H. SEYMOUR HALL

The Daily Gazette, Saturday, July 4, 1908, Pg. 2

GEN. H. S. HALL.

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   With “taps” and a prayer the body of Gen. H. S. Hall was laid to rest in Oak Hill cemetery at noon yesterday.  Death had occurred in Kansas City on July 1 and had followed failing health of the last three years which made him an invalid for many months.  Death was ascribed to a paralytic stroke followed by apoplexy but in reality it was due to the breaking down of the entire system consequent upon hard service in the union army during the five years of service that he rendered in battling for the cause of the north, during which time he was twice wounded, losing his right arm and carrying a bullet in his leg the balance of his days, in addition to the troubles consequent upon the hardships and disease of the men who took part in the arduous campaigns of the civil war.

  H. Seymour Hall, was born in Saratoga county, New York, September 26, 1835.  His father, died when he was four years old, and as a boy he worked on his mother’s farm in the rocky hills of eastern New York, worked in a grist mill and attended a country school.  He had an ambition for an education and by teaching and working he acquired money enough to attend Genessee college, Lina, New York, since merged into Syracuse university, where he maintained himself by teaching and working.  He was in the senior year of his college year when the civil war broke out, and in April, 1861, set about organizing a college company, which became G company of the 27th New York State Volunteers.  From the rank of private in this company he rose successively to that of ensign, second lieutenant, captain, and then became assistant inspector general of the second brigade.  When the three years’ enlistment service expired General Hall went to the 121st regiment of New York State Volunteers as captain and was also made assistant adjutant general of the regiment, until the spring of 1846 (sic), when he was appointed lieutenant colonel of the 43rd United States Colored Troops, assisted in the organization of the regiment at Philadelphia, and returned with it to Annapolis where the regiment, with General Hall as the only field officer with it, was attached to Gen. Burnside’s Ninth army corps.  The regiment was commanded by him through the Wilderness campaign from May 5, 1864 to the Mine before Petersburg, Va. on July 30, where he lost his right arm in an assault that carried the works, capturing prisoners and colors, for which, he was promoted to colonel, also to brigadier general by brevet.  He was afterwards in command of Camp Caney at Washington as chief mustering officer, but rejoined his regiment and entered Richmond, Virginia, with it on April 3, 1865.  Later he was detailed as provost marshal of the Manchester division, and went with his regiment to Texas as a part of Sheridan’s force where he served at Brownsville until September 30, when he went to Galveston, serving until January 30, 1866, when he was ordered to Washington and mustered out on February 13, 1866, having served nearly five years and participating with his comrades in more than three dozen battles.  For his services at Gaines Mills in June 1862, and Reppahannoch  station on November 1863, and the Petersburg attack he was awarded the congressional medal of honor.

  Following the close of the war General Hall returned to New York and on December 10, 1866, was married to Augusta J. Galentine, of Rush, Monroe county, New York, at Rockford, Illinois, whom he had met while in school at Genessee college.  They came west and settled on a farm in Carroll county, Missouri, which General Hall had secured before the war, and there lived and raised their family of children until they became of school age, when they moved to the town of Carrollton, Mo., for the school advantages, and later to Lincoln, Neb., for the University educational facilities, and later 1888, to Lawrence, Kansas, where all the children were given the advantages of the schools, and two daughters and one son were graduated from the University of Kansas.  Another son, Harry B. Hall, died from excessive exercise on the football field when near the close of his school career and another son quit school to enter the newspaper business in Lawrence.  General Hall is survived by Mrs. Hall, who devotedly and sacrificingly nursed him during his long illness, rarely leaving his side for the last few years, and four children:  Clarence S. Hall of this city; John G. Hall, a member of the faculty of the North Carolina Agriculture college at West Raleigh, North Carolina; Mrs. Dana Templin, of Kansas City; and Mrs. Charles M. Kemper, with whom he lived of Kansas City.  All were present at the bedside when he died and at the funeral, except John G. Hall, who could not get here in time.

  During his residence in Missouri General Hall took an active part in politics, a republican in a democratic community, became chairman of the county central committee and brought the county into the Republican column for the first time in its history; he was also a member of the state central committee of that state, and served his county as public administrator, and was a member of the board of education of Carrollton, Mo.  After coming to Lawrence in 1888 he devoted himself to the education of his children and the comforts and pleasures of his family, and his efforts were always for the making of the home that all have so ardently loved and been devotedly attached to, and it can be truly said that he was a “loving and devoted husband and father” to the utmost degree.

  He was a member of the Loyal Legion, of the Grand Army of the Republic, and was at one time commander of Washington Post No. 12 of this city, and he also belonged to Acacia lodge No. 9 A. F. & A. M.