8th I Cavalry
Hospital Steward in 8th Iowa Cavalry.
He was taken prisoner July 30, 1864 in Georgia during the Atlanta Campaign, and then released during a prisoner exchange.
A classmate of George C. Leavell (from the Iowa Wesleyan University Preparatory Department in Mt. Pleasant, IA), named Hiram Thornton Bird, enlisted in the Union Army. Bird was captured. While a POW, he met Leavell. Bird recounts their meeting in his book Memories of the Civil War. Bird writes,
"MEETING A COLLEGE CHUM
On our arrival at Atlanta, we, with other prisoners, were drawn up in line in the woods at East Point, where today there is a solid block of buildings. After the [Confederate] officer had taken our names and regiment and what valuables we had in our pockets … a Confederate soldier stepped up and said, 'I heard you say you are from Iowa. Do you know anybody in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa?'
I at once recognized the voice and features of my old college chum George Level [Leavell]. But he was so thin and wan and word that it took a second look to recognize him. But here in War Country was my chum sure enough, though it seemed like a fairy story to find him.
When the Civil War broke out, George Level was a student at our Iowa Wesleyan University from Jackson, Mississippi. Having relatives in our country, he had come north to school.
At the breaking out of the war, he had called his friends together and had told them he would have to return to the south and go with his people. We all shed tears and bade him good bye, hoping that 'when the cruel was over,' he would return to Iowa Wesleyan University.
My meeting with him was the only time he was ever heard from. The first question he asked me was concerning his sweetheart at Wesleyan. It was indeed hard for me to tell him that she had been married a short time before. He looked very sad … [Leavell asked questions about his roommate who was a Union Army major in a unit that was firing shells towards the Confederate lines where they stood talking.]
He put question upon question to me, all about his College life; the war was not mentioned -- his heart yearned for his College friends at the old school.
Then he said, 'Now Thornt, we are on the battle line, and they will become suspicious if we talk too long. What can I do for you? Would you like something to eat?'
He was in charge of some supplies for the sick and wounded, and he took my haversack and filled it full of good things, and as I had nothing to eat for more than a day, it showed his good will as nothing else could have done at that time. And then we said good bye forever …
The meeting with George Level is an incident in my life never to be forgotten. My friend looked very ill, almost like death, for he had been on the sick list for some time …
Through the years, since that day in Atlanta, I have held in scared memory the meeting with George Level. I draw from it the lesson of the bigness of College Friendship, of the trueness of those ties formed in youth. We met as friends, not as enemies of war, the ties of friendship were first and dearest -- all else was small, insignificant, and forgotten. Some things will fade away in our earthly existence, but the memory of this friendship will grow brighter and brighter unto the perfect day."
His Confederate friend's Memorial - 14575378 , Rev. George Carson Leavel.
-added per the request of Susan Barwick (#47009363)
Hospital Steward in 8th Iowa Cavalry.
He was taken prisoner July 30, 1864 in Georgia during the Atlanta Campaign, and then released during a prisoner exchange.
A classmate of George C. Leavell (from the Iowa Wesleyan University Preparatory Department in Mt. Pleasant, IA), named Hiram Thornton Bird, enlisted in the Union Army. Bird was captured. While a POW, he met Leavell. Bird recounts their meeting in his book Memories of the Civil War. Bird writes,
"MEETING A COLLEGE CHUM
On our arrival at Atlanta, we, with other prisoners, were drawn up in line in the woods at East Point, where today there is a solid block of buildings. After the [Confederate] officer had taken our names and regiment and what valuables we had in our pockets … a Confederate soldier stepped up and said, 'I heard you say you are from Iowa. Do you know anybody in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa?'
I at once recognized the voice and features of my old college chum George Level [Leavell]. But he was so thin and wan and word that it took a second look to recognize him. But here in War Country was my chum sure enough, though it seemed like a fairy story to find him.
When the Civil War broke out, George Level was a student at our Iowa Wesleyan University from Jackson, Mississippi. Having relatives in our country, he had come north to school.
At the breaking out of the war, he had called his friends together and had told them he would have to return to the south and go with his people. We all shed tears and bade him good bye, hoping that 'when the cruel was over,' he would return to Iowa Wesleyan University.
My meeting with him was the only time he was ever heard from. The first question he asked me was concerning his sweetheart at Wesleyan. It was indeed hard for me to tell him that she had been married a short time before. He looked very sad … [Leavell asked questions about his roommate who was a Union Army major in a unit that was firing shells towards the Confederate lines where they stood talking.]
He put question upon question to me, all about his College life; the war was not mentioned -- his heart yearned for his College friends at the old school.
Then he said, 'Now Thornt, we are on the battle line, and they will become suspicious if we talk too long. What can I do for you? Would you like something to eat?'
He was in charge of some supplies for the sick and wounded, and he took my haversack and filled it full of good things, and as I had nothing to eat for more than a day, it showed his good will as nothing else could have done at that time. And then we said good bye forever …
The meeting with George Level is an incident in my life never to be forgotten. My friend looked very ill, almost like death, for he had been on the sick list for some time …
Through the years, since that day in Atlanta, I have held in scared memory the meeting with George Level. I draw from it the lesson of the bigness of College Friendship, of the trueness of those ties formed in youth. We met as friends, not as enemies of war, the ties of friendship were first and dearest -- all else was small, insignificant, and forgotten. Some things will fade away in our earthly existence, but the memory of this friendship will grow brighter and brighter unto the perfect day."
His Confederate friend's Memorial - 14575378 , Rev. George Carson Leavel.
