USA > Pennsylvania > A biographical album of prominent Pennsylvanians, v. 1 > Part 34
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On September 11, 1887, Governor Scales, of North Carolina, tendered him a place on his staff as special aide, with the rank of Colonel, which he accepted in time to appear with the Governor at the Centennial Celebration of the Constitu- tion of the United States, held in Philadelphia the same month. This position he still holds. Several times during the war he received injuries which required treatment at the hospitals, but the most serious ailment from which he suffered was a violent attack of typhoid fever contracted near Nashville, Tenn., from which he would in all probability have died had not the devotion of his wife, a native of Middletown, Pa., impelled her to leave her home at Harrisburg and go to him in the field, travelling a part of the way through a country infested with guerillas, and care for her husband until he was sufficiently recovered to bear removal home. During his terms of service Colonel Demming received less than $100 in bounties of every description.
In civil life, since the war, he has usually followed the occupations of journalist or stenographer, although as far back as 1860 he excelled as a printer, his com- position bill for one week, while employed on the Harrisburg Telegraph, exceed- ing ninety thousand ems, much of the work being " solid matter," a record that had not been equalled in Harrisburg at that time. He was the city editor of the Harrisburg Daily Telegraph while still a minor. He has from time to
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time been a contributor to a number of the leading periodicals of the United States and Canada, and until recently was a correspondent of several of the great dailies. The Farmer's Friend, printed at Mechanicsburg, Pa., and enjoying per- haps the largest patronage of any agricultural paper in Pennsylvania, was started jointly by its present proprietor and Colonel Demming.
Since his school-days he has always been a student. He read law, with Hon. A. J. Herr, ex-State Senator from the Dauphin District, as his tutor, and devoted considerable attention to the study of medicine and the physical sciences. As- tronomy, geology and mineralogy have been special studies, together with the acquirement of some knowledge of modern languages. Having devoted consid- erable time for several years past to practical mining he has acquired quite an amount of knowledge in that direction, and he has had numerous notices in the public press relative to his work and success in discovering and developing valuable deposits of iron ore and other minerals in Pennsylvania, Maryland and the South.
During the past three or four years he has given a great deal of time and attention to the development of several mines in Western North Carolina, and has brought to public notice a number of valuable gem minerals found in the South. His collection of gems and gem materials, made principally through the Marion Bullion Company and the Marion Improvement Company of North Carolina, is now perhaps as large, varied and unique as any other private col- lection of American precious and semi-precious stones. Colonel Demming's specialty, however, for a number of years has been phonographic reporting. Beginning with a " Pitman's Manual of Phonography " in 1862, which he still had with him on his final discharge from the army in 1866, he continued studying the art until the " Reporter's Manual " was mastered. In the winter of 1866-67 a position as amanuensis was secured on the Pennsylvania Legislative Record. During eight sessions of the Legislature he was employed, two years as an amanuensis, and then as a verbatim reporter. Throughout two of the annual sessions he did the entire verbatim reporting of the House of Representatives-a large, unwieldy, often disorderly body, but with such satisfactory results that on several occasions special appropriations were made him by the Legislature, the highest at any one session being $1,000. Before the close of the session of 1874 Colonel Demming was obliged to lay aside the stenographer's pen by reason of the breaking out afresh of an army injury, on account of which since the rebel- lion he has undergone surgical treatment six times without cure. The same year he was enabled to resume reporting to a limited extent, and his professional engagements have steadily increased until he is now the " official " of four of the judicial districts of Pennsylvania, has regularly the reporting of all the civil cases in which the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a party, besides having been special official stenographer of the Department of Justice of the United States, and held other equally important positions. In addition to these official appoint- ments he has been the stenograplier of the Pennsylvania Board of Agriculture
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since its organization in 1877, does the stenographic reporting for the Pennsyl- vania Agricultural Society (of which he is a member of the Executive Com- mittee), and of various governmental departments of Pennsylvania, besides the stenographic work for a large number of medical, educational, scientific and other organizations, one of the most technical of which has been reported by him for nearly twenty years. In this line of work his engagements have extended into more than half the States of the Union and into Canada. The office facili- ties for the work have gradually grown to such an extent that an ex-president of the London Stenographers' Society, on visiting it, said it was the largest and most perfectly equipped stenographer's office in the world.
