Civil War Blog

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on May 29, 2015

The following are obituaries of some Civil War era women:

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From the Harrisburg Patriot, 17 May 1906

Attended Funeral of His Mother

Benjamin M. Nead attended the funeral of his mother, Mrs. Benjamin F. Nead, at Chambersburg, yesterday afternoon.  Mrs. Nead was all her life a member of the First Lutheran Church, Chambersburg, and was a member of the Franklin County Bible Society.  During the Civil War she was very active in the Soldiers’ Aid Society, and was one of the managers of the King Street School House Hospital.  After the war she was one of the organizers of the Soldiers’ Monumental Association and took an active part in its management.

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From the Harrisburg Patriot, 22 June 1906:

Mary Reaver, wife of Isaac Reaver, a Civil War veteran of Plymouth Township, was instantly killed on the Pennsylvania Railroad near the Trenton cut-off bridge by a freight engine.  She stepped in front of the freight to avoid a passenger train.

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From the Harrisburg Patriot, 28 January 1907:

NOTED BEAUTY OF CIVIL WAR TIMES PASSES AWAY

Special Dispatch to The Patriot

Carlisle, 27 January 1907 — Miss Rebecca P. Baird, a noted beauty and hospital worker of Civil War times, and the last representative of one of Pennsylvania’s oldest families, died here at 5:30 o’clock this morning.  She celebrated her eighty-second birthday last Thursday and, the cause of her death was the infirmities of advanced years.  She was a daughter of Samuel Baird and a sister of Spencer F. Baird, the illustrious head of Smithsonian Institute. She was a cousin of Senator Boies Penrose and Hon. E. W. Biddle of Carlisle, and an Aunt of Miss Christine Biddle and Mrs. Moncure Biddle of Philadelphia.  She has many relatives in Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia, New York, and Brooklyn, who stand high socially.  Miss Baird resided in Carlisle for many years.  The funeral will be held Wednesday.

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From the Harrisburg Patriot, 6 Apr 1907:

President Margaret Weikel Dead

Shamokin, 5 April 1907 — Mrs. Margaret Weikel, President of the Women’s Auxiliary of Sons of Veterans of Pennsylvania, died here today from blood poisoning.

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From the Harrisburg Patriot, 16 September 1907:

Mrs. Emily D. Brooks

Mrs. Emily D. Brooks, widow of Captain George A. Brooks, who was killed in the Civil War, died yesterday morning about 7 o’clock at her home, 21 South Second Street.  Mrs. Brooks was a daughter of Theodore F. Scheffer.

For the past several months Mrs. Brooks had been more or less ill, her failing health being due to general debility.  On 4 July, she took to her bed and since then her health has steadily declined.  Funeral services will be held tomorrow afternoon at 2 o’clock at her home.  Rev. S. Winfield Herman, past or of Zion Lutheran Church, of which Mrs. Brooks had long been a member, will officiate and interment will be made in the Harrisburg Cemetery.

Mrs. Brooks was the wife of the Captain of Company D, Forty-sixth Pennsylvania Volunteers [46th Pennsylvania Infantry], during the War of the Rebellion. Captain Brooks was shot and killed at the Battle of Antietam.  She is survived by one son W. D. Brooks, of Pittsburgh.  Mr. Brooks formerly lived here and is well known in this city.  He is here with his daughters, Helen Brooks and Emily Brooks, for the funeral.  Three brothers also survive Mrs. Brooks.  They are B. F. Scheffer, T. J. Scheffer, formerly a school director, and M. S. Scheffer.

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From the Harrisburg Patriot, 7 April 1908:

FIRST CIVIL WAR NURSE DEAD

Des Moines, Iowa – 6 April 1908 — Upon the forty-first anniversary of her marriage Aunt Becky Young, the first woman to offer herself as a nurse when the Civil War broke out, died today at her home here.  She was seventy-six years old.

