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 21
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HISTORY OF THE 153D REGT.
brought to the outside of the door, and by our first shoving 20 cents of our currency (shin-plasters) through under the door, a copy of the paper would be served us in like manner. On one occasion a back number was passed in, in exchange for my 20 cents. May 13th, on leaving Libby for City Point, we were supplied with cakes, by Rebel women and children, at 25 cents each, such as we could get at home for 2 cents apiece. Marched to City Point in a heavy rain, and dried our clothes by the fire, May 14th took steamer for Annapolis, Md., arriving May 16th ; encamped until May 20, when we left for 'Convalescent Camp' at Alexandria, remaining there until July 8th, when we were sent to Harrisburg, which was our abiding place until mustered out with the regiment.
LEWIS B. CLEWELL."
Corporal, Co. I, 153d Regt. Pa. Vols., Bethlehem, Pa.
Capt. Isaac LaRue Johnson, Co. K.
Grand Royal Arch Chapter, District of Columbia. Office of the Grand High Priest, Washington, D. C., January 10, 1900.
"To the Constituent Chapter of this Grand Chapter, and all to whom these presents may come: Again are we reminded of the solemn fact that 'it is appointed unto all men once to die.' Isaac LaRue Johnson, Past Grand High Priest, passed the vails which interpose between this earthly tabernacle and the Holy of Holies above, at his residence in this city on Thursday, December 28, 1899. M. E. Companion Johnson was born in Warren County, N. J., October 16, 1837. He came to this city when a youth, was graduated at Columbia College, studied law, and was admitted to practice in the Courts of the District.
In 1862 he was commissioned a captain in the One Hundred and Fifty- third Regiment, Pennsylvania Infantry, and served with his regiment in the Army of the Potomac. Resigning on February 11, 1863, he returned to Washington and re-engaged in the practice of law, in which he soon gained a highly honorable reputation. His great work in his profession was to make complete copies of all titles from the records of the office
Captain Isaac Buzzard, Co. K.
Captain Isaac L. Johnson, Co. K. (Resigned).
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of Records of Deeds, and the documents thus prepared were the founda- tion of the first Real Estate Title Insurance Company in the District. He was interred with Masonic honors at Oak Hill Cemetery on Sunday, December 31, 1899. The Grand Lodge performing the burial service, and the several bodies of which he was a member being represented in the cortege which followed his remains to their last resting place.
WM. BARNUM, Grand High Priest.
A. W. JOHNSON, Grand Secretary."
Letter from Lieut. Laurence Dutott, Co. K.
"Camp near Brooks Station, May 13, 1863.
Dear Elizabeth :- I hope you have received all my former letters. Now I must tell you more of the battle. The Rebs attacked us on the 2d of May. We stood until they came within twenty-five feet of us, when we were compelled to fall back. They kept up a steady fire of shot and musketry, having us in a cross fire. The bullets came as thick as hail. We were driven back more than a mile, when our noble battery opened on them. How glad I was when I heard our battery cutting them. I was almost played ont, for want of water. That was on Saturday. I slept on the field quietly. Sunday morning they came on again, but they fell like flies. At the same time we lost a great many good fellows. Peter Sandt was killed in Saturday's fight. Jeremiah Flory was missing the same day. You would not know the rest if I were to tell you their names. One from Ottsville was killed the same day. Last Sunday our chaplain preached a sermon in honor of our dead. We feel lost without our colonel. The last we saw of him he was standing against a tree supposed to be wounded. The tears were rolling down his face when he said, 'My God, what has become of my regiment?' He thought we were all cut up. I think we all lament our good commander's fate. May God help him to re- turn. Our lieutenant colonel is here but is wounded and is unfit for duty. All our field officers are wounded, and three line officers, but I am safe so far, thank God .... All the officers lost their baggage. One of the mules was shot. The one that had mine on, and all my baggage is in the hands of the Rebs. I bought a new blanket.
From your husband. LIEUT. LAURENCE DUTOTT.
We just heard from Colonel Glanz. He is in Richmond, a prisoner."
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HISTORY OF THE 153D REGT.
Lewis Fraunfelder, Co. K.
