USA > Pennsylvania > Clarion County > History of Clarion County, Pennsylvania > Part 22
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195
COMPANY F, 63D REGIMENT.
masses of infantry posted behind rifle pits, and long ranks of cord wood, from the shelter of which they kept up a furious fire of small arms at short range. The Union side of the open ground was held by a weak line formed by some companies from the Third and Fifth Michigan, of Berry's Brigade of the same division, with the Sixty-third. These troops had gone in only a short time be- fore the Sixty-third, which reinforced their line and mingled with them in the conflict. Company F had only forty-four men in this battle; the others were on detached duty or sick in camp and at various hospitals. During the first half hour after reaching the front Orderly J. H. Delo, Sergeant R. S. Elgin, and George W. Rhees were killed, and Private F. P. McClosky mortally wounded. During the afternoon Private James McCammon, Peter O'Neill, and Peter Nu- gent were seriously wounded ; James McDonald, Andrew McDonald, and Jon - athan McCurdy, all privates, were captured. All the Federal troops on the right of the Williamsburg road were forced from their position, and fell back along that road, contesting every inch of the ground; but long before dark the enemy had possession of the road as far back as Seven Pines, which was nearly a mile in the rear of the point occupied by the Sixty-third. General Jamison sent couriers to order the regiment back, to save it from imminent capture, but the orders were not received. The Sixty-third, with the Michigan soldiers, held its line and kept up a constant fire upon the opposing infantry until night came. It had used all of its ammunition, including that of the dead and wounded, which was used to replenish the cartridge boxes of the living. After seeing Elgin, Rhees, and a Michigan soldier shot at his side, Captain Reid took up the rifle and ammunition of the latter and used the weapon until the last cartridge was gone. The last sounds of the conflict in- dicated to the small body of men here contending that the enemy in force held the turnpike behind it, and that it was enveloped on three sides by the rebel troops. When darkness came the regiment withdrew from the field through the woods diagonally to the left and rear, to avoid encountering the enemy. Captain Kirkwood was the senior captain. The regiment had no field officer, Colonel Morgan having been wounded and borne from the field early in the fight. Captain Kirkwood gave Captain Reid the lead. Aided by a small pocket compass, read by the light of friction-matches, these officers led the troops safely through the dark woods, and about midnight they rejoined their division, which was holding a second line, with the rest of the army, two miles in the rear of the place where the little fragments of the two Michigan regi- ments and the Sixty-third Pennsylvania had solitary and alone held the left of the Union front line till darkness closed that day's scene of carnage.
On the next day, June Ist, fresh troops that had arrived in the night took the advance, and the enemy fell back toward Richmond after a short struggle. The division to which the Sixty-third belonged was held in reserve, so Com- pany F was not engaged the second day. The army was kept under arms
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HISTORY OF CLARION COUNTY.
three or four days, expecting a renewal of the attack, and then the corps took position on the extreme left of the advance line which Casey had held before the battle, and which was strongly entrenched by the Union troops during the first three weeks of June.
Then came the " Seven Days' Battle," commencing June 25th, and ending with the battle of Malvern Hill, July 1, 1862. The battle was opened in our immediate front on the 25th by Kearney's and Hooker's divisions being thrown forward to feel the enemy's position on the right wing in the direction of Rich- mond. General John C. Robinson had succeeded to the command of the Third Brigade, in the place of the gallant General Jamison, who was fatally stricken with fever after the battle of Fair Oaks. The Sixty-third advanced some two or three miles, mostly through swampy woods, and had several lively skir- mishes with the enemy's infantry. The artillery on both sides of the advanc- ing Union troops was also giving them attention. When night came the brig- ade was drawn back about half way to its entrenched camp, and held its line of battle there all night in the woods, occasionally receiving a volley in the dark from the enemy, who had followed it up closely. When daylight came it was ordered back to camp. In that day's skirmishes Company F had Private William Greenawalt killed and Privates P. D. Griffin, John Johnson, and An- thony Greenawalt wounded, each of the last two losing an arm.
In this action, and during the remaining battles of the Seven Days' Fight, Captain Reid acted as major of the regiment, as there was no field officer pres- ent for duty but the colonel. From the 26th to the 29th inclusive, during the temporary indisposition of Colonel Hays, Captain Reid was in command of the regiment. Company F was commanded by First Lieutenant George W. Mccullough, who, during the previous winter, had been promoted to second lieutenant in place of Lieutenant Eagan, who had resigned, then to first lieu- tenant on the death of Lieutenant McGonagle, from typhoid pneumonia, June 21, 1862.
