USA > Pennsylvania > Martial deeds of Pennsylvania, Vol. 1 > Part 43
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Among those who were eminent in the late war for martial ability, General Reynolds stands in the first rank. His life had been devoted to the profession of arms from his youth, and when the noise of battle sounded in his ears, his soul, instinct with the warlike custom, was aroused to deeds of heroism. In all the actions in which he was engaged, up to the moment of his death, he displayed unsurpassed devotion and bravery. If he had any fault, it was one which must ever excite the admiration and quicken the pulse of him who contemplates it-that of too much exposing himself in the hour of battle. At Beaver Dam Creek, at Gaines' Mill, where he was captured, and at the Second Bull Run, he was in the thickest of the fray, in the very fore front of his troops. Little less than a miracle had thus far preserved him. But at Gettysburg he was in a more exalted position, having the command of nearly half of the army, and a due regard to its preservation and safety demanded that he should exercise care of his person. His own safety, however, was the least of his cares. He knew that the two armies were rapidly approaching each other, and collision could not long be avoided. The choice of the field and the initiative of the battle was in his eyes
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all-important, and he determined to push to the front and decide everything from personal observation; and who will say that he did not do right ? He gave his life; but he gave it that victory might be assured. He lived not to hear its glad shout; but the example of heroism which at its outset he gave, inspired his soldiers and nerved them to make the good fight which assured it. " He was," says Sypher, " one of America's greatest soldiers. The men he commanded loved him. He shared with them the hard- ships, toil, and danger of the camp, the march, and the field. Devoted to his profession, he was guided by those great principles which can alone prepare a soldier to become the defender of the liberties of a free people. He fell valiantly fighting for his country. Still more, he died in the defence of the homes of his neighbors and kinsmen. No treason-breeding soil drank his blood, but all of him that was mortal is buried in the bosom of his own native State."
In his personal intercourse in the field he was exceedingly re- served. "On the night before the battle," says Captain Baird, "General Reynolds retired to his room about midnight, and rose early, as was his usual practice. On the march from our head- quarters at the Red Tavern, he was very reticent and uncom- municative to all around him, as was his wont. He was, in this respect, an entirely different man from any other general officer with whom I served during the war, having very little, if any- thing, to say to any one, other than to communicate to them such orders as he desired executed. He would, while he was upon the march, ride miles without having any conversation with any one. Our ride to Gettysburg formed no exception to this rule. From this you can see that no conclusion could be arrived at as to what his feelings and presentiments were upon that day. I consider him one of the finest and most thorough soldiers which the Civil War brought before the country."
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ENRY BOHLEN,* Colonel of the Seventy-fifth regiment and Brigadier-General of volunteers, was the youngest son of the late Bohl Bohlen, an eminent merchant of Philadelphia, who
The sketch here given of General Bohlen is printed, with the omission of some irrele- vant matter, as it was published in the Philadelphia Commercial List and Price Current of March 31st, 1866.
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HENRY BOHLEN.
was the founder of the house of B. and J. Bohlen, for many years extensively engaged in the Holland and East India trade. Gen- eral Bohlen was born in the city of Bremen, on the 22d of October, 1810, while his parents were travelling in Europe for pleasure; his father being a naturalized citizen of the United States, and domiciled in Philadelphia, placed him in the same position as to birth, by the laws of our country, as if he had been born on the soil of the United States. At an early day he evinced so decided a taste for martial pursuits that his father determined to give him an education suitable to his disposition, and at the proper age he was placed in one of the first military colleges in Germany ; but before he had completed his studies he was called home to the United States upon some family matters, and he did not return to close his collegiate course in Europe.
In 1830 he was again upon the Continent, and in 1831 was brought to the favorable notice of the illustrious Marquis de Lafayette, a name that will ever be venerated in this country. Through the influence of Lafayette, young Bohlen obtained a position as Aide-de-camp on the staff of General Gerard, and with that distinguished officer he took part in the memorable siege of Antwerp. For his able services in this campaign he received honorable mention. In the year 1832 he returned to Philadel- phia, and married the eldest daughter of the late J. J. Borie, a much-respected merchant of this city, and in the same year he established himself in the French and West India trade. On the death of his uncle, John Bohlen, which took place in March, 1851 (his father died in 1836), he succeeded the old house of B. and J. Bohlen, and at the time of his death he was the senior partner of the well-known house of Henry Bohlen and Co., gene- ral importers.
