USA > Pennsylvania > Martial deeds of Pennsylvania, Vol. 1 > Part 48
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531
JOHN W. CROSBY .- HEZEKIAH EASTON.
wound having healed, he rejoined his regiment on the 22d of February, 1865, and was re-commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel. h the assault upon Petersburg, on the 2d of April, he was killed while gallantly leading bis men upon the hostile works. An obituary notice thus characterizes him: "He was idolized by his men for his bravery and soldierly bearing. In him the country has lost a devoted servant and a true patriot. The regiment mourns the loss of a brave leader. His little girls are left orphans-they who were his comfort and pride while away from them fighting the battles of his country. When the names of the many brave and fallen heroes are gathered up, and shine as stars in the pages of history, as bright and fair as any among them will shine that of our lamented Colonel Crosby."
EZEKIAII EASTON, Captain of Battery A, First Pennsylvania Artillery, was killed at Gaines' Mill on the 27th of June, 1802. He had been instrumental in recruiting this battery, and had entered the service as its Captain, in May, 1861. To great energy and perseverance he joined rare skill in the arm of the service which he had chosen. At Dranesville, where the first victory of the Army of the Potomac was gained, Easton's Battery played an important part, exploding the enemy's caissons, and knocking his gun-carriages to pieces. At Gaines' Mill, Easton, with Kern, covered with their artillery the left of the Union line, resting upon the Chickahominy. Desperate fighting and repeated charges with massed troops finally broke the Union infantry, and drove them back, leaving the guns unsupported. But Easton, giving little heed to the misfortune of his supports, resolutely stood by his guns and continued to pour in double charges of canister. A force of cavalry was sent to his relief, but the ground, broken by ravines, was unfavorable for a charge of horse, and it was thrown into confusion by the terrible fire of the foe. Checked and broken in their advance, the mounted fugitives came pouring through the battery, carrying with them to the rear all the avail- able limbers. The enemy, yelling like so many fiends, advanced boldly to the guns, now left without ammunition, crying out to Captain Easton and those officers and men who bravely withstood the storm, to surrender. His reply, never to be forgotten by his
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MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA
comrades who clustered about him, was, "No! We never surren- der!" Alas! The next moment that voice was hushed in death. He fell beside his guns; none were left to surrender them. In the varying fortunes of the fight two of his faithful men attempted to bring off the body, but lost it in the melee. A solitary peach tree marked the spot where he fell.
"Easton," says a soldier, George W. Crepps, who served with him, "was a genial, warm-hearted, Christian officer. He was killed at Gaines' Mill. Mountz, the chief bugler, was the first to bear the melancholy tidings to us, which he did on Sunday morn- ing, as we lay in battery below Savage Station. I need not say that it sent a thrill of anguish to all, and especially to us who knew him. The sad news of poor Kern's death also deeply moved us. Captain Easton was enrolled with Battery B at Hagerstown. He told me that he had been owner, or largely in- terested in some iron works in Maryland before the war."
OBERT P. CUMMINS, Colonel of the One Hundred and Forty- second regiment, was born in Somerset county, Pennsyl- vania. A considerable portion of this regiment was recruited under his supervision, and when an organization was effected he was chosen its Colonel. It was attached to Magilton's brigade of the Reserve Corps on reaching the front. Not long afterwards Colonel Cummins was prostrated by sickness, by which he was much reduced. He was still an invalid when the Fredericksburg campaign opened; but, being intent on leading his men in the battle which he saw impending, he proceeded to the field, arriving just as the Lieutenant-Colonel was addressing his men prepara- tory to advancing to the attack. Colonel Cummins at once assumed the command, and led his regiment in a most perilous, destructive charge. His horse was shot under him, and two hun- dred and fifty of his men had fallen before they had been an hour in action. In the Chancellorsville movement the First corps, to which the Reserves were attached, supported the Sixth corps on the first day, being posted opposite Franklin's crossing, where Colonel Cummins again had his horse killed. At Gettysburg, the First corps was subjected to a terrible ordeal on the Ist of July, being greatly outnumbered; and here, while holding his
ROBERT P. CUMMINS .- GEORGE C. SPEAR .- HENRY M. EDDY. 533
men up to the fight, and stimulating and encouraging them, he received a mortal wound, and died on the following day.
