USA > Pennsylvania > Northampton County > History of the One hundred and fifty-third regiment Pennsylvania volunteers infantry which was recruited in Northampton County, Pa., 1862-1863 > Part 15
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Letter from David Knauss, Co. D.
"I was in some hard marches. On one of them (the writer's diary says, June 18), there were only enough men left in our Company (D) to make three rifle stacks. The rest had all given out on account of the excessive heat, and were left behind. I was in two hard battles, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. At the former we left our knapsacks before going into battle and never recovered them. There came on a cold rain, and we were ordered not to speak above a whisper until we got back across the pontoon bridge, (at U. S. Ford) The night was cold and we had a hard time of it. I found a wet blanket and went into the timber and built a fire to dry the blanket.
At the time we started to Chancellorsville, we had eight day's
David Knauss, Co. D.
George Siegfried, Co. D.
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rations dealt out to us. I divided mine so as to get through with it pretty well, but others who ate all they wanted, ran out of provisions and got so hungry they took corn from the horses troughs and parched it.
The first day at Gettysburg it seemed to me the rebels were bound to get to town. They shot a hole through the lines where we were, and our company was badly broken. When on the retreat, I kept loading and firing back on my own account. I was called in a few times to help take care of the wounded, and did the best I could, but would not give up my rifle. I then turned the wounded man (whom I was assisting) over to another fellow. Soon after this the hospital and all its inmates was captured. I picked up a better gun on the field. We were engaged at sharp-shooting, under heavy shelling the rest of the day. At night the enemy came up and drove us back to our battle line where they got the worst of it and were defeated that night. We had no officers left in our Company, and the next morning the few men remaining of Company D were put in another Company, the combined force numbering 22 men.
When I went to the army I took for my guide a Bible. The selection from which was the 9Ist Psalm. I lost the Bible in battle. Last August, 1908, I received a letter from my cousin, T. J. Knauss, of Emaus, Pa., saying that they had had a family reunion of 600 persons, and at that meeting they had the Bible which I had lost in the army. A Reformed minister of Toms Brooks, Va., saw in a paper a notice of the intended reunion. He had at the time this very Bible in his possession with my name in it. This was when 14 years ago he was stationed in South Carolina, when one of his parishioners who had been a confeder- ate soldier, gave him the Bible. The book contained my name 'David Knauss, Army of the Potomac, born in Northampton County, Pa., son of Levi Knauss, Esq.' It had the Apostles' Creed written in German.
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From the "National Tribune."
Rev. Curtis V. Strickland, Musician, Co. D., tells of battle of Chancellorsville.
"Editor National Tribune :- I am reading your history in the National Tribune of the battle of Chancellorsville with much interest. Our regiment, the 153d, Pa., was a member of the First Brigade, First Division, Eleventh Corps. Our regiment was on the extreme right, in the woods, and 'up in the air.' It was our first experience. The skirmish line was driven in, I should think, about 3 p. m. As they reached the line the entire brigade fired one volley. The drummer boys (and there were a lot of us), most all from Easton, Pa .- our ages from 14 to 16-the regimental band and a few others were to the right and rear of the regiment. We were having lots of fun, chasing rabbits, etc., little realizing what was going on in our front. When the volley was fired we drummers all started on a run, Snider lost his hat. The firing having ceased, we returned to our former place, guying each other. Gen. Devens soon came with his staff. I saw him in conversation with Gen. von Gilsa; then he left. They did not seem to be in the best of humor. We then resolved if there was another such occasion we would not run. We did not wait long. Skirmishing began and they were soon driven in, and the battle was on. We stood this time until we saw our brigade retreat, then we, too, started. We were soon out of the woods, and in crossing an open field I was struck with a minie ball. I fell to the ground. Some of the boys stopped. Snider tried to help me. Then our Chaplain and Comrade Mack, now of Bethlehem, Pa., stopped and picked me up, assisting me into the woods. At my earnest request they, in sorrow, left. The rebels were coming. I told them as they would at once be taken prisoners, they should leave me. With sad hearts they said good-by, and none too soon, as the first line of battle, 'Jackson's men,' were there in a few minutes. I can- not ask space to explain and tell all I saw. However, will say, I lay in the woods until Monday afternoon, when I was
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Curtis V. Strickland, Musician, Co. D.