While on a visit describing the spot where the 153d stood during the assault, Comrade Fraunfelder said; "Here behind this very wall is where we lay. These cannon just behind us and all these guns as you see them here occupied the same posi- tion. This stone fence furnished all the protection we had, as we fired over it. So far as I can judge there is no change in the location or shape of the rows of stone. About in this loca- tion I remember crouching. The cannonading was very severe all about us. The men assembled on Cemetery Hill on the even- ing of the ist day numbered about 60. It required considerable time for the reorganization of the scattered men, but which was effected by the subordinate officers, greatly assisted by the Brig- adier General von Gilsa. I was with a detachment of 20 men sent out as skirmishers. We were sent out across the wall and foot walls below the hill into an open field. Here we were under the fire of the sharp-shooters who occupied the houses on the outskirts of the town. It was here on this skirmish line where I was wounded on the 2d day."
Letter from John Rush, Co. K.
"My Dear Comrade Mack :
Your circular letter dated October 6th came to me a few days ago and indeed I was glad to get even a circular letter from one of my old comrades. This is the first line that I have ever received from any member of the 153d. But I had no reason to expect to hear from any of them as I was an entire stranger to every one in the regiment and when we were mus- tered ont went back to my home in New Jersey where I was living when the war broke out, but, my parents refusing their consent to my enlistment, I went over to Easton and went to work on the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and when the 153d was being made up stole a march on my parents and enlisted in Company K of that regiment.
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I was born in Ireland on the first day of May, 1844. My parents came to this country (bringing me with them) and landed in Boston on the first day of May, 1847, when I was just three years old.
My experience in the Army was so ordinary as not to be worth taking up space in history, but in answer to your ques-
Jolın Rushı, Co. K.
tions will relate some of my experience to be used or not just as you like.
I was wounded in the left arm at Gettysburg, and, after lowering and raising my arm to see if the bone was broken and finding that it was not, I finished loading my rifle but when I attempted to raise my arm to fire found that it was so weak that I could not raise it,-a minie ball having passed nine inches through the muscles of the arm and shoulder.
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HISTORY OF THE 153D RECT.
When I found myself useless and helpless I started to go to the rear but had only gotten a few steps from the line when another minie ball struck my right shoulder cutting my collar bone almost entirely away. Although that was forty-five years ago I have never since been free from pain in that shouldler.
As our whole line was falling back I was hailed by a brave young lieutenant, I don't know his name or to what regiment he belonged, but he tried to rally the boys, that were falling back. and make a stand, and when I told him that I was wounded in both shoulders he told me to break my gun so that the enemy would not get it and when I told him that I could not and that it was loaded, he took my gun and I held my cartridge box open with one hand and my cap pouch open with the other, and we both stood at a gate, he loading and firing my gun, till I was made a prisoner and he had a narrow escape. I don't know what became of him, but I wish I could see him for he was made of sterling stuff.
I was taken into a large brick house. I think it was the almshouse, but the place was full of wounded and the late comer had to wait till some poor fellows died before he could get a bed.
My wounds had bled quite freely, but I had some use of my right arm, and when I was put on a bed I could manage to pour water from a pitcher on my own wounds when lying on my back, while others were worse off than myself.
There was one poor fellow, an Irishman, who was very severely wounded in the head, who wanted to get out of his bed and let me have it saying that he had no right there as he came there as an enemy. I. of course, refused to let him ger ont of bed but later on when I did get a cot he became delirious and was about to fall out of bed, and I jumping up suddenly ran to sit on the side of his bed to keep him in. That started my own wounds to bleeding afresh and as I was too weak to walk and the enemy having more wounded of their own than they could take care of, they left me alone, and on the fourth of
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July I was hanled off to the field hospital in the heaviest rain since Noah's Flood, and spent that night on the seat of an ambulance. Captain Oerter, of Co. C, and some one else that I don't know, occupied the bed of the ambulance. The next day I was taken to a tent and my blouse and shirt cut down the front and back and taken off me to prevent irritation and in that undress uniform, trousers and shoes, was taken to Baltimore where my wounds were first dressed.
The train that I traveled on was made up of freight and stock cars which caused some dissatisfaction, but everybody has learned since then that railroads were not equipped to meet such emergencies on short notice. But I was greatly favored by falling into the hands of dear Miss Anna Dix who took me into a passenger coach attached to the train; for the accommodation of officers, and kept me in the seat with herself, as I had lost considerable blood and rations were short I guess I looked rather pale. Miss Dix had no rations but she ordered a doctor-and her orders were obeyed-to give me some brandy. No one but a mother could have cared for me so tenderly as Miss Dix did and when I heard of her death I felt her loss as one of the greatest sorrows of my life.
