USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Vol. III > Part 7
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The following brothers of John M. Stark also served in the Civil War: William S. Stark, in the 52nd Pennsylvania Infantry ; George H. Stark (Mexican War Veteran), in the 177th Pennsylvania Infantry, and Henry W. Stark, in Captain Hileman's com- pany, of the 19th Pennsylvania Infantry. Charles H. Flagg married his sister, Mary Jane Stark, and became captain of Com-
pany K, 142nd Regiment Pennsylvania Vol- unteers, made up of Pittston, Pennsylvania, men, which he led into action at Fredericks- burg, December 13, 1862, and with Meade's Division ( Pennsylvania Reserves ), in which were Sinclair's, Jackson's and Magilton's brigades, courageously, in a terrific storm of shot and shell, charged the Confederate entrenchments on the Heights of Fred- ericksburg, defended by General A. P. Hill's division of Stonewall Jackson's corps. Dur- ing Hooker's campaign he was again under fire at Chancellorsville, where the Army of the Potomac met with disaster and defeat, after which there followed, in the rapid march of events, the invasion of Pennsyl- vania, one of the most perilous epochs in our country's history. Captain Flagg was a Pennsylvanian by adoption, and gallantly served as an aide on the staff of Brigadier- General Thomas A. Rowley, who command- ed the Ist Brigade, 3rd Division, of the Ist Army Corps, at Gettysburg. The 142nd Pennsylvania Volunteers fought in Row- ley's brigade, and bravely helped to drive the rebel invaders off the soil of Pennsyl- vania.
John M. Stark died at his residence in Wyoming, Pennsylvania, March 14, 1896. Sarah (Davidson) Stark, his wife, died at her summer home at Lake Carey, Pennsyl- vania, September 9, 1898. Both are buried in Hollenback Cemetery.
Lydia Ellen Stark was born in Plains township, Luzerne county. Pennsylvania, May 19, 1851.
Ruth Mosier, only child of Frank C. Mosier and Lydia Ellen (Stark) Mosier, born April 2, 1893, died December 16, 1901. On the base of the Italian marble statue which marks her grave in Hollenback Ceme- tery are the inspired words: "Heavenly Bells are calling me now," which were found after her death among her child treasures, written in her own hand.
Frank C. Mosier is a Mason, and belongs to St. John's Lodge, F. and A. M., Pittston, Pennsylvania ; Pittston Chapter, Royal Arch
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Masons; Wyoming Valley Commandery, Knights Templar, Pittston, Pennsylvania (of which he is past commander) ; Irem Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. (Mystic Shrine), Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; and Keystone Consistory, S. P. R. S., 32nd de- gree, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Northern Jurisdiction, United States of America.
Frank C. Mosier is of the Democratic faith, and believes that a sound democracy is the one substructure of this, the greatest government on earth, and favors the enact- ment of laws that will benefit all the people, promote everlasting tranquility and con- tinued prosperity throughout the length and breadth of the Union. He has often been called upon to address the surviving soldiers of the Civil War, and his utterances have al- ways commanded respectful attention Upon the occasion of the Fortieth Annual Reunion of the 143rd Pennsylvania Volunteers, Sep- tember 11, 1906, General J. Madison Drake (died November 28, 1913), one of New Jersey's most gallant soldiers, and Historian of the Army and Navy Medal of Honor Legion of the United States, was a promi- nent speaker and subsequently wrote Com- rade Mosier that the address delivered by him at the reunion ought to be published, and the same appeared at length in The Elisabeth (New Jersey) Sunday Leader, of which General Drake was editor; and the address, with General Drake's very compli- mentary letter, was given a prominent place in "New England Families" (vol. iv), Lewis Historical Publishing Company, New York.
Mr. Mosier was a participant in the na- tional reunion of the survivors of the Blue and Gray, on the occasion of the semi-cen- tennial anniversary of the battle of Gettys- burg, on that famous field in July, 1913. He was encamped with his comrades there, and on July 2nd delivered a patriotic address at the base of the National Soldiers' Monu- ment on Cemetery Hill, at the forty-seventh annual reunion of the 143d Pennsylvania Volunteers.
NOTE .- A large portion of the foregoing excellent narrative is from "Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania" (John W. Jordan, LL. D., Librarian of Pennsylvania Historical Society, Philadel- phia), Lewis Hist. Pub. Co., New York, 1911.
DeLACY, Captain Patrick,
Distinguished Soldier, Honored Citizen.
