Lieut. George Lewis.
His brother, Gilbert O. Westcott, also served honorably for three years in Battery G, First Rhode Island Light Artillery, and is a member of Prescott Post, No. 1, G. A. R. Another brother, George H. Westcott, served as a corporal in Company D, First Rhode Island Detached Militia. He died in 1875.
GEORGE LEWIS.
Second Lieut. George Lewis was born near Summit, in the town of Coventry, R. I., Nov. 1, 1831. His father, Benoni E. Lewis, in early life was a farmer, but afterwards became a carpenter and builder, doing business mainly in the villages of Harrisville, Quidnick, and Anthony. Sarah Lewis, the mother of Lieutenant Lewis, was the only daughter of the Hon. George and Martha (Stone) Hawkins, and a niece of the late venerable Rev. Richard C. Stone, “who with each of his nine children,” says the Bunker Hill (Ill.) Gazette, “have taught yearly in high schools, colleges and universities, from two to thirty-one years each.” His grandfather Hawkins in early life passed through the subordinate military ranks till he held a major’s commission. He was a representative in the General Assembly from 1819 to 1829, and senator from May, 1829, to 1831. For over forty years he was deacon in the Rice City Christian Church, of Coventry, R. I.
In early youth Mr. Lewis attended the public schools at Rice City, in Coventry, and at Sterling, Conn. In March, 1841, his parents moved to the Crompton Mills, in Warwick, R. I. Here George was employed in the cotton mill as a back-piecer in the mule room. He afterwards went to live with his uncle in Coventry, working in the shingle mill and on the farm, except in the winter months, when he attended the public school.
About the first of April, 1848, at the age of sixteen, George was apprenticed for three years to his uncle, Jason Lewis, then of Phenix, to learn the carpenter’s trade. He afterwards left his uncle’s employ, and worked for his father, who had commenced the same business, continuing with him most of the time until the summer of 1852. In September of that year he moved to Providence, R. I., and worked for several firms until the spring of 1854. He was then employed by Cyrus T. Eddy & Company, with whom he continued the greater portion of the time until September, 1861, when he entered the service of his country as a private in Battery E, First Rhode Island Light Artillery.
He was mustered into the service Sept. 30, 1861, and participated in all the battles in which his battery was engaged. He was wounded slightly May 3, 1863, at the battle of Chancellorsville. He was promoted to lance corporal May 29, 1863; corporal Sept. 4, 1863; re-enlisted Feb. 1, 1864; lance sergeant April 9, 1864; sergeant Oct. 20, 1864, to date from October 4th; second lieutenant March 31, 1865; assigned to Battery H, May 29, 1865; never reported or mustered as such; mustered out of service June 14, 1865.
After the close of the war Lieutenant Lewis resumed work for the same firm with whom he was employed before entering the army. He continued with them until February, 1866. He then went to Worcester, Mass., where he was employed as foreman in the carpenter shop of the “Earle Stove Company.” That company not succeeding in business closed their works in June, 1869. In July of that year Mr. Lewis entered the employ of Spicers & Peckham (now the Spicer Stove Company), the well-known and successful stove founders of Providence, R. I., with whom he is still (1894) employed, having had charge of their carpenter shop for over twenty-four years.
Mr. Lewis is a member of Slocum Post, No. 10, Grand Army of the Republic, and is also connected with the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Historical Society. He has served as a vice-president of the First Rhode Island Light Artillery Veteran Association.
He was chosen historian by his comrades to write the history of Battery E, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery. He labored with untiring zeal and ability to further this object, and the imperishable record he has been instrumental in preserving to the archives of the State will ever redound to his honor as a soldier and patriot.