USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > History of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 14
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I22
HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
On the 29th of April, 1864 the Reserves left Bristow Station, and joining the Fifth Corps at Culpepper Court House, at midnight on the 3d of May, crossed the river at Germania Ford, in advance of the army, and bivouacked near the Lacy House. The next morning the division marched through the Wilderness with the intention of striking the Fredericksburg and Orange Court House Plank Road, but before reaching it a part of the division became en- gaged, and after a spirited contest drove the enemy from its front. The Elev- enth was held in reserve until about three P. M., when it, with the Second and Seventh Regiments, under General McCandless, was ordered to the support of the right of General Wadsworth's Division. The Reserves being fresh troops were sent to the front, but not being supported after Wadsworth's line fell back, they were outflanked by the enemy, and the Seventh Regiment captured, but Colonel Jackson, with the greatest coolness and daring, ordered his regi- ment to charge, which they obeyed, rushing forward with such impetus upon the foe that they broke and allowed the regiment to escape through their lines. The Eleventh lost heavily in this fight, and Company K bore its share of the casualties, its gallant young captain, Edward Scofield being taken prisoner.
During the remaining two days of the fighting in the Wilderness the Elev- enth was again under fire, and again sustained its well earned reputation, at Spottsylvania, North Anna, and Bethesda Church; in the latter fight being prominently engaged. On the 30th of May, the day after the battle of Beth- esda Church, their term of service having expired, the Eleventh was withdrawn from the front, and after transferring its veterans and recruits to the One Hun- dred and Ninetieth Regiment, the men bade adieu to their comrades of the Army of the Potomac on the banks of the Tolopotomy, on the morning of June Ist, and turned their faces homeward, reaching Harrisburg on the 6th, where they took part in the handsome reception tendered the Reserve Corps by the governor and citizens of Harrisburg. They reached Pittsburgh June 13, 1864, where the regiment was paid off and mustered out of service, and the men returned to their homes.
During their three years' service the Eleventh took part in fifteen battles- Mechanicsville, Gaines's Mill, New Market Cross Roads, Malvern Hill, Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Bristow Station, Mine Run, Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court-house, North Anna, and Bethesda . Church. Company K was in all of these, losing in killed in action or dying of wounds and disease, Captain Brady and thirty-one non-commissioned officers and enlisted men, while nearly all were treated to the hospitality of rebel prisons.
Captain Evans R. Brady was the first officer to fall in battle, and his death caused great grief in his company, to whom he was greatly endeared. When the war broke out he was engaged in the publication of the Brookville Jeffer- sonian, the Democratic organ of the county, which paper he had established
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JEFFERSON COUNTY IN THE REBELLION.
and so ably edited for about fifteen years. Captain Brady was the descendant of an illustrious family, famed in the early annals of the country. His father, Colonel Hugh Brady, one of the early and prominent members of the bar of Jefferson county, was a grand nephew of Captain John Brady, and a cousin of Captain Sam Brady, both noted in the early Indian and Revolutionary wars. His mother was Sarah Smith Evans, and he was born at Indiana, March 16, 1823, and came to Brookville May 5, 1832. January 28, 1845, he was mar- ried at Clearfield, Pa., to Miss Frances A. McGee, who, with his only child, Grace, still resides in Brookville, as does Mrs. Elizabeth Craig, his only sister. It was no wonder, then, that with the blood of some of the bravest soldiers that America ever produced in his veins, Evans R. Brady, at the first call for soldiers to defend the flag, should have thrown down the pen and the composing " stick," and tendered his services to his country. His war record is given in that of his company and regiment. He endured wounds, imprisonment, and at last gave his life for the cause he had espoused so nobly.
In writing of the battle of Gaines's Mill, in a letter to his venerable mother (who is since deceased), to whom he was ardently attached, Captain Brady says : " Nothing but a Divine Providence ever carried me through the terrible fight of the 27th of June. Our boys were surrounded, but fought desperately. Every fourth man in our regiment is either killed or wounded."
When Captain Brady was killed at South Mountain on that fatal Sunday, he was buried near the battle-field, but his friends, on the news of his death, went for his remains, which were brought home, and on Tuesday, October 7, 1863, his funeral took place in Brookville, being conducted by " Hobah " Ma- sonic Lodge, of which he had long been a member.