FORGE C. SPEAR, Colonel of the Sixty-first regiment, entered the service as Captain of Company A of the Twenty-third, three months' regiment, but was soon after promoted to Major. When the Twenty-third was recruited as a veteran regiment he was still retained as Major. But as this organization had fifteen companies, soon after taking the field Major Spear was transferred, with four of the companies, from this to the Sixty-first regiment, of which he was made Lieutenant-Colonel. In the battle of Fair Oaks, on the Peninsula, on the 31st of May, 1862, the Sixty- first bore a prominent part and won lasting honor. In this battle its Colonel, Oliver H. Rippey, was killed, when Lieutenant-Colonel Spear was promoted to succeed him. Colonel Spear participated with his regiment in the battles of the Potomac army with singular carnestness and fidelity, until the second battle of Fredericksburg, where he was killed while leading the assault on Marye's Heights. A marked compliment had been shown him, in selecting his regiment as one of a light division, formed specially for dangerous duty, and was given the lead in the famous assault which swept the enemy from the strongholds which had defied the utmost efforts of Burnside to carry.
ENRY MALCOLM EDDY, Major of the One Hundred and Four- teenth regiment, was born on the 27th of October, 1838, at Philadelphia. He was the son of Jason and Sarah (Raban) Eddy. His father was a native of Massachusetts. He was edu- cated in the public schools of the city, and developed a strong predilection for literature and history. In April, 1861, but a few days after the call for troops, he enlisted as a private in the Eighteenth regiment, and at the close of his term in this, reën- listed as a private in the Independent Zouaves d'Afrique. In July, 1862, he was appointed First Lieutenant in the One Hun- dred and Fourteenth regiment, and in April, 1863, was promoted to Captain. In the afternoon of the second day, in the battle of Gettysburg, he received a slight wound from a spent ball, but
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MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
kept the field. In October, 1864, he was promoted to Major, and in the charge upon the rebel works before Petersburg, on the 2d of April, 1865, where he was in command of the regiment and was leading it with undaunted heroism, he was mortally wounded. The charge was of the most desperate character, having to be made in the face of a ceaseless fire of artillery and small arms, and over abattis and ditches of the fort, against a foe who was completely shielded from harm. But the charge was most gal- lantly executed and the enemy routed. For the able and fearless manner in which Major Eddy led in the assault, he was commended in orders. Captain Dunkel, who enlisted with him, and served by his side throughout, says that the following epitaph may truthfully be inscribed upon his tomb : "Here lies one who served his country for four years, and never once faltered in the performance of his duty as a soldier."
ONRAD FAEGER JACKSON, Brigadier-General of volunteers, and Colonel of the Ninth Reserve regiment, was born on the 11th of September, 1813. His ancestors were Quakers, and his father, Isaac Jackson, was a member of that sect, but joined the Army of the United States in the War of 1812, and died six years thereafter of disease contracted while in the service. His mater- nal grandfather, Conrad Faeger, for whom he was named, was for many years sheriff of Berks county. After the death of his father he was taken into the family of his uncle, Joseph Jackson, a resident of Chester county, and was educated in schools of the Friends' Society. Arrived at man's estate, he commenced business in Philadelphia, in a commission warehouse, but subse- quently abandoned this for a position as conductor on the Phila- delphia and Reading Railroad. In 1845, he was appointed by President Polk a Lieutenant in the revenue service of the United States, and subsequently was sent to Mexico as the bearer of despatches to General Scott.
At the opening of the Rebellion he was employed in the management of a petroleum oil company in the Kanawha Valley. The secession of Virginia left him but one alternative. Hc immediately resigned his position, and, returning to Pennsyl- vania, entered actively upon the business of recruiting troops.
535
CONRAD F. JACKSON.
When the Ninth Reserve regiment was organized, he was made its Colonel. Upon the Peninsula he led his command with so much gallantry that, at its close, he was promoted to Briga- dier-General, and placed in command of the Third brigade of the corps. In the actions at Bull Run, South Mountain. and Antietam, General Jackson displayed the qualities of a truc soldier and an unswerving patriot, his brigade render- ing the most efficient service in each of these hard-fought battles.
