This excerpt comes from a newspaper article stored at the Byron Museum.
“The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced,” Abraham Lincoln - Gettysburg Address.
Many have forgotten the cruel messages and lessons that the Civil War battles have taught, and two men, linked together by their Civil War enlistment and burial locations north Big Horn County, have long been forgotten by our communities.
Few of us really understand the message Lincoln intended or the events that prompted that message, although several of us can still remember a line or two of the well-known Gettysburg Address. But these two veterans - Seth Jones and Harlow Bassett - understand because they fought, suffered, and sacrificed for their beliefs in our country and created a lasting legacy for each of us to emulate.
Seth Jones was with Union forces at Vicksburg. The Siege of Vicksburg was crucial to General Ulysses S. Grant in his endeavors to dominate the South. After two failed attempts, General Grant’s infantry combined with the Union navy to blockade the city’s ports, cutting off food, ammunition, and supplies.
Seth Jones recorded seeing many soldiers resort to eating their own dogs and horses out of starvation.
After 66 days, 30,000 Confederate prisoners surrendered and were taken out of Vicksburg on the 4th of July. Among the Union forces was sharpshooter Seth Jones, who is now buried in the Byron Cemetery.
Jones, eager to serve his country at the age of 16, lied about his age in order to enlist early. Jones was a soldier in the Illinois 113th Company B.
He enlisted on July 9, 1862 and served a three-year term. Both Seth Jones and Harlow Bassett fought predominantly across enemy lines for the duration of their terms, which added to the danger and risk involved in their military experience.
Jones was born on August 20, 1845, and reaised in Wygant, Ill. After the Civil War he married Sovilla Lymanb on the 3rd of September, 1867, and migrated from Illinois to Indiana. Together, the couple had eight children; Dora May, Mary Ellen, Calvin Edwin, Charles E., Frank Lyman, Oscar Seth and Eugene.
In Indiana the couple developed a successful farming industry and were converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Jones then sold his farm and became a pioneer to follow his beliefs in the Mormon effort to colonize Colorado. He once again pursued farming, and prospered with it.
In 1904, the Jones family made their final move, along with numerous other Mormon settlers, to the Big Horn Basin. They resided in Byron on the Shoshone river bottom and raised typical crops such as hay, grain, and corn.
Only 27 soldiers in the Illinois Company B survived the war, and Jones was the last surviving member of his company. He died on the 13th of April, 1939, of natural causes in Siguart, Utah, and he is buried in the Byron cemetery. Seth Jones lived to the age of 93.
Many have forgotten the cruel messages and lessons that the Civil War battles have taught, and two men, linked together by their Civil War enlistment and burial locations north Big Horn County, have long been forgotten by our communities.
Few of us really understand the message Lincoln intended or the events that prompted that message, although several of us can still remember a line or two of the well-known Gettysburg Address. But these two veterans - Seth Jones and Harlow Bassett - understand because they fought, suffered, and sacrificed for their beliefs in our country and created a lasting legacy for each of us to emulate.
Seth Jones was with Union forces at Vicksburg. The Siege of Vicksburg was crucial to General Ulysses S. Grant in his endeavors to dominate the South. After two failed attempts, General Grant’s infantry combined with the Union navy to blockade the city’s ports, cutting off food, ammunition, and supplies.
Seth Jones recorded seeing many soldiers resort to eating their own dogs and horses out of starvation.
After 66 days, 30,000 Confederate prisoners surrendered and were taken out of Vicksburg on the 4th of July. Among the Union forces was sharpshooter Seth Jones, who is now buried in the Byron Cemetery.
Jones, eager to serve his country at the age of 16, lied about his age in order to enlist early. Jones was a soldier in the Illinois 113th Company B.
He enlisted on July 9, 1862 and served a three-year term. Both Seth Jones and Harlow Bassett fought predominantly across enemy lines for the duration of their terms, which added to the danger and risk involved in their military experience.
Jones was born on August 20, 1845, and reaised in Wygant, Ill. After the Civil War he married Sovilla Lymanb on the 3rd of September, 1867, and migrated from Illinois to Indiana. Together, the couple had eight children; Dora May, Mary Ellen, Calvin Edwin, Charles E., Frank Lyman, Oscar Seth and Eugene.
In Indiana the couple developed a successful farming industry and were converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Jones then sold his farm and became a pioneer to follow his beliefs in the Mormon effort to colonize Colorado. He once again pursued farming, and prospered with it.
In 1904, the Jones family made their final move, along with numerous other Mormon settlers, to the Big Horn Basin. They resided in Byron on the Shoshone river bottom and raised typical crops such as hay, grain, and corn.
Only 27 soldiers in the Illinois Company B survived the war, and Jones was the last surviving member of his company. He died on the 13th of April, 1939, of natural causes in Siguart, Utah, and he is buried in the Byron cemetery. Seth Jones lived to the age of 93.