Captain Augustus Vignos of the 107th Ohio Infantry was so determined to find and thank the nurse who cared for him at the XI Corps Union hospital after the Battle of Gettysburg that he carried a photo of Rebecca Lane Pennypacker Price for 40 years.
Vignos was wounded in the right arm on July 1, 1863, during the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. Gangrene developed; his arm was amputated above the elbow at George and Elizabeth Spangler’s farm, and his condition deteriorated.
But Mrs. Price tended him each day at the Spangler hospital and fought for his life. She read to him, fed him, wrote letters home for him, changed bandages, and administered medicine. She helped keep him alive. And then she found clean clothes for him when he improved to the point where he could take a train home to Canton, Ohio.
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