Civil War Blog

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on December 23, 2013

An obituary of James Cox (1833-1909), was contributed to the USGenWeb Archives.  It provides some interesting facts and stories not previously noted here about this Corporal who served in the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry, Company L, from 19 August 1861 through 24 August 1864.

In August 1861, inspired by love for his adopted country, he being a resident of Schuylkill County at the time, enlisted in Capt. J. Claude White‘s company which eventually became attached to the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry whose Colonel was W. H. Averill, a West Point graduate and officer of commanding ability.  The company originally enrolled numbered 109, all residents of Schuylkill County and numbered, amongst others, many who after the war became residents of Williamstown amongst them David Challenger, Holden Chester, Daniel Jones and others.

This statement led to further research on the Chester family in that no person named Holden Chester had been identified for this Civil War Research Project.  In a prior blog post, it was mentioned that the only previously known member of that family associated with Williamstown was Daniel Chester – whose officer commission had been recently discovered and was restored and presented to the Williamstown-Williams Township Historical Society.  The subsequent preliminary research on Holden Chester led to the fact that he was a mining engineer – so, after a brief consultation with fellow blog contributor Jake Wynn – who just happens to be doing specialized research in the Civil War mining activities in the Williamstown and Lykens Valley areas, connections were made which led to the realization that there were actually four men who were surnamed Chester, that all were mining engineers, and that it was possible that all served in the Civil War.  Two of the men had been previously included in the Veterans’ List – Daniel Chester and John Chester – Daniel, who was associated with Williamstown, and John, whose name appeared on the Lykens G.A.R. Monument.  The two other men who have now been identified as Civil War soldiers are Holden Chester and Joseph Chester.  Joseph Chester, while serving with the 48th Pennsylvania Infantry, Company H, as a Private, was wounded at Spotsylvania, 12 May 1864, and later died at a hospital in Virginia, 24 May 1864.  While the connection has not been completely confirmed, it now seems that the four men were brothers and that they all had some connection with Williamstown and the area mining interests.  It could very well be that the Chester Post G.A.R. at Williamstown was named after Joseph Chester who died in the war rather than Daniel Chester.  Were these four men brothers?  This connection will be explored in later posts.

Continuing with the obituary of James Cox, the following tribute was given by the writer:

No man in the company shone more resplendent than the dec’d and whether on scout, skirmish, or the charge of battle, he was always prominent, his actions winning the plaudits of his comrades and the econiums of his officers.  His services throughout his term of enlistment, his hair breath escapes from desperate situations, his horse on one occasion having been shot dead from under him, his coolness under fire, his various soldierly escapes some of them ludicrous in the extreme, would, if collected together fill a volume of no mean proportion, but now he is gone, and, like a knight of old his body is entombed, his sword is rust, and his soul has gone to the God who gave it.

The elements of military funeral were also described by the author of the obituary:

Funeral services were conducted by Rev. A. M. Witmer on Monday afternoon.  His [James Cox‘] body, clothed in his Grand Army suit, in his richly arrayed couch casket surrounded by floral tributes was viewed by hundreds of friends….The pall bearers were selected from Chester Post as follows:  James Cox, Robert Pennel, James Baird, Adam Row, William Young, Jacob Clonser.  Following is the order procession, a riderless black steed from the saddle of which hung a pair of cavalry boots and a sword.  Thos. McCord bearing craped colors and bugler William Raudenbush; the Citizens’ Band; a firing squad of twelve members of the Sons of Veterans; members of the Chester Post and other Veterans, Ladies Relief Corps, mourners, followed by a large array of persons of both sexes.  At the grave the rituals of the G.A.R. and the Ladies Aid the rendering of “Nearer My God to Thee” by the band, the firing over the grave by the firing squad and the mournful taps closed the impressive service.

The obituary concluded with the names of the survivors and with a list of those who gave floral tributes.  The complete transcribed obituary may be viewed at USGenWeb.

In addition to the Civil War veteran Holden Chester who was identified in the obituary, the following additional veterans were noted, all most likely members of the Chester Post G.A.R.:  David Challenger, Robert Pennell; Daniel Jones; James Baird; Adam Row; William Young; Jacob Clouser; Thomas McCord; and William Raudenbush.  Further research needs to be done to determine if David Challenger, Thomas McCord, Daniel Jones and William Raudenbush were veterans, as no one by those names is presently included in the Project’s Veterans’ List.

