USA > Pennsylvania > Martial deeds of Pennsylvania, Vol. 1 > Part 39
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STRONG VINCENT.
ing messages of love and affection to friends. To his father and mother he said : "I have to dictate to you a few words, ere it becomes too late. My strength is rapidly wasting away. Good- bye, dearest father and mother; give my love to my sisters." He did not appear to suffer much pain, and about twenty-four hours after he was struck, he sank gradually and quietly to his last sleep. " Not one," says Greeley, " died more lamented than Major-General George D. Bayard, commanding our cavalry on the left, who was struck by a shell and mortally wounded. But twenty-seven years old, and on the eve of marriage, his death fell like a pall on many loving hearts."
TRONG VINCENT, Colonel of the Eighty-third regiment, and Brigadier-General, son of Bethuel B. and Sarah A. (Strong) Vincent, was born in the village of Waterford, Erie county, Penn- sylvania, June 17th, 1837. At the age of seventeen, he went to Hartford, Connecticut, where he became a student in the Scien- tific School. Subsequently he prepared for, and entered Trinity College, where he remained two years. At the end of that time, he entered Harvard College, and graduated in the class of 1859. Vincent did not attain a high rank as a scholar, but was looked up to as a leader among his associates, and as possessed of qualities which would make him a leader among men. In stature he was above the medium height, of well-formed and powerful frame. Returning to Erie, he commenced the study of law, and on his admission to the bar, at once took a prominent rank. The day after the President's call for volunteers, he enlisted as a private soldier in the Wayne Guards. At the expiration of the three months' service, in which he served as Adjutant of the Erie regiment, he took an active part in raising the Eighty-third regiment for three years' service, and was elected and commis- sioned its Lieutenant-Colonel. The Battle of Hanover Court House was his first experience of real conflict, though the regi- ment suffered little in this engagement. The malaria of the swamps proved more fatal to the soldiers than the bullets of the enemy, and he became a victim to its deadly influence. Towards the end of June, he was sick almost beyond the hope of recovery. At the time of the battle of Gaines' Mill, he was too weak to leave
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his bed; but when he learned the disasters which had befallen his regiment,-the Colonel and Major dead on the field, and more than half its numbers gone down in the battle,-he determined to rejoin it. His strength was insufficient to bear up under the fatigues of the march, and he was finally carried insensible from the field. He was taken in a hospital ship to New York, and thence to his home in Erie. On his return, in October, he took command of the regiment, having been chosen and commis- sioned Colonel during his absence. He participated in the battle of Fredericksburg, and while on the advance line in front of the enemy, the command of the brigade devolved upon him. He was, for several weeks, President of a court-martial, and was ten- dered the position of Judge-Advocate-General of the Army of the Potomac. But this honor, which many young officers would have coveted, he declined, saying : "I enlisted to fight." In the action at Ashby's Gap, on the 21st of June, preceding the battle of Get- tysburg, in which Vincent commanded a brigade, the enemy were routed and a Blakely gun captured. For his skill in this affair, he received the formal thanks of General Meade. The army was now on its way to Gettysburg. On crossing the Pennsyl- vania line, Vincent became much excited, riding up and down the column, encouraging the men and reminding them that they were now to fight on their own soil. On the 2d of July, the second day of the battle, Vincent was ordered to seize Little Round Top, and hold the narrow valley between it and Big Round Top. After heroically repulsing repeated assaults, while reconnoitring the position of the enemy from a huge rock directly fronting the Devil's Den, then held by the enemy's sharp-shooters, he fell mortally wounded. On the following day, his appointment by the President as Brigadier-General, was sent to him. He lingered till the 7th, and expired on the field. On entering the service, he had written to his young wife : " If I live, we will rejoice over our country's success. If I fall, remember you have given your husband to the most righteous cause that ever widowed a woman,"-a sentiment that is worthy to be inscribed upon his tomb.
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433
CHARLES F. TAYLOR.