On the 26th of June Captain Reid was in command of the Sixty-third. The battle of Mechanicsville was raging on the extreme right of the Union line across the Chickahominy. The Sixty-third was led on a reconnaissance in our front, but did not encounter the enemy. It passed over its battle-ground of the previous day. On the 27th the right wing fell back to Beaver Dam, and there fought the bloody battle of Gaines's Mill. The Sixty-third was not engaged on the 27th. On the 28th Captain Reid was ordered to report with the Sixty-third to General Fitz John Porter, at Trent House, on the south side of the river, to which point he had withdrawn the whole right wing of the Union army during the night. The Sixty-third was stationed to guard the two bridges over which Porter had crossed the stream, and while Reid, with his regiment, held these points, that officer took up his line of march towards James River-the first step in the celebrated "change of base " determined
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COMPANY F, 63D REGIMENT.
upon by the general in command, but which none then yet knew of except the corps commanders. The Sixty-third held the bridges and the shores of the Chickahominy that day and in the evening returned to its post on the extreme left of our entrenched front. While the men were at their coffee and hard tack General Kearney visited the camp on foot, and told Captain Reid to have the men supplied with three days' cooked rations and 150 rounds of ammunition during the night. The captain thinking Kearney had made a mistake as to the number, ventured to ask him where the men could put so many. Kearney replied " Anywhere, captain, anywhere ; in their knapsacks, their pockets, or their boots ! Anywhere so they have them! We will have a good deal of marching to do and they may need them." He also ordered the captain to see that every officer and man of the regiment sewed a red patch on his hat or cap in a conspicuous position, so that the general could recognize his own troops .. That was the origin of the famous red diamond or Kearney Badge. That night. the incessant rumbling of artillery wagons and other vehicles over corduroy roads near our camps told very plainly that some general movement was on foot. At daylight of Sunday, June 29, the regiment left the front and fell back nearly a mile, when it halted to make coffee. While breakfasting the soldiers heard the prolonged cheering of the rebel troops, who had taken possession of the earthworks abandoned by Mcclellan's army. The Third Corps fell back slowly to its old second line, and halted there as a rear guard across the Will- iamsburg road till the middle of the afternoon, exposed to the shells of the en- emy, who was cautiously feeling his way on our track. General Kearney finally led his troops by a cross road to the upper crossing of the small stream called Whiteoak Creek, which lay between his division and the James River. The other and greater part of the army was to cross lower down. Between the dry banks of this stream was a flat swamp of one hundred yards in width, exceed- ingly miry and almost impassable by man or beast. A single string of logs enabled foot soldiers to cross single file, and mounted officers had to take the chances of losing their horses in the miry stream. Captain Reid rode one of Colonel Hays's horses, called "Shellbark." When he reached the stream two horses were already dead, having drowned while struggling to get out of the slough. Several others had crossed in safety. "Shellbark " stuck midway, and the captain dismounted in the mire, into which he sank to the waist. He held the horse's nose above water while he plunged and floundered. Mean- while the division had passed over, and while Reid and " Shellbark " were bat- tling with the mire, the head of the column encountered a body of the enemy, ' and the rattle of musketry began. Very soon the division returned to the creek in single file and crossed over on the string of logs. General Kearney, rather than risk a general engagement before the trains were all safe, had or- dered a countermarch. Soon all the troops had recrossed to take the road to a bridge farther down, and rather than see his horse drown, Captain Reid stayed
16
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HISTORY OF CLARION COUNTY.
