BIO:  Lewis Maish, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2005.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/york/
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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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Part II, Biographical Sketches, Fairview Township, Pg 99

CAPT. LEWIS MAISH was born July 2, 1840, in Spring Garden Township, York County, 
within a few miles of York.  At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to learn 
the machinist’s trade at the Variety Iron Works, York, Penn., where he remained 
until the breaking out of the Rebellion.  In September, 1861, he took an active 
part in the raising of a company for the Thomas A. Scott Regiment (afterward 
numbered Eighty-seventh Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry).  On the 
organization of the regiment he was elected second-lieutenant of Company B, and 
soon after the regiment was called into active service, and May 26, 1863, he was 
promoted to first-lieutenant, and October 25, 1863, to captain of his company.  
June 23, 1864, Capt. Maish was taken prisoner, while the lines of the army were 
being established in front of Petersburg, Va., and taken to Richmond, and 
confined in Libby Prison for a few days, after which he was taken, with about 
3,000 other prisoners, to the State of Georgia.  About 230 of the above being 
officers were left at Macon, (the principal military prison at that time for 
officers) the remainder being taken to Andersonville.  During the nine months of 
the captain’s prison life he spent about one month at Macon, two months at 
Savannah, Ga., about two months in the jail yard at Charlestown, during the siege 
of that doomed city, and four months at Columbia, S. C.; a few days at Charlotte, 
N. C.  From the latter place, in company with two companions (Capt. H. C. Smyser, 
of Baltimore, and Lieut. Anderson, of Philadelphia), he made his escape into the 
Union lines.  Incidents of the captain’s military and prison life, in connection 
with his escape, would make too large a volume to attempt here.  Capt. Maish was 
mustered out of service March 24, 1865, having served his country three and one-
half years.  After the close of the war Capt. Maish returned to his native town, 
and resided there with his wife whom he had married at Winchester, Va., and 
remained for one year, and then spent one year in the South.  In September, 1867, 
he located in the city of Minneapolis, Minn., where he is now residing, and 
engaged as an active member of the Variety Iron Works, in the manufacture of 
machinery.