Waitt, Ernest Linden, History of the Nineteenth regiment, Massachusetts volunteer infantry , 1861-1865

[42] by having his head shaved of every spear of hair, so that it looked like a new-born baby's. It was an amusing sight and no sooner was it done than he repented. He said he felt as if his head was ‘all out of doors’ and he was obliged to wear his handkerchief, knotted at the four corners, on his bare head in lieu of a cap until the hair grew again. As he was the acting color sergeant of the regiment, he was a most conspicuous figure on dress parade and drill. Jere was a good soldier, and, although he had a peculiar impediment in his speech, his sunny disposition and invariable good nature made him very popular. He served his full term, reinlisted as a veteran, was promoted to lieutenant in the 1st U. S. Volunteers, was honorably mustered out of service and lost his life, several years after the war, in a sewer in New Jersey, where he volunteered to go down and rescue a laborer who had been overcome by gas.