USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Lives of the eminent dead and biographical notices of prominent living citizens of Montgomery County, Pa. > Part 30
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noted act of courage and gallantry took place, which, as it gives the key-note to his subsequent career, we will narrate in detail.
A company of volunteers called Wayne Artillerists had a cannon housed under the care of the "cannon squad," and of which First Lieutenant W. J. Bolton was the chief. The Sec- ond Lieutenant of the same company was also captain of the Norristown Wide Awakes, a well known Republican body. The recent election of Curtin as Governor and Davis to Con- gress had just been announced, and their political friends de- sired to fire a salute in honor of the victory. In order to do this they had previously obtained the consent of the captain of the artillerists to take out the piece, as also that of the cannon. squad, upon condition of getting a substitute to fill the place. of Lieutenant Bolton as engineer at the rolling-mill, while he- and the squad worked the gun. The further consideration of. five dollars was also promised to the squad (who were nearly all' Bell and Everett men) as an inducement to celebrate another party's victory. Compliance was not made with these latter- conditions, but the gun taken out to the commons for the sa- lute without the knowledge of the cannoneers. Cartridges had. been provided, and the firing about to begin, when Lieutenant Bolton, Samuel Aaron, Jr., and two or three others, suddenly appeared on the scene, limbered the cannon, and brought it: back to town on the double quick, leaving a large crowd of lately jubilant Wide Awakes gaping at them and wondering how the thing was done. The capture was accomplished so> coolly, and with such bold daring, that the party about to fire. the salute, up to the moment they saw the squad running away with the piece, supposed that the latter were going to work it .. The captain of the Wide Awakes, however, to his credit, dis -- suaded a recapture. Thus a riot was avoided, but the salute. did not take place, of course. Without pretending to consider- or decide on the rights or propriety of any of the incidents or parties to this first victory or scrimmage of Lieutenant Bolton, we only record it to show the stuff of which he is made.
This was about the middle of October, 1860, and he worked with his political friends till November, when Bell and Ever --
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ett, with all the other Presidential candidates, were beaten by Abraham Lincoln, and the nation entered upon a new era.
We have shown in this incident that William J. Bolton was almost born a soldier. So when the South threw down the gage of battle for disunion, and opened the ball at Sumter, our military sprang to arms without regard to party, and resolved to save the Union or perish in the struggle.
As stated before, William J. Bolton had been chosen First Lieutenant of the Wayne Artillerists, his commission bearing date June 6th, 1859. On the IIth of the following July he was commissioned Brigade Judge Advocate, with the rank of Ma- jor. This was in the original organization of the Fourth Regi- ment under Colonel Hartranft, before the breaking out of the rebellion. On the first sounding of the tocsin of war at Fort Sumter, April 12th, 1861, and the President's proclamation of the 15th calling for seventy-five thousand men, our Fourth Regiment, not quite full, offered its services at once, and was ordered to Harrisburg to be filled up and mustered in. All our Montgomery county companies, of which we had seven, A, B, C, D, E, I, and K, the latter a new one recruited by Captain Walter H. Cooke, with very few defections or resigna- tions, offered their services, and left for Camp Curtin on the ISth. The Captain of the Wayne Artillerists, however, resigned his position, and First Lieutenant Bolton succeeded to the com- mand of the company, his place as Lieutenant being filled by his brother, Joseph K. Bolton. Captain Bolton's commission from Governor Curtin bears date April 18th, 1861. This was as commander of the Wayne Artillerists, or Company A, on the full mustering in of the regiment.
As is known, Colonel Hartranft's regiment was one of the first that reported for the defence of Washington and the Union. Owing to delays in ordering an advance, however, the army did not come into conflict with the insurgents till just about the expiration of the enlistment of the Fourth Regiment, and it did not therefore participate in the disastrous battle of the first Bull Run. The regiment, nevertheless, did valuable work while in service in guarding railroad connections and the Fed-
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eral capital. General McDowell, on signing the mustering out order, paid it a very high encomium.