As an author on stenographic subjects most of his productions appeared for a number of years in the proceedings of the New York State Stenographers' Asso- ciation, with which Colonel Demming became connected as an honorary member soon after its organization. On one occasion that leading association awarded him the first prize for the best address on Stenography, " competition open to the world." Several learned bodies, including the Belles-Lettres Society of Dick- inson College, Carlisle, Pa., have conferred marks of honor upon him in recogni- tion of his literary merit.
Since the organization ot the International Stenographers' Association Colonel Demming has been an active member, being honored with the first Vice-Presi- dency for the United States in 1882, and elected President at its session in Toronto, Canada, in August, 1883. The following year the association met at Harrisburg, Pa. This meeting was the most enjoyable one in its history. Every railroad and many other corporations of note in the city had previously tendered courtesies, the officials of the Pennsylvania Railroad granting the use of special trains to several points of interest on their roads without cost to the members of the association or invited guests. The use of the Capitol was proffered them by resolutions passed by both branches of the Legislature, and the Governor lion- ored them by a special reception at the Executive Mansion. In 1887 Colonel Demming was made a delegate to the International Congress in London, and has since been invited to attend the meeting of that body which is to be held in Munich, Germany, in 1889.
In political matters he has served the city of Harrisburg in her council chan- bers, and had the distinction of being named as a candidate for delegate to the convention which remodelled the Constitution of Pennsylvania. He was once nominated by a minority party for member of Congress, but without hope of election, although he received three times the vote of the regular ticket.
At an early age he sought out and became a member of the most reputable and prominent organizations and societies of his community, and is a life-member of several, including the Masonic fraternity. The list embraces twenty-seven, of which eleven are secret and sixteen are non-secret, including six of a religious character. In a number of them he has held official positions. As a compli- ment to his knowledge acquired in horticultural and agricultural pursuits he was
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appointed Deputy Master of the Patrons of Husbandry, or Grangers, of Pennsyl- vania, and for a number of years served as such. He has been made an honorary life-member of the Harrisburg Typographical Union, and is a foreign associate life-member of the Shorthand Society of London, England. He was President of the Association of Survivors of the Seventy-seventh Regiment, Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers, and is a member of and takes a deep interest in a number of other military associations, especially the Grand Army of the Republic, the Loyal Legion, the Society of the Army of the Potomac, the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, and the National Guard. He has always been a firm advocate of the policy for this country of ever being prepared for any trouble with foreign nations, and believes that every law-abiding American citizen should be respected, protected and defended wherever he may go; that foreign insults to Americans or the American flag should be promptly resented, and the offenders properly dealt with and speedily punished ; that with this policy carried out our foreign commerce would be larger and more remunerative, our relations with other countries more equitable and cordial, and even the foreign missionary work of our churches more respected and fruitful.
Colonel Demming has also been very active in church and Sabbath-school work, having been an officer in his church more than twenty years, and a Super- intendent of one Sunday-school from the time of its foundation until it was seventeen years old, besides holding other important official relations in the church of his selection at home and elsewhere. He has been Secretary of the General Eldership of the Church of God in North America, served as President of the Sabbath-school Convention of his church for that part of Pennsylvania east of the Allegheny mountains, and Vice-President of the Pennsylvania Sabbath- school Association.
On October 20, 1863, he married Miss Kate E. Whitman, of Middletown, Dauphin county, and the union has been blessed with a family of five children. The two older of the four boys are now attending college, and the daughter and the other two boys are at school making preparation for advancement.
MAJ. SAMUEL B. M. YOUNG.
GEN. SAMUEL B. MARKS YOUNG.
AMUEL B. M. YOUNG, Brigadier-General of Volunteers by brevet, and now
S Major of the Third Regiment Cavalry, United States Army, can, in the opinion of competent judges, discipline and drill cavalry better than any other field officer in the service .* He was born at Forest Grove, near Pittsburgh, January 9, 1840, and is of Scotch descent, his great-grandfather having emigrated from Scotland and settled in Lancaster county ; but the family have been resi- dents of Allegheny county since 1790.
