Daniel Webster Rundell 1838—1887 A Veteran’s Sudden Death alist
One cold evening in January, members of the Grand Army of the Republic gathered at the local Scott Post headquarters in Tonawanda. These meetings were familiar rituals for the old soldiers. They came together to share news, conduct business, and spend time with the only people who truly understood what they had been through.
Daniel Rundell was there that night, just as he had been many times before. not a regular meeting it was a meeting to discuss funeral and he agreed to play drum and fife.
At some point during the meeting, Rundell began to cough.
At first it probably didn’t seem unusual — a small interruption in the middle of conversation. But the coughing quickly grew worse. Within moments something was terribly wrong.
Witnesses said he suddenly began coughing up blood.
The room that had been filled with ordinary conversation turned into chaos. Bright red blood poured from his mouth as he struggled to breathe. His comrades rushed toward him as he choked and gasped for air.
A physician who belonged to the post hurried to help, but there was nothing anyone could do.
Within minutes, Daniel Rundell was dead on the floor of the meeting hall.
Doctors later believed a blood vessel had suddenly burst inside his body — likely an aneurysm. It was the kind of thing that could happen without warning. One moment he had been sitting among friends. The next, his life was over.
The shock to the men in the room was overwhelming. Many of them had survived the violence of the American Civil War. They had seen death before — but this was different. A friend had died suddenly in front of them, in what should have been one of the safest places they knew.
Rundell left behind a wife and several children. In everyday life he was known as a steady, hardworking man, employed as a charge hand in town. But he was also remembered for something else — music.
He played the fife and drum and performed with local groups like the Scott Post Band and the Lumber City Band. Like many veterans, he helped keep the traditions and spirit of the old soldiers alive through parades, ceremonies, and music.
When Daniel Rundell was laid to rest, his fellow veterans honored him with full Grand Army rites.
His story reminds us that the lives of these men did not end when the war was over. They carried their memories and their friendships into the years that followed. And sometimes, even in moments of peace, life could change in an instant — leaving behind only the stories their comrades would remember.
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