HARLES FREDERICK TAYLOR, Colonel of the Bucktail regi- ment, was born on the 6th of February, 1840, at West Chester, Pennsylvania. His boyhood years were spent upon his father's farm, near Kennett Square. This is the neighborhood of the ground made sacred in the Revolution. Not far away is the Quaker church, where, even now, stains upon the floor are shown, formed by pools of the life-current from patriot wounds ; and near-by, the tree under which Lafayette reclined, when weak from loss of blood. The story of that struggle was early learned, and inspired his youthful imagination. At the age of fifteen, he entered the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, which he left on the following year, to accompany his brother, Bayard Taylor, and two sisters, on a tour through Europe. After travelling in Great Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, Charles, with his sisters, settled at Lau- sanne, while Bayard was making his northern tour through Sweden and Lapland. In the spring of 1857, they proceeded to Gotha for the purpose of studying the German language; and in June following, returned to America. With renewed vigor, Charles again took his place in the University; but at the end of a year, left the institution, to undertake the management of his father's farm. His plans for improved culture had scarcely been matured, when the tocsin of war was sounded, and he instantly abandoned the visions of agricultural triumphs, for those on the field of strife.
Having recruited a company, he moved with it to Harrisburg, where it was made a part of the Bucktail regiment, and he was commissioned its Captain. Before the opening of the spring campaign, this regiment was divided; six companies, under Major Roy Stone, going with Mcclellan to the Peninsula; and the other four, among which was Captain Taylor's, under Colonel Kane, remaining with McDowell in the army of observation. At Harrisonburg, on the 6th of June, this handful of Bucktails fought an entire brigade of the enemy. They were subjected to an enfilading fire, by which Captain Taylor received four bullet holes through his clothes. When about to retire, he found that his Colonel had fainted from loss of blood, and in the act of rendering him assistance, they were surrounded by eight or ten
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MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
rebels who immediately took them prisoners. They were both paroled at Petersburg, and at once sent into the Union lines. Their request to be exchanged was not granted, and they re- mained prisoners on parole until November, during which time Captain Taylor was commandant of Camp Parole, at Annapolis. He was not released until after the battle of Antietam, when- Colonel McNeil having been killed, and Colonel Kane having been promoted to Brigadier-General-he was advanced to Colonel, then but twenty-one, among the youngest who held that com- mission in the Union army. In the battle of Fredericksburg, he was wounded, the loss in the regiment being very severe. At Gettysburg the Bucktails were in the First brigade, commanded by Colonel McCandless. At the moment when the fortunes of the day on the left of the field seemed utterly lost, brigade after brigade, and division after division, having been pushed forward, only to be hurled back mangled and bleeding, McCandless was ordered to charge and check the impetuous onsets of the foc. In two lines he advanced, Taylor having the left of the second line. The swamp, formed by Plum Run, presented a serious impedi- ment ; but, having passed it in the face of a murderous fire, he swept on, and having crossed the stone wall upon the verge of the wood, dashed through it to the edge of the Wheatfield, where, while in the act of steadying and encouraging his men, he was shot through the heart by the bullet of a sharp-shooter. His body was carried back, and taken to his home near Ken- nett Square, where it was buried with impressive ceremonies. A tasteful monument rests over his grave-the tribute of sol- diers and friends.
OHIN RICHTER JONES, Colonel of the Fifty-eighth regiment. entered the service from Sullivan county, Pennsylvania, on the 13th of February, 1862. Many of his men were from the forest region, and the pet he chose to accompany his command was in keeping with the characteristics of the section he repre- sented. It was neither a dog. a cat, a rooster, a coon, nor a fox, which were the most commonly adopted; but a bear from the forests of Sullivan. The service which Colonel Jones' command performed was, for the most part, rendered in North Carolina,
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JOHN R. JONES .- JAMES H. CHILDS.
where he was isolated from the great armies operating in the field, and where the duty chiefly consisted in holding an enemy's country, and fighting detached bodies as they chanced to appear. A clause, extracted from the communication of a writer who understood well the difficulties and dangers of that service, pub- lished in Moore's Rebellion Record, discloses its character. "There are thousands," he says, "at the North, who curse the army for inaction, who, if they knew half the brave things done by the men in the field, would be shamed to silence by their deeds of valor. Colonel Jones and his heroes of the Fifty-eighth Pennsyl- vania have done some splendid work, and by his vigilance he has made the bushwhackers cry for quarter." In an action at Bachelor's Creek, on the 23d of May, 1863, while in command of a brigade, and conducting an important expedition, he was shot through the heart and instantly expired. General Foster, who commanded in the department, in an order announcing his death, said : "Colonel Jones won the admiration of all, by the indefatigable, able, and gallant manner with which he filled the arduous duties of Commander of the Outposts. He died whilst yet enjoying the triumphs of a victory won by his valor and counsel."
