Martial Deeds of Pennsylvania, Samuel P. Bates, 1876 - Part 2, Chapter 2, 427-
466

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                         MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA
                                       by
                                SAMUEL P. BATES.

                     PHILADELPHIA: T. H. DAVIS & CO., 1876.

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 427

                              Part II.  BIOGRAPHY.

                                   CHAPTER II.

                              THE KILLED IN BATTLE.

GEORGE DASHIELL BAYARD, Brigadier-General of volunteers, and Colonel of the 
First Pennsylvania cavalry, was born on the 18th of December, 1835, at Seneca 
Falls, New York.  He traced his paternal ancestry to the family of the Chevalier 
Bayard, the Good Knight, without fear and without reproach, and his maternal to 
the Dashiells, a French Huguenot family.  At eight years of age his father 
removed to Iowa, where he remained several years.  In 1849, the family returned 
and settled in New Jersey, and in 1852, George was appointed by Mr. Fillmore a 
cadet at large in the Military Academy at West Point, whence he graduated in 
1856, standing eleven in a class which originally numbered ninety members.  On 
leaving the Academy he chose the cavalry arm of the service, and was assigned to 
duty with the First, now the Fourth regiment of regulars, in which he rose to 
the rank of Captain.  Soon after entering it his command was ordered to the 
plains, where it had frequent encounters with the Indians.  In 1860, while 
engaged with a party of Kiowas, he was severely wounded.  His father, in his 
life of Bayard, gives the following account of this event: "After a pursuit of 
more than twenty miles; some Indians were seen at a distance.  Lieutenant 
Bayard, being mounted on a superior horse, whose speed surpassed that of any in 
the command, led the way in the chase.  He soon came up with an Indian warrior, 
and, presenting his revolver, demanded his surrender.  The Indian, as Lieutenant 
Bayard rode up to him, had dismounted from his pony for the purpose of dodging 
the shot from the pistol he anticipated, or 

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 428

to enable him the better to use his bow and arrow.  At this moment, while in 
this attitude, Lieutenant Bayard saw some Indians running at a distance, and 
turned to see if any of his men were near enough to receive a signal from him 
that other Indians were in sight, and as he turned again towards the chief he 
had brought to bay, the latter shot him with his arrow.  The arrow was steel-
headed, in shape like a spear-head, and the head two and a half inches long.  It 
struck Lieutenant Bayard under the cheek-bone, and penetrated the antrim.  If 
the Indian had not been so near, he would have drawn his bow more taut, and 
probably killed his enemy."  The arrow head was imbedded so firmly in the bone 
that it could not with safety be removed except by superior skill.  Though 
enduring intense suffering, he made a journey of 800 miles to St. Louis before 
he could have the operation performed.  Its removal gave some relief, but the 
wound did not heal, and he was subject to severe hemorrhage which threatened his 
life.  The artery, which had been severed, was finally taken up and tied, 
freeing him from further danger from this source, and he was soon after assigned 
to duty as cavalry instructor at West Point.
  When the war broke out, in 1861, though his wound was still unhealed and very 
painful, he repeatedly asked to be relieved, and allowed to join a regiment of 
volunteers.  In a letter to his father of April 13th, he says: "The capital will 
very soon be the object of attack, and I think it the duty of all good Americans 
to march to its defence.  My heart is too full to write you anything about 
Sumter.  The Southerners have made a great mistake attacking it.  All my 
sympathy with the South is now gone.  It is now war to the knife."  And again, 
of July 26th,. . ."I must go to this war.  I cannot stay here and rust while 
gallant men are in the field.  This Rebellion is a much more serious thing than 
many suppose.  I pity the Southern officers in our army.  They cannot but 
condemn the madness of their politicians who have brought on this war, and yet 
they feel in honor bound to go with their section."   His request to be relieved 
was steadily refused until September 1861, when he was made Major of a regiment 
recruited by Colonel Van Allen of New York.  On his arrival at Washington 
General McClellan, then Commander-in-

GEORGE D. BAYARD - 429

chief, would not consent to his taking this position, and gave him the option to 
take command of a regiment or to serve as aid upon his staff.  Bayard chose an 
independent command, and was appointed by Governor Curtin Colonel of the First 
Pennsylvania cavalry, one of the regiments of the Reserve corps.  His great-
grandfather had been Colonel of the First Pennsylvania cavalry, in the 
Revolution.  His discipline was exact, and to independent yeomanry it seemed 
arbitrary; but the real worth and heroism of the man soon endeared him to all 
hearts, and reconciled them to his methods.  His first speech to his men, 
delivered as they were about to undertake a hazardous duty, was characteristic:  
"Men! I will ask you to go in no place but where I lead." 
  One who knew him well says of him: "As a soldier, in camp and on the field, in 
bivouac or in the height of an engagement, he was a perfect model.  He had a 
quiet but keen eye, detecting and correcting what was wrong, and just as quick 
to discern merit.  In the field, he participated in all the hardships with the 
men, declining a shelter when they were exposed." 
  In the spring of 1862, he was promoted to Brigadier-General, and was placed 
over the First brigade of cavalry in the Army of the Potomac.  When McClellan 
went to the Peninsula, Bayard remained with the army of observation before 
Washington.  At Cross Keys, and all the subsequent operations under General 
Pope, he acquitted himself with great credit.  He had been at the Academy with 
J. E. B. Stuart, and at Cedar Mountain they met; first in conflict, and 
afterwards under flag of truce for the burial of the dead, where they conversed 
in a friendly way.  No allusion was made to the present war, but they talked of 
former associations.  "During the interview," says a Washington paper, "a 
wounded Union soldier lying near was groaning and asked for water.  'Here, Jeb,' 
said Bayard - old time recollections making him familiar as he tossed his bridle 
to the rebel officer - 'hold my horse a minute, will you, till I fetch that poor 
fellow some water.' Jeb held the bridle.  Bayard went to a stream and brought 
the wounded man some water.  As Bayard mounted his horse, Jeb remarked that it 
was the first time he had 'played orderly to a Union General.'"  Stuart was then 
a Major-General in the Confederate service.  The business for which they met

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 430

was soon arranged, and when the bugle sounded the recall they shook hands and 
turned away, mortal enemies again.
  General Bayard, from the midst of war's direful encounters, was looking 
forward with interest to his marriage, which, he says in a letter to his mother, 
of October 26th, 1862, "we have intended should take place on the 18th of 
December, my twenty-seventh birthday."  In a letter of the 22d of November, to 
his father, he says. "I have been troubled a good deal of late with rheumatism, 
owing to having been thoroughly drenched with rain.  I ought to be in the 
hospital.  But I must go with this army through.  I am senior General of 
cavalry.  Honor and glory are before me - shame lurks in the rear.  It looks as 
if I should not be able to leave at the time appointed for my marriage, but will 
have to postpone it till this campaign is over."
  In the desperate engagement at Fredericksburg, on the 13th of December, he had 
the honor of opening the battle, and holding the enemy in check until the 
infantry could come up, when he was withdrawn and posted on the extreme left of 
the line, his left flank abutting upon the river.  "There," says the life," he 
was engaged all the morning of the 13th, more or less with the enemy's 
skirmishers and advance.  His last directions, before leaving his troops to go 
to the headquarters of General Franklin, were given to his artillery officer to 
change the position of some of his guns.  A little before two o'clock he rode to 
headquarters, to receive such orders as General Franklin might deem proper to 
give.  He found the General in a grove of trees, with some of his staff and 
other General officers.  The enemy were then throwing their shells at and around 
this grove.  General Bayard, soon after he arrived, having dismounted, seated 
himself at the foot of a tree, but with his face towards the quarter from whence 
the shells came.  He was warned by a brother officer of his needless exposure, 
and invited to change his position.  This he did not do, but remained for some 
time participating in the conversation of those around.  In a little while, 
however, he rose from his seat, and hardly stood erect, when he was struck by a 
shell just below the hip, shattering his thigh near the joint.  In this 
frightful condition, with mind still clear and active, he lingered until noon of 
the following day, arranging his business and send-

STRONG VINCENT - 431

ing messages of love and affection to friends.  To his father and mother he 
said: "I have to dictate to you a few words, ere it becomes too late.  My 
strength is rapidly wasting away.  Goodbye, dearest father and mother; give my 
love to my sisters."  He did not appear to suffer much pain, and about twenty-
four hours after he was struck, he sank gradually and quietly to his last sleep.  
"Not one," says Greeley, "died more lamented than Major-General George D. 
Bayard, commanding our cavalry on the left, who was struck by a shell and 
mortally wounded.  But twenty-seven years old, and on the eve of marriage, his 
death fell like a pall on many loving hearts." 