On the breaking out of the war with Mexico, he was eager to be once more amid the clash of arms. He restrained himself for some months, but finally yielded to the desire to enter the army, and on the 31st of October, 1846, he left the quiet pursuits of mercantile life, to again follow the uncertain fortunes of war. He accepted a position on the staff of his cherished friend and com- panion, the late lamented General Worth, as a volunteer Aide-de- ·camp, defraying all his own expenses, and receiving nothing
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whatever from the Government. He participated in all the battles with his chief up to the triumphal entry of the American army, under Major-General Scott, into the ancient Capital of the Montezumas. On the restoration of peace, he again sheathed his sword, and resigned, apparently forever, his favorite occupation.
In 1850, the delicate health of a favorite son caused him to embark once more for Europe, with all his family, trusting that the more genial climate of the interior of France would restore his boy to health; but as the experiment was only partially suc- cessful, he determined, for a few years at least, to make Europe his permanent place of abode; never forgetting, however, for a moment, the allegiance and love he owed to the United States, being ever proud to be called an American.
On the breaking out of the Crimean War he entered the ser- vice of the allies, on the French staff, and shared in many of the severe conflicts of that well-remembered struggle. He was active during the siege, and up to the time of the storming and the final surrender of Sebastopol. After the Crimean War, he for some time resided quietly in Holland, in the society of a fond, a devoted wife, affectionate children, and many friends, surrounded by all that could make life agreeable and attractive, when news reached him of the revolt in the Cotton States, and of the firing on and surrender of Fort Sumter. The insult to his old flag roused all his patriotic fire, and caused him to bid adieu to his family, to return to the country so dear to him, where he deter- mined to draw his sword in defence of the Government. He came with all haste, and arrived in Philadelphia in June, 1861. He immediately applied for a position on the staff of some gen- eral officer, but finding no vacancy, he made application to the War Department for permission to recruit a regiment, which was at once granted. He immediately set about organizing a regi- ment, to be composed entirely of Germans, and he succeeded in the effort. He left with his regiment, 800 strong, on the night of the 27th of September, 1861, for Washington. Two compa- nies were yet to be recruited; these were completed, and they joined him some time after. All the expenses of recruiting were borne by himself, nor would he allow his officers to con- tribute any portion. In the following October, he was advanced
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HENRY BOHLEN.
to the position of Colonel, commanding the Third brigade of General Blenker's division. His brigade was noted for its disci- pline, celerity in evolutions of the line, and proficiency in the manual of arms. In March, 1862, his brigade had the advance in the terrible march from Warrenton, up the Valley of Virginia, to Winchester. For days his soldiers were almost without food, badly clothed, barefoot, and without tents, bivouacking at night in fields covered with water, and suffering as few other armies have ever suffered, and enduring hardships almost equal to those endured by the rear of the Grand Army of Napoleon in its dis- astrous retreat from Russia.
In the early part of April, 1862, President Lincoln appointed him a Brigadier-General of volunteers, and in about two weeks he was unanimously confirmed by the Senate. In the battle of Cross Keys, in May of the same year, he acted with distin- guished bravery, and he was the subject of much favorable criti- cism for the skill with which he manœuvred his men. The battle near the Rappahannock closed his earthly career. On the morning of the 22d of August, 1862, General Sigel ordered General Bohlen to cross that stream with his brigade to recon- noitre. The Seventy-fourth Pennsylvania crossed first to feel the enemy, and immediately after the Sixty-first Ohio and the Eighth Virginia followed, in order to support the Seventy-fourth, in case of an attack. In moving up the road, their advance was checked by four regiments of rebel infantry, who poured upon them a murderous fire. It was in personally leading a charge of the Eighth Virginia, for the fourth time, that this gallant soldier fell, pierced by a rifle ball in the region of the heart, and expired immediately.
Thus passed away another of Pennsylvania's most distin- guished sons. The country lost a faithful officer and a true soldier, his family a fond and affectionate father, society a bril- liant ornament, and the poor a kind, a generous benefactor. He left a wife and three children to mourn his untimely end.