When we arrived in Philadelphia 1 felt at home among my own people as I had many relatives living there and indeed everybody was made to feel at home in that beautiful city of loveable people where I was taken to the Union Volunteer Re- freshment Saloon and hospital. Here I got a square mcal, had my wounds dressed again, got another clean shirt-the one given me at Baltimore was taken off-those shirts were made in sections and tied on with tape, I was then sent to Girard Hospital. Indeed I could not retrace my steps for I can't re- member all the places that I got a night's lodging but finally landed in Easton and was mustered out with the regiment. I had lived in Easton some time in the fifties. Was there when the cholera was very bad.
I remember that our regiment met with a royal welcome
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HISTORY OF THE 153D REGT.
from the good people of that City. They gave us a fine dinner at the Fair Grounds where beautiful girls waited on the tables, and I personally was very hospitably entertained at the home of a Mrs. Fleming, whose beautiful and patriotic daughter Amanda, seeing my almost helpless condition with both arms in slings, took me to her home and treated me like a brother.
Time cannot blot out the sweet memories of the tender sympathy shown to a stranger in a time of distress and all these years I have prayed that God would bless the Fleming family.
When in the Army I was young and inexperienced, and was a great trial to my Captain, Isaac Buzzard, whom I secretly loved as a brave and upright Christian gentleman.
When I was mustered out I had $26 to live on and clothe myself for six months while my wounds were healing up, I managed to keep covered by buying cheap material and making my own clothes but had no need to tell any one that I made them.
After I got able to work I tried to re-enlist but was rejected twice, then went in the Construction Corps in Virginia; but wanted to get back in the ranks and tried again, but was again rejected. Then through the influence of the Honorable Philip Jolinson M. C., from Easton, got into the Commissary Depart- ment as Citizen Soldier at $50 per month and boarded and lived at a hotel, but got restless and went to Trenton where I was accepted in a way that looked very much like graft. being wounded as well as being an alien (was exempt from military service) the examining surgeon and mustering officer tried to run me in as a substitute, and when I refused to go as a substitute for any one, they told me that I would get eleven hundred dollars if I went as a substitute for their man, and when I told them that there was not enough money in the State of New Jersey to hire me as a substitute they ordered me out. Then I told the Captain that he might be called upon to explain why I was not as well fitted to serve as
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NARRATIVES OF THE COMRADES
a volunteer recruit as I was to serve as a substitute for some able-bodied man, he turned as white as this paper, cursed me, and said, that if I wanted to go and get killed and miss that eleven hundred dollar bounty that he would muster me in and [ might go and get killed. So I was mustered in as a volunteer recruit in Co. C, 2d New Jersey Cavalry (I had a school chum in that Company), but as that regiment was in Sherman's Army it had left Chattanooga before I got there. I was then sent back to Nashville and put into a camp of detached cavalry under command of Lieutenant Colonel Minor, Captain Wilson and Lieutenant Keeler, all of the 7th Ohio Cavalry. If we were in that section of the county now and behaved as we did then we would be called 'Night Riders;' as we made most of our ex- cursions at night, going out by twos, tens, twenties or more according to the game we were after.
At the close of the war I came west to Illinois, and for a time boarded with a Mrs. Liab Clark in the Town of Charles- ton, a former home of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln's famous Log Cabin was just out of Charleston and Mrs. Clark was the daughter of Dennis Hanks whom I knew very well.
I railroaded for a time in Illinois and Michigan. In the Spring of 1877 I came to the coast and spent my first year run- ning a steamboat on Puget Sound when I was sent for to come here to run a steamboat on San Francisco Bay, where I re- mained for five years.
I am now engaged in the jewelry business. I was not over- looked by the big fire and as I stood in the bread line and cooked in the street and saw the refugees carrying their worldly pos- sessions on their backs it reminded me of camp life, but I hope to be spared another such a reminder.
I am a member of George H. Thomas Post G. A. R. of this Department. I know Lieutenant Colonel Edward S. Soloman of the 45th New York, Ist Brigade, 3d Division, Eleventh Corps. He is a Past Dept. Commander of this Department. In discuss-
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HISTORY OF THE 153D REGT.
ing the battle of Gettysburg with him one time he said 'the 153d fought like devils.""
