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Civil War Blog

A project of PA Historian

The Yeager Family in the Civil War (Part 10) – Capt. Frederick M. Yeager

  In 1912, the Hon. James Martin Yeager wrote and published A Brief History of the Yeager, Buffington, Creighton, Jacobs, Lemon, Hoffman and Woodside Families and Their Collateral Kindred of Pennsylvania.  Yeager was formerly the President of Drew Seminary for Young Women of Carmel, New York as well as a former Member of the House […]

Two Veterans Named Erastus R. Foster

In 2009, while doing research on the Civil War veteran named Erastus R. Foster who lived in Duncanon, Perry County, Pennsylvania, and in his late years in Lykens, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, it was discovered that there were possibly two men of the same name who served in different regiments in the Civil War.  Known at […]

Thomas Hoch and Son of Barry Township

Two more veterans have been added to the Civil War Research Project as a result of being identified in a local area publication as being from Barry Township, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.  The veterans are Thomas Hoch and his son Franklin Hoch. On a grave stone in the St. John’s United Church of Christ Cemetery, also […]

Another Lost Film – The Battle of Gettysburg

In a 1996 book, Lost Films: Important Movies That Have Disappeared, Frank Thompson, describes the preservation problem of old films, particularly those made during the silent film era (about 1893-1930) – films that were made on nitrocellulose stock, which, if not stored in the most perfect conditions, is known to deteriorate rapidly into a “bubbling […]

The Credibility of William J. Ferguson

Today’s post is a look at the credibility of Abraham Lincoln assassination witness, William J. Ferguson.  Ferguson was the longest surviving member of the cast of Our American Cousin, the Tom Taylor comedy that was playing at Ford’s Theatre the night that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.  As a witness to the assassination, his tale of […]