The remains of General Bohlen were brought to Philadelphia, where they were interred, September 12th, 1862, with becoming honors. His funeral oration was delivered by the Rev. Joseph A. Seiss, D. D., of St. John's Lutheran Church. The reverend
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gentleman truthfully sketched the character of the departed soldier, and fairly depicted the gloom of the times that made the patriotic example of the deceased so brilliant in its dark setting, when he said :
" Never was purer patriotism extinguished at a time when it was more needed, or more generous bravery destroyed at a junc- ture when its presence was more demanded, or more self-sacri- ficing services cut short at a period when more required, than that which ceased when General Bohlen fell !
" The deceased was eminently a man of the class which the country most needs in these lowering times. And he was just in that position in which he was rendering the services most demanded by the emergencies which have arisen. But, at the very post and moment when about to be most useful, the summons of God reached him, and his friends and country have nothing left of him but these remains which we are about to lower into the dark bosom of the earth !
"Not, therefore, with the outpouring of the natural sympathies of the human heart over the fall of a fellow mortal merely ; nor yet only with those outpourings swollen with the tears of be- reaved friendship and the regrets of a disrupted Christian fellow- ship; but also, with a lively sense of national and public loss, at a moment of peculiar peril and necessity, that we here this day surround this covered bier. It is patriotism, quite as much as sorrowing personal affection, that seeks to utter its grief, and to express its sense of bereavement, by this solemn pageant. And when we bethink ourselves how sorely our country is pressed at this dark hour-how in need of disciplined soldiers and brave and experienced commanders-how the calls and cries from all sides are appealing to us for men to defend our own firesides- and how the dark thunder-clouds of rebel invasion are threaten- ing to break upon us with all the dreadful doings of rampant ruin-to find ourselves appointed by Providence to the sad work of committing our Generals to their graves, our faith would stag- ger were we not otherwise so unmistakably assured of the wisdom and righteousness of that Almighty God, who taketh away, and none can hinder.
1
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HUGHI W. McNEIL.
"There may be such a thing as a Christian soldier. And such was Henry Bohlen. He was a praying man. Incidents have not been wanting to show that his Bible and his devotions were not neglected, even amid the hinderances and diverting causes which pressed upon him amid the duties of the field. Nor shall I soon forget the devout and feeling manner in which he com- mitted himself and his cause to God, when he last stood where his remains now lie. Grasping my hand, with tears in his eyes, he said : 'God only knows whether I shall ever return to you again; but whether I return or not, my trust is in Him who alone can help. The cause in which I have embarked is one which He must approve, and for it I am willing to meet what- ever His good providence may appoint.' With this spirit he went upon the field. With this spirit he served to the last. With this spirit he has fallen, a willing sacrifice for the good of his country. And with this spirit I cannot but believe he has met his God in peace."
UGH WATSON MCNEIL, a Colonel of the Bucktail regiment, was born in 1830, at Owasco, Cayuga county, New York. He was the son of the Rev. Archibald McNeil, and was educated at Yale College. Immediately after graduating, finding the Northern winters too severe for his health, which was deli- cate, he went to Washington, where he taught in the Union Academy for a year, at the end of which, he accepted a place in the office of the Coast Survey, under Dr. Bache. He resigned after a few months, and received an appointment to a position in the Treasury Department, where he remained for six years. He, in the meantime, studied law, and was admitted to the bar. After leaving the Treasury, he entered the law office of Blach- ford and Seward, in New York city. After the lapse of a few months, a pulmonary attack, with which he had before been afflicted, reduced him to the verge of the grave; but he finally regained his strength, and removed to Warren, Pennsylvania. where he became Cashier of a bank in 1860. When, upon the opening of hostilities, in 1861, Roy Stone formed his company of Bucktail Riflemen, McNeil enlisted as a private, and was elected First Lieutenant. At the formation of the Bucktail regiment
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he was promoted to Captain of Stone's company, the latter hav- ing been made Major. After the battle of Dranesville, where he acted with great gallantry, he was elected Colonel. While the Reserves were at Fredericksburg, upon the eve of departing to the Peninsula, he was attacked with disease, and was obliged to return to his home. He did not recover so as to resume com- mand until after the close of the Peninsula campaign. When he came to meet his men at Harrison's Landing, and saw, in place of that stalwart body, only a few, begrimed by battle, who had survived the terrible ordeal of that destructive cam- paign, he was moved to tears by the spectacle, and exclaimed : " My God ! where are my Bucktails ? Would that I had died with them !"
