Martial Deeds of Pennsylvania, Samuel P. Bates, 1876 - Part 2, Chapter 3, 467-
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                         MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA
                                       by
                                SAMUEL P. BATES.

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

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 467

                              Part II.  BIOGRAPHY.

                                   CHAPTER III.

                              THE KILLED IN BATTLE.

JOHN FULTON REYNOLDS, Major-General of volunteers, was born on the 21st of 
September, 1820, in the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  He was the son of John 
and Lydia (Moore) Reynolds.  He received his elementary education in the schools 
of that city, at Litiz Academy, and Green Academy, Maryland, and in 1837, was  
appointed a cadet at West Point, where he graduated, in 1841, with distinction.  
Immediately thereafter he was made brevet Second Lieutenant in the Third 
artillery, and was sent to Fort McHenry, near Baltimore, where a few months  
later he was commissioned a full Second Lieutenant.  In 1843 he was sent to 
Florida, and at the expiration of a year was ordered to Fort Moultrie.  In 1845 
he was transferred to Corpus Christi, and subsequently to Fort Brown.  In June, 
1846, he was promoted to First Lieutenant, and accompanied General Taylor's 
column on its advance into Mexico.  On the 23d of September, 1846, he 
distinguished himself in the battle of Monterey by his coolness and courage, and 
was brevetted Captain.  At Buena Vista, on the 23d of February, 1847, he again 
displayed the most undaunted heroism and gallantry, and was brevetted Major.  At 
the conclusion of the Mexican War, he was ordered to duty in forts on the New 
England coast, where he remained four years.  He was then placed upon the staff 
of General Twiggs, whom he accompanied to New Orleans.  After a year he returned 
North, and was stationed at Fort Lafayette.  He was soon afterwards sent on an 
expedition across the plains to Utah, arriving at Salt Lake City in August, 
1854.  In March, 1855, he was promoted to Captain and was ordered to Cali-

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 468

fornia.  He engaged the Indians at several points on the Pacific coast, 
especially distinguishing himself in an action with them near the Rogue River, 
Oregon.  He also served upon a board of officers designated to examine 
applicants for entrance to the regular army from civil life.  In December, 1856, 
he arrived at Fortress Monroe, and for nearly two years remained on duty on the 
Atlantic coast.  In April, 1858, he was placed in command of Company C of the 
Third United States, and with it was ordered to again cross the plains to Utah, 
where he arrived in September, 1858.  In September, 1860, he was assigned to 
duty as commandant of cadets at West Point, and in May, 1861, he was made 
Lieutenant-Colonel of the Fourteenth regular infantry, and was ordered to New 
London, Connecticut, to recruit his regiment.
  In this brief outline of the life of Reynolds previous to the Rebellion, an 
idea is conveyed of the school in which he was trained and tempered for the 
arena on which he was destined afterwards prominently to figure.  It is a record 
of a man who, in whatever position he was placed, executed with fidelity the 
task assigned him.  In Mexico he won promotion as often as an opportunity was 
given him to meet the enemy, and when twice ordered to march across the 
continent with his command, and to beard the wily savage in his lair, he shrunk 
not from this severe duty.  To be a soldier in time of peace is far more irksome 
and oftentimes more disagreeable than in time of war.  But his was a nature in 
which the iron predominated, and he had only to be shown the path of duty to 
follow it.
  In August, 1861, he was promoted to Brigadier-General of volunteers, and was 
ordered to take command at Fort Hatteras.  But troops were now being rapidly put 
into the field, and skilled soldiers were required to command them.  The Reserve 
corps had just been organized, and at the earnest solicitation of Governor 
Curtin, General Reynolds was assigned to the First brigade of that body.  It was 
composed of the First, Second, Fifth and Eighth regiments of infantry, and the 
First cavalry.  The prospect of a severe and protracted struggle was plainly 
discernable to his penetrating mind, and he earnestly gave himself to the duty, 
of making his brigade a model of soldierly qualities.  The

JOHN F. REYNOLDS - 469

first of the seven days' battles on the Peninsula was a handsome triumph to the 
Union arms.  It was principally fought by the Pennsylvania Reserves, and 
Reynolds' brigade played a prominent part.  The position was skilfully chosen on 
Beaver Dam Creek, and the rifle-pits and lunettes for the guns were wisely 
disposed.  When Lee came with his legions, he no doubt anticipated an easy 
triumph and a rapid advance.  But he had scarcely started in his onward march 
before he met, on the two roads running across the creek, the little division of 
Reserves, presenting a firm front.  The rebel leader at once wheeled his guns 
into position and opened fire.  The guns of the Reserves answered.  The rebel 
infantry were speedily drawn out in battle line, with powerful supports, and 
made determined assaults along the whole front; but bleeding and torn they were 
hurled back by the Reserves, who yielded not one inch of ground.  Again and 
again the enemy returned to the assault with fresh troops, but with no better 
success.  His dead and wounded covered all the field, and the sod was slippery 
with gore.  Until long after sunset the contest was continued; but where 
Reynolds had planted his guns on the morning of that day, and established his 
infantry lines, there were they when darkness closed in upon them; scourged, it 
is true, but filled with pride at their achievements; and eager to renew the 
battle.  The following incident of the fight is related by Major Woodward in 
"Our Campaigns":  "General Reynolds, whose ever-watchful eye was upon the 
regiments of his brigade, several times rode down to our position, at one time 
exclaiming, as he pointed with his sword: 'Look at them, boys, in the swamp 
there; they are as thick as flies on a gingerbread; fire low, fire low.'"  The 
victory was complete, and every preparation was being made to continue the 
contest on the following morning, when an order came for the division to retire 
to Gaines' Mill. It was received with astonishment by the soldiers.  They could 
not be made to understand why a victorious army should retreat before the 
conquered, and many a resolute man indulged in loud denunciation as the order 
was enforced.  But their vision was circumscribed, and they were unable to see 
that their small force was being flanked, and would be subject to inevitable 
capture if they remained.  The skill displayed by General Reynolds in this

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 470 

battle attracted the attention of his superiors and the whole country, and 
marked him for distinction.
  On the following day the Reserves were held in a second line of battle, ready 
to go to the support of any part of the front which should be overpowered.  They 
had not long to wait, and soon found themselves hurried forward to fill the 
breach that the rebel onsets had made.  Unlike the position they had abandoned, 
this field had not been fortified, and the masses of the foe, precipitated upon 
exposed portions of the line, soon broke through.  The ground was contested with 
fiery energy till nightfall, General Reynolds moving in the thickest of the 
fight, and always where the danger was most imminent, bringing aid at the 
opportune moment, and maintaining the contest with unexampled courage.  But the 
fragment of the Union army engaged was vastly outnumbered, and was finally 
obliged to yield.  It was just at the close of the day, and the fight was almost 
over, when General Reynolds, while returning from the right of the line where he 
had been directing the Fifth and Bucktail regiments, heard the sound of 
desperate encounter where the Eleventh and a New Jersey regiment were posted.  
He had scarcely reached the line, and was seeking support to relieve them, when 
a brigade of regulars on their flank gave way, and before they were aware of the 
situation, the greater portion of them, including General Reynolds and his 
Adjutant, Colonel Kingsbury, were surrounded and every way of escape was cut 
off.  The General, his Adjutant, and an orderly, concealed themselves during the 
night, and in the morning, while attempting to escape, were confronted by a 
rebel patrolling party, who took them prisoners of war.  For several weeks the 
General was confined in a Richmond prison.
  Before General Reynolds had been released, General McCall, the commander of 
the Reserve corps, resigned.  Who so competent to succeed him as the leader of 
the First brigade, who had borne himself so gallantly in the first two 
engagements?  To him the position was accorded by the consenting voice of the 
Government and the army.  He came forth from Libby prison on the 8th of August, 
1862, in exchange for the rebel General Barksdale, going at once to his new 
command.  On the battle-field of Bull Run, at the moment when the need was 
greatest and the

JOHN F. REYNOLDS - 471

danger pressing, General Reynolds and his trusty division were at the threatened 
point ready to stern the tide of disaster.  Mr. Sypher, in his history of the 
Reserves, gives a graphic account of Reynolds' heroic action here.  "General 
Reynolds," he says, "with the instinct of a thorough soldier, discovered that 
the enemy was aiming to seize the Warrenton pike in the rear of broken masses of 
troops that were now flowing back from the front.  He at once determined to 
throw his division into the breach, and save the army, or perish in the attempt.  
The plan of the enemy was to break the centre and seize the roads between the 
two wings of the army, and thus ensure its destruction.  The heroic General, 
fully conscious of its desperate situation, galloped along his line and called 
upon his men to charge upon and hurl back the advancing foe.  The Reserves saw 
by the ardor of their General that the whole Union force was in imminent danger; 
in a moment they were up and charging with a cheer and a yell across an open 
field; they encountered the enemy at the brow of a declivity, up which the 
rebels struggled in vast numbers, and with unwearying pertinacity.  Fortunately 
the Reserves were aligned upon a country road, which, having been somewhat worn 
by use, afforded partial protection.  The contest became hot and desperate.  
Greatly outnumbered by the rebels, they were only enabled to hold them in check 
by rapid and unceasing firing.  The field officers, who rode upon the ground 
above the road, were much exposed and suffered severely.  At one moment all 
seemed to be lost.  The First and Second regiments were engaged in an almost 
hand-to-hand encounter; the left was pressed back, and to the consternation of 
the mounted officers, who from their positions had a view of the field, the 
troops on the right of the Reserves gave way in utter confusion.  At this 
critical moment, the gallant Reynolds, observing that the flagstaff of the 
Second regiment had been pierced by a bullet and broken, seized the flag from 
the color-bearer, and dashing to the right, rode twice up and down his entire 
division line, waving the flag about his head and cheering on his men.  The 
rebel sharpshooters rained fierce showers of bullets around the ensign thus 
borne aloft, but in vain did the missiles of death fill the atmosphere in which 
it moved.  The effect upon the division was

