USA > Pennsylvania > Martial deeds of Pennsylvania, Vol. 1 > Part 45
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50
None of the dead were brought off the field where Colonel Miles fell, and though strenuous efforts were made to recover his body, it could not be found. He did not die instantly, as he is said to have made the request, after he was struck, that his sword should be sent to his wife. His father caused a monument with a military device to be erected in the cemetery at Hunting-
32
498
MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
don, to his memory, on which is inscribed the fact that his body occupies an unknown grave on the battle-field.
ARRY A. PURVIANCE, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Eighty-fifth regiment, entered the service as Captain of Company E, on the 12th of November, 1861, and was promoted to Lieutenant- Colonel on the 15th of May, 1862. He participated in the Penin- sula campaign, his command suffering severely in the battle of Fair Oaks, where it had the extreme advance when the enemy came upon it unawares, and before the rifle-pits and works which had been ordered could be completed. In North Carolina, with General Foster, and in South Carolina, under Hunter and Gilmore, he was employed in arduous duty, having command of his regi- ment the greater portion of the time. On the 30th of August, 1863, while on the front traverse, prosecuting the works for the reduction of Fort Wagner, he was shot and instantly killed. For several days previous, three regiments, of which his was one, had been detailed to occupy the advance trenches, each in turn twenty-four hours. The nights were damp and cold, and during the day, upon these low, flat, sandy islands, the thermometer stood at 100° in the shade. It was in the midst of this arduous duty, where the losses were four or five killed, and from ten to twenty wounded daily, that Colonel Purviance was cut off. Fort Wagner fell a few days after.
HARLES IZARD MACEUEN, Major of the One Hundred and Ninety-eighth regiment, was born in Philadelphia, on the 1st of October, 1833. His paternal great-grandfather, Lieutenant- Colonel Caleb Parry, was killed in an action on Long Island, in the Revolution. IIis grandfather, with two brothers, served also in that war, the former having been elected Colonel of a regiment even at a time when he was confined to his bed with sickness. Ilis father, the late Thomas McEnen, M. D., was noted as a scientist, having been a prominent member of important scientific and philosophical societies in the city; was President of the Penn- sylvania Society of the Cincinnati, and Secretary of the general society ; was one of the original members of the Union League, in whose patriotic enterprises he deeply sympathized, and was
1
C. Grand Macenen -
MAJOR 198TH REG"PENNAVA.UNTER IS.
499
HARRY A. PURVIANCE .- CHARLES I. MACEUEN.
assiduous in his attentions to sick and wounded soldiers in hos- pitals. His maternal great-grandfather was Ralph Izard, of South Carolina, who, during the Revolution, pledged his estate for the purchase of frigates with which to defend the flag-purchases which could not be made on the credit of the State of South Carolina-was President of the United States Senate in 1794, and was a friend and confidant of Washington. A son, by the same name, was one of the midshipmen who climbed up the side of the frigate " Philadelphia," in the harbor of Tripoli, and de- stroyed it, under the guns of the fortress. His daughter, Anne Middleton Izard, was the mother of Charles, and died in 1850, deeply lamented. Owing to a delicacy of constitution, the son could not pursue his education in the city, and was placed at school in the country, and finally went to live in the family of Charles E. Heister, who cultivated a farm on the banks of the Susquehanna, in Dauphin county, where he remained three years, and where his physical vigor was established. After two years more spent in agricultural pursuits in Chester county, with two young friends, he established himself in Williamson county, Texas, as a ranchero. Here he found, to use his own words, "all that the heart of man could desire," with the promise of rapid fortune. But, as the sun of his prosperity was rising, came the Rebellion, and he found this no place for a loyal man. Foiled in an attempt to escape through the Indian country, he was obliged, in order to get away with his friends, to give his parole not to take up arms against the State of Texas or its confederates. On reaching home, he found himself precluded from military ervice by his sense of the inviolability of his oath. He first devoted himself to the care of the sick and wounded soldiers, with tender assiduity. On the establishment of the Union League, he entered with ardor into the measures it adopted for the sup- port of the Government, becoming the energetic Secretary of its Publication Committee, and issuing appeals to the misguided Southerners-whose state he had come to know by personal ex- ¡erience-which deserve to be rescued from oblivion, as embody- ing, in few and telling words, the very core of the matter at issue between those who sought to maintain the rights of the many, and those who strove to perpetuate the privileges of the few.