STRONG VINCENT, Colonel of the Eighty-third regiment, and Brigadier-General, son 
of Bethuel B. and Sarah A. (Strong) Vincent, was born in the village of 
Waterford, Erie county, Pennsylvania, June 17th, 1837.  At the age of seventeen, 
he went to Hartford, Connecticut, where he became a student in the Scientific 
School.  Subsequently he prepared for, and entered Trinity College, where he 
remained two years.  At the end of that time, he entered Harvard College, and 
graduated in the class of 1859.  Vincent did not attain a high rank as a 
scholar, but was looked up to as a leader among his associates, and as possessed 
of qualities which would make him a leader among men.  In stature he was above 
the medium height, of well-formed and powerful frame.  Returning to Erie, he 
commenced the study of law, and on his admission to the bar, at once took a 
prominent rank.  The day after the President's call for volunteers, he enlisted 
as a private soldier in the Wayne Guards.  At the expiration of the three 
months' service, in which he served as Adjutant of the Erie regiment, he took an 
active part in raising the Eighty-third regiment for three years' service, and 
was elected and commissioned its Lieutenant-Colonel.  The Battle of Hanover 
Court House was his first experience of real conflict, though the regiment 
suffered little in this engagement.  The malaria of the swamps proved more fatal 
to the soldiers than the bullets of the enemy, and he became a victim to its 
deadly influence.  Towards the end of June, he was sick almost beyond the hope 
of recovery.  At the time of the battle of Gaines' Mill, he was too weak to 
leave

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 432

his bed; but when he learned the disasters which had befallen his regiment, - 
the Colonel and Major dead on the field, and more than half its numbers gone 
down in the battle, - he determined to rejoin it.  His strength was insufficient 
to bear up under the fatigues of the march, and he was finally carried 
insensible from the field.  He was taken in a hospital ship to New York, and 
thence to his home in Erie.  On his return, in October, he took command of the 
regiment, having been chosen and commissioned Colonel during his absence.  He 
participated in the battle of Fredericksburg, and while on the advance line in 
front of the enemy, the command of the brigade devolved upon him.  He was for 
several weeks, President of a court-martial, and was tendered the position of 
Judge-Advocate-General of the Army of the Potomac.  But this honor, which many 
young officers would have coveted, he declined, saying: "I enlisted to fight."  
In the action at Ashby's Gap, on the 21st of June, preceding the battle of 
Gettysburg, in which Vincent commanded a brigade, the enemy were routed and a 
Blakely gun captured.  For his skill in this affair, he received the formal 
thanks of General Meade.  The army was now on its way to Gettysburg.  On 
crossing the Pennsylvania line, Vincent became much excited, riding up and down 
the column, encouraging the men and reminding them that they were now to fight 
on their own soil.  On the 2d of July, the second day of the battle, Vincent was 
ordered to seize Little Round Top, and hold the narrow valley between it and Big 
Round Top. After heroically repulsing repeated assaults, while reconnoitring the 
position of the enemy from a huge rock directly fronting the Devil's Den, then 
held by the enemy's sharp-shooters, he fell mortally wounded.  On the following 
day, his appointment by the President as Brigadier-General, was sent to him.  He 
lingered till the 7th, and expired on the field.  On entering the service, he 
had written to his young wife: "If I live, we will rejoice over our country's 
success.  If I fall, remember you have given your husband to the most righteous 
cause that ever widowed a woman," - a sentiment that is worthy to be inscribed 
upon his tomb.

CHARLES F. TAYLOR -  433

CHARLES FREDERICK TAYLOR, Colonel of the Bucktail regiment, was born on the 6th 
of February 1840, at West Chester, Pennsylvania.  His boyhood years were spent 
upon his father's farm, near Kennett Square.  This is the neighborhood or the 
ground made sacred in the Revolution.  Not far away is the Quaker church, where, 
even now, stains upon the floor are shown, formed by pools of the life-current 
from patriot wounds; and near-by, the tree under which Lafayette reclined, when 
weak from loss of blood.  The story of that struggle was early learned, and 
inspired his youthful imagination.  At the age of fifteen, he entered the 
University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, which he left on the following year, to 
accompany his brother, Bayard Taylor, and two sisters, on a tour through Europe.  
After travelling in Great Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, 
Charles, with his sisters, settled at Lausanne, while Bayard was making his 
northern tour through Sweden and Lapland.  In the spring of 1857, they proceeded 
to Gotha for studying the German language; and in June following, returned to 
America.  With renewed vigor, Charles again took his place in the University; 
but at the end of a year, left the institution, to undertake the management of 
his father's farm.  His plans for improved culture had scarcely been matured, 
when the tocsin of war was sounded, and he instantly abandoned the visions of 
agricultural triumphs, for those on the field of strife.
  Having recruited a company, he moved with it to Harrisburg, where it was made 
a part of the Bucktail regiment, and he was commissioned its Captain.  Before 
the opening of the spring campaign, this regiment was divided; six companies, 
under Major Roy Stone, going with McClellan to the Peninsula; and the other 
four, among which was Captain Taylor's, under Colonel Kane, remaining with 
McDowell in the army of observation.  At Harrisonburg, on the 6th of June, this 
handful of Bucktails fought an entire brigade of the enemy.  They were subjected 
to an enfilading fire, by which Captain Taylor received four bullet holes 
through his clothes.  When about to retire, he found that his Colonel had 
fainted from loss of blood, and in the act of rendering him assistance, they 
were surrounded by eight or ten 

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 434

rebels who immediately took them prisoners.  They were both paroled at 
Petersburg, and at once sent into the Union lines.  Their request to be 
exchanged was not granted, and they remained prisoners on parole until November, 
during which time Captain Taylor was commandant of Camp Parole, at Annapolis.  
He was not released until after the battle of Antietam, when Colonel McNeil 
having been killed, and Colonel Kane having been promoted to Brigadier-General - 
he was advanced to Colonel, then but twenty-one, among the youngest who held 
that Commission in the Union army.  In the battle of Fredericksburg, he was 
wounded, the loss in the regiment being very severe.  At Gettysburg the 
Bucktails were in the First brigade, commanded by Colonel McCandless.  At the 
moment when the fortunes of the day on the left of the field seemed utterly 
lost, brigade after brigade, and division after division, having been pushed 
forward, only to be hurled back mangled and bleeding, McCandless was ordered to 
charge and check the impetuous onsets of the foe.  In two lines he advanced, 
Taylor having the left of the second line.  The swamp, formed by Plum Run, 
presented a serious impediment; but, having passed it in the face of a murderous 
fire, he swept on, and having crossed the stone wall upon the verge of the wood, 
dashed through it to the edge of the Wheatfield, where, while in the act of 
steadying and encouraging his men, he was shot through the heart by the bullet 
of a sharp-shooter.  His body was carried back, and taken to his home near 
Kennett Square, where it was buried with impressive ceremonies.  A tasteful 
monument rests over his grave - the tribute of soldiers and friends.

JOHN RICHTER JONES, Colonel of the Fifty-eighth regiment, entered the service 
from Sullivan county, Pennsylvania, on the 13th of February, 1862.  Many of his 
men were from the forest region, and the pet he chose to accompany his command 
was in keeping with the characteristics of the section he represented.  It was 
neither a dog, a cat, a rooster, a coon, nor a fox, which were the most commonly 
adopted; but a bear from the forests of Sullivan.  The service which Colonel 
Jones' command performed was, for the most part, rendered in North Carolina, 

JOHN R. JONES - JAMES H. CHILDS - 435

where he was isolated from the great armies operating in the field, and where 
the duty chiefly consisted in holding an enemy's country, and fighting detached 
bodies as they chanced to appear.  A clause, extracted from the communication of 
a writer who understood well the difficulties and dangers of that service, 
published in Moore's Rebellion Record, discloses its character.  "There are 
thousands," he says, "at the North, who curse the army for inaction, who, if 
they knew half the brave things done by the men in the field, would be shamed to 
silence by their deeds of valor.  Colonel Jones and his heroes of the Fifty-
eighth Pennsylvania have done some splendid work, and by his vigilance he has 
made the bushwhackers cry for quarter."  In an action at Bachelor's Creek, on 
the 23d of May, 1863, while in command of a brigade, and conducting an important 
expedition, he was shot through the heart and instantly expired.  General 
Foster, who commanded in the department, in an order announcing his death, said: 
"Colonel Jones won the admiration of all, by the indefatigable, able, and 
gallant manner with which he filled the arduous duties of Commander of the 
Outposts.  He died whilst yet enjoying the triumphs of a victory won by his 
valor and counsel." 

JAMES HARVEY CHILDS, Colonel of the fourth cavalry, was  born on the 4th of 
July, 1834, at Pittsburg.  His father was Harvey Childs, a native of 
Massachusetts.  His mother, Jane Bailey (Lowrie) Childs, was a sister of the 
Hon. Walter H. Lowrie, late Chief Justice of Pennsylvania.  He was educated at 
the Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, where he graduated in the class of 1852.  In 
person, he was six feet in height, well proportioned, and of good general 
health.  He was married on the 14th of July, 1857, to Mary H. Howe, eldest 
daughter of the Hon. Thomas M. Howe, of Pittsburg. 
  He was First Lieutenant of the Pittsburg City Guards, before the rebellion.  
When the call was made for troops in that struggle, he was prompt to tender his 
services, and became First Lieutenant of company K, Twelfth regiment.  After the 
conclusion of the term for which this body was enlisted, he was active in 
recruiting the Fourth Pennsylvania Cavalry, and was com-

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 436 

missioned Lieutenant-Colonel.  Before entering upon field service he was 
promoted to Colonel.  In the campaign upon the Peninsula he was on duty with his 
command, the scouting and skirmishing being unusually severe on account of the 
lack of troops in this arm of the service.  His regiment opened the battle in 
the first of the seven days' engagements, and at Gaines' Mill and Charles City 
Cross Roads, was actively employed, proving, in both these desperate encounters 
the sterling qualities of which it was composed and the steadfast purpose of its 
commander
  On evacuating the Peninsula, the regiment moved to Washington, arriving in 
time to join in the Maryland campaign.  At Antietam it was attached to Averell's 
brigade, and on account of the sickness of its leader, the command devolved upon 
Colonel Childs.  The brigade was assigned to the left of the Union line, and 
after crossing the stone bridge, was posted in support of Clark's battery, which 
was warmly engaged.  The duty was difficult, and the enemy's fire proved very 
destructive.  Colonel Childs was upon every part of the field, encouraging his 
men, and intelligently directing the movements.  He had just completed an 
inspection of the skirmish line and had returned to his headquarters, where he 
was cheerfully conversing with his staff, when he was struck by a cannon-ball on 
the left hip which threw him from his horse, and passed completely through his 
body.  For a time his mind was clear, and recognizing at once that his wound was 
mortal, his first care was for his command.  He dispatched Captain Hughes, one 
of his aids, to General Pleasanton, Chief of cavalry, to apprise him of his 
fall, and another to Lieutenant-Colonel Kerr, to request him to assume command 
of the brigade.  He then sent a message to Dr. Marsh, that, "If he was not 
attending to anyone whose life could be saved, to come to him, as he was in 
great pain."  Finally, he called to his side his Assistant Adjutant-General, 
Captain Henry King, a townsman, and personal friend, to whom he gave brief 
messages of affection to his wife and three little children.  Of the oldest of 
the three, a boy bearing the name of his maternal grandfather, as if thinking in 
his dying moments only of his country for which he had perilled and lost his own 
life, he said: "Tell Howe to be a good boy, and a good man, and true to his 
country."  In twenty

WASHINGTON BROWN - 437

minutes he became delirious, and shortly after breathed his 1ast, joining in the 
spirit-land his many comrades whose last earthly struggle was on the bloody 
field of Antietam.