Lieutenant Wmn. H. Beaver, Co. D. (Oniy officer killed).
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found and taken to the house in the middle of the field men- tioned, which was turned into a hospital. I was under fire in the woods all day Sunday, and can hardly comprehend how it hap- pened that I escaped being hit again, for sometimes the shells exploded and bullets struck all around me. Then the terrible fire of the woods, especially the underbrush. I escaped being burned only by two Rebels helping me over the fire line, and laying me down where it had burned. I was found and taken back to the little house in the field, which was turned into a hospital. I saw a number of those who had been burned to death and other dead lying on the battlefield. The wounded had all been brought up. I was among the last ones rescued. In 13 days we were paroled, and under flag of truce were brought back in ambulances to our line, crossing at the United States Ford. My wound has given mne much trouble all my days, but the comrades have appreciated my work, and I am gratified to know that all over our land, in every State, my music is used, especially on Memorial Day. If I am able I will attend the National Encampment at Toledo."
Comrade Strickland Relates the Following:
"In all probability, the house where I was taken after being rescued from the battlefield of Chancellorsville, was the house known in history as the Tally house. During my brief stay at the improvised hospital, a comrade, who visited another house on the battlefield, stated that he found a young man at said place, who was seriously wounded; and that he was a member of Co. E, of the 153d Pa. Regiment, from the description he gave me. I said, 'that, in all probability is Edward Body- a young man with whom I was well acquainted in my native town-Easton, Pa. In fact, we were school-mates.' When I returned after being paroled, I learned, that the young man spoken of, was missing since the battle. He was never heard of, and there is scarcely a doubt but that the young man was Edward Body as stated. I remember him as an estimable young man,
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but he was numbered among that silent Company that never came back."
Levi F. Walters, Co. E.
"The following are two instances of bravery which, both for their individual interest and for their connection with the 153d Regiment, peculiarly merited a place in this history.
'The first will doubtless be called to mind by many of the
Levi F. Walter, Private Co. K.
veteran readers of these pages, who could hardly have escaped being witnesses of it.
'SHE GAVE US GREAT CHEER.'
One would naturally suppose that news of the death of a beloved and trusted commander would have a depressing effect upon the troops under him. Just the reverse happened when, on that memorable first day of July, 1863, it was learned by the soldiers of the Eleventh Corps that General Reynolds Lad been killed.
'Avenge Reynolds! was the shout that arose. It was echoed and re-echoed down that long line of hot, dusty and weary soldiers who had made what was almost a double-quick march
Captain John P. Ricker, Co. E.
Lieutenant Paul Bachschmid, Co. E.
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from Emmitsburg, Maryland, to Gettysburg, a distance of eleven miles. And the death of Reynolds, instead of discouragement, gave a grim determination to his men.
The fight had already commenced west of the town when we of the 153d entered Gettysburg from the Emmitsburg Pike. Along this pike we had met a thousand or more citizens, fleeing from their homes, as from 'the wrath to come.' Gettysburg, when we entered it, was literally deserted. We advanced up the street from the Pike toward the town square, and here it was that the main event of this reminiscence took place.
Standing near the middle of the street, amid all the bursting of shells, was a young girl. She was handing out water in a tin dipper, taking it from a tub which her father, a man of about fifty, kept filling with buckets carried from his house nearby. These were the only two civilians in sight.
It is not difficult to imagine what an attraction this spot was for the soldiers, especially for the younger ones of us, who were as eager for the sight of a pretty girl as for the refreshing water she dipped with almost provoking impartiality. She wore a white dress, and an apron and bib representing the stars and stripes. This, as many will remember, was a style much worn by patriotic ladies at the time.
The writer, in his due turn, got a drink from the dipper lifted by those brave young hands. He recalls saying to the girl, "This is no place for you.' 'Oh, it's all right, I think,' was her reply.
In his magnificent speech at Nazareth in May, 1909, General Howard related an incident of a girl who waved a flag to the soldiers in a street in Gettysburg where the bullets and shells were flying thick. He must have referred to the same girl, although the heroine of the present account was more profitably engaged. There can, at any rate, be no more fitting tribute to this girl's memory than the words of General Howard, 'She was very brave, and she gave us great cheer.'
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HISTORY OF THE 153D REGT.