AMES HARVEY CHILDS, Colonel of the Fourth cavalry, was born on the 4th of July, 1834, at Pittsburg. His father was Harvey Childs, a native of Massachusetts. His mother, Jane Bailey (Lowrie) Childs, was a sister of the Hon. Walter H. Lowrie, late Chief Justice of Pennsylvania. He was educated at the Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, where he graduated in the class of 1852. In person, he was six feet in height, well pro- portioned, and of good general health. He was married on the 14th of July, 1857, to Mary HI. Howe, eldest daughter of the Hon. Thomas M. Howe, of Pittsburg.
He was First Lieutenant of the Pittsburg City Guards, before the rebellion. When the call was made for troops in that struggle, he was prompt to tender his services, and became First Lieutenant of company K, Twelfth regiment. After the conclu- sion of the term for which this body was enlisted, he was active in recruiting the Fourth Pennsylvania Cavalry, and was com-
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missioned Lieutenant-Colonel. Before entering upon field ser- vice he was promoted to Colonel. In the campaign upon the Peninsula he was on duty with his command, the scouting and skirmishing being unusually severe on account of the lack of troops in this arm of the service. His regiment opened the battle in the first of the seven days' engagements, and at Gaines' Mill and Charles City Cross Roads, was actively employed, proving, in both those desperate encounters, the sterling qualities of which it was composed and the steadfast purpose of its commander.
On evacuating the Peninsula, the regiment moved to Wash- ington, arriving in time to join in the Maryland campaign. At Antietam it was attached to Averell's brigade, and on account of the sickness of its leader, the command devolved upon Colonel Childs. The brigade was assigned to the left of the Union line, and after crossing the stone bridge, was posted in support of Clark's battery, which was warmly engaged. The duty was diffi- cult, and the enemy's fire proved very destructive. Colonel Childs was upon every part of the field, encouraging his men, and intel- ligently directing the movements. He had just completed an inspection of the skirmish line and had returned to his head- quarters, where he was cheerfully conversing with his staff, when he was struck by a cannon-ball on the left hip which threw him from his horse, and passed completely through his body. For a time his mind was clear, and recognizing at once that his wound was mortal, his first care was for his command. He dispatched Captain Hughes, one of his aids, to General Pleasanton, Chief of cavalry, to apprise him of his fall, and another to Lieutenant- Colonel Kerr, to request him to assume command of the brigade. He then sent a message to Dr. Marsh, that, "If he was not attending to any one whose life could be saved, to come to him, as he was in great pain." Finally, he called to his side his Assis- tant Adjutant-General, Captain Henry King, a townsman and personal friend, to whom he gave brief messages of affection to his wife and three little children. Of the oldest of the three, a boy bearing the name of his maternal grandfather, as if thinking in his dying moments only of his country for which he had perilled and lost his own life, he said : "Tell Howe to be a good boy, and a good man, and true to his country." In twenty
437
WASHINGTON BROWN.
minutes he became delirious, and shortly after breathed his last, joining in the spirit-land his many comrades whose last earthly struggle was on the bloody field of Antietam.
ASHINGTON BROWN, Captain in the One Hundred and Forty- fifth regiment. Many of the most carnest and faithful of the soldiers who went forth to do battle for the preservation of the national integrity, were the sons of farmers, who, during the period of boyhood and youth, were accustomed to labor; and while removed from the privileges of the city, were also kept aloof from its corrupting influences,-a condition favoring reflection, and inducing to study.
Of this class was Washington Brown, who was born on the 22d of October, 1836, in Millcreek township, Eric county, Penn- sylvania. His father, Conrad Brown, and his mother, Elizabeth Ann (Barr) Brown, were both natives of that county. The son was instructed in the common schools of the district during five or six months in each year, working upon the farm the remain- der of the time, until he had passed the period of boyhood, when he was sent to the Erie County Academy, and, subsequently, to a commercial school in the city of New York, where he com- pleted his academic studies. In his nineteenth year, he taught a country school during one term. He attained to a good degree of proficiency in mathematics and civil engineering.
