This page contains the experiences of participants in the military in time of conflict. Some have been contributed by these
participants or their relatives; some from British, American, and other archives; and some courtesy of Margo Keep, genealogist.
The selections are arranged randomly up to and including World War II at this time. Any viewer is very welcome to send in additional
experiences about their family members.
Thomas Keep of Battersea
An Incident of
by J.E. Rankin, D.D.
Thomas Keep of Battersea, The third battalion of grenadiers, Was only a boy-but, look at me! He carried himself beyond his years: Where others paled he had no fears. Decked in his gay, red uniform, He blew his bugle with ringing note; Nor ever blinked at the battle storm, Nor had a rising in his throat- This boy of ten in his gay, red coat. At With shot and shell rained out of the
sky; The air was full of the bursting suns, As when in heaven mad meteors fly; But
Thomas Keep never winked an eye. |
A little lad of scarcely ten- You’ll not believe it tho I tell- Was just
as cool as the bearded men. The deed he did ‘mid shot and shell, The armies saw it
and marked it well. English, French and Russians there, A groaning mass of dying and dead; While some
were cursing and some in prayer, This here boy still kept his head, Nor paled his
cheeks as I have said. He carried himself like a bearded man, He kindled a fire and made them tea; He
filled each cup, he filled each can, And bore it round right manfully - This Thomas
Keep of Battersea. |
This Thomas Keep of Battersea, The colonel wrote in full his name, Dispatched it home
for the Queen to see, And told the world his well earned fame: And thus to me the
story came. To Battersea, across the foam, This blue eyed boy of only ten, He lived to wear a medal home, And kiss his mother’s lips again- This boy that ranked with bearded men. |
A little boy stood on the field, A little
English boy; It was a merry game, thought he, And he was brisk with joy. The battle seemed to sport him, And every ball a toy. He was a British grenadier, And he was ten years old; And therefore what had he to fear, A soldier brisk and bold? The little lad was bravely clad In English red
and gold. Undaunted when the iron balls Were bowled along the ground, He marched unhurt where six-foot men Their graves of glory found; He marched along with a stalwart throng To the cannon’s awful sound. But when the battle had been fought, And on the field at night Lay fifteen hundred Englishmen In miserable plight, |
The little lad would take no rest, Though wearied with the fight. But, stepping over many a corpse, His comrades saw him go, And risk his life by passing close To many a wounded foe. ‘What means the lad? He must be mad To court destruction so!’ They watched him. He was gathering wood. It warmed their hearts to see That fearless lad - of broken stocks A heavy load had he. He made a fire upon the field And boiled a can of tea. Cold, cold, and stiff the wounded lay; Yet one cheerful spot - One fire was blazing brightly near - One kind friend left them not; And grateful were those pleasant draughts He
brought them steaming hot. |
And so he passed the midnight hours With hell on every side; And during that long dreadful night, In
suffering hundreds died: But some were saved by the soldier-lad And the comforts he supplied. At Of Inkerman
– the grave Of thousands – this heroic child Fought bravely with the brave. Hemmed round by Russian bayonets, He still survived to save The
lives of others afterwards; And there are those who say, That, but for the good-hearted boy, They must have died that day, When on the
field of Inkerman The helpless wounded lay. |
Darkness was resting on Darkness was brooding o’er the English host, Darkness was resting on the serried hill Whereon
the dead, the lately-slain were lying, Whose groans rose fitful; and the guards replying Broke too the silence; all besides was still And
soundless; but, where fiercest raged the fight, Ere day was done, a British lad was found (Who might for rest have ta’en the welcome
night) Tending the dying on the bloody ground: Tending the dying for the love he bore To Him who for his sake had meekly died, For Jesus’
sake for him once crucified; - |
Water this lad convey’d, and wash’d the gore From many a wounded brother’s gaping side, And gave
them drink; and wandering far and wide, Collecting musket-stocks amidst the dead, He kindled fires, with riven weapons fed, To cheer
the wounded: thus all night he strove, Careless of self, his comrades’ lives to save: Oh! Was not this true, self-devoting love? Oh!
Was not he the bravest of the brave? O sons of The loss of heroes, who may never more Return to reap the
laurels they have won, Glory that Thomas Keep is |
Weeks' History of Salisbury, Vermont, states that Samuel Keep, b 3 Nov 1731 in Westford, Massachusetts., d 1802, settled at Crown
Point, New York, about 1773. He was acquainted with the forts at Crown Point and Ticonderoga, and he was one of Ethan
Allen's advisers in the capture of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775. In order to obtain a more perfect knowledge of the fort and of
its guards, he made a pretense that his cow had strayed and could probably be found grazing somewhere near the campground, and accordingly
he was allowed to pass the guard. After making a full survey of the fort, he lost no time in giving Allen the benefit of his
discoveries, which greatly assisted in the plan for taking it immediately after. Samuel Keep then returned to
OVER PRESENT PLEASURES OF THE FAMILY
By ElIzabeth A. Thompson
Horatio Nelson Keep was not obligated to serve in the armed forces during the [American] Civil War (1861-1865). He was already
thirty-nine years old when the fighting began and had a young family. Lucy Ann, at fourteen years, was the oldest of four children. In addition, Nelson, as he was called, was making a new start as a farmer in
Despite these factors, Nelson’s sense of duty to his country became so urgent that he volunteered for service in the Union Army. Letters written by his wife, Emily (
In September of 1862, Emily wrote: "N. has said for a year past he stood ready to go whenever ‘it seemed necessary' & has said to us a good many times that he was going. Finally the last of July he said so at the table one morning. We laughed and joked about it as usual, when he said you don’t seem to take it very seriously. Lucy said '0h no we don’t believe it.' I saw then that he was in earnest.