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From the Harrisburg Patriot, 11 April 1908:

CAT CAUSES WOMAN’S DEATH

Was Fatally Burned When Pet Upset Burning Lamp

Boston, 10 April 1908 — Mrs. Catherine C. Tucker, matron of a feline hospital in South Boston lost her life last night in an accident caused by her favorite cat.  The cat upset a lamp and in a vain effort to save her pet Mrs. Tucker received burns from which she died.

Mrs. Tucker was the widow of Captain Thomas Tucker, a Confederate commander who was killed after the Civil War by the explosion of a boat on the Mississippi.

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From the Harrisburg Patriot, 26 September 1908:

Mrs. Mary Mullen Dead

Mrs. Mary Mullen died at 6:30 o’clock yesterday morning at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Ida Brown, 1419 Fulton Street.  She was eighty-three years of age and had been a widow since the Civil War.  About a week ago she was paralyzed and she never recovered consciousness.  She is survived by two sons, Joseph Muller and Christian Mullen, and three daughters, Mrs. Sarah Stills, of Williamsport; Mrs. Susan Burton of Reading; and Mrs. Ida Brown, of this city.  She also left over a score of grandchildren, twenty-four great grandchildren.  Funeral services will be held at 12:30 o’clock Sunday afternoon at Harris African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Marion Street.  Rev. W. H. Marshall will have charge.

Category: Research, Stories | Comments Off on Obituaries of Civil War Era Women, 1906-1908
Tags: African American, Women

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on May 28, 2015

The 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry Monument at Gettysburg is located northwest of the town of Gettysburg on Buford Avenue.  It was dedicated in 1889 by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

The drawing of the monument (above) is from the Philadelphia Inquirer, 11 September 1889.

A picture of the monument can be seen on Stephen Recker’s Virtual Gettysburg Web Site which has more information about the monument and the 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry.

A full description of the monument, its GPS Coordinates, additional photographs, and some of the history of the 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry, can be found on the Stone Sentinels Web Site.

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Some history of the 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry and its program for the dedication day exercises were presented in the Philadelphia Inquirer of 11 September 1889:

Opposite the Sherby House.

The 17th Cavalry was recruited in Beaver, Susquehanna, Lancaster, Bradford, Lebanon, Cumberland, Franklin, Schuylkill, Perry, Luzerne, Montgomery, Chester and Wayne counties.  Its battles are named on its monument, located at the junction of Mummasburg Road and Buford Avenue, a position which it held from 5 o’clock on the 1st until the arrival of the 1st Corps Troops.  The brigade then moved to the right, covering the roads to Carlisle and Harrisburg, and holding the enemy in check until relieved by troops of the 11th Corps.  It then took position on the right flank of the infantry and later aided in covering the retreat of the 11th Corps to Cemetery Hill, where it went into position with the division on the left of the army.

The ceremonies on the field at 11 o’clock A.M. will include:  music, Methodist Church of Gettysburg Choir; prayer, Rev. H. A. Wheeler; oration, Colonel Theodore W. Bean; bugle calls, A. Donaberger; benediction, Rev. H. A. Wheeler.

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Josiah H. Kellogg

The commander of the 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry at Gettysburg was Colonel Josiah H. Kellogg.

Kellogg, who was from Erie, Erie County, Pennsylvania, was one of the most militarily qualified men to lead a regiment of volunteers because he had served in the regular army prior to the Civil War and was a graduate of West Point, Class of 1860.  When asked by Pennsylvania Governor Curtin to take command of a volunteer cavalry regiment, he request leave from the regular army and his request was granted.  On 19 October 1862 he began service as Colonel of the 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry.  Due to several wartime injuries, he requested to resign and he was formally discharged from the volunteer service on 27 December 1864, but did not formally retire from the regular army until 6 February 1865.

For more information about Kellogg, see Ranger95.

