USA > Pennsylvania > Martial deeds of Pennsylvania, Vol. 2 > Part 35
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RANKLIN BAILY SPEAKMAN, son of Joshua and Hannah (Baily) Speakman, was born in Chester county on the 9th of January, 1833. Though nurtured in the tenets of the Quaker faith he could not regard with indifference the attempts to dis- rupt the government, and recruited a company of which he was made, Captain, and was subsequently commissioned Colonel of the One Hundred and Thirty-third regiment. He was in the division of General Humphreys in the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. In the former he led his command up to within forty paces of that fatal stone wall on Marye's Heights where the flower of the Union army was cut down, which position for more than an hour he held under a terrific fire. With like heroism he acted in the latter, where Humphreys faced a defiant foe with a courage and a resolution which will ever challenge admiration. Colonel Speakman's regiment was called but for nine months, and at the expiration of that time he was mustered out. He was married on the 30th of December, 1856, to Miss Annie M. Spangler.
1
OREN BURRITT was born in Susquehanna county, of New England ancestry, on the 26th of June, 1837. . He was educated in the Wyoming Seminary and had commenced the study of law when the Rebellion came, but enlisted in the Fifty- sixth regiment as a private, in which he served in the battles of
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F. B. SPEAKMAN .-- LOREN BURRITT .- DANIEL LEASURE.
South Mountain, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. In February, 1863, he was promoted to Lieutenant and acting Adjutant, par- ticipating in the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, during a part of which, and subsequently, he was an aid on the staff of General Cutler. In November, 1863, he was appointed Major of the Eighth colored regiment, which he accompanied to South Carolina. At Olustee it was subjected to a wasting fire, such as is rarely recorded, in which half of the officers and three- fifths of the men were lost. Major Burritt received two severe wounds, disabling him for the rest of the war, and from which he still suffers. He rejoined his regiment in September, 1864, having been promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel; but his wounds reopening, he was obliged to retire. In November he was placed in command of recruiting rendezvous at Newport News, and was subsequently on court-martial, and President of a mili- tary commission at Norfolk. In May, 1865, he went with his regiment to Texas, and was finally mustered out in December. Since the war he has served two terms in the Pennsylvania Legislature.
ANIEL LEASURE, Colonel of the One Hundredth (Roundhead) regiment and Brevet Brigadier-General, was born in West- moreland county, on the 18th of March, 1819. His great-grand- father, Abraham Leasure, emigrated to Pennsylvania from the borders of Switzerland, near France, whither the ancestors of the family had fled after the massacre of St. Bartholomew, they being Huguenots of Navarre. He studied medicine and graduated at Jefferson Medical College. He was married in September, 1842, to Isabel W., eldest daughter of Samuel Hamilton, for several years a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature.
He had served in the militia, and at the opening of the Rebel- lion raised a company and was made Adjutant, and also acting Assistant Adjutant-General of the brigade upon the staff of Gen- eral Negley. At the close of the three months' term he was authorized to raise a veteran regiment. Lawrence county, where he had taken up his residence, had been largely settled by the descendants of those who had followed Cromwell in the struggles of the English people for liberty, and from among these he drew
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MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
recruits, appropriately designating it the Roundhead regiment. Colonel Leasure was first sent to the Department of the South, where his command formed part of the brigade of General Isaac I. Stevens. In the attack upon the Tower Fort near Secessionville, on the morning of the 16th of June, 1862, Colonel Leasure led the brigade, and won the commendation of General Stevens. In the battle of Second Bull Run, Colonel Leasure, while leading his brigade, had his horse shot under him, and himself received a severe wound. He recovered in time to take part in the battle of Fredericksburg, and soon after went with two divisions of the Ninth corps, to which he was then attached, to Kentucky, and thence to Vicksburg, where, and at Jackson, he participated in those triumphant achievements which opened the Mississippi and really broke the backbone of Rebellion.
From Vicksburg he proceeded with his troops to East Ten- nessee, and was active in the operations of the Union arms in that region and in the siege of Knoxville. At the battle of the Wilderness on the 6th of May, where he commanded a brigade, he led in a charge which hurled the rebels from works which they had captured from Union troops, and reestablished the broken and disorganized line, receiving the thanks of General Hancock on the field. At Spottsylvania Court House, Colonel Leasure was wounded. At the conclusion of his term on the 30th of August, 1864, he was mustered out of service. He was brevetted Brigadier- General in April, 1865. Upon his return to civil life he resumed the practice of his profession, first at New Castle and subsequently in Allegheny.
