JAMES HAMMOND WHITE -- 61st INFANTRYALMOST A YEAR WITH THE 61st - When he was 18 years old, James Hammond White, the son of Silas White and Susan Hammond, was paid to be a substitute for Loren B. Weaver in Plattsburgh. James, a Saranac native, enlisted in the 61st Infantry in Plattsburgh on August 2, 1864, to serve for three years. Between the beginning of May and August 1864, the regiment had suffered more than 200 casualties. He and five other men from the Plattsburgh area were sent to Sumner's Division with the Army of the Potomac as replacement troops. The 61st's last battle of 1864, and James' last battle, was at Hatcher's Run during the second week of December. In March and April of 1865, they followed General Lee across Virginia, then marched back to Washington and were finally mustered out on July 14th.After returning to the North, James supported his family by farming with an occasional job as a miner.The Adirondack Record and Elizabethtown Post of July 28, 1932, carried his obituary -- "James H. White died at his home on Intervale Avenue at 6:40 o'clock last Friday afternoon, aged 84 years. Mr. White, who previous to coming to Au Sable Forks some four years ago, had been a resident of Loon Lake, was a veteran of the Civil War, serving with credit during the greater part of the terrible struggle, leaving the service of his country with an honorable discharge.He is survived by his wife and several children born to him by his first wife, who died a number of years ago. The children are Edward of Loon Lake, William of Saranac Lake, Mrs. Susie Callahan of Jersey City, NJ, Mrs. Margaret Leonard of Saranac Lake, Mrs. Julia Noyse of Vermontville and Mrs. Loretta Lawrence of Lake Placid.The funeral was held from Holy Name Church on Monday at 9 o'clock, deceased being accorded every possible military honor, a firing squad and field musician of the 26th Infantry, Plattsburg Barracks, acting as escort to the funeral cortege. As the body was lowered to its last resting place three follies were fired by the regulars over the open grave and the field musician sounded "taps", the last requiem to a brave soldier and a good citizen."He is buried with his parents in the St. Rose of Lima Catholic Cemetery which is at the corner of Rte. 3 and the Alder Brook Road near Sugarbush in Franklin County. Less than two months later, his second wife, Mary Quirk, who was born in Scotland, died and was buried beside him. Their youngest daughter died in 1988.Loren B. Weaver, for whom James was a substitute, died in 1917 and was buried in the New Schuyler Falls Cemetery.
