3 - The Danger of Being Honored. PS Bancroft

Peter Sanford (PS) Bancroft was the subject of post #1. He went from being a fellow on a farm out in the country, to being a professor, a head of an academy, a Civil War Captain, a journalist and an editor.

One day the little city of Butler sought to honor its Civil War veterans. I am told he was asked to be the guest of honor in Butler at a Civil War Dedication. As it is with most stories I hear, I wasn't paying attention to the date, but to the story. It may have been the unveiling of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Butler, (which was as late as 1902) or it may have been 50 years after the war, 1915. PS Bancroft, by now a widower and respected townsman, was gussied up nicely, dressed in his finest clothes that day. He was on the dais, but they wished to place him near the cannon. He obediently moved to it, not realizing their intention was to shoot it off. 

What his immediate reaction was, we don't know (did he jump, or yell?). He remembered that day every day afterward, for the consequence of having a cannon shot at his side was he was totally deaf in his one ear for the rest of his life. So, while the war cost him his arm, being honored for being a soldier & an officer in the war cost him his hearing.

 

Butler PA 1908