Category: Research, Resources, Stories | Comments Off on Obituary of James Cox – How One Thing Leads to Another
Tags: G.A.R., Williams Township, Williamstown

Posted By Jake Wynn on December 20, 2013

The men of the 96th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry struggled to keep warm on the evening of December 24, 1861. A frigid wind howled across the ridges and farms of Northern Virginia that Christmas Eve. Within their newly completed winter quarters, the hearty men of central and eastern Pennsylvania huddled next to blazing campfires, in a vain attempt to stave off the chill. The hundred or so men of Company G, recruited from upper Dauphin and Berks Counties, stoked the fires hotter and hotter. Among them was printing apprentice and newly minted corporal, Henry Keiser. The young corporal, a modest 19-year old from Lykens, sat in the flickering light and jotted down a few words in his journal; he would keep it faithfully throughout his military career.

The 96th spent its first Christmas at war within the newly established “Camp Northumberland.” Constructed on a wooded hillside outside Alexandria, Virginia, the regiment called this camp home for several months. Described as “the cleanest camp in the Army of the Potomac,” their quarters made for a fairly comfortable, if austere, home. The camp’s hillside location proved to be most favorable when winter downpours pounded the region. Major Mathias Edgar Richards wrote home in January that, “I thought I knew what muddy was from traveling experiences. . . There is no limit to the depth of Virginia mud- It is difficult to find a hard place..”

Camp Northumberland’s sloping topography  proved excellent at keeping the regiment high and dry.

This map of Northern Virginia was made by a local citizen in 1861. See photo below. (LOC)

Another soldier from the 96th wrote home to the Pottsville Miners’ Journal and described the camp’s location as “about 2½ miles from the city of Alexandria , and about the same distance from the Long Bridge, near the line of the Louden and Hampshire Railway, where it crosses Four Mile run, which is about three hundred and fifty yards below us.” The camp was laid out like a small town, with streets between rows of tents separating the different companies. 

The camp sat 350 yards from where the railroad crossed Four Mile Run, somewhere in this vicinity.

Regimental staff, including Col. Henry Cake and Major Lewis Martin, chose the location for this first winter camp at the end of November 1861. Early December was then spent constructing the regiment’s winter quarters. The location again proved to be advantageous when the men looked for building materials. Ax blows echoed across the valley as the trees lining the hillside were hacked down and used to build various structures necessary for a wartime community: a cooking facility, officer’s quarters, and sleeping arrangements for hundreds of men.

Each man had some independence to build their own shelter within the camp boundaries. Keiser and his bunkmates assembled a shabby log cabin, working throughout the month to perfect its design. The rest of the regiment did the same, creating row after row of tent-like buildings.  Many dug into the heavy clay soil and attempted to mold crude fireplaces, with varying degrees of success. The structures were “placed on good log foundations, the inter-space plastered with clay, and are as a general thing floored,” the letter writer described. Present in the photograph taken of Camp Northumberland in February 1862 are a variety of these wooden foundations, with the standard issue canvas tents pulled over the top. Within these basic structures, the men hunkered down and prepared for a chilly winter on “enemy soil.”

This close-up shows the company “streets” and the winter quarters of the men. (NARA)

At the same time, the regiment immersed itself in the business of preparing for war. Brigade, regimental, and company drills were a daily occurrence. The monotony associated with endless training maneuvers bored those subjected to it, yet, drill was necessary for tactical competence on Civil War battlefields.  On rare occasions, the men trained with the antique Harpers Ferry muskets they had received back in November. Keiser remarked on December 6 that Company G “Had target practice. I hit the board (5 feet high, 3 feet wide) at 300 hundred yards, only once out of three shots.”

The 96th at Camp Northumberland, VA on February 27, 1862.   (NARA)

Life in these camps was often tedious, especially during the brisk month of December.  When not drilling, men kept after their diary entries, wrote letters home, and tried to shore up the shelters as best they could to keep out the elements.  Other, less esteemed, pastimes also took root among the fighting men in camp. Gambling, fighting, and drinking among the men in the army resulted in numerous arguments and several physical altercations. To cut this tension, regimental drawings would be held for passes to visit nearby towns or the capital, which was but a short trip across the Potomac River from camp.