Before Colonel Hartranft's men had been out two months,. it began to be apparent that Uncle Sam had more than a three months' job on hand. Accordingly those who had no stomach for the fight were longing to quit the service and be at home, while others were looking about and making arrangements to help "Father Abraham" entirely out of his trouble. Of the latter class Captain Bolton, Colonel Hartranft, and many others of the old Fourth, announced themselves in advance as ready to enlist for three years or the end of the war. We have be- fore us a newspaper announcement from Captain B., in the be- ginning of June, that he was ready to re-enlist, and wished to recruit men for three years. Consequently, before he reached home, he had many men booked on his new roll. No sooner was the old regiment dissolved than several Captains, Bolton, Allebaugh, Taylor, and Edward Schall, opened a rendezvous in Norristown, and soon had four companies ready for the famous Fifty-first Pennsylvania. Captain B., being the first to . complete a roll and report at Harrisburg; received his second. commission from Governor Curtin (the third one he had re -- ceived) on the 16th of August, 1861, as Captain of Company A. He reported unassigned at Camp Curtin on the 10th of September, was mustered in under State regulations on the IIth, and on the 12th equipped and mustered into the United States army. The regiment, however, was not fully organized until November 28th.
The command which unanimously selected the gallant and unassuming Hartranft as its leader was composed as follows:
Company A-Captain, William J. Bolton ; First Lieutenant, Jo -- seph K. Bolton; Second Lieutenant, Abraham L. Ortlip.
Company B-Ferdinand W. Bell *; First Lieutenant, John H. Genther; Second Lieutenant, Daniel L. Nichols.
Company C-Captain, William Allebaugh; First Lieutenant, John J. Freedley : Second Lieutenant, Davis Hunsicker.
Company D-Captain, Edward Schall; First Lieutenant, Lewis . Hallman.
Company E, recruited in Mifflinsburg-Captain, G. H. Hassen-
#Killed at Fredericksburg, Virginia, Deeember 13th, 1832. This company was re -- cruited in Northampton county.
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plug; First Lieutenant, John A. Morris; Second Lieutenant, Wil- liam R. Foster.
Company F-Captain, Robert E. Taylor; First Lieutenant, Lane S. Hart; Second Lieutenant, William W. Owen.
Company G, recruited in Centre county-Captain, Austin B Snyder; First Lieutenant, William H. Blair; Second Lieutenant, Peter A. Gaulin.
Company H, recruited in Union, Lycoming, and Snyder coun- ties-Captain, J. Merrill Linn ; First Lieutenant, William F. Camp- bell; Second Lieutenant, Jacob G. Beaver.
Company I, recruited in Bridgeport-Captain, George R. Pe- chin; First Lieutenant, George W. Bisbing; Second Lieutenant, Thomas H. Parker.
Company K-Captain, John E. Titus; First Lieutenant, George- P. Carrahan.
The members of the regimental staff were the following : Colonel, John F. Hartranft; Lieutenant Colonel, Thomas S. Bell; Major, Edwin Schall; Adjutant, Daniel P. Bible; Quar- termaster, John J. Freedley; Surgeon, J. A. Livergood; As- sistant Surgeon, John A. Hosack; Chaplain, Rev. Daniel G. Mallery. Neither the roster of the companies nor that of the regimental staff remained long without changes, as death, dis- abling wounds, and resignations, soon made alterations that we have no space to record. Our business will be with Com- pany A and Captain Bolton, which of course had the lead as the right wing of the regiment.
In the winter of 1861-2 the Fifty-first, under Burnside, par- ticipated in the taking of Newbern and of Roanoke Island, North Carolina. A short time after a detachment was sent to South Mills, where it fought the battle of Camden, on which occasion Captain Bolton showed his pluck and bravery, being pushed forward in the advance till subjected to a terrible fire from a masked battery. After remaining in North Carolina until summer, the regiment was ordered with Burnside's force- to the relief of Washington, then threatened by Lee, after Mc- Clellan's disastrous retreat from Richmond.
About this time is recorded the following fact, showing Cap- tain Bolton's pride in his company :
"The inspection on the 22d of June was attended with manifest interest on account of Captain William J. Bolton offering three prizes to Company A of $5, $2.50 and $1 respectively for the sol-
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diers having the cleanest arms and accoutrements, and showing the most soldierly appearance."*
This, says the historian, was the inauguration of a new im- pulse in the regiment in that direction.
On the 3d of July the Fifty-first took up its march north- ward, and being still in the Second Brigade, Reno's Division, was now placed in the famous Ninth Army Corps, and went to the support of General Pope at the second battle of Bull Run. The company, largely by the vigilance of Captain Bol- ton and his brother, Lieutenant Bolton, saved Graham's Bat- tery from capture during that disastrous fight.