WASHINGTON BROWN, Captain in the One Hundred and Forty-fifth regiment.  Many of 
the most earnest and faithful of the soldiers who went forth to do battle for 
the preservation of the national integrity, were the sons of farmers, who, 
during the period of boyhood and youth, were accustomed to labor; and while 
removed from the privileges of the city, were also kept aloof from its 
corrupting influences, - a condition favoring reflection and inducing to study. 
  Of this class was Washington Brown, who was born on the 22d of October, 1836, 
in Millcreek township, Erie county, Pennsylvania.  His father, Conrad Brown, and 
his mother, Elizabeth Ann (Barr) Brown, were both natives of that county.  The 
son was instructed in the common schools of the district during five or six 
months in each year, working upon the farm the remainder of the time, until he 
had passed the period of boyhood, when he was sent to the Erie County Academy, 
and, subsequently, to a commercial school in the city of New York, where he 
completed his academic studies.  In his nineteenth year, he taught a country 
school during one term.  He attained to a good degree of proficiency in 
mathematics and civil engineering. 
  He early exhibited a liking for military training, and became a member of the 
Wayne Guards, a widely-known militia company, commanded by that gallant soldier 
and true patriot, John W. McLane.  Early in the war, he was active in recruiting 
a company for the One Hundred and Forty-fifth Pennsylvania regiment, of which he 
was chosen Captain.  When the subject of the captaincy was under consideration, 
he was asked what his course would be if he were defeated for this position?  
His answer was prompt and decisive: "I will go into the ranks with my musket."  
The choice of a Captain was not long in doubt. 
  The organization of the regiment was completed but a few days before the 
battle of Antietam, and it was hurried away to join the grand army.  It arrived 
within sound of the battle, and was employed in burying the dead on that gory 
field. 

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 438

  In the battle of Fredericksburg, Captain Brown was wounded in the right arm, 
near the shoulder.  Calling to one of his men, he requested him to tie a 
handkerchief tightly above the wound, and using his knife for a tourniquet, he 
seized his sword in his left hand, and again led on his men, cheering them in 
the fight, until from loss of blood he became too weak to stand, when he was 
carried from field.  He was unable to obtain surgical assistance, and for three 
days the wound remained undressed - a fatal and unaccountable delay.  When 
finally it was examined, it was found to be past relief.  When told by the 
surgeon that he must lose his arm, he cheerfully assented, and it was amputated 
at the shoulder.  Three days thereafter, having endured great suffering and 
grief at the separation from friends and family, he died.  His father was with 
him through all, and ministered to him with paternal care.  His last words were: 
"O Lord, receive my spirit!  Good-bye.  I am gone."  Thus passed to his rest as 
brave a man as ever filled a soldier's grave. 
  On the 11th of September, 1861, just one year before his departure for the 
front, he was married to Miss Eliza Alexander of Covington, Kentucky, who, with 
an infant daughter, was left to mourn his untimely death.  In person, he was 
erect and well-proportioned, being five feet ten inches in height, and weighing 
170 pounds.  He was possessed of good health, of temperate habits, industrious, 
energetic, of a kind and sympathetic heart.  He was descended from a line of 
heroic ancestors.  On the day that his regiment left for the front, his aged 
grandmother, more than threescore years and ten, in the spirit of the heroine of 
old - who bade her son return with the weapon she gave, or upon it - presented 
him a pistol, as a token of her appreciation of the righteousness of the cause 
he espoused, and of her faith in its triumph.  The company having been drawn up, 
ready to take its place in the line, the venerable matron thus addressed him: 
"My son, I send you to war to defend the liberties of our country which are 
menaced by designing and wicked men.  My father, your great grandfather, fought 
in the Revolutionary War to gain our independence.  My husband, your 
grandfather, served in the War of 1812 to establish our independence, and I wish 
you to do your duty to your country by giving your services, and life itself, 

WILLIAM BOWEN - 439

if necessary, in defence of those liberties, won and established by your 
fathers.  I present you this weapon.  Use it if the occasion calls, and use it 
skillfully.  Always be obedient to those who are placed over you.  Be kind to 
those who are under you, and may they treat you with respect and obedience in 
return.  My blessing shall follow you, and may God bless and preserve you.  
Farewell." 
  The Captain briefly said, in response: "I thank you for this weapon.  I will 
endeavor to do my duty to my country, and to my men."  Faithfully was the 
promise kept; and when, after having fallen upon the field of honor, his 
lifeless form was borne mournfully to his home, a great concourse of sorrowing 
friends and fellow-citizens followed him to his final resting-place, in the 
Cemetery at Erie.  It is sad to contemplate the sacrifice of such as these; but 

                "Who dies in vain 
       Upon his country's war-fields, and within
       The shadows of her altars?" 

WILLIAM BOWEN, Lieutenant and Acting Adjutant of the Seventy-fifth regiment, was 
born on the 25th of April, 1837, at Manchester, England, where his parents were 
then residing.  He was the son of William Ezra and Elizabeth (Kritley) Bowen, 
the former a native of Philadelphia, the latter of England.  While the son was 
yet in infancy, they came to Philadelphia, where, and at Bolmar's Military 
Institute at Westchester, he received a good education.  After graduating he was 
for a time in mercantile business, spent a year in Centre county, and a year and 
a half in Ontonagon, Michigan, where his health, which had suffered from a 
rheumatic affection, was much improved.  He volunteered at the opening of the 
war in the Seventeenth regiment, Colonel Patterson, and at the conclusion of its 
service, entered the Seventy-fifth, General Bohlen; as a Second-Lieutenant.  His 
regiment was attached to the Second brigade of Schurz's division; and in Pope's 
campaign he was the Acting Adjutant.  It was a position of great responsibility, 
and from the confidence which he had inspired by his soldierly qualities, one of 
marked influence.  In that disastrous retreat he had particularly distinguished 
himself in the work of checking the

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 440

enemy's advance, and protecting the retiring army.  In a desperate charge 
ordered for this purpose, on the 3Oth of August, while at the head and cheering 
on his regiment, he received a mortal wound, from the effect of which he soon 
after expired on the field.  Though in the agonies of death he still thought of 
his command, and with his last breath asked: "Do the men still stand firm?"  On 
being assured that they did, he said: "It is all right then."  These were his 
last words.  His remains were buried on the field, but were subsequently removed 
to the family grave at Laurel Hill Cemetery.

SAMUEL CROASDALE, Colonel of the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth regiment, son of 
William and Sarah Croasdale, was born at Hartsville, Bucks county, on the 23d of 
August, 1837.  He was  educated at Tenant school in his native town.  He early 
evinced talents of a superior order, and a disposition thoughtful, studious, and 
ambitious.  His love for, and knowledge of the classics, acquired for him among 
his fellows the sobriquet of Old Cicero.  In the mathematics, in which he also 
delighted, he was no less proficient.  He chose the law as his profession, and 
at the age of twenty-three was admitted to the Bucks county bar, where he 
practised until the breaking out of the war.  When troops were needed he was 
among the first to enlist, and went as a private under Colonel W. W. H. Davis, 
in the three months' campaign.  He entered the service again as Captain, having 
recruited a company; was promoted to the rank of Colonel, and given the command 
of the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania regiment.  Before his men had 
been a month in the service, they were incorporated in the Army of the Potomac, 
and put upon the march to meet the enemy in Maryland.  At the battle of 
Antietam, fought on the 17th of September, 1862, he was instantly killed, while 
leading his command on the hottest part of that stubbornly contested field.  In 
appearance he was tall and commanding, with a fine intellectual face, expressive 
of power and determination, yet with a disposition most kind and affectionate.

SAMUEL CROASDALE - HENRY I. ZINN - 441

HENRY I. ZINN, Colonel of the One Hundred and Thirtieth regiment, was born on 
the 11th of December, 1834, in Dover township, York county, Pennsylvania.  He 
was the son of John and Anna Mary (Beitzel) Zinn.  He received his education at 
the Cumberland Valley Institute, which gave a thorough training in the branches 
of a liberal course, and here he stood among the first for readiness of 
apprehension and soundness of views.  By nature well endowed, and by taste 
studious, he was fitted to have taken a commanding position among his fellow men 
in any walk or profession.  He was, in stature, five feet ten inches, stout, 
robust, and healthy.  He was married on the 18th of September, 1855, to Miss 
Mary Ann Clarke.
  He entered the service of the United States on the 23d of April, 1862, when he 
was elected First-Lieutenant of Company H, Seventh Pennsylvania Reserve.  He was 
promoted to Captain of that company on the 28th of June; but in August following 
resigned.  Re-entering the service, as Captain of Company F, One Hundred and 
Thirtieth, on the 9th of August, a few days thereafter he was made Colonel of 
the regiment.  He was in this position in a sphere fitted to his capabilities, 
and under his moulding hand the regiment rapidly gained a knowledge and skill in 
the practice of military duty.  He was posted in the fortifications covering the 
approaches to Washington, during the battles of Groveton and Chantilly, and at 
Antietam took a prominent part, his regiment being stationed on the left of the 
right wing of the Union army, losing severely.  He was here conspicuous for 
gallantry, and had a horse shot under him.  After this engagement, Colonel Zinn 
was posted at Harper's Ferry, where his men suffered for want of camp equipage, 
and even for food.  But in spite of the many difficulties, he instituted and 
pursued a regular plan of daily battalion and company drills.  "He was," says 
one of his subordinate officers, "one of the best drill masters in the corps." 
  Captain Joshua W. Sharp, a brave man, who led one of the companies in Colonel 
Zinn's regiment, gives the following graphic account of the part it bore in the 
battle of Fredericksburg, and of the heroic death of its leader: "The One 
Hundred and Thirtieth started for Fredericksburg on the 11th of December,