On the 15th of October, 1879, a monument was unveiled at Muncy, Pa., which had been erected by the citizens of that place to the memory of Captain John Brady, father of Captain Sam Brady, the Indian fighter, who was killed by the Indians April 11, 1770. Captain John Brady, who was a captain in the Twelfth " Regular Regiment," raised for the Revolutionary War, had been sent into the West Branch valley to protect the settlers from the Indians, and while riding along the road near the spot where the monument stands was killed by the Indians. Hon. John Blair Linn, in his oration at the unveiling of this monument, pays the following tribute to Captain Evans R. Brady : "When the Secessionists undertook to overturn this government, ordained of God, and sealed with the blood of their ancestors, I recall one Captain Evan Rice Evans Brady, who, upon the soil of his native State, within sight of the ancestral home of the Bradys, on South Mountain, fell in the storm of battle. Four generations of the Bradys fought for this country, yet he was the first to fall in action. He fell fighting the battle of freedom-fell in the great struggle for the preservation of the Union, purchased by the blood of a noble ancestry."
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
When Captain Brady fell the command devolved upon Lieutenant J. P. George, who was promoted to captain April 10, 1863, and resigned August 10, 1863, Lieutenants J. E. Long and Cyrus Butler also having resigned. Lieutenant Edward Scofield was promoted to captain of Company K Novem- ber 17, 1863. Captain Scofield, while in command of his company, was taken prisoner in the Wilderness May 5, 1864, and was held by the rebels for ten months, in which time he was successively incarcerated in nine different pris- ons. He was released at Wilmington, N. C., March 1, 1865, and discharged from the service March 12, 1865. Just nine months after his company was mustered out, March 13, 1865, he was breveted major.
William D. Knapp, James A. McKillip and George Ittle, of the same com- pany, were also taken prisoners at the battle of the Wilderness and confined at Andersonville, where they saw two of their comrades, Henry Reigle and Cal- vin Galbraith, die of starvation. While being removed to Millen they, with some other prisoners, cut a hole in the car and, jumping from the train, escaped, and after undergoing untold privations, with the aid of the friendly negroes, finally reached Sherman's army, which they accompanied to Savannah, and, their time having expired, returned home.
The death roll of Company K is as follows: Died, Jackson Crisswell, at Georgetown, D. C .; Giles Skinner, at Camp Pierpont ; Thomas Hughes, at Washington, D. C .; John D. S. McAnulty, in Camp Hospital; George R. . Ward and John Uplinger, of wounds, at Fortress Monroe; Isaac G. Monks, of wounds, at Fortress Monroe ; Sylvester Mckinley, of wounds, Levi McFad- den, John B. Clough, at Washington ; William Coulter, at Fredericksburg ; Henry Reigle, Calvin Galbraith, at Andersonville; James Montgomery, Lewis S. Newberry, at Richmond; John B. Clough, of wounds, at Alexandria; Ser- geant Andrew J. Harl, died at Indiana, Pa., on his way home ; William Cham- berlain, of wounds, at Richmond; Joseph S. Bovaird, of wounds ; Reuben Wea- ver, John Reif, John Sheasley, Aiken's Landing; Jas. Gallagher, Baltimore. Killed, Winfield S. Taylor, M. L. Boyington, Horatia Morey, Davis Dehaven, at Gaines's Mill ; William Clark, Albert L. Brown, Perry Welch, at Antietam ; Madison A. Travis, J. A. C. Thom, Thos. F. Rush, at Fredericksburg; Milo L. Bryant, at Wilderness ; Thomas C. Lucas, at Bethesda Court House.
Members of Company K, Eleventh P. R. C., transferred to other organi- zations : Corporal Lemuel Dobbs, transferred to Nineteenth Regiment U. S. C. T .; Private Perry A. Foster, transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps ; Private Thomas E. Love, transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps; Private James P. Williams, transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps; Private Barton Nicholson, transferred to One Hundred and Fifth Regiment P. V. Transferred to Com- pany I, One Hundred and Ninetieth Regiment P. V .: Elijah Bish, Alpheus C. Cochran, Othoniel Davis, L. A. Gruver, Joseph P. Miller, David Montgomery, William Steel, Thomas W. Salada, A. W. Perrin, H. S. Wyant. The two lat- ter were captured and died at Salisbury, N. C.
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JEFFERSON COUNTY IN THE REBELLION.
