Sergeant

Our Yankee feet are marching through Georgia. Thousands of us from the North are here to beat the Southern Rebels. But our supplies are running low. We have to live off the land and that means forage for food wherever we go. A while back we found plenty — chickens and hams and sweet potatoes at the farms and plantations. But there aren't any along here, just swampland, and I'm mighty hungry. When my ma heard I wanted to sign up she said, "Jeremy, you're only fifteen. " "President Lincoln needs him," Pa said.

San Bernardino County sheriff's investigators are investigating whether a Los Angeles police sergeant arrested on suspicion of committing a burglary last weekend in a foothills community is responsible for other break-ins nearby. Sgt. Lucien "Lou" Daigle, 44, was arrested Sunday after a homeowner reportedly confronted him inside her large Mentone home and doused him with a potent form of pepper spray typically used to ward off bears. Daigle, an 18-year LAPD veteran, fled but crashed his car a few miles away, apparently overcome by the repellent, said San Bernardino County Sheriff's Sgt. Paul Morrison.

A Los Angeles police sergeant was arrested Sunday on suspicion of burglary after a woman found him inside her home near the San Bernardino National Forest and sprayed him with a potent form of pepper spray that is typically used to ward off bears, authorities said. LAPD Sgt. Lucien Daigle allegedly fled but crashed his car a few miles from the woman's Mentone home, said San Bernardino County Sheriff's Sgt. Paul Morrison. Daigle reeked of pepper spray when he was approached and had valuables inside his car that belonged to the woman, Morrison said.

For Army Staff Sgt. David P. Senft , the years at war had taken a toll. The 27-year-old helicopter mechanic from Grass Valley, northeast of Sacramento, was reserved but tough. And with a love of flying and fast cars, his family said, he wanted to live life on the edge. But in the summer of 2010, in the time leading up to his latest deployment to Afghanistan, he was different. He resisted a return to war. His family and friends said he was depressed, emotionally fragile and, at least once, had tried to kill himself.

When Jason Weaver of Anaheim was 15, he told his mother he wanted to join the military. She told him to think about it. Two years later, Patricia Weaver came home to find her son meeting with a recruiter. She told the man to leave. "I said, 'I got one more year with my baby,'" she said. "It was my only child. " But her son persisted. After he graduated from El Dorado High School in Placentia in 2007, he decided to get in shape to join the Army. He lost 60 pounds, quit his job at a local grocery store and enlisted in January 2008.

When Russell Jeremiah Proctor was a child, his father often pushed him to excel because he thought his son could grow up to be a leader, according to family members. Proctor, 25, of Oroville , north of Sacramento, eventually joined the Army and became a staff sergeant. He was on his third deployment to Iraq when he was killed in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, on June 26. Army officials said Proctor and another soldier were killed by an improvised explosive device.

In early August, Marine Corps Sgt. Adan Gonzales Jr. called his wife, Catalina, from Afghanistan, where he was assigned to a sniper platoon. Gonzales' mood was buoyant as he heard how his three kids were doing and the move the family was making into a new apartment in Bakersfield. His last words to Catalina were "I love you. " Two days later, he was dead. Gonzales, 28 , was shot in the chest Aug. 7 during a firefight in southern Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold, military officials said.

Two men who served prison sentences for the attempted murder of an Orange County sheriff's sergeant three decades ago cannot be tried for murder after the sergeant, who was paralyzed, died of his injuries last year, a court of appeal ruled. The murder case against Robert Duston Strong and David Michael Knick must be dropped because at the time of the shooting, a victim had to have died within three years and a day of the crime to face a murder charge, the appeals panel ruled. The Orange County district attorney's office filed murder charges against Strong and Knick after Sgt. Ira Essoe, whose legs were amputated as a result of the shooting, died last year.

As a young boy curled in the crook of his father's arm, Nicanor Amper IV watched John Wayne war movies over and over, discovering deep comfort in the films despite the violence they featured. "For him, those movies were always about sticking up for the little guy, patriotism and doing the right thing," said his father, Nicanor Amper III. As he grew, the military gave him a sense of belonging. He pleaded with his father for a trip to Fleet Week, then a military helmet, then a Marine poster to put on his bedroom wall.