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 442

crossed the Rappahannock on the following morning, and shared in the charge made 
on Marye's Heights by French's division, supported by Howard's, on the long to 
be remembered 13th, when, with this portion of the right wing of his army, 
Burnside sought to pierce the rebel centre, defended by lines of rifle pits, and 
a stone wall along the base and sides of the encircling heights, and by numerous 
batteries that covered their summits.  Over that fearful valley of death the One 
Hundred and Thirtieth advanced at a double-quick, enfiladed on both right and 
left, and with a tremendous fire in front.  Twice it was ordered to lie down, 
the second time just in front of the enemy; and here it is believed that some of 
our own shells from the guns on Stafford Hills fell among its ranks.  It is 
certain that some of its men were killed by bullets from Federal soldiers in 
their rear; for the column of attack was from twenty to forty men deep.  Galled 
by so many fires, whole regiments of the attacking force fell back into 
Fredericksburg.  Meagher's men, with their green emblems streaming in the air, 
had come flying back from their bloody charge with numbers sadly reduced.  The 
One Hundred and Thirtieth was about to follow, when Colonel Zinn, rising up, 
clasping the banner which had been presented by the State in his left hand, and 
waving his sword with the right, called out:
  "Stick to your standard, boys!  The One Hundred and Thirtieth never abandons 
its standard!"
  Hardly had he uttered the words when he fell, pierced in the temple by a Minié 
ball.  But the regiment, now under the command of Captain Porter, stuck to its 
standard, and a portion of it did not leave the field until after night-fall."
  Thus fell one of the truest and boldest spirits that went forth from the 
Keystone State to do battle for his country.  It was not a reckless bravery - a 
daring without thought - but with appreciative heroism, he went with considered 
step to his death.
                   Say not so! 
      'Tis not the grapes of Canaan that repay, 
       But the high faith that failed not by the way;
       Virtue treads paths that end not in the grave;
       No ban of endless night exiles the brave; 
             And to the saner mind
       We rather seem the dead that stayed behind. 

HENRY W. CARRUTHERS - 443

HENRY W. CARRUTHERS, Captain in the Ninety-seventh regiment.  In the late war of 
the Rebellion, some of the most gifted of the young men of the nation, before 
whom there seemed opening in civil life a bright career, iter ad astra, were 
untimely cut off, giving up their lives as sacrifices on the altar of their 
country.  Of these Henry W. Carruthers was one.  He was born at Lawrenceville, 
Illinois, on the 5th of November, l835.  His father, George W. Carruthers, a 
promising young lawyer, died while his son was but a child.  His mother, Jemima 
P. Carruthers, upon the death of her husband returned to Pennsylvania, her 
native State.
  At the age of fourteen Henry was apprenticed to his uncle, Hon. Henry S. 
Evans, editor of the Village Record, of West Chester, to learn the business of a 
printer, with whom he remained until he became of age, acquiring a good 
knowledge of the art, and manifesting skill and business talent.  At the 
expiration of this period he commenced the study of law in the office of Joseph 
Hemphill, Esq., and in 1858 was admitted to practice in the courts of Chester 
and Delaware counties.  Well read in his profession, and possessed of a graceful 
and popular style of oratory, he at once took a commanding position at the bar, 
and was acquiring a lucrative practice, when the Rebellion opened and he 
rendered a prompt obedience to the call of his country in her time of need.
  He had previously been a member of the National Guards, a militia company of 
note, commanded by Henry R. Guss, and when the latter recruited his company for 
the three months' service, and again at the end of that period recruited the 
Ninety-seventh regiment for three years, Carruthers fol1owed the fortunes of his 
leader in each, serving in Patterson's army as a private in the former, and as 
Adjutant of the regiment during the greater part of the term in the latter.  In 
this capacity he was taken to the Department of the South, where he remained 
until the spring of 1864.  His legal knowledge and his habits of accuracy in the 
transaction of business prepared him to discharge the duties of Adjutant with 
remarkable skill and ability, and made him an admirable adviser to his 
commander.  During the siege of Forts Wagner and Gregg he had charge of the 
assignment and relief

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 444

of working parties detailed from the brigade, a position of great peril and 
hardship, which he performed with singular success.
  Upon the transfer of the regiment to the Army of the James, his ability was 
even more apparent and his skill in more constant requisition.  While in the 
Department of the South he had acted at intervals as Assistant Adjutant-General 
on the staff of Colonel Guss, but he was afterwards offered this position on the 
staff of Colonel Bell; but he steadily declined it, preferring to remain with 
his old companions in arms.  On the 6th of June, 1864, while in front of the 
enemy's works at Cold Harbor, he received his commission as Captain of Company C 
of his regiment.  In the battle of Strawberry Plains, on the 16th of August, 
Captain Carruthers received a mortal wound.  He was taken to the General 
Hospital at Fortress Monroe, where he had devoted attention and surgical aid, 
but all without avail, and on the 30th of the month, in his twenty-ninth year, 
he expired, deeply lamented by his company and by his entire regiment.
  The following resolution, passed by the bar of West Chester, shows the esteem 
in which he was held by his brethren of the legal profession: "Resolved, That in 
the death of Our dear friend and brother we feel that one of the best and most 
promising of our circle has been taken from us; one who generously gave up his 
young life - so full of vigor and hope - in defence of his country.  The 
industry with which he pursued his preparatory studies for the bar; the energy 
with which he applied himself to the duties of his profession; his honorable 
bearing; the courteous, the kind and gentle spirit which always graced his 
intercourse with us; his loyalty, his patriotism, his humanity, his courage, and 
finally, his heroic death, make his brave and beautiful life precious to all his 
friends and brethren.  In the manner of his death we are reminded that he is the 
fifth martyr from our midst, and we fondly associate his name with the honored 
names of Bell, Roberts, McIntire, and Nields, and will keep them all in 
affectionate remembrance."

RICHARD HOBSON WOOLWORTH, Colonel of the Fourth Reserve regiment, was born at 
Mantuaville, Philadelphia, in November, 1824.  After receiving a thorough 
education in the

RICHARD H. WOOLWORTH - 445 

schools of the city, he passed a novitiate in business in prominent commercial 
houses.  He was afterwards connected with a leading house in stock exchange and 
brokerage, and two years before the opening of the war, established in this line 
a business of his own.  He had been made Captain of a militia company in 1845, 
raised to protect the city against the riots which at that time threatened its 
peace, and when the call was made for troops to form the Reserve Corps, in 1861, 
he rendered signal service in drilling the new levies, and was finally made 
Captain of a company recruited in Germantown.  Upon the formation of the Third 
Reserve, at Camp Washington, he was made Major, and subsequently, while the 
division was at Fredericksburg, just previous to its setting out for the 
Peninsula, he was ordered to the Fourth Reserve, in which he was commissioned 
Lieutenant-Co1onel.  At Beaver Dam Creek and Gaines' Mill he shared the fortunes 
of the Reserves, who were put at the fore front and did severe duty.  At Charles 
City Cross Roads Colonel Woolworth was severely wounded, and on the day after 
the battle, while lying in the hospital, was taken prisoner and moved to 
Richmond.  He was soon after paroled and sent to hospital at David's Island, New 
York, where, thirty days after the battle, portions of his coat were extracted 
from his wounds.  While yet lame he rejoined his command, and led it in the 
battle of Fredericksburg, where he was struck by a spent ball, from the effect 
of which he was confined to the hospital for two weeks.  On the 1st of March, 
1863, he was promoted to Colonel.  After the transfer of a portion of the 
Reserves to Harper's Ferry, he had for a time command of a brigade.
  In the spring of 1864, General Crook headed a column which penetrated West 
Virginia, of which the Fourth Reserve formed part.  In the sanguinary battle of 
Cloyd Mountain, fought on the 9th of May, 1864, while the Reserves, under 
General Sickel, were charging upon the enemy's position in the face of a fierce 
fire of artillery and small arms, Colonel Woolworth, in leading on his men with 
great gallantry, was mortally wounded by a grapeshot.  He was buried on the 
field beneath a locust tree, upon the bank of the stream across which the 
brigade was charging. 

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 446

  From first to last Colonel Woolworth maintained the character of exalted 
patriotism.  Towards the close of the year 1863, a gentleman of wealth, Mr. 
Lewis Cooper, desired to form a business partnership with him, and requested the 
Hon. Charles Gilpin, an uncle of the Colonel, to transmit the proposition to 
him, then with his regiment on simple guard duty at Alexandria.  The answer of 
Woolworth disclosed the conscientious regard for duty by which he was governed: 
"Dear Uncle: - I duly received thine of the 7th, and am truly grateful to our 
friend for his kind and generous offer.  I should feel it my duty to accept it 
under other circumstances; but as I have voluntarily sworn to serve the United 
States well and truly for three years, I do not feel at liberty to tender my 
resignation.  I think that the officers are as much bound by their oath as the 
enlisted men, particularly as many of the latter have enlisted through the 
example of those higher in position.  Officers who resign now are not much 
thought of by those who remain in the service.  The remaining ten months will 
soon slip around, and then, should I be spared, I hope to be with you again.  
Tell my friend I am very sorry to decline his proposal, and hope I may have an 
opportunity of expressing my thanks to him personally,"  A just sense of honor, 
which would not allow him to lay down his sword while confronting the enemies of 
his country, carried him to the fatal field of Cloyd Mountain, where his life 
was sacrificed to the cause of freedom and good government.  The body of Colonel 
Woolworth was subsequently removed to Philadelphia and buried in the Odd Fellows 
Cemetery, near the city, where a monument was erected to his memory.

