Biography of George H. Sanborn :Pittsfield, Merrimack County, New Hampshire

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Submitted by: Jody Goodson  kestrell@prodigy.net
Date: May 14, 2001
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From the Book
'History of Pittsfield, N. H. in the Rebellion'
by H. L. Robinson, published 1893

Page 147 & 148

GEORGE H. SANBORN

     was among the best soldiers that went from Pittsfield. He was born
January 18, 1836, a son of Abram and Abigail (Brown) Sanborn. He was a
shoemaker. He entered Company F, Twelfth New Hampshire volunteers, September
5, 1862. He passed unscathed through all of the terrible battles in which
the regiment took part, until the investment of Petersburg, August 18, 1864,
when he was shot through the lungs, the ball passing through the left
shoulder. It was thought to be a fatal wound, and his comrades visited him
and bade him a sorrowful farewell. He was taken to Point of Rocks hospital,
then to Fortress Monroe; from there he went to Grant hospital at Wilkes
Point, Long Island, and from there was sent home. Eight months after
reaching home he coughed up a piece of the shirt he had on when wounded,
the ball having carried with it into the wound a fragment of that garment.
Strange to say he lived some twenty years after being so fearfully injured.
     One night at Drury's Bluff lie was on picket duty. During the time
several of the Twelfth New Hampshire,-- among whom was John D. Sherburn--
under the command of Capt. A. W. Bartlett, tore from the poles a lot of
telegraph wire and strung it from stump to stump in their front. Towards
morning the rebels made a charge on our pickets, driving them in. When
Sanborn reached the wire it tripped him up, injuring him quite severely in
the wrist, and he had barely got up and run when the rebels came on in a
wild rush, three lines deep, and they too fell headlong over the wire, and
hundreds of them were killed or taken prisoners. Hardly a man escaped.
Sanborn's comrades all speak in the highest terms of him as a soldier.
     During the winters of 1863 and '64 the Twelfth and Second regiments
were guarding prisoners at Point Lookout. Some time in February Sanborn got
an inkling of a plan for a wholesale escape of these prisoners. He reported
the facts to his officers. The two regiments were put under arms and the
prison thoroughly searched, when the whole plot was revealed. It was the
most gigantic plot of the kind attempted during the war, with possibly one
exception. The ingenuity displayed by these southern men would have done
credit to a Yankee. Their bunks had been made into boats, the cracks filled
up with grease, and oar locks cut in the sides, with which they intended to
cross the Potomac river. Even several muskets with ammunition were
discovered. How these were obtained is a mystery. Several tunnels were also
found. Of course extra precaution was taken after that to prevent an escape.
     Comrade Sanborn died several vears ago in Pittsfield. He was very
popular with his associates and his personal friends here have made
arrangements to have a correct picture of him in his soldier days appear in
these pages.