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA -  472

electrical.  The men, inspired by the intrepidity of their leader, rent the air 
with cheers, plied their tremendous musket fire with renewed energy and vigor, 
and in a few moments the thinned ranks of the rebel regiments gave way before 
the steady and unrelenting volleys poured upon them.  Night came on and put an 
end to the contest; but the famous Stone Bridge over Bull Run was, by the genius 
and heroic daring of General Reynolds, and the valor of the brave men he 
commanded, preserved for the use of the National army.  The army thus beaten 
back, retired beyond the range of the loyal guns, appalled at the havoc they 
witnessed in their ranks, and confounded by their failure to reach the turnpike.  
The sun was now setting, and the battle had ended."
  After the Union army had been beaten on the plains of Manassas, and the foe 
defiantly began to move northward, deep solicitude filled the mind of the North.  
Especially was there anxiety in Pennsylvania, which lay in the natural course of 
invasion.  The feeling of insecurity was then more universal than in the 
following year, when the foot of the invader was actually on Pennsylvania soil.  
The necessity for an uprising of the people to beat back the advancing enemy was 
recognized, and Governor Curtin made instant and earnest appeals.  But what 
could citizen soldiery do without a leader to organize and marshal them?  The 
need of the very best talent which the Union army possessed was felt, and in 
searching its ranks none seemed so fit in such an hour of peril as General 
Reynolds, and he was accordingly detailed to proceed to Harrisburg and prepare 
the fast-gathering militia for duty.  With a master hand that work was done, and 
with incredible celerity and skill the fresh levies were prepared and put into 
the Cumberland Valley.  Already was an army marshalled, and he was preparing to 
put himself at its head and lead it in the bloody encounter, when the foe was 
repulsed on the field of Antietam, and further need of its services was at an 
end.
  Returning to the Army of the Potomac, Reynolds was promoted to the command of 
the First corps, which embraced the Reserves, and to the head of which General 
Meade was advanced, and in November he was made Major-General of volunteers. In

JOHN F. REYNOLDS - 473

the battle of Fredericksburg, on the 13th of December, 1862, to the First corps 
was given the advance of Franklin's grand division, on the extreme left.  The 
orders of Franklin were faithfully executed, and that devoted corps was launched 
with terrible force upon the frowning heights, where the enemy was intrenched, 
breaking and crushing through his line.  But supports failing to come forward as 
they should have done, if the dear-bought advantage was to be maintained, 
Reynolds was obliged to withdraw his forces when victory seemed fairly within 
his grasp.
  The First corps was held in front of Fredericksburg threatening to cross 
during the preliminary stages of the Chancellorsville campaign, in May, 1863, 
and when Hooker had crossed above, and gained a secure lodgement on the south 
side of the river, this corps hastened to join him there.  Before it had 
arrived, Stonewall Jackson had made his famous flank movement, and had routed 
the right wing of Hooker's army.  Reynolds put his corps into position on that 
flank in place of the discomfited Eleventh, and held the ground in defiance of a 
triumphant foe.  Reynolds, after getting his troops into line and securely 
posted, and having learned the extent of the disasters that had fallen, seemed 
to have entertained a strong disgust for the management of the battle.  He 
betook himself to his couch and paid little heed to the staff officers who came 
to report to him during the night.  He was a trained soldier and allowed no 
criticism of the conduct of his superiors to pass his lips; but his actions 
plainly spoke his condemnation of the conduct of that disastrous field.
  But whatever may have been the silent feeling of Reynolds, it in no way 
affected his devotion to the interests of the army and the success of its 
leader; and when about to set out on the Gettysburg campaign, Hooker placed him 
in a position the highest in the whole army next himself, giving him command of 
the right wing, embracing the First, Third and Eleventh corps, and of all the 
cavalry, nearly a half of the entire force.  When Meade succeeded Hooker, 
Reynolds was continued in this elevated position, and exercised a great 
influence in the movements preliminary to the battle.  The sight of his native 
State overrun by an insolent enemy, ravaging and despoiling its fair domain 
unchecked, made

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA  - 474

him impatient of delay, and eager to get at the invaders.  His cavalry, under 
Buford, reached Gettysburg on the 30th of June, and on the morning of the 1st of 
July the battle opened.  He had encamped with the First corps on the night of 
the 30th, four miles back, and in the morning had hastened forward with the 
leading division to the cavalry's support.  He had scarcely led this into 
action, when, in a little tongue of wood which reaches up from Willoughby Run 
towards the Seminary, where he had just led a regiment forward and was turning 
to look for supports, he was struck in the back of the neck and never spoke 
more.  Only three persons were with him at this time - Captains Mitchell and 
Baird of his staff, and Charles H. Veil, his orderly.  Captain Baird says: 
"After throwing the first troops forward into the woods, and turning to come out 
of them, the enemy opened a most terrific fusilade, and an accidental shot, not 
from a sharp-shooter as has been stated, struck him just as he was getting clear 
of the timber.  As he fell from his horse his foot hung in the stirrup and he 
was dragged ten feet or so before it was loosened.  I at once jumped from my 
horse, and opened his clothes, but in an instant saw that there was no hope for 
his recovery.  I obtained a canteen of water from one of our infantry who was 
behind a tree on the edge of the woods, and raising his head, gave him a 
mouthful, but he could not swallow.  In a few moments I got some of our men, who 
put him in a blanket and carried him off the field.  He made no exclamation at 
all when he was hit, and none at any time afterwards."  Substantially in accord 
with this, is the statement given by Veil: "This regiment," he says, charged 
into the woods nobly, but the enemy were too strong, and it had to give way to 
the right.  The enemy still pushed on, and were not more than sixty yards from 
where the General was.  Minie balls were flying thick.  The General turned to 
look towards the Seminary.  As he did so, a Minie ball struck him in the back of 
the neck, and he fell from his horse dead.  He never spoke a word after he was 
struck.  I have seen many killed in action, but never saw a ball do its work so 
instantly as did the ball which struck General Reynolds, a man who knew not what 
fear or danger was.  The last words he spoke were, 'Forward, men, forward, for 
God's sake, and drive those fellows out

JOHN F. REYNOLDS - 475

of the woods!' meaning the enemy.  When he fell, we sprang from our horses.  He 
fell on his left side.  I turned him on his back and glanced over him, but could 
see no wound, except a bruise above his left eye.  We were under the impression 
that he was only stunned."  He was carried from the wood a short distance, when 
the two Aides left to convey the intelligence to the officers next in command.  
The body was borne back by the help of other orderlies who soon came up, and as 
they went, the General gasped, and they thought he was recovering from the stun 
which they supposed he had received.  Whereupon they laid him gently down and 
Veil attempted to give him some water from a canteen; but he could not drink.  
This was his last struggle.  He was borne on to the Seminary, and now for the 
first time was discovered the bullet wound, beneath his hair, which had caused 
his death.  No coffin could be procured, and in a rude marble-cutter's box the 
body of the hero was transported to Westminster, and thence by way of Baltimore 
and Philadelphia, to Lancaster, where it was consigned to the grave.
  Among those who were eminent in the late war for martial ability, General 
Reynolds stands in the first rank.  His life had been devoted to the profession 
of arms from his youth, and when the noise of battle sounded in his ears, his 
soul, instinct with the warlike custom, was aroused to deeds of heroism.  In all 
the actions in which he was engaged, up to the moment of his death, he displayed 
unsurpassed devotion and bravery.  If he had any fault, it was one which must 
ever excite the admiration and quicken the pulse of him who contemplates it - 
that of too much exposing himself in the hour of battle.  At Beaver Dam Creek, 
at Gaines' Mill, where he was captured, and at the Second Bull Run, he was in 
the thickest of the fray, in the very fore front of his troops.  Little less 
than a miracle had thus far preserved him.  But at Gettysburg he was in a more 
exalted position, having the command of nearly half of the army, and a due 
regard to its preservation and safety demanded that he should exercise care of 
his person.  His own safety, however, was the least of his cares.  He knew that 
the two armies were rapidly approaching each other, and collision could not long 
be avoided.  The choice of the field, and the initiative of the battle was in 
his eyes

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 476

all-important, and he determined to push to the front and decide everything from 
personal observation; and who will say that he did not do right?  He gave his 
life; but he gave it that victory might be assured.  He lived not to hear its 
glad shout; but the example of heroism which at its outset he gave, inspired his 
soldiers and nerved them to make the good fight which assured it.  "He was," 
says Sypher, "one of America's greatest soldiers. The men he commanded loved 
him.  He shared with them the hardships, toil, and danger of the camp, the 
march, and the field.  Devoted to his profession, he was guided by those great 
principles which can alone prepare a soldier to become the defender of the 
liberties of a free people.  He fell valiantly fighting for his country.  Still 
more, he died in the defence of the homes of his neighbors and kinsmen.  No 
treason-breeding soil drank his blood, but all of him that was mortal is buried 
in the bosom of his own native State'"
  In his personal intercourse in the field he was exceedingly reserved.  "On the 
night before the battle," says Captain Baird, "General Reynolds retired to his 
room about midnight, and rose early, as was his usual practice.  On the march 
from our headquarters at the Red Tavern, he was very reticent and 
uncommunicative to all around him, as was his wont.  He was, in this respect, an 
entirely different man from any other general officer with whom I served during 
the war, having very little, if anything, to say to any one, other than to 
communicate to them such orders as he desired executed.  He would, while he was 
upon the march, ride miles without having any conversation with any one.  Our 
ride to Gettysburg formed no exception to this rule.  From this you can see that 
no conclusion could be arrived at as to what his feelings and presentiments were 
upon that day.  I consider him one of the finest and most thorough soldiers 
which the Civil War brought before the country.

HENRY BOHLEN,* Colonel of the Seventy-fifth regiment and Brigadier-General of 
volunteers, was the youngest son of the late Bohl Bohlen, an eminent merchant of 
Philadelphia; who
_____

  *The sketch here given of General Bohlen is printed, with the omission of some 
irrelevant matter, as it was published in the Philadelphia Commercial List and 
Price Current of March 31st, 1866.

