USA > Pennsylvania > Martial deeds of Pennsylvania, Vol. 2 > Part 3
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MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
OSEPII HEMPHILL WILSON was born on the 16th of May, 1820, in Franklin township, Beaver county, Pennsylvania. He was a. son of Thomas, and Agnes (Hemphill) Wilson, natives of the United States, but of Irish descent. He was educated at Jefferson College, at Canonsburg. Until the age of twenty-two he was a farmer. He subsequently studied law, and became one of the most trusted of his profession at the Beaver county bar. He carly formed studious habits, which were preserved during life. One who knew him well says of him: "He was social and pleasant in his manners, kind-hearted, attentive to the sick and those in distress, easily approached and generous, temperate, virtuous, religious, and eminently exemplary in private life. He was not a profound thinker, but a popular man. As a lawyer his honesty was ever recognized."
In 1853 he was elected to the office of District Attorney for Beaver county, which he held for a period of three years, dis- charging its duties with marked integrity. In 1858 he was elected a member of the lower house of the State Legislature, and was returned for the two succeeding terms. In September, 1861, he was commissioned Colonel of the One Hundred and First regiment, which he had been largely instrumental in recruiting: He was active in the siege of Yorktown; and in the battle of Williamsburg, though not long under fire, displayed great coolness and courage. Three days after the battle, he was attacked with typhoid fever, the result of hardship and exposure, and died at the house of a farmer near Roper's Church, on the 30th of May, the day before his regiment fought so determinedly at Fair Oaks. A fellow-officer says of him : " No man could have been more respected by his regiment. Every one in it loved him. He was too kind-hearted to be a strict disciplinarian ; but such was the respect felt for him that he had no difficulty in securing the most implicit obedience to all his orders. On the march, he was often known to walk for miles that a sick man might ride, and when short of provisions he would share his last ration with the men. While he lived no comfort was wanting in his com- mand that it was possible for him to obtain, and he seemed to hold his regiment in the same regard that he would have done his family." The loss of Colonel Wilson just at the opening of
581
JOSEPH H. WILSON .- THOMAS WELSH.
an honorable career was deeply felt in the community where he dwelt, and nowhere more than among his companions in arms. In person he was five feet ten inches in height and well formed. He was never married.
HOMAS WELSH, Colonel of the Forty-fifth regiment and Briga- dier-General, was born at Columbia, Pennsylvania, on the 5th of May, 1824. He was the son of Charles and Ann (Dough- erty) Welsh. After receiving a common-school education, he engaged in the lumber trade with Mr. John Cooper. At the breaking out of the Mexican War, he volunteered as a private in the Second Kentucky regiment. In the fierce fighting at Buena Vista, he received a severe wound in the leg, by which he was disabled and from which he never fully recovered, undergoing much suffering at times from its effect during his whole life. He was for a time in hospital on the field, but subsequently returned home. As soon as he was sufficiently improved he went again to his regiment, and, for gallant conduct and bravery on the battle-field, was commissioned Lieutenant, in which capacity he served to the close of the war.
The echoes from Sumter, in 1861, had scarcely died away, when, with that determination and zeal which ever characterized him, he marched with a company of volunteers to Harrisburg, being among the first to arrive. He was soon after sent in the direction of Baltimore, on the line of the Northern Central Road. By his opportune arrival he was instrumental in saving several important bridges on that great thoroughfare .. He was subse- quently ordered back to York, where his company was incor- porated in the Second three months' regiment, of which he was unanimously elected Lieutenant-Colonel. He served in the army of Patterson in the Shenandoah Valley. On being mustered out, he at once set about recruiting a regiment for the war, which was speedily accomplished, of which he was commissioned Colonel, known as the Forty-fifth of the line. Recognizing his ability as a soldier and the great advantage to be derived from his ser- vices in organizing the volunteers, not one in a thousand of whom was acquainted with military duty, he was made commandant of Camp Curtin.
