared amid all of his pains resigned to the will of God. Samuel T. Barnes was a young man of a quiet and prepossessing disposition, and those who knew him best loved him the most. He was a faithful soldier, a true lover of his country, and wherever the duties of the life of a soldier called him, there was he to be found. On Thursday morning, Feb. 12th, his remains were followed to the Baptist Church of this place by Capt. Kelly's company, and also Co. B, 87th Battalion of this Township, commanded by Capt. Knight, and a large concourse of friends, where an appropriate closure was delivered by Rev. D. Whitmer, from Rev. 2d chap. 10th vers. After the funeral services were ended his remains were followed to their last resting place in the beautiful Cemetery belonging to this Village, there to rest in praise by the side of his father, until the trumps of God shall make wake him from his slumbers. Having had some acquaintance with Samuel T. Barnes, and from the evidences of those who witnessed the closing hours of his life, we cannot entertain a doubt but that he today sleeps in Christ, and if we believe that Christ died and rose again, thus those who sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.--May his dust lost to peace beneath the glorious field of the Star Spangled Banner. Let us then ever revere the spot where sleeps one of our fallen heroes, who willingly offered his life a sacrifice in this terrible slaveholders rebellion, to protect our liberties and the starry banner of the free. S. G. H.