“Propitious Weather and a Splendid Spectacle”: The United States of America’s Grand Review of the Armies (May 23, 1865)

Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant leans forward to have a better look at a Union regiment approaching the presidential reviewing stand, President Andrew Johnson to his left, Grand Review of the National Armies, Washington, D.C., May 23, 1865 (U.S. Library of Congress, public domain; click to enlarge).

It was a week to remember. The 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers had survived the bloody Battle of Pocotaligo in South Carolina (October 1862) to make history as the only regiment from the Great Keystone State to participate in the Union’s 1864 Red River Campaign across Louisiana and help firmly, finally turn the tide of the American Civil War in the Union’s favor during Sheridan’s 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign — only to be brought to their knees in mourning, upon receiving the heartbreaking news that their beloved commander-in-chief had been assassinated — just as victory was at hand.

Now, they were joining more than one hundred and forty-five thousand other “boys in blue” in a triumphant march through the streets of Washington, D.C. that would subsequently be described by The New York Times as “The Grand Procession of Battle Stained Banners” and a “splendid spectacle” that was graced with “propitious weather.” The reporter penning those superlatives was describing the Union’s Grand Review of the National Armies, which took place from May 23 to 24.

The Army of the Potomac has passed in review. The first day’s pageant is over, and to the correspondent falls the duty of depicting a scene almost devoid of incident, save in its grand aspiration. Every circumstance has combined to make it a complete success. The weather has been magnificent; the air, delightfully tempered by the rains of the past week, is cool and fragrant, and dust, is for the time subdued….

Though the city is so crowded, it is yet gay and jovial with the good feeling that prevails, for the occasion is one of such grand import and true rejoicing, that small vexations sink out of sight. With many it is the greatest epoch of their lives; with the soldier it is the last act in the drama; with the nation it is the triumphant exhibition of the resources and valor which have saved it from disruption and placed it first upon earth.

So the scene of to-day (and that of to-morrow) will never be forgotten, and he who is privileged to be a witness will mark it as a white day in the calendar, from which to gather hope and courage for the future….

That Times reporter went on to describe the ways in which multiple Union Army regiments had made their way to the nation’s capital, where they had set up tents upon their respective arrivals and how they had assembled for the first day of the review, providing a list, line-by-line, of the long order of march — a list which included the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers. (Officially stationed at Camp Brightwood in the northwest corner of Washington, D.C. by early May 1865, the 47th Pennsylvanians had departed from that camp on Monday, May 22 to move closer to their assigned position for the Grand Review’s start, according to Private Henry Horn of Company G.)

19th Corps, Army of the United States, Grand Review of the National Armies, Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C., May 23, 1865 (Matthew Brady, U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).

The 47th Pennsylvania was just one of the one hundred and eighteen infantry regiments, twenty-nine cavalry regiments and thirty-three artillery batteries that boldly stepped forth from Capitol Hill on that first day of the Grand Review (May 23, 1865). Marching with the precision they were known for, under the banners of the Army of the Potomac (Mr. Lincoln’s Army), they were participants in a thrilling, six-hour parade, passing in front of a review stand that sheltered U.S. President Andrew Johnson, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant, and other high-ranking officials of the military and federal government. According to the Times, the 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers were positioned behind the parade’s third division, as part of the Nineteenth Army Corps (XIX Corps) in Dwight’s Division:

Third Division.
Brevet Brig.-Gen. John G. Curtin commanding.

First Brigade, Col. A. B. McCalmon commanding — 51st Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers, Col. William J. Bolton; 208th Pennsylvania, Lieut.-Col. M. T. Heintzelman; 209th Pennsylvania, Col. T. B. Kaufman; 200th Pennsylvania, Maj. Jacob Rehm.

Second Brigade, Col. J. A. Mathews commanding — 207th Pennsylvania, Col. R. C. Cox; 211th Pennsylvania, Lieut.-Col. Coulter; 205th Pennsylvania, Lieut.-Col. W. F. Walter.

Dwight’s Division.
Nineteenth Army Corps, Brig.-Gen. William Dwight commanding.

First Brigade, Brig.-Gen. G. L. Beal commanding — 15th Maine, Col. Isaac Dyer; 114th New York, Col. S. R. Per Lee; 29th Maine, Col. George H. Nye; 30th Massachusetts, Lieut.-Col. N. Shardman; 1st Maine Battalion, Capt. C. S. Brown.