GEORGE ASHWORTH COBRAM, JR., Colonel of the One Hundred and Eleventh regiment, 
and Brevet Brigadier-General, was born on the 5th of December, 1825, in 
Liverpool, England.  He was the second son of Henry Cobham, of Brasinces 
College, Saint Albans Hall, University of Oxford, who died five months before 
the son's birth, and who was descended from Henry, the first Baron Cobham, one 
of the followers of William, in his conquest of Britain.  The mother afterwards 
married the father's brother, George A. Cobham, and with him, and her two sons

GEORGE A. COBHAM, JR. - 447

Henry and George A., came to this country in 1835, when the latter was but ten 
years of age, and settled five miles from Warren, on a tract which they named 
Cobham Park.  Here the youth grew up a hardy pioneer, acquiring that athletic 
development which particularly characterized him to the end of his life, being 
six feet in height, well formed, and muscular.  Though born in England, and 
having all his youthful associations there, he was, nevertheless, an American in 
thought and feeling.
  When the cry for help against armed rebellion came from the National 
authorities, he said: "The Government must have defenders; the Rebellion must be 
put down with a strong hand; somebody must lead these men; if other and better 
men do not, I will try."  When the One Hundred and Eleventh regiment was formed, 
in the summer of 1862, he was made Lieutenant-Colonel, and soon after taking the 
field, was promoted to Colonel.  At Charlestown, Cedar Mountain, Antietam, 
Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Wauhatchie, Lookout Mountain, Mission Ridge, 
Ringgold, Dalton, Resaca, Dallas, New Hope Church, Pine Mountain, Grier's Hill, 
Noses Creek, Marietta Cross Roads, Pawnee Springs, and Chattahoochie, some of 
these lasting many days together, and numberless minor engagements and 
skirmishes, Colonel Cobham led his command with skill and heroic courage.  His 
last battle was at Peach Tree Creek, on the 20th of July, 1864, almost the last 
before the fall of Atlanta, the objective of the campaign.  "For the first time 
in the campaign," says one who witnessed the fight, and whose account was at the 
time published in an English paper, the Bacup and Rosendale News, "a fight took 
place with neither party behind works.  Almost the whole of Hooker's corps was 
struck simultaneously, although, as the wave of battle rolled from right to 
left, Ward's division was engaged a minute or two sooner than the others.  Face 
to face the combatants stood pouring deadly volleys into each other's bosoms, at 
times the lines not being fifteen yards apart.  On Colonel Cobham's centre the 
lines met each other so furiously that they passed one beyond the other, and 
changed front to renew the conflict.  At this juncture, a New Jersey regiment 
broke, which was either in or in front of, Colonel Cobham's brigade, and whilst 
endeavoring to rally these men, 

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 448

Cobham was surrounded by the enemy, and called upon by an officer to surrender.  
With a rare nobility of character, he refused to yield, and for refusing was 
shot through the body by the rebel who made the demand.  The ball entered his 
shoulder, glancing downwards, passed through his left lung, and came out under 
the shoulder blade.  Mortally wounded, Cobham turned with the calm dignity that 
always characterized him, and ordered a soldier who stood near to shoot that 
fellow.  The order was promptly obeyed, and the murderer paid with his life the 
penalty of killing one of the noblest soldiers that an army ever contained."   
This was the battle in which the impetuous Hood made his daring attack in hope 
of sweeping all before him, and turning the flank of Sherman's army.  But he 
found in his way men equally stubborn and impetuous with himself among whom none 
was more heroic than Cobham, and Hood was in end routed with a loss of over 7000 
of his best troops.  Colonel Cobham was made Brigadier-General by brevet, to 
date from this battle.  This promotion had been long deserved; for he had 
commanded a brigade nearly two years of the three he had been in the army.
  The engagements in which the services of General Cobham were most conspicuous, 
were at Chancellorsville, where he led the advance; at Gettysburg, where his 
brigade received the weight of Ewell's shock and repulsed it; at Lookout 
Mountain and Mission Ridge, in both of which his troops were at the head of the 
assaulting party; and in charging the masked batteries at Resaca.  In a letter 
addressed to his brother Henry, dated July 4th, 1863, Battle-field of 
Gettysburg, he says: "Yesterday my brigade was attacked at three o'clock in the 
morning by Jackson's old troops, and from that time until noon we kept them in 
check.  Our men fired 200 shots each.  At noon they charged on us in solid 
column, and we mowed them down like grass, defeating them entirely.  The 
slaughter was terrible on their side, and we have not all escaped.  All around 
me as I write, our men are busy burying the dead.  The ground is literally 
covered with them, and the blood is standing in pools.  It is a sickening sight.  
Two thousand of the enemy were killed and wounded in front of our single 
division.  I think the rebels

GEORGE A. COBHAM, JR. - 449 

will make another stand before long, at some point between here and the 
Potomac."  Touching the charge upon the rebel fortifications at Resaca, in a 
letter to his mother, he says: "I led the charge on the rebel fort at Resaca, on 
the 15th, and captured it, with the cannon it contained - four brass twelve-
pounders, caissons, and ammunition - and held the position, removing the guns in 
the night. . . . I send you the original order I received on the battle-field 
from Major-General Hooker, to take command of all the troops in front of the 
rebel works, which I did.  There had been several desperate charges on this 
point during the day, but all failed before I was sent in." 
  His admirable qualities as a man, a soldier, and a patriot, endeared him to 
all hearts.  "We have seldom known," says a writer in the paper above quoted, "a 
man more unselfish.  Despising the petty arts by which so many become 
distinguished on paper, he never allowed his doings to be gazetted by army 
correspondents.  Duty was his guiding star; to it he bent all the powers of a 
strong body and a stronger will.  This took him into the service.  This kept him 
where danger was thickest, attending to the details of the march and the battle, 
and performing much of the hard work for which others got credit."  His place, 
whether in command of a regiment or brigade, was always at the fore front, where 
perils were greatest, and from which an officer of his rank might properly often 
withhold himself.  In one instance his life was miraculously saved by his watch, 
the deadly missile penetrating it and imbedding itself completely in its 
delicate works, leaving it a mass of ruin.  But a few months before his death, 
while at home on a short visit, in response to a toast offered at a public 
dinner given him, he said: "I appreciate the honor of the occasion and am 
grateful for the kindness you have shown me.  I recognize in this not only a 
compliment to my own services, but a just tribute to the bravery of the boys 
whom I have the honor to command.  The One Hundred and Eleventh has left its 
blood on every battle-field since they were organized.  They have endured long 
marches without a murmur, have faced the enemy again and again without a sign of 
fear, and stand to-day with a line of bristling bayonets, which is a barrier to 
rebel occupation in East Ten-

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 450

nessee.  The army is determined that the Rebellion shall be put down.  I helped 
to plant the flag on the rugged top of Lookout Mountain, and, if God spares my 
life, I will help to make it float from the Potomac to the Gulf.  I will carry 
back to the boys in the field the report of this reception, and there is not one 
but will clench his musket with a firmer grasp, and vow never to lay it down 
until the Rebellion is crushed."
  He passed to his rest while the noise of the battle was yet resounding.  He 
knew not of the final triumph of the grand army to which he belonged, nor of the 
complete supremacy achieved for the Government of his love; but in trust and 
confidence, he gave long and able service in the field in its defence, and 
finally yielded his life a willing sacrifice.

RICHARD ADOLPHUS OAKFORD, Colonel of the One Hundred and One Hundred and Thirty-
second regiment, was born on the 8th of December, 1820, in the city of 
Philadelphia.  He was the son of Joseph Lloyd and Ann (Cox) Oakford.  The blood 
of several nationalities mingled in his veins - English and Welsh on the 
father's side, and English and Swedish on the mother's - but for three  
generations his ancestors were American-born.  He received his education at 
private schools in his native city and at Lafayette College.  He was a 
proficient in Latin, French, and German, writing and speaking the two latter 
with ease.  He was also skilled in mathematics.  From childhood he exhibited an 
inquiring mind, was fond of reading, and became possessed of a large fund of 
general knowledge, derived both from books and from personal observation, having 
travelled extensively through the western and southwestern States, just previous 
to the breaking out of the war.
  He never exhibited any predilection for military pursuits until the call of 
his country for his services.  In his early years he was expert in gardening, 
and had a taste for mechanics, with considerable aptness in the use of tools.  
After leaving school he studied engineering, and was a good draughtsman.  As he 
grew towards manhood his health became delicate, and, hoping to improve it by 
country air, he went to the Wyoming Valley to learn farming.  He finally settled 
there, and in 1843, married Miss Francis C. Slocum. T he change of life from the 

RICHARD A. OAKFORD - THOMAS M. HULINGS - 451

city to the country developed the pale, slender youth into a robust man, six 
feet in height, erect in carriage, courteous and gentlemanly in bearing. 
  At the breaking out of the Rebellion he was residing with his family at 
Scranton, which had been his home for ten years previous, where he was 
exercising the functions of a Justice of the Peace, the only civil office which 
he ever held.  He was elected Colonel of the Fifteenth regiment, recruited for 
three months, which he commanded throughout the campaign in front of Johnston, 
in the Shenandoah Valley.  Here he rapidly developed most admirable traits as an 
officer.  He took up the tactics almost with the facility of a veteran, and with 
this, combined those other qualities, equally essential to the model soldier, 
but rarely found in the civilian - executive ability and the tact to enforce 
thorough discipline.  In August, 1862, he was commissioned Colonel of the One 
Hundred and Thirty-second, a nine months' regiment and soon after reaching the 
front was brought into action on the field of Antietam.  The ground was warmly 
contested, and the fatal cornfield, that has become historic, witnessed the 
valor with which both officers and men of this regiment met the foe.  "A glance 
at the position," says Colonel Kimball, who commanded the brigade, "held by the 
rebels, tells how terrible was the punishment inflicted on them.  The cornfields 
on the front are strewn with their dead and wounded, and in the ditch first 
occupied by them, the bodies are so numerous that they seem to have fallen dead 
in line of battle."  In the midst of the conflict, Colonel Oakford was struck by 
a Minié ball and died without a struggle.  His loss at the very outset of its 
career was a severe blow to the regiment, and by his comrades, he was

            "Mourned as brave men mourn the brave." 

