Martial Deeds of Pennsylvania, Samuel P. Bates, 1876 - Part 2, Chapter 6, 590-
627

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                         MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA
                                       by
                                SAMUEL P. BATES.

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

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 590

                              Part II.  BIOGRAPHY.

                                   CHAPTER VI.

GEORGE GORDON MEADE, Major-General in the Regular Army.  Of all those who are 
now noted for their prowess in the late war few will in a future generation be 
remembered or named, and fewer still will achieve thereby immortality.  
Gouverneur Carr, in an article which he contributed to the United States Service 
Magazine, after remarking upon the tendency to oblivion in all martial exploits, 
frames a paragraph which he imagines some Rollin of a few centuries hence will 
devote to the great struggle which now holds so large a place in the public eye, 
and in its narration fills so many volumes.  It reads thus:
  "BUCHANAN was succeeded by LINCOLN, a wise and patriotic ruler.  During his 
presidency the Southern States revolted.  After several indecisive actions, LEE, 
the insurgent leader, was defeated at Gettysburg by MEADE, who commanded the 
principal force of the republic; the Southern territory was overrun by numerous 
armies; its ports were effectively blockaded; the slaves were declared free, and 
many of them enlisted in the National armies; and finally, Richmond, the capital 
of the revolted States, was captured by GRANT, the Commander-in-chief of the 
United States Armies; and the insurgents were compelled to lay down their arms.  
Lincoln was re-elected President, but was soon after assassinated by an obscure 
actor."  Of the five names here represented as surviving the wreck of time that 
of General Meade is one.
  George Gordon Meade was born on the 31st of December, 1815, at Cadiz, Spain, 
during a temporary residence of his parents in that country.  He was descended 
from a family long resident in Philadelphia, of Irish origin, one member of 
which, at least,

GEORGE G. MEADE - 591

enthusiastically supported the patriot army in the Revolution.  His father, 
Richard W. Meade, being engaged in mercantile pursuits in Spain, was intrusted 
by the United States with the adjustment of certain claims which the government 
had against that country, and became naval agent at the port of Cadiz.  Through 
his efforts negotiations were entered upon which finally resulted in the cession 
of the territory of Florida to the United States.
  The parents returned to this country while the son was yet an infant, and he 
was early put to a boys' school in the city of Washington, taught by the late 
Chief Justice Chase.  He was afterwards a student at Mount Airy, a Military 
Academy near Philadelphia, and in 1831 entered the United States Military 
Academy at West Point, whence, in due course, he graduated with honor.  In 1835 
he entered the army as brevet Second Lieutenant in the Third artillery, and in 
it served in the Seminole War in Florida.  He was promoted to a full Lieutenant 
at the end of a year.  The poisonous exhalations of the swamps seriously 
affected his health, and while thus detained from duty he escaped the Dade 
Massacre, by which many of his comrades were cut off.  Providence thus 
interposed to spare him for greater usefulness on fields then little dreamed of.  
So serious was his sickness that, in October, 1836, he resigned his commission 
in the army, and after his recovery engaged in the business of a Civil Engineer, 
being employed with the party sent to survey the northeastern boundary line of 
the United States.  In 1842, returning to the army, he was commissioned Second 
Lieutenant of Topographical Engineers, and was industriously employed in the 
great survey from Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico.  In this capacity he 
served upon the staff of General Taylor in the early part of the Mexican War, 
and afterwards upon that of General Scott, distinguishing himself in the actions 
of Palo Alto and Monterey.  His services were recognized, the Government 
awarding him the brevet rank of First Lieutenant, dated September 23d, 1846, and 
upon his return home he was presented with a fine sword by citizens of 
Philadelphia.  In time of peace the fighting soldier has little employment, but 
the engineer's work is never done.  He was a once put upon duty in supervising 
river

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 592

and harbor improvements, and in constructing light-houses on Delaware Bay and 
off the coast of Florida.  In 1851 he was made First Lieutenant, and, in 1855, 
Captain.
  He was on duty at Detroit, Michigan, in 1861, having been charged with the 
survey of the Northern Lakes.  He always regarded his labors here as the most 
important and valuable that he rendered in the civil line of his profession, 
looking with just satisfaction upon their scientific results.  When the 
Rebellion opened, he was at once ordered to Washington.  On the 3d of September, 
President Lincoln sent to the Senate for confirmation, among others, the name of 
Captain George G. Meade, of the Topographical Engineers, to be Brigadier-General 
of Volunteers, and he was assigned to the command of the Second brigade of the 
Pennsylvania Reserve Volunteer corps.  He was by nature and education an exact, 
methodical man, and disciplining the fine body now put in his hands was an 
agreeable task.  He was for a time in camp at Tenallytown; but, on the 9th of 
October, crossed into Virginia and took position on the extreme right of the 
line of the army, in the neighborhood of Langley, where he continued until the 
opening of the spring campaign.  When McClellan went to the Peninsula, Meade 
remained behind in McDowell's corps of observation before Washington, advancing 
as far as Fredericksburg.
  Finding difficulties multiplying as he went, McClellan asked for more troops, 
and the Reserves were sent to him.  They arrived in time to open the famous 
Seven Days' battle at Beaver Dam Creek, where this division sustained the 
contest almost unaided.  Meade with his brigade was at Gaines' Mill when the 
battle opened, but hastening forward, he reached the field in time to render 
efficient service at a moment when sorely needed.  On the following day his 
brigade was roughly handled, one of his regiments holding its ground until cut 
off and captured, and the others were with difficulty withdrawn.
  There was no more desperate fighting in this campaign than that at Charles 
City Cross Roads, on the 30th of June.  The Reserves held the fore-front in that 
engagement, and received, for a time unaided, the brunt of the enemy's fierce 
onset.  Meade stood upon the right of the line, and his brigade, though the last

GEORGE G. MEADE - 593

to be attacked, felt the full power of the blow.  Near the close of the day, and 
when the fighting was well nigh over, he was severely wounded and was borne from 
the field.  Almost at the same instant he was struck by two balls, one hitting 
him in the arm and the other, entering the body just above the hip-joint, passed 
out near the spine.  Though losing blood rapidly, and fainting from weakness, he 
remained for some time with his men; but was finally carried to a hospital.  He 
soon rallied, and his wounds healed so that he took the field before the army 
left the Peninsula.
  Upon the resignation of General McCall, soon afterwards, General Reynolds 
succeeded him in chief command, and at the Second Bull Run battle the division 
rendered efficient service, Meade holding with great gallantry the approaches to 
the Warrenton turnpike, by which Pope's beaten army was retreating, and which 
the enemy was making desperate efforts to seize.  So well did he acquit himself 
here, that the campaign had no sooner closed than he was given the command of 
the entire division, which was placed in Hooker's corps.  At the Gaps of the 
South Mountain, where the enemy had taken position to dispute the passage of the 
Union army, Meade met the troops of Longstreet and Hill.  The advantage was all 
with the foe, he having taken ground behind stone walls, rocks, and trees.  But 
by skilful dispositions, and the gallantry and courage of his men, he succeeded 
in dislodging and driving the enemy from his stronghold.  Meade pushed rapidly 
forward, and was given the advance in finding the rebel troops on the Antietam 
field.  The fighting opened on the evening of the 16th of September, 1862, and 
was maintained until nightfall with singular earnestness.  The Reserves slept on 
their arms, and renewed the battle early on the following morning.  When the 
fighting was at its height Hooker received a severe wound.  Before leaving the 
field, he turned over the command of the corps to General Meade.  The part of 
the field which he held was the most desperately contested, and his troops were 
terribly torn and decimated, he himself receiving a wound, and having two horses 
shot under him.
  But the field on which General Meade manifested greater daring and heroism 
than on any other, perhaps, in the whole

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 594

course of his military life, was that of Fredericksburg, and it was his conduct 
here which undoubtedly pointed him out as the future Commander-in-chief of the 
Army of the Potomac.  Burnside's plan seems to have been to turn the enemy's 
left flank.  To Meade with his Reserves was given the task of breaking the 
enemy's line, and making a lodgment where it could be taken in reverse upon the 
right.  Most gallantly they executed this desperate labor, and though
      "Cannon to the right of them,
       Cannon to left of them,
       Cannon in front of them,
         Volley'd and thunder'd,"

and sheets of flame leaped from the pieces of the infantry crouching behind 
walls and hedges, the Reserves moved steadily on till the hostile line was 
pierced at a vital point, and the rear was gained, where were muskets stacked, 
and the rebel troops in no preparation to meet so bold and heroic an assault.  
But after the blow had been dexterously dealt, and the antagonist hit with 
stunning force, that gallant division, but a handful of devoted men, being 
unsupported, was obliged - bleeding and staggering under the weight of the force 
of the enemy concentrated upon them, and when victory seemed within the grasp of 
the Union army - to fall back, and abandon the whole advantage, gained at a 
fearful sacrifice of valor and of life.
  Meade was now placed in command of the Fifth corps, and when at 
Chancellorsville Lee pounded upon the Union left with his artillery, and sought 
to break through and turn that flank, he found there troops ready and watchful; 
and though there was hard fighting later in the struggle yet no advantage was 
gained.  It was the vigilant commander of the Fifth corps who stood guard at 
that point, and no shame came to the army through any lack of attention or 
weakness of judgment on his part.
  At Frederick, Maryland, on the 28th of June, 1863, in the very midst of a 
campaign of unexampled greatness, involving issues vital to the Nation, and the 
turning of which the whole civilized world was watching with absorbing interest, 
he was placed at the head of the Army of the Potomac, and three days thereafter 
the great battle of Gettysburg opened.  He had to