-added per the request of Susan Barwick (#47009363)
8th I Cavalry
Hospital Steward in 8th Iowa Cavalry.
He was taken prisoner July 30, 1864 in Georgia during the Atlanta Campaign, and then released during a prisoner exchange.
A classmate of George C. Leavell (from the Iowa Wesleyan University Preparatory Department in Mt. Pleasant, IA), named Hiram Thornton Bird, enlisted in the Union Army. Bird was captured. While a POW, he met Leavell. Bird recounts their meeting in his book Memories of the Civil War. Bird writes,
"MEETING A COLLEGE CHUM
On our arrival at Atlanta, we, with other prisoners, were drawn up in line in the woods at East Point, where today there is a solid block of buildings. After the [Confederate] officer had taken our names and regiment and what valuables we had in our pockets … a Confederate soldier stepped up and said, 'I heard you say you are from Iowa. Do you know anybody in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa?'
I at once recognized the voice and features of my old college chum George Level [Leavell]. But he was so thin and wan and word that it took a second look to recognize him. But here in War Country was my chum sure enough, though it seemed like a fairy story to find him.
When the Civil War broke out, George Level was a student at our Iowa Wesleyan University from Jackson, Mississippi. Having relatives in our country, he had come north to school.
At the breaking out of the war, he had called his friends together and had told them he would have to return to the south and go with his people. We all shed tears and bade him good bye, hoping that 'when the cruel was over,' he would return to Iowa Wesleyan University.
My meeting with him was the only time he was ever heard from. The first question he asked me was concerning his sweetheart at Wesleyan. It was indeed hard for me to tell him that she had been married a short time before. He looked very sad … [Leavell asked questions about his roommate who was a Union Army major in a unit that was firing shells towards the Confederate lines where they stood talking.]
He put question upon question to me, all about his College life; the war was not mentioned -- his heart yearned for his College friends at the old school.
Then he said, 'Now Thornt, we are on the battle line, and they will become suspicious if we talk too long. What can I do for you? Would you like something to eat?'
He was in charge of some supplies for the sick and wounded, and he took my haversack and filled it full of good things, and as I had nothing to eat for more than a day, it showed his good will as nothing else could have done at that time. And then we said good bye forever …
The meeting with George Level is an incident in my life never to be forgotten. My friend looked very ill, almost like death, for he had been on the sick list for some time …
Through the years, since that day in Atlanta, I have held in scared memory the meeting with George Level. I draw from it the lesson of the bigness of College Friendship, of the trueness of those ties formed in youth. We met as friends, not as enemies of war, the ties of friendship were first and dearest -- all else was small, insignificant, and forgotten. Some things will fade away in our earthly existence, but the memory of this friendship will grow brighter and brighter unto the perfect day."
His Confederate friend's Memorial - 14575378 , Rev. George Carson Leavel.
-added per the request of Susan Barwick (#47009363)
Hospital Steward in 8th Iowa Cavalry.
He was taken prisoner July 30, 1864 in Georgia during the Atlanta Campaign, and then released during a prisoner exchange.
A classmate of George C. Leavell (from the Iowa Wesleyan University Preparatory Department in Mt. Pleasant, IA), named Hiram Thornton Bird, enlisted in the Union Army. Bird was captured. While a POW, he met Leavell. Bird recounts their meeting in his book Memories of the Civil War. Bird writes,
"MEETING A COLLEGE CHUM
On our arrival at Atlanta, we, with other prisoners, were drawn up in line in the woods at East Point, where today there is a solid block of buildings. After the [Confederate] officer had taken our names and regiment and what valuables we had in our pockets … a Confederate soldier stepped up and said, 'I heard you say you are from Iowa. Do you know anybody in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa?'
I at once recognized the voice and features of my old college chum George Level [Leavell]. But he was so thin and wan and word that it took a second look to recognize him. But here in War Country was my chum sure enough, though it seemed like a fairy story to find him.
When the Civil War broke out, George Level was a student at our Iowa Wesleyan University from Jackson, Mississippi. Having relatives in our country, he had come north to school.
At the breaking out of the war, he had called his friends together and had told them he would have to return to the south and go with his people. We all shed tears and bade him good bye, hoping that 'when the cruel was over,' he would return to Iowa Wesleyan University.
My meeting with him was the only time he was ever heard from. The first question he asked me was concerning his sweetheart at Wesleyan. It was indeed hard for me to tell him that she had been married a short time before. He looked very sad … [Leavell asked questions about his roommate who was a Union Army major in a unit that was firing shells towards the Confederate lines where they stood talking.]
He put question upon question to me, all about his College life; the war was not mentioned -- his heart yearned for his College friends at the old school.
Then he said, 'Now Thornt, we are on the battle line, and they will become suspicious if we talk too long. What can I do for you? Would you like something to eat?'
He was in charge of some supplies for the sick and wounded, and he took my haversack and filled it full of good things, and as I had nothing to eat for more than a day, it showed his good will as nothing else could have done at that time. And then we said good bye forever …
The meeting with George Level is an incident in my life never to be forgotten. My friend looked very ill, almost like death, for he had been on the sick list for some time …
Through the years, since that day in Atlanta, I have held in scared memory the meeting with George Level. I draw from it the lesson of the bigness of College Friendship, of the trueness of those ties formed in youth. We met as friends, not as enemies of war, the ties of friendship were first and dearest -- all else was small, insignificant, and forgotten. Some things will fade away in our earthly existence, but the memory of this friendship will grow brighter and brighter unto the perfect day."
His Confederate friend's Memorial - 14575378 , Rev. George Carson Leavel.
-added per the request of Susan Barwick (#47009363)
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