USA > Pennsylvania > Martial deeds of Pennsylvania, Vol. 2 > Part 14
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In the battles at North Anna, Tolopotomy, Cold Harbor, and in the operations around Petersburg, he led his corps with his usual skill. On the evening of the 17th of June, 1864, on ac- count of the wound received at Gettysburg, which was still open, and from which during the entire campaign he had suffered great pain, he was obliged to turn over the command of his corps to another and seek repose. He was sufficiently recovered to resume his place on the 27th, and at Deep Bottom on the 12th of August, where he led, in addition to his own, the Second and Tenth corps and Gregg's cavalry, he had a number of sharp engagements, gaining a decided advantage. On the 25th he fought the battle of Reams' Station against a superior force, and at the Boydton Road, on the 27th of October, drove the enemy with severe loss, capturing nearly a thousand prisoners and two stands of colors. In November, he was ordered to Washington to command an army corps of veterans which was to consist of 50,000 men. He remained in this duty until February 26th, 1865, when he was assigned to the Middle Military Division, comprising the Depart- ment of Washington, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, with 35,000 men. But the rebel power was now rapidly waning. The war soon after ended, and the roar of battle which for four long years had sounded in his ears was hushed. He was bre- vetted Major-General in March, 1865, for gallant conduct at Spottsylvania, and in July, 1866, made a full Major-General in the regular army. In 1866 he was at the head of the Department of the Missouri, and made a campaign against the hostile Indians
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in Kansas and Colorado. In September of the following year he was assigned to the Department of the Gulf, with head-quarters at New Orleans, where he showed good administrative ability in civil affairs. In March, 1868, he was relieved at his own request, and was assigned to the Division of the Atlantic, but in the fol- lowing March was placed over the Department of Dakota, where he remained until November, 1872, when he was again given the Division of the Atlantic, with head-quarters at New York.
HOMAS JEFFERSON JORDAN, Colonel of the Ninth cavalry and Brevet Brigadier-General, was born on the 3d of December, 1821, at Walnut Hill, in Lower Swatara township, Dauphin county, Pennsylvania. The family was of Scotch origin and came to this country in 1720, first settling in King and Queen county, Virginia. In 1742, his great-grandfather, James, left Virginia, and with his slaves came to Pennsylvania, where he bought a large tract of land on the Susquehanna river, near Wrightsville, York county. This he sold in a few years, and in 1754 bought and removed to Walnut Hill, at which place the grandfather, Thomas, and the father, Benjamin Jordan, were born. During the war of the Revolution the grandfather was a paymaster with the rank of Major, and served as such during the entire war. The father married Molly, the only daughter of Edward Crouch, a Captain in the Revolutionary army, she being a granddaughter of General James Potter, of Pennsvalley, also a soldier of the Revolution. The father during a long life sus- tained the reputation of an honest Christian gentleman, a true friend, a good citizen, and died universally regretted. He served six years in the House of Representatives, and two terms in the Senate of Pennsylvania.
During the first fourteen years of the son's life, he was edu- cated, as were other farmers' boys, in the country school. At the end of that time he was sent to a seminary at Mount Joy, where he remained till the summer of 1839. In December of that year he entered the law school connected with Dickinson College, under the charge of Hon. John Reed. In 1842 he was admitted to practice, and followed his profession till the open- ing of the Rebellion. He early evinced a liking for military
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THOMAS J. JORDAN.
life, before he was of age having been an aid to Genera_ Alexan- der, of Carlisle, and afterwards held commissions from Captain to Lieutenant-Colonel.
On the 18th of April, 1861, he was mustered into the service of the United States, as Aide-de-camp to General Keim, who commanded one of the divisions of Patterson's army, and with him assisted in organizing the three months' levies. He first met the enemy at Falling Waters, on the 2d of July, when Keims' division struck Stonewall Jackson's brigade, and after a sharp skirmish drove him back on Martinsburg, which place was occu- pied on the following day. At the end of the campaign he was appointed Major and ordered to recruit a regiment of horse, which was known as the Lochiel Cavalry, afterwards the Ninth Penn- sylvania, Ninety-second of the line. The regiment was ordered west to the column commanded by General Buel, then at Louis- ville, Kentucky, where it arrived in November, 1861. Major Jordan was soon after detached and ordered with one battalion to the front at Murfreesboro, and participated in all the move- ments of the army against Nashville in the spring of 1862. In the action at Lebanon, Tennessee, on the 6th of May, while in command of a detachment of his own and the First Kentucky cavalry, he assisted in defeating General John Morgan. On the 7th of July, at Tompkinsville, Kentucky, he again encountered General Morgan, but being largely outnumbered, was compelled to retreat, after a spirited action, and with his rear guard was captured. For five months he was a prisoner, first at Madison, Georgia, and afterwards at Richmond, Virginia.
