TWO JOHN ARMSTRONGS -- 96th INFANTRYUNCLE JACK WAS THE ELDEST OF THREE - There were three John Armstrongs in the 96th Infantry. None of them were with the regiment for their full three-year terms. The eldest shaved a couple of years off his age when he joined the regiment in November of 1861. He was born in Drumcree, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland in 1817, and came to Mooers Forks to settle on a farm with his wife, Margaret, and his parents, James Armstrong and Elizabeth Robinson, and other family members.John, and one of the other Johns who was 23 years old, in Mooers andwere assigned to separate companies. The 96th left for Washington fromPlattsburgh where they organized in March 1862, but the younger John wasnot with them. He deserted on January 12th while they were stilldrilling at the Plattsburgh Barracks.The elder John was promoted to corporal and managed to remain with theregiment until November 10th after the fighting on the VirginiaPeninsula. He had been in hospital in Suffolk, VA, for some time beforehe was discharged for disability. He came home and farmed in MooersForks for the rest of his life. He never met the third John Armstrongbecause that John transferred into the regiment in 1865, when the118th Infantry left for home.The Plattsburgh Sentinel of December 14, 1900, carried this announcementin the Mooers Forks section -- "Mr. John Armstrong, familiarly known as\"Uncle Jack,\" an old settler of this town, residing at the Armstrongsettlement nearly sixty years, died at his late residence Sundaymorning, aged about eighty-six years. Funeral took place Wednesday,postponed until that time on account of the condition of the roads. Mr.Armstrong served as a volunteer In the 96th N. Y. Vol. regiment, was amember of the Grand Army Post at this place and a member of the M. E.Church. Services were conducted by the Rev. E. L. Arnold at the churchin the Armstrong settlement, and "Uncle Jack" is laid to rest by theside of his wife in the Stone Cemetery near this village."