THOMAS MARCUS HULINGS, Colonel of the Forty-ninth regiment, was born at 
Lewistown, Pennsylvania, on the 7th of February, 1835. He was the son of David 
and Maria (Patton) Hulings, and a nephew of Judge Patton.  His paternal 
grandfather was the first white settler on the Juniata river, and his ancestors 
were soldiers of the Revolutionary army. He was fond 

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 452

of military life, and when troops were summoned to defend the Capital, went as 
First Lieutenant of the Logan Guards, one of the five companies which first 
reached Washington, having successfully passed through an infuriated mob at 
Baltimore.  At the close of the three months' service, during which his company 
remained at the Capital, and at Fort Washington twelve miles below the city, he 
returned to Pennsylvania, and was appointed Major of the Forty-ninth regiment.  
With this he went to the Peninsula, in McClellan's army, being attached to 
Hancock's brigade, of Smith's division.  He was first under fire in a 
reconnoissance made by Smith to Young's Mills, in April, 1862, where a sharp 
skirmish ensued in which Major Hulings exhibited remarkable coolness and 
bravery.  At Williamsburg, Hancock led a brilliant charge in which Hulings bore 
himself with such gallantry. as to win the favor and fast friendship of that 
able and accomplished soldier.  He also took part in the actions at Golding's 
Farm, Savage Station, and White Oak Swamp, "displaying throughout those terrible 
seven days," says Colonel Irwin, "the same cool bravery and resolution which on 
all occasions of danger distinguished him."
  He was also at the Second Bull Run, though his regiment was not engaged, 
vieing with the stoutest acts of valor, and subsequently at Crampton's Pass on 
the 14th of September, and at Antietam on the 17th, having his horse shot under 
him in the latter battle while intrepidly performing his duty.  He had 
previously, in February, 1862, been appointed Captain in the Twelfth United 
States Infantry; but so much was he attached to the men of the Forty-ninth 
Pennsylvania, that he chose to remain with them.  In October following, he was 
promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel.  In the second battle of Fredericksburg, which 
was really a part of Chancellorsville, his regiment was one of those selected to 
cross the Rappahannock in boats in face of the enemy, and storm the rifle-pits 
which lined the southern bank of that stream.  This duty was heroically 
performed under a galling fire of musketry, and here Colonel Hulings was 
specially distinguished, being among the first to spring to the enemy's shore.  
During the passage of the river, some of those who were rowing the boat in which 
he was crossing, became terrified, and commenced backing

THOMAS M. HULINGS - 453

water; but, drawing his pistols upon them, he compelled them to go forward.  His 
conduct on that occasion was spoken of by all who witnessed it, in terms of 
universal praise.  Colonel Irwin was severely wounded while leading his men up 
the bank of the river, and Colonel Hulings succeeded to the command of the 
regiment.
  The Gettysburg campaign followed, in which he participated, making long and 
wearisome marches, arriving on the field on the afternoon of July 2d, 1863, and 
going to the support of the Fifth corps and the defence of the left wing of the 
army, which was hard pushed.  At Rappahannock Station he led his regiment in the 
storming column, consisting of Russell's division, and though the ground was 
open and swept by the enemy's artillery and small arms from an intrenched 
position, carried the works and captured more men than were of the assaulting 
force.  When the gallantry of this brigade was described to General Hancock, he 
said: "They never failed in anything they undertook."  The wounds of Colonel 
Irwin necessitating his resignation, Lieutenant-Colonel Hulings was promoted to 
the rank of Colonel before the opening of the spring campaign of 1864.  It was 
at this period, that General Hancock wrote of him: "He is a brave and faithful 
officer, and has been twice recommended by myself for brevets for good conduct 
in action."
  With his usual daring he passed unscathed through the terrible ordeal of 
battle in the Wilderness, of the 5th, 6th and 7th of May.  On the 10th, the 
brigade to which his regiment was attached was ordered to join in an assault on 
the enemy's works in front of Spottsylvania.  An heroic attack was made under a 
terrible and sweeping musketry and artillery fire.  Carried forward by the 
chivalrous courage of their leader, his command rushed upon the enemy, and, 
after a desperate and bloody contest with clubbed muskets, penetrated the 
enemy's intrenchments and drove them out, capturing several pieces of artillery, 
but losing frightfully in the combat, in gallant soldiers and officers; among 
the latter the brave and lamented Lieutenant-Colonel Miles, who fell while 
advancing up the slope to the attack.  Shortly after the works were thus 
stormed, Colonel Hulings received orders to withdraw his regiment to the ground 
held previous to the assault.

MARITAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 454

As soon as this movement commenced, the enemy, perceiving it, advanced to 
recover the intrenchments, opening a scathing fire as they came forward.  It was 
at this moment, while standing with his hand upon a captured piece of artillery, 
giving orders to the men, and cautioning them, with his accustomed coolness in 
times of great danger, to return without haste or disorder, that this intrepid 
soldier received his death wound from a musket ball which pierced his head. He 
sank instantly into the arms of one of his men, and his heroic soul passed from 
earth.
  "In his fall," says Colonel Irwin, "his country lost one of her best and 
bravest soldiers, and the regiment a Colonel who was beloved by every officer 
and soldier in its ranks.  Brave to the verge of desperation in action, he set a 
splendid example of fearless coolness and courage to his command.  While on the 
march or in camp, his kindness, gentleness of heart and consideration for those 
under him, gained for him the warm affection of all with whom he came in 
contact.  The truest of friends, the best of comrades, and among the bravest of 
soldiers, he fell at the post of duty, and it is not too much to say of him that 
of all the gallant spirits who perished during the late terrible war, none 
excelled him in honor, heroic courage, devotion to duty, or in love of that 
country for which he laid down his life."

EDWIN ATLEE GLENN, Major of the One Hundred and Ninety-eighth regiment, was born 
on the 4th of July, 1835, at Frankford, Pennsylvania.  He was the son of Robert 
and Sarah (Thomas) Glenn.  In youth he had a fondness for mathematics, and an 
ambition to excel in whatever he undertook.  The more intricate the subject, the 
greater his pleasure in mastering it.  Upon the formation of the Third Reserve 
regiment, he volunteered as a private, and at the close of his three years' term 
was mustered out as Lieutenant, participating in all the battles of the campaign 
upon the Peninsula, Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, 
Cloyd Mountain and New River.  Returning home he was selected by the Union 
League of Philadelphia as Major of the One Hundred and Ninety-eighth regiment, 
which they were assisting to recruit.  His gallantry in connection with this 
body was conspicuous.  The battle of Quaker Road

EDWIN A. GLENN - 455

was commenced by several companies under his immediate leadership.  Early in the 
fight Colonel Sickel was wounded, when the entire command devolved upon him.  In 
the action at Gravelly Run, on the 31st of March, he particularly distinguished 
himself.  The regiment was ordered to charge across an open field where it was 
much exposed to the enemy's fire.  It was necessary for the regiment to advance 
from the swamp and wood where it lay into open ground to form.  It had no sooner 
emerged than the enemy opened from his works a withering fire.  Major Glenn saw 
that it was a most critical moment.  He ran down to the centre of the regiment, 
grasped the colors, and started out upon the field, crying, "Men, follow me!"  
They did follow, and, sweeping across the field, carried the enemy's works.  At 
Five Forks, on the 1st of April, the fighting was renewed with great vigor.  A 
portion of the Union troops had been beaten back, when General Chamberlain came 
riding up to Major Glenn, and cried out, "Major, if you can take those works," 
pointing to the place whence the Union troops had been driven, "and keep them, I 
will promote you on the field."  "Boys! "exclaimed Glenn, "will you follow me?"   
With a wild shout they responded their assent, and the frowning works were 
taken.  After having driven the enemy, the Major was the first to enter.  Waving 
his sword and shouting to the men under his command to cease firing, he advanced 
and seized the colors of the enemy, and when they were just fairly within his 
grasp, a shot fired by one of his own men struck him in the abdomen, and he fell 
mortally wounded.  He died four days afterward.  A companion in arms says of him 
"He was a military student in active service; for he was always studying.  A 
thorough tactician, a strict disciplinarian, a pure patriot, a brave soldier, 
and a kind-hearted and genial companion, in whom his command had the most 
implicit confidence; by his death the country lost the services of one worthy 
the cause he died to defend."  The Union League, under whose auspices he last 
went to the field, united in an appreciative tribute to his memory, and asked 
the privilege of erecting a monument over his remains.

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 456

GUY H. WATKINS, Lieutenant-Colonel of the one Hundred and Forty-first regiment, 
was born in Bradford county, Pennsylvania.  He was active in recruiting company 
B, and was its Captain.  When the regimental organization was effected, he was 
appointed Lieutenant-Colonel.  In the battle of Fredericksburg this regiment was 
with Franklin's grand division, where it sustained some loss.  At 
Chancellorsville it formed part of Graham's division, Sickles' corps, and when 
the enemy attacked the Twelfth corps, Graham was sent to its support.  As the 
regiment came under fire, Colonel Watkins, while in the act of mounting, and 
when one foot was already in the stirrup, had his horse killed by a cannon shot.  
In the midst of the fierce fighting in which the Third corps was involved on the 
following morning, he was severely wounded and fell into the enemy's hands.  
After his exchange, and before his wounds were sufficiently healed to take the 
field, he was nominated by President Lincoln as Paymaster in the army, and the 
nomination was promptly confirmed by the Senate; but he declined the honor, 
preferring to lead and share the fortunes of his men.  At the opening of the 
spring campaign of 1864, he took the field, and in all of the desperate fighting 
of the Wilderness campaign, and until the army had arrived before Petersburg, he 
escaped unharmed; but while leading his regiment in a charge upon the enemy's 
works, on the 18th of June, he was instantly killed.  He was characterized as 
among "the bravest of the brave."