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Around the base of the Pennsylvania Memorial at Gettysburg are a series of plaques which, by regiment and company, note the names of every soldier who was present at the Battle of Gettysburg.  The plaque for the 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry is pictured below.  By clicking on the plaque it should enlarge so the names can be more clearly read.  If a name does not appear, it could be that the soldier did serve in the 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry, but was not part of the regiment during its days at Gettysburg.  There could also be errors on the plaque.

Category: Memorials | 4 Comments »
Tags: Monument

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on May 27, 2015

Emily E. [Lansbury] Woodley was born in Philadelphia on 26 May 1835, the daughter of Jeremiah Lansbury and Eliza [Reed] Lansbury.   She died in Philadelphia on 15 May 1908 and is buried in the Fernwood Cemetery, Fernwood, Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

Her obituary appeared in the Harrisburg Patriot on 16 May 1908:

ONLY WOMAN ARMY OFFICER IS DEAD

Commissioned a Captain for Bravery in the Field by President Lincoln

Philadelphia, 15 May 1908 — Mrs. Emily E. Woodley, who had the distinction, it is said, of being the only woman every regularly commissioned an officer in the United States Army and the last of thirty-five young women from this city who enlisted as nurses in the Civil War, died at her home here today, aged seventy-three years.

Mrs. Woodley was president of the National Association of Army Nurses of the Civil War, which she organized, and the only woman member of the Grand Army of the Republic.  She was a widow, Mrs. Wilson, twenty-six years of age, when she enlisted in 1861, having regularly taken the oath of allegiance as she passed in line with men at the enlistment headquarters in this city.

She served with the army through the entire four years of her enlistment, being granted but one furlough of thirty days when her daughter was seriously ill.  For her bravery and heroic service President Lincoln personally conferred upon her a commission of Captain in the army.  She was also decorated with a gold medal by Secretary of War Stanton.  She was known by Grand Army men all over the country.

Mrs. Woodley will be accorded a military burial and at her request an American flag will be draped from the door post of the house of her son, William D. Woodley, of West Philadelphia, from where the funeral will take place.

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For additional information about Mrs. Woodley, see her Findagrave Memorial.

News clippings are from the on-line services of the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Category: Research, Stories | Comments Off on Emily E. Woodley – Civil War Nurse and Army Captain
Tags: Abraham Lincoln, Women

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on May 26, 2015

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 of Representatives of Pennsylvania and a Marshal of the Middle District of Pennsylvania.  On pages 82-85, he presented a list of Pennsylvania soldiers he identified with the Yeager surname who had fought in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865.  In addition to the names of the soldiers, he named the regiment and company in which they fought.  Sixty-three veterans were thus identified.  A free download of Yeager’s book can be obtained at the Internet Archive.

There is much information still to be discovered about each of the veterans.  Readers of this blog are urged to add information to what is provided below – particularly genealogical information about each of the men, including the names of their parents and their decent from the earliest Yeager’s who arrived in Pennsylvania.  Additional stories about the Civil War service of these veterans is also sought, particularly if readers have access to the pension application files and military records from the National Archives.  Pictures are especially welcome!  Comments can be added to this post or sent by e-mail.

This post continues a multi-part series on these Pennsylvanians with the Yeager surname who served in the Civil War.

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John W. Yeager was born on 24 September 1844 and died on 3 September 1908.  He is buried at the Charles Evans Cemetery, Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania.  During the Civil War he enrolled at Bernville, Berks County, and was mustered into service of Company I, 151st Pennsylvania Infantry, at Harrisburg, as a Sergeant, 1 November 1862.  At the time of his enlistment, he was 18 years old, resided at Bernville, and was employed as a mechanic.  On either 8 July 1863 or 28 July 1863, he was discharged on a Surgeon’s Certificate of Disability due to wounds he received at Gettysburg on 1 July 1863, which allowed him to apply for a pension on 31 December 1863.