Despite the relative inactivity in the Union camps, the war continued into its ninth month. The Pennsylvania Daily Telegraph in Harrisburg called out in an editorial piece on Christmas Eve that “the Christmas of 1861 sees the world full of strife and our own land full of rebellious contentions and traitorous designs.” Indeed, the Christmas of 1861 was one which was unprecedented in the history of the country. The Telegraph sadly noted that “many homes are now made desolate by the absence of their ornaments,” with thousands of men, young and old, fighting in the armies of North and South.

Christmas Eve (Harpers Weekly, 1863)

In truth,  the war did not dampen the spirit of the holiday for the men of the 96th, especially for Henry Keiser. He relaxed and took in his first holiday away from his home and family in stride. His diary entry for Christmas 1861 indicates he spent a fairly comfortable December 25 within the confines of Camp Northumberland. He wrote:

We rested well last night and feel like wishing all a “Mery Christmas” this morning.  Each of us received a new blanket this day as a Christmas gift, I supposes (each to pay for his own).  I was invited to take dinner with neighbor Hans as he had a chicken and did not know what to do with it, but we soon found a way to get rid of the fowl.  Received a letter from sister Lizzie of Wiconisco. 

Like Keiser, the Northern fighting men across Virginia and Maryland entertained themselves any way they could. For the most part, men had the day to improvise a Christmas celebration, with the exception of a few regiments who had the misfortune of going about their daily drilling routines. Most took part in Christmas services or feasts, and a number of foot races spontaneously broke out throughout the Union camps, with ample betting on the contestants.

Complaining that “The weather is getting colder here now, the ground is as hard as a brick,” New Yorker William Blankvelt pined only for a warming bottle of whiskey. While Blankvelt didn’t find any “black hoss,” men in other regiments had better luck. Private Samuel Bloomer, with the 1st Minnesota Infantry, wrote in his diary on Christmas Day that “2 or 3 kegs of beer were got and some of the boys began to feel rather light headed.” Bloomer was not impressed, however, and declared it, “The dulest Christmas that ever I spent in my entire life. . .”

Edward Forbes sketched “A Christmas Dinner,” in 1876. It depicts a solitary soldier on picket duty during the war. (LOC)

Others anticipated Christmas packages from those at home. A soldier in the 7^th Pennsylvania Reserves stationed in nearby Fairfax Courthouse wrote to his family.  “The wagons drove up in the evening about five o’ clock and you ought to have seen Company A, rolling out to see who got a box and who did’t get a box. . . We shouldered ours and bore it off triumphant to our mansion,” he dryly noted. Thanks to his homefolks “We are going to have a grand dinner on Christmas,” he wrote.

Soon however, the merry days of Christmas 1861 gave way to the typical dullness prevalent in the winter camps. The Army of the Potomac continued to train and prepare for the fighting season, which would surely open with the coming spring.

Following the holidays, the 96th spent several more months in Camp Northumberland. As 1862 began, scores succumbed to disease in the Union camps across Northern Virginia. Henry Keiser, himself suffering from a lingering illness, looked on as his  best friend, John Gratz, died suddenly from a severe fever in late January. Thousands more suffered a similar fate. The sick rolls continued to swell as the winter dragged on, putting a severe strain on the underwhelming capabilities of the Army’s medical system.

Ultimately, the 96th left camp only as the browns and grays of winter gave way to the greens of March and April. Following weeks of futile maneuvering across the muddy roads of Fairfax County in March 1862, the the regiment boarded steamships and sailed down the Chesapeake Bay towards the Virginia Peninsula. This journey would usher them to their first taste of combat in George McClellan’s ill-fated campaign against the Confederate capital at Richmond. The Union commander’s Peninsula Campaign proved to be the regiment’s first trial by fire.

Few realized the 1862 Christmas season would be celebrated without many of the comrades who shared the holiday in 1861.

Bibliography:

“Christmas,” Pennsylvania Daily Telegraph, Harrisburg, PA. December 24, 1861.