WILLIAM LOVERING CURRY, Colonel of the One Hundred and Sixth regiment, was born 
in the city of Philadelphia, on the 29th of January, 1833.  His father, William 
Curry, was a native of Pennsylvania.  His mother, Mary (Lent) Curry, was born at 
Croton, New York.  During boyhood he was engaged in the manufacture of paper-
hangings with his father.  He was educated in the public schools of 
Philadelphia, and graduated in due course from the Central High School.  He is 
represented as having had a military turn of mind, and he early enlisted in a 
regiment known as the Philadelphia Light Guard, which, upon the breaking out of 
the Rebellion, became the Twenty-second in the three months' service, and in 
which he served as Lieu-

GUY H. WATKINS - WILLIAM L. CURRY - 457

tenant-Colonel.  He was nearly six feet in height, stoutly built, was possessed 
of good health, and of well-formed and temperate habits.
  Upon the formation of the One Hundred and Sixth Pennsylvania regiment for 
three years, he entered it as Lieutenant-Colonel, many of the officers and men 
of the Twenty-second remaining the same in this.  This regiment was a part of 
the brigade commanded by Colonel E. D. Baker, and at the battle of Ball's Bluff, 
where that ill-fated officer fell, the men were compelled to stand, mute 
spectators of the slaughter which a superior force of the enemy was, inflicting, 
without the ability to render aid for want of transportation.  He was a favorite 
with Baker, and was more than once sent out to command the advance guard, with 
these minute instructions: "Report by messenger any change observed across the 
river.  Let the report be full and carefully digested before sent.  Be assured 
of the reliability of information; make no movement of your troops without 
orders, unless attacked, and then only in holding your position."  At the battle 
of Fair Oaks, the One Hundred and Sixth was in the command of the gallant 
General Sumner, who, hearing the sound of battle and knowing he was wanted, put 
his columns in motion without orders, crossed the swollen Chickahominy on a 
frail bridge, and arrived in time to save the day.  Here Colonel Curry had ample 
scope for the exercise of his military talent, and gallantly did he acquit 
himself; hurling back the foe at the point of the bayonet in repeated desperate 
charges, and preserving intact his own lines, and the guns he supported, which 
were the special object of rebel spite.  Ten days later, while visiting the 
picket line at early dawn, not knowing that the pickets had fallen back, he 
walked into the enemy's lines and was taken prisoner.  He was immediately 
marched to Richmond, thence to Petersburg, and finally to Salisbury, where he 
was the subject of harsh usage; but after three months, was exchanged and 
returned to duty.
  In the battle of Fredericksburg his regiment was among the first to cross the 
river at the town, and was engaged in driving out the enemy, fighting from 
street to street.  On the 13th, it delivered a charge in the face of two lines 
of hostile forces

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 458

securely posted behind works, and held an advanced position in the face of a 
most destructive fire.  The duty here was only equalled in severity by that at 
Gettysburg, where Colonel Curry again led his regiment in a daring assault upon 
the advancing enemy, and achieved a well-earned triumph.  It was on the extreme 
right of Sickles' line where the foe was flanking him.  "Our regiment," says 
Colonel Curry, "opened fire, and charged so determinedly along with others, that 
we drove the enemy to their original lines, and would have spiked a six-gun 
battery had we not been ordered back.  The carnage was terrible, the ground 
being covered with the dead and wounded.  It was in this charge that Adjutant 
Pleis fell, being struck in the thigh by a piece of shell.  I have fully made up 
for my capture (in June, 1862), as the regiment took a Colonel, two Majors, a 
number of Captains and Lieutenants, and at least 200 privates prisoners.  We had 
more swords than we could use.  I have one in place of the one taken from me at 
Richmond, and also a silver-mounted pistol."
  When General Grant opened his campaign in the spring of 1864, Colonel Curry 
was the only field officer with the regiment.  In the fierce fighting in front 
of Spottsylvania, on the 11th of May, he received a mortal wound.  It was from a 
Minie ball, which struck him in the leg too near the groin to admit of 
amputation.  He was taken to the Douglas Hospital at Washington, where he 
received every attention which medical skill and careful nursing could afford; 
but in vain, and on the 7th of July he breathed his last.

      "We welcome back our bravest and our best;
       Ah, me! not all! some come not with the rest, 
       Who went forth brave and bright as any here!"

EDWIN SCHALL, Colonel of the Fifty-first regiment, was born at the Green Lane 
Iron Works, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, on the 15th of February, 1835.  He 
was the son of General William Schall.  He received a good English and classical 
education at Elmwood Institute, in Norristown.  He afterwards spent several 
years in the military school of Captain Partridge, at Norwich, Vermont; at 
Pembroke; Brandywine Springs,

EDWIN SCHALL - 459

and Bristol, and finally entered upon the study of the law in the office of B. 
M. Boyer, at Norristown.  He subsequently became a student of the Law School at 
Poughkeepsie, New York, and also in the Ohio State Law School, under the charge 
of Judge Hayden.  After graduating here, and being admitted to the bar, he 
turned his face westward and for a time practised his profession in Iowa.  But 
returning to Pennsylvania, he opened a law office at Norristown, and not long 
after became the editor of the National Defender; and finally its proprietor, 
which he continued to be to the day of his death.
  At the first call of the President for volunteers, he abandoned his 
occupation, and, in company with four brothers, joined the ranks of the Fourth 
regiment.  It may here be stated as a circumstance somewhat remarkable, that 
there were from this family eight brothers in the service in various 
Pennsylvania organizations: Edwin, Edward, Reuben T., David, Calvin, George, 
William P., and Alexander.  He was elected Major, and his twin brother Edward 
Lieutenant-Colonel of this regiment, his brother Reuben commanding one of its 
companies.  At the conclusion of his first term of service he assisted in 
recruiting the Fifty-first regiment for three years, of which he was made Major.  
He went with his command to North Carolina, in the column of Burnside, and bore 
a conspicuous part in the battles of Roanoke Island, Newbern, and Camden.  On 
the return of Burnside north, his corps was hastened forward to the support of 
Pope, and the Fifty-first was hotly engaged at the Second Bull Run and 
Chantilly.  In the campaign in Maryland it was again brought to close conflict 
at South Mountain, and at the famous Stone Bridge, at Antietam, it was selected 
to lead in the assault, which finally carried the ground and won the crossing.  
In all these engagements Major Schall was at the post of duty, and acquitted 
himself with marked gallantry.  In the last-named struggle Lieutenant-Colonel 
Bell was killed, and he was promoted to fill the vacancy.
  At Sulphur Springs, and in the desperate work of the Ninth corps at 
Fredericksburg, he was with his regiment in the place of peril and of honor.  In 
the spring of 1863, the corps was sent West, and Colonel Hartranft having been 
given the leadership

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 460

of a brigade, the command of the regiment devolved upon him.  The debilitating 
and wearing campaign against Vicksburg, and the subsequent movement to Jackson 
followed, in which the most important service was rendered to General Grant in 
the reduction of the great stronghold upon the Mississippi, and at its 
conclusion the corps was hurried back to Kentucky, and hence upon a wearisome 
march across the mountains to Knoxville, East Tennessee.  General Hartranft was 
here entrusted with a division, and Colonel Schall with a brigade.  "Afterwards 
transferred to East Tennessee," says the Rev. George D. Wolk, in his 
commemorative discourse, 'he was in the battle at Campbell's Station, and the 
heroic defence of Knoxville; enduring patiently and bravely with his men the 
great privations and dangers connected with that campaign - sometimes subsisting 
on unground and unshelled corn - encouraging his worn-out men whose three years' 
term of service was about expiring, to re-enlist, and himself setting them the 
example, and on the very day of re-enlistment, it is said, receiving as rations 
two ears of corn for officer and man; thus sharing subsistence with their 
artillery horses and baggage mules."
  Returning with the corps to the Army of the Potomac for the spring campaign of 
1864, he had passed unharmed through the terrible battles of the Wilderness, 
Spottsylvania, and the North Anna, and had entered upon that at Cold Harbor, 
when he was struck by the fire of a sharp-shooter, and instantly killed, while 
leading on his regiment in a daring charge against the hostile works.  In 
acknowledging the reception of a flag presented at his home in Norristown, 
before setting out for the front, he said: "We will return with this flag in 
honor; or fall in its defence."  That promise he redeemed, laying down his life 
a sacrifice to that glorious standard; and he who had withstood the hardships of 
the service and the bullets of the foe for three full years of active duty, was 
instantly cut off in the very prime of manhood, and at an hour of greatest 
promise.  It seems that he had a presentiment that he was to fall, and had given 
all needful directions what to do in case his forebodings should be verified.  
At the moment the fatal shaft was speeding on its death-dealing way, an incident 
occurred in a far-off hospital, connected with this event, most strange and 
marvellous.  Captain Bisbing of

JOSEPH S. CHANDLER - 461

this regiment had been mortally wounded in the battle of the Wilderness, and was 
at the time lying in the hospital at Georgetown, District of Columbia.  He had 
been quiet upon his cot for some time, when he suddenly started up and cried out 
in a clear voice, "Lieutenant, Lieutenant," the title by which Lieutenant-
Colonel Schall had been known in the regiment, meaning thereby Lieutenant-
Colonel, Hartranft having but recently been confirmed Brigadier-General.  A 
wounded Lieutenant lying near him responded, inquiring what was wanted, when 
Captain Bisbing said, "I do not want you, but Lieutenant-Colonel Schall, for I 
have seen him fall and I want to know whether he is dead or not."  The Captain 
himself died on the 5th.  Whence he had gained this prophetic vision is perhaps 
beyond the comprehension of mortals.
  The body of Colonel Schall was with difficulty rescued, and was returned to 
his home, where it was buried amid tributes of heartfelt grief rarely witnessed.  
He had been commissioned Colonel of his regiment but a few days before his fall.  
In stature he was of medium height, well formed, and capable of great endurance.  
He was of a deeply religious nature, and suffered not the wild disorders 
incident to warfare and the demoralizing influences of the camp to contaminate 
the purity of his life.  "As a soldier," says the Norristown Republican, "by a 
tried bravery, by a valor tested in all the battles of the Fifty-first, Colonel 
Schall merits, and must receive the admiration, not only of the brave men whom 
he led, but of us, who have not assumed the hardships of a soldier's life, and 
whose lives have been protected by such devotion as this dying hero displayed."  
And the Herald and Free Press observed: "When he fell, his loss was deeply felt 
in his regiment, where his many acts of kindness, his forbearing and generous 
spirit, and his noble deeds of bravery, endeared him to all."

