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Civil War Blog

A project of PA Historian

A Brief History of the Kissinger G.A.R. Post #376 at Gratz

| December 14, 2015

Gratz is a small community in Upper Dauphin County that in 1883 formed a local G.A.R. post.  Much of the history of that post has been lost over time and now needs to be re-created through available resources, among those resources, the Harrisburg and other archived newspapers and the national Grand Army of the Republic […]

Hiram Focht of Tremont – Blind as a Result of War Injuries

| December 11, 2015

In a brief mention in the Lebanon Daily News (Lebanon, Pennsylvania), 14 April 1913, it was stated that, “as a result of wounds in his head received in the battlefield in the Civil War, Hiram Focht, of Reading, has lost his eyesight.”  Hiram Focht is also found in the records as John Hiram Focht, Hiram […]

Daring Colliery Robbery, 1867 – Civil War Veteran Escapes to Get Help

| December 7, 2015

In mid February 1867, the Boston Run Colliery of Althouse and Focht near Mahanoy City, Schuylkill County, was robbed at gunpoint by a band of men who succeeded in taking most of the payroll of $4500 in cash from the officials of the mine.  While the robbery was reported in several newspapers of the time, […]

Benjamin Rush Foster – Ties to Williamstown, Lykens, & Washington Township

| December 2, 2015

  The obituary of Benjamin R. Foster appeared in the Harrisburg Telegraph, 8 February 1911.  While his Civil War service was mentioned, it was not noted in the obituary that he had ties to at least three communities in the Lykens Valley area. Benjamin R. Foster Falls Dead Today Was One of Harrisburg’s Oldest Machinists […]

A Brief History of the B. F. Miller G.A.R. Post #393 at Fisherville

| November 30, 2015

Fisherville is a small community in Upper Dauphin County, near Halifax Borough, that in 1883 formed a local G.A.R. post.  Much of the history of that post has been lost over time and now needs to be re-created through available resources, among those resources, the Harrisburg and other archived newspapers and the national Grand Army […]