Aloysius J. Gordon Kane – Ensign, United States Navy

COLONEL A. J. G. KANE DIES; CIVIL WAR VETERAN
Was Guard of Honor In 1865 to Lincoln's Catafalque
Won Right To Carry Whiskey In 2922

April 25, 1930 – Lieutenant Colonel A. J. Gordon Kane, who served in the Navy in the Civil War as an Ensign, died yesterday inthe Army and NavyClub, 30 West Forty-fourth Street, New York City, in his eighty-ninth year.  He is survived by a widow and three daughters.  Burial will take place  in the Arlington National Cemetery at 2:30 P.M. tomorrow.

In April 1865, Ensign Kane commanded the guard of honor of seaman-infantry that escorted the catafalque of President Lincoln from Jersey City tothe New York City Hall, when the funeral cortege was on its way to Springfield, Illinois.  Early in the Civil War he was watch officer on a naval cruiser when only 17 and a half, and at 18, in November 1861, he was executive officer and navigator of a gunboat in action at the battle of Port Royal, South Carolina, having been transferred as a officer from the Coast and Geodetic Survey Vessel Service.

An adventure that befell the veteran when he was 80 years old occurred on a train running between Washington and New York.  Colonel Kane, in the smoking compartment, started to take a drink of whiskey from his pocket flask.  The porter and conductor tried to stop him.  He announced that he needed the liquor to combat the effects of wounds received in the Civil War, and he successfully defied the trainment to stop his drinking.

Afterward the Surgeon General certified that Colonel Kanehad medicinal need of whiskey and Prohibition Commissioner Haynes gave him a permit to carry a half a pint abou twith him.


KANE, ALOYSIUS J
ENSIGN US NAVY
DATE OF DEATH: 04/24/1930
BURIED AT: SECTION S  SITE LOT 1592
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

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