Charles H. Babcock, 114th NYSV.

Charles H. Babcock, aged forty-nine years, met with a singular death at the residence of Eliphalet Cutting, on Adelaide St., in this village, Sunday morning last. Deceased had been drinking on the previous evening at a saloon, with Cutting, and upon separating for the night promised to see the later in the morning, which he did.

Arriving at Cutting's residence between seven and eight o'clock on Sunday morning, he found Cutting and Euclid Rogers preparing breakfast; he was invited to partake, which he did, after joining him in a drink from a bottle of whiskey which he had brought with him. Seated at the table, Babcock alluded to the toughness of the steak, and remarked that he should masticate it any way, taking a piece from a dish with his fingers, and placing it in his mouth. Almost immmediately his companions discovered that something was wrong with him, and upon being spoken to, he made no reply. Upon being removed from the table he sank to the floor. Dr. Stuart was summoned by one of the party, but upon arrival at Cutting's the unfortunate man was dead, having lived but from ten to fifteen minutes. Cornor [sic] Avery summoned a juror, and a post mortem was made by Dr. S. M. Hand, the autopsy showing that a piece of beefsteak about four inches long and upwards of an inch wide had lodge over the trachea or windpipe, preventing the entrance of air into the lungs. The verdict of the jury was in accordance with the facts given above. The remains were removed to his late residence near the stone mill, and funeral services held on Tuesday afternoon, which were attended by the Smith Post, G.A.R., of which he was a respected member.

Deceased was an excellent and industrious mechanic -- carpenter by trade -- and notwithstanding his unfortunate taste for liquor, was naturally a well-disposed, kind-hearted man. He was a member of Company I, 114th [NY] Regiment, and an excellent soldier, ever faithful in the discharge of his duty. He was taken prinsoner by Mosby while guarding an ambulance train en route for Harper's Ferry from Berryville, in the Shenandoah Valley, in September, 1864, and for some time was confined in Libby prison. [note: very unlikely since Libby was a prison for Union officers, however the lore in our Feeter family, as told by my father, was that Babcock was assigned the task of prison cook and that's how he kept his strength; so perhaps he was in Libby.]