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John H. Yeager served in the 10th Pennsylvania Infantry, Company F, as a Private, from 26 April 1861 through 31 July 1861.  at age 19, he enlisted at Lykens Borough, Dauphin County and was mustered into service at Harrisburg.  He was a resident of Berrysburg, Dauphin County, and was employed as a clerk.  Not much more is known about him except that his parents were Henry Yeager (1819-1896) and Salome Lebo (1819-1887).  He was previously named in the Lykens Valley area Veterans’ List.

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John W. Yeager enlisted in the 30th Pennsylvania Infantry (1st Pennsylvania Reserve), on 6 June 1861 and was mustered into service as a Private in Company G at Baltimore, Maryland, in July 1861.  On 26 December 1862, he was discharged on a Surgeon’s Certificate of Disability.  The record shows that he died on 19 February 1863 and his widow applied for benefits for herself and minor children on 18 May 1863.  At the time of his enlistment, he was a 25-year old carpenter by trade and resided in Chester County, Pennsylvania.  He is buried at the Morris Cemetery, Phoenixville, Chester County, Pennsylvania.  For further information about him, see his Findagrave Memorial.

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George Adam Yeager, also known as George F. Yeager, was born on 25 August 1837 and died 15 August 1870.  He is buried at the Charles Evans Cemetery, Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania.  He first served in the 1st Pennsylvania Infantry, Company G, as a Private, from 20 April 1861 through his discharge on 24 July 1861.  He then enlisted in Company B, 50th Pennsylvania Infantry, where he started his service as a 1st Sergeant and on 15th February 1862, he was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant, and on 17 December 1862, he became Captain of the company.  Prior to his Civil War service he was employed as a clerk in Berks County.  After his death, his widow, Margaret Elizabeth Knabb, applied for pension benefits, which she did not receive.  Later, someone applied for benefits for a minor child (or children) and those benefits were also not granted.  Additional information about his can be found at his Findgrave Memorial, including pictures of his grave marker and a brief biographical sketch.

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George M. D. Yeager was born about 1846 (based on the age of 18 he gave at enlistment in 1864).  He was a laborer living in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, at the time the Civil War began.  He was mustered into service in the 46th Pennsylvania Infantry, Company E, as a Private, on 15 October 1864, and was mustered out with his company on 16 July 1865.  Not much more is known about him.

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George Yeager served in the 101st Pennsylvania Infantry, Company C, as a Private.  He enrolled at Harrisburg and was mustered into service at that place on 15 March 1865, serving until his honorable discharge on 25 June 1865.  His record indicates that he was 19 years old when he joined the infantry, was a painter, and he asserted that he was born in Northumberland County and still resided there when he enlisted.  On 13 August 1890, he applied for an invalid pension, which he collected until his death; no widow survived him.

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Pennsylvania Veterans’ Index Cards are from the Pennsylvania Archives.

Category: Queries, Research | Comments Off on The Yeager Family in the Civil War (Part 5)
Tags: Berrysburg, Lykens Borough, Yeager family

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on May 25, 2015

For Memorial Day, 2015 —

OVER THEIR GRAVES

Henry Jerome Stockard (1858-1914)

Over their graves rang once the bugle’s call,
The searching shrapnel and the crashing ball;
The shriek, the shock of battle, and the neigh
Of horse; the cries of anguish and dismay;
And the loud cannon’s thunders that appall.

Now through the years the brown pine-needles fall,
The vines run riot by the old stone wall,
By hedge, by meadow streamlet, far away,
Over their graves.

We love our dead where’er so held in thrall.
Than they no Greek more bravely died, nor Gaul—
A love that ’s deathless!—but they look to-day
With no reproaches on us when we say,
“Come, let us clasp your hands, we ’re brothers all,
Over their graves!”

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A SOLDIER’S GRAVE

John Albee (1833-1911)

Break not his sweet repose—
Thou whom chance brings to this sequestered ground,
The sacred yard his ashes close,
But go thy way in silence; here no sound
Is ever heard but from the murmuring pines,
Answering the sea’s near murmur;
Nor ever here comes rumor
Of anxious world or war’s foregathering signs.
The bleaching flag, the faded wreath,
Mark the dead soldier’s dust beneath,
And show the death he chose;
Forgotten save by her who weeps alone,
And wrote his fameless name on this low stone:
Break not his sweet repose.

