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Elias Tressler – Last Civil War Veteran in Gordon, Died 1928
Posted By Norman Gasbarro on January 30, 2020
Elias Tressler, a Civil War veteran of the 172nd Pennsylvania Infantry, died on 13 May 1928 at the home of his daughter in Gordon, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. He was the last surviving veteran who lived in that community.
ELIAS TRESSLER
Elias Tressler, aged 85 years and 10 days, died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Isaac Bobb, at Gordon, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, May 13th [1928] at 10:45 o’clock. The aged man had been bedfast for a year suffering of diabetes and cancer.
Born in Northumberland County, near Mahanoy, he was married to Susannah Bohner, October 4, 1866, to which union was born eight children, six of whom preceded him in death. His wife died six years ago. Since that time he has made his home with his daughter at Gordon.
A Civil War Veteran, Mr. Tressler was in a number of major engagements, and fought in the Battle of Gettysburg. He was the last of Civil War veterans, residing in Gordon.
He is survived by two daughters: Mrs. Bobb, of Gordon, and Mrs. C. C. Lebo of Elizabethville, also by four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Funeral services were held from the Bobb home Wednesday evening, and this morning the body will be taken to the Red Cross Lutheran Church, where further services will be held at 10:30 o’clock, and interment made in the adjoining cemetery.
Finding Elias Tressler in the records is sometimes difficult because his surname is incorrectly given as Pressler or Dressler.
His Pennsylvania Veterans’ File Card from the Pennsylvania Archives (above) gives limited information… only that he served in Company D of a drafted militia, the 172nd Pennsylvania Infantry. Another source gives his service dates as mustered in on 27 October 1862 and mustered out on 1 August 1863, and the entire service at the rank of Private.
The Pension Index Card from Fold3 (above), indicates that he applied for an Invalid Pension on 24 July 1883, which he received and collected until his death. The death date is confirmed on the card, as are the dates of service.
The Pennsylvania Veterans’ Burial Card (above), available through Ancestry.com, gives addition information, including his birth date of 3 May 1843, and the place of final rest, St. Peter’s Lutheran and Reformed Cemetery, Washington Township, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. Note also that his service began, according to the card, on 16 October 1862.
One final point. Veterans often claimed that they fought in battles in which they could not have possibly been present. The Battle of Gettysburg was fought on the 1st to 3rd of July 1863, at a time when the 172nd Pennsylvania Infantry was involved in Dix’s Peninsula Campaign, and attached to the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, 4th Corps. On 9 July 1863, though, his regiment was ordered to Washington, D.C., and from there, on 14 July 1863, joined the Army of the Potomac at Hagerstown, Maryland assigned to the 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, 11th Corps. Thereafter for the days 19th to 25th July the 172nd Pennsylvania Infantry was in pursuit of Lee to Williamsport, Maryland, followed by a march to Warrenton Junction, Virginia. From Warrenton Junction, the regiment was ordered to Harrisburg, where it was mustered out of service.
According to a brief history of the 172nd Pennsylvania Infantry, the regiment fought in no major battles.
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