HENRY BOHLEN - 477

was the founder of the house of B. and J. Bohlen, for many years extensively 
engaged in the Holland and East India trade.  General Bohlen was born in the 
city of Bremen, on the 22d of October, 1810, while his parents were travelling 
in Europe for pleasure; his father being a naturalized citizen of the United 
States, and domiciled in Philadelphia, placed him in the same position as to 
birth, by the laws of our country, as if he had been born on the soil of the 
United States.  At an early day he evinced so decided a taste for martial 
pursuits that his father determined to give him an education suitable to his 
disposition, and at the proper age he was placed in one of the first military 
colleges in Germany; but before he had completed his studies he was called home 
to the United States upon some family matters, and he did not return to close 
his collegiate course in Europe.
  In 1830 he was again upon the Continent, and in 1831 was brought to the 
favorable notice of the illustrious Marquis de Lafayette, a name that will ever 
be venerated in this country.  Through the influence of Lafayette, young Bohlen 
obtained a position as Aide-de-camp on the staff of General Gerard, and with 
that distinguished officer he took part in the memorable siege of Antwerp.  For 
his able services in this campaign he received honorable mention.  In the year 
1832 he returned to Philadelphia, and married the eldest daughter of the late J. 
J. Boric, a much-respected merchant of this city, and in the same year he 
established himself in the French and West India trade.  On the death of his 
uncle, John Bohlen, which took place in March, 1851 (his father died in 1836), 
he succeeded the old house of B. and J. Bohlen, and at the time of his death he 
was the senior partner of the well-known house of Henry Bohlen and Co., general 
importers.
  On the breaking out of the war with Mexico, he was eager to be once more amid 
the clash of arms.  He restrained himself for some months, but finally yielded 
to the desire to enter the army, and on the 31st of October, 1846, he left the 
quiet pursuits of mercantile life, to again follow the uncertain fortunes of 
war.  He accepted a position on the staff of his cherished friend and companion, 
the late lamented General Worth, as a volunteer Aide-decamp, defraying all his 
own expenses, and receiving nothing

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 478 

whatever from the Government.  He participated in all the battles with his chief 
up to the triumphal entry of the American army, under Major-General Scott, into 
the ancient Capital of the Montezumas.  On the restoration of peace, he again 
sheathed his sword, and resigned, apparently forever, his favorite occupation.
  In 1850, the delicate health of a favorite son caused him to embark once more 
for Europe, with all his family, trusting that the more genial climate of the 
interior of France would restore his boy to health; but as the experiment was 
only partially successful, he determined, for a few years at least, to make 
Europe his permanent place of abode; never forgetting, however, for a moment, 
the allegiance and love he owed to the United States, being ever proud to be 
called an American.
  On the breaking out of the Crimean War he entered the service of the allies, 
on the French staff, and shared in many of the severe conflicts of that well-
remembered struggle.  He was active during the siege, and up to the time of the 
storming and the final surrender of Sebastopol.  After the Crimean War, he for 
some time resided quietly in Holland, in the society of a fond, a devoted wife, 
affectionate children, and many friends, surrounded by all that could make life 
agreeable and attractive, when news reached him of the revolt in the Cotton 
States, and of the firing on and surrender of Fort Sumter.  The insult to his 
old flag roused all his patriotic fire, and caused him to bid adieu to his 
family, to return to the country so dear to him, where he determined to draw his 
sword in defence of the Government.  He came with all haste, and arrived in 
Philadelphia in June, 1861.  He immediately applied for a position on the staff 
of some general officer, but finding no vacancy, he made application to the War 
Department for permission to recruit a regiment, which was at once granted.  He 
immediately set about organizing a regiment, to be composed entirely of Germans, 
and he succeeded in the effort.  He left with his regiment, 800 strong, on the 
night of the 27th of September, 1861, for Washington.  Two companies were yet to 
be recruited; these were completed, and they joined him some time after.  All 
the expenses of recruiting were borne by himself, nor would he allow his 
officers to contribute any portion.  In the following October, he was advanced

HENRY BOHLEN - 479

to the position of Colonel, commanding the Third brigade of General Blenker's 
division.  His brigade was noted for its discipline, celerity in evolutions of 
the line, and proficiency in the manual of arms.  In March, 1862, his brigade 
had the advance in the terrible march from Warrenton, up the Valley of Virginia, 
to Winchester.  For days his soldiers were almost without food, badly clothed, 
barefoot, and without tents, bivouacking at night in fields covered with water, 
and suffering as few other armies have ever suffered, and enduring hardships 
almost equal to those endured by the rear of the Grand Army of Napoleon in its 
disastrous retreat from Russia.
  In the early part of April, 1862, President Lincoln appointed him a Brigadier-
General of volunteers, and in about two weeks he was unanimously confirmed by 
the Senate.  In the battle of Cross Keys, in May of the same year, he acted with 
distinguished bravery, and he was the subject of much favorable criticism for 
the skill with which he manoeuvred his men.  The battle near the Rappahannock 
closed his earthly career.  On the morning of the 22d of August, 1862, General 
Sigel ordered General Bohlen to cross that stream with his brigade to 
reconnoitre.  The Seventy-fourth Pennsylvania crossed first to feel the enemy, 
and immediately after the Sixty-first Ohio and the Eighth Virginia followed, in 
order to support the Seventy-fourth, in case of an attack.  In moving up the 
road, their advance was checked by four regiments of rebel infantry, who poured 
upon them a murderous fire.  It was in personally leading a charge of the Eighth 
Virginia, for the fourth time, that this gallant soldier fell, pierced by a 
rifle ball in the region of the heart, and expired immediately.
  Thus passed away another of Pennsylvania's most distinguished sons.  The 
country lost a faithful officer and a true soldier, his family a fond and 
affectionate father, society a brilliant ornament, and the poor a kind, a 
generous benefactor.  He left a wife and three children to mourn his untimely 
end.
  The remains of General Bohlen were brought to Philadelphia, where they were 
interred, September 12th, 1862, with becoming honors.  His funeral oration was 
delivered by the Rev. Joseph A. Seiss, D.D., of St. John's Lutheran Church.  The 
reverend

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 480

gentleman truthfully sketched the character of the departed soldier, and fairly 
depicted the gloom of the times that made the patriotic example of the deceased 
so brilliant in its dark setting, when he said:
  "Never was purer patriotism extinguished at a time when it was more needed, or 
more generous bravery destroyed at a juncture when its presence was more 
demanded, or more self-sacrificing services cut short at a period when more 
required, than that which ceased when General Bohlen fell!
  "The deceased was eminently a man of the class which the country most needs in 
these lowering times.  And he was just in that position in which he was 
rendering the services most demanded by the emergencies which have arisen.  But, 
at the very post and moment when about to be most useful, the summons of God 
reached him, and his friends and country have nothing left of him but these 
remains which we are about to lower into the dark bosom of the earth!
  "Not, therefore, with the outpouring of the natural sympathies of the human 
heart over the fall of a fellow mortal merely; nor yet only with those 
outpourings swollen with the tears of bereaved friendship and the regrets of a 
disrupted Christian fellowship; but also, with a lively sense of national and 
public loss, at a moment of peculiar peril and necessity, that we here this day 
surround this covered bier.  It is patriotism, quite as much as sorrowing 
personal affection, that seeks to utter its grief, and to express its sense of 
bereavement, by this solemn pageant.  And when we bethink ourselves how sorely 
our country is pressed at this dark hour - how in need of disciplined soldiers 
and brave and experienced commanders - how the calls and cries from all sides 
are appealing to us for men to defend our own firesides and how the dark 
thunder-clouds of rebel invasion are threatening to break upon us with all the 
dreadful doings of rampant ruin - to find ourselves appointed by Providence to 
the sad work of committing our Generals to their graves, our faith would stagger 
were we not otherwise so unmistakably assured of the wisdom and righteousness of 
that Almighty God, who taketh away, and none can hinder.

HUGH W. McNEIL - 481

  "There may be such a thing as a Christian soldier.  And such was Henry Bohlen.  
He was a praying man.  Incidents have not been wanting to show that his Bible 
and his devotions were not neglected, even amid the hinderances and diverting 
causes which pressed upon him amid the duties of the field.  Nor shall I soon 
forget the devout and feeling manner in which he committed himself and his cause 
to God, when he last stood where his remains now lie.  Grasping my hand, with 
tears in his eyes, he said: 'God only knows whether I shall ever return to you 
again; but whether I return or not, my trust is in Him who alone can help.  The 
cause in which I have embarked is one which He must approve, and for it I am 
willing to meet whatever His good providence may appoint.'  With this spirit he 
went upon the field.  With this spirit he served to the last.  With this spirit 
he has fallen, a willing sacrifice for the good of his country.  And with this 
spirit I cannot but believe he has met his God in peace."

HUGH WATSON McNEIL, a Colonel of the Bucktail regiment, was born in 1830, at 
Owasco, Cayuga county, New York.  He was the son of the Rev. Archibald McNeil, 
and was educated at Yale College.  Immediately after graduating, finding the 
Northern winters too severe for his health, which was delicate, he went to 
Washington, where he taught in the Union Academy for a year, at the end of 
which, he accepted a place in the office of the Coast Survey, under Dr. Bache.  
He resigned after a few months, and received an appointment to a position in the 
Treasury Department, where he remained for six years.  He, in the meantime, 
studied law, and was admitted to the bar.  After leaving the Treasury, he 
entered the law office of Blachford and Seward, in New York city.  After the 
lapse of a few months, a pulmonary attack, with which he had before been 
afflicted, reduced him to the verge of the grave; but he finally regained his 
strength, and removed to Warren, Pennsylvania, where he became Cashier of a bank 
in 1860.  When, upon the opening of hostilities, in 1861, Roy Stone formed his 
company of Bucktail Riflemen, McNeil enlisted as a private, and was elected 
First Lieutenant.  At the formation of the Bucktail regiment 

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 482

he was promoted to Captain of Stone's company, the latter having been made 
Major.  After the battle of Dranesville, where he acted with great gallantry, he 
was elected Colonel.  While the Reserves were at Fredericksburg, upon the eve of 
departing to the Peninsula, he was attacked with disease, and was obliged to 
return to his home.  He did not recover so as to resume command until after the 
close of the Peninsula campaign.  When he came to meet his men at Harrison's 
Landing, and saw, in place of that stalwart body, only a few, begrimed by 
battle, who had survived the terrible ordeal of that destructive campaign, he 
was moved to tears by the spectacle, and exclaimed: "My God! where are my 
Bucktails?  Would that I had died with them!"
  In the Maryland campaign he displayed the best qualities of the soldier.  At 
South Mountain, General Meade ordered him to advance, with his regiment deployed 
as skirmishers, boldly up the face of the mountain and find the foe.  Nobly was 
the command executed, and before the enemy was aware of their presence, he began 
to feel the effect of their trusty rifles.  Again, at Antietam, McNeil was 
ordered to deploy his men, and lead the column.  At a wood in front of the 
little Dunkard church, the enemy was found, sheltered behind a fence.  A charge 
was ordered, and McNeil went forward at a run in the face of a perfect torrent 
of artillery and musketry missiles.  The first line of the foe was routed and 
driven; but in advancing upon a second line, many of his men fell, and among 
them Colonel McNeil himself, who expired on the field.  His last commands were, 
"Forward, Bucktails! Forward!"  "These were his last commands," says Captain C. 
Cornforth; "I heard them.  It was quite dark, and I did not see him, though he 
was but a short distance off.  I helped carry him back to the rear, after firing 
had ceased.  I did not know he was killed till silence and darkness reigned.  
One of the soldiers said his last words were, "Take me to the rear.  Don't let 
me fall into the enemy's hands.'"  General Meade, in his report of the battle, 
says: "I feel it also due to the memory of a gallant soldier and accomplished 
gentleman, to express here my sense of the loss to the public service in the 
fall of Colonel Hugh W. McNeil, of the First Pennsylvania Rifles, who fell

JOHN M. GRIES - 483

mortally wounded while in the front rank, bravely leading on and encouraging his 
men, on the afternoon of the 16th."  Colonel McNeil was a ripe scholar, a tried 
and true soldier, and died deeply lamented by his men and the entire Reserve 
corps.