Shortly after this demoralizing battle, wherein Pope was left unsupported by a large portion of the army under Fitz John Porter, and owing to the jealousies of Mcclellan's partisans, there seemed to be a widespread distrust both in the army and among the people as to the future of the war. Just before the battle of Antietam Captain Bolton wrote a private letter to his mother, without the slightest idea of its ever being published in the papers. This the late editor of the Norristown Repub- lican read at the house of the Captain's mother, and begged the privilege of inserting a short extract as a sample of camp patriotism. The letter says:
"I am well and ready to march. I was surprised to hear it was thought I had resigned. Never, never, never! I am in for the war whether it lasts three years or as long as I live. I never will desert my company, come what may. I hope we may be success- ful, but we shall have to work. The Burnside boys do not know what a reverse is. I shall do my duty. If I fall the name of Bolton shall not be dishonored. *
* I am well, happy, and contented. No duty will be too hard for me. I love my country better than anything on earth, and if needs be I will freely give my life for my flag."
He little thought perhaps that within a few weeks he should almost come to his anticipated offer of his life for his country, for the next dangerous service to which Captain Bolton was put was with his regiment and the Fifty-first New York to take Antietam bridge, which nearly cost him his life. The First Brigade had been thrice repulsed in the assault upon it, when the two regiments above named, of the Second Brigade,
*History of the Fifty-first, page 180.
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"were ordered to advance, which they did under a storm of shot, led by Captains Bolton and Allebaugh, and Lieutenant Colo- nel Bell. The latter fell dead, and Captain Bolton was shot in the cheek by a musket ball, which struck the jaw bone, break- ing it near the socket or process, carrying away several teeth, and passing out of the other cheek. At first it was thought he was killed, but though desperately wounded was in a few days sent home, where, under gentle nursing in his mother's house, he slowly recovered, and reported for duty again in about three months.
The death of Bell promoted Major Schall to the position of Lieutenant Colonel, and Captain Bolton to that of Major. His commission dates from September 17th, the time of this des- perate charge. During the subsequent operations of the Fifty- first with Burnside before Fredericksburg, in the fall of 1862, Major Bolton was at home recovering from his ghastly wound, which nearly carried away his jaw, and deformed him for life.
Some time in January, as his regiment lay at Newport News, he rejoined it, and the division lay in winter quarters till near April, when they were ordered West, passing through Cincin- nati to Kentucky. Nothing of interest occurred here, and the regiment was sent down the valley of the Mississippi to ope- rate against Vicksburg. After assisting in the investment of this rebel stronghold, and keeping General Johnston from raising the siege, they were, after its fall, sent to operate against Jackson, Mississippi. This place, after some fighting, and the endurance of exhausting heat by the troops, was taken, and the
old flag planted on the State Capitol once more. In the be- ginning of August the regiment returned to Kentucky and Tennessee for a winter campaign. While laying at .Lenoir, Kentucky, the Ladies' Loyal League of Norristown sent a congratulatory address to the regiment, and it fell to Major Bolton's duty to reply, which he did in very handsome terms.
During the siege of Knoxville and subsequently, as well as previously, the army suffered greatly by the need of stores and , provisions. Besides, some of the fighting was of the most des- perate character. At this time Lieutenant Colonel Schall was commanding the regiment. During this memorable siege, be-
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ing ordered by Colonel Schall to take some rifle-pits by a night assault, Major Bolton accomplished it in gallant style. Shortly after this Longstreet abandoned the attempt to take Knoxville, retired from East Tennessee, and the Fifty-first, whose term of enlistment was drawing to a close, were ordered home on a thirty days' furlough to re-enlist and recruit for three years more service. We pass over the joyful reunion of the veterans and their families on their temporary return to Montgomery county.
Late in March, 1864, the regiment left Harrisburg for the coming campaign of the Army of the Potomac, of which the Ninth Army Corps was to form a part. Then commenced those sanguinary battles down the peninsula that stained with blood nearly every rod of ground between Washington and Richmond. At Cold Harbor the lamented Colonel Schall was killed, which placed Major Bolton at the head of the regiment, Hartranft having already been commanding the brigade. His- sixth commission, that of Colonel, was received about this time. The fighting was desperate, and the losses on both sides very heavy. Finally they arrived before Petersburg, where Colonel Bolton was entrusted by General Wilcox with the very difficult duty of bringing two flanks of the broken line into communication with each other by a night operation, which he accomplished very efficiently while under the steady fire of the enemy. The Fifty-first was put to this especial service on. General Hartranft's assurance that it could be relied upon, and: the event justified his confidence. To properly understand this feat it is necessary to state that one part of the picket line or rifle-pits was not straight, but bent inward towards our line as a horse-shoe, subjecting our men to an enfilading fire. How to straighten it in the face of the rebel storm of musketry was. the question. Colonel Bolton assured the officer in command that he could secure the object under cover of darkness. This he did unseen by digging a trench at right angles with the line of advance, in the middle of the horse-shoe, and afterwards in a lateral direction to meet the perpendicular line, all the time maintaining a constant fire to conceal the noise of the pick and shovel. In the morning the Confederates saw our picket line.
