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Wisconsin
Henry Bassinger
1932
WGazzette, 05 26 1932
Legionnaires and the Women’s
Relief Corp directed funeral services Tuesday for Watertown's oldest resident,
Henry Bassinger, 101, Civil war veteran, who died
late Saturday. Services were held in the
Nowack funeral home at 4 p.m.
The Rev. E. W. Lemke, pastor of the
Watertown Reformed Church and long a friend of the centenarian, delivered the
funeral address. Burial was in Oak Hill
cemetery.
Throughout the state Mr. Bassinger’s name had spread as the man who claimed never to have drunk water in the
last 69 years, since a day in 1863 when a commanding officer sent him to a
stream in the South for a pail of water.
After filling the bucket — as he often told the story — he drank long of
the water and then glanced upstream to see four dead mules polluting the
stream.
In recent years his substitutes
for water were principally ginger ale, milk and buttermilk; before prohibition
he occasionally drank beer and wine.
His 100th birthday anniversary,
in September, 1930, was occasion for a civic celebration in Watertown.
Born in Prussia, Mr. Bassinger came to Milwaukee in his early twenties, and at
the outbreak of the rebellion was one of the first to join Company C, Fifth
Wisconsin Volunteer infantry, known as the Milwaukee Turner Rifles. His regiment fought in practically all the
major engagements and was one of the most valorous in the big drive on
Richmond, the Confederate capital, in 1862.
During this campaign the Fifth
Regiment was a division under the command of Brig. Gen. Winfield S.
Hancock. In the battle of Williamsburg
the regiment Mr. Bassinger was in was the last to
reluctantly retreat and a few hours later when reinforcements arrived was among
the first to rout the enemy. Two days later, when on dress parade, the regiment
was highly complimented by Gen. George McClellan, in charge of all the union
forces, who said:
"My lads, I have come to
thank you for your gallant conduct of the other day. You have gained honor for your country, your
state, and the army to which you belong.
Through you we won the day and Williamsburg shall be inscribed on your
banner. I cannot thank you enough for
what you have done. I trust in you for
the future and know that you will sustain the reputation you have won for
yourselves. By your actions and superior
discipline you have gained a reputation which shall be known through the
"Army of the Potomac.'"
He also fought in the battle of
Gettysburg, the division he was in having joined the Union forces the third and
final day of the battle.
During the war he fought in 15
major engagements and never once, in spite of the bloodliness
of some of the battles, was wounded during the entire time he served.
Mr. Bassinger
also fought in the seven day battle of Malvern Hill during this drive. For the entire seven days, Mr. Bassinger used to say, the terrific roar of battle was
heard without cessation. Up to that time
the battle of Malvern Hill was the most bloody and dreadful on the American
continent. In the same campaign he
fought in the battle of Antiedam Creek, September 17,
1862, one of the greatest battles of the war.
Ten thousand men were killed on each side. It was a Union victory, but McCIellan
did not press his advantage and the great campaigns of 1862 ended in gloom and
disaster.
He also-fought in the battle of
Bull Run when the union troops were routed by the Confederates after General
Beauregard was reinforced by General Joseph E. Johnston, who was supposed to
have been detained by General Patterson, a northern officer.
At the cessation of the war he
settled in Watertown, where he followed his trade of masonry until he was 80.
Mr. Bassinger
was four times a widower. Surviving are
a son, Henry, of Seattle, Wash.; three daughters, Mrs. Oscar E. Schwemer, Wauwatosa; Mrs. Mollie Morrise,
Milwaukee, and Mrs. Dina Williaford, Cocoa, Fla. He is also survived by several grandchildren,
one of them Mrs. Herman Conrad of this city with whom he lived.
Watertown Daily Times, 09 19 1992
Henry Bassinger,
who died 60 years ago this year, never drank a drop of water for 69 years prior
to his death. A civil war veteran, he
died in 1932 at the age of 101.
Bassinger always
(said) water is fit to shave with and to take a bath, but as for drinking it,
no way.
And he had his own good reason
for that view. In place of water, he
drank soda or other liquids but never water.
Bassinger's abhorrence of water dated back
to a midsummer day in 1863 when he was a Civil War soldier. It was then that he was sent by his
commanding officer to bring water for the troops who were camped some distance
from a small stream after a battle had ended.
Bassinger found the stream polluted by
animal carcasses, including a number of horses which had been killed in
battle. The stream was still running red
with blood. Then and there he made a vow
that as long as he lived he would never again drink water. For 69 years, down to the day of his death,
he kept his promise. He drank plenty of
coffee, soda and other beverages that contained water, but never partook of
water alone.
Bassinger was a remarkable man in many
ways. Up until almost the last days of
his life, he was active and spry. On his
100th birthday he was a guest of the Watertown Rotary Club. At the time the club met in the lower dining
hall of the Watertown Elks Lodge.
As many of our readers know, to
enter that area entails walking down a few steps.
When he was brought to the club in a car, Joe said officers of the club,
including the late Frank P. McAdams, then president of the Wisconsin National
Bank (now Valley Bank South Central's Watertown office), wanted to assist him
in walking down the stairs. He brushed
them aside and made it clear he could make it alone.
Rotarians were amazed at his
alert mind, his keen wit and his personal resourcefulness at the age of
100. He made a little speech in which he
said life had been good to him. He said
he hoped to live to be 103. He nearly made it.
He was 101 when he died.