He was exchanged, and returned to his command early in January, 1863. In the meantime the Colonel had resigned, and the Lieutenant-Colonel was sick even unto death. Jordan was, accordingly, appointed Colonel. At Shelbyville he led the charge on the left, a most gallant action, which scattered the enemy and put him to inglorious flight. At Thompson's Station, when Colonel Coburn of an Indiana regiment had tamely surrendered, he brought off the surviving forces, saving the artillery and bag- gage, and fighting heroically against a force of 5000 cavalry, led by the redoubtable General Forrest. At the moment when Gen- eral Bragg's army was retiring across the Cumberland mountains
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at Cowan, Tennessee, Colonel Jordan charged with his command and captured over five hundred of his men. In the battle of Chickamauga, when ruin was impending on other parts of the field, he heroically defended the right of General Thomas, ena- bling that gallant soldier to stem the tide of disaster. For his good conduct here General Thomas mentioned him in terms of appreciation in his report. He fought and defeated General Dibbrel at Reedyville, though . the latter was at the head of a force of 2500 men. He was active in the campaign against Longstreet in East Tennessee in the winter and spring of 1863-64, and fought in the battles of Mossy Creek, Dandridge and Fair- garden. In the battles of Lafayette, Dalton, Kenesaw, Big Shanty, Resaca, New Hope Church, Peach Tree Creek, and in front of Atlanta, Colonel Jordan was incessantly employed. When the enemy finally retreated, he followed close upon the trail and was sharply engaged at Jonesborough and Lovejoy's Station. He was placed in command of the First brigade of the Third division of the cavalry in the campaign to the sea, with which he met Wheeler at Lovejoy's Station, and after a sharp engagement routed him and captured all his artillery, retaining the pieces which were of superior quality in his command until the end of the war. He again defeated General Wheeler at Waynesburg, Georgia, where he led his brigade in a charge upon the enemy's position, and ended the fight before the reserves, sent to his relief, could arrive. He first invested Fort McAllister near Savannah, driving the rebels within their works, and was only prevented from carrying them by assault by the arrival of Gen- eral Hazen, with his division of infantry, who superseded him in command.
On the march through the Carolinas Colonel Jordan crossed the Savannah river in advance of the infantry at Sister's Ferry. and covered the left wing of the army under General Slocum. His position in the column on the march north was such that he was brought often to severe conflict. He led the charge at Blackville, dislodging the enemy from the town. He held the position at Lexington, protecting the flank of the infantry, while Columbia was being occupied. With Wheeler and Hampton he had a stubborn action at Lancaster, and crossing
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WILLIAM MCCANDLESS.
into North Carolina led the advance to Fayetteville, daily and hourly skirmishing heavily. The battle of Averysborough, which opened early in the day, was sustained by his command unaided until two in the afternoon, when the infantry of the Twentieth corps came to his assistance. In this action every twelfth man in his entire force was either killed or wounded. At Bentonville he held the left flank, and participated in all the movements of the day. In the advance against Raleigh he again had the lead, and entered the city on the morning of April 12th, 1865. On passing through, he found that the rebel cavalry were ready for action on the Hillsborough road, and at once moved forward to the attack, driving them before him the entire day. At Morristown he was met by a flag of truce, with a letter for General Sherman from General Joseph E. Johnston, proposing to surrender, when fighting ceased. On the 23d of February, 1865, his appointment as Brevet Brigadier-General was confirmed by the Senate of the United States, and he was commissioned ac- cordingly. This promotion was asked for by General Thomas, in a letter to the President, written soon after the battle of Chickamauga, for gallant and meritorious services in that action. With his regiment and brigade he was mustered out on the 18th of July, 1865.