GEORGE G. MEADE - 595

this time shown himself  an exceedingly reliable and safe officer in the 
subordinate positions in which he had been placed; but from being the commander 
of a brigade, a division, a corps, he was now suddenly thrust forward to command 
a hundred thousand men, with whom he was expected to meet an army of still 
larger proportions of veteran troops hitherto victorious.  He evidently felt the 
great responsibility resting upon him, and prepared to meet it with a manful and 
heroic spirit.
  The battle was precipitated before he had an opportunity to concentrate his 
army.  When he discovered that it was likely to come, he made an effort to bring 
his corps together at a point near the centre of the territory over which they 
were spread.  Before this could be effected, the enemy struck the extreme flank, 
and there, with a dogged resolution and a heroism unsurpassed, a few thousands 
held their ground for a whole day against the half of the hostile army.  As soon 
as General Meade found that it would be possible to bring his troops to that 
point so as to fight upon something like equal terms, he resolved to make 
Gettysburg the battle-ground.  When that resolution was once taken, he showed 
great energy in hastening forward his troops, in which he was most nobly 
supported by his subordinates, and during the hours of a short summer night his 
army was brought up.
  On the second day at Gettysburg a number of untoward circumstances occurred, 
and though the soldiers fought with unexampled courage and determination, the 
results were in many respects unfortunate.  Yet all this was reversed on the 
third day, by an exceedingly judicious disposition of the forces, and a glorious 
victory was gained.  Nor was the triumph marred by a hasty and ill-advised use 
of the army against an enemy at bay.  The result caused universal joy.  The 
enemy was conquered - a full half of the army with which he had made the 
invasion was lost to him - the North was freed from the disgrace of being over-
run - and the tide of disaster, which had been setting strongly against the 
National cause, was turned, ever after to recede.  The thanks of Congress were 
presented to General Meade for his signal service in this battle.
  A campaign of manoeuvres followed, in which the rebel leader sought by a 
sharp, bold move to cut his antagonist off from his

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 596

communications.  But Meade was too wary to be taken at a disadvantage, and the 
movement, which was begun in the confident expectation of complete triumph, 
ended in total failure and was turned to the advantage of the assailed - the 
actions at Bristoe and Rappahannock bridge resulting in brilliant victories to 
the Union arms.  Meade soon after initiated a bold aggressive movement.  With 
eight days' rations in haversack, he launched his army across the Rapidan, 
seeking to interpose between the two wings of Lee's army, and beat them in 
detail; but the tardy movement of some of his troops made futile the intended 
surprise, and he found the rebel forces so well intrenched behind Mine Run, that 
he determined not to attack, and returned again to his camps - a resolution 
which required a degree of courage not surpassed by that displayed in the most 
daring assaults.
  In the spring of 1864, General Grant was placed in command of all the armies, 
and took the field with that of the Potomac; and though General Meade still held 
the immediate command of that army, and exercised the complete control of it, 
the glory of his achievements was shadowed in the public eye, and whatever was 
done was attributed to the mind of the superior.  At the Wilderness, Laurel 
Hill, Spottsylvania, North Anna, Bethesda church, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, with 
all the operations of the siege, and the numerous enterprises undertaken for its 
reduction, down to the final campaign and the surrender of the rebel army at 
Appomattox Court House, he exercised that command, and endured the hardships and 
responsibilities incident to the execution of manoeuvres and plans of battle, 
which were never before equaled on this continent.  General Grant bore ample 
testimony to the worth of General Meade as a soldier, and particularly referred 
to the disadvantage he labored under in being second in command, in his 
estimation with the public, in his recommendation for the confirmation of Meade 
as Major-General in the regular army.  "General Meade," says General Grant, "is 
one of our truest men and ablest officers.  He has been constantly with that 
army [Army of the Potomac] confronting the strongest, best appointed, and most 
confident army in the South.  He, therefore, has not had the same opportunity of 
winning laurels so distinctly marked as have fallen to the lot of other 
Generals.  But I defy 

GEORGE G. MEADE - 597

any man to name a commander who would do more than General Meade has done with 
the same chances.  General Meade was appointed at my solicitation, after a 
campaign the most protracted, and covering more severely contested battles than 
any of which we have any account in history.  I have been with General Meade 
during the whole campaign; and I not only made the recommendation upon a 
conviction that this recognition of his services was fully won, but that he was 
eminently qualified for the rank which such command entitled him to."
  The recommendation was promptly acted on and he was confirmed without 
question, his commission dating from the 18th of August, 1864.  He had 
previously been advanced through the ranks of Major, Lieutenant-Colonel, 
Colonel, and Brigadier-General in the regular army.  After the close of the war 
he was assigned to the command of the Military Division of the Atlantic; but in 
1868 he was transferred to that of the Third Military District - comprising of 
Georgia, Florida and Alabama - a section where the work of pacification was 
arduous and responsible, requiring a man of great weight of character, and 
discretion in the execution of his duties.  In the following year he returned to 
the command of the Atlantic Division, with head-quarters at Philadelphia.  This 
was his former home, and it was grateful for him, after his campaigns were ended 
and the noise of martial strife was hushed, to sit down and enjoy the quiet and 
repose which he had justly earned.  He here lived in a house presented to his 
wife - a daughter of the Hon. John Sergeant-by his fellow-citizens, in grateful 
recognition of his eminent ability and services devoted to the welfare of his 
country.
  General Meade's personal appearance is thus graphically sketched by an English 
traveler who was introduced to him soon after the victory at Gettysburg:  "He is 
a very remarkable-looking man - tall, spare, of a commanding figure and 
presence; his manners easy and pleasant, but having much dignity.  His head is 
partially bald and is small and compact; but the forehead is high.  He has the 
late Duke of Wellington class of nose; and his eyes, which have a serious, 
almost sad expression, are rather sunken, or appear so from the prominence of 
the 

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 598

curved nasal development.  He has a decidedly patrician and distinguished 
appearance.  I had some conversation with him; and of his recent achievements he 
spoke in a modest and natural way.  He said that he had been very 'fortunate,' 
but was most especially anxious not to arrogate to himself any credit which he 
did not deserve.  He said that the triumph of the Federal arms was due to the 
splendid courage of the Union troops and also to the bad strategy, and rash and 
mad attacks made by the enemy.  He said that his health was remarkably good, and 
that he could bear almost any amount of physical fatigue."
  General Meade developed eminent ability as a soldier, and was life-long 
devoted to the service; yet scenes of carnage and blood were revolting to his 
nature.  He was of too tender and sympathetic a temperament to regard with other 
than aversion the sufferings and heart-breakings which war entails.  In August, 
1863, the officers and men of the Reserve corps presented to him a costly sword, 
with sash, belt, and golden spurs.  The presentation was made by General 
Crawford, in presence of many officers of the army high in rank, and 
distinguished civilians.  In reply to the remarks of General Crawford, General 
Meade made quite a lengthy speech, recounting in a very just way the 
achievements of the Reserves from the beginning.  In the course of his address 
he artlessly disclosed the feelings and motives which swayed his breast as a 
soldier.  "While, however," he said, "I give expression to these feelings, they 
are not unmingled with others, of a sad and mournful nature, as I look around 
you and reflect that so many of the brave officers and soldiers who originally 
composed this division sleep their last sleep, and that others have been obliged 
to return home crippled and maimed for life.  It is terrible to think that there 
should be any necessity for so much misfortune and misery!  Sad, that in this 
country, a land flowing with milk and honey, and in which we are all brothers, 
we should raise our arms against each other, and such scenes should be enacted 
as I have been a participant in.  It is sad that there should be an occasion 
like the present, and a necessity for the presentation of a testimonial such as 
this.  These are sad, sad thoughts to me, but at the same time I am sustained in 
my

JAMES Q. ANDERSON - 599

present position by a consciousness that I am acting from a high and proper 
sense of my duty to my country.  It is impossible that this great country should 
be divided; that there should be two governments or two flags on this continent.  
Such a thing is entirely out of the question.  I trust that every loyal man 
would be willing to sacrifice his life before he would consent to have more than 
one government, and one flag wave over the whole territory of the United 
States."
  "General Meade was," says a writer in the New York Tribune, "a man of such 
even, such exact temperament, that he was free from those emotions and impulses, 
those eccentricities of feeling and action which give to the soldiers and their 
friends at home those easy and broad impressions of character which are fixed 
and conveyed in epithets and nicknames.  He was never called Daddy, Fighting 
George, or Poney, or Stonewall.  It is doubtful if any soldier in his command 
ever ventured to think of him but as General Meade. . . .  He deprecated praise, 
and used to say that he was not fit to take the command of great armies, or the 
initiative in great campaigns. . . .  He is one of the men whom history will 
call happy.  His life was laborious, full of honors and success.  He had his 
share of glory without that conspicuous eminence which tempts the dart of envy 
and malevolence.  His public career was free from vicissitudes, as his private 
life was free from storms.  He was a good soldier, a true patriot, and an honest 
man.  He deserved well of the Republic, and received as a general thing the 
credit he deserved."