In the Maryland campaign he displayed the best qualities of the soldier. At South Mountain, General Meade ordered him to advance, with his regiment deployed as skirmishers, boldly up the face of the mountain and find the foe. Nobly was the com- mand executed, and before the enemy was aware of their presence, he began to feel the effect of their trusty rifles. Again, at Antie- tam, McNeil was ordered to deploy his men, and lead the column. At a wood in front of the little Dunkard church, the enemy was found, sheltered behind a fence. A charge was ordered, and McNeil went forward at a run in the face of a perfect torrent of artillery and musketry missiles. The first line of the foe was routed and driven ; but in advancing upon a second line, many of his men fell, and among them Colonel McNeil himself, who expired on the field. Ilis last commands were, "Forward, Bucktails ! Forward !" "These were his last commands," says Captain C. Cornforth ; "I heard them. It was quite dark, and I did not see him, though he was but a short distance off. I helped carry him back to the rear, after firing had ceased. I did not know he was killed till silence and darkness reigned. One of the soldiers said his last words were, . Take me to the rear. Don't let me fall into the enemy's hands.'" General Meade, in his report of the battle, says : "I feel it also due to the memory of a gallant soldier and accomplished gentleman, to express here my sense of the loss to the public service in the fall of Colonel Hugh W. McNeil, of the First Pennsylvania Rifles, who fell
483
JOHN M. GRIES.
mortally wounded while in the front rank, bravely leading on and encouraging his men, on the afternoon of the 16th." Colonel McNeil was a ripe scholar, a tried and true soldier, and died deeply lamented by his men and the entire Reserve corps.
OHN MYERS GRIES, Major of the One Hundred and Fourth regiment, was born at Womelsdorf, Berks county, Penn- sylvania, on the 22d of March, 1828. His father was a physician, and a son of John Dieter Gries, who came to this country from near Manheim, Germany. His mother, Maria Priscilla, was the daughter of John Myers, whose father was the proprietor of Myerstown, Lebanon county. He was educated at the Womels- dorf and Reading Academies, and served an apprenticeship to a carpenter preparatory to becoming an architect, for which he had native talent and disposition. He was self-instructed in his pro- fession, but became skilled, the designs of Christ Church Hospital, Philadelphia Bank, and Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank, among many others, being monuments of his talent. His natural genius had been cultivated by a careful study of European masterpieces, which he had made during a visit a few years before the Re- bellion. His only military training was as a member of a volun- teer organization, under Colonel Chapman Biddle, formed soon after the outbreak of the war.
He was appointed Major of the Ringgold regiment, the One Hundred and Fourth of the line, which he was active in recruit- ing, until he took command of the camp at Doylestown under Colonel Davis. On taking the field, Major Gries moved with his regiment to the Peninsula, and though often worn out with fatigue and depressed by sickness, yet he would never yield, but kept at the post of duty through wearisome marches. At Savage Station, a week before the battle of Fair Oaks, he was in com- mand of the skirmishers in advance of the whole army, and skilfully directed the fire of the artillery, by signals from the extreme front, so accurately that the rebels were forced to fall back. At Fair Oaks, while in the thickest of the fight and in the . intelligent discharge of his duty, he received a mortal wound. It was inflicted while he was in the act of securing the flag which was in danger of being lost, as the regiment was falling back
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from a charge which had just been made. He was brought off the field, and with other wounded was taken to the general hos- pital at Philadelphia. He refused the invitations of friends to their homes, and insisted upon going with his comrades. The ball with which he was wounded lodged in the bone of the pelvis. Several unsuccessful attempts were made by surgeons at different times to remove it, and it is probable that he died, more from the effects of these persistent and inexcusable trials, than from the wound itself, though his system had been much reduced by hard labor, his command having had the advance after leaving Bottom's Bridge, which involved ceaseless care and multiplied responsibility on the part of the officers. He endured the pain of the surgical operations without flinching and with a stoicism that excited the wonder of every beholder. He expired on the 13th of June, after having borne great suffering for the space of nearly two weeks.
By the commander of his brigade, General Naglee, he was held in high esteem, on account of his promptness and courage as an officer, and good judgment as an engineer. In a letter to Adju- tant-General Williams, that officer said : "Again should mention be made of the cool daring and gallant manner in which Major John M. Gries sustained his regiment, when charging in the very face of the enemy. The Major died from wounds then and there received, and will long be remembered by all who knew him."
