Adam Porter Mecum

“He served three years and nine months in the 23rd Indiana Heavy Artillery, and participated in many of the great battles of the Civil War, as Nashville, Lookout Mountain, Stone River, Goldsboro, etc. It was his good fortune to pass through them all ‘without a scratch,’ as he wrote me in October, 1898—since which date I have not heard from him,—but at the battle of Atlanta he unfortunately lost his hearing. Having had no opportunity to interview, I cannot give any of his recollections, and personal experiences during his long term of service, which would certainly have made interesting reading for his many kinsmen, especially to his descendants, and to his relatives who fought in the same memorable battles. He was the parent of eleven children, seven of whom he mentioned as living at the time he wrote” (from Heinrich Gernhardt and His Descendants, pg. 142).