JOSEPH SPENCER CHANDLER, Major of the One Hundred and Fourteenth regiment, was 
born in Philadelphia, on the 26th of October, 1834.  He was the son of Joseph R. 
and Maria (Holton) Chandler.  His father was a native of Plymouth county, 
Massachusetts, and became a prominent citizen of Philadelphia

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 462

and of his adopted State.  The son received a liberal education, first in his 
native city, and afterwards in New York.  His taste was more gratified with the 
duties of the camp than with those of business, in which he became engaged after 
finishing his studies, and he joined, in 1857, an artillery corps, the 
Washington Grays, of the local militia.  When the call for troops was made in 
April, 1861, he was among the first to offer himself as a private in Company A, 
but was immediately appointed a First Sergeant in Company F, First Pennsylvania 
Artillery, subsequently known as the Seventeenth three months' regiment, with 
which he served in the Rockville expedition under General Charles P. Stone, 
afterwards merged in Patterson's army, faithfully performing all the duties of 
his position.
  After his discharge from this service he received the appointment of First 
Lieutenant in the Seventy-fifth, Colonel Henry Bohlen, and was shortly 
afterwards promoted to Captain.  When Bohlen was appointed a Brigadier-General, 
he selected Captain Chandler as his Aide-de-camp.  The brigade which Bohlen 
commanded was of the German division, led by General Blenker.  The service 
rendered by this division was of the most exhausting character.  It marched over 
rough roads and swollen streams to the very heart of West Virginia, and again 
returning by forced marches, drove Jackson up the Shenandoah Valley, and fought 
him at Cross Keys; crossing into the valley of Virginia, it was immediately 
engaged in Pope's disastrous campaign, and while heroically battling with the 
enemy at Freeman's Ford, to hold him in check, for the rest of the army to 
recross the Rappahannock and gain a position favorable for battle, General 
Bohlen, commanding the rear guard, was killed.  The General fell just as night 
was closing in, and at a moment when all his aids were absent carrying his 
orders.  To Captain Chandler had been intrusted the duty of directing the 
falling back of the brigade across the river.  Not until all were over was the 
General missed.  Upon inquiry, he could nowhere be found.  It was finally 
reported that he had fallen.  Captain Chandler immediately started, and taking 
with him a few trusty soldiers who volunteered to go, recrossed the river, and 
after devoted search, found him in a dying condition.  They

JOSEPH S. CHANDLER - 463

immediately took him up, and bearing him across, brought him to his own tent, 
where he soon after expired.  The feeling which prompted Captain Chandler to 
recross a wide and rapid river, enter the enemy's lines, and in the midst of the 
darkness, search for, and find his wounded and dying leader, strikingly 
illustrates his heroism and his valor, and the strength of his attachment.  None 
other than a brave man, and a devoted friend, would have done so much.
  Shortly after General Bohlen's death, Captain Chandler was offered and 
accepted the position of Major of the One Hundred and Fourteenth regiment, 
Zouaves d'Afrique.  He was here thrown among old friends and acquaintances, over 
whom, by the force of his discipline and example, he soon acquired a commanding 
influence.  In all the hard service of Kearny's old brigade, to which this 
regiment was attached, Major Chandler participated, gaining day by day more and 
more the confidence and affection of his command.  At Chancellorsville, on the 
morning of the 3d of May, the regiment was early in action.  At dusk, on the 
evening before, Stonewall Jackson had fallen, and now the battle was being 
renewed on the very ground where he had got his mortal hurt.  On that field 
Major Chandler was conspicuous, now reforming the ranks of this company, and now 
steadying and directing the fire of that.  Perfectly cool and collected himself, 
he did much towards keeping the regiment steady after the first repulse, and 
when the lines were reformed in front of the Chancellor House, charged the enemy 
and drove him before them into the woods and beyond a temporary breastwork of 
logs and earth, behind which he had taken shelter.  Turning defiantly, disputing 
their farther advance, a terrific, almost hand-to-hand conflict took place.  
"Here," says an officer, fearless like himself, "Chandler, by his magnificent 
appearance, heightened by the conspicuous uniform of his regiment, became a 
target for the enemy.  At the height of the conflict he noticed a Confederate 
flag flaunted defiantly almost directly in front of him.  Determined, if 
possible, to possess it, he called to an officer near him to seize it when its 
bearer should fall, and drew his revolver; but at that instant, and before he 
had time to raise his weapon, he fell mortally wounded, shot through the

MARTIAL DEEPS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 464

head by a rifle ball.  At this time, pressed on all sides, our lines broken, and 
our corps unsupported, we fell back to the position occupied in the morning, 
leaving, our dead and wounded in the hands of the enemy.  After the battle was 
over, and we had retired to our old camps, a chosen party returned, under flag 
of truce, to find the body of their dead commander; but though the ground was 
diligently searched by men who had stood in the ranks on that fatal day, no 
trace could be discovered of it, or even the place where either it or any of the 
regiment's dead had been buried."
  Major Chandler had a presentiment of his impending doom.  Knowing that the 
battle would soon take place, and presuming that his own regiment would be 
called to bear a conspicuous part, he was oppressed with gloomy forebodings.  
Doubtless the recollection of dear ones, whom he would never more meet, saddened 
him, and he said to his companion, whose words are quoted above: "I feel that I 
shall not come out of this battle alive."  But, save to his intimate friend, he 
concealed his feelings so completely, that his men were even inspired by his 
cheerful and confident bearing.
  In person, Major Chandler was nearly six feet in height, and had always 
enjoyed excellent health.  He was married in August, 1861, to Miss Maraquita 
Mason of Philadelphia.  When he volunteered at the opening of the war, he went 
with the full realization of the magnitude of the struggle upon which the nation 
was about to enter, and of the sacrifices he was making.  The following 
testimony of Captain Thomas P. Parry, a friend of the family, illustrates this 
consciousness, as well as the tenderness of his heart: "As an evidence of his 
kindly feeling and affection for his mother, I would also say, that, at his 
earnest solicitation, I induced the mustering officer, Major (now General) Ruff, 
to reject his brother William, who was desirous of entering the service; for, as 
he said, his mother was much excited, and one son should remain with her, but 
that he was not to be that son; he was ready to offer his own life to save his 
country, but desired to save his mother from the affliction of another 
sacrifice."

THOMAS S. BRENHOLTZ - 465

THOMAS SEVERN BRENHOLTZ, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Fiftieth regiment, was born 
on the 29th of November, 1834, in Chester county, Pennsylvania.  He was the son 
of Isaac and Catharine (Phillips) Brenholtz.  In early childhood his parents 
removed to the city of Reading, in the public schools of which he was educated.  
He had a special liking for military service, and was placed in the military 
establishment of Colonel Batchelder, who has since made for himself a wide 
reputation as the illustrator of the Battle of Gettysburg.  After leaving this, 
he became principal of a grammar school, and always manifested a keen relish for 
study.  When the call was made for troops, at the opening of the Rebellion, he 
volunteered as a private, but was induced to accept the position of Lieutenant 
in the Fifth (three months') regiment.  Before the close of the term, he was 
promoted to Captain, and, immediately on his return, entered with great activity 
upon recruiting a three years' organization, which was designated the Fiftieth, 
and of which he was made Lieutenant-Colonel.  He accompanied Sherman's 
expedition to Port Royal in November, 1861, and participated in the early 
operations undertaken in the Department of the South.  During this time he 
received a furlough of thirty days that he might visit his family; but learning 
before he was ready to depart that the enemy was threatening the Union position, 
he promptly pocketed his furlough and remained on duty with his men.  Such acts 
of self-devotion, and his unremitting attention to duty, won him the favor and 
confidence of all who knew him.  He was engaged in the action at Coosaw Ferry on 
the 1st of January, 1862, and at Pocataligo on the 29th of May following, and in 
both evinced fine soldierly qualities.
  In July of this year the regiment was called to Virginia, and was attached to 
the Ninth corps.  Colonel Christ, its commander, having been placed over a 
brigade, to Lieutenant-Colonel Brenholtz fell the duty of leading the regiment.  
In Pope's campaign, which immediately followed, the service was exhausting and 
the fighting desperate.  At the Second Bull Run, and at Chantilly, the regiment 
was hard pressed, and in the latter battle, after having held its position until 
the last cartridge had been fired, the men fixed their bayonets and awaited the 
word to

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 466 

charge.  They came out of the bloody struggle in good order, bringing with them 
their dead and wounded.  The service in this campaign told fearfully upon 
Colonel Brenholtz's health, and on reaching Washington he was obliged to yield 
to the disease that was preying upon him.  For several weeks he was very ill; 
but as soon as he was again able he rejoined his regiment and was at its head in 
the battle of Fredericksburg, though not actively engaged.  The corps was 
subsequently sent West, and a part of it, including the Fiftieth regiment, went 
to the support of General Grant at Vicksburg.  After the fall of that 
stronghold, with the column of Sherman, Colonel Brenholtz moved at the head of 
his regiment to Jackson, and while employed in the operations before that place 
in posting his men upon a very exposed part of the skirmish line, he was hit by 
an enemy's sharp-shooter, and borne fainting from the field.  The ball had 
apparently entered his lung.  After the effect of the first shock had passed, it 
was hoped he might recover; but while on the steamer which was bearing him to 
Cincinnati, whither his wife had come to meet and care for him, he sank under 
the effects of the wound and breathed his last before reaching his destination.  
"A nobler spirit," says one who knew him well, "has not been offered a sacrifice 
upon the altar of his country.  He leaves many warm friends in this city, who 
will ever cherish his memory with sincere and genuine affection.  His mortal 
remains are with us, to be interred in the home of his youth, and among the 
friends he loved.  He was talented and brave. Let him sleep in the proud grave 
of an American Soldier."  In person Colonel Brenholtz was above the medium 
height and robust.  He was married in 1859 to Miss Clara Arnold of Reading.