AMES MILLER, Colonel of the Eighty-first regiment, was a vol- unteer soldier in two wars. When hostilities with Mexico opened, he promptly recruited troops, and won distinction as a brave and efficient officer throughout the campaign, serving in one of the regiments which followed General Scott, and at its close was commissioned Captain for meritorious services. At the opening of the War of Rebellion he again volunteered, and was instrumental in organizing and bringing to a state of efficiency the Eighty-first regiment, of which he was made Colonel. He went to the Peninsula with MeClellan, and, when arrived before Richmond, was put upon the front. His command was active in the construction of the famous Sumner bridge across the Chicka- hominy, and when completed, passed over and participated in
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JAMES MILLER .- JAMES CROWTHIER .- JOSEPH A. MCLEAN.
the severe skirmish at Golding's Farm. In the battle of Fair Oaks, fought on the 30th of May, the troops of Sumner were hastened to the relief of the hard-pressed forces of Casey, who was first to feel the attack, and were successful in checking the foc. On the following morning, the fighting was renewed. The left flank of his regiment was exposed. In the progress of the battle a regiment of the enemy approached, from the open side, which Colonel Miller mistook for a Union force, and called out to it. The answer was a volley at close range, under which he fell, shot through the heart, and expired upon the field manfully battling to the last.
AMES CROWTHER, Colonel of the One Hundred and Tenth regi- ment, was born in Centre county, Pennsylvania, on the 16th of January, 1818. He was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel on the 23d of December, 1861, and at once took the field with his command. He was engaged in the campaign of 1862, in West Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley, under Lander, Shields, and Banks. When General Pope took command of all the forces before Washington, Ricketts' division, to which this regiment was attached, was sent to Thoroughfare Gap, where a stubborn resistance was made to Longstreet's advance, and afterwards upon the plains of Manassas it fought with deter- mined courage against vastly superior numbers. Soon after the battle of Fredericksburg, Lieutenant-Colonel Crowther was pro- moted to Colonel. In the disastrous battle of Chancellorsville, while he was leading his regiment in the fierce fighting which heralded in the morning of the 3d of May, 1863, he was killed, and nearly half of his regiment was stricken down by his side.
OSEPH A. MCLEAN, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Eighty-eighth regiment, was born in the city of Philadelphia on the 22d of May, 1823. He was the son of William and Sarah (Douglass) McLean, natives of Scotland, and was the youngest son of a family of twelve, two girls and ten boys. He gave early promise of mental ability, and it was the purpose of his parents to give him a liberal education ; but their designs were frustrated by mis- fortune, and he was early put to a trade, first as a glass-blower,
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MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
and finally as a fancy and ornamental painter. In June, 1843, he married Miss Elizabeth Doyle, of Richmond, Virginia. He . was an active member of the Franklin Debating Society, and became its President. In the riots of 1844, which resulted in bloodshed, he was among the most active in quelling them, Shiffler, one of the victims, falling by his side, and another near him having his jaw shot away. He enlisted for the Mexican War; but through the intervention of friends was prevented from serving. In 1848, he removed with his family to the city of Reading, where he soon identified himself with the interests of the place, organizing a Lyceum, advocating the building of the Lebanon Valley Railroad, and was finally elected a member of the City Council, and subsequently its President. He was also a member of the Public School Board. In politics he was an American, and a firm advocate of the abolition of slavery, stump- ing the country for Lincoln in 1860, speaking about sixty times, among other places, in Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, Har- risburg and Pottsville. He was prompt in recruiting troops when the President made his call for men, and was appointed Adjutant of the Fourteenth regiment, in the three months' campaign under Patterson. With his brother, Colonel George P. McLean, he was active in recruiting the Eighty-eighth, three year regiment, of which he was made Lieutenant-Colonel. He was exceedingly popular with his men, whose hardships he shared, and whose burdens he did what he could to lighten. He received frequent tokens of regard, among others a beautiful sword, sash and belt. In the battle of Cedar Mountain, his command was actively engaged, and also in the manœuvring and skirmishing of Pope's army, preceding the second battle of Bull Run. In the midst of that disastrous engagement, while supporting a battery that was being fiercely assailed, he was struck by a musket ball in the hip and mortally wounded. Confusion had already seized upon the Union army, and he was ordered with his regiment, of which he was at the time in command, to assist a battery in holding the enemy in check while the army was retiring. Three times he had rallied his men under a fierce fire; but while bringing them up for the fourth time he was stricken and left upon the field. Lieutenant W. J. Rannells, of the Seventh Ohio regiment, hap-
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