Unidentified Union Army artillerymen standing next to one of the fifteen-inch Rodman guns, which were installed on the third level of Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas, Florida, beginning in 1862. These smoothbore Rodman weighed twenty-five tons, and was able to fire four hundred and fity-pound shells more than three miles (U.S. National Park Service, public domain).

July of 1863 was a very different experience for the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers than it was for many other members of the Army of the United States. Divided roughly in half, in order to provide garrison coverage at two federal military installations in Florida that had been deemed critical to the federal government’s ability to turn the tide of the American Civil War in the Union’s favor, their regiment was not involved in the epic Battle of Gettysburg that unfolded over three days on the soil of their home state that month.

But their service to the nation still mattered. Split between Fort Taylor in Key West, Florida and Fort Jefferson in Florida’s remote Dry Tortugas, their collective job was not only to hamper efforts by the Confederate States of America to move troops and supplies throughout the Deep South, but also to prevent Great Britain and other European nations from interfering in the war.

As winter gave way to spring and summer, individual companies of the regiment continued to drill in the use of their respective fort artillery batteries and their own rifles and were also assigned to provost duties, functioning both as military police who ensured that soldiers behaved themselves and were punished when they did not, and as civil justice officials who upheld the nation’s rule of law to protect the local citizenry by arresting and prosecuting criminals, preventing the illegal sale of alcohol and other prohibited goods and carrying out the enforcement of multiple federal laws, including the nation’s newly adopted “Lieber Code” for the Armies of the United States and President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation which freed the men, women and children who had been enslaved in their respective jurisdictions.

They were also still nursing their wounded bodies and souls as they came to terms with the deaths of their comrades and the emotional and physical injuries that they had sustained themselves during the bloody Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina on October 22, 1862.

Captain Henry Durant Woodruff, commanding officer of Company D, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers (public domain).

It was in this spirit of reflection that a genuinely memorable event took place at Fort Taylor in Key West, Florida on July 16, 1863. That day, the members of the 47th Pennsylvania’s Company D “presented a magnificent sword, sash, and belt” to Captain Henry Durant Woodruff “at the US Barracks in Key West,” according to historian Lewis Schmidt.

The company was formed in front of their quarters at 8 AM, across the barracks ground from Company C, and Pvt. George W. Baltozer, a 24 year old teacher from Perry County, made the following remarks on behalf of the company:

‘The motives that assemble us on the present occasion are based on our mature confidence, the martial skill, the intrepid heroism, and the undaunted intrepidity of our leader in arms. It is manifestive of our consciousness of your noble ability to wield in the defence [sic] of the rights of our country, this glittering weapon, that we place it in your protective hand. Receive it, sir, as a token of our estimation of your promotion of our ease and comfort in quietude, and for your chivalrous spirit on the sanguine field, when the heavens glared with fire, and the earth trembled ‘neath cannons’ roar. May it never rest in its scabbard ’till rebellion is crushed and traitorism is banished from the land, and peace spread her white wings from the St. John’s to the sunny banks of the Rio Grande. May it ever bespeak in the heart of him that wields it, bravery, loyalty, heroism, and philanthropy. That it may ever benefit you in the hour of peril, and that you may undauntingly use it as opportunity is afforded, is the very ardent wish of your most obedient servants.'”

Also, according to Schmidt, Captain Woodruff responded to this touching tribute by presenting a surprisingly lengthy address to his men:

My companions in arms, your beautiful present is accepted with sincere satisfaction and heartfelt thanks. It affords the satisfaction that you still respect and have confidence in your commander, and he is thankful not only for the value of this noble gift, but for the rich token of your kind regard. And while I wear these arms and accoutrements, emblematical of my rank and office, may they never be worn unworthily, or the noble donors have cause to blush for the ungallant act of the wearer.

Two years have nearly elapsed since we have been associated as commander and commanded. Two years of privation and toil, yet your love for the cause and your ardor to serve your country has not abated.

When you entered upon this gigantic struggle, you were not prompted by large bribes or bounties, or intimidated by being forced in service by conscription. But inspired by a noble patriotism, you cheerfully volunteered for the longest period known to law.

Your conduct thus far has been in accordance with the honorable principles which caused you to volunteer. No discipline too strict, no privations too great, no toil too sore, but that your indomitable spirits have been able to accomplish, to undergo and overcome. And now allow me to say to you that I am proud of the noble men who compose this company; I am proud of your generous and gallant conduct; I am proud of your association; I am proud of the honor you have this day conferred upon your Captain.

In looking forward, I have no fears for you in the future, whatever you may be called on to do—in garrison—in the tented field, or on the sanguined plain, it will be bravely—it will be well done. Then until rebels and traitors shall become extinct, or have grounded their arms, and acknowledged the supremacy of the government and the law, let this our motto be: Give us death or give us liberty.

Later that year, multiple members of Company D would opt to re-enlist to finish the fight, serving valiantly until the leaders of the Rebellion finally surrendered in April 1865—and beyond—into the early months of the Reconstruction Era, until their regiment was finally mustered out at Charleston, South Carolina on Christmas Day in 1865.

Sources:

1. Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, vol. 1. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.
2. Carnahan, Burrus. “Global Impact: The Lincoln Administration and the Development of International Law.” Washington, D.C.: President Lincoln’s Cottage, May 9, 2016.
3. “Florida’s Role in the Civil War: ‘Supplier of the Confederacy.’” Tampa, Florida: Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida, retrieved online January 15, 2020.
4. “General Orders 100: The Lieber Code,” in “The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy.” New Haven, Connecticut: Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School, Yale University, retrieved online April 3, 2024.
5. Gesley, Jenny. “The ‘Lieber Code’—the First Modern Codification of the Laws of War,” in “In Custodia Legis: Law Librarians of Congress.” Washington, D.C.: U.S. Library of Congress, retrieved online April 3, 2024.
6. “History: Crops (Historic Florida Barge Canal Trail).” Historical Marker Database, retrieved online December 30, 2023.
7. Lieber, Francis. Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1898.
8. Owsley, Frank Lawrence, and Harriet Fason Chappell. King Cotton Diplomacy: Foreign Relations of the Confederate States of America. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1959.
9. “Preventing Diplomatic Recognition of the Confederacy, 1861–1865,” and “The Alabama Claims, 1862–1872,” in “Milestones: 1861–1865.” Washington, D.C.: Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute, United States Department of State, retrieved online December 30, 2023.
10. Schmidt, Lewis. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1986.
11. Wharton, Henry D. Letters from the Sunbury Guards. Sunbury, Pennsylvania, Sunbury American, 1861-1866.