HARLES T. CAMPBELL, son of James and Margaret (Poe) Campbell, was born in Pennsylvania, on the 10th of August, 1823. He was educated at Marshall College, and served in the Mexican war as Lieutenant in the Eighth infantry, and Captain in the Eleventh. In May, 1861, he was commissioned Colonel of the First Pennsylvania artillery, but finding his com- mand scattered in the exigencies of the service he resigned in December, and was made Colonel of the Fifty-seventh regiment of infantry. At Fair Oaks he had his horse shot under him, and received a severe wound in the right arm, another in the
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C. T. CAMPBELL .- G. P. McLEAN .- C. W. DIVEN.
left groin, and a third in the right leg. That in the arm was serious, necessitating a removal of a part of the ulna. At Fred- ericksburg he again had his horse shot under him, and received two balls in the right arm, and another in the bowels which made its exit near the spinal column. For a time he was a prisoner with his regiment; but taking advantage of a favorable turn, they released themselves and carried back over two hundred of the enemy captives. Again was a portion of the bone of the right arm removed, and a tedious and painful confinement in hospital ensued. This ended his active service. For his gal- lantry he was promoted to Brigadier-General. He was a mem- ber of the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1852. He was married in 1850 to Miss Fannie Bruce, daughter of Dr. Bruce of Pittsburg. Since the war he has resided in Dakota.
FORGE POTTS MCLEAN, son of William and Sarah (Douglass) McLean, was born in Philadelphia on the 13th of July, 1817. He served as Major of the Twenty-second regiment in the three months' service in the city of Baltimore, after which he became Colonel of the Eighty-eighth, with which he partici- pated in the battle of Cedar Mountain and in the preliminary operations to the battle of Bull Run. Having been prevented by protracted sickness from keeping the field he resigned. He recruited and commanded the Fifty-ninth militia in 1863, and subsequently raised a three year regiment, the One Hundred and Eighty-third, which he led with gallantry at the Wilderness and Spottsylvania. Incapable of the exposures and privations of the camp, he resigned soon after. Colonel McLean was a member of the City Councils before the war, and in 1870 was appointed store- keeper of the United States bonded warehouse in Philadelphia.
HARLES WORTH DIVEN, son of Thomas N. and Evelina (Bar- ton) Diven, was born in Huntingdon county on the 27th of July, 1831. At sixteen, he went with the army to Mexico and served through the entire contest in Geary's regiment. In May, 1861, he was commissioned a Lieutenant and soon after Captain in the Twelfth Reserve, with which he served with dis- tinction in the battles of the Peninsula, at Bull Run, South
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MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Mine Run. In the spring of 1864 he was promoted to Major, and was en- gaged in the hard-fought battles of the Wilderness, Laurel Hill, Spottsylvania, North Anna, and Bethesda Church, when the terin of the Reserves expired and he returned home; but im- mediately raised a new regiment, the Two Hundredth, of which he was made Colonel. On his arrival at the front he was put in command of a brigade, which, in the battle of Fort Steadman, performed the most distinguished service. At the moment of moving, he was struck by an exploding shell and disabled. The brevet rank of Brigadier-General was promptly conferred on him. He was characterized as " cool and calm in battle."
OHN HARPER, son of Thomas Nicholas and Mary (McNab) Harper, was born on the 5th of April, 1840, at , Bethnal Green, London, whence the family emigrated to this country in 1848. He served in the Seventeenth regiment for three months and entered the Ninety-fifth as a non-commissioned officer, rising through all the grades of the company and regiment to that of Colonel. He was engaged in the battles of West Point, Gaines' Mill, Crampton's Gap, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Marye's Heights, Salem Church, Gettysburg, Rappahannock Station, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Opequan, Fisher's Hill, Cedar Creek, Second Petersburg, Sailor's Creek-in short in every battle in which his regiment participated with the exception of the Second Hatcher's Run, and a slight skirmish in front of Peters- burg, when he was absent by leave. He was awarded the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel both by commission and brevet, which is sufficient evidence of his gallantry.
