ISAAC W. WHITE -- 118th INFANTRYSIX MONTHS IN THE MILITARY - Isaac White was the 21-year-old son of Wilber and Lydia White, who were farming in Beekmantown. He enlisted in the 118th Infantry on August 4, 1862, in his hometown and was mustered in as a private on August 30th in Plattsburgh. The regiment left for Washington on September 1st and their journey was interrupted at Baltimore when they were ordered to guard the Thomas Viaduct of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at Relay House ten miles away. Relay House was the junction of Washington and Harper's Ferry trains and was the only railroad reaching Washington from the North.While the 118th was at Relay House ten miles south of Baltimore, they witnessed the return of thousands of paroled Union troops who had surrendered at Harper's Ferry on September 12th and who were on their way to Parole Camp Douglas in Chicago. The history of the regiment, "Three Years With the Adirondack Regiment," also mentions they could hear the roar of the guns of the Battle of Antietam which took place on September 17th. Later, when Confederate prisoners from Antietam were brought North through Relay House, the men of the 118th rendered them any kindness they could and concluded they were not to be despised as armed enemies. They had the best the men could give them before they traveled to Baltimore to be imprisoned.Typhoid fever became rampant in the camp and Isaac became ill while there. He was sent to the Regimental Hospital at Relay House and was discharged for disability on a Surgeon's Certificate on February 28, 1863, after 6 months in the Army.Isaac and his parents went West after the war and settled in Nebraska after a sojourn in Indiana.The Omaha World Herald of March 2, 1892, carried his death notice -- "A Pioneer Gone -- Isaac W. White of Burwell, NE, one of the most prominent citizens died at 4pm today. Mr. White was an old soldier and served with distinction in the Union Army. He was one of the first settlers in Garfield County and by industry and thrift had acquired an estate rated at \$20,000. The primary cause of his death was la grippe."He was buried in the Cottonwood Cemetery in Burwell and his wife was buried with him in 1913. Unfortunately, through an error in transcription, the regiment mentioned on his tombstone say 178th N. Y. Vols. rather than 118th N. Y. Vols.