Bloomer, Samuel. “Diary of Samuel Bloomer,” Samuel Bloomer Papers, 1861-1920. Minnesota Historical Society. http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/37/v37i08p334-334.pdf (Accessed December 17, 2013)

Brady, Matthew. “Infantry Regiment in Camp,” 1862. Still Photos Section, National Archives. (Accessed December 17, 2013)

Richards, M.E. “Camp Northumberland,” Pottsville Miners’ Journal, January 19, 1862.  http://schuylkillcountymilitaryhistory.blogspot.com (Accessed December 19, 2013)

“Letter from Camp Northumberland,” Pottsville Miners’ Journal, January 4, 1862.  http://schuylkillcountymilitaryhistory.blogspot.com (Accessed December 17, 2013)

Corbett, V.P. Sketch of the seat of war in Alexandria and Fairfax Cos., map. Washington D.C., 1861. From Library of Congress, Map Collections. http://www.loc.gov/item/99439186. (Accessed December 17, 2013)

Forbes, Edwin, A Christmas Dinner: A Scene on the Outer Picket Line. Drawing. ca 1876. From Library of Congress: Drawings (Documentary) Collection. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004661501/ (Accessed December 17, 2013)

Gasbarro, Norm. “Corp. John C. Gratz: Fever Victim,” Civil War Blog. December 14, 2010.

Holt, John Lee. I Wrote You Word, The Poignant Letters of Private John Holt, 1829-1863, (H.E. Howard, Inc.: 1980), pp. 121-122

Keiser, Henry. Civil War Diary of Henry Keiser, 96th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, 1861-1865. Author’s Collection.

Nast, Thomas. “Christmas Eve ,” Harper’s Weekly, January 3, 1863. Sketch. http://picturinghistory.gc.cuny.edu/?p=916, (Accessed December 17, 2013)

Rawlings, Kevin. We Were Marching on Christmas Day: A History and Chronicle of Christmas During the Civil War. (Baltimore: Toomey Press, 1995) pg. 33-49

Category: Culture, Overviews, Research, Stories | 1 Comment »
Tags: 1861, 96th PA, 96th Pennsylvania, Christmas History, Civil War, Civil War Christmas

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on December 18, 2013

Two portraits of Rev. Milton H. Sangree have been recently discovered in a file folder.  Attached (with a paper clip) to the portraits was a note stating the following:  “Keep these… think he may be a former Salem Church Pastor.”

There are several churches in the Lykens Valley area with the name “Salem”, so it is not clear which church the writer of the note was referring to.  However, after researching the life of Rev. Sangree, it became clear that he served as a soldier in the Civil War and that he was connected to Harrisburg. His obituary, which appeared in the Harrisburg Patriot of 19 October 1911 gave a good account of his career:

PASTOR SANGREE YIELDS TO DEATH

Reformed Clergyman Was Lovable Man, With Many Friends

WAS 79 YEARS OLD

After a long illness, the Rev. Milton H. Sangree, a retired Reformed clergyman and a fisher of men whose creel hung heavy with results, died of angina pectoris at his residence, 1219 State Street, yesterday morning at daybreak.   A few hours before he had asked a member of the household for a drink of water.  This brought, he sank into a slumber from which he never woke.  A daughter found him dead at 6 o’clock.

The circle of sound friendship what surrounded Mr. Sangree comes to few men.  His friends were many and they were true.  Meeting the man meant friendship:  knowing him meant lasting loyalty.  His funeral Friday is expected to be largely attended.

Funeral Services

Services will be held from the family residence at 1:30 o’clock in the afternoon.  Later more extended services will be held in the Reformed Church, Sixteenth and Market Streets, the church Mr. Sangree founded as a mission years ago.  The Rev. Dr. Ellis N. Kremer, pastor of Reformed Salem Church, a close friend of the dead clergyman, and Rev. Homer S. May, pastor of the Fourth Church, will officiate.  Interment will be made in Paxtang Cemetery.

Mr. Sangree was a soldier, a member of Post 58, G.A.R., whose members will assist at the service and extend full military honors, including a salute over the grave.  Honorary pallbearers selected yesterday are Judge Kunkel; Edwin C. Thompson, a member of the Board of Public Works; the Rev. George S. Chambers, Pastor of Pine Street Presbyterian Church; the Rev. M. P. Hocker, pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church, Steelton; Professor George F. Mull of Lancaster; and the Rev. Dr. John C. Bowman of the same city.

Born 79 Years Ago

Mr. Sangree, who was 79 years old, was born in Washington County, Maryland, 2 November 1833.  His father was Abraham B. Sangree; his mother Martha Triffle Sangree.  His parents traced their ancestry to Switzerland and were supposed to have been descendants f French Protestant refugees.

At the age of four he moved with his parents to what later became the well-known Sangree farm at McConnellstown, Huntington County.  He started public schools there, later entering Tuscarora Academy.  Afterwards he taught for 11 years and then traveled in the West.