500
MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
None were more earnest in the support of the principles of the League than he.
He was unceasing in his efforts to be absolved from his parole, and when that was at last effected, he seized the first opportunity to enlist, receiving his commission and appointment as Adjutant of the One Hundred and Ninety-eighth-Ninth Union League- regiment, on the 15th of August, 1864. His duties from the outset were unusually severe; but he persisted in performing al !. though suffering from the intense application imposed, until at- tacked by a typhoid fever, when he was obliged to allow himself to be placed in the hospital at City Point. He was transferred to his home in Philadelphia, and after long sickness and a slow convalescence, he returned again to the front, and was commis- sioned Major on the 20th of March, 1865. In less than a week he fell, shot through the heart, his face to the foe, in the battle of Quaker Road, which, beginning as a skirmish, resulted in one of the hottest musketry struggles of the war, and was the first of that series of battles which resulted in the downfall of the Con- federacy. He was buried with military honors from his father's residence in Philadelphia. A committee of the Union League asked permission to have a portrait painted of him for a place in their house. He was specially commended for gallant bear- ing under fire at the battle of Poplar Grove Church, on the 30th of September, 1864.
BOYD McKEEN, Colonel of the Eighty-first regiment, was commissioned Lieutenant and Adjutant of this body on the 27th of October, 1861; was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel on the 1st of July, 1862, and to Colonel on the 24th of November following. A singular fatality attended him, which witnesses to his intrepidity. He was wounded in the action at Malvern Hill on the 1st of July, 1862, again at Fredericksburg on the 13th of December, and at Chancellorsville on the 3d of May, 1863. At the opening of the campaign in the Wilderness, Colonel McKeen was placed in command of a brigade. At Cold Harbor, it was selected to lead in the attack upon the enemy's works. With great gallantry the assault was delivered, but Colonel McKeen, while leading in the desperate attempt, was killed.
1
501
H. B. McKEEN .- OLIVER H. RIPPEY.
LIVER HAZZARD RIPPEY, Colonel of the Sixty-first regiment, was born on the 19th of August, 1825, at Pittsburg. He was the son of John Rippey, a native of Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, and Eliza (Leckey) Rippey, of Baltimore, Mary- land. He was educated at the Western University, and at Allegheny College, graduating at the latter institution, under the presidency of Homer J. Clark. The Mexican War drew many of the most talented and promising of the young men of the country from the civil to the military service, and Rippey was of the number, serving in the First Pennsylvania regiment, com- manded by Colonel Wynkoop, throughout the entire period of conflict ; taking part in the battles of Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Perote La Hoya, Siege of Puebla, and was with Lieutenant Rhett, as commissary's clerk, after the surrender of the city of Mexico.
Upon his return, he entered the office of Reade Washing- ton, as a student at law, and was admitted to practice at the Pittsburg bar, in November, 1850. So impressed were his ex- aminers with his proficiency and professional intelligence, that they instructed their chairman to make honorable mention of it in open court, who, in his remarks, said : " If ever a case had yet arisen in which such testimonial was called for, this was the case." At the first call for troops, in 1861, he recruited a com- pany which became part of the Seventh regiment, of which he was elected Lieutenant-Colonel. At the expiration of its term, he recruited the Sixty-first, and was appointed its Colonel. He participated in the campaign of the Peninsula until the battle of Fair Oaks, where, while bravely leading his men against the repeated onsets of the foe, he was stricken down and instantly killed. The division of Casey had been attacked, while holding an advanced and isolated position, by overpowering numbers of the enemy, and to stay their mad advance until supports could come, Abercrombie's brigade, in which was the Sixty-first, was thrown forward as a forlorn hope. The stubbornness with which they fought is shown by the numbers of their dead and their wounded-the Sixty-first alone losing seventy killed, one hun- dred and fifty-five wounded, and forty-seven missing. That they should stand until so many were cut down, and should hold the ground through critical hours of expectancy and doubt, against
502
MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
the myriads of the enemy hurled against them, until help could come; and thus save the day, could only have been the result of their implicit confidence in the dauntless courage of their leaders. Indeed, the spirit which filled the bosom of Colonel Rippey is well illustrated by an incident which occurred just as he was going into battle. General Abercrombie had ordered the brigade at double-quick to the front. Colonel Rippey, understanding the urgency of the command, and having his men well in hand, was about to take the lead, when he was confronted by Colonel Neil, who, as senior Colonel, claimed the precedence. The two had had a similar question in the affair at Yorktown. Colonel Rip- pey was nettled at the prospect of delay in the movement of the whole brigade, by this petty question of etiquette, raised amid the screeching of shells and singing of bullets, and impatiently exclaimed, "Oh ! go to the Devil! Forward, Sixty-first! Close up! Double-quick !" And putting spurs to his horse, soon drew clear of the questioning Colonel, and had his command in action in less time than the matter of precedence could have been settled. In less than one half hour from giving the order to advance, he had fallen.