In reviewing the brilliant military career of Captain Patrick DeLacy, of Scranton, the writer (himself a civil war veteran, but who never met that distinguished soldier), recalls the famous Lever, whose masterly pen portraiture of typical soldiers of the Napoleonic era has never ceased to be the delight of lovers of military literature. Captain DeLacy was such a figure as Lever has depicted, so far as soldierlike qualities go, but he fought in a nobler cause than did any of the great novelist's heroes, and hence had loftier ideals and higher inspiration. He was one of the real heroes of the civil war. He was a daring soldier, a faithful comrade, a merciful and sympathetic enemy. He was as fearless in saving a wounded comrade in the foremost battle line, as he was in charging upon the enemy's works, and more than one soldier owes his life to his devotion and intrepidity. He came of a race of soldiers. Count Peter DeLacy, from whom Captain DeLacy is a lineal de- scendant, was a field marshal under the great Empress Catherine of Russia, and there were other warlike DeLacys as far back as the eleventh century. John DeLacy, an uncle of Captain DeLacy, fought under Wellington at Waterloo, and left a leg on that historic field. In Ireland, the DeLacys were prominently identified with the rebell- ion in 1798.
His parents, William DeLacy and Cath- erine (Boyle) DeLacy, were natives re- spectively, of county Wexford and Kil- kenny, Ireland, and were united in marriage in Carbondale, Pennsylvania, August 1,
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1832, where the subject of this sketch was born November 25, 1835. When he was nine years of age, his parents removed to Daleville, a small hamlet in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, where his father purchased a tract of land and became one of the most prosperous farmers of Covington township. His son Patrick remained at home and worked on the farm and attended district school in a log school house during the winter until he was about eighteen years old, when he entered the employ of John Mee- han, a neighbor who owned a large tannery, to learn the trade of a tanner. Shortly after this in the spring of 1853, the work of building the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railroad from Scranton, Pennsyl- vania, to New York began. The line of this future great road ran close by the tannery, which induced William Dale and John Mee- han to establish a large general store near the Meehan tannery, of which young De- Lacy had charge ; he was also employed as a clerk in the Dale & Meehan store.
On January 9, 1858, he was married to Rebecca E. Wonders, daughter of Jere- miah and Sarah A. Wonders of Wyoming, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania. Shortly after his marriage, Jay Gould, who after- wards became a noted financier and great railroad magnate, offered him the position of superintendent of the large tannery at Gouldsboro, in the Pocono mountains of Pennsylvania, then a wilderness with only a few log cabins, the habitations of the pioneer settler, hunter and trapper. The offer of Jay Gould was accepted condition- ally ; that is to say, if the young wife of Mr. DeLacy would consent to going to Goulds- boro to reside; this Mrs. DeLacy refused to do, which decision lost for Gould a good man who might have been one of his most trusted lieutenants in years to come.
In 1861 Mr. DeLacy was foreman of the Hull tannery, at Bushkill, Pike county Pennsylvania, and being popular with the men employed under him, raised a company of volunteers among the loyal people of
Pike and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, whose services after enrollment were not needed, which compelled the disbandment of the company. After this, Mr. DeLacy removed to Trucksville, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, and leased the Rice tannery, and resumed the manufacture of leather, a business in which one of our country's greatest soldiers was engaged when he un- sheathed liis sword on the side of the Union.
In the summer of 1862, when the dread tocsin of Civil War again sounded in the val- leys, reverberated among the hills and rolled over the mountains of old Luzerne, this sturdy descendant of brave Celtic ancestors, whose names are famous in Irish history, enlisted as a private in Colonel Edmund L. Dana's 143rd Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, at Camp Luzerne, in the Wyom- ing Valley, and on November 7th, 1862, with one thousand brave comrades, broke camp and marched to join the army of the Potomac, in whose serried columns it fought under the battle flags of Hooker, Meade and Grant. The 143rd Pennsylvania Volunteers is famous in history as one of "Foxe's Fighting Three Hundred Reg- iments," whose losses on the field of battle exceeded those of all others. In this superb command Captain DeLacy was honored as one of the bravest of the brave, sharing in every battle and skirmish. Soon after enlistment, he was made a corporal, and shortly afterwards was promoted to ser- geant. During the greater part of the bloody campaign in the Wilderness, he was in actual command of Company A (though ranking only as sergeant) by reason of casualties to the commissioned officers.