with him at the risk of capture, and finally succeeded in getting him safe to shore. By this time it was dark, but both found their way to where the corps was bivouacking, on the high grounds beyond the swamp, having crossed be- low. Monday the corps moved forward at intervals and reached Charles City Cross Roads about noon. It halted in a clover field, where a fierce battle was soon to rage. During the forenoon another portion of the Union army had a contest with Jackson's corps at the lower crossing of the swamp. At Charles City Cross Roads, about two o'clock, heavy masses of the enemy, from the di- rection of Richmond, deployed in the edge of the woods facing Kearney's troops, and kept up till dark a succession of determined onsets of infantry, aided by numerous batteries of artillery posted advantageously. Thompson's battery of the regular artillery was posted in the clover field occupied by Kearney's division, and the Sixty-third was ordered to support it. Colonel Hays had that morning resumed command, and gallantly did he perform the task allotted to him. Repeated charges of the enemy were repulsed at the point of the bayonet, and the battery was saved from the most desperate attempts to cap-' ture it. General Kearney in his official report of this battle says: "I have here to call attention to this most heroic action of Colonel Hays and his regiment. The Sixty- third has won for Pennsylvania the laurels of fame." General Berry wrote concerning the same affair: "Never was task better done or battery bet- ter supported." In this action Company F had privates John Thompson, Charles Harbst and Jacob I. Delo wounded, the latter mortally. Our troops held their ground till night, and before morning moved on to Malvern Hill, where the last battle of the memorable seven days' fight took place. The bat- tle was fought on the Union side principally by the artillery. The Sixty- third was posted in a depression in the ground, ready to support a battery if needed, but it was not called into action and suffered no loss.
This in brief is the history of Company F to the close of the Peninsular campaign. From Malvern it went to Harrison's Landing.
It is here proper to give an account of Captain Reid's resignation. For a month before arriving at Harrison's Landing he had been suffering with chronic diarrhea and camp malaria. He was daily growing more feeble. At the battle of Glendale or Charles City Cross Roads he stood for two hours beside the guns of Thompson's battery, while the Sixty-third was lying low, right in front of it, ready to repel charges, and assisted the exhausted gunners in push- ing forward their guns after each recoil, so that the flying particles of the shell- flanges, when the guns were discharged over the backs of our men, would not injure them as some had done. The heat of the day and the over exertion under excitement reacted, and Captain Reid became so weak before night that he had to be assisted from the field. However, he remained with the regiment next day at Malvern till towards evening, when by order of the brigade sur- geon lie was taken with other sick to the field hospital. The next day, for
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COMPANY F, 63D REGIMENT.
want of ambulances, nearly all the sick at Malvern had to drag through rain and mud as best they could to Harrison's Landing. By the advice of Colonel Hays, and with the approval of General Kearney, Captain Reid tendered his resignation, which was accepted, and he was honorably discharged August I, 1862, and he left for home on one of the James River transports August 4, 1862.
Captain Reid informed the writer that his sickness alone would not have induced him to resign. Two years before the war he had been appointed trustee of the Hetherington lands, and was under $30,000 bonds for the faith- ful application of the proceeds of the sale. When he entered the army he left all this business with his law collections in the hands of his then law partner, who had just been admitted to the bar and who gave no security, as no secur- ity was asked by the senior member of the firm. In the spring of 1862 this party wrote the captain that his mind was becoming affected, and that he thought he would have to abandon the profession. Reid was soon informed by clients and others at home that his partner had closed the office and gone, no one knew where, leaving collections made by him unaccounted for, and all the business going wrong. These matters were laid before his superior officers, and the captain was advised that under the circumstances it was his duty to re- sign and set matters straight. The absent partner subsequently returned and satisfactorily settled his accounts. First Lieutenant George W. McCullough succeeded to the command of the company, and Second Lieutenant George W. Fox was promoted to first lieutenant, and Corporal David Shields to second lieutenant, all on the 4th of August, 1862.
Company F was next engaged at Bull Run, August 29, 1862. Kearney reported the Sixty-third Pennsylvania and the Fortieth New York to have suffered the most loss. Company F had John R. Guthrie, John Thompson, Henry Shoup, killed ; and Lieutenant George W. Fox, First Sergeant James Waley, Corporal Thomas H. Martin, and Privates J. Shugart Elder, Martin Castner, E. Highbarger, Daniel O'Neill, Alfred T. Rance, John G. Richards, and James Sample wounded. Fox, Martin, Castner, Highbarger and Rich- ards were discharged afterwards on account of wounds here received.
After the fatal Chantilly, where the heroic Kearney fell, Colonel Hays was promoted to brigadier-general on the 29th of September, and Lieutenant-Col- onel Morgan became colonel. Hays won his promotion by his gallant conduct at Bull Run. The company assisted in the defense of Washington till after Antietam. It joined the army near Leesburg, and moved with it to Warren- ton. At Fredericksburg it went to the front on the 13th of December, and remained there forty-eight hours under fire till the 15th, when it was relieved, and late at night fell back with the entire army across the river. Its loss was light. William M. Thompson was captured, and Benjamin P. Hilliard, one of the musicians, was wounded. In the battle of Chancellorsville the company
200
HISTORY OF CLARION COUNTY.
was less fortunate. Captain Mccullough, First Lieutenant Fenstermacher, Cor- porals Joseph Loll and Stewart Fulton, and Private James McDonald were wounded on the 3d of May. McDonald was discharged on account of wounds.