Of Colonel Rippey's courage and ability as a soldier, those who knew him best, and were best capable of judging, bore ample testimony. He was as constant and unwavering in his obedience to orders, and in his patriotism, as the needle to the pole. The chief question with him was, What will most advance the interests of the cause for which I fight? and when that was settled, neither hardship nor the fear of death could deter him. In person, Colonel Rippey was nearly six feet in height, and stoutly built. He was married, on the 12th of April, 1854, to Miss Caroline Curling, of Pittsburg.
EORGE DARE, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Fifth Reserve regi- ment, entered the service in June, 1861, as Major. In the actions of the Seven Days on the Peninsula, at Bull Run. South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg, he rendered efficient and faithful service. In the battle of the Wil- derness, on the 5th of May, 1864, where the enemy was making :his fiercest assaults, in the flush of his strength, the Reserves
503
GEORGE DARE .-- ELI T. CONNER .- FRANCIS MAHLER.
were unfortunately broken, a small portion falling into the enemy's hands. The Fifth, however, escaped without loss; but on the following day, while engaged in beating back the fierce onsets of the foe, Colonel Dare, who was then in command of the regiment, was mortally wounded, and died that night. He was a good officer, and a much esteemed man.
LI T. CONNER, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Eighty-first regi- ment, was commissioned Major of that body on the 1st of October, 1861, and was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel on the Ist of June, 1862. The first severe fighting was at Fair Oaks, on the 30th of May, 1862, where it suffered severe losses, Colonel Miller being of the number of the killed. At Savage Station and White Oak Swamp the struggle was maintained, and at Charles City Cross Roads, whither it was marched to the support of sorely- tried lines, it went into position at six P. M., and until ten the battle raged upon its front with great fury, the men being guided in their aim by the flash of the enemy's guns. Lieutenant-Colonel Conner, who had command, is represented as acting throughout with great gallantry and courage. Retiring during the night to Malvern Hill, the regiment was held in readiness for battle on the following day. When the engagement opened, the brigade to which it was attached was hurried forward to the relief of the hard-pressed troops, and was soon brought to close conflict with the forces of the fiery Magruder. Here, while lead- ing his command with great coolness and bravery, Lieutenant- Colonel Conner was killed.
RANCIS MAHLER, Colonel of the Seventy-fifth regiment, was wounded at Gettysburg on the 1st of July, 1863, while leading his command on that disastrous part of the field whence General Howard was forced to fall back before greatly superior numbers. He was a native of Baden and was an officer in the Baden Revolution. Having come to this country previous to the breaking out of the Rebellion, he was, at the formation of the Seventy-fifth regiment, made Lieutenant-Colonel, and upon the promotion of Colonel Bohlen to Brigadier-General, was made Colonel. The first campaign was a severe one, involving endless
504
MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
marching over mountains and across swollen streams, the division to which it was attached having been sent from before Washing- ton to report to General Fremont in West Virginia; but was almost immediately recalled to the support of Banks against Stonewall Jackson. In the hard-fought battle of Bull Run, Colonel Mahler was wounded and General Bohlen was killed. To reach Gettysburg in time to be of service, it was necessary for the Eleventh corps to make forced marches, and as soon as the regiment reached the battle-ground, it was hurried forward to confront the lines of the enemy, who had had ample time to post his men and prepare for the contest. It was hardly in posi- tion, to the right of the Carlisle road, when it was attacked. The loss here was severe, being two officers and twenty-six men killed, and six officers and ninety-four wounded. Colonel Mahler was one of the severely wounded, receiving a musket ball in the leg, and his horse, which received a wound from the same missile, fell upon him. Extricating himself, he hastened to the left of the regiment, though suffering severely, but had scarcely reached it, and was engaged in bravely cheering on his men and charging them to stand firm against the advancing rebel lines, when he was again wounded, and now mortally. He was immediately removed to the corps field hospital, where he died on the morn- ing of the 4th. He was a trustworthy man and an able officer.