JOHN MYERS GRIES, Major of the One Hundred and Fourth regiment, was born at 
Womelsdorf, Berks county, Pennsylvania, on the 22d of March, 1828.  His father 
was a physician, and a son of John Dieter Gries, who came to this country from 
near Manheim, Germany.  His mother, Maria Priscilla, was the daughter of John 
Myers, whose father was the proprietor of Myerstown, Lebanon county.  He was 
educated at the Womelsdorf and Reading Academies, and served an apprenticeship 
to a carpenter preparatory to becoming an architect, for which he had native 
talent and disposition.  He was self-instructed in his profession, but became 
skilled, the designs of Christ Church Hospital, Philadelphia Bank, and Farmers' 
and Mechanics' Bank, among many others, being monuments of his talent.  His 
natural genius had been cultivated by a careful study of European masterpieces, 
which he had made during a visit a few years before the Rebellion.  His only 
military training was as a member of a volunteer organization, under Colonel 
Chapman Biddle, formed soon after the outbreak of the war.
  He was appointed Major of the Ringgold regiment, the One Hundred and Fourth of 
the line, which he was active in recruiting, until he took command of the camp 
at Doylestown under Colonel Davis.  On taking the field, Major Gries moved with 
his regiment to the Peninsula, and though often worn out with fatigue and 
depressed by sickness, yet he would never yield, but kept at the post of duty 
through wearisome marches.  At Savage Station, a week before the battle of Fair 
Oaks, he was in command of the skirmishers in advance of the whole army, and 
skilfully directed the fire of the artillery, by signals from the extreme front, 
so accurately that the rebels were forced to fall back.  At Fair Oaks, while in 
the thickest of the fight and in the intelligent discharge of his duty, he 
received a mortal wound.  It was inflicted while he was in the act of securing 
the flag which was in danger of being lost, as the regiment was falling back

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 484

from a charge which had just been made.  He was brought off the field, and with 
other wounded was taken to the general hospital at Philadelphia.  He refused the 
invitations of friends to their homes, and insisted upon going with his 
comrades.  The ball with which he was wounded lodged in the bone of the pelvis.  
Several unsuccessful attempts were made by surgeons at different times to remove 
it, and it is probable that he died, more from the effects of these persistent 
and inexcusable trials, than from the wound itself, though his system had been 
much reduced by hard labor, his command having had the advance after leaving 
Bottom's Bridge, which involved ceaseless care and multiplied responsibility on 
the part of the officers.  He endured the pain of the surgical operations 
without flinching and with a stoicism that excited the wonder of every beholder.  
He expired on the 13th of June, after having borne great suffering for the space 
of nearly two weeks.
  By the commander of his brigade, General Naglee, he was held in high esteem, 
on account of his promptness and courage as an officer, and good judgment as an 
engineer.  In a letter to Adjutant-General Williams, that officer said: "Again 
should mention be made of the cool daring and gallant manner in which Major John 
M. Gries sustained his regiment, when charging in the very face of the enemy.  
The Major died from wounds then and there received, and will long be remembered 
by all who knew him."

JAMES MILLER, Colonel of the Eighty-first regiment, was a volunteer soldier in 
two wars.  When hostilities with Mexico opened, he promptly recruited troops, 
and won distinction as a brave and efficient officer throughout the campaign, 
serving in one of the regiments which followed General Scott, and at its close 
was commissioned Captain for meritorious services.  At the opening of the War of 
Rebellion he again volunteered, and was instrumental in organizing and bringing 
to a state of efficiency the Eighty-first regiment, of which he was made 
Colonel.  He went to the Peninsula with McClellan, and, when arrived before 
Richmond, was put upon the front.  His command was active in the construction of 
the famous Sumner bridge across the Chickahominy, and when completed, passed 
over and participated in

JAMES MILLER - JAMES CROWTHER - JOSEPH A. McLEAN - 485

the severe skirmish at Golding's Farm.  In the battle of Fair Oaks, fought on 
the 30th of May, the troops of Sumner were hastened to the relief of the hard-
pressed forces of Casey, who was first to feel the attack, and were successful 
in checking the foe.  On the following morning, the fighting was renewed.  The 
left flank of his regiment was exposed.  In the progress of the battle a 
regiment of the enemy approached, from the open side, which Colonel Miller 
mistook for a Union force, and called out to it.  The answer was a volley at 
close range, under which he fell, shat through the heart, and expired upon the 
field manfully battling to the last.

AMES CROWTHER, Colonel of the One Hundred and Tenth regiment, was born in Centre 
county, Pennsylvania, on the 16th of January, 1818.  He was commissioned 
Lieutenant-Colonel on the 23d of December, 1861, and at once took the field with 
his command.  He was engaged in the campaign of 1862, in West Virginia and the 
Shenandoah Valley, under Lander, Shields, and Banks.  When General Pope took 
command of all the forces before Washington, Ricketts' division, to which this 
regiment was attached, was sent to Thoroughfare Gap, where a stubborn resistance 
was made to Longstreet's advance, and afterwards upon the plains of Manassas it 
fought with determined courage against vastly superior numbers.  Soon after the 
battle of Fredericksburg, Lieutenant-Colonel Crowther was promoted to Colonel.  
In the disastrous battle of Chancellorsville, while he was leading his regiment 
in the fierce fighting which heralded in the morning of the 3d of May, 1863, he 
was killed, and nearly half of his regiment was stricken down by his side. 

JOSEPH A. McLEAN, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Eighty-eighth regiment, was born in 
the city of Philadelphia on the 22d of May, 1823.  He was the son of William and 
Sarah (Douglass) McLean, natives of Scotland, and was the youngest son of a 
family of twelve, two girls and ten boys.  He gave early promise of mental 
ability, and it was the purpose of his parents to give him a liberal education; 
but their designs were frustrated by misfortune, and he was early put to a 
trade, first as a glass-blower,

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 486

and finally as a fancy and ornamental painter.  In June, 1843, he married Miss 
Elizabeth Doyle, of Richmond, Virginia.  He was an active member of the Franklin 
Debating Society, and became its President.  In the riots of 1844, which 
resulted in bloodshed, he was among the most active in quelling them, Shiffler, 
one of the victims, falling by his side, and another near him having his jaw 
shot away.  He enlisted for the Mexican War; but through the intervention of 
friends was prevented from serving.  In 1848, he removed with his family to the 
city of Reading, where he soon identified himself with the interests of the 
place, organizing a Lyceum, advocating the building of the Lebanon Valley 
Railroad, and was finally elected a member of the City Council, and subsequently 
its President.  He was also a member of the Public School Board.  In politics he 
was an American, and a firm advocate of the abolition of slavery, stumping the 
country for Lincoln in 1860, speaking about sixty times, among other places, in 
Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Pottsville.  He was prompt 
in recruiting troops when the President made his call for men, and was appointed 
Adjutant of the Fourteenth regiment, in the three months' campaign under 
Patterson.  With his brother, Colonel George P. McLean, he was active in 
recruiting the Eighty-eighth, three year regiment, of which he was made 
Lieutenant-Colonel.  He was exceedingly popular with his men, whose hardships he 
shared, and whose burdens he did what he could to lighten.  He received frequent 
tokens of regard, among others a beautiful sword, sash and belt.  In the battle 
of Cedar Mountain, his command was actively engaged, and also in the manoeuvring 
and skirmishing of Pope's army, preceding the second battle of Bull Run.  In the 
midst of that disastrous engagement, while supporting a battery that was being 
fiercely assailed, he was struck by a musket ball in the hip and mortally 
wounded.  Confusion had already seized upon the Union army, and he was ordered 
with his regiment, of which he was at the time in command, to assist a battery 
in holding the enemy in check while the army was retiring.  Three times he had 
rallied his men under a fierce fire; but while bringing them up for the fourth 
time he was stricken and left upon the field. Lieutenant W. J. Rannells, of the 
Seventh Ohio regiment, hap-

FRANK A. ELLIOT - 487

pened at the moment to be near him, and, in a letter subsequently addressed to 
Colonel McLean's wife, gave the following account of his death: "Madam: I have 
just arrived home from Richmond.  I was taken prisoner while attending to your 
husband's wounds.  It is my painful duty to inform you that he is dead.  He fell 
near me, while doing all that a brave man could do to hold his men to the 
support of a battery.  He fell from his horse with his foot fast in the stirrup.  
His horse was about to run with him in this situation, but I caught him, and, 
disentangling his foot, laid him upon the ground.  I found that he had been 
wounded high up on the thigh, the ball having ruptured the main artery.  With a 
strap that he gave me, I succeeded in stopping the hemorrhage, and, with the 
assistance of three of his men, was about to carry him to a hospital.  When the 
Colonel saw the charging foe, he said: 'Boys, drop me and save yourselves; for I 
must die.' The three men became excited, and, dropping him, disappeared.  This 
caused the strap to slip below the wound, and allowed the hemorrhage to 
recommence.  I replaced the strap, and was in the act of tightening it, when I 
observed that the enemy had charged past our battery, and were soon upon us.  
They fought over us about fifteen minutes, in which time your poor husband was 
wounded again in the same leg, below the knee.  They would not help me take him 
to a surgeon, but made me leave him, when he said: 'Tell my wife she will never 
blush to be my widow.   I die for my country and the old flag.'  One of my men, 
who was detailed to bury the dead, reports having buried Colonel Joseph A. 
McLean of the Eighty-eighth Pennsylvania.  I sympathize deeply with you in your 
loss, and pray God will bless and aid you."

FRANK ANDREW ELLIOT, Captain in the One Hundred and Fourteenth regiment, was 
born in Washington, D. C., on the 8th of August, 1825.  His parents, William G. 
and Margaret (Dawes) Elliot, were natives of Boston, Massachusetts. Throughout 
his boyhood he was remarkably fearless and upright, fond of adventure, and 
desired to enter the navy; but in deference to the wishes of his father, he 
prepared for College with the Rev. S. G. Bulfinch, pastor of the Unitarian 
Church at Washington.

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 488

Not wishing to enter college, he commenced mercantile life in Boston.  Of 
delicate physique, his health, though good, was never robust.  His habits of 
life were singularly temperate, and in all respects irreproachable. In 
September, 1854, he married Mary Jane Whipple, niece and adopted daughter of 
Professor W. R. Johnson of Washington.  In the purest spirit of patriotism, he 
left a successful business, in which he was engaged in Philadelphia, and devoted 
himself to the service of his country, entering the One Hundred and Fourteenth 
regiment as Captain of Company F.  He did gallant service at the battle of 
Fredericksburg; and subsequently, at Chancellorsville, was mortally wounded, and 
died in the hands of the enemy.