The company next took part in the battle of Gettysburg. General Sickles . now commanded the corps. On the Ist of July the men could hear the can- non in the contest where the brave Reynolds fell. On receiving the news of the death of Reynolds, Sickles hastened his men forward and reached the battle field at ten o'clock that night. The corps went into bivouac on the Emmitts- burg Pike. Scarcely had the men lain down when an order came for the Sixty- third to go on the picket line. On the 2d the brigade was brought into posi- tion on the pike to the right of the cross road leading to Round Top. The Sixty-third was thrown forward on the skirmish line, and was hotly engaged till five o'clock in the afternoon, when it was ordered to the rear to replenish its ammunition, which had been expended. It also needed rest, as it had been on the extreme front and constantly engaged for seven terrible hours. The regiment spent the night of the 2d on picket to the right of Little Round Top. The dead of our soldiers lay thick around. On the 3d at ten o'clock the regi- ment was double-quicked to support a battery in the immediate front of Meade's headquarters, where it remained till the battle closed. The loss was slight when we take into consideration its exposed position and the length of time it was engaged. Company F had Lieutenant Fenstermacher, Sergeant John A. Grif- fin, Corporal Adam Potter, and Private P. D. Griffin wounded. At Kelly's Ford and Mine Run the company met with no casualties.
In the spring of 1864 the regiment became a part of General Hays's Sec- ond Brigade, Third Division of the Second Corps. The regiment marched at midnight, May 3d, and camped on the 4th at evening on the old battle ground of Chancellorsville, where the men saw the unburied skeletons of soldiers who fell in that battle one year before. It advanced to the front at 3 P. M., May 5, and was at once engaged, and the battle raged with great fury till after dark. General Hays was killed, Colonel Danks was wounded. The command of the regiment fell upon Major George W. Mccullough, late captain of Company F, who had been promoted major April 5, 1864. On the 6th of May the battle was renewed, and in a counter charge sustained by the Third Division Major Mccullough was mortally wounded. He died the following day, and added another illustrious name to the long list of Clarion county heroes who had been slain in battle. During these two days the Sixty-third had lost one hundred eighty-six rank and file. It was temporarily consolidated with the One Hundred and Fifth, with Captain Weaver, of Company C, in command. This new body was led through the exciting experiences of the 7th, Sth, 9th, and Ioth, by this officer. On the IIth he was wounded, and Captain Hunter took command. He led the regiment during the severe fighting of the 12th, and assisted in the final and decisive repulse of the enemy at Spottsylvania Court House.
20I
COMPANY F, 63D REGIMENT.
On his return from detached service, Captain Isaac Moorhead assumed com- mand of the regiment. During the Wilderness campaign Company F sus- tained the following losses : On the 5th First Sergeant James Waley and Cor- poral James Hamilton were killed. The same day Sergeants Anthony R. Refner and William Hall, Corporals Joseph Loll, James McBride, and William Blair, and Privates Andrew Basom, John Cyphert, Gregory Lawrence, Anthony Torry, and Hugh P. McKee were wounded. Sergeant John A. Griffin was wounded on the 6th, Private William Thompson on the 7th, and Private Jonas Highbarger on the 12th. After the battle Jonas Highbarger and John Den- slinger were missing. Andrew Basom having lost a leg, his wound proved fatal on the 18th of May. William Blair's wounds caused his death on the 21st.
The regiment was later engaged at North Anna River, and again after it crossed Pole-cat River, but Company F sustained no loss. On the 16th of June, before Petersburg, Lieutenant Fenstermacher was wounded. At Peters- burg also Anthony Torry was wounded with loss of leg. The regiment suf- fered severely. Captain Moorhead was among the slain. Colonel Kiddoo, formerly of Company F, commanded a regiment of colored troops, and won distinction by capturing a fort from the enemy, in front of Petersburg. After this no casualties were sustained by the company, and it was mustered out on the 8th of September, 1864.