A dramatic incident of the terrific fight- ing was a hand-to-hand fight with a division of Longstreet's corps, one of the fiercest struggles of the war. The enemy had taken a line of works and Captain DeLacy led a charge for their recovery. The opposing forces fought desperately backwards and forwards over the works. At a critical moment the Union troops were driven back
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from the works, and over the open nield which they had a few minutes before charged across. A gallant Confederate bearing the Stars and Bars was in the fore- front of the counter-charge, and seemed to bear a charmed life. Captain DeLacy was within twenty-five yards of him, and, see- ing the necessity of the moment, determined upon the capture of the flag, and rushed for it, between both lines of fire, his clothing being scorched from both sides, but he marvellously escaping injury. He left the gallant flag bearer on the field, returning with the flag, and the act marked the final rcpulse of the enemy. For this act of signal bravery Captain DeLacy was later awarded the famous Congressional Medal of Honor. He received on the field promotion to the rank of sergeant-major, the highest non- commissioned rank.
To recount all the heroic deeds of this gallant officer would require a volume to itself, and mention can be made only of the most important. In June, 1864, he was sent to hospital on account of an injury to the knee in a forced night march against Petersburg. He remained there only one night, and despite the orders of the sur- geon he rejoined his regiment, though very lame. In the absence of commissioned of- ficers he resumed command of Company A, on the right of the regiment, and took part in what Colonel Chamberlain, brigade com- mander (and who was desperately wounded in the affair ), pronounced to be "one of the finest charges of their career." The gallant command was suffering as much (perhaps more) from a Union battery in its rear than it was from the enemy's fire. Twice Captain DeLacy passed over the ground be- tween the two lines, receiving fire from both-once to bring succor to the Union wounded, and again to find the division commander, to explain the situation and re- ceive orders. Some days later, he aided in the repulse of a desperate charge by a Mis- sissippi brigade, and was told by a captured rebel, "My God, you have annihilated our
best brigade-the only one that would vol- unteer to charge on you." On another oc- casion he penetrated the enemy's lines in the dark, in company with a comrade, and brought back valuable information, to his brigade commander.
The 143rd Pennsylvania Infantry was brigaded with the Iron Brigade, commanded by Brigadier-General Edward S. Bragg, which was attached to the 3rd Division of the 5th Corps. After the engagement at Dabney's Mills, February 6th, 1865, which was its last battle, Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, issued a complimentary order to the Iron Brigade then on the battle line, as follows, "This Brigade is hereby re- lieved from further duty at the front, for long continued and meritorious service." About the last of February, 1865, the Iron Brigade received marching orders to report at Grant's headquarters, where this brave body of battle-scarred veteran troops, made up of eight regiments of infantry were separated and specially detailed for guard duty at rebel prisons north of Mason and Dixon's line. Captain DeLacy's regiment was ordered to Hart Island, in New York Harbor, where upwards of four thousand Confederate prisoners of war, (mostly North Carolinians) were confined. While serving his country at Hart Island, Sergeant DeLacy was promoted to second lieutenant, and was further recommended for promo- tion to a captaincy, but before a commission could issue, the regiment was mustered out of service. A tribute paid to him by Colonel Charles M. Conyngham, of the 143rd Penn- sylvania Volunteers, epitomizes what was said of him by many superior officers and comrades, who had personal knowledge of his sterling value and heroic services: "I look upon Captain DeLacy as one of the most gallant men that ever wore a uniform, under any flag in the wide world. His cool- ness in danger, his sound military judg- ment, and especially his perception of the right thing to do under any circumstances, always made a wonderfully impression upon
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me. Had circumstances been more favor- able for bringing Captain DeLacy into pub- lic notice, I am satisfied he would have made a military record for himself second to no one's. Whether for military or civil trust, I can most heartily endorse my friend Cap- tain DeLacy." General Joshua L. Cham- berlain expressed himself similarly, and warmly recommended the captain for pro- motion to major.
Upon the night of the assassination of President Lincoln, Captain DeLacy was officer of the guard, and remained on duty until nine o'clock of the morning of April 15th, 1865. Captain DeLacy, soon after sunrise on the forenoon of that sad day, was on his way to the officers' mess, and be- fore he arrived there he heard the rumor that Lincoln had been shot, and after pro- curing a copy of the "New York Herald," he returned to the rebel camp, and with a young Confederate drummer boy, went to the middle of the prison campus and ordered him to beat the assembly, which aroused the camp, and soon he was sur- rounded by acres of men, and there on a box he announced the death of the nation's great War President, and read an account of the same from the columns of the news- paper, which he still keeps as a sacred memento of one of the most mournful events in American history. After the Cap- tain got through, there was a profound silence, which was not broken until a hand was raised and a Confederate in a loud voice shouted, "Officer ! Officer ! We do not endorse assassination," and at the same time up went the hands of thousands of rebel comrades. Soon another with raised hand cried out, "Officer! Officer! We have lost our best friend; Old Abe would forgive us," and still another exclaimed, "Officer ! Offi- cer! The North will now persecute us." To this the Captain responded, "You my Con- federate friend over there, do not for a single moment entertain the thought that the North will persecute you for the fiendish act of the lunatic, crank or assassin, whose
wicked hand has struck down the sincere and humane friend of the South, Abraham Lincoln."