General Young was educated at Jefferson College, and in early life was em- ployed in farming, land surveying and civil engineering. The war of the Rebel- lion broke out when he had barely attained his majority, and he at once enlisted in Company "K," Twelfth Pennsylvania Infantry, and remained with it until the expiration of the term of enlistment in August, 1861. Ile then recruited and organized a troop of cavalry from among the three months' men, and took it to Washington, where it was mustered into service as a temporary independent troop. le hired the services of a well-drilled sergeant from the Fifth United States Cavalry, which regiment was camped near by, and in an incredibly short time had a well-drilled and thoroughly disciplined body of men. The troop was made a part of the Fourth Pennsylvania Cavalry in November, 1861, and he was commissioned Captain in the regiment. He was detailed by General Innis M. Palmer, brigade commander, to direct and supervise the squadron drills of the regiment, and he commanded the mounted patrol and provost guard in Wash- ington during a portion of the winter. In March, 1862, he was ordered with his troop to accompany General MeDowell's command to Acquia Creek, in steamers from Washington. Upon arriving at their destination he swam his horses ashore and attacked the enemy, capturing two lookouts and driving their pickets about ten miles. He was complimented by General MeDowell in orders, and the troop was selected by that commander as his body-guard; but Captain Young asked and obtained leave to join his regiment at the front, and participated with his command in the battles of Mechanicsville on June 26, 1862, and at Gaines' Mill, Savage Station, White Oak Swamp, Peach Orchard and Malvern Hill, fought on the succeeding five days in the order named. While the battle of Savage Station was going on, he was selected by Gen. Fitz-John Porter to carry an important dispatch to General Naglee at White Oak Swamp, and was directed to take two
* General Mackenzie, in a letter written to General Ord, commanding the Department of Texas, in July, 1878, said : "Colonel Young can discipline and drill cavalry better than any field officer of the cavalry I know of to-day in our aimy. I saw him manoeuvre his brigade under the fire of Lee's infantry, on the 9th of April, 1865, and I thought then, and still think, that it could not have been done better. To him, more than to any other one brigade commander, was it due that Lee was blocked on the Lynchburg Pike."
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squadrons of the Fourth Pennsylvania Cavalry, as it was then known that small bodies of the enemy's mounted troops were between the forces of Porter and Naglee. Shortly after starting they encountered a superior force of the enemy, and Captain Young at once deployed his men, directing them to act as skirmish- ers, and thus inferentially to increase their force, to keep up a show of advancing, and to continue firing for a couple of hours, and then to withdraw. He, with but one officer dressed as a private, and under the guidance of a negro, pressed on to carry his dispatches, which he succeeded in delivering after having narrowly es- caped, by means of a ruse, from being captured, though the negro guide fell into the enemy's hands. He conveyed the first information to Naglee that Jackson's force was between him and Porter. Upon reaching Naglee's lines he and his companion were at first suspected as spies, but, upon being taken to the com- mander's head-quarters, were recognized and most sumptuously treated by that officer, who had the reputation of having the best mess-chest of any general in the Army of the Potomac.
Captain Young was engaged in several reconnoissances and heavy skirmishes until September 14, 1862, when he participated in the battle of South Mountain. The next day, at the battle of Antietam, with one section (two pieces) of Tid- ball's Battery, commanded by Lieutenant Dennison, and two squadrons of the Fourth Pennsylvania Cavalry, Captain Young charged the stone bridge on the Sharpsburg Pike under the fire and in complete range of the enemy's batteries. Though suffering heavy loss in both artillery and cavalry horses, he got into position and maintained it until reinforced. The position was held by the Union forces throughout the entire battle. Col. James H. Childs, Fourth Pennsylvania Cavalry, temporarily commanding Averill's Cavalry Brigade, was killed by a shell after joining the advance to which he had ordered reinforcements. He had just expressed the opinion that, if Burnside would give him but one division of infantry, he would be in Sharpsburg in less than an hour. But Burnside failed to comprehend the situation and avail himself of the opportunity. Two days after the battle of Antietam Captain Young received a telegram from Governor Curtin notifying him of his promotion to Major, notwithstanding there was one captain in the regiment his senior. He was engaged in skirmishing at Thorough- fare Gap, Va., on October 17th, and at Hedgeville on the 20th, and took part in the cavalry engagements on November 2d and 3d at Union and Upperville, where he commanded three squadrons of the regiment and a section of Tidball's Bat- tery, and was also in a skirmish at Ashby's Gap on the 3d. On the 4th he was in the cavalry engagements at Markham Station and Manassas Gap, and in the actions at Jeffersontown on the 7th and Little Washington on the 8th. He was in a cavalry engagement at Corbin's Cross Roads on the 10th, and in a skirmish the same day at Gaines' Cross Roads. He participated in the cavalry engage- ment at Waterloo on the 14th. He took part with his command in the battle of Fredericksburg on December 13th, and was actively engaged in skirmishing with Mosby's men between Hartwood Church an.1 Warrenton, December 21st and
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22d. While detached to the left of Averill's cavalry, moving south from War- renton on December 30th and 31st he attacked, with his command of two squad- rons, the rear of Gen. J. E. B. Stuart's column at Jeffersonville just at dark, capturing several supply wagons and two pieces of artillery.
