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Of this brave soldier the "Albany Times" thus speaks in connection with his comrade, Mr. Scahall:
Of Fergus Madden we need not speak in terms of praise, his deeds are his best eulogy. Like Scahall, where he was most intimately known he was best loved and respected as a generous and true hearted friend, manly and straightforward in all his associations, of an irreproachable character and unsullied name. He was a member of the One Hundred and Twenty-second New York Volunteers, having enlisted in August, 1862. Possessed with a laudable ambition of gaining a position in the profession of arms, while in daily expectation of receiving a slight acknowledgment of his services in the field, he was captured on the 6th of May last, during the battle of the Wilderness.
As a prisoner of war he conducted himself, as he always did when conscious of having done his duty, with "complacency and truth and manly sweetness."
But a few months since, these young men were in the midst of an extended circle of friends and relatives, in the enjoyment of perfect health and all the comforts of a home, surrounded, as they were, by everything that tends to make home happy. But, true and patriotic, they fully appreciated the magnitude of the contest, and knew that strong arms and loyal hearts could alone avert the fearful calamities that threatened their country. With these were they liberally endowed, and these they have dedicated to their country's service. Neither died as soldiers wish to die, on the field of battle, amid the shouts of contending armies. They pined within the dreary walls of a southern prison, far from friends and home, the victims of a disease that slowly but surely preludes death. Not even were they allowed to die beneath the starry folds of the old flag they had borne victoriously through many a fight. It was, however, some mitigation of the horrors of death in their miserable abode, that two such friends as they were from boyhood up, should cheer each other in their efforts to keep alive the spark of hope, and lighten the evils of the disease under which they lay prostrate. Both died in the morning of life, ere the flowers of early manhood had yet bloomed and brightened, to promise a future of honor and success. Albany may well feel proud ot the patriotic and heroic band of martyrs, who have yielded up their lives in the cause of liberty and union.