At Fredericksburg, where the Reserves were given the place of honor to lead in the assault upon the enemy, the ground was contested, with infantry and artillery, on both sides with great pertinacity; but the Union column gained a decided advantage. Supports failing to come, it was finally compelled to yield ground. Of the service rendered here by Jackson's brigade, General Meade, who commanded the corps, says : "The Third brigade had not advanced over one hundred yards when the battery on the height on its left was re-manned, and poured a destructive fire into its ranks. Perceiving this, I despatched my Aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Dehon, with orders for General Jackson to move by the right flank till he could clear the open ground in front of the battery, and then, ascending the height through the woods, sweep round to the left and take the battery. Unfortunately Lieutenant Dehon fell just as he reached General Jackson, and a short time after, the latter officer was killed. The regiments did, however, partially execute the movement by obliquing to the right, and advanced across the railroad, a portion ascending the heights in their front. The loss of their commander, and the severity of the fire, from both artillery and infantry, to which they were subjected, compelled them to withdraw." No greater encomium could have been passed upon the influence of General Jackson than the report of the superior, that the troops executed, without orders, and after their commander had fallen, the movements which the leader of the corps had intended. General Jackson had ridden forward to give the contemplated order ; but before it had passed his lips he was struck by a volley from the enemy and mortally wounded. In mentioning his death, General Meade said, in - his report :
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" The public service has also to mourn the loss of Brigadier- General C. Faeger Jackson, an officer of merit and reputation, who owed his position to his gallantry and good conduct in pre- vious actions."
AMUEL W. BLACK, Colonel of the Sixty-second regiment, was born at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1818. He was the son of the Rev. John Black, D. D., one of the earliest and most distinguished of the Covenanter clergymen of the State. He received a liberal education, and chose the law as his profes- sion, in which he soon rose to a lucrative practice, and withal became prominent in political life, being especially effective upon the stump. He married, when very young, the daughter of Judge Irvin of Pittsburg, by whom he had four children. In the Mexican War he served as Lieutenant-Colonel of the Second Pennsylvania regiment, and acquitted himself with distinction. He was appointed United States Judge for Nebraska Territory by President Buchanan, in 1857. In the following year, upon the death of Governor Richardson, Colonel Black was appointed to succeed him. In the spring of 1861, he recruited the Sixty- second regiment, of which he was commissioned Colonel, and was assigned to duty in Morrell's brigade of Porter's division. He was engaged at Hanover Court-House, where the enemy was put to flight, and his camp and garrison equipage and many prisoners were taken. Colonel Black says, in his official report: " In the course of the afternoon's operations, we captured eighty- one prisoners, including seven officers. From a great many arms taken, about seventy-five were brought into camp. By the annexed statement, it will be seen that our loss is only six men wounded, none killed, and not one missing. I should do the brave and faithful men I have the honor to command, injustice if I refrained from expressing, in strong terms, my admiration of their conduct from first to last. In common with the other regiments of your brigade, they went into action with their bodies broken by fatigue, and their physical strength wasted by the hard toils of the day. But their spirits failed not, and they went in and came out with whatever credit is due to dangers bravely met, and the noblest duty well performed."
537
SAMUEL W. BLACK.
The enemy soon began to make himself felt on the left bank of the Chickahominy, and on the 26th of June, 1862, fought a stubborn battle at Beaver Dam Creek. The Pennsylvania Reserves were upon the front, but the brigade to which Colonel Black belonged was soon ordered to their support. Colonel Black led his men forward with that fervor and enthusiasm which always characterized him, anticipating severe fighting; but the Reserves were able to hold their position, and Colonel Black, though under fire, was not engaged. In the night the Union forces retired to Gaines' Mill, where, on the following day, the battle was renewed with great fury. Morrell's division had the left of the line, its left resting on the slope which reaches down to the Chickahominy, Griffin's brigade, which included Colonel Black's regiment, having the right of the division. The battle was opened by the advance of Longstreet's corps, which came down upon this flank. At the very outset of the battle, the Sixty-second Pennsylvania and the Ninth Massa- chusetts were ordered to advance under a terrific infantry fire. They charged across a ravine in their front, and gained the woods on the opposite side, handsomely driving the enemy. But while making the charge, and before the woods were reached, Colonel Black, while the heroic exploit which he in- spired was in full tide, was killed. Few Pennsylvania soldiers, at the time of his death, had made a brighter record, and none could look forward with better hope of advancement. He died, deeply lamented by the whole State and mourned by a wide circle of personal friends.