JAMES QUIGLEY ANDERSON, Colonel of the Seventeenth cavalry, was born in 
Brighton, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, on the 5th of July, 1831.  He was the son 
of Hugh and Sarah (Quigley) Anderson.  Until the age of nine he lived upon a 
farm.  He received a good English and classical education at the Beaver Academy.  
He left school in 1845, and from that date until 1853 was engaged as civil 
engineer upon the lines of the Erie and Pittsburg, and Carrolton and Allegheny 
Valley Railroads.  In 1854 he went to Kansas, and for a period of three years 
was in charge of a party of engineers engaged in laying out Government lands.  
In 1857 he was elected City Engineer of Kansas City,

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 600

Missouri, in which capacity he served until the breaking out of the Rebellion, 
when he returned to his former home in Pennsylvania.
  Though he had no military education, his occupations had been such as to fit 
him to control men, and to take easily and naturally to life in the field; while 
his skill as an engineer gave him many advantages in judging of the nature of 
the country in which he was operating, and in discerning its defensible 
positions.  In July, 1862, he commenced recruiting a company of cavalry, of 
which he was commissioned First Lieutenant.  It became Company A of the 
Seventeenth Pennsylvania, which went to the field, under Colonel Josiah H. 
Kellogg.  In January, 1863, he was promoted to Captain, and, in command of his 
company, took part in the battle of Chancellorsville.  At the most critical 
juncture in that engagement, at the moment, on the evening of the 2d, when 
Stonewall Jackson was bearing down all before him, having put to rout the entire 
Eleventh corps, General Pleasanton, with two regiments of cavalry, the Eighth 
and Seventeenth, was returning from the attack of Sickles' men upon Jackson's 
rear, when he discovered the misfortune which had befallen the right wing of the 
army.  Comprehending the situation, he ordered the Eighth, which was an old 
regiment, to charge the enemy and hold him in check until he could bring his 
artillery, of which he had twenty-two pieces, into position.  When that was 
done, he posted the Seventeenth, which had never been under fire, in line in 
rear of the guns, to give the appearance of strong support, with orders to 
charge should the enemy approach; and with no other protection, those twenty-two 
guns, by being effectively and skillfully served, were able to arrest the force 
of the enemy's blow and save the whole army from destruction.
  In the Gettysburg campaign, the Seventeenth was with the column led by the 
intrepid John Buford, who pushed on in advance, and first met the enemy before 
the town, holding him in check until the infantry could arrive.  Captain 
Anderson had, in the meantime, been commissioned major, and led a battalion in 
that great battle.  For his gallantry in a critical period of the engagement, he 
was publicly complimented by General Buford.  He continued in command of a 
battalion in the affairs at Funkstown on the 7th of July, at Brandy Station on 
the 1st of August,

JAMES Q. ANDERSON - 601

and at Raccoon Ford on the 14th of September.  On the 18th of February, 1864, he 
was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, to date from June 1st, 1863, and 
led his regiment in the battle at Todd's Tavern, on the 7th and 8th of May.  
When Sheridan started on his raid towards Richmond, Lieutenant-Colonel Anderson 
manoeuvred his force with a courage and a steadiness that won the highest 
commendation of that eminent cavalry leader, being warmly engaged at Yellow 
Tavern, and at Meadow Bridge on the 11th and 12th of May.  After reaching the 
James, and communicating with Butler's army, he returned with Sheridan's columns 
to the Army of the Potomac, and took part in the battle of Hanovertown, on the 
27th of May, Hawes' Shop on the 28th, Old Church on the 30th, and Cold Harbor on 
the 31st and June 1st.  Cutting loose at this point from the main body of the 
army, the cavalry moved towards Gordonsville, and came upon the enemy in force 
at Trevilian Station on the 11th and 12th of June, where he participated in the 
sharp encounter which then occurred.  Returning again to the James, he was in 
the engagement at White House on the 21st, and at Darbytown road on the 28th.
  Soon after rejoining the combined armies before Petersburg, Sheridan, with a 
portion of his cavalry, was ordered to the Shenandoah Valley, to meet a heavy 
body of the enemy under General Early.  On reaching its destination, Colonel 
Anderson, whose health had been much impaired by constant and severe duty, was 
obliged to leave the front, and from that time until November was confined to 
the hospital in Washington.  On rejoining his regiment he resumed command, and 
moved with General Torbert in his raid upon Gordonsville, taking part in the 
battle which was there fought on the 22d of December.  Having just come forth 
from the hospital, the hardships and suffering during this wintry march bore 
heavily upon him.  In January, 1865, he was promoted to Colonel, to rank from 
the 18th of December.  His health again declining, he left his command in 
February, and, on returning before the opening of the spring campaign, the 
Government, desirous of relieving him so far as possible from exposure, placed 
him in command of the Remount Camp at City Point.  He was with his regiment at 
Lee's surrender, and with it was mustered out of service.

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 602

  Colonel Anderson left the army with a constitution broken by exposure and 
hardship, and as he retired to his home he went to die.  His strength sufficed 
to reach it; but he was, from that day, confined to his room, with pulmonary 
consumption; and on the 9th day of October following, the tried and trusted 
soldier quietly breathed his last.  In person he was of commanding figure, being 
five feet ten inches in height, and though robust previous to the war, was 
predisposed to pulmonary attacks.  His scholastic attainments were considerable, 
especially in mathematics and the science of engineering.  He was naturally of 
an adventurous and enterprising disposition.  As a soldier, he enjoyed the 
confidence of his associates in a remarkable degree.  One who knew him 
intimately says:  "It is the testimony of his men that, in all the battles in 
which he was engaged, he not only commanded, but he led them bravely and 
efficiently."

HUGH SYM CAMPBELL, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Eighty-third regiment, was born in 
the city of Glasgow, Scotland, on the 25th of April, 1829.  He was the son of 
Hugh and Janet (Kessin) Campbell.  He was liberally educated, first in the High 
School in his native city until his fifteenth year, and subsequently in the 
University of Glasgow, where for three years he pursued the ancient classics.  
At the end of this period, he entered upon commercial pursuits as traveling 
agent for the business house of his father.  But the love of adventure, coupled 
with a desire to travel in foreign countries, induced him to forsake the 
comforts and advantages of home, and at the age of nineteen he emigrated to the 
United States, arriving in New York in April, 1849.
  He remained at the metropolis but a short time, when he rambled westward to 
Buffalo, where he engaged in business, first as book-keeper, and finally as 
partner, in an extensive mechanical manufactory, for a period of ten years.  He 
was married on the 12th of July, 1850, to Miss Margaret Boyd.  In May, 1860, he 
removed with his family to Waterford, Erie county, Pennsylvania.  When, in July, 
1861, intelligence of the defeat of the National army at Bull Run was received, 
he rallied around him a hundred young men, whom he organized as Company E of the 
Eighty-third regiment, then being formed at the city of Erie by 

HUGH S. CAMPBELL - 603

that intrepid soldier, John W. McLane.  He had never had any military training, 
but such was the confidence reposed in him that he was elected Captain, and at 
the terrible battle of Gaines' Mill, fought on the 27th of June, 1862, where 
both the Colonel and the Major were slain, the command of the regiment devolved 
upon him at a critical juncture.  Isolated by the giving way of troops upon its 
right, the staff officer killed who had been sent to order it back, Captain 
Campbell resolved not to leave his position without the motion of his superior, 
and the regiment fought on over the dead bodies of its leaders, causing the 
enemy to shun it by its very boldness and audacity.  Finally a messenger reached 
him and he withdrew, but steadily and full of spirit.  In the engagement at 
Malvern Hill on the 1st of July, Captain Campbell led his men in a charge which 
hurled the enemy back, and resulted in the capture of the colors of a South 
Carolina regiment; but he was himself severely wounded.  He, however, kept the 
field until the 9th, when, being unable to walk, and there appearing to be no 
further prospect of an immediate renewal of the contest, he received a leave of 
absence, and returned home.  In the brief space of twenty days, which was the 
limit of the furlough, he obtained one hundred recruits, most of whom went with 
him to the front.
  He at once resumed command, and in ten days after again led his regiment on 
the disastrous field of Bull Run.  Here, while leading a charge upon the enemy, 
he was severely wounded, a Minie ball shattering the large bone of the left leg.  
The regiment was in full motion and passed over his body in carrying out his 
order.  In the varied fortunes of the battle, it was obliged to give ground, and 
in retiring came again upon him and bore him back.  He was sent in an ambulance 
to Alexandria, where he remained several weeks.  As soon as he was able to 
travel, he returned to his home, but was obliged to be conveyed the whole 
distance upon his cot, his surgeon not allowing him to travel upright.  For over 
a year, he was able to move only upon crutches.  His name still remained upon 
the rolls of his regiment, he having leave of absence from the Secretary of War 
until recovered.  Despairing of ever being able again to take the field, he 
offered his resignation and was mustered out of the

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 604

service, on the 14th of May, 1863.  Immediately thereafter, he was tendered the 
position of Provost Marshal of the Nineteenth District of Pennsylvania, which he 
accepted, and retained until its abolition in 1865, discharging its duties to 
the great acceptance of the Government and his constituents.  He was tendered, 
likewise, the appointment of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Veteran Reserve corps, 
which he declined.