TILLIAM MCCANDLESS, Colonel of the Second Reserve regi- ment, was born on the 29th of September, 1834, in the city of Philadelphia. After passing through the public schools, lie was apprenticed to Richard Norris and Son, to learn the business of a machinist, where he remained for a period of five years. Im- pelled by the sense of its exalted nature and an aptness within for its mastery, he turned from his trade to the study of the law, and was admitted to practice in 1858. When the call for troops was made in 1861, he enlisted as a private. At the organization of the Second regiment he was chosen and commissioned Major, and subsequently was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and to Colonel. At the head of the upper road, in the battle of Beaver Dam Creek, stood McCandless. It was his first fight; but a veteran could not have behaved with greater valor. Repeatedly did the enemy assail him, yet with steady nerve he met and
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hurled them back, and at last begged permission to deliver a counter-charge; but this would have hazarded too much. No less fearless was his bearing at Gaines' Mill, where he was thrown into the breach when the line of battle had given way, and in the dread encounter at Charles City Cross Roads.
At the Second Bull Run Colonel McCandless was severely wounded in the groin, after having manœuvred his regiment with rare skill throughout almost the entire battle, and fought with desperation in face of great odds. He attempted still to lead, and grasped the flag to advance; but had to be carried from the field. He was borne to a hospital in Washington, where, under skilful treatment, he rapidly recovered, and rejoined his regiment at Sharpsburg. At Fredericksburg he led in the assault 'on the enemy's works, where the only advantage-a gleam of sunshine in a most black and awful day-was gained, and where by his dash he captured an entire regiment of the enemy-the Nineteenth Georgia. The command of the brigade devolved upon him while on the field, and he led it in the battle of Gettysburg. In that memorable struggle on Pennsylvania soil, a victorious foe was pressing on, having overcome brigade after brigade, division after division, and portions of three corps, when McCandless formed for a charge to check and hurl him back in his triumphant course, the enemy having already come within easy rifle-range of the famous Little Round Top. The bullets were flying thick on every hand when the order to advance was given. Never was a charge more resolutely made or more successful in its results. The foe was checked and driven, and a firm line of battle established. On the following day the ground in front, which had run red with the blood of innumerable victims, was swept over, a battery captured, and prisoners, battle-flags, and small arms in abundance.
During the winter of 1863 Colonel McCandless commanded the division. He entered the Wilderness at the head of the First brigade. In obedience to orders he led it forward in that tangled field, where friend could scarcely be distinguished from foe, until he found himself surrounded and the way of retreat cut off. Fortu- nately he managed to elude his captors and returned to camp. At Spottsylvania Court House he was severely wounded in the
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ST. CLAIR A. MULHOLLAND.
hand and disabled from immediate duty, the Reserves then having but a few days longer to serve. The commission of a Brigadier-General was tendered him but he declined it, and returned to Philadelphia, where he resumed the practice of his profession. In 1865 he was elected a member of the Penn- sylvania Senate, where he served with great acceptance for a period of six years. Possessed of a pleasing elocution, and ready in debate, he held a commanding influence in that body. He was nominated, in 1872, for Auditor-General of the State, but was defeated. He is at present engaged in his profession at the Philadelphia bar, where he has a large and lucrative practice.
T. CLAIR A. MULHOLLAND, Colonel of the One Hundred and Sixteenth regiment, and Brevet Brigadier and Major-Gen- eral, was born in Ireland in 1839. He came to this country in childhood. His tastes early inclined him to military duty, and he became a member of a militia company in the city of Phila- delphia, where his family had settled. On the 1st of September, 1862, he was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel of the One Hun- dred and Sixteenth, which he had been active in recruiting. Upon joining the Army of the Potomac he was assigned to General Meagher's Irish Brigade. While advancing to battle on the field of Fredericksburg, the commander of the regiment. Colonel Heenan, was severely wounded by the bursting of a shell, when Lieutenant-Colonel Mulholland assumed command, and in one of the bloodiest and most desperate struggles in which it was engaged during the war, he led it with dauntless bravery, until he was himself wounded and rendered incapable of duty. When his wounds were sufficiently healed he returned to the field, though not with promotion as the reward of gallantry and honorable scars, but with even a reduction of rank; for his command, having been fearfully cut to pieces, was so much reduced as to be unable to retain a regimental organization, and it was consolidated in a battalion of five companies, which he led with only the rank of Major.