A REAL LEADER.
One more instance of brave conduct, of which the writer is possibly the only witness living.
In the first day's fight on Barlow's Knoll at Gettysburg, the overwhelming Rebel forces, as all know, drove our comparatively thin line back. The writer, who lay on the ground at the ex . treme right of the line, with a bullet wound through a knee joint, remembers watching, with mingled apprehension and pride, the stubborn retreat of our regiment.
It was after the main body of soldiers had gone back about a hundred yards that the writer saw Captain Howard Reeder of Company G standing not ten feet away. He was deliberately discharging his revolver into the ranks of the onrushing Rebels. He then turned and ran. How he ever got away without being killed is a miracle, as the Rebels could not have been more than [5 feet from him.
This was certainly the deed of the type of leader who orders his men not, 'Go in there,' but 'COME ALONG in.'
A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.
Following the retreat of our regiment and its subsequent rally, the writer was in danger, as he lay on the field, of being shot again by his own comrades. That this did not occur was entirely owing to the kind services of a Confederate soldier.
Nearby there was a clump of large trees, (which, by the way, have since been cut down). Now in the enemy's line, formed in the rear, was one particular Rebel who took advantage of the protection afforded by these trees. As the balls from our own Union forces were flying fast all around him, the writer asked the Rebel to place a large, loose tree stump that lay a short distance away, in front of him. 'I don't like the idea of being hit by my own regiment,' he said.
Hardly had the Rebel gotten back behind his own tree when three minie balls struck the stump in front of the writer.
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'Young man, I saved your life,' called the Rebel. The afore- said young man was not scant in his thanks, as may well be imagined.
SIGNALS FROM A HOSPITAL ROOF.
Lying in this same spot until the afternoon of July 2nd, the writer was then removed to the Poor House. No room being available there-the place was filled with Rebel wounded-he was put down in the yard, near the driveway.
Shortly before noon of the third, a Rebel signal corpsman got up upon the roof of the Poor House, and started to signal the Confederate Army.
Then began a terrific cannonade from the Union forces in their efforts to dislodge this fellow and stop his signaling. The shells passed over our heads and landed in the garden nearby. Judging from the effect upon the writer's own wound -each crash was like singeing the leg with hot iron-the suffer- ing of the wounded in the Poor House must have been terrible.
This torture had continued for some time, when a bright young Confederate officer passed by. The writer called his attention to what the corpsman on the Poor House was doing, adding that he thought a hospital was not the place for a signal- ing station.
To the young officer's credit be it said that his face flushed with shame at the action of his comrade in arms. Drawing a revolver, he pointed it at the Rebel on the roof, and, with an oath, commanded him to come down or he would kill him. The fellow complied in a hurry, and the firing that had been directed upon the Poor House ceased at once.
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Captain Lucius Q. Stout, Co. F.
There were few men in the regiment with whom the writer was better acquainted, especially in earlier life. He was a man of fine presence and of congenial spirit and manners. He made friends and held them. He took great pride in everything that pertained to his Company, and was deservedly popular with his men many of them having known him from boyhood.
One of the members of Company F, has furnished the follow- ing brief testimonial of his captaincy: "Captain L. Q. Stout may have had his faults, and who has none? My remembrance of him will always be pleasant. He was a true and honest officer in his duties and to his men. He was a father to his Company. He will be fondly remembered by every man who served under him."
A long and serious illness prevented him from continuing with us during the entire service in the field. He was confined to the hospital much of the winter and late in the spring. A brief reference to the Captain's illness appears in the account fur- nished by Dr. Abraham Stout, one of our Surgeons.
Noah Dietrich, Co. E.
Comrade Dietrich: "We arrived at the Almshouse after pass- ing through Gettysburg about noon and unslung knapsacks and threw them in an outbuilding. The cannon balls passed over us as we crossed the field. I was taken captive while in company with Ed. Haden of Co. E. We had an opportunity to pass over the battlefield of the first day. Here we found Capt. Ricker of our Company, who being wounded in the knee, had dragged himself behind a pile of cord wood as protection from the sun. We carried him over to a farm house, where a doctor dressed his wound. Presently a Rebel cavalryman came along and gathered us up when we were taken to Carlisle and paroled. We then went to Harrisburg by rail for the muster-out. (Spent some time at West Chester )."