In the Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville campaigns the regiment was not seriously engaged, although he was in action at Hartwood Church, February 25, 1863, in a skirmish at Kelley's Ford on March 29th, and, just one month later, in an action at the same place. He was in a skirmish at Ely's Ford on May 2d, and participated in the battle of Chancellorsville, May 3d and 4th. In the Gettysburg preliminaries, however, at Brandy Station, Aldie, Middleburg and Upperville, Va., June 9th, 18th, 19th and 21st, and the engagement at Ilan- over, Pa., on the 30th, the squadron under Major Young's command won the commendation of General Kilpatrick and both the Generals Gregg, and he was complimented on all sides for its effective work.
After Gen. D. McM. Gregg drove Fitz-Hugh Lee out of his position near Middleburg, Va., on June 21, 1863, a running cavalry and horse artillery fight was kept up across Goose creek into Upperville, which lies in the mouth of one of the numerous gaps through the mountains, which formed the barrier between the opposing armies on their hide-and-seek fight and foot race for Maryland and Pennsylvania. In describing the part taken by his command in this campaign General Young says :
" Being charged through the day with the protection and support of Tidball's horse artillery, upon arriving at the crest of the hill overlooking the mountain village of Upperville, it looked as if Fitz-Hugh Lee was making a determined stand until his artillery could get into position well up in the gap. Tid- ball could do nothing but keep the road clear without great danger of killing our own men, and as he had no use for my cavalry at that particular time we drew sabres, descended the hill rapidly, keeping out of Tidball's line of fire until near the foot, when we came into the main thoroughfare, the battery check- ing fire for the purpose, passed through the gap in the lines of the enemy in column of platoons, by fol- lowing the road which had been kept clear by the battery while the fight was raging on either side, wheeled into line to the left and charged Fitz-Hugh Lee's right wing in reserve. It was perfectly glorious for a few moments, and we seemed to be having the highest success until we were taken in the rear by a small organization, which, however, checked our success only momentarily. But the shock had been delivered, and the effect had reached lo the other side of the road. The enemy's batteries from up the gap seemed to open on friend and foe alike, and it might be said that we separated just at that particular moment by mutual consent to catch our breath. The enemy fell back sullenly, but in good order, under cover of their artillery, into the gap, and we bivouacked for the night in the village and cared for the wounded of both sides. These operations, following so soon after Brandy Station, created great confidence in our cavalry, and a greater respect for us on the part of the same branch of the enemy's service than had previously existed, and this confidence and respeet gradually grew and increased until the end of the war."