In the battle of Chancellorsville, this battalion was charged with supporting the Fifth Maine battery. These pieces were in con- flict with a number of powerful batteries of the foe, and gallantly
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maintained the unequal contest ; but when, after repeated losses, the ammunition began to fail, and the guns were in danger of falling into the enemy's hands, Major Mulholland rushed forward and drew them off to a place of safety. During the 4th and 5th of May, he was field officer of the day for Hancock's division, and with fidelity preserved his lines, extinguishing the fires raging in the forest on his front, where many of the Union wounded were suffering excruciating torments.
At Gettysburg he led his command over the celebrated Wheat Field, which, in consequence of the large number of troops from several corps brought into conflict there, has been called the Whirlpool. The struggle was fearful in the wooded, rugged ground where it fought, and it held its position with determined valor; but the division, being unable to maintain its ground, was withdrawn, after having sustained severe losses.
In the winter of 1863-'64, the battalion was recruited to the full strength of a regiment, and Major Mulholland was pro- moted to Colonel. The Wilderness campaign proved one of unparalleled severity, and its commander suffered by repeated wounds. In the first day on the Wilderness field, at Po River, and Tolopotomy Creek, he was struck by the enemy's missiles, in the latter receiving what was supposed to be a mortal hurt. He however recovered, and being of that spirit which is not intim- idated by hostile weapons, returned to duty, having been re- warded with the brevet rank of Brigadier-General. He was placed in command of the Fourth brigade, First division of the Second corps, in October, 1864, and on the 27th of that month, while heavy detachments from the whole army were moving to Hatcher's Run, he assaulted and carried one of the enemy's earthworks, which was permanently held, taking many prisoners. For his intrepidity in this affair he was brevetted Major-General. To the close of the war he was at the post of duty, and won for himself the enviable reputation of being among the most reliable of officers. After leaving the army, he was appointed Chief of Police of the city of Philadelphia, a position of great responsibility and power, and has acquitted himself with that ceaseless vigilance which characterized him in the field.
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SAMUEL McCARTNEY JACKSON.
AMUEL MCCARTNEY JACKSON, Colonel of the Eleventh Reserve regiment, and Brevet Brigadier-General, was born in Arm- strong county, on the 24th of September, 1833. He was the son of John and Elizabeth (McCartney) Jackson, both of Scotch-Irish lineage. He early shared in the toils of farm life, and in his sixteenth year was sent to the Jacksonville Academy, in Indiana county ; but the death of his father at the end of a year necessi- tated his abandonment of a more liberal course of study which he had contemplated. He early developed a special liking for history and biography, in which he became well versed. In his thirteenth year he joined the militia as a drummer, and after several years was promoted to Lieutenant, and finally to Captain. He recruited a company for the Eleventh Reserve, of which he was Captain. In July, 1861, he was promoted to Major, in October following to Lieutenant-Colonel, and in April, 1863, to Colonel. On two occasions he received slight wounds.
The principal battles in which he was engaged were Gaines' Mill, Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Freder- icksburg, Gettysburg, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, and Bethesda Church. He particularly distinguished himself in the actions at South Mountain, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Wilderness, and Spottsylvania, where the conflicts were of such a nature as to thoroughly test his manhood. In the latter he commanded a brigade and was brevetted a Brigadier for his gallant conduct. At Gettysburg he was thrown forward upon the bloody ground where the Third corps had been driven back, and supports from several corps which had been sent to the relief of the Third had been terribly broken. The position there taken was held and the entire field was subsequently regained. At the Wilderness, while in command of his own and the Second regiment, he was cut off from the balance of the division by a strong force of the enemy; but rallying his men around him he charged the hostile lines, and by a circuitous route reached the Union front, where he had for several hours been given up for lost. At the close of his term of service he was mustered out and returned to private life. In the fall of 1869, he was elected to the Pennsyl- vania Legislature, and was re-elected in the following year, where he maintained the character of a valuable and faithful legislator.
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ILLIAM JORDAN BOLTON, Colonel of the Fifty-first regiment and Brevet Brigadier-General, was born on the 22d of October, 1833, at Norristown, Pennsylvania. He was the son of James and Mary Ann (Kirk) Bolton. He was bred a ma- chinist and engineer. He completed his education at Freemount Seminary, under the Rev. Samuel Aaron. He early manifested a taste for military life, when a mere boy forming a company of his companions which he headed as Captain. For seven years he was a member of the volunteer militia, holding the position of Second Lieutenant. At the commencement of the war he recruited Company A of the Fourth regiment, of which he was Captain. At the conclusion of its service he recruited and re- organized his company for the Fifty-first, a veteran regiment. It went with General Burnside to the coast of North Carolina, returning in time to take a leading part at the Second Bull Run and Chantilly, South Mountain, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. Early in 1863 the corps was transferred to the West, and at Vicksburg, Jackson, and in the siege of Knoxville, performed much wearisome and perilous duty. In 1864, it returned to the Army of the Potomac and was with Grant throughout the re- maining campaigns. In storming the bridge at Antietam Captain Bolton received a gun-shot wound in the face, the ball passing through the angle of the jaw on the right side, crashing on through the mouth, and emerging just below the ear on the left side. For his conduct here he was promoted to Major.