Of his personal traits the following, from the pen of John W. Forney, conveys a vivid idea: "Twenty-two years ago, more or less, a young man electrified the cities and towns of western Pennsylvania by his peculiar and irresistible eloquence. He was more boy than man. His fine face and laughing eye, his well-knit and handsome figure, his winning voice, and his mother wit made 'Sam Black' the wonder of more than one exciting campaign. The son of a Presbyterian clergyman who was an object of veneration and love in thousands of hearts, and whose life had been one prayer, and sacrifice, and thanksgiving to God. Sam inherited a fervent religious sentiment, and frequently
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MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
punctuated his political appeals and legal arguments with Bible points and periods. And how he loved that old gray-haired father ! In his most impulsive moments, however surrounded or flattered or aroused; whether fired with indignation, or revel- ling with merriment created by his exuberant humor, a mere allusion to his father called tears to his eyes and gratitude to his lips. ... To fall in the battle-field, and for his country, was to die as Samuel W. Black preferred to die. If there was one trait conspicuous in him it was courage, and courage of the purest chivalry. It called him to the fields of Mexico, where he plucked laurels almost from the cannon's mouth. It always made him the champion of the weak or the wronged. It made him irresistible at the bar."
HIEODORE HESSER, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Seventy-second regiment, was a native of Philadelphia. He entered the service of the United States in August, 1861. In the Peninsula campaign the regiment did excellent duty at Fair Oaks, the brigade to which it was attached being led by General Burns. Few regiments suffered more severely than did this in the battle of Antietam. Thirty-one were killed, and nearly half its strength went down in the terrible struggle. Colonel Hesser was in com- mand of the regiment in the Mine Run campaign, and on the 27th of November, near Robertson's Tavern, the enemy was encountered. The regiment was deployed as skirmishers and advanced. The enemy, from his covert, opened with great violence, and in the midst of the attack, while the command was being formed for an assault, Colonel Hesser was killed. The loss was a severe one, as he had from the first been with his men, and had won their confidence and esteem.
ICHARD . COLEGATE DALE. Lieutenant-Colonel of the One Hundred and Sixteenth regiment, was born on the 19th of December, 1838, in the city of Allegheny. His father, Thomas F. Dale, M. D., and his mother, Margaret Kennedy Stewart, were both natives of Delaware. He received a thorough English and a partial classical education in his native city. was from early youth characterized by strong individuality. IIe
539
THEODORE HESSER .- RICHARD C. DALE.
was engaged for a time as a clerk in commission and manufactur- ing houses, but finally became an active partner in a mercantile firm. When the war came, he frankly said to his father: "Mr. Lincoln has called for men. Many, on account of family or other relations, cannot go as well as. I. Do not think it is a fit of enthusiasm. I do not imagine it will be any pleasure to be a soldier. His is a life of trial and of peril, and I do not know whether my constitution will be strong enough to bear those toils and exposures ; but I think it my duty to go." An only son, and carefully reared, it was with great reluctance that the consent of his parents was given to his resolution; but he would listen to no temporizing, and he enlisted as a private in Company A of the Ninth Reserves, in the spring of 1861. In the following August he was detailed from his regiment to serve in the United States Signal Corps. In a School of Instruction for that arm of the service, at Tenallytown, and afterwards as clerk to Major Myers, the commander of the corps in Washington, he was employed till the opening of the spring campaign under Mcclellan, with whom he went to the Peninsula, and served with fidelity and skill until the final battle at Malvern Hill had been fought. He then received leave of absence for ten days; but in Washington, while on his way home, his furlough was extended by the Adju- tant-General, and he was authorized to raise a company for signal duty. He opened a recruiting station at Pittsburg, on his arrival, but having been elected First Lieutenant of Company D of the One Hundred and Twenty-third regiment, he accepted the posi- tion, and at once entered upon its duties. For four months he served as Adjutant of the regiment, exerting himself to bring the organization up to an efficient standard, when he returned to his place in his company. At the battle of Fredericksburg he acted with great gallantry, taking command of his company when its leader, Captain Boisol, was wounded, and had his haversack riddled with bullets, though he himself escaped without injury. Ile was soon afterwards appointed Assistant Adjutant-General of the brigade. A vacancy occurring in the office of Lieutenant- Colonel, he was promptly elected to fill it by the line officers, though the junior Captain among them. So methodical and com- plete were all his acts that, when notified of his promotion, he was
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MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
in readiness to turn over his business at the head of the brigade in a finished condition, and at once to assume the responsible one in command of the regiment. He was engaged at Chancellorsville, and when the term of the regiment had expired, which occurred soon afterwards, he returned with it to Pittsburg, where it was mustered out.