Gen. D. McM. Gregg's division of cavalry, to which Major Young's regiment belonged, was engaged in one of the hardest fought and most bitterly contested cavalry engagements of the war, on the right flank of the Union army at Gettys- burg, where Gregg met and successfully resisted Stuart in his strong and bold attempt to turn that flank and get in the rear of the Northern forces. Following the battle of Gettysburg the division, after a rapid march, crossed the Potomac at Harper's Ferry in order to strike Lee's communications and trains near Shep-
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ardstown. General Young, whose style of writing is as lively as his mode of fighting, says:
" We struck a! them, but it took all the next day and night, together with the strongest effort on our part, to get over our sorrow and regret for having done so, and get back to Harper's Ferry with some loss. In that affair, my command of some five hundred men dismounted from the Fourth and Sixteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry regiments posted behind a stone fence, successfully resisted three successive charges made between sunset and dark by a brigade of infantry. My men had exhausted all their car- bine ammunition in repelling the second charge. The third charge was made just at dark, and was repulsed by the fire of our revolvers, which was held until the enemy's colors were within twenty paces of the stone fence. It required my utmost ability and persuasive powers to hold the men for this lust assault. During the night we got out of their clutches, but they pressed us hard until daylight, when we were covered by friendly guns from the heights on Harper's Ferry. Our success in extricating ourselves was due to the superiority and discipline of our men, and to Gen. D. McM. Gregg, who as a soldier and division commander, for safety, hard fighting and mancenvring troops under the strain of highest excite- ment, was one of the ablest cavalry commanders produced by the war.
"On October 12, 1863, when Lee was putting into execution his plans of passing the flank of Meade's army, by way of Culpepper and Warrenton, Va., Gregg's Division was ordered to cross the Rappahan- nock at Warrenton Sulphur Springs, and find and develop the enemy's movements in that direction. The Thirteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry crossed the river, deployed a line of skirmishers, and, meeting the advancing evemy, soon became hotly engaged. The Fourth Pennsylvania and First Maine, under Gen. J. Irvin Gregg, the brigade commander, advanced rapidly to the support of the Thirteenth; the First Maine to the right, the Fourth Pennsylvania to the left. This checked the enemy's cavalry until their infantry supports closed up. I was posted with my battalion on the extreme left and front. The orders given to me by Gen. J. Irvin Gregg were : ' Hold in check any force that may come against you at all hasard until you hear from me.' Being in a woods I dismounted two troops in line in edge of woods bordering on a cleared field, where an enemy, advancing from that direction, would be exposed to our fire for several hundred yards without any protection. One troop, mounted, was refused on the left with videttes thrown well out to the left and front, and another troop, mounted, was held in reserve and as a guard for the led-horses. The brigade commander, after disposing the remainder of his troops to deliver or receive an attack, was directed to fall back in order to contract his lines, and accordingly sent orders by an aid, Lieutenant Martin, of Philadelphia, for me to fall back and draw in towards the right some distance, to a certain designated strip of wood, as there was a gap of several hundred yards that he could not otherwise fill up. J ieutenant Martin was severely wounded in attempting to reach me. Although ignorant of the facts I became uneasy, not on account of anything on my front or left, as the only thing discovered in either of these directions was a line of skirmishers, which kept up a constant and annoying fire but made no attempt to advance on us, but I had sent one orderly followed by another in a few minutes, and finally galloped off myself, in order to discover the continuity of our lines to the right. The enemy's infantry were through this gap, and being in the woods I was close on them before discovering it. Wheeling my horse suddenly, and paying no heed to the cry of 'Surrender, Yank !' I felt a paralysis in my right arm and saw my sabre drop. My horse was as much frightened as myself, and seemed to fairly fly back to my men. The trees, no doubt, preserved both horse and rider from instant death. The poor hor-e, however, tottered and fell while I was being assisted to mount one of the led horses. Being completely surrounded, our only chances for escape were to charge through the infantry to the right rear, or into the swamp on the left rear. Asthis last horn of the dilemma would probably terminate in the loss of the entire battalion as prisoners, the other horn was taken, together with a big ' horn' from a canteen, which did not contain water, to compensate for the loss of blood from my wound, which was considerable. The charge was made, Captain Grant, one of the bravest and most gallant officers of my regiment, riding at my side and leading it. I think he was the only officer in my command that was not wounded or captured in that affair. My second horse fell exhausted and dying from wounds in attempting to jump a deep ditch, behind which another portion of my regiment had formed waiting for 1. The loss in my battalion was a little over sixty per cent. The troop, mounted, out to the left, and one troop dismounted, were captured almost entire, very few were killed, and a comparatively small number wounded. My right clbow-joint was shattered by a musket ball, and I received some internal
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