Brief Narratives by the Boys.
Peter Kridler, Company A, says he spent from 4 p. m. of the first day till the next evening on skirmish duty in the Gettysburg engagement ; during this time he fired 65 rounds of cartridges. He landed on top of Cemetery Hill about dusk on the second day.
Tilghman Rhoads, Company A, wounded at Gettysburg; was a monumental worker by trade, had the great honor of setting the marker at the foot of the stone fence indicating the skirmish line of the regiment. Comrade Rhoads also testifies that when he retired from the Rebel flank at Chancellorsville, he saw the stacked guns of the 4Ist Regiment, and the men gone. George Hirst, Company F, in the Chancellorsville battle, took his gun from the stack, fired, and retired, but found the regiment behind the 153d gone.
Reuben S. Vogel, Company D, was on von Gilsa's staff, but by request of Colonel Glanz, joined the band. Jacob R. Senseman, a member of the band, was taken prisoner at Chancellorsville. Peter Sandt (Wm. P.), Company E, was killed in line of battle at Chancellorsville. (He is among the "Unknown"). Comrade Vogel says: On the slope of Cemetery Hill he saw many dead whose pockets had been turned wrong side out. This was a com- mon sight after a battle. Ernest Bender, Company H, assisted in the slashing of the trees of the barricade in front of the regiment on the Chancellorsville battle ground. General von Gilsa was present and told the men how to cut the timber. As Bender was hit by a falling tree Gilsa told him to quit. Sidney J. (M.) Miller rode one of Colonel Glanz's horses away at the opening of the battle and at the time of the retreat. Gilsa rode the other horse .* Colonel Glanz was captured near the Tally House. He was a very fleshy man, and wore high topped boots which reach- ed to his thigh. It was impossible for him to run, and whoever *Gilsa's horse had fallen and injured the General.
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could not take his own part, in that performance, at that time, was captured. Colonel Dachrodt was wounded in the arm. Philip Halpin was killed near Barlow's Knoll, in the extreme front posi- tion our regiment had taken at Gettysburg. Peter Kridler says a comrade saw where 18 bodies were buried in one grave at that spot. These bodies, with all that could be located elsewhere over the field were taken up in the month of October and buried in the National grounds, where all bodies that could not be identified were placed in tiers of the plot marked, "Unknown." Companies A and B went on the skirmish line on first entering the field at Gettysburg. Kridler further says, he heard Gilsa say as he rode along the line through the town, "By order of General Schurz I take command of my brigade." Gilsa was very popular with the boys, and Barlow had placed him under arrest ( for not obey- ing some order of detachment). The men of the brigade shouted lustily as the General (Gilsa) rode by them to enter the field to be again at the head of his command.
George Siegfried, Company D, residing at Bath, was a mem- ber of Company D. He reports having fired four times before the regiment was ordered to retire before Jackson's attack. It was a moment of great excitement. On his turning back he saw the guns of the 4Ist still on stack and the men gone. An inci- dent of amusing nature occurred as related by George. It was on this wise: The men were out of rations upon an occasion, and he gave $20 to two comrades and sent them out to look for bread. They came back with one loaf, for which they paid fifty cents, but returned only $7.50 change, and the balance they could not account for. After the regiment returned home Wire- bach paid back six dollars, and about one year afterwards, Houser met his friend Siegfried and said to him, "Here is the $6 I have owed you for a year. We had spent your change in a little outing of our own." Asa K. McIlhaney, the public school principal of Bath, has taken a great interest in everything per- taining to the regiment, and rendered the historian considerable assistance. F. L. Fatzinger, Esq., of Bath, also assisted the writer by introductions to comrades from whom valuable items were received.
17
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HISTORY OF THE 153D REGT.
John Ribble was one of the first men wounded in front of the line at the opening of the battle at Chancellorsville. He was re- moved in a wagon and taken to the rear.
Thomas Quinn, Co. D.
"I was wounded in first day's fight at Chancellorsville, and laid in woods over night. Was taken prisoner next morning by the 5th N. C. Regt., Confederate ; was taken to Libby prison about three weeks; was paroled and taken to Convalescent Camp, Alexandria, Va., was exchanged and after battle of Gettysburg was discharged. Enlisted as private, was promoted to Corporal and then to 3d Sergeant. Was with regiment whole time except while in prison.
Members of the 153d Band.
