There seem to be certain haunting cases in which a person has been locked to a certain place, perhaps in a sense imprisoned there or tethered there by some calling. Born in upstate Syracuse on Sept. 18, 1833, Samuel Abbott became a decorated Civil War hero fighting for Union forces working his way up from volunteer ensign to first lieutenant before his duties there were done, serving in Company E of the 12th New York State Volunteer Infantry. He would go on to spend 50 years as a state civil servant, and even in his 70s he was working a job as a night watchman at the Capitol Building at Alban...