Captain Lucius Q. Stout, Co. F.
Lieutenant Henry Barnes, Co. F.
Lieutenant W'11. Beidelman, Co. F.
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Lieutenant Beidelman, Co. F.
William Beidelman was born in Lower Saucon Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, on January 17, 1840, and was a son of Daniel Beidelman, who served as a County Com- missioner of that County. Soon after his birth, his father moved to Williams Township, where the subject of this sketch spent his boyhood days on the farm of his father. He received his education in the Township Schools, the New York Confer- ence Seminary and Troy University. He became a law student in the office of Edward J. Fox, Esq., in the City of Easton, and in May, 1862, graduated from the Law Department of the University of Albany. He was then admitted to the Bar of Northampton County, where he practiced his profession almost continuously to the time of his death. During the civil war he enlisted as a member of Company F, 153d Regiment, Penn- sylvania Volunteers, September, 1862, serving as Lieutenant of that Company ; and took part with his regiment in the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg.
In October, 1871, he was elected District Attorney of North- ampton County, which office he filled three years, and in Novem- ber, 1878, was elected to represent that County in the Senate of Pennsylvania, for the term of four years. In 1890, he was elected Mayor of the City of Easton, and served in that capacity until April, 1894. He was also a member of Dallas Lodge, No. 396, F. & A. M., and of Hugh de Payens Commandery, No. 19, Knights Templar.
Mr. Beidelman was a writer and traveler of wide experience. He wrote the "Story of the Pennsylvania Germans," and per- sonally collected most of the data for his book, making a num- ber of trips to Germany for that purpose. At the time of his death he was engaged in writing a history of the Germans, who early emigrated from the Palatinate District of Germany to America. He had collected much original data on this sub- ject from the early German records, still in existence in that district. He died February 1, 1903, and was buried in the Eas- ton cemetery.
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Lines in memory of Lieut. William H. Beaver, of Co. D, 153d Pa. Vol., who was struck in the heart with a minie ball, falling dead by the side of his comrades at the battle of Gettysburg. Taken from "Garland Their Graves No. 5," by C. V. Strickland.
"Take Thy Rest."
I. "Sleep on, dear comrade, and now take thy rest; The grave where thou liest is hallowed and blest. . In the heat of the battle, when fiercely it raged, Thy sword was unsheathed where the flag proudly waved.
2. The spot where thou liest in old Gettysburg Shall ne'er be forgotten, while ages may surge. We sing of thy manhood, a soldier so true, Thy name's on the record with those of the blue.
3. And while in the grave that is hallowed and blest, Thy body is now so sweetly at rest ; In the heaven of peace, thy spirit so pure Is dwelling and resting with Jesus secure.
4. We will not recall thee from heaven above. For soon we shall join thee in that home of love ; And there in the land of the pure and the blest, We, too, shall forever be sweetly at rest.
5. With beautiful flowers thy grave shall be strewn, The emblems of memory with richest perfume. That beautiful mansion our Lord shall prepare. A home of the faithful, with thee we shall share."
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Sergeant Samuel Lantz, Co. F.
On the 2d day of the battle of Gettysburg I assisted comrade Lantz from the field to a barn by the roadside-the Baltimore Pike. When I left him and another wounded man I forgot to take with me my haversack. Twenty years after the war the widow of comrade Lantz sent me some of the articles, which I value very highly. Another incident, more singular than other- wise occurred. After my return from leading him to a place of safety, I was standing near the cannon in front of the cemetery gate, when a shell exploded killing a horse. During a visit on those grounds in the year 1892, I was standing on the very spot, when a boy came along selling relics which were picked up, and I bought a piece of a shell on the identical spot where I had stood under the deadly range of the flying balls of Lee's guns twenty-nine years ago.
At the time I was nursing in the IIth Corps hospital, I spent a night of the most awful heart strain I had ever experienced. A young man lay under the eaves of the barn during a torrent of rain with but slight covering surrounded by hundreds of others. His cries for help were truly the most heart-rending one could listen to. His shrieks became unendurable. I hunted about to learn from what direction the calling came and finally found him under some boards which had been hastily laid up for shelter. I asked him where he was wounded and he could not tell, except that he had great pain between his shoulders. I removed his shirt to ascertain the location and character of his wound and by the dim light of an old lantern I succeeded in find- ing a wound between his shoulder-blades, the shape of the in- cision being exactly that of a bayonet. From the size of the hole the weapon must have pierced deeply into his body. On the visit above mentioned I found a rusty bayonet in an adjoin - ing building which the owner of the building gave me as a souvenir.