HARLES KLECKNER, son of Michael and Susana (Reber) Kleck- ner, was born in Union county, on the 10th of December, 1831. In August, 1861, he was commissioned a Lieutenant in the Forty-eighth, in which he was engaged under Burnside in North Carolina, at Bull Run, Chantilly, South Mountain, and Antietam. In December, 1862, he was made Colonel of the One Hundred and Seventy-second, drafted militia, which he com- manded near Yorktown during the period of its service. He
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J. HARPER .- C. KLECKNER .- J. B. KIDDOO.
subsequently became Lieutenant-Colonel of the One Hundred and Eighty-fourth for veteran service, which he led in two desperate assaults at Cold Harbor, where the enemy's shots fell like rain, and the dead and dying covered all the field. Its loss was sixty- seven killed, and one hundred and thirteen wounded. Colonel Kleckner was warmly commended for the dauntless courage dis- played on this field, and the unflinching bravery of his men. Ile continued to lead the regiment in the assaults before Petersburg, at Strawberry Plains, Reams' Station, and Deep Bottom, where he was severely wounded. Ile was with his regiment in the final attack on Petersburg, and to the end of the war stood with face to the foe. He was married in 1851 to Miss Harriet A. Orwig. In person he is over six feet in height.
JOSEPHI B. KIDDOO, son of John and Mary (Barr) Kiddoo, was born on the 31st of March, 1837, near Pittsburg. He received a liberal education and studied law, which he had barely finished when the Rebellion opened. He served as a private in the Twelfth regiment for the short term, and went to the Peninsula in that capacity in the Sixty-third regiment, serving till the close of the campaign as a non-commissioned officer. In August, 1862, he was made Lieutenant-Colonel of the One Hundred and Thirty- seventh, and with it participated in the engagements at South Mountain, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. In the spring of 1863 he was advanced to Colonel, and led in the battle of Chancellors- ville. In June he was mustered out at the expiration of his term, but took an active part in the exciting chase after John Morgan in Ohio. Soon afterward he was appointed Major of the Sixth colored, but was not long thereafter made Colonel of the Twenty-second colored, which he led in the active operations of the Army of the James. For his assault and capture of a strong redoubt and six pieces of artillery, on the 15th of June, he was brevetted Brigadier-General. In an action on the South Side Railroad, on the 27th of October, he was severely wounded through the hips, involving the spine, which confined him to the hospital till after the close of the war. For his valor here he was brevetted Major-General. He was given command of the post at Harrisburg. In the spring of 1866 he had charge of the
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MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
Freedmen's Bureau for Texas, and while there was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel in the Forty-third infantry, and was brevetted Colonel and Brigadier-General in the regular army. After two years of service in the Department of the Lakes, and a term of duty in New York city as superintendent of recruiting, he was placed on the retired list of the army with the rank of Brigadier- General.
FORGE FAIRLAMB SMITH, son of Persifer F. and Thomasine (Fairlamb) Smith, was born on the 28th of February, 1840, at West Chester. He was educated at Yale College, and was reading law when the war broke out. He served as a private in the Second regiment; at the end of its term became Captain in the Forty-ninth ; and in the spring of 1862, Major of the Sixty- first. At Fair Oaks he was wounded and fell into the enemy's hands. On his return after a brief captivity he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel. He was conspicuous in storming Marye's Heights in the Chancellorsville campaign, and was soon after promoted to Colonel. In the action at Spottsylvania Court House he was severely and nigh fatally wounded. Of him that intrepid soldier, General A. P. Howe, said: "He showed himself at all times an efficient, gallant, and competent officer;" and the lamented Sedgwick : "He has performed his duty with zeal and ability." Colonel Smith married in 1867 Miss Anna Elizabeth Hickman. At the conclusion of the war he commenced the practice of the law at West Chester.
AVID B. MORRIS was born at Port Elizabeth, New Jersey, on the 17th of December, 1825. In 1838 the family re- moved to Wheeling, and in 1841 to Pittsburg. In December, 1845, he was married to Miss Margaret Grissell, daughter of John Grissell. In 1855 he enlisted in the Washington Infantry. in which he rose to be Lieutenant. This company, with the Pennsylvania infantry, turned out armed and equipped to resist the order of Secretary Floyd to remove heavy guns from Alle- gheny Arsenal. Of his company Lieutenant Morris was com- missioned Captain in April, 1861, and at the formation of the One Hundred and First regiment was made Lieutenant-Colonel,
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G. F. SMITH .- D. B. MORRIS .- H. M. BOSSERT.
and after the death of Colonel Roberts, Colonel. In the battle of Fair Oaks he was in Casey's division, the first to be struck. Recognizing from the opening his precarious situation, and that it behooved him to make every missile tell, Colonel Morris hastened along the line as he marshalled his men in arms, and spoke words of encouragement. "Fire low, my boys," he said, "and aim at the waist-belts of the graybacks!"
That they might be deliberate, he ordered them to hold their fire until the enemy were near enough to count their fingers. Right manfully were his orders heeded, and when the crash of his musketry opened, the ranks of the foe were swept clean away. Overborne by superior numbers the regiment was finally com- pelled to retire to the supporting line of General Couch, where it fought until the close of the battle. Early in the fray Colonel Morris was wounded and borne from the field.
