To the Editor:

I just received the May 20 Enterprise and I am very interested in your article about General Daniel M. and Frost and the Civil War.

I have two photos of my ancestors who fought in that war but on the North’s side. One is of Colonel Jonah Sanford and the other is of Edwin D. Sanford — my great-grandfather.

Colonel Jonah led the New York State Militia to Washington to join the troops there. All his sons and grandsons went with him. Since Jonah was elderly at that point, he returned to his northern New York home.

He had fought in the war of 1812 and all the north country Indian skirmishes. He had been in business, had been a judge, and a one-term congressman by that time.

Family gossip has it that he couldn’t afford to take his large family to Washington so went alone to rented rooms. He was so good looking his wife was very jealous and she couldn’t stand having him out of her sight and so refused to let him serve for Congress again.

Whatever, with the coming of the Civil War, he was the highest officer in the New York State Militia so he gathered all the troops and went with them to Washington. Most of the sons and grandsons made it through the war. One grandson died in the southern Andersonville prison.

My great-grandfather suffered a foot injury. The doctors saved his leg but he always had a limp. He became a blacksmith and somehow managed to send all his children to college. Three sons became lawyers, one son became a pharmacist, one daughter became a nurse, and one daughter became a schoolteacher. I’m very proud of all of them.

Colonel Jonah Sanford’s portrait has always hung in the state gallery in Albany. I’m not sure if it is an artist’s portrait or a photo.

Both Colonel Jonah and Edwin Sanford are buried in northern New York where they died. Jonah had created a homestead in the upstate wilderness in the early 1800s (Nicholville and Hopkinton). I had Edwin’s sword plus the photos.

This was fun for me to recall.

Carol S. DuBrin

Altamont and

Fruitland Park, Florida

Editor’s note: Carol Sandford DuBrin is the daughter of former Altamont mayor and justice Edwin W. Sanford Jr. She notes that his photo hangs in Village Hall.