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. MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
At the opening of the spring campaign of 1862, he was sent with his regiment to the Department of the South, and, in the battle of James. Island, he had command of a brigade. Shortly afterwards he was ordered to report to General Burnside and was sent to Newport News. From this place he proceeded to Acquia Creek with the troops destined for the reinforcement of General Pope, where, for some time, he was commandant of the post. : . With Burnside's corps he moved into Maryland, and, at South Mountain and. Antietam, performed important service. In the battle of Fredericksburg, on the 13th of December, 1862, he was upon the right centre, opposite the fatal stone-wall and Marye's Heights, when his command was subjected to a terrific fire. So brave and heroic was his conduct on that field that his superior officers, Generals Burnside, Parke, and Wilcox, earnestly sought his promotion to Brigadier-General. This was accorded him, and he afterwards commanded the First brigade, and at times the First division of the Ninth corps. Soon after the battle of Fredericksburg this corps was ordered West, and, after performing duty for a time in Kentucky, was sent to the aid of General Grant before Vicksburg. After the fall of that place he marched with Sherman to Jackson against the army of General Johnston. In this campaign, General Welsh, in common with many other officers of the Northern army, contracted disease that proved fatal. After the repulse of Johnston the Ninth corps returned North. In the march to Jackson and return, which proved very exhausting, General Welsh was much exposed to the malarious influences of the climate, and, while upon the voyage up the Mississippi, he was prostrated with congestive fever. The journey from Vicksburg to Cairo and thence by rail to Cincinnati consumed eight days-days of anguish and suffer- ing, when thoughts of home and family came often thronging to his mind. Arrived at the latter city, he was taken to the house of Charles O. Lockard, a friend and former townsman; but he only survived seven hours, his final dissolution coming unex- pectedly to all.
.A notice of his death in the Columbia Spy closes with the fol- . lowing tribute to his memory : " Brave as a soldier, popular as a man, genial as a friend, affectionate as a husband, indulgent and
583
. JOSHUA B. HOWELL. .
kind as a father, he passed away from amongst us, and the sun of his usefulness has set,
"' As sets the Morning Star, which goes Not down behind the darkened West, nor hides Obscured amid the tempests of the sky, But melts away into the light of heaven.'"
OSHIUA .B. HOWELL, Colonel of the Eighty-fifth regiment, and Brevet Brigadier-General, was a native of Somerset county, Pennsylvania. He was commissioned Colonel of this regiment on the 12th of November, 1861, and moved to the Peninsula with Mcclellan's army. As a part of Keim's brigade of Keyes' corps, his regiment had the advance in the operations which drove the enemy in upon their capital. At Fair Oaks a great disaster befell it, the enemy, coming upon it in overwhelming force, and thrusting it back, entailing severe loss. After the evacuation of the Peninsula, Wessell's brigade, embracing the Eighty-fifth, was sent to North Carolina, where, in connection with the corps of General Foster, it made a short campaign into the interior. On its return it was transferred to the Department of the South, where, upon his arrival, Colonel Howell was put in command of a brigade, and continued in that capacity the greater portion of the time during the remainder of his service. . He was employed in the operations for the reduction of Charleston, and during the siege for the possession of Fort Wagner, which was conducted under General Gilmore, was subjected to great hard- ship and responsibility. It was here, on the 30th of August, that Lieutenant-Colonel Purviance was killed.
In April, 1864, Colonel Howell with his command was ordered to Virginia, and on the 20th of May he led his brigade in a daring charge on the enemy's works, driving them out and taking the fortifications at the point of the bayonet. He par- ticipated in the vigorous operations of the Tenth corps on the north side of the James, leading his brigade until the early part of September, when he was assigned to the command of a divi- sion of colored troops. On the 12th of this month he received fatal injuries by the fall of his horse, and died two days thereafter.
Colonel Howell was a devoted officer, and was sincerely esteemed by his troops .. When his regiment was shut up on one of the sea-
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MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
islands around Charleston harbor soon after their arrival, and the men were unable to procure tobacco, an article which many of them had never been without, he sent away and purchased it by the keg and distributed it freely to them. His soldierly and heroic bearing was proverbial. Prisoners who were taken said that in the rebel army the conspicuous figure of that "old, daring, white-headed officer" was well known, and that their command- ers had frequently ordered them to single him out with their rifles, but that they had failed to reach him. Only three times during his over three years of service was he absent from his command -- one of these an occasion of rising from a sickness of typhoid fever, and another only extending to Philadelphia on business. In battle he was cool and courageous, never saying, "Go, boys," but, " Follow me." General Terry said of him, " He was both a soldier and a gentleman; his death is a loss both to the army and the country."