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ODE FOR DECORATION DAY

Henry Peterson (1818-1891)

Bring flowers, to strew again
With fragrant purple rain
Of lilacs, and of roses white and red,
The dwellings of our dead — our glorious dead!
Let the bells ring a solemn funeral chime,
And wild war-music bring anew the time
When they who sleep beneath
Were full of vigorous breath,
And in their lusty manhood sallied forth,
Holding in strong right hand
The fortunes of the land,
The pride and power and safety of the North!
It seems but yesterday
The long and proud array —
But yesterday when e’en the solid rock
Shook as with earthquake shock —
As North and South, like two huge icebergs, ground
Against each other with convulsive bound,
And the whole world stood still
To view the mighty war,
And hear the thunderous roar,
While sheeted lightnings wrapped each plain and hill.

Alas! how few came back
From battle and from wrack!
Alas! how many lie
Beneath a Southern sky.
Who never heard the fearful fight was done,
And all they fought for, won!
Sweeter, I think, their sleep,
More peaceful and more deep,
Could they but know their wounds were not in vain;
Could they but hear the grand triumphal strain,
And see their homes unmarred by hostile tread.
Ah! let us trust it is so with our dead —
That they the thrilling joy of triumph feel,
And in that joy disdain the foeman’s steel.
We mourn for all, but each doth think of one
More precious to the heart than aught beside —
Some father, brother, husband, or some son,
Who came not back, or, coming, sank and died;
In him the whole sad list is glorified!
“He fell ‘fore Richmond, in the seven long days
When battle raged from morn till blood-dewed eve,
And lies there,” one pale widowed mourner says,
And knows not most to triumph or to grieve.
“My boy fell at Fair Oaks,” another sighs;
“And mine at Gettysburg,” his neighbor cries,
And that great name each sad-eyed listener thrills.
I think of one who vanished when the press
Of battle surged along the Wilderness,
And mourned the North upon her thousand hills.
O gallant brothers of the generous South!
Foes for a day, and brothers for all time,
I charge you by the memories of our youth,
By Yorktown’s field and Montezuma’s clime.
Hold our dead sacred; let them quietly rest
In your unnumbered vales, where God thought best!
Your vines and flowers learned long since to forgive,
And o’er their graves a broidered mantle weave;
Be you as kind as they are, and the word
Shall reach the Northland with each summer bird,
And thoughts as sweet as summer shall awake
Responsive to your kindness, and shall make
Our peace the peace of brothers once again.
And banish utterly the days of pain.

And ye, O Northmen! be ye not outdone
In generous thought and deed.
We all do need forgiveness, every one;
And they that give shall find it in their need.
Spare of your flowers to deck the stranger’s grave,
Who died for a lost cause;
A soul more daring, resolute, and brave
Ne’er won a world’s applause!
(A brave man’s hatred pauses at the tomb.)
For him some Southern home was robed in gloom,
Some wife or mother looked, with longing eyes,
Through the sad days and nights, with tears and sighs-
Hope slowly hardening into gaunt Despair.
Then let your foeman’s grave remembrance share;
Pity a higher charm to Valor lends,
And in the realms of Sorrow all are friends.

Yes, bring fresh flowers, and strew the soldier’s grave,
Whether he proudly lies
Beneath our Northern skies,
Or where the Southern palms their branches wave.
Let the bells toll, and wild war-music swell,
And for one day the thought of all the past —
Full of those memories vast —
Come back and haunt us with its mighty spell!
Bring flowers then, once again,
And strew with fragrant rain
Of lilacs, and of roses white and red,
The dwellings of our dead.

Category: Culture, Reflections | Comments Off on Poems of the Civil War – Memorial Day 2015
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