Mr. Sangree was married in 1856 to Miss Jane E. Henderson.

War Service

On his return from the West, Mr. Sangree enlisted in February 1865 in Company K, Seventy-Eighth Pennsylvania Volunteers [78th Pennsylvania Infantry] and was promoted to Second Lieutenant and served in Tennessewe, and was discharged in September 1865.  He was detailed for post duty at Nashville, Tennessee.  Later he was superintendent of oil interests in Venango County, Pennsylvania.

About this time his mind turned toward the ministry.  He pursued a thorough course of study at Mercersburg for three years.  This course he completed in 1871, when he was ordained to the office of the holy ministry.  He was financial agent of Mercer College one year and was then called to be pastor of the Reformed Church at Bloody Run, now Everett, Pennsylvania, which was a missionary field of large extent.  Here he remained for seven years and accomplished valuable results in gathering people the people and organizing the work.  His next charge was at the Water Street Church, Huntington, in 1879, which he held for five years, and in 1884, went to Arendtsville, Adams County, Pennsylvania.

Charge at Steelton

In 1889, the Rev. Mr. Sangree came to Steelton, where he found a wide and important field for mission work, and where he built up a large and flourishing congregation and erected a handsome church.

After four and a half years of work in Steelton the Rev. Mr. Sangree came to Harrisburg, where he established the Fourth Reformed Church, at Sixteenth and Market Streets, and later through his efforts erected a church.  After a pastorate of thirteen years he resigned, that a young man could take charge.

Through urgent requests the Rev. Mr. Sangree became pastor of the Sabillasville Charge and resided at Highfield, Maryland.

The degree of Master of Arts, which honor he received with characteristic modesty, was given him by Mercersburg College in 1875.

In addition to the widow, the survivors are the Rev. H. H. Sangree, Philadelphia; Mrs. Frances Fahrney and Miss Margaret Sangree, Harrisburg; Dr. Chalmers Sangree, New York; Mrs. Hope Kaufman, of Steelton; Allen Sangree, a well-known writer, New York, who has been at home for some weeks; and George H. Sangree, Harrisburg.

According to information on Ancestry.com family trees, Rev. Sangree was married to Jane E. Hudson, who was born 4 September 1933 in Pennsylvania, and died in Harrisburg on 20 November 1918.

Milton H. Sangree‘s military record is confirmed through his Pennsylvania Veterans’ Index Card which is found at the Pennsylvania Archives:

At the time of his enlistment in the 78th Pennsylvania Infantry, Company K, as a Private, at Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, Milton H. Sangree was working as a clerk, he stood 5 foot-5 inches tall, had dark complexion, dark hair, and grey eyes.  He gave his birthplace as Washington, D.C.  Also noted on the card is his promotion to 2nd Lieutenant on 2 March 1865, the rank at which he was honorably discharged, 11 September 1865.

The second portrait of Milton H. Sangree (shown below) was from a newspaper clipping that appeared in an unknown newspaper at the time of his death.

It is still not known if Rev. Sangree had a connection to any of the Salem churches in the Lykens Valley area.

Allen Luther Sangree (1878-1924), the son of Rev. Sangree, was a correspondent during the Boer War in South Africa and he also covered other world events as a journalist at the turn of the century.   His work appeared in Collier’s Weekly, Cosmopolitan, Saturday Evening Post, New York World, McClure’s Magazine, and other popular periodicals of the day.  He also was well-known as a writer about baseball, authoring The Jinx: The Stories of the Diamond (1911), one of the books that helped to establish the “literature” of baseball.  Allen Sangree was a graduate of Gettysburg College.

—————————-

The obituary of Rev. Sangree is from the on-line resources of the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Category: Research, Resources, Stories | Comments Off on Rev. Milton H. Sangree – Former Salem Pastor?
Tags:

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on December 16, 2013

In 1992, in recognition of the 175th Anniversary of the Millersburg Ferry, Civil War re-enactors assembled at Millersburg‘s Riverfront Park to conduct a mock battle between two ferry boats – the Roaring Bull and Falcon.  During the Civil War, no actual battle took place in the Susquehanna River area surrounding Millersburg, but if one had taken place, it may have looked something like what was reported in the Citizen Standard‘s 3 June 1992 edition.

