Horatio Aretas Newcomb (1829-1877)
The following biography is (slightly revised) from Bethuel M. Newcomb’s 1923 Andrew Newcomb and His Descendants.
Mr. Newcomb moved in March 1856 from Pike to Hannibal, Missouri, and became a passenger conductor on the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad the following year.
In the summer of 1861, he train was fired into repeatedly by the Rebels, who were well acquainted with his Union sentiments; he several times narrowly escaped being shot. On September 4, while stopping a few moments at Shelbina station, he was made captive by a party of mounted soldiers and taken away by them. At night, they encamped in a barn, and to prevent their prisoner’s escape, placed him between two of his captors. Sleep, while it refused to visit him, proved a valuable ally, for during the heavy slumber of his guard, he contrived to free himself unobserved, and, taking one of their horses, was soon out of the reach.
The night was only starlit; after riding some time, he could not tell if he were on the road to safety or not, when suddenly he was commanded to halt. Conjecturing what was true, that he had come upon a Rebel camp, he concluded not to heed the order, but dashed ahead. A shot followed him; his horse stumbled and fell. Without waiting to examine its condition, he leaped to the ground and ran toward the timber, which was not far distant. Parties were sent in hot pursuit, but he succeeded in eluding them all, and at daylight secreted himself in a cornfield, where he remained until evening. He again took up the line of march and reached the house of a friend near the railroad, and was conveyed by him in a wagon, amid grain bags covered with straw, to a railroad station, from whence he returned to Hannibal.
In December 1861 he moved to Elgin, Illinois; later he resided at Turner Junction and Richmond, Illinois. During the last twelve years of his life, he was a passenger conductor on the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, with residence at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.