COUN BUTLER CONYNGHAM, Colonel of the Fifty-second regi- ment, was born at Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, on the 29th of September, 1827. His father, John N. Conyngham, a native of Philadelphia, was President Judge of the Eleventh Judicial District of the State. His mother, Ruth Ann Butler, was a granddaughter of Captain Zebulon Butler, a Revolutionary offi- cer who commanded the patriots in the battle of Wyoming, on the 3d of July, 1779. He was educated at the Wilkesbarre Academy, at St. Paul's College, Long Island, and finally at Yale College, New Haven, where he graduated. IIe was admitted to the bar of Luzerne county at the August term, 1849, and after- wards practised at St. Louis, Missouri, for a period of five years. Returning to Wilkesbarre, he resumed business there, which he followed successfully until the opening of the war. He had been connected with the militia, as a member of the Wyoming Light Dragoons, and when the Eighth regiment of the three months' service was formed he entered it as Lieutenant. He assisted in recruiting the Fifty-second, a veteran regiment, of which he was commissioned Major. In January, 1864, he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel, and, in March, 1865, to Colonel. He went with his command to the Peninsula, and in the battle
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585
1657148 JOJIN B. CONYNGIIAM.
of Fair Oaks won the warm commendation of General Naglec, for his courage and skill displayed in a pressing emergency.
Early in the year 1863, the Fifty-second was sent to the Department of the South, and here he was engaged in all the operations undertaken for the reduction of Fort Wagner. The siege was especially severe, and the labor in making regular approaches, under a sun in a southern clime, was very wearing. Its fall was a subject of great rejoicing. In June, 1864, a scheme was formed for the reduction of Charleston, which involved the capture of Fort Johnson. The advance was to be made in three columns embarked in boats. One o'clock, on the morning of the 3d of July, was fixed for the embarkation. It was low-tide at that hour, and the party which the Fifty-second headed had difficulty in crossing the bar which lay in the way; but that was passed, and when nearing the shore they were discovered, and the alarm was given. Without quailing before the fire that was opened upon them, they landed, captured a two-gun battery, driving out the foc, and, charging the main work two hundred yards on, crossed the side of the fort and had gained the coveted position, when it was found that the supporting columns had failed to follow. No alternative but surrender remained, and the entire party fell into the enemy's hands. The advance upon the main work was made in the face of a terrible fire, in which Colonel Conyngham received a buckshot wound in the check. "The boats," says General Foster, in orders, "commanded by Colonel Hoyt, Lieutenant-Colonel Conyngham, Captain Camp, and Lieutenants Stevens and Evans, all of the Fifty-second, rowed rapidly to the shore, and these officers, with Adjutant Bunyan (afterwards killed), and one hundred and thirty-five men, landed and drove the enemy; but, deserted by their sup- ports, were obliged to surrender to superior numbers. . . . They deserve great credit for their energy in urging their boats for- ward, and bringing them through the narrow channel, and the feeling which led them to land at the head of their men was the prompting of a gallant spirit, which deserves to find more imitators." Colonel Conyngham, with the officers of the party. was confined at Macon, and was afterwards placed under the fire of the Union guns in the city of Charleston. He was mus-
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MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
tered out of service with his regiment on the 12th of July, 1865, and was appointed Captain in the Thirty-eighth infantry of the regular army. He died in May, 1871, of disease contracted in the service while stationed in Texas.
AVID. MORRIS, JR., Major of the Forty-eighth regiment, was born at Bridgewater, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, on the 7th of September, 1831. He was the son of David' and Rachel (Berry) Morris. He was educated at Jefferson College, where he graduated in 1850, and received his professional train- ing in the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania. For a period of four years he practised his profession at Beaver, at the end of which time he removed to Pittsburg, and opened a drug store. He was on the point of entering into partnership in his profession with an eminent physician of that city, when his contemplated associate was removed by death, and he returned in 1860 to Beaver. He entered the service of the United States on the 23d of September, 1861, as Surgeon of volunteers, with the rank of Major, and was assigned to duty with the Forty- eighth regiment. Before departing he was married to Miss Sarah Howell Agnew, second daughter of Chief Justice Agnew. His regiment was first sent to Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina. In February, 1862, Major Morris was detailed to duty with the Ninth New Jersey regiment, the Surgeon of which had perished in the surf while attempting to reach the shore. He was landed on Roanoke Island on the 7th, and remained all night upon a swampy beach. On the morning of the Sth the battle of Roanoke Island opened, and the wounded soon came streaming to the rear. It was his first : field-service. For several days and nights he continued on active duty without intermission, having, at one time, in charge a hospital containing sixty rebel wounded in addition to his own. Ile was wholly prostrated by his labors, and his exhaustion was followed by an attack of what was then thought to be bilious colic; but is since believed to have been intestinal intussusception. On the evening of the 13th he grew easy, and it was supposed that the severity of the attack had passed ; but on that night he began to sink, and died on the morning. of the 14th. Brigade-Surgeon William Henry Church
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DAVID MORRIS, JR .- PROSPER DALIEN.