WILLIAM McFINN PENROSE, Colonel of the Sixth Reserve regiment, was born at 
Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on the 29th of March, 1825.  His father, Charles B. 
Penrose, was a native of Philadelphia, of Welsh descent.  His mother was Valeria 
F. Biddle, also a native of Philadelphia.  His boyhood was mostly spent at 
school, and he graduated at Dickinson College, Carlisle, in due course.  He had 
had no military experience previous to the Rebellion; but when the call was made 
for troops for the Reserve corps he was active in securing recruits, and upon 
the organization of the Sixth regiment of that corps he was commissioned its 
Lieutenant-Colonel.  The location of the camp where the troops were first 
stationed near to Washington was an unhealthy one, and about three hundred were 
stricken with fever, among whom were Colonel Ricketts and Lieutenant-Colonel 
Penrose.  For this cause Colonel Ricketts was discharged, and soon after died.
  The battle of Dranesville was fought on the 20th of December, 1861, in which 
the Sixth regiment bore a prominent part.  Lieutenant-Colonel Penrose was in 
command, and for his steadiness and soldierly bearing in the hour of peril was 
warmly commended by General Ord, who commanded the brigade engaged, and also by 
Major-General McCall.  The regiment was first held in support of Easton's 
battery while the duel with the enemy was in progress.  When, by the superior 
skill and accuracy of Easton's fire, the rebel artillery was silenced and 
driven, the regiment, by direction of General Ord, was ordered to follow on the 
right of the road leading to Manassas, and gallantly pursued until the discovery 
was made that the foe had fled beyond reach.  The victory of the Reserves in 
this battle was complete, a large number of the enemy having been killed and 
wounded, a caisson

WILLIAM M. PENROSE - WILLIAM R. GRIES - 605

blown up, and a considerable quantity of arms, ammunition, and clothing taken.
  On account of ill health, induced by the malarial fevers at the first camp, 
Colonel Penrose resigned soon after this battle, and was never afterwards able 
to rejoin the army.  A little more than a month from taking leave of his command 
General Ord wrote:  "Your departure, together with his (Colonel Ricketts'), has 
left the regiment badly off for field officers.  I wish circumstances could have 
enabled you to have remained; your coolness at Dranesville satisfied me that, 
had you taken hold, the regiment would have gone ahead in discipline with a 
corresponding zeal."
  When the rebel army invaded the State in 1863, and a body under General Ewell 
approached Carlisle, Colonel Penrose, who was then a member of the town council, 
went out with Assistant Burgess Allison and Major Martin Kuhn to meet it and 
endeavor to secure protection to the place.  The greatest consternation 
prevailed, as Union troops were in the vicinity, and a battle seemed imminent.  
They were fired on as they attempted to make their way through the rebel lines, 
but succeeded in obtaining an agreement that the enemy should not charge into 
the place, though a brisk artillery duel was had, in which several buildings 
were struck and more or less injured.
  Colonel Penrose married, on the 23d of July, 1857, Miss Valeria M., daughter 
of Brigadier-General Charles Merchant, of the United States army.  Colonel 
Penrose was a member of the town council of Carlisle in 1861-62-63.  He was by 
profession a lawyer.  He was nearly six feet in height, and previous to the 
Rebellion was of robust health, but after his retirement from the service never 
fully recovered from disease there incurred, and died in 1873.

WILLIAM R. GRIES, Chaplain of the One Hundred and Fourth regiment, was born at 
Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania, on the 3d of September, 1826.  His father was Doctor 
William Gries, an eminent physician of Reading.  At the opening of the Rebellion 
he had charge of a parish in Doylestown, Bucks county, of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church; but when the One Hundred

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 606

and Fourth regiment was formed, in the summer of 1861, he accepted the position 
of Chaplain and continued with it during the war, performing, if not dangerous, 
laborious and efficient duty.  He had two brothers in the service, John M., 
Major of this regiment, who fell at Fair Oaks, and Lemuel, First Lieutenant of 
the Ringgold Artillery.  Colonel Davis, of the One Hundred and Fourth, in his 
history of the regiment, says:  "Before I conclude I deem it necessary to say a 
few words about the labors of Chaplain Gries.  The regiment was fortunate in 
having such a Chaplain.  Neither officer nor man was more faithful in the 
discharge of his duties.  He served out his full time of three years, and was 
seldom absent from the regiment unless on duty.  During this time he held more 
than a thousand religious exercises.  He preached every Sunday in camp, with a 
prayer-meeting and a short address every evening when possible.  Besides these 
he held special service in the hospital.  For a long time he was the only 
Chaplain on duty with the brigade, and he alone held daily and continuous 
services among the troops.  For a considerable period during the operations on 
Morris Island he was the only Chaplain in that army to officiate at the burial 
of the dead.  At one time he was engaged in this duty nearly every hour in the 
day.  While connected with the regiment Mr. Gries baptized and received into the 
church fifty-nine soldiers and one officer."
  Besides the important work here sketched, Chaplain Gries was active in 
ministering to the needs of the men, personally taking charge of remittances of 
money and paying it over to their families, who were often in great need.  After 
leaving the army he became pastor of a parish in Churchtown; and, in 1868, 
removed to Allentown, where he became Rector of Grace Church.  In October, 1872, 
he sickened and died.  In the church he held a high rank, in private life was 
greatly esteemed, and in the family circle was regarded with that affection 
which only the good can command.

WILLIAM ALBERT LEECH, Colonel of the Ninetieth regiment, and Brevet Brigadier-
General, was born on the 3d of February, 1832, in the city of Philadelphia.  He 
was the son of

WILLIAM R. GRIES - WILLIAM A. LEECH - 607

Henry and Frances S. Leech.  He graduated in due course at the Philadelphia High 
School, and subsequently at the United States Military Academy at West Point.  
After the decease of his parents, and not long after his leaving the Academy, he 
resigned his commission and commenced the study of the law in the office of 
Benjamin Gerhard, with whom, after being admitted to practice, he continued 
until the breaking out of the Rebellion.  He had for some time previous been an 
officer in the First Pennsylvania Artillery, a volunteer organization of some 
reputation.  This regiment responded promptly when called, and after having been 
filled to the maximum strength was received into the service, as the Seventeenth 
of the line, for three months.  Of this he was Major.  It was the first regiment 
to enter Baltimore after the attack of the mob on Massachusetts and Pennsylvania 
troops.  It was quartered for a time in the Senate Chamber on reaching 
Washington, and when Patterson entered the Shenandoah Valley, proceeded up the 
Potomac to join him in the column led by General Stone. 
  At the expiration of this term of service he returned to Philadelphia, and 
assisted in recruiting the Ninetieth Pennsylvania regiment, of which he was 
appointed Lieutenant-Colonel.  When the campaign upon the Peninsula opened, his 
regiment, being attached to the column of McDowell, remained before Washington 
and was actively employed in the operations in the Valley of Virginia.  At 
Thoroughfare Gap, where Longstreet sought to force his way through to form 
junction with Jackson who had gone before, Ricketts' division, in which the 
Ninetieth served, held that able leader with his entire corps at bay for the 
space of eight hours, while Pope was concentrating his forces, and finally, when 
forced back, retired in good order.  Henceforward the Ninetieth shared the 
fortunes of the Army of the Potomac, and Colonel Leech participated in nearly 
all the battles and skirmishes in which that historic body was engaged.  Colonel 
Lyle, the leader of the regiment, was often called to the command of a brigade, 
which left Colonel Leech its chief, and ably did he discharge the duty.
  At the battle of Weldon Railroad, fought on the 18th of August, 1864, the 
division to which he was attached was flanked by

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 608

heavy masses of the enemy under the rebel General Mahone and, before the line 
could be withdrawn, Colonel Leech and a number of officers and men were taken 
prisoners.  When the Colonel found that there was no possibility of escape, 
determined that the enemy should not take from him his sword, he thrust it into 
the ground and broke it, casting away the pieces.  It was raining heavily when 
he was captured, and a rubber coat which he wore afforded some protection.  But 
this was unceremoniously taken from him, the beginning of a series of 
indignities and barbarities which reached through his sad imprisonment, and 
fastened in his system the seeds of disease which finally carried him to an 
early grave.  He was confined in succession at Libby, Danville, and Salisbury.  
The exposure and harsh treatment here was extreme, and the authorities knew and 
encouraged it.  On one occasion, while General Leech was standing under an oak 
tree within the inclosure at Salisbury, a rebel guard shot and killed a 
Lieutenant while engaged in gathering acorns, though more than twenty feet 
within the dead line.  For this murderous act the rebel guard was given a 
furlough of thirty days.  Colonel Leech was not released until February 20th, 
1865.  He was soon after offered command of one of the fine regiments then being 
raised by the Union League of Philadelphia; but so enfeebled had he become from 
his imprisonment that he could not accept it, though he cherished the purpose of 
returning to the army as soon as health would permit.  That time never came.  
The war closed soon afterward, and on the 20th of July, 1870, he died, a victim 
to rebel barbarity.
  On the 13th of March, 1865, he had received the brevet ranks of Colonel and 
Brigadier-General.  In 1867 he was elected Register of Wills for the city of 
Philadelphia.  In person he was tall, with a military bearing.  He was a brave 
and humane soldier, and, while a strict disciplinarian, still held his command 
by warm attachment.  As a token of their friendship the soldiers of his regiment 
presented him with a costly sword.  In private life he was esteemed for his 
social and liberal qualities, and for his gentlemanly and Christian virtues.  He 
was married on the 4th, of October, 1860, to Hanna T., daughter of Edwin and 
Susan V. Greble.  His widow and three children survive him.  He was

ROBERT L. BODINE - 609

buried with military honors at Woodlands Cemetery, beside his brother-in-law, 
Lieutenant John T. Greble, United States Army, who was killed at Big Bethel.