At the close of the war, Captain DeLacy returned to his home in Kingston, Pennsyl- vania. In 1867 he was appointed deputy United States marshal. He was elected to the legislature in 1871, was re-elected the following year, and on the expiration of his term was appointed deputy sheriff. In 1877 he was made chief of police of Scranton, a position which he resigned in 1885 to ac- cept the position of assistant postmaster under Hon. D. W. Connolly. In 1892 he was elected alderman from the Seventh Ward, and has succeeded himself to the present time. In each of these responsible positions he has acquitted himself with marked ability and strict fidelity, and is held in as high honor for his civil services as for those in the field.
Perhaps no living man has enjoyed greater distinction among the veterans of the Civil War. He has been first vice-pres- ident of the Society of the Army of the Po- tomac; president of the First Army Corps Society ; commander of the Medal of Honor Legion, U. S. A .: commander of the De- partment of Pennsylvania, Grand Army of the Republic; for forty-seven years pres- ident of the Association of the 143d Regi- ment Pennsylvania Volunteers; and has been aide on the staff of several national commanders of the Grand Army of the Re- public. An incident deserving of mention is a visit paid to him a few years ago by his intimate personal friend and former bri- gade commander, General Joshua L. Cham- berlain, who served four terms as Governor of the State of Maine. On this occasion the General requested that Captain DeLacy should write an extended account of his recollections of the engagement in front of Petersburg (in which the General was severely wounded), to be placed in the Chamberlain family library. To this the Captain acceded, and his account, repro- duced in the "Scranton Times," is one of
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the most circumstantial and thrilling nar- grew, Kemper and Garnett, through the ratives of the war that has ever come under the eye of the present writer.
Death has often visited the happy home of Captain DeLacy. His faithful and be- loved wife passed away April 16, 1899, and the following children survive her: Sarah Catharine, widow of Michael D. Roche, Esq., who at the time of his death was a prominent member of the Lackawanna bar ; Mary Elizabeth, wife of James Hicks, of New York; Anna C., wife of John Peel, of Hot Springs, Arkansas, and William P., a graduate of the University of Pennsyl- vania, and now a practicing physician in Springfield, Illinois.
Treasured beyond expression, are Captain DeLacy's relations with his old comrades, and the annual reunion of his regimental association is perhaps his happiest ex- perience, though saddened at each gathering with the loss of some who had attended each succeeding year. Each reunion has some pleasant feature of its own. At that of September 11, 1906, an eloquent address was delivered by Frank C. Mosier, Esq., of Pittston, Pennsylvania, and was of such merit that it was published at length in the Elizabeth (New Jersey) "Sunday Leader," of which General J. Madison Drake. his- torian of the Army and Navy Medal of Honor Legion of the United States (who died Nov. 28, 1913), was editor, and whose complimentary letter to Mr. Mosier gave the speech a prominent place in volume iv. of "New England Families," published by the Lewis Historical Publishing Company of New York. Perhaps, however, the most notable reunion of the 143d Regiment was that of July 2d, 3d, and 4th, 1913-the fiftieth anniversary of the battle of Gettys- burg. On that historic field, the survivors of the regiment encamped upon the very ground where in the long ago the combat raged the fiercest, and upon this sacred spot they fraternized with the fearless Virginians and brave Tennesseeans who followed the battle flags of Pickett, Armistead, Petti-
flame and smoke of roaring cannon to the base of Cemetery Hill. On the morning of July 2d, 1913, the survivors of the famous regiment marched to the National Soldiers' Monument in the Gettysburg National Park, and there amid thousands of graves of the known and unknown dead, each decorated with the starry banner of the free and the State flag of Pennsylvania, patriot- ism's silent tribute to the memory of heroic comrades who fell at Gettysburg, answered roll call. Frank C. Mosier, Esq., of Pitts- ton, was orator on this historic occasion, which was made memorable by the election of Captain Patrick DeLacy for the forty- eighth time president of the regimental as- sociation, with headquarters at Scranton, the great anthracite coal metropolis of northeastern Pennsylvania.
