SGT. Amos Humiston, (USA)

Amos Humiston (April 26, 1830 – July 1, 1863) was a Union soldier who died in the Battle of Gettysburg.

Humiston served in the Union Army and was killed in action during the American Civil War on the Gettysburg Battlefield, dying with his children's image that his wife had mailed to him months earlier. A local girl found the image, and Dr. John Francis Bourns saw it at the girl's father's tavern and subsequently publicized the image:["wounded, he had laid himself down to die. In his hands … was an ambrotype containing the portraits of three small children … two boys and a girl ... nine, seven and five years of age, the boys being respectively the oldest and youngest of the three. The youngest boy is sitting in a high chair, and on each side of him are his brother and sister. The eldest boy's jacket is made from the same material as his sister's dress ... [It is] desired that all papers in the country will draw attention [so] the family … may come into possession of it" (The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 19, 1863).

Humiston's wife in Portville, New York—who hadn't received a letter from her husband since the Battle of Gettysburg—responded to the photograph's description in the American Presbyterian of October 29. She subsequently confirmed the image after Bourns sent her a carte de visite copy of the image. Bourns took the original image to Humiston's widow.

The family subsequently resided at the "National Homestead at Gettysburg" (opened October 1866) for 3 years until the widow remarried, when they relocated to Massachusetts

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amos_Humiston

Birth: 1830 Death: Jul. 1, 1863 Gettysburg Adams County Pennsylvania, USA

Civil War Union Army Soldier. Served as a Sergeant in Company C, 154th new York Volunteer Infantry. Killed at the Battle of Gettysburg, Amos Humiston's body was discovered with no indentification, only a photograph of three small children clutched in his hand. The story of this soldier made the headlines in many Northern newspapers. His widow saw the photograph in a magazine, and discovered that the photo was of her children and that her devoted husband was dead. Proceeds from the sales of the children's photo and other fund raising allowed a children's home to be opened in Gettysburg after the war. The Orphans' Homestead was built just a few yards outside the Eastern gate of the Gettysburg National Cemetery, where Amos Humiston was laid to rest. His wife, Philanda Humiston became one of the first matrons of the orphanage and resided there with her three children.

Family links:

Parents:

 Mary Bronson Boies (1804 - 1851)

Spouse:

 Philinda Ensworth Humiston Barnes (1831 - 1913)*

Children:

 Franklin Goodwin Humiston (1855 - 1912)*

 Alice Eliza Humiston (1857 - 1933)*

 Frederick Roy Humiston (1859 - 1918)*

• Calculated relationship

Burial: Gettysburg National Cemetery Gettysburg Adams County Pennsylvania, USA Plot: New York Plot, Section B, Site #14 GPS (lat/lon): 39.82044, -77.2314

https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Humiston&GSf...