Muster Roll of Company K .- Captains, Evans R. Brady, James P. George, Edward Scofield. First lieutenant, Harvey H. Clover. Second lieutenants, James E. Long, Cyrus Butler. First sergeants, Andrew J. Harl, Arch. M. Mc- Killep, James Elliott, William W. Ossawandel. Sergeants, Daniel L. Swartz, Thomas P. McCrea, John H. Miller, Bennewell Haugh, David C. K. Levan, Cal- vin Galbraith. Corporals, Lemuel D. Dobbs, Joshua Jones, John Uplinger, John Baker, Thomas A. Lucas, T. L. Hall, Benjamin McClellan, R. Wilson Ramsey, Job M. Carley. Privates, Samuel Alexander, William G. Algeo, Cornelius J. Adams, John H. Alt, Elijah Bish, Albert L. Brown, M. L. Boy- ington, Joseph S. Bovard, Milo L. Bryant, James A. Blair, Martin V. Briggs, Enos A. Cornell, John Cuddy, William Cathcart, Jesse Cravener, A. C. Coch- ran, Jackson Crisswell, William Coulter, William Clark, William Chamberlain, John B. Clough, John W. Carr, Samuel Donley, Othoniel Davis, Davis Dehaven, John Engle, Willliam Eisle, Solomon Fitzgerald, Perry A. Foster, Samuel A. Gordon, Joseph C. Gibson, L. A. Gruver, James Gallagher, William Hoffman, Clark B. Haven, David R. Hurst, Thomas Hughes, George Ittle, William A. Johnson, William D. Knapp, William Kelly, Ed. G. Kirkman, Michael A. King, Thomas E. Love, William F. Loomis, J. A. Montgomery, Orville T. Minor, John McMillen, James H. Myers, William J. Mills, John A. McGuire, H. W. McKillip, William Morrison, James H. McKillip, Joseph P. Miller, David Mont- gomery, Horatio R. Morey, J. D. S. McAnulty, Israel G. Monks, Sylvester Mckinley, Levi B. McFadden, J. Montgomery, Samuel WV. Miles, William Mc- Laughlin, Thomas Neal, Thomas Nolf, L. S. Newberry, Barton A. Nicholson, Eli Phillips, A. W. Perrin, Henry A. Reigle, John J. Robinson, David J. Reigle, Thomas Rock, Thomas F. Rush, John Reif, Samuel Steele, George Shick, Jo- seph Smith, George Surdam, Loran Skinner, J. W. Shellabarger, George Slack, William Steele, Thomas W. Sallada, Giles Skinner, John Sheesly, Moses M. Sugards, Winfield S. Taylor, James A. C. Thom, Madison A. Travis, Robert M. Wilson, Levi B. Wise, Robert N. Williams, Thomas T. Wesley, James P. Williams, Andrew Waley, Allen C. Wiant, H. S. Wiant, Reuben Weaver, George R. Ward, Perry A. Welch.
COMPANY I, SIXTY-SECOND REGIMENT P. V.
Captain Robert R. Means, of Brookville, who had assisted Captain Brady in recruiting the Brady Guards, and who had been chosen captain of one of these companies, raised, in response to the governor's call for troops, to com- pose the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps, found that, in the allotment of compa- nies to the different counties, only one would be received from Jefferson county, and that Captain Brady's had already been accepted. This disap- pointment caused part of the men to withdraw from the company, but a par- tial organization was kept up until Colonel Samuel W. Black, of Pittsburgh, by authority from the secretary of war, General Simon Cameron, commenced 13
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
to recruit a regiment, when Captain Means at once offered his company for this new organization and was accepted. A company had been partially re- cruited in and near Punxsutawney, and was joined to that of Captain Means, and the company with full ranks left Punxsutawney July 24, 1861, and pro- ceeded to Camp Wright, near Pittsburgh, where it was mustered in as Com- pany I, Thirty-third Independent Regiment. The election of officers resulted in the election of Robert R. Means, captain ; Edwin H. Little, first licutenant; and John T. Bell, second lieutenant.
The regiment was at once ordered to Camp Cameron, near Harrisburg, where it arrived with full ranks and splendidly organized and officered. It proceeded in a few weeks to Camp Rapp, in the northern suburbs of Washing- ton city, where it was equipped with clothing, arms, etc .; six companies re- ceiving the new Springfield rifles and the balance smooth-bore muskets.
On the IIth of September the regiment moved across the Potomac, going into camp near Fort Corcoran, where it was assigned to the Second Brigade of General Fitz John Porter's Division. Drill was commenced, but owing to the men being constantly on detail for fatigue duty at work constructing roads and throwing up entrenchments, but little was accomplished. On the 26th the regiment was moved with the new line, which was advanced by the enemy falling back from Munson's Hill. It remained here at Fall's Church for a few weeks, when it moved to Minor's Hill and went into winter quarters. The new camp was called Bettie Black, for the colonel's youngest daughter.