Eugene Walter, Leader; Jas. C. Beitel, A; Jos. E. Seiple; Lewis H. Abel, A; Wm. H. Clewell, A; Henry C. Leibfried, A: C. Edwin Michael, A ; Chas. Schuman, F; Wm. H. Burcaw, F; Jacob Senseman, A; Reuben S. Vogel. D; Stephen D. Hirst, H; Henry Medemack; Henry Nolf, Co. D; John Bruce, G.
Thoughts on Memorial Day.
Memorial Day is crowded with tender memories. The new- made grave of our sleeping Comrade is yet before our bowed spirit. More than 500,000 brave warriors were laid to rest in the storm of that dark day. The dead we mourn were our Com- rades in arms, in blue. They have bivouaced under "those low green tents whose curtains never outward swing." Their dust is watched by the night sentinels-the silent stars which pace their solemn rounds in the midnight sky. We pay them a sol- diers' honor while we place flowers-the emblems of hope-on their graves. Thus also we reconsecrate ourselves to those high
The National Cemetery, Gettysburg.
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THOUGHTS ON MEMORIAL DAY
principles for which, with them, we fought and for which they have given the full measure of patriotic devotion with their lives. Go back in memory to those dark and stirring days. They seem as but yesterday, the weird dream of a night. Now again before our eyes they are unveiled and appalling. The excitements of those war times. How fresh the sad scenes! Sad men everywhere! The mechanic laid down his tools on the bench before him. The husbandman his implements of sow- ing and reaping, walked to the fence to learn tidings of the far off field of the contending armies. The plow was left athwart the furrow. The horse is ridden to the village green, to the enlisting room in the excitement of the drum beats and under the Nation's flag. "To arms" cannot be longer unheeded. The love of home is strong; but the love of country prevails. The final day has come, the parting from loved ones, amid sobs and farewells the long trains bear away the father, the son, the brother, the friend. The grief of that sad parting was only ex- ceeded by the joy of the return of the loved ones. The lives laid upon the altar of their country! How precious to know that the fallen ones are wrapped in their country's flag! That though some were not recognized as to Regimental relations ; yet they sleep in the shadow of the same National monument which commemorates the known dead .*
*Of the forty-seven killed, and deaths from wounds, at Gettysburg, seven repose in the National Cemetery (at Gettysburg), while many of them are there asleep with the unknown.
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A True Patriot's Monument.
Hiram Pearson, Company D, has erected a beautiful monu- ment in Greenwood Cemetery, Howertown. It is one of the most attractive memorials of its kind in eastern Pennsylvania, and is the only one erected at private expense in either Lehigh
Erected by Hiram Pearson, Co. D.
or Northampton Counties. This, is a very important reason (aside from the fact that it shows the patriotism of our people) why we should add this beautiful monumental shaft to our illus- trative department of the history of our gallant soldiers.
The dimensions of the monument are 26 feet and six inches
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high, and six and a half feet wide at the base. The crowning figure is that of a full sized soldier in the position of parade rest. The adornment and engravement of the shaft are: The Eleventh Army Corps Crescent, G. A. R. emblems and the war record of Mr. Pearson. He was in both battles in which the 153d participated,-Chancellorsville and Gettysburg-and was severely wounded in the latter. The work on the shaft is of best design, and the position in the Cemetery commanding. being visible for a long distance. It will ever perpetuate the memory of the generous veteran and stand in commemoration of the noble regiment and its heroic sacrifices for the preserva- tion of our beloved country.
In Memoriam.
We commemorate the bravery, worthiness, patriotism, fame and moral elevation of our fallen comrades. We proudly bedeck the sacred places of their sleeping dust with flowers as emblems of remembrance. The Pantheon, in Rome, is a temple dedicated to all the gods of the pagans, the Santa Marie Rotondo is the only ancient edifice in Rome preserved perfectly. It was lighted through an aperture in the dome. It was built by Agrippa twenty-seven years before the Christian era.
On the plains of Marathon 11,000 Greeks put to flight 100,000 Persians and drove them to the sea. They that day saved Europe from the threatening horde of Asia before whom had fallen Egypt, Babylon, Armenia and Syria. On Marathon the despots' mad rush was stayed. Here the dauntless Greek gave to the world an example of patriotism before unknown. Byron said in verse:
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"The flying Meade, his shaftless broken bow ; The fiery Greek, his red pursuing spear ;
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