1857.] AN APOLOGY. 37 the day denied the justice and legality of the order, and insisted that, as officer of the day, it was his right, and might often be his duty, to pass the line of sentinels, and that they had no right to stop him, knowing him to be the officer of the day. The General finally became convinced that he was wrong, and apologized to the officer for the threatened indignity, and there the matter dropped. The officer shortly afterwards found a basket of champagne deposited at his house, without ever knowing from whence it came, but he always suspected General Samson. It was a libation in atonement for an unintentional offense against the rules of the service, and was delicately made. The General would have gone into the field at the breaking out of the Rebellion, if physical infirmities had not disqualified him. In his death Ulster County lost a worthy and valuable citizen, and the National Guard one of its most liberal and earnest friends. CHAPTER IV. COLONEL ZADOCK PRATT-EARLY YEARS OF GEORGE W. PRATT-HIS EDU- KINGSTON-IDENTIFIES FAIRS OF ULSTER-A MEMBER OF THE COUNTY HISTORICAL PRESENTS A FLAG-OFFICERS MEET AT THE MANSION HOUSE- ULSTER MILITARY RELIEF COMMITTEE-DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIP- GEORGE W. PRATT was born on the eighteenth day of April, 1830, at Prattsville, Green County, New York: His father, Colonel Zadock Pratt, had acquired a fortune in the business of tanning leather, and had achieved considerable reputation as an energetic and sagacious business man. He had represented his district in Congress, and had filled various minor positions of honor and trust. Illiterate himself, he, nevertheless, appreciated the advantages of education, and gave his son the best facilities for acquiring a thorough knowledge of 1855.] GEORGE W. PRATT. 39 books and men. His education, begun here, was completed in Europe. When but seventeen years of age he traveled over the larger portion of his own country, and a year later crossed the ocean and made the tour of the Continent. He ascended the Nile, and spent much time on its historic banks-not in idleness, but devoting his opportunities to the acquisition of knowledge, and especially in studying the Arabic language, in which he became proficient. Returning home in 1850, he was made a captain in his father's regiment of militia, and assumed the duties of cashier of his father's bank at Prattsville. A few months later he again went to Europe with his sister. In 1850, when he was but twenty years old, the First University of Mecklinburgh conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Young Pratt returned from his second European tour in 1851. His father observed, on the occasion, that he came back "in good health and much improved. This trip and that previously made by Captain Pratt cost about sixteen thousand dollars, but it was money well spent." On attaining his majority in 1853, his father gave him fifty thousand dollars, and one-half of the Samsonville Tannery, the other half of which was owned by General Samson, and from that time until Pratt's death they continued co-partners. Pratt had not been spoiled, as so many other young men have been, and will continue to be, by the affluence which surrounded him, and the indulgence with which he was treated. His habits were industrious, and his tastes studious, with a fondness for literary pursuits. He was an earnest, tireless worker at whatever he set himself about, and possessed an ability for the comprehension and arrangement of the details of business that was as valuable as it was unusual. On the thirty-first of May, 1855, young Pratt was married to Miss Anna Tibbits, daughter of Benjamin Tibbits, Esquire, of Albany, by the Right Rev. Bishop Potter, of Pennsylvania. Soon thereafter he removed to Kingston, where he resided a few years, and then settled upon a farm which he purchased, on the banks of the Hudson, in the town of Esopus, in Ulster County. 66 From the moment Pratt took up his residence in Kingston, he identified himself with the affairs of the county, and was foremost in all works of a public character, and especially in those voluntary movements designed to promote the development of the historical riches of the county—a kind of study of which he was very fond, and in which he would delve with tireless zeal. He was a member of the Ulster Historical Society," and I cannot better show the character of the man, and the estimation in which he was held by some of the best known and most distinguished men of the county, than by incorporating into this work the proceedings of the society, at its meeting held on the sixteenth of October, 1862--a month after Colonel Pratt's death; moreover, these proceedings show in what estimation these gentlemen held the regiment which Pratt had commanded, and what they proposed to do to perpetuate the memory of its heroic services. May their design be carried out ere "the opium of time deals with the memories of men." Hon. A. Bruyn Hasbrouck, LL.D., President, in the chair; Reuben Bernard, Esq., Treasurer and acting Secretary. After the transaction of necessary preliminary business, Henry H. Reynolds arose and said: "MR. PRESIDENT: Limited as may seem to some to-day our historic field of labor and the interest taken by others in our efforts, none here are unconscious of the events passing about us, making up a momentous history, in many respects, of sad and solemn importance. One of these is upon all our hearts to-day, as we contemplate a vacant place, never so before, but at the call of patriotism or duty. Of him who filled it, the 1862.] H. H. REYNOLDS' ADDRESS. 41 lips of the strongest among you were too tremulous first to speak, for such knew him best and longest, and, therefore, loved him most. So it has not seemed presumptuous in me to accept the charge in offering the resolutions I am about to present. No one who has known our history or him for whom we mourn this day will deem these resolves a mere formality, or doubt the deep emotion with which we seek to add one more wreath to his grave, one more tribute to his memory. We could have said far more in like sincerity, nor blush in after years to speak of it to each other, for to no other man has this Society owed so much. The efforts of others have been earnest and effective; the desire to do honor to your noble ancestry has prompted to honorable labors and sacrifices, and yet amidst them all, again and again, as you have marked the unwearied and unselfish perseverance of our noble comrade, and responded to his earnest and courteous appeals, you have freely passed to him the tribute of commendation offered to all, and claimed only for yourselves, that The trophies of Miltiades will not let me rest.' "It is too early yet for us to speak to each other of the nature and extent of our loss; and besides there is too much that is sorrowful and sad in this and other events about us to permit us to do more than cheer and encourage one another. And so we need, in some degree, to antedate our consolation as we strive for submission to the Divine allotment. As the captive tribes of Israel, amid all the depression or the prosperity of their Babylonish condition, ever left some part of their dwellings-palace or hovel-unfinished or broken, to remind of the desolation of Jerusalem, we shall not be without mementos of our loss, and do best for the past, the present and the future, by recognizing in them the hand that writes all history. |