ROBERT L. BODINE was born on the 30th of May, 1832, in Northampton, Bucks 
county, Pennsylvania.  His father, John R. Bodine, and his mother, Sarah Lewis, 
were both of American origin.  The son during boyhood was engaged in the usual 
labors of his father's farm, and in attending the district school.  He 
afterwards spent some time at the Doylestown Academy.  As his mind became 
developed, he manifested a strong liking for mechanical studies, and the science 
of military operations.  A fondness was also exhibited for the study of history, 
especially the valorous deeds of the great men of past time.
  His tastes naturally led him to seek some opportunity for military training, 
and he joined a volunteer company then existing in Bucks county, known as the 
Pennsylvania Blues.  In this he served for several years, rising to the position 
of a commissioned officer.  At the opening of the Rebellion, he made haste to 
enroll himself as a private in the Twenty-sixth Pennsylvania regiment, among the 
very first to be organized in the State for the three years' service.  The date 
of his entrance to duty was the 5th of May, 1861.  He commenced at the lowest 
round in the ladder; but his ability and worth soon found him out, and his 
advancement was rapid.  On the 30th of the same month he was promoted to 
Commissary Sergeant; on the 25th of August following, to Second Lieutenant of 
Company K; on the 15th of January, 1862, to Captain, and on the 10th of July to 
Major of the regiment.  During all this period, he was in constant service with 
his command, bearing a conspicuous part in the battle of Williamsburg with 
General Small, and at Fair Oaks, Seven Pines, Glendale, and Malvern Hill.  When 
the remnants of McClellan's army, spared by the bullets of the enemy and the no 
less deadly and destructive miasms of the Chickahominy, retired from the 
Peninsula, and proceeded to the support of Pope on the Rappahannock, this 
regiment, forming part of Hooker's division, was prompt to move.  When it was 
ascertained that 

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 610

Stonewall Jackson had come in upon the rear of Pope's army and was at Manassas 
Junction, Hooker was ordered to move back upon the railroad to meet him.  Major 
Bodine was now in command of the regiment, and took the lead of the brigade in 
that march.  A sharp encounter resulted in the triumph of Hooker, and he moved 
on to the Second Bull Run battle-ground.  The regiment was here put to severe 
service, at one time being led with the brigade upon an old railroad grading, 
behind which the enemy was concealed, and from whom it received a deadly fire; 
and at others supporting artillery in different parts of the field that was 
hotly engaged, sustaining throughout severe losses and acquitting itself 
worthily.
  After the battle of Fredericksburg, in which the Twenty-sixth participated, 
the whole army was reorganized under that gallant leader, General Joseph Hooker; 
and here the early tastes of reading of Major Bodine proved of great service.  
He opened a school for the instruction of the officers of the regiment, in which 
the elementary and necessary principles of military duty were studied and 
explained with great acceptance and signal usefulness.  The battle of 
Chancellorsville disclosed the value of the instructions which had been give, 
the regiment being manoeuvred in the most trying situations with great ease and 
success.  After this battle, the Colonel being obliged to retire from service on 
account of wounds received at Chancellorsville, and its Lieutenant-Colonel being 
permanently on detached service, the entire command devolved on Major Bodine, 
and he was soon after advanced to the grades of Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel.
  Few commanders of regiments were placed in more trying circumstances than was 
Colonel Bodine at the battle of Gettysburg.  Carr's brigade of Humphreys' 
division was posted on the right of Sickles' corps, on depressed, open ground 
where the enemy from all sides, from commanding positions, could sweep it with 
his artillery, his sharpshooters and line of battle, with terrible effect.  And 
here, with nothing to shield it from the deadly fire, it was compelled to stand 
through the long hours of that terrible day and submit to swift destruction.  
The regiment went into position with 364 enlisted men, of whom 213 were either 
killed or wounded.  Of eighteen officers two were killed

ELISHA B. HARVEY - 611

and nine severely wounded.  Two of the nine died of their wounds, and five were 
disabled and made cripples for life.  Three color-bearers were killed.
  With the Army of the Potomac, Colonel Bodine continued to lead his regiment in 
all the hard marches and desperate fighting of that heroic organization, until 
the expiration of his term in June, 1864, when with his regiment he was mustered 
out of service.  In March previous he was brevetted Brigadier-General for 
meritorious conduct.  At Gettysburg he received special commendation from 
General Carr; and early in the war, when with four cavalrymen and a negro guide 
he proceeded eighteen miles down the Potomac and captured five of the enemy, 
with large quantities of contraband goods ready for transfer to the rebel army 
then lying opposite, and brought them all to General Hooker's head-quarters, he 
received the warm approval of that intrepid soldier. 
  General Bodine was appointed, in July, 1866, Consul to Cape Town, Africa; but 
resigned in September, on account of differences in political sentiments between 
himself and the President, Andres Johnson, and took an active part in the 
canvass for Governor during that year.  He was appointed Flour Inspector of 
Philadelphia, in March, 1867, by Governor Geary, which office he held until 
March 1st, 1873.  He was married on the 10th of July, 1856, to Miss Kate Y. 
Burn.  He died at his residence in Philadelphia, on the 16th of January, 1874, 
universally esteemed for his nobility of nature and kindness of heart.

ELISHA B. HARVEY, the first Colonel of the Seventh Reserve regiment, was born at 
Harveyville, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania.  His father, Benjamen Harvey, was of 
English descent, though his more immediate ancestry were from Connecticut.  His 
mother was Sally (Nesbitt) Harvey, also of English descent.  The occupation of 
his father was that of a farmer, and in this the son participated during his 
boyhood, receiving the rudiments of an English education in the public schools.  
He prepared for college under the instruction of Deacon Dana at Wilkesbarre, and 
in the grammar school of Dickinson College, and subsequently graduated at the 
Wesleyan University, Middletown, Con-

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 612

necticut.  He was, for a time, Professor of Mathematics in the Wyoming Seminary 
at Kingston, but commenced almost immediately the study of the law in the 
offices of Charles Dennison, and was admitted to the bar on the 4th of November, 
1847.  He possessed in a remarkable degree the confidence of the public, and was 
elected County Superintendent of Schools, and Register of Wills and District 
Attorney.  Though his tastes inclined him to literary pursuits, he had a strong 
predilection for military pageants, and early joined a militia organization, 
holding, at different times, from 1832, when he first enlisted, to the opening 
of the Rebellion, the position of Lieutenant and Captain of a troop, Captain of 
artillery, Colonel of a volunteer regiment, and Brigade Inspector - a place 
which he held for five years.  The company of artillery he recruited and took to 
the field in 1861.
  Upon the organization of the Seventh Reserve regiment, Captain Harvey was 
chosen Colonel.  Having, for nearly thirty years, been familiar with militia 
duty in all arms of the service, he was well fitted to instruct and drill a raw 
regiment.  This duty he performed in such a manner as to attract the attention 
of the commander of the division, calling forth his hearty approval.  His first 
experience of active service was at Great Falls, on the Potomac, above 
Washington, where his skirmishers were face to face with and in close proximity 
to those of the enemy.  On the 4th of September, 1861, the enemy attacked, with 
a battery of two howitzers and three rifled guns, and for two or three hours a 
brisk cannonade was kept up.  Colonel Harvey, being only provided with smooth-
bore pieces, ordered the Captain of the battery not to reply, and the enemy 
finally withdrew, the regiment sustaining only slight loss in wounded.
  The first great conflict in the Seven Days' battle before Richmond fell upon 
the Reserves, who, almost single-handed, breasted the torrent of the attack.  To 
Colonel Harvey's regiment was assigned the task of supporting Easton's battery, 
which played an important part in the battle.  "Somewhat later in the day," says 
General McCall, in his official report, "a heavy column was launched down the 
road to Ellison's Mill, where another most determined attack in force was made.  
I had already sent Easton's battery to General Seymour, commanding the left, and 
I 

ELISHA B. HARVEY - 613

now dispatched the Seventh regiment, Colonel Harvey, to the extreme left, 
apprehending that the enemy might attempt to turn that flank by crossing the 
creek below the mill.  Here again the Reserves maintained their position, and 
sustained their character for steadiness in fine style, never retiring one foot 
during a severe struggle with some of the very best troops of the enemy, 
fighting under the direction of their most distinguished General (Lee).  For 
hour after hour the battle was hotly contested, and the rapid fire of our 
artillery, dealing death to an awful extent, was unintermitted, while the 
greatly superior force of the enemy enabled him to precipitate column after 
column of fresh troops upon my nearly exhausted lines."
  In the battles at Gaines' Mill, Charles City Cross Roads, and Malvern Hill, 
Colonel Harvey's command fought with a determination and a bravery unsurpassed, 
the flower of the regiment being cut down in these sanguinary struggles.  The 
hardships during this week of battles have rarely been exceeded, and at its 
close Colonel Harvey found himself prostrated by disease.  He was attacked with 
rheumatism of such a type as to preclude service in the field.  Accordingly, on 
the 4th of July, 1862, he resigned.  During his active duty he received a 
buckshot wound in the neck, and a slight flesh wound from a Minie ball.
  In person, Colonel Harvey was above the medium height, sparely made, and of a 
fair complexion.  Though of a naturally weak constitution, his health was well 
preserved by temperance and sobriety.
  He was twice married; to Miss Phebe Maria Frisbie, who died in 1849, leaving 
one son; and to Miss Sarah Maria Garretson, of Summerville, New Jersey, who, 
with five children, survives him.  After leaving the army he resumed the 
practice of profession at Wilkesbarre, and opened a classical school for both 
sexes, his pupils at one time exceeding two hundred.  He was soon after chosen 
Burgess of the town, and subsequently Justice of the Peach, which office he 
continued to exercise until his death, which occurred on the 20th of August, 
1872.