He early exhibited a liking for military training, and became a member of the Wayne Guards, a widely-known militia com- pany, commanded by that gallant soldier and true patriot, John W. McLane. Early in the war, he was active in recruiting a company for the One Hundred and Forty-fifth Pennsylvania regiment, of which he was chosen Captain. When the subject of the captaincy was under consideration, he was asked what his course would be if he were defeated for this position ? His answer was prompt and decisive : "I will go into the ranks with my musket." The choice of a Captain was not long in doubt.
The organization of the regiment was completed but a few days before the battle of Antietam, and it was hurried away to join the grand army. It arrived within sound of the battle, and was employed in burying the dead on that gory field.
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In the battle of Fredericksburg, Captain Brown was wounded in the right arm, near the shoulder. Calling to one of his men, he requested him to tie a handkerchief tightly above the wound, and using his knife for a tourniquet, he seized his sword in his left hand, and again led on his men, cheering them in the fight, until from loss of blood he became too weak to stand, when he was carried from the field. He was unable to obtain surgical assistance, and for three days the wound remained undressed-a fatal and unaccountable delay. When finally it was examined, it was found to be past relief. When told by the surgeon . that he must lose his arm, he cheerfully assented, and it was ampu- tated at the shoulder. Three days thereafter, having endured great suffering and grief at the separation from friends and family, he died. His father was with him through all, and ministered to him with paternal care. His last words were : "O Lord, receive my spirit! Good-bye. I am gone." Thus passed to his rest as brave a man as ever filled a soldier's grave.
On the 11th of September, 1861, just one year before his de- parture for the front, he was married to Miss Eliza Alexander of Covington, Kentucky, who, with an infant daughter, was left to mourn his untimely death. In person, he was erect and well- proportioned, being five feet ten inches in height, and weighing 170 pounds. He was possessed of good health, of temperate habits, industrious, energetic, of a kind and sympathetic heart. He was descended from a line of heroic ancestors. On the day that his regiment left for the front, his aged grandmother, more than threescore years and ten, in the spirit of the heroine of old -who bade her son return with the weapon she gave, or upon it- presented him a pistol, as a token of her appreciation of the right- eousness of the cause he espoused, and of her faith in its triumph. The company having been drawn up, ready to take its place in the line, the venerable matron thus addressed him : "My son, I send you to war to defend the liberties of our country which are menaced by designing and wicked men. My father, your great-grandfather, fought in the Revolutionary War to gain our independence. My husband, your grandfather, served in the War of 1812 to establish our independence, and I wish you to do your duty to your country by giving your services, and life itself,
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WILLIAM BOWEN.
if necessary, in defence of those liberties, won and established by your fathers. I present you this weapon. Use it if the occasion calls, and use it skilfully. Always be obedient to those who are placed over you. Be kind to those who are under you, and may they treat you with respect and obedience in return. My bles- sing shall follow you, and may God bless and preserve you. Farewell."
The Captain briefly said, in response : "I thank you for this weapon. I will endeavor to do my duty to my country, and to my men." Faithfully was the promise kept; and when, after having fallen upon the field of honor, his lifeless form was borne mournfully to his home, a great concourse of sorrowing friends and fellow-citizens followed him to his final resting-place, in the Cemetery at Erie. It is sad to contemplate the sacrifice of such as these; but
" Who dies in vain Upon his country's war-fields, and within The shadows of her altars ?"