ROBINSON, John B., Naval Officer, Lawyer, Legislator.
From North of Ireland ancestry comes Jolın B. Robinson, eminent lawyer, State Senator, Congressman, and United States Marshal, now a resident of Media, Penn- sylvania. He is a grandson of General Wil- liam Robinson, a member of the Pennsyl- vania Legislature, the first mayor of Alle- gheny City, after its corporation (now Pittsburgh, North Side), first president of the Exchange Bank of Pittsburgh, United States Commissioner in 1842, a man thor- oughly respected and honored. He is said to have been the first white child born north and west of the Ohio river, and died 1868.
William O'Hara Robinson, son of Gen- eral William Robinson, was a leading law- yer of Pittsburgh, and in 1844 was United States district attorney for the Western Dis- trict of Pennsylvania.
John Buchanan Robinson, son of William O'Hara Robinson, was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, May 23, 1846. He at- tended the private schools in Pittsburgh, entered Western University, finishing at
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Amherst College. In 1862 he attached him- self to Captain Riddle's company of the 15th Pennsylvania Emergency Regiment, and in 1864 enlisted in active service. But the family already had two sons at the front, one of whom, Captain William O'Hara Robinson, of the 61st Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, was killed at the battle of the Wilderness, May 6, 1864, and through the influence of his grandfather, John B. was released from service, much against his wish, and given an appointment as cadet of the United States Naval Acad- emy, Annapolis, by Congressman Thomas Williams, and sworn into service for eight years. He was graduated four years later in 1868, and was engaged in active sea duty until 1875, when he resigned, having risen to the rank of lieutenant. During his naval experience he visited nearly every country. He was three times in Europe, sailed around the world in the flag ship "Colorado," flying the pennant of Rear-Admiral John Rodgers. He was in Japan at the time of the Amer- ican expedition to Corea, in which Lieuten- ant McKee and a number of sailors and marines lost their lives in the attack on the Corean forts. In that same year, 1871, in company with Lieutenant Chipp (afterward lost with the Jeannette Polar expedition) Lieutenant Robinson was on the United States steamer "Monocacy," commanded by Captain McCrea, engaged on the hydro graphic survey of the Yang-tse river. In the same year, as navigating officer of the United States sloop-of-war "Idaho," com- manded by Captain J. Crittenden Watson, he went through the exciting experience of a typhoon, which nearly sunk the "Idaho," although at anchor in Yokohoma harbor. While in Japan, Lieutenant Robinson was one of a company of United States naval officers accorded an interview with the hitherto rigidly exclusive Mikado of Japan, the interview having been arranged by Sir Henry Parkes, K. C. B., British minister to Yeddo, in defiance of precedent. In Au- gust, 1871, Lieutenant Robinson, with a
party of American officers, made the ascent of Fuji-Yama, the famous sacred mountain peak of Japan, and accurately measured its height by instruments. Returning to the United States he served in 1873 on the Great Lakes on the steamer "Michigan," and in the fall of that year was ordered to New York as watch officer on the "Juniata." Later he sailed in the "Juniata" under sealed orders which proved to be to proceed to Santiago de Cuba and peremptorily demand the surrender of American citizens seized on the "Virginius" by the Spanish author- ities. On January 1, 1875, after eleven years service, Lieutenant Robinson retired from the naval service, his resignation hav- ing been handed in the previous year.
He returned to Pennsylvania and began the study of law under John G. Johnson in Philadelphia. In 1876 he was admitted to the Philadelphia bar, and in 1878 removed to Delaware county, where he was admitted to the bar of that county, and in the same year was admitted to practice in the Su- preme Courts of Pennsylvania. He ad- vanced rapidly in his profession, and as senior counsel for the defence in the case of Samuel Johnson, a colored man, charged with the murder of John Sharpless, he won a State-wide fame. This is one of the cele- brated cases in Pennsylvania reports, and was heard on appeals through different court, finally reaching the board of pardons. Mr. Robinson fought this case with such ability and pertinacity and argued it with such eloquence, that he saved the life of his client. Along with the practice of his pro- fession Mr. Robinson has carried a burden of official political responsibility. In 1884 he was elected to the State Legislature from Delaware county, was reëlected two years later, and prominently mentioned for speaker. He was in the thick of the fray in the House, making many noted speeches, particularly his anti-discrimination speech, his speech against Governor Pattison's veto of the indigent soldiers' burial bill, and his speech in favor of an increase in the length
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