Lieut. Ransom W. Towle

Lieutenant Ransom W. Towle wrote thirty-nine letters to his parents back in West Rochester, where his father, Rufus, was postmaster of the West Rochester post office.

Ransom W. Towle, Co. E. 4th VVI, was wounded at Savage's Station, captured at Weldon's Railroad, and held at Libby Prison. On his way to the confederate prison in Andersonville, Georgia, he escaped June 18, 1864. He reached Federal lines in West Virginia, July 19, 1864. He wrote of his daring escape in a narrative, reenlisted, and within two months was mortally wounded at the Battle of Winchester, Virginia, on 9/19/64--a chest wound, and died the next day 9/20/64. He is buried in the Bingo Road Cemetery at West Rochester, Vermont, where there is a handsome obelisk and GAR marker.