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 614

OLIVER BLACHLY KNOWLES, Colonel of the Twenty-first cavalry.  The death of no 
officer since the close of the war has called forth more universal and heart-
felt sorrow in the circle of his acquaintance than that of General Oliver B. 
Knowles.  Having passed through all the grades of honor, from that of a private, 
entering the ranks at the age of eighteen, up to that of Brigadier-General at 
the age of twenty-two, and earning every promotion by the sterling qualities of 
his head and his heart, without the patronage or assistance of those in place, 
his death has caused a void in the breasts of all who had come to know his 
worth, and has sent a pang to the heart of every one who had felt the influence 
of his open and frank demeanor and that unaffected kindness and sympathy which 
he was ever ready to bestow.
  Oliver Blachly Knowles was born on the 3d of January, 1842, in the city of 
Philadelphia.  His father, Levi Knowles, was a native of New Jersey, and has for 
many years been an honored and respected merchant of Philadelphia.  His mother 
was Elizabeth Adeline Croskey, a native of that city, an intelligent lady with 
great force of character.  The boy early evinced a strong predilection for 
equestrian exercise, and soon became a good rider.  He was educated in the 
public schools of the city, spending two years in the High School, and at the 
age of fifteen entered the business house of his father, where he was actively 
employed at the breaking out of the war.
  At the first drum-beat for troops, young Knowles was alive to the call of 
patriotism, and enlisted as a private in Company C of the First New York 
(Lincoln) Cavalry.  The order authorizing the raising of this regiment was 
originally issued to General Carl Schurz, with the design of obtaining a company 
from each of the several States.  But soon after receiving the order, Schurz 
abandoned the project, and transferred the authority to another, and the 
regiment, with the exception of this company which was from Philadelphia, was 
recruited in New York.  Knowles was active in securing men for his company, 
urging the firemen and his associates to enlist; and he was early selected its 
clerk.  It is related by Captain Boyd, who commanded the company, as an example 
of his obedience and strict fidelity, that on one occasion he himself rode with 
him to the post-office, and having to attend

OLIVER B. KNOWLES - 615

to some business in the next street, directed him to await his return.  
Forgetting the injunction, Boyd went back to head-quarters by another route, and 
did not again think of his orderly until late in the day, when, hastening to the 
post-office, he found this faithful officer where he had ordered him to remain.
  Scarcely a month from the time the company received its horses and arms, and 
before the men had fairly learned to sit their saddles, it was sent on a scout 
towards Fairfax Court House.  When near Pohick Church, and moving leisurely 
along, it came suddenly upon a force of the enemy's cavalry concealed behind a 
wood.  At sight of these the advance guard turned, and galloping in, reported a 
hostile army in front, which so terrified the men that they instinctively 
wheeled and began a hasty retreat.  Knowles, who was with the advance, having 
carefully noted the enemy's force, dashed past his comrades, and soon reaching 
the rear of the column, informed the Captain that the foe was in no greater 
force than his own.  Relying upon this report, the retreat, by his assistance, 
was suddenly stopped, and after forming, and preparing the minds of his men by 
encouraging words, the bugles sounded the charge.  Dashing forward with shouts 
for the onset, and using their pistols as they came to close quarters, the 
enemy, after firing one volley, was put to disorderly flight.  Thus at the very 
outset of his career he manifested, though but a private, a coolness, 
intelligence, and courage which saved the force from what was likely to become a 
disgraceful panic, and led to a spirit-stirring victory, the effect of which was 
never lost upon the company.  For his gallantry here he was soon after, in 
September, 1861, promoted to Corporal, though it was only by the entreaties and 
finally the commands of the Captain that he was induced to accept it.  From this 
point his advancement was rapid.  In January following he was made Orderly 
Sergeant, a position of more responsibility than that of any other non-
commissioned officer, where he was at once brought into intimate relations with 
the entire company, among whom he inspired respect and love.  This regiment 
being a New York organization, all promotions to positions in the line had to 
come from the Governor of that State, and the field and staff, through whom 
advancement was regularly procured, were citizens of that Commonwealth.  But by 
the 

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 616

recommendation of Governor Curtin, at the instance of Captain Boyd, he was, at 
the close of the Peninsula campaign, in which he participated with distinguished 
gallantry, promoted to the rank of Second Lieutenant.  Captain James H. 
Stevenson, of the same regiment, in speaking of him at the period, says:  "He 
soon became a favorite in the regiment, and he was the idol of his company.  He 
was impelled by no mean or mercenary spirit in going out to serve his country, 
so he submitted patiently and cheerfully to all the privations of the camp and 
field, thus setting a good example to the men, and winning the hearts of his 
superior officers.  He was never sick, always ready for duty, and seemed to 
regard the most fatiguing service or hazardous undertaking as pastime."
  He was on the advance line in the Antietam campaign, and met the enemy in 
spirited engagements at Hyattstown, Frederick, Antietam, and Williamsport.  His 
regiment now became part of the army commanded by General Milroy, stationed in 
the Shenandoah Valley and along the valley of the Potomac.  Here guerilla 
warfare was rife, and duty more hazardous than with the Grand Army.  The 
sagacity and courage of Knowles proved invaluable, and many were the dashes he 
executed, which by his strategy and daring were almost invariably attended with 
success, binding new laurels about his brow.  So marked were these that in 
April, 1863, he was commissioned First Lieutenant.
  In June following, he obtained a furlough of a few days - the first since his 
enlistment - and had just reached home when he heard that disaster had befallen 
Milroy's command.  The entire army of General Lee, on its way to Pennsylvania, 
in the Gettysburg campaign, had come upon Milroy unawares, and before he could 
extricate himself was surrounded, and had to cut his way out, sustaining great 
loss.  The instant Lieutenant Knowles heard of the discomfiture of his comrades 
he decided to forego the pleasure of home and the society of friends, and return 
at once to his command.  At Harper's Ferry he learned that his company had 
escaped into Pennsylvania, by the way of Bloody Run.  He accordingly hastened to 
Harrisburg, where he met it, and at once entered upon that campaign in his 
native State ever memorable and ever glorious.

OLIVER B. KNOWLES - 617

  His company was now put upon the extreme front, and scouted the Cumberland 
Valley, while the Confederate army was moving on Harrisburg.  In one instance, 
he, with only seven men, surprised a party of the enemy near Chambersburg, and 
took over thirty prisoners with their horses and equipments.  On another 
occasion he captured a party of seventeen horsemen - his own men not having a 
charge of powder in their pistols, nor any ammunition upon their persons except 
what had been ruined by excessive rains.  On the 2d of July, with fifteen of his 
company, he charged into Fayetteville, where a Confederate column was passing, 
and captured fifty prisoners and a number of horses, snatching them from between 
the main body and its rear guard, and while neither was more than 500 yards 
away.  Sending his prisoners to Harrisburg, he started over the mountains 
towards Gettysburg, and on the 4th dashed into Arendtsville and captured eighty 
prisoners, nine wagons, and a large number of horses.  On the 6th, he took 
thirty-one prisoners near Waterloo.  Of his conduct in this stirring campaign, 
Captain Boyd says:  "It is worthy of being recorded in letters of gold.  Were I 
to recount all that he did during that exciting time, I fear it would take 
longer to write than the campaign lasted."
  In recognition of the services rendered by this company during the campaign, 
Governor Curtin gave its Captain command of a new regiment just then being 
recruited, and to Lieutenant Knowles the position of Major.  So attached was the 
latter to his old company in the Lincoln Cavalry that it was with difficulty he 
could be induced to leave it, and not until the new regiment was reorganized at 
the end of six months for a further period of three years did he consent to 
accept this honorable promotion.  During the time which expired between his 
original appointment and his acceptance in March, 1864, the Lincoln Cavalry was 
engaged in the most active and fatiguing campaigns of the war.
  The new regiment to which he was transferred, after having been mounted and 
drilled as cavalry, was temporarily ordered to act as infantry, and in that 
capacity bore an active part in the hard-fought battles of Bethesda Church, Cold 
Harbor, Petersburg, Jerusalem Plank Road, Explosion of the Mine, Weldon 
Railroad, and Poplar Grove Church.  In the last four of these engagements