LISHA HALL, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Ninety-fifth regiment, was commissioned Captain of Company C on the 17th of September, 1861, and was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel on the 28th of June, 1862. In the disastrous battle of Gaines' Mill, where Colonel Gosline and Major Hubbs were killed, and many brave men lost, the regiment did eminent service. At Cramp- ton's Gap, in the Antietam campaign, it captured a piece of artillery complete, with limber, caisson, and horses, from the noted Cobb Legion of Georgia. Upon the limber of the piece captured was painted : "Jenny-presented by the patriot ladies of Georgia to the State Artillery." In the campaign of Chancel- lorsville, to the Sixth corps was assigned the duty of carrying Marye's Heights and moving on the flank of the rebel army. At Salem Church, on the 3d of May, 1863, it was met by superior
1
505
ELISHA JIALL .- EDWARD CARROLL .- RICHARD P. ROBERTS.
numbers. The Ninety-fifth was at the fore-front, and, while battling with great constancy and courage, Lieutenant-Colonel Hall was killed. Colonel Town was killed at the same point, and large numbers of his men. Few regiments suffered so great, loss in any battle -- the record "Killed at Salem Church" being profusely scattered through all its rolls.
DWARD CARROLL, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Ninety-fifth regi- ment, was commissioned Captain of Company F on the 27th of September, 1861, and was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel on the 10th of May, 1863. At Gaines' Mill, where the regiment suffered severe loss, Captain Carroll was badly wounded. The remaining battles of the Peninsula, the Second Bull Run, Chan- tilly, Crampton's Gap, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Salem Church, Gettysburg, and Mine Run, followed in rapid succession. The spring of 1864 opened tardily, but early in May the Potomac army moved on its campaign under Grant. An officer's diary contains the following entry : " Marched on the 5th, at six A. M., and advancing in line of battle through the Wilderness, effected a junction with the Fifth corps on its right, and encountered the enemy. Became immediately engaged, and drove him steadily back, the two right companies attaining a strong position in the advance, which they maintained during the day and until relieved. In the early part of the day, Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Carroll was killed." Colonel Carroll was a valuable officer, and fell sincerely mourned by a wide circle of friends.
ICHARD PETIT ROBERTS, Colonel of the One Hundred and Fortieth regiment, was born in June, 1820, near Frank- fort Springs, Beaver county, Pennsylvania. His father, John Roberts, was a native of Culpeper county, Virginia, where his ancestors had resided from an early period in the settlement of the country. His grandfather was a soldier in the Colonial army during the Revolution. His mother was Ruth Dungan, daughter of Levi Dungan, one of the early settlers of Beaver county, who was active in quelling Indian outbreaks upon the frontier. Soon after their marriage, his parents removed from West Virginia, whither the family had emigrated, and settled at Frankfort
506
MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
Springs, where they were among the most influential and re- spected of the inhabitants. During his boyhood, the son was engaged in farm labor. He was educated at the Frankfort Acad- emy, under the charge of the Rev. James Sloan and Thomas Nicholson, and studied law in the office of N. P. Fetterman, having, in the meantime, taught school for several terms with great acceptance. One who knew him at this period, thus speaks of him : " Possessed of a high order of intellect-clear, quick, and comprehensive-a good practical education, to which were added the qualities of independence, courage and candor, and being of regular and temperate habits and unblemished character, he soon acquired a large practice and a prominent position at the bar. Few men, in so short a time, have gained the confidence of their fellow-mncn to so great an extent, or wielded a greater influence upon all matters affecting the public welfare."