says in his report : " Words cannot express to you my distress at the loss of Dr. Morris. During the action of February 8th, he had charge of the hospital at Ashby's House. He worked there unceasingly day and night until yesterday .: I never gave him an order, for the reason that he promptly performed any duty asked. Even our short acquaintance had inspired me with the greatest respect and admiration for his character, and in his death you and the army have every reason to deplore his loss. I saw him yesterday, and he agreed with me in the conviction that his illness would be slight, and I then left him, my mind impressed with the fear that I had overtasked a too willing pro- fessional brother. If there is any mark of respect that can be bestowed upon a deserving officer, I most urgently request that it may be extended to my deceased friend, as every regiment owes him a debt of gratitude." In general orders it was declared, " IIe lost his life by disease brought on by his untiring devotion to the wounded during and after the action of the Sth. To the forgetfulness of self which kept him at the hospital, regardless of rest or sleep, the department owes a debt of gratitude." He was characterized as "one whose patriotism and conscientious sense of duty led him to sacrifice himself for his country, a man of high order of intellect, and of a cultivated mind, an exemplary Chris- tian, a physician of excellent standing, and a gentleman in all his deportment.". He was beloved by his own regiment, and his character was impressed upon those among whom he died, though strangers, and was beautifully and simply expressed in the inscription upon the little wooden slab that marked his tem- porary grave at Roanoke Island :
"Gentleman-Patriot-Scholar. Requiescat in pace."
PROSPER DALIEN, brevet Major of the Two Hundred and Eighth regiment, was born at Nancy, France. . He was educated at Nancy, and at the military school at St. Cyr. Upon his grad- uation he became an officer in the French army and served through the Italian War of 1859, as Lieutenant of cavalry, and was brevetted Captain, and presented with two medals for gallant conduct at Solferino, by Napoleon III. He was given authority to recruit a company for the Two Hundred and Eighth regiment,
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MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
in the summer of 1864, and, on the 9th of September, he was commissioned Captain of Company C. He was an efficient officer, and soon made his influence felt in the regiment both by his example and his counsel. His friends, knowing of his superior training, sought to have him transferred and placed in a higher command. When General Hartranft, who was over the division to which he belonged, became aware of his skill and experi- ence, he detailed him for duty upon his staff as engineer. This was a position more to his taste. It was while serving in this capacity that the most notable exploit of his life was per- formed, and in which he received his mortal wound. He chanced to be staff officer of the day when Fort Steadman-a work on the main Union line before Petersburg-was attacked and captured on the morning of March 25th, 1865. At half-past four in the morning, divining by the sound that an attack was being made, he leaped upon his horse, and rode to the scene of the struggle. At five minutes past five he had reported the disaster to General Hartranft, whose head-quarters were more than a mile away, and, receiving the instructions of that officer, immediately led the nearest regiment-which happened to be his own-to the breach, putting it in upon the left, while General Hartranft moved in person upon the front and right. Seeing the regiment upon the front hard pressed and falling back, in the midst of a furious storm of deadly missiles he attempted to reach it; but before he was far on his way his horse was killed by a shell, and he hurried forward on foot. In less than five minutes he was struck by a Minie ball and mortally wounded in the left lung. He was taken to the hospital at City Point, and sub- sequently to Washington, where hopes were entertained of his recovery, having received in both places the tender ministrations of Mrs. Theodore Fenn, of Harrisburg. But on the night of the 2d of June a severe hemorrhage set in, which terminated his life in a few hours. His body was embalmed, and buried in Kalma Cemetery at Harrisburg.
The brevet rank of Major was conferred upon him as a reward for his meritorious conduct on that fatal morning. In forwarding his commission to his father in France, General Hartranft. after narrating the circumstances of the engagement, said : "He thus
V
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PROSPER DALIEN.
fell in the full discharge of his duties as a brave and gallant officer. Much of my success depended upon his prompt report that Fort Steadman was captured by the enemy. It enabled me to place the few troops then convenient in such position as to prevent the enemy from making any further advance, and with- out further advance he had gained no advantage. When the balance of my troops came up, the foe was driven out with heavy loss, leaving his dead and wounded on the field, with two thou- sand prisoners and eleven battle-flags in our hands." In his relations to his men Captain Dalien was kind and considerate, and had their respect and love in a remarkable degree. Whilst a staff officer he was careful to save those of slender constitu- tions from unnecessary exposure, always detailing men of robust health for duty in severe weather.