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 618

the regiment was commanded by Major Knowles, his superior officers having been 
wounded.
  On the 8th of October, the regiment was remounted, and in November, Major 
Knowles was promoted to Colonel - the wounds of Colonel Boyd unfitting him for 
field duty.  Joining the cavalry corps of General D. McM. Gregg, under that able 
commander Colonel Knowles led his regiment in the severe engagements at the 
Boydton Plank Road, and in the raids to Stony Creek and Bellefield, in both of 
which he acted as rear guard.  In the movement to Hatcher's Run he commanded the 
brigade.  On the 29th of March, the final campaign of the war opened, and at 
Dinwiddie Court House, Amelia Springs, Cedar Creek, Farmville, and Appomattox 
Court House, he followed General Sheridan, and won the commendation and warm 
approval of that fiery and impetuous leader.  The last charge was actually 
delivered after the terms of surrender had been agreed upon.  The operations of 
the morning of the 9th of April were being actively pushed, the Confederate 
General Rosser having been hard pressed, and driven nearly a mile, where he took 
a sheltered position and made a firm stand.  The brigade had been drawn up for a 
charge, and the word to advance given, when news of the surrender was received.  
Colonel Knowles failed to get the notice, and led his regiment in a gallant 
charge alone.  Seeing that he was unsupported by the rest of the line, he 
halted, when the recall was sounded, and the four years of fighting in the Army 
of the Potomac ceased.
  The conduct of Colonel Knowles throughout his entire military career, from 
that of a private carrying the carbine to his last charge when the foremost of 
all the Confederate leaders had been compelled to surrender, was most devoted 
and heroic, winning the respect and affection of those beneath him, and the 
confidence and admiration of his superiors.  His unaffected simplicity of 
manner, genial bearing, and never-failing wit won for him troops of friends 
wherever he moved.  As a token of their esteem, he was presented by his 
companions in arms with a horse, sword and equipments.  He was warmly commended 
by Generals Sickel, Gregg, and Sheridan, and it was at the suggestion of the two 
latter that shortly after the surrender he was commissioned

OLIVER B. KNOWLES - 619

a Brigadier-General, as a special recognition of his merit in the final 
campaign.
  On the 4th of July General Knowles was honorably discharged, and mustered out 
of service.  Returning to Philadelphia, he began to look about him for an 
opportunity to engage in an active business life.  He chose the city of 
Milwaukee, as one of the great grain entrepots of the West, and was soon settled 
in trade in that commodity, commanding by his excellent business capacity and 
assiduous attention to duty the trust of all with whom he came in contact.  
Possessed of a good constitution and robust health, a long life of activity and 
usefulness seemed open before him.  But, alas! man's ways are not as God's ways, 
and His purposes are past finding out.  At midnight of the 5th of December, 
1866, he was stricken with cholera, and in five hours the strong man, the pride 
of his family, and the centre of a wide circle of friends, was no more.  For a 
day or two he had not been in his usual health, but had attended regularly to 
business, and on the evening before his death was present at an exhibition in 
Music Hall.  He left before the close of the performance, but not until midnight 
was medical aid called.  Two of his friends who were with him at the 
entertainment, Captain Goodrich and Mr. Boyd, noticing his departure, and the 
unwonted pallor of his face, went to his room at the hour, and found him 
suffering.  Physicians were summoned and were speedily at hand; but it was 
obvious from the first that his sickness would prove mortal.  He sent messages 
of affection to his family, and said he was not afraid to die.
  The Chamber of Commerce of Milwaukee, of which he was a member, passed 
resolutions of respect and sympathy of more than the usual formal expression of 
sorrow, delegating one of their number to accompany his remains to his parents 
in Philadelphia, and in a body followed in procession to the train which bore 
him away.  His comrades of the Lincoln Cavalry, and of the Twenty-first 
Pennsylvania cavalry, which he led so gloriously, also passed resolutions of 
fraternal respect and tenderness.  On the day of his death notice of his 
appointment by the Secretary of War as Major in the regular army reached his 
home - a signal mark of the confidence which his military life as a volunteer 
had in-

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 620

spired.  But, when the intelligence of this honor came, the ear which it was 
intended to gladden was heavy, and the brow it was to glorify cold in death.  He 
had passed to that unseen world where the noise of battle never comes, and the 
carnage of mortal strife is unknown. 
  The death of one so young, so brave and so good, so untimely cut off, 
occasioned a shock of sorrow and grief seldom witnessed.  There now lies open 
before the writer a volume of letters of condolence framed in a rare spirit of 
tenderness and affection.  The following, written by Captain James H. Stevenson, 
who commanded the company in the Lincoln Cavalry of which he was Lieutenant, is 
selected on account of the intimacy of the relations which subsisted between 
them.  It was written on the receipt of a photograph of the deceased presented 
him by the father.  "As I gaze," he says, "on the likeness of his youthful and 
manly face, I call to mind the many hardships and dangers through which we 
passed together, and his patient and soldierly bearing under the most trying 
circumstances.  His goodness of heart was only equaled by his courage and 
patriotism.  His gentlemanly and truly modest deportment, his cheerful 
obedience, and his faithful, prompt, and intelligent execution of all orders, 
first attracted my attention to him, and I mentioned him to the Captain for 
promotion.  But he needed no 'friend at court,' for he earned his own promotion 
in the very first engagement, only one month after muster into service.  All 
acknowledged his promotion merited, and recognized him as a worthy leader.  He 
was beloved by all the men, and they rejoiced at his success.  He was more 
conspicuous in deeds than in words, and, recognizing this, his comrades rendered 
it unnecessary for him to sound his own praises.  He had the talent to command 
in the midst of danger, and presence of mind to meet and surmount extraordinary 
perils.  His presence seemed to dissipate fear, calm disturbed minds, and 
inspire confidence in the breasts of all under his charge.  He had the faculty 
of enforcing discipline under the guidance of justice, moderation and good 
sense.  Always yielding a cheerful obedience, he set an example to his inferiors 
which secured their obedience in return. . . .  When I rejoined the old company 
as Captain, he came as my First Lieutenant.  We ate, slept, rode, 

ANDREW H. TIPPIN - 621

enjoyed ourselves, and suffered hardships together, and I came to love him as a 
brother.  When he was promoted Major of another regiment and took leave of me, 
although I rejoiced at his well-deserved and hard-earned promotion, I felt as 
though I had lost my only friend and companion.  I never heard of his promotion 
afterwards without feelings of pride, and when the news of his sudden death 
reached me, I felt as though an arrow had pierced me.  I trust he has entered 
into his rest and is in possession of the crown and palm and glorious robe."
  General Knowles died at the early age of twenty-five, not on the field of 
battle, where in the face of the foe he had often courted death, but in the 
quiet walk of life.  In person he was of a most noble and commanding presence, 
being six feet and two inches in height, well-proportioned, and of fair 
complexion.  He was unmarried.  His remains were buried in Laurel Hill cemetery, 
and upon the stone which marks his resting-place is inscribed by the hand of 
affection these most truthful words:

      "He was:
         Gentle, yet Courageous,
         Firm, but Magnanimous,
         Beloved by all."

ANDREW HART TIPPIN was born on Christmas day, 1823, in Plymouth, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania.  His father, George Tippin, was of Irish descent, and his 
mother, Catharine (Hart) Tippin, of German origin, though both Pennsylvanians by 
birth.  He received a fair English education in the schools of his native place, 
and afterwards learned the printing business.  He at one time published the 
Montgomery Ledger at Pottstown.  He was possessed of a strong desire for 
knowledge, and became a voracious reader.
  At the breaking out of the Mexican War, he received the appointment of Second 
Lieutenant in the Eleventh United States infantry, his commission bearing date 
of the 9th of April, 1847, and a few months later that of First Lieutenant.  He 
became Adjutant of the regiment, which position he held during the greater part 
of the war.  He was engaged at the National Bridge, Contreras, Cherubusco, 
Molino del Rey, Chapultepec, and Garita
 
MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 622

de Belen; and received two brevets for gallant and meritorious conduct in these 
actions.
  At the opening of the late war he was commissioned Major of the Twentieth 
regiment in the three months' service, and afterwards Colonel of the Sixty-
eighth, for three years.  With the latter regiment he joined the Army of the 
Potomac and was assigned to duty in Birney's division of the Third corps, 
participating with it in all the engagements in which that fighting division had 
a part.  At Gettysburg the regiment was in Graham's brigade, which held the 
noted angle at the Peach Orchard, where so many brave men fell, battling with 
heroic valor to hold the ground against a vastly superior opposing force.  Here 
Colonel Tippin received a slight wound, but remained upon the field.
  In a sharp encounter at Auburn, Virginia, on the 14th of October, 1863, he was 
taken prisoner and marched away to Libby, where for over nine months he was 
subjected to the hard usage accorded to the inmates of that loathsome den.  On 
being released he returned to his regiment, and was with it in the campaigns 
before Petersburg, and until the close of the war.  At Sailor's Creek, just 
previous to the final surrender, Lieutenant-General Ewell and nearly his entire 
command were taken prisoners.  The head-quarters brigade of the Potomac army, of 
which Colonel Tippin had command, was detailed to escort the captives to City 
Point.  "Among the prisoners," says Colonel Tippin, in describing this event, 
"were Lieutenant-General Ewell, Major-Generals Custis Lee, Kershaw, and other 
prominent Generals of the rebel army together with about 600 officers of lesser 
grade.  At a point on the route where we all rested for a short time, I received 
a dispatch that General Lee had surrendered.  I communicated the intelligence to 
Generals Ewell and Custis Lee, but both doubted its truthfulness.  They could 
not think it possible.  In a very short time, and before leaving our resting-
place, General Benham came up with his engineer brigade, and gave the terms of 
the surrender.  Young General Lee dropped his head on his breast, and General 
Ewell threw up his arms, exclaiming, 'The jig is up.'"
  Colonel Tippin was above the medium stature, being five feet

ALFRED B. McCALMONT - 623

eight inches in height, and possessed of an excellent constitution.  He was 
married on the 11th of August, 1846, to Miss Ellen Lightcap, of Pottstown.  He 
at various times held offices of public trust, having been Clerk of the Orphans' 
Court of Montgomery county, Clerk of the Sessions and of Oyer and Terminer, 
Chief Deputy of the United States Marshal for the Eastern District of 
Pennsylvania, and agent of the State on the Columbia Railroad.  He died in 
February, 1870.