WILLIAM SPEER KIRKWOOD, Colonel of the Sixty-third regiment, was born on the 4th 
of July, 1835, at Fairview, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania.  His father was 
Archibald Kirkwood, a native of Ireland; his mother, Elizabeth (Sterrars) 
Kirkwood.  He was, in boyhood, a farmer and ferryman, early developing a liking 
for naval life.  He received a fair English education in the public schools of 
his native place, but had no military training.  From youth he was steady and 
industrious; and it is remembered as a somewhat notable circumstance, that he 
never saw Pittsburg until after he was fifteen years old.  In person, he was 
nearly six feet in height, and stoutly built.
  He recruited a company for the Sixty-third regiment, of which he was elected 
Captain.  During McClellan's campaign, Captain Kirkwood was constant at the post 
of duty, sharing with the humblest subaltern the privations and sufferings 
incident to a life in camp amid the bogs and swamps before Yorktown and upon the 
Chickahominy; and in the battle of Fair Oaks, where the regiment was closely 
engaged, bore himself with great gallantry, and fortunately, where so many of 
his comrades went down, he was preserved unscathed.  Soon after that battle he 
was promoted to Major.  At Bull Run the regiment was again subjected to a fiery 
ordeal.  Kearny's division, to which it belonged, was drawn up in line of battle 
near Groveton.  Robinson's brigade was ordered to advance upon an old railroad 
bed, behind which the enemy's skirmishers had taken shelter.  Before

WILLIAM S. KIRKWOOD - 489

reaching it, two picked men from each company were sent forward to drive out 
these troublesome marksmen.  The left of the line was already warmly engaged, 
when General Kearny rode up to Colonel Hays and ordered him to charge, saying, 
as he gave the order, "I will support you handsomely."  No troops could have 
obeyed the order more gallantly, but as the line approached the embankment, it 
received, unexpectedly, a deadly fire from the concealed foe, which threw it 
into some confusion.  Rallying, it again went forward, and again was it saluted 
by a fatally-aimed volley, by which Colonel Hays was wounded.  Major Kirkwood 
promptly assumed command, and led his regiment on; but he had scarcely done so, 
when he also was severely wounded in the left leg, being twice struck.  He was 
carried from the field, and his hurts found to be of a serious character.  In 
September, 1862, he was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel, and, in the April 
following, Colonel.
  When it became apparent, near the close of this month, that Hooker was about 
to lead his army to meet the enemy, Colonel Kirkwood manifested great impatience 
to lead his regiment, though his wounds were still open.  His surgeon 
remonstrated with him, but he declared that he must see his command fight and be 
with it.  So crippled was he, when the army set out for Chancellorsville, that 
he had to be lifted upon his horse, and no representations of injury to his 
wounds by the surgeon could induce him to remain in camp.  On the afternoon of 
the 2d, a few hours before the Eleventh corps was struck by "Stonewall" Jackson, 
Birney's division was pushed out nearly two miles in front of the main line of 
the army, where it was engaged with Jackson's rear guard, and when Jackson 
attacked, Birney was isolated and in danger of being cut off.  But the rout of 
the Eleventh corps having been stayed, Birney moved back, and, after a midnight 
struggle, gained his place in line.  On Sunday the battle was renewed, and 
though the Union troops fought with their accustomed heroism, they contended at 
a great disadvantage.  The Sixty-third, standing on the left of the brigade, 
found its left flank exposed and over-reached by the enemy.  A galling fire was 
poured in upon it, and many of the brave fellows were laid low.  Colonel 
Kirkwood, while conducting the fight and

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 490

leading his men with unsurpassed bravery and skill, was stricken down, receiving 
wounds which proved mortal.  He survived until the 28th of June, subject to 
intense suffering, when he expired, deeply lamented by his entire command.

JOHN W. MOORE, Colonel of the Two Hundred and Third regiment, was born at 
Philadelphia.  He enlisted in Company G, of the Sixty-sixth regiment, in July, 
1861, of which he was commissioned Captain.  This organization, unfortunately, 
had but a brief existence, and in March, 1862, he was transferred with his 
company to the Ninety-ninth.  In Pope's campaign before Washington, in 
McClellan's operations in Maryland, and in Burnside's attack upon the enemy at 
Fredericksburg, he participated in much severe fighting.  In February, 1863, he 
was promoted to Major, and was with his command in the desperate conflict of the 
Third corps with the enemy, on the morning of the 3d of May, at 
Chancellorsville.  The regiment was brought upon the Gettysburg field at a 
critical point, both in time and place.  It was just as the Union left was about 
to be struck with terrific force by Longstreet's corps, and at the extreme of 
that flank, where the enemy was intent on breaking through.  Major Moore was in 
command of the regiment; but before he had his line of battle fully formed, he 
was severely wounded, and was taken from the field.  Previous to the opening of 
the spring campaign of 1864, he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel, and in the 
progress of the desperate struggles which ensued, was a portion of the time in 
command of the Seventeenth Maine.  Early in June, he was prostrated by sickness, 
and was sent to hospital.  Several new regiments for one year's service were 
being recruited at this period, and of one of these - the Two Hundred and Third 
- he was appointed Colonel.  His new regiment was intended for duty in General 
Birney's corps as sharp-shooters; but the General dying soon afterwards, it was 
employed as a simple infantry regiment; though from its being led by veteran 
officers, it was regarded as among the most reliable in the army.  It was one of 
those employed in the expedition undertaken for the reduction of Fort Fisher; 
and here, while engaged in a hand-to-hand encounter over the traverses of the 
fort, Colonel Moore was

JOHN W. MOORE - GUSTAVUS W. TOWN - 491

killed.  "A footing was gained, though at a heavy cost.  Colonel Pennypacker had 
fallen, and was reported mortally hurt, but there was no cessation in the fight. 
Traverse after traverse, seventeen in all, still remained to be overcome.  
Colonel Moore, with the flag in one hand and his sword in the other, led 
gallantly on until three of the traverses were carried, and the fourth was being 
charged, when he fell dead, still grasping the flag-staff, the banner riddled 
with bullets and more than half shot away."  Thus perished one of the bravest 
soldiers which the Republic offered upon its altars.

GUSTAVUS WASHINGTON TOWN, Colonel of the Ninety-fifth regiment, was born at 
Philadelphia on the 28th of August, 1839.  He was descended from a family who 
had been printers and publishers of that city through three generations.  He was 
himself bred to that business, and was actively engaged in it up to the time of 
entering the military service.  He was educated in the public schools, and 
graduated at the High School.  Fondness for military life was early developed, 
and at the age of sixteen he joined the Washington Blues, a volunteer 
organization.  When this regiment was recruited for the field, he was made First 
Lieutenant of Company A, this organization being known as the Eighteenth 
Pennsylvania.  At the expiration of the term of service, he returned and 
assisted in recruiting the Ninety-fifth (Zouave) regiment for the war, and was 
commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel.  In the midst of the fierce fighting in the 
bloody battle of Gaines' Mill, the commander of the regiment, Colonel Gosline, 
was killed, and Lieutenant-Colonel Town was promoted to succeed him.  Being the 
senior Colonel of the brigade to which his regiment was attached, he acted as 
Brigadier-General, and for nearly a year, ably and efficiently commanded it; the 
officers of the brigade, to a man, asking for his promotion to the rank in which 
he was acting.  In the second battle of Fredericksburg, which was coincident 
with that of Chancellorsville, his brigade formed part of the Sixth corps, 
General Sedgwick.  At Salem Church, where the advance of the corps was met by 
the enemy, and where the fighting was of unusual severity, he was shot through 
the heart and instantly killed, while heroically leading on his

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 492

men, and encouraging them to stand firm, though pressed by superior numbers.
      "In these brave ranks I only see the gaps,  
       Thinking of dear ones whom the dumb turf wraps"

  He had participated in every battle in which the Army of the Potomac had been 
engaged, and was esteemed a gallant and reliable officer.  In person he was six 
feet and three inches in height.  He was married but a short time before his 
death, but left no issue.

GARRETT NOWLEN, Major of the One Hundred and Sixteenth regiment, was born in 
Philadelphia, on the 6th of March, 1835.  He was the son of Edward and Julia 
(McCarthy) Nowlen.  He received a liberal education at the Philadelphia Central 
High School.  In person he was above the medium height, slender and delicate, of 
a studious turn, regular and simple in habits, and of a generous and self-
sacrificing spirit.  He entered the army as Second Lieutenant of Company G, One 
Hundred and Sixteenth regiment, in August, 1862.  At the battle of 
Fredericksburg, where he commanded Company C, he exhibited cool courage and was 
severely wounded, being struck in the hip joint by a musket ball, which 
fractured the bone.  His ability displayed in this battle was recognized, and he 
was promoted to First Lieutenant, and made Adjutant of the regiment.  At 
Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Auburn, Bristoe Station, Mine Run, North Anna, 
Pamunky, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, and Williams' Farm, he was constant at the 
post of duty.  In the engagement at Ream's Station, on the 25th of August, while 
acting in the most gallant manner, he was shot through the breast by a musket 
ball.  As he was struck, he fell backward and, extending his hand towards the 
men of his own company, exclaimed: "Good-bye, boys," and immediately expired.  
He was buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery, on the banks of the Schuylkill.  General 
Mulholland, says of him:  "He was the bravest and most honorable of men, and no 
purer patriot ever offered his life a sacrifice on the altar of freedom and 
justice."

      "Faithful unto his country's weal, and private friendship's claim, 
       He bore unsullied to his grave a noble, honored name; 
       A watchword for his comrade's lips, and history's page will tell, 
       If not that name, the battle-fields where he fought long and well."