At the conclusion of the campaign this regiment was ordered to the Department of North Carolina, where upon his recovery Colonel Morris rejoined it. He was intrusted with the direction of expeditions undertaken into the interior, and was prominent in several considerable engagements. At the conclusion of his term on the 24th of January, 1865, he was mustered out of service and returned to his home in Pittsburg, where he main- tains the character of one of the most active business men of that eminently business city.
ENRY M. BOSSERT, son of Henry Y. and Hannah (Miller) Bossert, was born on the 25th of January, 1825, in Mont- gomery county. He served in the Eleventh regiment under Pat- terson, and participated in the affair at Falling Waters. In the summer of 1862 he was commissioned Colonel of the One Hun- dred and Thirty-seventh regiment. "We drilled," he says. "by company during the day, and by battalion by moonlight." When- the army retired from the Second Bull Run field, Colonel Bossert was ordered to join Hancock's brigade. He acted in support at Crampton's Gap, and, when the enemy gave way, was directed to take sixteen companies, one from each regiment in the division, and establish a line across Pleasant Valley, facing Harper's Ferry, which had fallen into the enemy's hands. When the battle of
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MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
Antietam opened he resumed his place at the head of his own regiment. He was posted in support of a battery of Hancock's command, which he gallantly defended under the immediate eye of that heroic General, and received his thanks upon the field. When Stuart made his famous raid to the rear of the Union army, Colonel Bossert was aroused at midnight to move to inter- cept him, but failed to catch the wily rebel leader.
When the campaign in Maryland was ended the regiment was ordered to Washington, and thence to Acquia Creek, where Colonel Bossert was placed in command of a brigade of six regi- ments, and charged with guarding the landing, and the railroad leading to Falmouth. Having been injured by the fall of his horse in March, he retired from the service, the time of his regi- ment being then about to expire. Previous to the war, Colonel Bossert was justice of the peace for a period of fifteen years. He was afterwards elected register and recorder, and clerk of the courts of Clinton county.
DWARD CAMPBELL, son of Hugh and Rachel (Lyon) Campbell, was born on the 24th of July, 1838. He received a liberal education and entered the service of the Union as Lieutenant in the Eighty-fifth, and in May, 1862, was promoted to Captain. His regiment was in Casey's division at Fair Oaks and sustained heavy losses. At the end of the Peninsula campaign he went to North Carolina, and subsequently to the army before Charleston, where he was engaged in the operations to reduce that strong- hold, and in the siege of Fort Wagner. In September, 1862, he had been promoted to Major, and after the fall of Wagner was advanced to Colonel and commanded the regiment. After its transfer to the Army of the James it was engaged in the desperate fighting which was in progress here until the 22d of November, when at the conclusion of his term he was mustered out, and returned to the practice of his profession at Somerset.
2 HEOPHILUS KEPHART, son of Abraham R. and Mary (Garner) Kephart, was born in Bucks county, on the 19th of April, 1835. He served for the three months' term in the Twenty-fifth regiment, and entered the One Hundred and Fourth as a Lieu-
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E. CAMPBELL .- T. KEPHART .-- F. O. ALLEMAN.
tenant, in which capacity he went through the Peninsula cam- paign. Soon after its conclusion he was promoted to Captain, and with his regiment was transferred to the Department of the South. It was finally returned to the Army of the James in the spring of 1864, where it served till the close of the war. In December, 1864, Captain Kephart was promoted to Major, in the March following to Lieutenant-Colonel, and in June to Colonel. In the battle of Fair Oaks he received a wound in the foot, and again in the breast at Fort Gregg, South Carolina. He was also wounded in the finger at the battle on John's Island. Colonel Kephart was married to Miss Lottie B. Connor in 1867.
FREDERICK O. ALLEMAN was born August Ist, 1829, in Dauphin county. He received a liberal education and graduated at the Pennsylvania Medical College in the spring of 1853. At the opening of the Rebellion he served as a private in the Fifteenth regiment, and at the close of its term was appointed Assistant Surgeon of the Eighth Reserve. He was active through the entire Peninsula campaign. "On one occasion," says a corre- spondent, " while caring for the suffering, two shells burst by his side, instantly killing three of his wounded, and tearing to pieces the body of one whose leg he was amputating. He had three horses shot under him, and for four consecutive days and nights got neither food nor sleep, being constantly engaged with the knife and in dressing wounds." At the close of the campaign he resigned, but was immediately reappointed Assistant Surgeon in the Ninth Reserve. Ile remained with this until after the battle of Fredericksburg, when he was detailed to duty in the Western Army. He had charge of hospitals at Louisville, Nash- ville, Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain, and Atlanta. From this point he marched with Sherman to the Sea. He was stationed there as Surgeon-in-chief of Roper Hospital, and was afterwards placed in charge of all the hospitals in the city. Here he re- mained until after the close of the war, leaving in August, 1865, and was soon after mustered out of service, having been in almost constant duty from the beginning to the end of the Rebellion. Hle married in 1853 Miss Mary B. Ogelsby, of Harrisburg.