ALFRED B. McCALMONT, Colonel of the Two Hundred and Eighth regiment, and Brevet 
Brigadier-General, was born on the 28th of April, 1825, at Franklin, 
Pennsylvania.  He was the son of Alexander McCalmont, and brother of John S., of 
the Tenth Reserve.  He was for one term, in 1840, a student in Allegheny 
College, and graduated in 1844 at Dickinson College, standing second in a class 
of twenty.  He studied law at Franklin with his father, then President Judge of 
the Eighteenth Judicial District, and was admitted to the bar in 1847.  He 
commenced practice in Pittsburg.  In 1853 he became associated with T. J. Keenan 
in conducting the Daily Union and the Pittsburg Legal Journal.  In 1855 he was 
appointed Prothonotary of the Supreme Court for the Western District of the 
State, and resigned in May, 1858, to accept a position in the office of the Hon. 
Jeremiah S. Black, who was then Attorney-General in the cabinet of President 
Buchanan.  On the creation of the office of Assistant Attorney-General, Mr. 
Black appointed Mr. McCalmont to that place, which he held during the 
continuance of Mr. Buchanan's administration.  He resumed the practice of his 
profession at Franklin in June, 1861, in partnership with James K. Kerr, who 
soon after entered the volunteer service of the United States, as Major of the 
Fourth Pennsylvania cavalry.  Mr. McCalmont followed his partner the next year, 
and after recruiting a company, entered the service on the 1st of September, 
1862, as Lieutenant-Colonel of the One Hundred and Forty-second regiment.  After 
the fall of the Colonel of the regiment, at Gettysburg, McCalmont received a 
commission to fill the vacancy; but could not be mustered, as his regiment was 
reduced in number below that required by the regulations of the War Department.  
He, in common

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 624

with many other officers, complained of the injustice of a rule which virtually 
stopped promotion in all regiments that had seen hard service.  His case, in 
particular, was made the subject of an eloquent appeal to Congress by a brother 
officer, Colonel Webster, of Maryland, who labored in vain to abolish the 
objectionable regulation.
  In the fall of 1864 he was allowed to accept the position of Colonel of the 
Two Hundred and Eighth regiment, by way of indirect promotion.  He served during 
the remainder of the war in General Hartranft's division of the Ninth corps, in 
front of Petersburg, and commanded a brigade in the assault upon, and capture of 
the enemy's works and the occupation of that city on the morning of the 2d of 
April, 1865.  In recognition of his gallantry and soldierly conduct throughout 
the war he received from Secretary Stanton the brevet rank of Brigadier-General.  
After the close of the war he pursued the practice of the law at Franklin, his 
native town.
  He was appointed to deliver the address before the Society of the Army of the 
Potomac, on the occasion of the annual reunion to be held at Harrisburg on the 
12th of May, 1874; but having submitted to an operation by an eminent surgeon, 
for a tumor upon the face, he was attacked with erysipelas, which terminated his 
life on Thursday, May 7th, 1874, at Philadelphia.  His remains were returned to 
Franklin, where they were consigned to the grave with much ceremony, and many 
demonstrations of respect to his greatly esteemed public and private worth.

GEORGE ARCHIBALD McCALL, Major-General of volunteers, the first commander of the 
Pennsylvania Reserve corps, was born in Philadelphia, on the 16th of March, 
1802.  He received the appointment of a Cadet at West Point in 1818, whence he 
graduated in due course.  In April, 1831, he was made Assistant Adjutant-General 
on the staff of General Gaines, then at the head of the Western Department of 
the United States.  In September, 1836, he was promoted to Captain of the Fourth 
infantry, and in that capacity distinguished himself under Colonel Worth in 
Florida, being recommended by that officer for the brevet rank

GEORGE A. McCALL - 625

of Major, for gallant conduct in the battle of Pelalicaha, who said: "He will do 
more honor to the rank than the rank can confer on him."  He was with General 
Taylor in his march to the Rio Grande, and for "gallant and distinguished 
services" in the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma he was brevetted 
Major and Lieutenant-Colonel.  On the 7th of July, 1846, he was made Assistant 
Adjutant-General with the rank of Major, and on the 26th of December, 1847, 
Major of the Third infantry.  His fellow-citizens of Philadelphia, justly 
glorying in his gallant bearing in recent battles, presented him with an elegant 
sword, as a token of their appreciation of his services, on his return from 
Mexico.
  His health having been impaired by active duty, he determined to spend a year 
in Europe, and, both in England and upon the Continent, visited military 
schools, and minutely inspected fortifications, camps, and hospitals, gaining a 
large acquaintance with the improvements in modern warfare.  On his return he 
was placed in command of the Third infantry, stationed at Santa Fe.  Before 
joining his regiment he was requested by the War Department to prepare a 
historical account of the territory newly acquired from Mexico, accompanied by 
statistical tables of population and resources, which was published by Congress.  
On the 10th of June, 1850, he was appointed Inspector-General of the United 
States Army, with the rank of a Colonel of cavalry, and as such made a personal 
examination of military posts and the troops in New Mexico, California, and 
Oregon.  His health, which was never robust, again failing, on the 29th of 
April, 1853, he resigned his commission, determined to retire permanently to 
private life.  Being well read in natural science he prosecuted his studies in 
this department, and made valuable contributions to its literature.  In 1855, he 
removed from Philadelphia to a farm in Chester county, and here prepared and 
published a work entitled Letters from the Frontiers, in which he gave an 
account of his services in the Department of the West.  At the breaking out of 
the Rebellion he was called to Harrisburg by Governor Curtin for advice and 
consultation.  While there he was elected Colonel of the Tenth Reserve regiment, 
which position he declined.  He was shortly after appointed Major-General by 
Governor Curtin, 

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 626

and given command of the Pennsylvania Reserve corps, consisting of twelve 
regiments of infantry and one each of cavalry, artillery, and riflemen.  He 
planned the movement on Dranesville, which resulted in the first victory gained 
by the Army of the Potomac.  When McClellan moved to the Peninsula, McCall 
remained before Washington, and soon after marched along the line of the 
Alexandria railway and thence to Fredericksburg.  He had thrown a part of his 
force across the stream, and his cavalry was moving down the Richmond railway, 
the purpose being to join McClellan overland, when he was ordered back and taken 
down the Potomac by transport.  He arrived just as the Seven Days' battle was 
opening, and was thrust out to the fore-front, where he received the first shock 
at Beaver Dam Creek, on the 26th of June.  McCall was here almost alone pitted 
against thrice his number.  But he had chosen well his position and had thrown 
up earthworks - a lesson which the Potomac army was slow in learning - and 
against him the tide of battle beat in vain.  The victory was signal and 
complete, and attained at little cost, though immensely destructive to the foe.  
Having but a small force, and his right flank liable to be turned, he was 
recalled during the night, and moved back without loss, in the face of a 
vigilant enemy.  On the 27th, at Gaines' Mill, McCall was held in reserve till 
the front line of battle was broken and being driven back, when he was ordered 
forward.  But here there had been no systematic and continuous earthworks thrown 
up, and a fragment of the Union army having been caught at a disadvantage, was 
over whelmed, and his command suffered severely.  At Charles City Cross Roads, 
on the 30th, was enacted the great military exploit of his life.  It was next to 
the last of the noted Seven Days.  Here it was that the rebel leaders had 
determined to fall upon the flank of the Union army and cut it in twain.  But 
the vigilant McCall was there; and though the onsets of the foe were terrible 
and oft repeated, yet he withstood the brunt of their assaults, and by the aid 
of Hooker and Sumner, who came to his assistance, totally defeated the cherished 
purpose of the foe, though not without great loss and a terrible breaking and 
scourging of his gallant corps.  Just at dusk, while reconnoitering with Major 
Stone of the Bucktail regiment, he was taken prisoner.

GEORGE A. McCALL - 627

"General McCall," says Stone, "had come out of the woods, wounded and alone, and 
taken his place at the head of the column.  After the halt, the General took me 
forward a few paces with him, and in the darkness we suddenly found ourselves 
close upon the leveled muskets of a hostile column which filled the road in 
front of us.  We were ordered to halt and dismount, but I turned and escaped, 
only slightly hurt, drawing two volleys from the enemy.  General McCall was not 
so fortunate, and is in their hands."  He was taken to Richmond and incarcerated 
in Libby Prison.  After his release, having suffered from his wound and the 
unusual severity of the campaign, he resigned his place in the army, and 
returned to his home in Chester county, where he remained in private life until 
his death, which occurred on the 25th of February, 1868.