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Sergeant Edward J. Kiefer, Co. F.
Edward J. Kiefer, Co. F, (brother of the writer) was a faith- ful soldier. His relations with the members of his Company were always the most cordial, and for the term was the quar- termaster for the Company. He was captured on the skirmish line before Culp's Hill, but was paroled and returned with the Company and was mustered out with the command. He was in company with Charles M. Shively and several other friends who were among the captives. The spot where they were cap- tured; indicated by comrade Shively, is evidence of the fact that they were in the thickest of the battle from which their escape was marvelous.
Jeremiah Transue, Co. F.
Jeremiah Transue, an honorable neighbor of the writer, was faithful up to the time of his serious wounding, and had the sympathy of a large number of his comrades.
S. C. Romig, Co. F.
"On our way to Gettysburg from Emmitsburg, we traveled through muddy roads, as it had rained considerable and it seemed to be the most peculiar sort of clay, being of a very sticky nature. I did not give attention to it until I was wounded and lying in the hospital. For several days my feet annoyed me very much and I asked a nurse to remove my shoes. He tried to take them off but finally said it was impossible. I told him to cut them off as the mud had become so hard and dry that there was no way of removing them. He got the shoes off but he forgot to wash my feet, and the soil remained on them until it wore off. On the long march to Gettysburg the shoes had become literally worn out ; the bare skin being exposed. During the retreat of the first day back through the town we passed through grain fields. In one of them the grain had
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Sergeant Edward J. Kiefer, Co. F.
Chas. M. Shively, Co. F.
Wm. H. Taylor, Co. F.
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been cut and removed, and the ground was what the farmer calls a stubble field. I, with my exposed feet, ran with the rest of the men and the Rebels close at our heels. Figura- tively speaking I saw stars in broad-day-light. Meantime I thought of home and friends but ready to shoot every Rebel in sight. We finally landed on Cemetery Hill behind the stone fence. Here I thought let them come now, shoes or no shoes, we will let them know that we are here. After being behind these fortifications for a while we soon saw the Rebel skirmish line drawing out on our right. Orders came soon for us to go down and meet them which we did, in the fields down below Cemetery Hill. My position at this time was behind a rail fence and I laid my rifle on a rail to fire whenever a rebel popped up out of the tall grass or from behind a tree to fire at us. That was the way in which we had to pick them off when the opportunity came. I was just in the act of firing when I was hit by a ball in my left knee. I, of course, ceased firing, and lay down and took in the situation which was very sorrowful for me and rendered me helpless to move. Lieutenant Barnes, commander of the Company, at that time came near where I was lying. I told him quickly the condition I was in, as there was no time for a long story. He sent two men to carry me from the field and away from danger, which they did willingly, I suppose to get away themselves. They took me up to Ceme- tery Hill across the road and laid me down in some grass when my two comrades, which were, so kind to me, vanished. I looked about and learned that I was lying in a grave yard, the old Gettysburg cemetery. Soon, however, an ambulance came along and I was taken up, and the horses driven as fast as they could go, and I was lodged in the Eleventh Corps hospital. I was laid on the threshing floor of the barn used for a hospital. and laid down near the big door. There I had a fine view of the bursting shells coming in our direction. It was at the time of Pickett's charge. There were at one time six explosions of shells in one moment. It was a grand sight indeed, but the danger was becoming so great that every man was removed
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excepting myself and an old German, who expressed himself in something like the words, 'Och du lieber Gud was gebds nuch.' The surgeon who had been in shortly before looking at my wound ran for his life, his coat tail standing straight out. As he passed the door he called out to me, 'get out of there as soon as you can,' the same time knowing that I could not move. He soon sent two men to carry me away, which they did. They placed me in the lower part of the barn, in a building called a wagon shed. This place was occupied mostly by wounded Rebels. I was now out of sight, but not out of danger. These fellows were my company for two weeks, they arguing for their cause and I for ours."
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