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————— street, New-York, the Port Warden, who fell into the hold of the bark Prince Albert, at the foot of Amity-street, Brooklyn, on Saturday, June 3, died at the Long Island College Hospital last evening. His spine was both dislocated and fractured by the fall. Col. Summers was born in Wexford County, Ireland, on the 1st of January, 1819, and was brought to this country by his parents when only 1 year old. They settled in Oswego, and here young Summers learned the trade of printer. In 1841 he went to Syracuse, and was employed as journeyman printer on the Syracuse Standard. That year, when Jerry, the escaped negro slave from Missouri, was arrested and brought into court in Syracuse, Col. Summers was one of the party that rescued the fugitive. He was indicted for the offense, but his trial never came off. He worked as a printer on the Standard until 1848, when he purchased a half interest in that paper and assumed editorial man- agement. He was a great friend of Gen. H.A. Barnum, and when that gentleman took the One Hundred and Forty-ninth Regiment into the field he appointed Col. Summers Quartermaster. Col. Summers at once left his position, abandoned his property and marched out to defend the Union. This was in 1862. He served with the regiment in the Army of the Potomac until after the battles of Gettysburg, when the command was transferred to the Department of the Cumberland in the West. In the early part of 1864, upon the recommendation of the Hon. Thomas T. Davis, then member of Con- gress from Onondaga District, President Lin- coln appointed Summers Captain and Assistant Quartermaster in the Army, and he was assigned to duty in the brigade commanded by Gen. Bar- num in the Twentieth Army Corps. He served in this position until the close of the war, being present at the battles of Wauhatchie, Lookout Mountain, and Chattanooga, and making the cam- paigns with Sherman of Atlanta, Savannah, and the Carolinas, and his large property accounts with the Government were found to be ab- solutely correct, and were promptly set- tled. For his efficient services in the field he was brevetted Lieutenant-Colonel of Volunteers. After the war he was appointed Quartermas- ter on the staff of the Major-General commanding the Sixth Division of the National Guard of this State, and held this position until his death. He resumed editorial charge of the Syracuse Standard in 1865. Two years ago he was ap- pointed Port Warden in the City, and one year ago he resigned the editorial management of his paper. He was an enthusiastic Republican, and was re- garded as a man of keen judgment and great fore- sight in political affairs, and his advice was often sought by the leaders of the party. |
Credits: The text of the obituary and the attribution to the New York Times were downloaded from Sue Greenhagen's New York in the Civil War site at Morrisville. The links, format, and underlying HTML have been altered for this page. To see Sue's original page go to http://library.morrisville.edu/local_history/sites/gar_post/summers.html.