GARRETT NOWLEN - ABRAHAM H. SNYDER - 493

ABRAHAM H. SNYDER, Major of the One Hundred and Thirty-ninth regiment, was born 
on the 17th of April, 1821, in Mercer county, Pennsylvania.  He was the son of 
Andrew and Mary (Sylvis) Snyder.  His boyhood was passed upon a farm, and he was 
educated at the Mercer and Beaver Academies.  He was of medium height and 
stoutly built.  He was married on the 6th of May, 1852, to Miss Margaret 
Stewart.
  He was made Captain of Company A, One Hundred and Thirty-ninth regiment, in 
August, 1862, and in all its campaigns he bore a part, being engaged at 
Antietam, Fredericksburg, Salem Heights, Gettysburg, Mine Run and in several 
minor battles.  On the 5th of May, 1864, in the battle of the Wilderness, while 
acting as Lieutenant-Colonel of his regiment, he received his death wound.  He 
was at the time on horseback, leading on his men with undaunted courage, when he 
was struck directly in the forehead, and died without a struggle.  As the 
regiment was obliged to fall back soon after, his body fell into the enemy's 
hands, and was never recovered.  Adjutant A. M. Harper, who was his intimate 
companion in arms, says of him: "His conduct was universally that of a brave 
man, who went into the army from a sense of duty, and carried himself throughout 
in strict accordance with that laudable purpose.  By nature of too mild and 
amiable a disposition for an arbitrary disciplinarian, it always grieved him to 
order punishment for soldiers of his command who deserved it.  In all the 
inconveniences and hardships incident to the service, so much harder to bear by 
one who had arrived at the middle age of life, he was ever patient and 
uncomplaining.  Sensitive to the sufferings of others, and apparently unmindful 
of his own, on the long marches he often dismounted, that some weary soldier 
might have temporary relief by riding his horse.  In short, he was a true and 
patriotic American soldier, such an one as the army stood most in need of."

JOHN BLANCHARD MILES, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Forty-ninth regiment, was born 
on the 20th of September, 1827, at Huntingdon, Pennsylvania.  He was the son of 
John G. and Julia (McConnell) Miles.  His father was a lawyer of note, and his 
uncle, John Blanchard, for whom he was named, was a

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 494

member of Congress from the Centre District.  A paternal ancestor, Richard 
Miles, emigrated from Wales in 1701, and settled upon the Delaware a few miles 
below Philadelphia.  Two of his descendants, brothers, Richard and Samuel, were 
active in the Revolutionary War - Samuel as a Colonel, and Richard, the great-
grandfather of John B., as a Captain - and at a later period were the founders 
of the town of Milesburg, Centre county.  The maternal grandfather, Mathew 
McConnell, was a Major in the patriot army, and had a leg broken by a musket 
ball in the battle of Brandywine.
  Descended from Revolutionary sires on the part of both father and mother, it 
is not strange that he should develop heroic traits when brought to the battle-
field.  He received a good English education, with some knowledge of Latin, in 
the schools of his native town, and manifested a taste for mechanics.  After 
leaving school he was employed at the Rebecca Furnace, in Blair county, owned by 
Dr. Peter Shoenberger, first as clerk, and subsequently as assistant manager.  
At the end of two years he went to Philadelphia, where he was employed as 
salesman in a wholesale hardware store, where he remained two years more.  He 
then went to Peoria, Illinois, where an elder brother lived, and subsequently to 
Chicago, in both places being engaged in mercantile business; but the financial 
crash of 1857 brought disaster, and he returned to his home in Huntingdon, where 
he devoted himself to the manufacture and sale of lumber until the opening of 
the war.  Impelled by a sense of patriotic duty, he recruited a company, of 
which he was commissioned Captain, which became part of the Forty-ninth 
regiment.  With the Army of the Potomac he went to the Peninsula, and in the 
affairs at Lee's Mills and Yorktown, and in the battle of Williamsburg, he led 
with gallantry, evincing from the first heroic valor.  He received honorable 
mention in the report of his superior in the latter, and attracted the attention 
of General Hancock, whose lasting personal friendship he won.  Like courage and 
skill were displayed at Golding's Farm, and in all the subsequent battles of the 
campaign, which ended in the last of the noted seven days at Malvern Hill.
  The battles of South Mountain and Antietam followed close

JOHN B. MILES - 495

upon the disasters of Pope, and at their conclusion, Captain Miles was promoted 
to Major, an advancement won by faithful and unremitting duty.  He crossed the 
river with Franklin's column in the first Fredericksburg, where his regiment was 
held in support of the troops assigned to make the assault.  In the 
Chancellorsville campaign, Major Miles had a more daring part to perform.  To 
the Forty-ninth was assigned the task of crossing the Rappahannock in boats 
under a withering musketry fire, and driving the rebel forces from their 
intrenchments so as to prepare the way for laying the pontoons.  In that 
desperate undertaking, where large numbers of both officers and men fell, none 
were more conspicuous for nerve and unflinching courage than the Major of the 
regiment.  The task was heroically executed and the enemy routed.  At Salem 
Church, on the 3d and 4th of May, the foe made fierce assaults upon the Sixth 
corps, and by superior numbers compelled it to fall back, the Forty-ninth being 
hard pressed, but successfully repulsing every attack.  The campaign to 
Gettysburg followed, involving the demonstration at Fredericksburg on the 9th of 
June, the battle at Gettysburg on the 1st, 2d, and 3d of July, at Fairview on 
the 5th, and at Funkstown on the 12th - a campaign rarely paralleled for rapid 
and fatiguing marches, severe fighting, and glorious achievements, in all of 
which Major Miles never faltered.  But the most marked of his exploits was the 
part he bore in the assault and capture of the enemy's works at Rappahannock 
Station.  The charge had to be made in the face of a fire of infantry and 
artillery from behind breastworks.  It was made by Russell's division, and 
resulted in a complete victory; and the conduct of Major Miles is represented as 
having been "conspicuous for daring."  With Locust Grove and Mine Run his active 
campaignings for 1863 ended.
  Though the three years of his service had been years of trial and carnage 
almost beyond precedent, yet that which was to follow was even more trying and 
terrible.  Before entering upon the campaign of 1864, under Grant, he was 
promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel, and in the three days of fighting in the 
Wilderness he was involved.  The 10th of May brought the Sixth corps in front of 
Spottsylvania Court-House, where, at six o'clock in the evening, Eustis' brigade 
was formed to charge the enemy's works,

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 496

the Forty-ninth occupying the left of the second line.  When the soldiers looked 
upon the task before them, they at once realized that few would ever come out of 
that movement alive.  It was made.  It was successful.  Guns and standards were 
captured.  But failing of support, and the enemy rallying in force, the 
advantage was lost.  In that assault, while charging up the slope, and inspiring 
his men by his own dauntless heroism, the brave Colonel Miles perished.  Of his 
bearing here, and of his character as a soldier, W. G. Mitchell, who had served 
by his side and knew him intimately, bears the following testimony: "Blanch," 
the name by which Colonel Miles was familiarly known, a contraction of 
Blanchard, "was with his regiment in the Wilderness, and I have been told by 
many officers and men, that in the desperate assault in which he and Colonel 
Hulings fell, on the 10th of May, he was more than ever conspicuous for heroic 
courage, and was killed while leading the men up the slope and into the enemy's 
works.  I know that he bore the reputation, in the Sixth corps, of being among 
the bravest and most dutiful officers in its ranks, and I have often noticed his 
extreme gallantry, and heard it spoken of by our brother officers.  I have 
frequently heard General Hancock speak of Blanch's courage and good conduct . . 
. . While I served with the Forty-ninth and with Hancock's brigade, Blanch was 
one of those with whom I associated most constantly; and among all the officers 
whom I have ever known, he was distinguished for bravery, devotion to duty and 
generosity of heart.  I made many long marches by his side, and have seen him on 
many occasions of danger and trial, but never knew him, for one instant, to fail 
in the performance of his duty as a gallant and noble gentleman.  Had he not 
been struck down at Spottsylvania, he could not have failed in rising to high 
rank in the army, for the terrible campaign of 1864 was one in which men of his 
stamp were certain of obtaining rank and distinction by their gallant bearing, 
and the influence they exerted in times of peril.  I lamented his death, and 
that of Colonel Hulings, as if they had been my own brothers."  "His letters," 
says the Presbyterian, "written shortly before his death, showed that he had a 
presentiment of his fate, and that he had made his peace with his God.  He was 
endeared to a large circle of friends by

JOHN B. MILES - 497

many estimable qualities, prominent among which were an unselfish nature and 
remarkable kindness of heart.  He hag nobly fought life's great battle, and we 
trust has received his reward."  We know by the testimony of General Lessig, who 
was with him, that just before going into the charge, he gave away many of his 
valuables to his servants, evidently believing that he would not survive the 
struggle.  Of the unselfish trait in his character, the evidence of its 
prominence is abundant.  So long as he had anything, he was ready to share with 
his comrades.  Colonel Miles had no military education, but he so quickly and so 
thoroughly mastered his profession as to excite the admiration of his superiors.  
Colonel Irwin, an experienced and exacting soldier, thus wrote of him, on the 
20th of March, 1862: "Yesterday, he being the senior Captain on duty, it was his 
turn to manoeuvre the battalion.  There are ten companies, accustomed to all the 
precision and rigor of my handling; but, to my extreme satisfaction and greatly 
to his credit, Captain Miles alone, at the head of my regiment, directed the 
entire drill with perfect self-possession, and without committing one error of 
any consequence."  Colonel Miles was once asked how he felt when in the midst of 
battle, with the deadly missiles flying thick about him?  His answer was: "I 
always feel somewhat nervous in the commencement of a battle, but I usually find 
so much to do, that I soon lose sight of the danger to myself."
  Colonel Miles was married, on the 29th of February, 1864, to Miss Belle 
Creigh, daughter of Hon. John Creigh of California.  She accompanied her husband 
to the front, but an order from the General in command obliged her, in common 
with all other ladies, to leave the army at the end of ten days.  He never saw 
her but once afterwards, and then but for a day or two, while on a brief 
furlough, immediately preceding the moving of the army.
  None of the dead were brought off the field where Colonel Miles fell, and 
though strenuous efforts were made to recover his body, it could not be found.  
He did not die instantly, as he is said to have made the request, after he was 
struck, that his sword should be sent to his wife.  His father caused a monument 
with a military device to be erected in the cemetery at Hunting-

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 498

don, to his memory, on which is inscribed the fact that his body occupies an 
unknown grave on the battle-field.

HARRY A. PURVIANCE, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Eighty-fifth regiment, entered the 
service as Captain of Company E, on the 12th of November, 1861, and was promoted 
to Lieutenant-Colonel on the 15th of May, 1862.  He participated in the 
Peninsula campaign, his command suffering severely in the battle of Fair Oaks, 
where it had the extreme advance when the enemy came upon it unawares, and 
before the rifle-pits and works which had been ordered could be completed.  In 
North Carolina, with General Foster, and in South Carolina, under Hunter and 
Gilmore, he was employed in arduous duty, having command of his regiment the 
greater portion of the time.  On the 30th of August, 1863, while on the front 
traverse, prosecuting the works for the reduction of Fort Wagner, he was shot 
and instantly killed.  For several days previous, three regiments, of which his 
was one, had been detailed to occupy the advance trenches, each in turn twenty-
four hours.  The nights were damp and cold, and during the day, upon these low, 
flat, sandy islands, the thermometer stood at 100° in the shade.  It was in the 
midst of this arduous duty, where the losses were four or five killed, and from 
ten to twenty wounded daily, that Colonel Purviance was cut off.  Fort Wagner 
fell a few days after.

