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Civil War Veteran Burials at Oak Hill Cemetery, Millersburg (Part 2)
Posted By Norman Gasbarro on December 12, 2014
Today’s post features the grave of Col. Edward H. Leib who is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery, Millersburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, and also gives some additional information about him and his service in the Civil War.
One of the above two men is thought to be “Capt. E. Leib, 5th U.S. Cavalry” and the other is thought to be a “Captain Ramsey.” The photo was supposedly taken at Morse’s Gallery of the Cumberland, Nashville, Tennessee. But, which one is Leib? Previously it was thought that the man on the left was Leib, but another photograph has surfaced has been positively identified as Col. Leib and is shown below.
The beard and the part in the hair more closely resemble the man on the right.
Edward H. Leib applied for a pension on 10 August 1877 as is shown on the Pension Index Card (above) from Fold3. The other version of the Pension Index Card (from Ancestry.com, not shown) does not indicate the state from which Col. Leib applied for benefits. However, the pension, which was received by him, was reported on the 1883 “List of Pensioners from the District of Columbia.” The pension was first awarded in 1878 and the reason for the pension was a “wound at shoulder.”
A second indication that he was living in Washington, D.C. in the years after the war is a brief mention found in the Harrisburg Patriot of 2 July 1880 (pictured above):
Col. Edward H. Leib, of Washington City, has been paying a flying visit to his old home in Pennsylvania. Col. Leib is one of the gallant veterans of the war. During his visit he has been the recipient of numerous flattering attentions on the part of his old friends and comrades in arms.
At some point between the early 1880s and his death on 17 May 1892, Col. Leib returned to Pennsylvania to reside in Millersburg. To the census of 1890, he reported from Millersburg, that he had been wounded four times in the body during the war.
And, on 30 September 1891, the Harrisburg Patriot reported that Col. Leib of Millersburg was awarded a “First Defenders” bronze medal that was specially struck at the Philadelphia Mint:
THE FIRST DEFENDERS.
Four from This County Will Receive Medals at Pottsville.
James Burns, of Steelton, Edward Foley of Harrisburg, Edward Leib of Millersburg, and Captain George G. Boyer, of Harrisburg, will receive the “First Defenders” medals at Pottsville, Thursday. There are 246 others of the “First Defenders” who will wear the beautiful bronze medal, which will be presented to them by Governor Pattison. The meeting of the survivors of the “First Defenders” will be an event participated in by about 10,000 old soldiers, among whom will be Generals Sickles, Slocum, Smith, Howard and others. The medal was designed and executed at the mint at Philadelphia. The state by special act appropriated $1500 for the purpose. It is made of bronze and is in the shape of a Greek cross [pictured below from a prior blog post].
The article then went on to describe who the “First Defenders” were and named the Washington Artillery of Pottsville as one of the groups. For additional information about the “First Defenders” see: Story of the First Defenders as Told in 1935.
Col. Edward H. Leib died on 17 May 1892 and only a brief mention of his death was made in the Harrisburg Patriot of 18 May 1892:
E. H. Leib, colonel in the late war, and a brother of F. R. Leib, of this city [Harrisburg], died at Millersburg early yesterday morning.
He is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Millersburg. A close-up view of the base of his monument is pictured below:
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Newspaper clippings are from the on-line resources of the Free Library of Philadelphia.
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