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straight and our men under cover. Colonel Bolton reported to General Wilcox each hour till he had finished the move- ment. Other regiments had attempted the service and failed.
Shortly after this and the blowing up of the fort on the 3d of July, as Colonel Bolton stood with his men, there exploded some distance overhead a shell loaded with bullets and other missiles, one of which struck him on the cheek, almost on the spot of the old wound, passed downward, and lodged in the shoulder, where it yet remains. This wound of course relieved him of active duty, and he was brought home. In two months, however, he was again at the head of his command.
On the 3d of April, 1865, Colonel Bolton, suspecting that Petersburg was being evacuated by the enemy, sent a spy into the city, whose return fully confirmed the conjecture, and soon after he marched his regiment over the rebel works into the city. This was virtually the end of the war, the Fifty-first shortly after moving up to Alexandria, where Colonel Bolton had the honor to be appointed military Governor for a brief time. Here Lieutenant Colonel Allebaugh, who had been a year before captured by the rebels, was restored to and joined his command. On the 27th of July the regiment was mus- tered out, and Colonel Bolton, now brevet Brigadier General, returned to private life, his last commission being dated March 13th, 1865, and signed by President Johnson.
Shortly after his return from the army, General Bolton was married to Miss Emma Rupert, of Bloomsburg, Columbia county. They have had several children, but all are deceased except one. About the same time as his marriage, in connec- tion with his brother John, he established a store for paper hangings, which he still continues. On the death of Sheriff Philip S. Gerhard he was appointed to that office by Governor Geary, and filled it till the next election. He also served a term as a member of the borough council. At the spring election in 1877 he was chosen Burgess, and filled the office in a very efficient manner. Before this he had been commis- sioned by the Adjutant General of the State as Major General of the Second Division, National Guards of Pennsylvania, con- sisting of the Sixteenth and Fourth Regiments. During 1877,
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while holding this command, it was his duty to order out and direct the movements of his division in suppressing the great railroad riots. This was a service involving much responsi- bility with little possibility of winning glory thereby. In ad- dition to the seven military commissions already recorded, he has one dated September 28th, 1869, from Governor Geary, as Captain of the Bolton Guards, and another dated July 8th, 1861, as Colonel of the Sixteenth Regiment, and finally one as Ma- jor General of the Second Division, National Guards of Penn- sylvania.
ABRAHAM H. CASSEL. [Contributed by Samuel W. Pennypacker.]
Thou, in our wonder and astonishment, Hast built thyself a life-long monument .- Milton's Lines on Shakspeare.
This remarkable man, whose memory will be cherished as long as the German race exists in Pennsylvania, is a descend- ant in the fifth generation of Hupert Kassel, who came to this country about 1715. Johannes Kassel, who settled at Ger- mantown in 1686, was probably an uncle of old Hupert. Among the earlier Kassels living at Krieshiem on the Rhine were some who became noted as zealous preachers of the Mennonite faith, and authors doing good service in the controversial literature of their day. Confessions of faith and poems in the handwrit- ing of these worthy forefathers, who lived and died over two hundred years ago, are still preserved by their descendants.
On the maternal side Abraham H. Cassel is the great-grand- son of Christopher Saur, the celebrated printer of Germantown, whose glory it is, not so much that he stood at the head of the men of his race, and wielded a potent influence in all the affairs of the province, as that he printed the Bible in German in Penn- sylvania forty years before it was issued in English anywhere in America. Those who believe in the permanence of inher- ited characteristics may see in these facts a cause for the growth
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ABRAHAM H. CASSEL.
of literary tastes in Mr. Cassel. But however correct this the- ory may be, it is certain that no germ ever struggled forward into the light of day under more adverse circumstances than in this instance.
He was born in Towamencin township, Montgomery county, on the 21st of September, 1820, and reared in an interior Ger- man settlement, at such a distance from the outside world that only in very recent years has a railroad approached within five miles of his residence; among a people whose highest ambition is the accumulation of land, which they only acquire by hard labor and rugged self-denial; and whose sole literary food is- the Bible or sermon of the Dunker or Mennonite preacher- a farmer, like themselves. His immediate ancestors and pa- rents were plain and worthy people, whose views of life were limited to the sowing of the seed and the gathering in of the harvest; and who felt in their consciences that to permit a child to spend his time over books was to start him upon that broad way which leads to destruction.