When he heard the intelligence of fighting at Gettysburg, he hastened home, exclaiming, "Our boys are fighting and falling at Gettysburg, and I am here doing nothing. I cannot stand this!" Gathering up a few articles of clothing, he hurried away to the depot, and reached Harrisburg that night. He immediately re- ported to the Governor, and asked to be sent to the front, saying, "I must go. I can at least volunteer as aid to some General, to carry despatches over the field." But the Governor could not provide transportation. Indeed, all the avenues were closed --- even a private carriage could not be secured, the inhabitants fear- ing the action of the enemy's cavalry, and refusing every offer, unless bonds were entered into for the safe return of the convey- ance. Finding it impossible to reach the field, he was obliged reluctantly to return home.
Soon afterwards, General Brooks, at the head of the Depart- ment of the Monongahela, offered him the command of a bat- talion of six-months' cavalry. "I was drilled in cavalry move- ments when in the signal service," was his response, "and I shall be glad to serve in any capacity to which you may assign me." The companies were already recruited and in camp, and fears were entertained that officers who were expecting the com- mand, much older than himself, would object to having a boy set over them. The very troubles arose which were anticipated ; but so firmly and judiciously did he suppress the first rising of revolt, and so wisely and well did he enforce his discipline and drill, and instruct his charge, that a large part of the men were desirous of being led by him for a three years' term. He was stationed in Fayette county, and was charged with guarding the border, a duty which he performed to the satisfaction of General Brooks, and, what was more difficult, to the entire approval of the inhabitants among whom he was quartered.
In January, 1864, while General Hancock was engaged in re-
541
RICHARD C. DALE .- WILLIAM G. MURRAY.
organizing the Second corps, which became famous under his leadership, Dale was offered the position of Lieutenant-Colonel in the One Hundred and Sixteenth regiment, which was accepted, and he was immediately engaged in recruiting, it having been decimated in previous campaigns while still a part of the cele- brated Irish brigade. In the battle of the Wilderness, where his command was closely engaged, a bullet penetrated his coat, but he escaped. On the 9th of May, his regiment was ordered to the picket line, to support General Miles' brigade, and was under a hot fire of rebel grape and canister. On the following day it was again engaged in a long, hard fight, in which Colonel Mulholland was severely wounded in the head. The command then devolved on Lieutenant-Colonel Dale, and in the assault upon the enemy's works, at dawn of the 12th, while gallantly leading his regiment into the "imminent deadly breach," he fell, instantly killed or mortally wounded, as is supposed, no tidings having ever been had of him, and no information pertaining to his last resting-place been discovered. When a sufficient time had elapsed to preclude all hope of return, resolutions were passed by his brother officers commemorative of his great ability as a soldier and his many virtues as a man. The Colonel of his regiment said of him: "He was a man of splendid abilities, virtuous, gentle, brave and accomplished. He was remarkably calm in battle, and was very much beloved by his comrades." Ilis two sisters, who survive him, say, in closing a communica- tion concerning him, "No sisters ever had a more devoted brother."
TILLIAM GRAY MURRAY, Colonel of the Eighty-fourth regi- ment, was born on the 25th of July, 1825, in the town of Longford, Ireland. He was the eldest son of John and Sarah (Gray) Murray. When but nine months old, his parents, with their two children, emigrated to New York, where the father engaged in business. He soon after removed to the interior of the State, and settled in Utica, where, and at Canandaigua and Rome, he established mercantile houses. He was for a time re- markably prosperous, and showed great business taet and talent ; but the financial crisis of 1835-36 came upon him like a whirl-
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