In the progress of the siege of Knoxville, in a night attack, the enemy had obtained possession of the Union picket line. Towards daybreak an order was received to retake it, and it was desirable that the attempt should be made before light. The progress of the preparations seemed dilatory to the chivalrous Bolton, and fearing that the darkness would entirely be dissi- pated, he went to the commander and with some impatience inquired if it was the intention to move. On being assured that it was, he asked and received permission to lead in the attack. Rapidly disposing his regiment, he led it on with unflinching bravery, and in three minutes had routed the foe and was in possession of the lost works. Soon after the arrival of the army before Petersburg, he was ordered to take his regiment out upon
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WILLIAM J. BOLTON .- JOHN I. CURTIN.
the picket line. where afterwards was the crater of the mine. For several days and nights other regiments had been there exerting themselves to make an unbroken line, but still there was a space of a hundred yards reaching across the Petersburg road that they had utterly failed to cover. On that piece of " sacred soil " an enfilading fire of infantry and artillery was un- ceasingly kept up, apparently with the fixed determination to prevent its occupation. Waiting until the shadows of night had fallen, and aided by his brother Joseph K., he went resolutely to the work. On the first three nights every attempt to get posses- sion failed; but on the fourth, profiting by previous experience, hugging the ground closely and crawling stealthily forward, they reached the coveted position, though a perfect storm of deadly missiles was poured without cessation upon them. His coolness and daring inspired his men, and daylight revealed to the aston- ished rebels a continuous line of Union pickets so well protected by rifle-pits as to defy their fire. In his charge upon the enemy immediately after the explosion of the mine, on the morning of the 30th of July, 1864, he received another severe wound in the face. In June of this year he was promoted to Colonel, and in March, 1865, to Brevet Brigadier-General. One who had served under him says, " As a disciplinarian he had few superiors. His government was not harsh, but was tempered with kindness and reason. He subjected himself to strict discipline, and he exacted unquestioning obedience from those beneath him."
OHN IRWIN CURTIN, Colonel of the Forty-fifth regiment, and Brevet Brigadier-General, was born on the 17th of June, 1837, at Eagle Forge, Centre county, Pennsylvania. His pater- nal grandfather, Roland Curtin, emigrated from Ireland in 1797. and was one of the earliest and most enterprising settlers of that county. His maternal grandfather, John Irwin, was also from Ireland, who with his brothers pushed out towards the central part of the State, ascending upon a flat-boat from Columbia to Lewistown, and thence across the mountains on foot to Penn's Valley, then a wilderness, but which he lived to see bud and blossom as the rose. He is the second son of Roland Curtin, Jr., and a nephew of ex-Governor Curtin. He was educated at
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Academia, Juniata county, and Dickinson Seminary, at Wil- liamsport. He was of the corps of engineers which located the Bald Eagle Valley Railroad, and when the war opened, volun- teered in the Bellefonte Fencibles, which became part of the Tenth regiment, sent first to defend the bridges on the line of railway leading to Washington, and subsequently to Patterson in the Shenandoah Valley. At the close of the three months' term, he recruited a company, of which he was made Captain, for the Forty-fifth, a veteran regiment. Soon after taking the field, in the fall of 1861, this regiment was sent to the Department of the South, landing at Hilton Head, and engaging, until July, 1862, in the operation undertaken for the reduction of the fore- most of rebel cities. It was then ordered north and became part of the Ninth corps, under General Burnside. On the 30th of this month, Captain Curtin was promoted to Major, and to Lieutenant- Colonel on the 4th of September following. At Turner's Gap, in the South Mountain, Lee, glorying in his recent triumph at Bull Run, was met, and after a severe struggle was routed. Colonel Curtin here had command of the regiment and was struck in the right elbow, disabling the arm for a time, but not preventing his continuance in duty.
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