Here the regiment was re-numbered as the Sixty-second P. V. Here drill and discipline was rigidly enforced, and a school established for the officers. Both officers and men soon became proficient in " tactics." In December, at Hall's Hill, the State colors were presented to the regiment, Colonel Black re- ceiving them in behalf of the regiment in his usual eloquent and happy man- ner. Here, also, the regiment received the new zouave outfit, the most com- plete in all its details of any uniform furnished the volunteer soldiers. The men took pride in keeping their camp in the best of order, and much taste was displayed. The streets were lined with rows of cedars, and at the end of every street was an arch, with the letter of each company in a wreath sus- pended in its center. The reporter of the New York World wrote of it as " the model camp of the Army of the Potomac." During the early part of the winter much sickness prevailed in the regiment, and several died out of Company I. The surgeon placed the camp under the strictest sanitary meas- ures, and the disease soon abated.
The winter was one of hard work,'and with the same routine of duty, made it very irksome to the men, and they longed for active service. On the 10th of March the Sixty-second moved, with the rest of the army, upon the rebel works at Manassas, only to find them deserted. The regiment remained at Fairfax Court House until the 15th, when it marched to Alexandria and em-
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JEFFERSON COUNTY IN THE REBELLION.
barked for Fortress Monroe, and upon its arrival there went into camp near the ruins of the village of Hampton, which had been destroyed by General Magru- der. Its first duty here was a reconnaissance as far as Big Bethel. On the 3d of April it moved, with the army, upon Yorktown, where, for the first time, the men saw the rebel gray. The regiment was kept constantly employed in the trenches during the siege of Yorktown, and several died from exposure. In a skirmish with the enemy here, the Sixty-second was for the first time under fire, losing one killed and three wounded. Of the latter, Adam W. Musser afterwards died of his wounds. Colonel Black was first apprised of the evacuation of the place by three deserters, who, with a flag of truce, came into the lines while his regiment was on picket near the river.
On the 8th of May Porter's division embarked on transports and moved up the York River to a point opposite West Point, where it went into camp. Here General Porter was assigned to the command of the Fifth Corps, and General Morrell assumed command of the division, while the Second Brigade was assigned to Brigadier-General Charles Griffin. May 26, the Army of the Potomac having moved forward, the Fifth Corps moved to Gaines's Mill, and the next day General Porter was sent to Hanover Court House for the purpose of destroying the Richmond and Fredericksburg Railroad, and effecting a junc- tion with General McDowell, who was expected to advance in that direction.
The First Brigade, under General Martindale, first encountered the enemy, and the Second was hurried forward to its support, where it was assigned to a position on the right of the First Brigade, and was scarcely deployed in line of battle ere they were ordered to charge, and dashing forward in gallant style, soon routed the enemy, capturing many prisoners, and all their garrison and camp equipage. Colonel Black, in his official report of this engagement, says :
" In the course of the afternoon's operations, we captured eighty-one prison- ers, including seven officers. From a great many arms taken, about seventy-five were brought into camp. By the annexed statement it will be seen that our loss is only six men wounded, none killed, and not one missing. I should do the brave and faithful men I have the honor to command injustice if I refrained from expressing, in strong terms, my admiration of their conduct from first to last. In common with the other regiments of your brigade, they went into action with their bodies broken by fatigue, and their physical strength wasted by the hard toils of the day. But their spirits failed not, and they went in and came out with whatever credit is due to dangers bravely met, and the noblest duty performed. General McDowell's corps had been detained by the demon- strations of the enemy in the Shenandoah Valley, and Porter's corps, having fulfilled its mission, returned to camp, near Gaines's Mill, where, until the 29th of June, the Sixty-second was engaged on picket duty, and in building bridges. On this day the Pennsylvania Reserves, advancing by the way of Mechanics- ville, encountered the enemy at Beaver Dam Creek, and the Second Brigade of
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
Morrell's division was sent to their support. They found the Reserves hotly engaged with the enemy, but in the severe battle which ensued, the Reserves held their ground, and the Sixty-second, though under fire for over an hour, was not actively engaged. The next morning Porter again retired to Gaines's Mill, where, upon a hill east and south of the mill, he disposed his forces and waited for the enemy."