While he was at City Point, President Lincoln visited all the hospitals there, and as he came to the cot of Captain Dalien he took him by the hand and asked his name and rank. When he had learned who the wounded soldier was, the good President seated himself upon a cracker box that had been ingeniously con- verted into a camp chair, and entered into familiar conversation with him. He complimented the Captain for his services at Steadman, and said that he had heard all about him at head- quarters, and that the War Department was about making out his brevet. He promised him a place, in the regular army if he recovered, and addressed him when he left as AMERICA'S SECOND LAFAYETTE.
VITHEN
CONSTITUTION
CHAPTER VI.
..
EORGE GORDON MEADE, Major-General in the Regular Army. Of all those who are now noted for their prowess in the late war few will in a future generation be remembered or named, and fewer still will achieve thereby immortality. Gouv- erneur Carr, in an article which he contributed. to the United States Service Magazine, after re- marking upon the tendency to oblivion in all mar- tial exploits, frames a paragraph which he im- agines some Rollin of a few centuries hence will devote to the great struggle which now holds so large a place in the public eye, and in its narra- tion fills so many volumes. It reads thus :
" BUCHANAN was succeeded by LINCOLN, a wise and patriotic
ruler. During his presidency the Southern States revolted. After several indecisive actions, LEE, the insurgent leader, was defeated at Gettysburg by MEADE, who commanded the principal force of the republic; the Southern territory was overrun by numerous armies ; its ports were effectively blockaded; the slaves were declared free, and many of them enlisted in the National armies ; and finally, Richmond, the capital of the revolted States, was captured by GRANT, the Commander-in-chief of the United States Armies; and the insurgents were compelled to lay down their arms. Lincoln was re-elected President, but was soon after assassinated by an obscure actor." Of the five names here repre- sented as surviving the wreck of time that of General Meade is onc.
George Gordon Meade was born on the 31st of December, 1815, at Cadiz, Spain, during a temporary residence of his parents in that country. Ile was descended from a family long resident in Philadelphia, of Irish origin, one member of which, at least,
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W. W. H. DAVIS Cul 10% Reg Bv Brig. Gen
HENRY M HOY" Col 52- Reg. Ev Brig Gel.
RICHARD COULTER, ColliH Reg Bv: Brig. & Ma. Gen.
GUSTAVUS N TOWN
ALFRED E MOCALMONT Col 103% Res IN Bre Gen
591
GEORGE G. MEADE.
enthusiastically supported. the patriot army in -the Revolution. His father, Richard W. Meade, being engaged in mercantile pur- suits in Spain, was intrusted by the United States with the adjustment of certain claims which the government had against that country, and became naval agent at the port of Cadiz. Through his efforts negotiations were entered upon which finally resulted in the cession of the territory of Florida to the United States.
The parents returned to this country while the son was yet an infant, and he was early put to a boys' school in the city of Washington, taught by the late Chief Justice Chase. He was afterwards a student at Mount Airy, a Military Academy near Philadelphia, and in 1831 entered the United States Mili- tary Academy at West Point, whence, in due course, he gradu- ated with honor. In 1835 he entered the army as brevet Second Lieutenant in the Third artillery, and in it served in the Semi- nole War in Florida. He was promoted to a full Lieutenant at the end of a year. The poisonous exhalations of the swamps seriously affected his health, and while thus detained from duty he escaped the Dade Massacre, by which many of his comrades were cut off. Providence thus interposed to spare him for greater usefulness on fields then little dreamed of. So serious was his sickness that, in October, 1836, he resigned his commission in the army, and after his recovery engaged in the business of a Civil Engineer, being employed with the party sent to survey the northeastern boundary line of the United States. In 1842, re- turning to the army, he was commissioned Second Lieutenant of Topographical Engineers, and was industriously employed in the great survey from Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico. In this capacity he served upon the staff of General Taylor in the early part of the Mexican War, and afterwards upon that of General Scott, distinguishing himself in the actions of Palo Alto and Monterey. His services were recognized, the Government award- ing him the brevet rank of First Lieutenant, dated September 23d, 1846, and upon his return home he was presented with a fine sword by citizens of Philadelphia. In time of peace the fighting soldier has little employment, but the engineer's work is never done .. He was at once put upon duty in supervising river
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