ILLIAM BOWEN, Lieutenant and Acting Adjutant of the Seventy-fifth regiment, was born on the 25th of April, 1837, at Manchester, England, where his parents were then re- siding. He was the son of William Ezra and Elizabeth (Kritley) Bowen, the former a native of Philadelphia, the latter of Eng- land. While the son was yet in infancy they came to Philadel- phia, where, and at Bolmar's Military Institute at Westchester, he received a good education. After graduating he was for a time in mercantile business, spent a year in Centre county, and a year and a half in Ontonagon, Michigan, where his health, which had suffered from a rheumatic affection, was much im- proved. He volunteered at the opening of the war in the Seven- teenth regiment, Colonel Patterson, and at the conclusion of its ser- vice, entered the Seventy-fifth, General Bohlen, as a Second-Lieu- tenant. His regiment was attached to the Second brigade of Schurz's division ; and in Pope's campaign he was the Acting Adjutant. It was a position of great responsibility, and from the confidence which he had inspired by his soldierly qualities, one of marked influence. In that disastrous retreat he had par- ticularly distinguished himself in the work of checking the
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enemy's advance, and protecting the retiring army. In a des- perate charge ordered for this purpose, on the 30th of August, while at the head and cheering on his regiment, he received a mortal wound, from the effect of which he soon after expired on the field. Though in the agonies of death he still thought of his command, and with his latest breath asked: "Do the men still stand firm ?" On being assured that they did, he said : " It is all right then." These were his last words. His remains were buried on the field, but were subsequently removed to the family grave at Laurel Hill Cemetery.
AMUEL CROASDALE, Colonel of the One Hundred and Twenty- eighth regiment, son of William and Sarah Croasdale, was born at Hartsville, Bucks county, on the 23d of August, 1837. He was educated at Tenant school in his native town. He early evinced talents of a superior order, and a disposition thoughtful, studious, and ambitious. His love for, and know- ledge of the classics, acquired for him among his. fellows the sobriquet of Old Cicero. In the mathematics, in which he also delighted, he was no less proficient. He chose the law as his profession, and at the age of twenty-three was admitted to the Bucks county bar, where he practised until the breaking out of the war. When troops were needed he was among the first to enlist, and went as a private under Colonel W. W. H. Davis, in the three months' campaign. He entered the service again as Captain, having recruited a company ; was promoted to the rank of Colonel, and given the command of the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania regiment. Before his men had been a month in the service, they were incorporated in the Army of the Potomac, and put upon the march to meet the enemy in Maryland. At the battle of Antietam, fought on the 17th of September, 1862, he was instantly killed, while leading his command on the hottest part of that stubbornly contested field. In appearance he was tall and commanding, with a fine intellectual face, expressive of power and determination, yet with a disposition most kind and affectionate.
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441
SAMUEL CROASDALE .- HENRY I. ZINN.
ENRY I. ZINN, Colonel of the One Hundred and Thirtieth, regiment, was born on the 11th of December, 1834, in Dover township, York county, Pennsylvania. He was the son of John and Anna Mary (Beitzel) Zinn. He received his education at the Cumberland Valley Institute, which gave a thorough train- ing in the branches of a liberal course, and here he stood among the first for readiness of apprehension and soundness of views. By nature well endowed, and by taste studious, he was fitted to have taken a commanding position among his fellow men in any walk or profession. He was, in stature, five feet ten inches, stout, robust, and healthy. He was married on the 18th of September, 1855, to Miss Mary Ann Clarke.
He entered the service of the United States on the 23d of April, 1862, when he was elected First-Lieutenant of Company H, Seventh Pennsylvania Reserve. He was promoted to Captain of that company on the 28th of June; but in August following resigned. Re-entering the service as Captain of Company F, One Hundred and Thirtieth, on the 9th of August, a few days thereafter he was made Colonel of the regiment. He was in this position in a sphere fitted to his capabilities, and under his moulding hand the regiment rapidly gained a knowledge and skill in the practice of military duty. He was posted in the fortifications covering the approaches to Washington, during the battles of Groveton and Chantilly, and at Antietam took a prominent part, his regiment being stationed on the left of the right wing of the Union army, losing severely. He was here conspicuous for gallantry, and had a horse shot under him. After this engagement, Colonel Zinn was posted at Harper's Ferry, where his men suffered for want of camp equipage, and even for food. But in spite of the many difficulties, he insti- tuted and pursued a regular plan of daily battalion and company drills. "He was," says one of his subordinate officers, "one of the best drill masters in the corps."
Captain Joshua W. Sharp, a brave man, who led one of the companies in Colonel Zinn's regiment, gives the following graphic account of the part it bore in the battle of Fredericksburg, and of the heroic death of its leader: "The One Hundred and Thirtieth started for Fredericksburg on the 11th of December,
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