AUTHOR: Unknown
Samuel Thomas Gann was born in Rockingham County, North Carolina in 1824. He grew up running his own farm and had acquired the trade of shoemaker along the way. As the war approached, his age and family kept him at home when many of the young men marched off to war. It was not until October 17, 1864 that Tommy was conscripted due to a lack in men, in Rockingham County, in Company F of the 45th NC Regiment.
After 3 years of war, Tommy, like many others believed the war could not last much longer, left home telling his wife Marium that “he would be home before the beans got cold.” Not long after entering the army, he was sent to Petersburg. After a few months of waiting, he was finally engaged in the siege of Ft. Stedman, March 25, 1865 where he was wounded in the left hand by a minie ball. He was captured during the battle and sent to City Point and then to Washington. From Washington, he was sent to Hell on Earth, Elmira NY, where he would sit until finally being paroled on July 7, 1865.
The only remarks taken down were that “He’d like to go home to his farm in Rockingham County” and so he did with his final transfer being in Greensboro, NC. Though older when he joined, Tommy would live a very long life as a farmer and shoemaker on his Rockingham County farm, dying at the age of 90 in 1914.
