John Wells, US Civil War Private, 1938 interview, Pennsylvania

Reading Times, 30 May 1938 › Page 1

John Wells, 27 S. Tenth St., oldest of the oldsters who served In the Civil War, was with the 192d Pennsylvania Infantry, and fought, among other places, at the second battle of Bull Run. at Petersburg, and at Antletam. He was blinded In one eye by sand that flew up from a ball which struck right in front of him, but he's still as chipper as one half his 99 years. "If there's another war in Europe, we'll get Into It. all right, all right," Wells said. "Those fellows over in Europe want to clean this country up. We've got too much land to suit 'em. If we have to, we ought to lick 'em good. Then they'll be satisfied." When he was Just turning 60, the Spanish - American war came along and Wells went right around to the nearest recruiting station and enlisted. He passed his physical examinations with flying colors, but there was a hitch. "I forgot to take my G. A. R. lapel button off and when I was dressing again, the doctor noticed it. Wells said; "He asked me if I was a Civil War veteran. I fibbed a little and told him it was my daddy's, and that I wanted to go on the "picnic" with the rest of the boys. He admitted I was as sound as a dollar but he wouldn't let me enlist any way." Wells shook hands twice with President Lincoln, and voted for him, too. The granddady of the Berks County Civil War veteran grand-daddies still is mentally alert and his hearing is splendid, but his sight's gone back on him pretty much. In spite of that, he's planning on going to Gettysburg next month to attend the seventy-fifth reunion of Union and Confederate soldiers on the famous battlefield. He has but one wish and that tinged with a sense of humor. "I want to live to be as old as my grandfather," he said. "How old was that?" he was asked. "A hundred and ninety - six!" the oldster said, slapping his thigh and chuckling in great glee at "pulling one" on the Interviewer.