Page:Minutes of the Immortal Six Hundred Society 1910.djvu/12

Rh another call to arms in the bloody conflict between the states from 1861-5. On the 28th of April, 1858, Col. Cantwell married Miss Kate Theodosia Calder, a sister of Mr. William Calder, of this city, of this union there are now surviving an only son, Mr. Robert C. Cantwell. She passed away in 1863, and after the war, on April 20, 1869, Col. Cantwell married a second time, Miss Kate Theodosia Blout, of Woodville, Miss., and she with three daughters and one son now survive, having the tenderest sympathy of a host of friends here and elsewhere in the great sorrow that has come to them.

As one of "The Immortal Six Hundred," placed under the fire of the Federal fleet during the Civil War on Morris Island and later starved almost to death at Fort Pulaski, he compiled a roster of that band of patriots and the original is now among other valuable papers which he has left. He, with his brother, the late Edward Cantwell, was one of the founders of the Wilmington Light Infantry as first sergeant and was seven times its captain. Until his death there was no more devoted friend of the local organization than Col. Cantwell, and there were no extremes to which the young men of his command would not go for him.

Col. John Lucas Cantwell, of Wilmington, a veteran of two wars, was born at Charleston, S. C, Dec. 29, 1828. From 1844 he resided Columbia, S. C, until the beginning of the Mexican war, when he unlisted as a private in the Richmond Rifle Guards, Capt. William D. DeSaussure, which became Company H, of the Palmetto regiment, Col. Pierce M. Butler. Mustered in at Charleston, Dec., 1846, he served in Mexico with Gen. Scott, participating in the seige of Vera Cruz and the battles of Contreras, Cherubusco, Molino del Rey, Chapultepec and other engagements until discharged at the City of Mexico on account of disabilities due to three wounds received at Cherubusco. He left the Mexican capitol in the same Wagon train with Gens. Quitman and Shields, Nov. 1, 1847, and returned to his parental home at Charleston.

"He received three wounds in the battle of Cherubusco and after reaching the City of Mexico, when the war was virtually over, he was discharged on account of disability caused by these wounds."

On Dec. 21, 1909, this true and gallant old. soldier, a true member of the Immortal Six Hundred Society, closed his eyes in death. Peace to his ashes. He is now safe in the arms of Jesus he trusted and served.