George L. Willard

                    Obituary.
 COLONEL GEORGE LAMB WILLARD, UNITED STATES
                      ARMY.
 The subject of this sketch fell at Gettysburg, Pa., July
2, 1863, while gallantly leading a charge as Acting Briga-
dier General of the Third brigade, Third division, Second
army corps. He was Colonel of the One Hundred and
Twenty-fifth New York Volunteers and Major of the Nine-
teenth regular infantry, United States Army. He was
the grandson of our late venerable citizen, Gen. Anthony
Lamb, of Albion place. He was born August 15, 1827, in
the city of New York. Reared among its excitements,
he early evinced a preference for the military profession.
While yet a youth he urged upon his friends to obtain for
him a midshipman's warrant or an appointment to the
Military Academy at West Point; but they thought that
he should become a business man, and sent him to a re-
lative in Ohio.
 But the martial spirit in him could not be subdued;
and when the tocsin of war sounded to arms he was
one of the first to respond, and enlisted for the
Mexican war in the Fifteenth Ohio Volunteers, under
Colonel Geo. Morgan. Although a mere youth he was
at once made sergeant of his company, and marched
under General Scott to the city of Mexico. In the attack
on that city, his company was one of the first to scale the
walls of Chapultepec Castle, and for his gallantry on that
occasion he was, on recommendation of General Scott, ap-
pointed a brevet second lieutenant of the Eighth Infantry,
June 28, 1848; was promoted second lieutenant August
2, 1848; first lieutenant, December 31, 1853; captain, Sep-
tember 27, 1861; major, Nineteenth infantry, February
19, 1862. On the breaking out of the present rebellion
he organized the Second regiment New York Volunteers,
at Troy, N.Y., and was appointed its colonel, but the
War Deoartment declining to allow him to retain that
command he returned to Washington as commanding
officer of the Eighth infantry, served with it during the
peninsula campaign of 1862, when, getting permission
from the Secretary of War, he raised at Troy, N.Y., the
One Hundred and Twenty-fifth New York Volunteers, and
was commissioned as its colonel August 15, 1862. The
regiment was stationed at Harper's Ferry when it was
surrendered to General Stonewall Jackson, and was by
him paroled. But notwithstanding the discouragement
and demoralization incident to a new regiment under
those circumstances, they became, after their exchange
and return to active duty, one of the very best regiments
in the Army of the Potomac, both in discipline and drill,
the effects of which were plainly visible at the battle
of Gettysburg, Pa., where they captured three battle
flags marked "Harper's Ferry," and where Col. Willard
fell while leading a brigade on the 2d of July, 1863,
dtruck in the face by a piece of shell. His remains were
taken from the battle field by his faithful attendant,
Joshua Wiseman, an old soldier of the Eighth infantry,
and forwarded to Troy, N.Y., the residence of his wife,
a daughter of Hon. Elias Plum, of that city. As an
officer he held a high reputation; as a citizen he was uni-
versally esteemed and beloved. He died as a true soldier
and a martyr to this cruel rebellion. Members of the
Common-Councils of Albany, Troy and Lansingburg, a
large military escort and an immense concourse of citi-
zens attested by their presence at the funeral their esti-
mation of one who was a gallant and brave soldier, a true
and upright citizen.