During the administration of Governor Johnston, he was appointed, by Attorney-General Darrah, his deputy for Beaver county ; and when the office became elective, he was chosen District Attorney by a majority of over six hundred, though the county was politically opposed to him. On the Ist of May, 1851, he was married to Miss Caroline Henry, youngest daughter of the late Hon. Thomas Henry, of Beaver. She died in February, 1862, after a lingering illness of nearly four years, during which time the husband manifested the most untiring devotion and attachment. From the opening of the Rebellion, he was active in support of the Government, helping to raise men, and to defend its action with his tongue and his pen. In the summer of 1862, seeing that the war was likely to be protracted, and that there was urgent need of troops, he determined to take the field, and by his active exertions was instrumental in securing the enlistment of over 300 men. As Captain of one of the com- panies, he proceeded to the camp of rendezvous at Harrisburg, where, on the Sth of September, he was commissioned Colonel of the One Hundred and Fortieth regiment. He reported to General Wool at Baltimore, and during Lee's first invasion of Maryland, was detailed to guard the Northern Central Railway. In December, a few days after the battle of Fredericksburg, he joined the Army of the Potomac, and throughout the four days
507
RICHARD P. ROBERTS.
of the fighting at Chancellorsville, led his regiment, now attached to the Second corps. His men had never been under fire, and he was very solicitous that they should acquit themselves gal- lantly, at the same time that they should be skilfully handled and properly protected. Throughout this trying occasion, he bore himself with the courage and heroism of a veteran officer ; but the strain upon his nervous system, together with the ex- posure and privation of the camp, caused a prostration which re- sulted in a low malarial fever, from which he suffered for several weeks. When it was known that the enemy was moving toward the Potomac with the intention of invading the North, Colonel Roberts, who had returned to his home, became impatient of delay, and though scarcely able to travel, resolutely determined to join his regiment, and share with his men the fortunes of the terrible encounter which he knew must soon come. He succeeded in reaching Philadelphia, but was obliged to rest for a day or two to regain strength to proceed. On arriving at Washington, he was so utterly prostrated as to be unable to go farther, and was forbidden by the surgeon in charge to make the attempt. After remaining a few days, observing that the manœuvres of the two armies were becoming daily more exciting, and Lee's purpose of invasion unmistakable, he could no longer be restrained, and, in spite of the entreaties of friends and the remonstrances of sur- geons, he started to find his regiment. In the last letter he ever wrote, dated on the 30th of June, 1863, addressed to his relative and law partner, Henry Hice, he says: "On the morning after you left-Friday, 26th-I went to Alexandria; found that the army had moved, that Fairfax and Thoroughfare Gap were in possession of the enemy; and returned to Washington. I started next morning on a canal boat for Edward's Ferry, a distance of thirty miles, arriving there at half past nine at night. I learned that our corps had gone forward, and followed it on foot till within two miles of Frederick City, a distance of thirty miles, where I overtook it, myself greatly exhausted. Yesterday morn- ing we started, and marched twenty-eight miles-one of the greatest marches on record. The men fell down by hundreds. We had a good many fall out; but most of them came in during the night. We are now moving in the direction of Emmittsburg,
508
MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
and I think not far from it. Of course we shall soon meet the enemy. I am quite well, better than I have been for weeks, as you may know by what I have come through the last few days." While leading his regiment upon the field of Gettysburg, towards the close of the second day of the battle, he fell, pierced through the heart by a Minie ball. The following extract from the Beaver Argus, portrays, in a striking manner, the circumstances of his death : "On that fearful day, July 2d, 1863, upon the plains of Gettysburg, the grandest panorama of modern times is passing-two hundred thousand foemen in fierce array! Five hundred cannon make the earth reel and tremble. The dead, the dying, and the wounded strew the plain. The One Hundred and Fortieth regiment is flanked. The Colonel steps forward to the front. 'My brave boys,' he cries, 'remember you are upon your native soil, your own Pennsylvania. Drive back the rebel invaders !' He faces the foe, while deadly missiles fall like hail. The fatal Minie rends his breast. He dies on the field of honor and of glory ; but the invader is repulsed. No braver, truer, or better man fell upon that bloody plain than Colonel Richard P. Roberts."
Colonel Roberts was a rising man; fairly marked for promotion. The gallant General Zook was killed on the same day, only a few moments before, and Colonel Roberts would doubtless have succeeded to the command of the brigade in his place. Had he lived to return to civil life, the highest honors would have been open before him. His loss to his county, and, indeed, to the State, was one much to be lamented. Generous and appreciative, his kindness found many subjects, and drew to him many faithful friends. There are those yet living who remember, with grato- ful recollections, his helping hand and friendly offices.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.