“When we got alone, I asked him if he thought he could go & leave things as they were and I mentioned several. He said he thought it was his duty to go, and said, ‘If every man looked for the present pleasure of his family where would the country go?'”
"He pretended he was going
to start for
“That afternoon, my troubles were more than I felt able to bear. It seemed as
though I would go crazy. I could not rest, nor cry, but was so burdened; I was sure they would give no furloughs.”
Nelson
was granted a furlough from
Nelson’s regiment left by train October 5 for
It is possible that [Nelson] never saw his sixth child,
a daughter born Jan. 30, 1863, and named Hattie Nelson. Nelson was severely wounded Sept. 20, 1863, in the Battle of Chickamauga
and died the following Oct. 4 in the field hospital at
ALSINUS KEEP
THE DEATH OF A SOLDIER
American Civil War
Mr. Keep, Dear Sir:
Your favor of the 4th came to hand last evening. In
compliance with your request, I send you the enclosed articles. My place in the company is at the opposite end from your son,
so I did not see him fall. He fell in the thick of the fight when all was excitement; hardly a man realized where he was. The
ones next to him saw him fall and asked him if he was wounded, and where. He put his hand on his right breast to show them where
and said it did not pain him much.
In the noise and din of battle, he did not think, or have a chance to leave any directions
or word to his loved, though absent. friends. You have, I doubt not read of the desperate and reckless charge made by the rebels to
capture Knaps Battery. There is where Alsinus fell. Kind Sir, the 111th did their whole duty there. The ground bore testimony
of this the next day. As the rebels fell back we were ordered forward and charged them. It was then that I saw that brave Alsinus
was down. He was sitting, reclining on his left elbow, but forward was the word and I could not stop to say anything to him.
When
we were relieved by fresh troops, alas, we found that Keep was no more. Sire, he was the bravest of the brave. When we were
in the battle of
If I have been of any service to you, I consider myself already repaid by knowing that
I have done nothing more than my duty to yourself and the lamented dead. Some one may yet have the same sad duty to do for me. God only knows.
May God comfort you and the thousands of others called to mourn the life of loved sons and brothers.
I
remain, Sire, yours truly. To Mr. M Keep
William
L. Patterson Albion,
Erie Co.
Thomas John Keep was about 16 years old (not 10 as was often reported) when his company, the Third Battalion Grenadiers of the Guard,
was deployed to an area of Russia close to Turkey, called Crimea. Who knew that his next few months during the autumn and winter of
1854 would find fame for him as he was recommended to receive the Victoria Cross (similar to the Medal of Honor in the USA). Although
Thomas didn’t receive the Victoria Cross for his personal bravery, 111 V.C.’s were awarded during the Crimean War, which included
the battle made famous by Alfred, Lord Tennyson in “The Charge of the Light Brigade.”
Thomas Keep, the young bugler who became
known to many as the “Boy Hero” of Crimea, appears to owe much of his fame to a single article written in The Times (London) on February
22, 1855, as it relayed his actions on November 5, 1854, at Inkerman. It was this brief article that misrepresented Thomas’s
age as 10 years old. This was picked up and spread widely after a February 26, 1855, edition of The London News reprinted the
story. News travelled fast. One copy of the article can be found in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (USA) on March 17, 1855. The story also travelled from England to Australia (Maitland Mercury & Hunter River General Advertiser, July 25, 1855).
Roll Call by Lady Butler
At least three poems were composed to describe the bravery Thomas Keep showed on the battlefield. The oldest poem appears to
be “The Child-Soldier” written by Phillip Gilbert Hamerton, published in 1855 in The Isles of Loch Awe and Other Poems of My Youth. Another poem, titled “Thomas Keep,” written by Greville John Chester, was published in 1856 in his book named Poems.
J.E. Rankin,
a minister of growing fame in the USA at the time, must have read about Thomas Keep, either through one of the many articles, or through
one of the poems. Either way, J. E. Rankin wrote the poem “Thomas Keep of Battersea” sometime between mid-1855 and 1899, and
it was published in The New York Independent. We know that simply because the poem was included in Frank Bests’s original family
genealogy book The Descendants of John Keep of Longmeadow in 1899.
Thomas Keep retired from the military in 1878. His death on
July 16, 1894, was reported throughout the world as people once again retold the story about a 10-year old boy hero who served so
bravely during the Crimean War.
* * * * *
Thomas Keep – Boy Hero, Battersea, London, England