CHARLES IZARD MACEUEN, Major of the One Hundred and Ninety-eighth regiment, was 
born in Philadelphia, on the 1st of October, 1833.  His paternal great-
grandfather, Lieutenant-Colonel Caleb Parry, was killed in an action on Long 
Island, in the Revolution.  His grandfather, with two brothers, served also in 
that war, the former having been elected Colonel of a regiment even at a time 
when he was confined to his bed with sickness.  His father, the late Thomas 
McEnen, M. D., was noted as a scientist, having been a prominent member of 
important scientific and philosophical societies in the city; was President of 
the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati, and Secretary of the general 
society; was one of the original members of the Union League, in whose patriotic 
enterprises he deeply sympathized, and was

HARRY A. PURVIANCE - CHARLES I. MACEUEN - 499

assiduous in his attentions to sick and wounded soldiers in hospitals.  His 
maternal great-grandfather was Ralph Izard, of South Carolina, who, during the 
Revolution, pledged his estate for the purchase of frigates with which to defend 
the flag - purchases which could not be made on the credit of the State of South 
Carolina - was President of the United States Senate in 1794, and was a friend 
and confidant of Washington.  A son, by the same name, was one of the midshipmen 
who climbed up the side of the frigate "Philadelphia," in the harbor of Tripoli, 
and destroyed it, under the guns of the fortress.  His daughter, Annie Middleton 
Izard, was the mother of Charles, and died in 1850, deeply lamented.  Owing to a 
delicacy of constitution, the son could not pursue his education in the city, 
and was placed at school in the country, and finally went to live in the family 
of Charles E. Heister, who cultivated a farm on the banks of the Susquehanna, in 
Dauphin county, where he remained three years, and where his physical vigor was 
established.  After two years more spent in agricultural pursuits in Chester 
county, with two young friends, he established himself in Williamson county, 
Texas, as a ranchero.  Here he found, to use his own words, "all that the heart 
of man could desire," with the promise of rapid fortune.  But, as the sun of his 
prosperity was rising, came the Rebellion, and he found this no place for a 
loyal man.  Foiled in an attempt to escape through the Indian country, he was 
obliged, in order to get away with his friends, to give his parole not to take 
up arms against the State of Texas or its confederates.  On reaching home, he 
found himself precluded from military service by his sense of the inviolability 
of his oath.  He first devoted himself to the care of the sick and wounded 
soldiers, with tender assiduity.  On the establishment of the Union League, he 
entered with ardor into the measures it adopted for the support of the 
Government, becoming the energetic Secretary of its Publication Committee, and 
issuing appeals to the misguided Southerners - whose state he had come to know 
by personal experience - which deserve to be rescued from oblivion, as 
embodying, in few and telling words, the very core of the matter at issue 
between those who sought to maintain the rights of the many, and those who 
strove to perpetuate the privileges of the few.

MARTIAL DEEDS OP PENNSYLVANIA - 500

None were more earnest in the support of the principles of the League than he.
  He was unceasing in his efforts to be absolved from his parole, and when that 
was at last effected, he seized the first opportunity to enlist, receiving his 
commission and, appointment as Adjutant of the One Hundred and Ninety-eighth - 
Ninth Union League - regiment, on the 15th of August, 1864. His duties from the 
outset were unusually severe; but he persisted in performing all, though 
suffering from the intense application imposed, until attacked by a typhoid 
fever, when he was obliged to allow himself to be placed in the hospital, at 
City Point.  He was transferred to his home in Philadelphia, and, after long 
sickness and a slow convalescence, he returned again to the front, and was 
commissioned Major on the 20th of March, 1865.  In less than a week he fell, 
shot through the heart, his face to the foe, in the battle of Quaker Road, 
which, beginning as a skirmish, resulted in one of the hottest musketry 
struggles of the war, and was the first of that series of battles which resulted 
in the downfall of the Confederacy.  He was buried with military honors from his 
father's residence, in Philadelphia.  A committee of the Union League asked 
permission to have a portrait painted of him for a place in their house.  He was 
specially commended for gallant bearing under fire at the battle of Poplar Grove 
Church, on the 30th of September, 1864.

H. BOYD McKEEN, Colonel of the Eighty-first regiment, was commissioned 
Lieutenant and Adjutant of this body on the 27th of October, 1861; was promoted 
to Lieutenant-Colonel on the 1st of July, 1862, and to Colonel on the 24th of 
November following.  A singular fatality attended him, which witnesses to his 
intrepidity.  He was wounded in the action at Malvern Hill on the 1st of July, 
1862, again at Fredericksburg on the 13th of December, and at Chancellorsville 
on the 3d of May, 1863.  At the opening of the campaign in the Wilderness, 
Colonel McKeen was placed in command of a brigade.  At Cold Harbor, it was 
selected, to lead in the attack upon the enemy's works.  With great gallantry 
the assault was delivered, but Colonel McKeen, while, leading in the desperate, 
attempt, was killed.

H. B. McKEEN - OLIVER H. RIPPEY - 501

OLIVER HAZZARD RIPPEY, Colonel of the Sixty-first regiment, was born on the 19th 
of August, 1825, at Pittsburg.  He was the son of John Rippey, a native of 
Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, and Eliza (Leckey) Rippey, of Baltimore, 
Maryland.  He was educated at the Western University, and at Allegheny: College, 
graduating at the latter institution, under the presidency, of Homer J. Clark.  
The Mexican War drew many of the most talented and promising of the young men of 
the country, from the civil to the military service, and Ripped was of the 
number, serving in the First Pennsylvania regiment, commanded by Colonel 
Wynkoop, throughout the entire period of conflict; taking part in the battles of 
Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Perote La Hoya, Siege of Puebla, and was with Lieutenant 
Rhett, as commissary's clerk, after the surrender of the city of Mexico.
  Upon his return, he entered the office of Reade Washington, as a student at 
law, and was admitted to practice at the Pittsburg bar, in November, 1850.  So 
impressed were his examiners with his proficiency and professional intelligence, 
that they instructed their chairman to make honorable mention of it in open 
court, who, in his remarks, said: "If ever a case had yet arisen in which such 
testimonial was called for, this was the case."  At the first call for troops, 
in 1861, he recruited a company which became part of the Seventh regiment, of 
which he was elected Lieutenant-Colonel.  At the expiration of its term, he 
recruited the Sixty-first, and was appointed its Colonel.  He participated in 
the campaign of the Peninsula until the battle of Fair Oaks, where, while 
bravely leading his men against the repeated onsets of the foe, he was stricken 
down and instantly killed.  The division of Casey had been attacked, while 
holding an advanced and isolated position, by overpowering numbers of the enemy, 
and to stay their mad advance until supports could come, Abercrombie's brigade, 
in which was the Sixty-first, was thrown forward as a forlorn hope.  The 
stubbornness with which they fought is shown by the numbers of their dead and 
their wounded - The Sixty-first alone losing seventy killed, one hundred and 
fifty-five wounded, and forty-seven missing.  That they should stand until so 
many were cut down, and should hold the ground through critical hours of 
expectancy and doubt, against

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 502

the myriads of the enemy hurled against them, until help could, come, and thus 
save the day, could only have been the result of their implicit confidence in 
the dauntless courage of their leaders.  Indeed, the spirit which filled the 
bosom of Colonel Rippey is well illustrated by an incident which occurred just 
as he was going into battle.  General Abercrombie had ordered the brigade at 
double-quick to the front.  Colonel Rippey, understanding the urgency of the 
command, and having his men well in hand, was about to take the lead, when he 
was confronted by Colonel Neil, who, as senior Colonel, claimed the precedence.  
The two had had a similar question in the affair at Yorktown.  Colonel Rippey 
was nettled at the prospect of delay in the movement of the whole brigade, by 
this petty question of etiquette, raised amid the screeching of shells and 
singing of bullets, and impatiently exclaimed, "Oh! go to the Devil! Forward, 
Sixty-first! Close up! Double-quick! " And putting spurs to his horse, soon drew 
clear of the questioning Colonel, and had his command in action im less time 
than the matter of precedence could have been settled.  In less than one half 
hour from giving the order to advance, he had fallen.
  Of Colonel Rippey's courage and ability as a soldier, those who knew him best, 
and were best capable of judging, bore ample testimony.  He was as constant and 
unwavering in his obedience to orders, and in his patriotism, as the needle to 
the pole.  The chief question with him was, What will most advance the interests 
of the cause for which I fight? and when that was settled, neither hardship nor 
the fear of death could deter him.  In person, Colonel Rippey was nearly six 
feet in height, and stoutly built.  He was married, on the 12th of April, 1854, 
to Miss Caroline Curling, of Pittsburg.

GEORGE DARE, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Fifth Reserve regiment, entered the 
service in June, 1861, as Major.  In the actions of the Seven Days on the 
Peninsula, at Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and 
Gettysburg, he rendered efficient and faithful service.  In the battle of the 
Wilderness, on the 5th of May, 1864, where the enemy was making his fiercest 
assaults, in the flush of his strength, the Reserves

GEORGE DARE - ELI T. CONNER - FRANCIS MAHLER - 503

were unfortunately broken, a small portion falling into the enemy's hands.  The 
Fifth, however, escaped without loss; but on the following day, while engaged in 
beating back the fierce onsets of the foe, Colonel Dare, who was then in command 
of the regiment, was mortally wounded, and died that night.  He was a good 
officer, and a much esteemed man.

ELI T. CONNER, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Eighty-first regiment, was commissioned 
Major of that body on the 1st of October, 1861, and was promoted to Lieutenant-
Colonel on the 1st of June, 1862.  The first severe fighting was at Fair Oaks, 
on the 30th of May, 1862, where it suffered severe losses, Colonel Miller being 
of the number of the killed.  At Savage Station and White Oak Swamp the struggle 
was maintained, and at Charles City Cross Roads, whither it was marched to the 
support of sorely-tried lines, it went into position at six P. M., and until ten 
the battle raged upon its front with great fury, the men being guided in their 
aim by the flash of the enemy's guns.  Lieutenant-Colonel Conner, who had 
command, is represented as acting throughout with great gallantry and courage.  
Retiring during the night to Malvern Hill, the regiment was held in readiness 
for battle on the following day.  When the engagement opened, the brigade to 
which it was attached was hurried forward to the relief of the hard-pressed 
troops, and was soon brought to close conflict with the forces of the fiery 
Magruder.  Here, while leading his command with great coolness and bravery, 
Lieutenant-Colonel Conner was killed.

