There is nothing for the old soldier in his native county, and little except misery for a man of 84 who has failed to provide something for his old age, according to James B. Evans, formerly of Harbinger, Currituck County, who was in the city this week en route to Raleigh, where the Confederate Soldiers home is to take him in.
Mr. Evans tells a sad tail of his life in recent years, when after having raised up a family of eight, he finds himself obliged to shift for himself, some of his children being unable to help him, while others seemingly forget him. “Not anywhere in my own county did I get much help,” he says, “Nor would the county commissioners give anything to help me out.”
“On June 26 I was 84 years old. I lived in Currituck over 50 years. In the Civil War, I walked all the way from Currituck to Raleigh with a party of 12 to enlist in the cause of the Confederacy. I went thru the war in Company B, of the 8th Regiment, N.C. Infantry. I fought in the battles of Charleston, Plymouth, the Crater at Petersburg, Va., and at Cold Harbor, where 20,000 men were killed and wounded. I was highly commended by officers like Col. J.N. Witson [Wilson?], Tom Jarvis, Col. Hinton, Col. Shaw, and others.
“Now, not even the Daughters of the Confederacy can get help for me. The Norfolk Southern has been mighty good to me; they have given me a pass for years, and are giving me the fare to the old Soldiers Home. Mr. Ernest Sawyer, the Pasquotank County Clerk of the Court was also mighty courteous kind to me; he got me in the solders Home, where I am going without a cent in the world.”
From the front page of The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Friday, Aug. 14, 1925
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn83025812/1925-08-14/ed-1/seq-1/
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