William Stanley Mead, A Good Scout
The Owen Leader, Spencer, Indiana
Thursday January 3, 1935
 
The death of W.S. Mead marks the passing of the last member of his company
 - County E of the 6th Indiana regiment.  He was a good soldier during his 
army life and, in the terms of modern day praise, he was a good scout to 
the end of his days.
 
On two occasions it was this writers privilege to accompany him to the old 
scenes.  In 1923 we went to St. Lois, took boat passage there and made the 
journey to Shiloh, in southern Tennessee, where April 6 and 7, we spent the 
anniversary of that fight on the historic battle ground.  For two days we 
roamed over the ground where the North and South fought their first real major 
engagement.  On the last day we located the spot where the 6th Indiana had 
stood when they met the final charge of the Louisiana Tigers and beat them 
back and the battle ended.  
 
Comrade Mead stood within a few feet of the spot where he had stood on that 
memorable day in 1862, and where for the first time, he heard the blood 
chilling "Rebel Yell" as the Tigers emerged from the woods and crossed the 
wide creek bottom.
 
In May 1930, Comrade Mead accompanied me to Andersonville prison in southern 
Georgia - his first visit to the place since his imprisonment there in 1864.  
Sixty-six years had passed, and yet his memory of places and events was as 
clear as yesterday.  To days we spent there, guests of the park superintendent 
and his family.  We wandered the prison site - now grown into jungle in places
 - and Mead located spot after spot where various events had occurred.  He 
drank again from Providence Spring; it had burst forth from the hot sand in 
August  '64 near the spot where he sheltered himself under his ragged blanket.  
We cooked a "dinner" of fat bacon and corn meal and had our "prison fare" 
feed, much as it had been "served" in the prison days.  
 
In the little village of Andersonville he talked with a man who had served as a 
guard there while Mead was a prisoner.  Both thoroughly enjoyed the visit.  
At the Cemetery, Mead placed flowers on the graves of two buddies who had 
died in the pen.  One had died in Mead's arms.
 
Returning by way of Chattanooga we spent considerable time on the field of 
Chickamauga, where Mead had fought with the 6th.  Place after place was 
located and each brought memories flooding back.  We had our dinner at 
Crawfish Springs, one of the spots, made famous by that memorable battle.
 
We visited Lookout Mountain and thence to Mission Ridge, east of Chattanooga.  
I photographed him and his daughter in the yard of a private home, standing 
on what he believed to be the spot where he, as color guard, had scaled the 
"impossible" heights and planted the 6th Indiana Flag at the Lady Beckenridge 
gun encampment.
 
From there to the Lincoln birthplace in Kentucky to drink from the famous 
sinking spring and gaze on the lowly cabin where the Great Emancipator was 
born.
 
The home.  And through all that strenuous trip Comrade Mead proved himself 
a good scout.  Tired out each night, he was nevertheless up on his toes the 
next morning - keyed up to the old pitch by the surging memories that 
came out of the past.
 
"A good Scout, Comrade Mead" was what I told him on our return.  Now he is 
gone to another, greater adventure and I predict he will still prove a 
good soldier and a good scout.
 
Recently he received a letter from the Quartermaster General of the United 
States at Washington stating "By direction of the Secretary of War he had 
been awarded the medal of the "Order of the Purple Heart" on account of 
wounds he received in action during the Civil War.
 
In the passing of William Stanley Mead, we are forcibly reminded of the 
melancholy fact that the rapidly thinning ranks of the "Boys in Blue" of 
1861-1865 are about to vanish forever from sight and become only a cherished 
memory as well as a proud and honored national heritage.
 
Some three years ago, Mr. Mead attended the funeral of the last living comrade 
but one of his company, the late George W. Tolson of Daviess County.  
As Orderly Sergeant, e called the roll of Company E 6th infantry, as he had 
done so often when in active service.  The only soldier who answered "here" 
was the Orderly Sergeant, Comrade Mead, himself.  Upon this occasion if the 
company roll were called again, there would be no responsive "here"; for the 
last soldier of Company E has passed on.  
 
But we have in the character and in the marvelous spirit of this soldier in 
whose honor we observe today these memorial rites, something more enduring 
than material form and substance.
 
While in the arduous and perilous service of this country, it was well known 
that his daring, his coolness and his example, youth through one was, were a 
by-word in his company.
(author of this newspaper article I believe to be Carl Anderson)
 
 
THE OWEN LEADER, SPENCER INDIANA
SPENCER, INDIANA 
WENESDAY APRIL 4TH, 1923
On Annual Trip to Shiloh
 
Sunday evening W.S. Mead and Carl Anderson, editor of The Leader, left for St. 
Louis to join the survivors of the Battle of Shiloh on their annual pilgrimage 
to the battlefield.  The survivors have formed an association of which S.M. 
French of Chicago is Commander.  The trip occupies 10 days and covers approximately 
1000 miles of exceptionally fine scenery, particularly along the Tennessee River.
 
Each year the survivors of Shiloh spend the two anniversary days on the battle 
field (next few words unreadable).  A year of minor skirmishes led up to 
Shiloh and here each army took the other's measure.  It was a Federal victory, 
gained at a big cost in dead and wounded.
 

Mr. Mead was a member of County E. 6th Indiana Infantry and John Wesley Anderson, 
father of the editor of this paper, was in County A of the same regiment.  
The latter never revisited the Shiloh field after the battle and Mr. Mead 
made his first visit last April.  He was so enthusiastic over the trip to 
again visit the battleground this spring.  His talks of his trip so enthused 
the editor that he, too, has arranged to accompany Mr. Mead.
 
The boat enters the Tennessee River at Paducah, Ky., and crosses the state of 
Tennessee to within a few miles of the Mississippi line. (next paragraph 
unreadable but talks of the beauty and enchantments of the area)  Mr. Mead was 
disappointed in this that the flood stage of the Ohio had most of Cairo's 
"points of interest" under water.  
 
On the boat the old soldiers hold their "campfires" nightly and tell of 
experiences and fight their battles over again.  The editor has been 
looking forward to the trip with a great deal of interest and the readers 
of this paper may experience a write up of the excursion.  It is the intention 
to mail stuff to the paper each day and the whole story will not be told in 
the next week's issue.  
 
This is the first regular "honest to goodness" vacation "Andy" has had in the 
ten years he has been running The Leader and he expects to kick up his heels 
like a two year old in a ten-acre lot.


Submitted by Donna Tauber