According to the article, “smoke flew and cannons blasted in the misty afternoon as the two sides carried out an authentic looking confrontation.” The two sides, Yankee and Confederate each boarded one of the two ferry boats which headed out into the Susquehanna to do battle.  Some of the re-enactors came from as far away as Ontario, Canada.  At the conclusion of the battle, the Yankees were successful in preventing the seizure of “Fort Millersburg.”

A previous blog article discussed the origins of the Millersburg Ferry and its importance in both the pre-Civil War and Civil War periods.  Many of the boatmen on this ferry, as well as from other ferries that plied the Susquehanna River, ended up volunteering for military service, and while the re-enactment presented in 1992 was a fiction, it is not too far fetched of an idea that the war could have come as far north as Millersburg.  Harrisburg was the primary target for Lee’s army when he invaded Pennsylvania in late June 1863 and had he been successful in capturing the Northern Central Railroad line south of Harrisburg, it may have been only day before Pennsylvania’s capital fell to the rebels  – and the first major stop north of Harrisburg – which was Millersburg – could have been attacked by both water and land.

Interesting also is the historical marker at Herndon – previously discussed here in the post entitled Did Confederates Enter Trevorton Junction (Herndon) in 1863?  Herndon is just north of Millersburg and the site of a railroad bridge over the Susquehanna River.  There is some element of truth to the claim on the marker that Confederates did cross the river on the bridge and ride into Herndon.

The article on the battle of the ferry boats was accompanied by a 10 picture photo essay by Michael J. Hutchins.  A portion of two of those pictures are shown here in this blog post.

Category: Events, Stories | Comments Off on The Battle of the Millersburg Ferry
Tags: Herndon, Millersburg

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on December 14, 2013

The obituary of William W. Wallace appeared in the Lykens Standard on 23 October 1914:

William Wallace, a Civil War veteran, died at the home of his son William Wallace in Wiconisco on Tuesday, of a general breaking up of the system due to old age.  He is survived by nine children, viz: Clara Wallace (Mrs. James Bailey), of Tower City; Hattie Wallace (Mrs. Harry Varnes) of Marysville; Arthur Wallace, Lester Wallace, William Wallace, Howard Wallace, and Mayme Wallace (Mrs. Harry Sheafer) of Williamstown; Ray Wallace and Edgar Wallace.

The funeral services were held at the home of his son William Wallace at 2 p.m. yesterday afternoon, Rev. E. Ramer and S. S. Jones officiating.  Interment in P.O.S. of A. Cemetery.

Mr. Wallace was a member of Heilner Post, No. 232, G.A.R. of this place.

No Pension Index Card has yet been located for William W. Wallace.  However, indications are that he served in the 16th Pennsylvania Cavalry, Company H, as a Private, as shown below on the entry from the 1890 Veterans’ Census for Lykens Borough, where he was living in that year.

Click on document to enlarge.

The 1890 census record notes the dates of service as 17 February 1865 through 11 August 1865, a period of 5 months and 24 days.

The Pennsylvania Veterans’ Card File, available from the Pennsylvania Archives (shown above), confirms the dates of service.  At the time of his enlistment, William Wallace was a resident of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, was a miner by occupation, was 30 years old, stood 5 foot and 6.5 inches tall, had fair complexion, gray eyes and sandy hair.

Genealogical records from Ancestry.com and other sources point to the marriage of William W. Wallace to Priscilla Spangler in or around 1864 and the birth of their first child, Clara (also known as Caroline), in the same year.  Thus, when William went to war, Priscilla was left to care for a young baby.  The other children were all born in the years after the war.

Later in life, William resided in at least two Soldiers’ Homes.  Records available on Ancestry.com show that he was at Dayton, Ohio, in 1909, and at Johnson City, Tennessee, in 1912.  After his wife’s death in 1912, he apparently chose to return to the Lykens-Wiconisco area – which is where he died in 1914.

For his Civil War service, William W. Wallace is recognized on the Lykens G.A.R. Monument:

.

At this time, not much more is known about William W. Wallace.  Further information is sought – including if anyone has a picture of him and/or his wife Priscilla.  Comments are always appreciated to blog posts and e-mails are welcome as well!

Category: Research, Resources, Stories | Comments Off on Obituary of William W. Wallace of Lykens and Wiconisco
Tags: G.A.R., Lykens Borough, Tower City, Wiconisco, Williamstown