During its eventful career, this brave body of Clarion county's sons won enduring laurels for themselves, and made for us a page of history of which we may well be proud. The company all told numbered one hundred twelve men, of whom forty-two were wounded in battle, five of which died from their wounds. Eleven were killed in battle. Captain Mccullough was promoted to major of the regiment April 5, 1864, and he was killed in action at the Wilder- ness, May 6, 1864. That made eleven of the company who were killed in ac- tion, but only ten are shown on roster.
Joseph B. Kiddoo entered the service as a private of Company F. He rose to corporal, then to first sergeant of his company. He was next promoted to lieutenant-colonel of the One Hundred and Thirty-seventh Regiment Pennsyl- vania Volunteers on the 25th of August, 1862. Later he was promoted to colonel of the Twenty-second colored regiment, and finally to brigadier-general in the regular army, which rank he held at the time of his death, about the year 1880. Joseph Lichtenberger was promoted to principal musician and trans- ferred to the One Hundred and Fifth. William McCaskey, after being dis- charged for sickness, re-enlisted in February, 1864, in the Second Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery, and died in service September 30, 1864. Michael Kemp re- enlisted in December, 1863, and rose to first sergeant in Company H, One Hundred and Fifth. Andrew McDonald was promoted to sergeant in the One Hundred and Fifth, and he was discharged November 5, 1865. Barney Mc-
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HISTORY OF CLARION COUNTY.
Cann re-enlisted January 19, 1864, in Company A, Seventy- eighth Pennsylvania Volunteers. Andrew E. Russell was detailed into the Signal Corps in 1862. John Vorhauer was detailed at brigade headquarters in 1862. Lieutenant David Shields was assigned as aid to Brigadier-General Hays in 1862, and Lieutenant George W. Fox re-enlisted in Veteran Reserve Corps in 1864.
Since their discharge, the following members of Company F have died. This list may not be complete, but it is given in full as far as known now (Jan- uary, 1887) : Lieutenant Lawrence Egan died in Baltimore in 1862; Joseph Lichtenberger, bugler, died in Licking township, Clarion county, May 18, 1875; First Lieutenant Isaac Fenstermacher died at Clarion December 27, 1877 ; Sergeant John A. Griffen died at Red Bank Furnace, Clarion county, in April, 1866; Sergeant William L. Hall died in Piney township, Clarion county, about 1864. Privates-John Johnston died at Strattanville, Clarion county, February 14, 1865; Gregory Lawrence died at Jamestown, N. Y., in 1881; Daniel O'Neill died in the West somewhere about 1875; Anthony Torry died at Clarion April 22, 1884; Sergeant Andrew McDonald died at North Pine Grove, Clarion county, March 9, 1883. General Joseph B. Kiddoo died in New York City August 20, 1880. The readers of this sketch will recognize many of the survivors of this company among their friends and neighbors.
Only seven of the company were ever captured. One was left in hospital sick and unaccounted for. Two were missing. Only one deserted. Two re- signed, both on account of ill health. Only thirteen were mustered out with the company.
Recapitulation .- Original enlistment, 94 men; enlisted recruits, II men ; drafted recruits, 7 men ; total, 112 men. Killed in battle while in company, IO ; die l of disease, 20 ; died of wounds, 5 ; discharged for wounds, 9; dis- charged for other causes, 27; resigned, 2 ; missing and unaccounted for, 3 ; deserted, I ; promoted out of the company, 3 ; transferred, 19; mustered out with company, 13 ; total, 112.
Captain Reid, who recruited the company and to whom the writer is indebted for valuable memoranda concerning this company, lives in Clarion town. He is well known throughout Clarion county as one of the most able attorneys at the Clarion bar. Many passages in the foregoing pages are taken verbatim from Captain Reid's notes, as the writer felt that to change them would be to render less acceptable this narrative. This sketch of Company F has been penned with earnest admiration for the talented gentle- men who bore its titles. The deeds of its heroic men, led by heroic officers, together with the memory of its battle-slain and other dead warriors, should inspire the children of these men, and in turn their children's children, to patriotic and earnest lives.
It is believed that the roster of Company F, which follows, is as free from errors as one can be compiled.
203
COMPANY F, 63D REGIMENT.
CORRECTED ROLL OF COMPANY F, SIXTY-THIRD REGIMENT.1
Bernard J. Reid, captain, August 1, 1861, three years; resigned August 1, 1862.
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