The son of Christian & Mary (Eckert) Gast, he married Mary C. Kleiss and fathered Charles (b. 12/??/59) and Edward or Edwin A. (b. 04/27/62). In 1860, he was a confectioner living with his family in Lancaster, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and is in the 1860 census as a twenty-one-year-old.
A Civil War veteran, he enlisted at the stated age of twenty-three and mustered into federal service at Lancaster August 19, 1861, as a private with Co. A, 79th Pennsylvania Infantry. Wounded in the left leg at the battle of Perryville (Chaplin Hills) on October 8, 1862, he returned to duty and detailed as an orderly at headquarters of Maj. Gen. James S. Negley then assigned as a orderly with the assistant inspector general department. He honorably discharged at term's end October 4, 1864.
On his last day on Earth, he was walking on a railroad track just east of the Conestoga Creek returning from a day of fishing when a train approached. He stepped onto the adjacent track right in front of another train coming the opposite direction. The impact apparently was not straight on because he was tossed to the side of the rails. The engineer halted the train and crewmen ran to his aid, finding him miraculously still breathing. They carried him to the nearest station, but he died from apparent internal injuries shortly thereafter. Several hours passed before someone was able to identify him.
The son of Christian & Mary (Eckert) Gast, he married Mary C. Kleiss and fathered Charles (b. 12/??/59) and Edward or Edwin A. (b. 04/27/62). In 1860, he was a confectioner living with his family in Lancaster, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and is in the 1860 census as a twenty-one-year-old.
A Civil War veteran, he enlisted at the stated age of twenty-three and mustered into federal service at Lancaster August 19, 1861, as a private with Co. A, 79th Pennsylvania Infantry. Wounded in the left leg at the battle of Perryville (Chaplin Hills) on October 8, 1862, he returned to duty and detailed as an orderly at headquarters of Maj. Gen. James S. Negley then assigned as a orderly with the assistant inspector general department. He honorably discharged at term's end October 4, 1864.
On his last day on Earth, he was walking on a railroad track just east of the Conestoga Creek returning from a day of fishing when a train approached. He stepped onto the adjacent track right in front of another train coming the opposite direction. The impact apparently was not straight on because he was tossed to the side of the rails. The engineer halted the train and crewmen ran to his aid, finding him miraculously still breathing. They carried him to the nearest station, but he died from apparent internal injuries shortly thereafter. Several hours passed before someone was able to identify him.
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