Fellow Sharpshooters,
The latest edition of the Civil War Digest features an interview between old comrade, Will Eichler and Ms. Hazel Monahan, former director of the Hudson (Michigan) Museum.
I first became acquainted with Hazel in the 1993, while I was doing research on Sgt. Cobb (having read about his exploits in C.A. Steven's book).
At that time Hazel's goal was to improve the Maple Grove Cemetery-the final resting place of Frank Cobb, Ed Southworth and most of the 'Hudson Squad' that served in Berdan's Company C. During the annual Bean Creek Festival, Hazel created a cemetery tour and stationed a number of Michigan's best living historians to portray 10-15 of the citizen-soldiers buried there. The tour would stop at designated stations as a historian gave a 'first person' autobiographical sketch of 'their lives'. Hazel asked me to represent Sgt. Frank Cobb. The tour was a huge success, with over $1500 being donated to restore Maple Grove to its former glory. At a later tour I was invited back to portray Sgt. Ed Southworth (WIA Kelly’s Ford, discharged disabled).
To prepare me for my role as Frank Cobb, Hazel sent me clippings from the
Hudson Gazette newspaper that featured Cobb's wartime letters to the editor, and later, his correspondence with William Saunders and D.M. Montgomery. Cobb was reunited with Wm. Saunders at the 25th anniversary at Gettysburg, and the pair returned to Hudson, where the former Confederate was feted by the entire community-and former Sharpshooters.
An amazing story of enduring friendship formed in the crucible of War.
https://civilwartalk.com/search/39598/? ... obb&o=dateBill Skillman
Hudson Squad