When Abraham was a few years old his grandfather used to take him on his knee and tell him of the days when the Revo- lutionary army was encamped on the Perkiomen and Skippack, and it was the impression made by these incidents which first awakened within him the desire to learn, and gave his mind an antiquarian bent. His father, finding that his fondness for books was increasing, and fearing that it would lead him entirely away from useful labor, sternly endeavored to repress it. Fire, money and light were denied him, and even the rod was not spared in the effort to crush the supposed evil propensity. The boy was therefore compelled to pursue his studies by stealth, as he had opportunity-in the wagon-house, in the hay-mow, and late at night while others were asleep. About six weeks' tuition at a country school-house was all the instruction he ever received. In childhood he learned to speak the patois called Pennsylvania Dutch, but has since taught himself Ger- man and English, in both of which languages he is entirely proficient. He has also some acquaintance with Dutch, Latin, French, and Greek. He learned to write with a chicken feather, which a kind relative showed him how to splitat the point. When
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ABRAHAM H. CASSEL.
a young man he began to teach school, and in this occupation continued for eight years. While boarding around in the farmers' houses, in lieu of salary, as was then the custom, he found the opportunity of his life in learning the whereabouts of those rare old tomes, long since neglected and forgotten, which the religious enthusiasts who settled Pennsylvania brought with them across the Atlantic, or reprinted here for their spiritual delectation. In early youth he began to invest his spare earnings in books, and now, at the age of fifty-eight, he has a library of over ten thousand volumes, which is in some respects one of the most remarkable in the world, and in its own particular specialties stands entirely alone. It would be impossible within the limits of such a notice as this to give an adequate idea of his valuable collection. It is in the main a theological and historical library in English and German, though not confined to those subjects or languages. In the works of the fathers of the Church of the Reformed of the six- teenth century, and in early printed Bibles, it is particularly rich. The literature of the Dunker church, specimens of which are difficult to find elsewhere, is here seen entire. It contains much literary bric-a-brac, such as a copy of the works of John Bunyan in folio, 1736, having on its title-page the autograph of George Whitefield; a ponderous folio Bible, which was chained to the pulpit in the parish of South Cowden, England; the marriage certificate of Henry Frey and Anna Catharine Levering, dated Second-month (April) 26th, 1692; manuscripts in the handwriting of Francis Daniel Pastorius, the "Pennsyl- vania pilgrim"; and of Johannes Kelpins, the learned " Hermit of the Wissahickon."
Here also is the celebrated proclamation of Washington, is- sued in 1777, directing the farmers to thresh out their grain. Its chief value to the scholar, however, and its principal inter- est for the man of general culture, consists in the fact that it is a substantially complete and almost the only collection of the early German publications of this country-books, pam- phlets, and ephemera. Here, and here alone, may be found all of the rare imprints of Christopher Saur, of Germantown, including the three quarto Bibles of 1743, 1763, and 1776, and
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about one hundred and fifty other volumes and pamphlets: the Geistliches Magasin, which was the first religious maga- zine of the country; files of the newspaper which was also the first of the country; and a complete set of German almanacs beginning with 1738 and reaching down to the present date. Here is also the fullest collection in existence of the still more rare Ephrata imprints, and among them an unusually fine copy of Van Braght's Martyrer Spiegel, the noblest specimen of American colonial bibliography, and a lasting monument to the religious zeal of the Mennonites. Franklin, Armbruster, Miller, Leibert, Billmeyer, and all of the early Pennsylvania printers, have alike contributed their abundant volumes and pamphlets. In fact, it may be said with substantial truth that to the patient research and unwearied enthusiasm of this un- assuming man, we owe the preservation of the history of the Germans of Pennsylvania .* Seidensticker, Rupp, Jones, Har- baugh, Weiser, and others, have written meritoriously and ably, but away back at a farm-house near Harleysville, in Montgom- ery county, is the well from which the waters have been drawn. It would be unjust to Mr. Cassel to call him technically a "col- lector," a name generally given to a man who pays a large price for the privilege of transferring a rare book from a shelf where it is of no use to another where it is equally valueless. His work has been largely creative, and his volumes have in many instances been saved by him from destruction. From garrets, in which they were lost; from spring-house lofts and granaries, where they were the prey of the storm; and from the waste packages of the country grocer, his materials have often been rescued. In the search for his treasures he has tra- veled thousands of miles, and ofttimes a book has only been made complete by putting together fragments found in widely separated localities, and when secured they have not lain idle, but became the subject of his deepest study and the source of his greatest delight. To him the humble emigrant of the time
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