FRANCIS MAHLER, Colonel of the Seventy-fifth regiment, was wounded at Gettysburg 
on the 1st of July, 1863, while leading his command on that disastrous part of 
the field whence General Howard was forced to fall back before greatly superior 
numbers.  He was a native of Baden and was an officer in the Baden Revolution.  
Having come to this country previous to the breaking out of the Rebellion, he 
was, at the formation of the Seventy-fifth regiment, made Lieutenant-Colonel, 
and upon the promotion of Colonel Bohlen to Brigadier-General, was made Colonel.  
The first campaign was a severe one, involving endless

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 504

marching over mountains and across swollen streams, the division to which it was 
attached having been sent from before  Washington to report to General Fremont 
in West Virginia; but was almost immediately recalled to the support of Banks 
against Stonewall Jackson.  In the hard-fought battle of Bull Run, Colonel 
Mahler was wounded and General Bohlen was killed.  To reach Gettysburg in time 
to be of service, it was necessary for the Eleventh corps to make forced 
marches, and as soon as the regiment reached the battle-ground, it was hurried 
forward to confront the lines of the enemy, who had had ample time to post his 
men and prepare for the contest.  It was hardly in position, to the right of the 
Carlisle road, when it was attacked.  The loss here was severe, being two 
officers and twenty-six men killed, and six officers and ninety-four wounded.  
Colonel Mahler was one of the severely: wounded, receiving a musket ball in the 
leg, and his horse, which received a wound from the same missile, fell upon him.  
Extricating himself, he hastened to the left of the regiment, though suffering 
severely, but had scarcely reached it, and was engaged in bravely cheering on 
his men and charging them to stand firm against the advancing rebel lines, when 
he was again wounded, and now mortally.  He was immediately removed to the corps 
field hospital, where he died on the morning of the 4th.  He was a trustworthy 
man and an able officer.

ELISHA HALL, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Ninety-fifth regiment, was commissioned 
Captain of Company C on the 17th of September, 1861, and was promoted to 
Lieutenant-Colonel on the 28th of June, 1862.  In the disastrous battle of 
Gaines' Mill, where Colonel Gosline, and Major Hubbs were killed, and many brave 
men lost, the regiment did eminent service.  At Crampton's Gap, in the Antietam 
campaign, it captured a piece of artillery complete with limber, caisson, and 
horses, from the noted Cobb Legion of Georgia.  Upon the limber of the piece 
captured was painted:  "Jenny - presented by the patriot ladies of Georgia to 
the State Artillery."  In the campaign of Chancellorsville, to the Sixth corps 
was assigned the duty of carrying Marye's Heights and moving on the flank of the 
rebel army.  At Salem Church, on the 3d of May, 1863, it was met by superior

ELISHA HALL - EDWARD CARROLL - RICHARD P. ROBERTS - 505

Numbers.  The Ninety-fifth was a the fore-front, and, while battling with great 
constancy and courage, Lieutenant-Colonel Hall was killed.  Colonel Town was 
killed at the same point, and large numbers of his men.  Few regiments suffered 
so great loss in any battle - the record "Killed at Salem Church" being 
profusely scattered through all its rolls.

EDWARD CARROLL, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Ninety-fifth regiment, was 
commissioned Captain of Company F on the 27th of September, 1861, and was 
promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel on the 10th of May, 1863.  At Gaines' Mill, where 
the regiment suffered severe loss, Captain Carroll was badly wounded.  The 
remaining battles of the Peninsula, the Second Bull Run, Chantilly, Crampton's 
Gap, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Salem Church, Gettysburg, and Mine Run, followed 
in rapid succession.  The spring of 1864 opened tardily, but early in May the 
Potomac army moved on its campaign under Grant.  An officer's diary contains the 
following entry:  "Marched on the 5th, at six A.M., and advancing in line of 
battle through the Wilderness, effected a junction with the Fifth corps on the 
right, and encountered the enemy.  Became immediately engaged, and drove him 
steadily back, the two right companies attaining a strong position in the 
advance, which they maintained during the day and until relieved.  In the early 
part of the day, Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Carroll was killed."  Colonel Carroll 
was a valuable officer, and fell sincerely mourned by a wide circle of friends.

RICHARD PETIT ROBERTS, Colonel of the One Hundred and Fortieth regiment, was 
born in June, 1820, near Frankfort Springs, Beaver county, Pennsylvania.  His 
father, John Roberts, was a native of Culpeper county, Virginia, where his 
ancestors had resided from an early period in the settlement of the country.  
His grandfather was a soldier in the Colonial army during the Revolution.  His 
mother was Ruth Dungan, daughter of Levi Dungan, one of the early settlers of 
Beaver county, who was active in quelling Indian outbreaks upon the frontier.  
Soon after their marriage, his parents removed from West Virginia, whither the 
family had emigrated, and settled at Frankfort

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 506

Springs, where they were among the most influential and respected of the 
inhabitants.  During his boyhood, the son was engaged in farm labor.  He was 
educated at the Frankfort Academy, under the charge of the Rev. James Sloan and 
Thomas Nicholson, and studied law in the office of N. P. Fetterman, having, in 
the meantime, taught school for several terms with great acceptance.  One who 
knew him at this period, thus speaks of him: "Possessed of a high order of 
intellect - clear, quick, and comprehensive - a good practical education, to 
which were added the qualities of independence, courage and candor, and being of 
regular and temperate habits and unblemished character, he soon acquired a large 
practice and a prominent position at the bar.  Few men, in so short a time, have 
gained the confidence of their fellow-men to so great an extent, or wielded a 
greater influence upon all matters affecting the public welfare."
  During the administration of Governor Johnston, he was appointed, by Attorney-
General Darrah, his deputy for Beaver county; and when the office became 
elective, he was chosen District Attorney by a majority of over six hundred, 
though the county was politically opposed to him.  On the 1st of May, 1851, he 
was married to Miss Caroline Henry, youngest daughter of the late Hon. Thomas 
Henry, of Beaver.  She died in February, 1862, after a lingering illness of 
nearly four years, during which time the husband manifested the most untiring 
devotion and attachment.  From the opening of the Rebellion, he was active in 
support of the Government, helping to raise men, and to defend its action with 
his tongue and his pen.  In the summer of 1862, seeing that the war was likely 
to be protracted, and that there was urgent need of troops, he determined to 
take the field, and by his active exertions was instrumental in securing the 
enlistment of over 300 men.  As Captain of one of the companies, he proceeded to 
the camp of rendezvous at Harrisburg, where, on the 8th of September, he was 
commissioned Colonel of the One Hundred and Fortieth regiment.  He reported to 
General Wool at Baltimore, and during Lee's first invasion of Maryland, was 
detailed to guard the Northern Central Railway.  In December, a few days after 
the battle of Fredericksburg, he joined the Army of the Potomac, and throughout 
the four days

RICHARD P. ROBERTS - 507

of the fighting at Chancellorsville, led his regiment, now attached to the 
Second corps.  His men had never been under fire, and he was very solicitous 
that they should acquit themselves gallantly, at the same time that they should 
be skilfully handled and properly protected.  Throughout this trying occasion, 
he bore himself with the courage and heroism of a veteran officer; but the 
strain upon his nervous system, together with the exposure and privation of the 
camp, caused a prostration which resulted in a low malarial fever, from which he 
suffered for several weeks.  When it was known that the enemy was moving toward 
the Potomac with the intention of invading the North, Colonel Roberts, who had 
returned to his home, became impatient of delay, and though scarcely able to 
travel, resolutely determined to join his regiment, and share with his men the 
fortunes of the terrible encounter which he knew must soon come.  He succeeded 
in reaching Philadelphia, but was obliged to rest for a day or two to regain 
strength to proceed.  On arriving at Washington, he vas so utterly prostrated as 
to be unable to go farther, and was forbidden by the surgeon in charge to make 
the attempt.  After remaining a few days, observing that the manoeuvres of the 
two armies were becoming daily more exciting, and Lee's purpose of invasion 
unmistakable, he could no longer be restrained, and, in spite of the entreaties 
of friends and the remonstrances of surgeons, he started to find his regiment. 
In the last letter he ever wrote, dated on the 30th of June, 1863, addressed to 
his relative and law partner, Henry Hice, he says: "On the morning after you 
left - Friday, 26th - I went to Alexandria; found that the army had moved, that 
Fairfax and Thoroughfare Gap were in possession of the enemy; and returned to 
Washington.  I started next morning on a canal boat for Edward's Ferry, a 
distance of thirty miles, arriving there at half past nine at night.  I learned 
that our corps had gone forward, and followed it on foot till within two miles 
of Frederick City, a distance of thirty miles, where I overtook it, myself 
greatly exhausted.  Yesterday morning we started, and marched twenty-eight miles 
- one of the greatest marches on record.  The men fell down by hundreds.  We had 
a good many fall out; but most of them came in during the night. We are now 
moving in the direction of Emmittsburg,

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 508

and I think not far from it.  Of course we shall soon meet the enemy. I am quite 
well, better than I have been for weeks, as you may know by what I have come 
through the last few days."  While leading his regiment upon the field of 
Gettysburg, towards the close of the second day of the battle, he fell, pierced 
through the heart by a Minie ball.  The following extract from the Beaver Argus, 
portrays, in a striking manner, the circumstances of his death: "On that fearful 
day, July 2d, 1863, upon the plains of Gettysburg, the grandest panorama of 
modern times is passing - two hundred thousand foemen in fierce array!  Five 
hundred cannon make the earth reel and tremble.  The dead, the dying, and the 
wounded strew the plain.  The One Hundred and Fortieth regiment is flanked. The 
Colonel steps forward to the front.  'My brave boys,' he cries, 'remember you 
are upon your native soil, your own Pennsylvania.  Drive back the rebel 
invaders!'  He faces the foe, while deadly missiles fall like hail.  The fatal 
Minie rends his breast.  He dies on the field of honor and of glory, but the 
invader is repulsed.  No braver, truer, or better man fell upon that bloody 
plain than Colonel Richard P. Roberts."
  Colonel Roberts was a rising man, fairly marked for promotion.  The gallant 
General Zook was killed on the same day, only a few moments before, and Colonel 
Roberts would doubtless have succeeded to the command of the brigade in his 
place.  Had he lived to return to civil life, the highest honors would have been 
open before him.  His loss to his county, and, indeed, to the State, was one 
much to be lamented.  Generous and appreciative, his kindness found many 
subjects, and drew to him many faithful friends.  There are those yet living who 
remember, with grateful recollections, his helping hand and friendly offices.