Morrell's division held the extreme left of the line, his left resting on the low grounds skirting the Chickahominy; Griffin's brigade forming the right of the division and connecting with Sykes's division. When the battle was opened by the advance of Longstreet's corps, the Sixty-second, with the Ninth Massachusetts, was ordered forward in the face of a terrific in- fantry fire. They charged forward, crossing the ravine in their front, and drove the enemy back into the woods on the opposite side, with fearful slaugh- ter. In this charge the gallant Colonel Black was shot and instantly killed. Maddened by the loss of their heroic and noble leader, the regiment, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Sweitzer, pressed on, driving the enemy back, until they had gained a position considerably in advance of our lines. The enemy at once perceived this isolated position, and poured in an enfilading fire upon their flank, forcing them back. They were scarcely in position after re- forming, before General Seymour rode up and hurriedly inquired whether the men had ammunition, and was informed that they had been hotly engaged during the entire afternoon, and that their ammunition was completely ex- hausted. Directing the men to be supplied with cartridges, he ordered Lieu- tenant-Colonel Sweitzer to proceed at once to where the enemy was making fearful onslaughts on the extreme left of the line. Dashing forward to the spot indicated, the regiment, with its thinned ranks, quickly formed and charged up the hill and through the woods, receiving the full fire of the enemy as they advanced. They returned the fire, and the battle now waged furiously along the entire line. Soon yielding to superior numbers, the entire Union line gave way and was forced towards the river. In this last movement, Col- onel Sweitzer, while contesting the ground to the last, was taken prisoner and sent to Libby.
Our army now fell back, fighting its way to the James River. On the 30th the Sixty-second reached Malvern Hill, and the next morning, com- manded by Captain Hull, of Company A, all its field officers being hors de combat, it went into the fight. It was early in the day ordered to support Battery D, of the Fifth United States Artillery. This battery became a special target for the rebel guns massed in its front, and their infantry charged upon it again and again, being in each instance repulsed with great loss. In this exposed and perilous position the Sixty-second suffered severely, and here Captain Means, of Company I, was wounded and taken prisoner, when the command of the company devolved upon Lieutenant E. H. Little.
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JEFFERSON COUNTY IN THE REBELLION.
The day following, the army fell back to Harrison's Landing, where the Sixty-second went into camp and remained quietly, with the exception of being slightly engaged at Harrison's Bar on the 3Ist, until the 14th of August, when they broke camp and left the peninsula. In the Peninsula campaign the regiment lost two hundred and ninety-eight in killed, wounded, and missing. Lieutenant-Colonel Sweitzer, having rejoined his regiment, was promoted to colonel.
General Porter's corps was the first to cross the Chickahominy when the army moved from the peninsula. He broke camp on the 14th of August, and accomplished the march of sixty miles to Newport News in three days. The corps immediately embarked for Acquia Creek, and thence proceeded by rail to Fredericksburg, where it guarded the fords on the Rappahannock, until, it be- ing discovered that the rebel army was crossing above, the corps was withdrawn, and rejoined the division which had already joined Pope's army. It was only slightly engaged in the second battle of Bull Run, on the 27th. On the 4th of September the Sixty-second found itself again in their old camp, " Bettie Black," on Minor's Hill. The men resumed their old quarters; but alas! only a small detachment had returned of the twelve hundred stalwart men who had wintered there in 1861.
The regiment was next engaged at Antietam, where it supported a battery, but no casualties occurred. After this battle it remained quiet on the shores of the Potomac, with the exception of a slight skirmish at Blackford's Ford, until the close of October, when, in the reorganization of the army under General Burnside, the Center Grand Division of the Army of the Potomac, which con- posed the Third and Fifth Corps, was assigned to the command of General Hooker, and General Butterfield assumed command of the Fifth Corps, while the command of the Second Division devolved upon General Griffin, that of the Second Brigade upon Colonel Sweitzer, and the Sixty-second was then under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Hull.
About noon of Saturday, December 13th, the regiment crossed with the brigade into Fredericksburg, and passed through the town, raked by the artil- lery of the enemy. Reaching the suburbs it marched to the right, crossing the railroad, and when near the bank of the canal there was a rush of stragglers from the front that for a moment caused disorder in the ranks. Order was, however, quickly restored, and the stampede checked. The order was soon given to advance, the brigade moved forward in fine order, until within about thirty yards of the wall in front of Marye's Heights, behind which the rebel infantry lay. Here they received a perfect rain of leaden hail, in the face of which to advance was impossible. The men dropped to the ground, and for one day and two nights the brigade held this position, not a man daring to raise a head during the day without drawing the rebel fire. It was while ad- vancing toward this front that General Burnside, while viewing the lines through a field-glass, asked of General Sturgis, who was beside him, " What troops are
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
those ?" General Sturgis replied, "Second Brigade, General Griffin's Divi- sion." "No troops ever behaved better in the world," exclaimed General Burnside. On Sunday night they were relieved and withdrawn under cover of darkness, utterly worn out, and lying so long in the mud and water had caused considerable suffering, while all the time their dead and dying lay around them-and not a hand dared be raised to aid or succor them.
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