Otto G Hintz

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Otto Hintz
1842-1918
Section: GAR Plot

    Otto Hintz was called "The man nobody knew too much about". Today, with access to so many records we can no longer call him that. It was these same records that helped to clear up a mystery that existed over the years. In 1963 it was decided that during the re-dedication of the GAR monument at City Cemetery that a rebel flag would be placed at Otto's grave since he was a veteran of the 1st Texas Cavalry.  They had a representative of the Governor of North Carolina come for the ceremony. A big deal was made to give Otto proper representation of his service.... but had they?
    How could he have been a member of the GAR if he had fought for the South?  The Grand Army Of The Republic was for Union veterans only. Could he have been captured and switched sides? Such things did happen... 
    Somewhere, someone saw in his GAR records that he had served in Company A of the 1st Texas Cavalry and had assumed he had been a rebel. What they didn't realize was there were two regiments called the 1st Texas Cavalry, one was Union one was Confederate. Otto, like so many other German immigrants, fought on the side of the Union.  
    Otto made it into a Civil War surgical annals when he was treated for a wound to his right arm. His case was included in the Definitive Medical History Of The War. Surgeons removed two to four inches of Otto's shattered upper arm bone and box and splinted the arm with the view of saving it. The procedure was eventually unsuccessful and  his arm was ultimately amputated. He mustered out of service June 6th, 1864 due to his injury. 
    Once home he moved around a bit from Texas, to Indiana, finally making his home in Tonawanda where he remained the rest of his life....mostly.  The story goes that Otto had fallen down the stairs and shortly thereafter disappears. The newspapers put out stories hoping to find where the old veteran was. In time his wife was able to locate him in Florida because he had applied to have his pension sent there. 
    This was not the only time Otto would wander off. The second time the newspaper again put out a story trying to find him. He was located the second time in Virgina living in the shed of a widow, He said he'd gone to visit a comrade from the war, but his friend was not so welcoming. Otto was again brought back to Tonawanda. This time he remained until his death in 1918.  






Sources: Historical Society of The Tonawandas, Newspapers.com, Ancestry.com, Familysearch.com
Fultonhistory.com, Medical and surgical history of the war of rebellion

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