"Fate Decreed Otherwise: A Pennsylvanian Captured in" Topic

… Gettysburg

"Lieutenant Samuel G. Boone of the 88th Pennsylvania thought he had escaped capture at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, until he literally walked into the hands of the enemy. He had a split-second life or death decision to make.

"For an instant we both stood transfixed," he recalled. "Neither of us knew which was the victor and which was vanquished, but it required only about three seconds to decide that question as he was evidently prepared to fire when we met having his musket full cocked and at a ready. As it was, chances were all against me. My life was in his hands and I had the choice of being shot down or being captured. I chose the latter as anyone else would have done under the circumstances. Throwing up my right hand, I said excitedly, "You've got the best of me."

Lieutenant Boone's description of his capture comes from two sources, one being an article shared in the 1895 book Sparks from the Camp Fire and the second being an unpublished memoir held by at the U.S. Army's Military History Institute in Carlisle, Pennsylvania…"

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