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MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
ANIEL NAGLE was born at Pottsville, Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, in 1828. He was the son of General James Nagle, a native of Reading. . He served as a private in Mexico, participating in the siege of Vera Cruz, and the battles of Cerro Gordo, La Hoya, Huamantla, and the City of Mexico. In the late war he served as Captain in the Sixth regiment, in the three months' campaign, at the close of which he entered the Forty- eighth as Captain, and was soon after promoted to Major. He was with Burnside in North Carolina, and after the return of the regi- ment to Fortress Monroe, resigned and retired from the service. In 1862 he was Lieutenant-Colonel of the Nineteenth emergency regiment. In November, 1862, he was appointed Colonel of the One Hundred and Seventy-third-a regiment of drafted militia- and was stationed at Norfolk, Virginia. In July he was trans- ferred to the line of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, where he remained until his muster out, in August, 1863.
RCHIBALD BLAKELEY, son of Lewis and Jane (McAllister) Blakeley, was born on the 16th of July, 1827, in Butler county. Ilis great-grandfather, a brother of Commodore Johns- ton Blakeley, of the American Navy, was killed in the battle of Brandywine. The father dying suddenly when he was but a mere youth, Archibald was forced to rely on his own exertions for an education. He studied law, was admitted to practice in 1852, and in the fall of that year was elected District Attorney. At the breaking out of the war he was active in recruiting, and was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel of the Seventy-eighth regiment, which was sent to the army of Buell in Kentucky. He was engaged in arduous service in defending communications while Buell was on the march to Shiloh, and after the fall of Corinth, Blakeley was detailed to preside over a court-martial. and a military commission for the trial of civil offences, perform- ing for a time much of the business of the civil courts. In the fall of 1863 he was prostrated by sickness and was unable to return to duty until after the battle of Stone River. At Dug Gap, just previous to the battle of Chickamauga, while in command of his regiment, he found himself in the presence unexpectedly of the rebel army, and only by cool and judicious
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D. NAGLE .- A. BLAKELEY .- J. W. FISHER.
manœuvres was he able to extricate himself. During the night of Friday preceding the battle he was sent to the fords of the Chickamauga, with orders to hold them to the last extremity for the protection of the flank of McCook's corps, moving into position, which was gallantly executed. In the great battle of Saturday and Sunday he led his regiment with marked courage. After the series of engagements which drove the enemy from before Chattanooga, Colonel Blakeley with his own, the Twenty- first Wisconsin, and a battery, was placed in command on Lookout Mountain, which he fortified and held securely during the winter. Near the close of his term of service, in the spring of 1864, on account of severe illness in his family, he resigned. He was nominated by President Johnson for Brigadier-General by brevet, but the nomination was never acted on by the Senate. He was married in 1854 to Miss Susan D. Mechling. Since the war he has devoted himself to his profession in Pittsburg.
OSEPH W. FISHER was born in Northumberland county on the 16th of October, 1814. Two years after, his father died, leaving a widow and several small children, of whom he was youngest. His education was consequently the result mainly of his own efforts. He married in 1836 Miss Elizabeth R. Shearer, and in 1840 removed to Lancaster county, where he studied law and was admitted to practice. In 1848 he was elected a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature. He entered the service as a private in April, 1861, and was subsequently made Lieutenant- Colonel of the Fifth Reserve regiment. He made a campaign in West Virginia in the fall of 1861, and in 1862 was in the Seven Days' battle on the Peninsula, commanding the brigade skir- mishers at Beaver Dam Creek, was in the hottest of the fight at Gaines' Mill, and at Charles City Cross Roads led in the famous charge which shattered the enemy and threw him back upon his supports. He was soon after promoted to the rank of Colonel. On his way to the Bull Run field his horse fell upon him, inflict- ing serious injuries, which prevented him from participating in that battle. At South Mountain he led his regiment in the assault and capture of that stronghold, and with equal gallantry fought at Antietam. At Gettysburg he was in command of a
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