Second Brigade, Brevet Brig.-Gen. E. P. Davis commanding — 153rd New York, Lieut.-Col. J. A. McLaughlin; 8th Vermont, Col. J. B. Mead; 12th Connecticut, Lieut.-Col. G. W. Lewis; 26th Massachusetts, Lieut.-Col. W. H. Chapman; 47th Pennsylvania, Col. J. P. S. Gobin.

Third Brigade, Brig.-Gen. J. D. Fessenden commanding — 173rd New York, Col. L. M. Peck; 160th New York, Col. C. C. Dwight; 162nd New York, Col. J. W. Blanchard; 133rd New York, Col. L. D. Currie; 30th Maine, Col. T. H. Hubbard.

Artillery Brigade, Brevet Brig.-Gen. J. C. Tidball commanding — 34th New York Battery, Brevet Maj. J. Roemer; 7th Maine Battery, Capt. A. B. Twitchell; 19th New York Battery, Capt. E. W. Rogers; Battery D, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Artillery; Capt. S. H. Rhoads; 11th Massachusetts Battery, Capt. E. J. Jones; 27th New York Battery, Capt. J. B. Eaton.

Second State Colors, 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers (presented to the regiment 7 March 1865).

Lest one be tempted to think that the 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers were placed further back in the line of march because they were being accorded less respect, one only need look at the rosters of the men who immediately followed the 47th. The division positioned directly behind them was composed of general staff of the Army of the United States and regiments led by American Civil War icon and Gettyburg hero Joshua L. Chamberlain. Observed U.S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, “You see in these armies, the foundation of the Republic: our future railroad managers, congressmen, bank presidents, senators, manufacturers, judges, governors and diplomats; yes and not less than half a dozen presidents.”

John Peter Shindel Gobin, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, shown here as a captain in 1863, went on to become lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania after the war (public domain).

Among the 47th Pennsylvanians who would continue to serve their communities, commonwealth and nation faithfully were future city councilmen, industrialists, inventors, judges, a three-time mayor, newspaper publishers, physicians, policemen, federal postmasters, local school board members, and a state senator who would be publicly elected as Pennsylvania’s seventh lieutenant governor. Each one had experienced the horrors of war. All were forever changed. So, please take time this Memorial Day weekend to read and share their stories with your family, friends and neighbors — and say their names as you offer a toast in tribute to their valor. We owe them at least that much for the sacrifices they made to save our nation.

Sources:

Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, vol. 1. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.
“Grand Military Review: Streets Crowded with Spectators: Sherman Greeted with Deafening Cheers.” Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: The Daily Post, May 25, 1865.
“Our Heroes! The Grand Review at Washington. Honor to the Brave. Immense Outpouring of the People. The Troops Reviewed by Gen. Grant.” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Daily Telegraph, May 23, 1865.
“Review of the Armies; Propitious Weather and a Splendid Spectacle. Nearly a Hundred Thousand Veterans in the Lines.” New York, New York: The New York Times, May 24, 1865, front page.
Rodrock, Rev. William D. C. Chaplain’s Reports (47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, 1865). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
Schmidt, Lewis. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1986.
“Serenade to General Grant” (performance for Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant by the 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers’ Regimental Band), in “Washington.” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Inquirer, May 22, 1865.
“The Final March: Grand Review of the Armies.” Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Park Service, retrieved online May 20, 2025.
“The Grand Review: A Grand Spectacle Witnessed.” Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: The Daily Post, May 24, 1865.
“The Grand Review: Immense Crowds in Washington: Fine Appearance of the Troops: Their Enthusiastic Reception.” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Daily Telegraph, May 24, 1865; and West Chester, Pennsylvania: The Record, May 17, 1865.
“The Grand Review: The City Crowded with Visitors: Order of Corps, Divisions, Brigades and Regiments.” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Daily Constitutional Union, May 23, 1865.
“The History of the Forty-Seventh Regt. P. V.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Lehigh Register, 20 July 1870.

A Musical Tribute to Beloved Commanding Officers: The 47th Pennsylvania’s Regimental Band “Serenades” Generals Grant and Sheridan (May 22, 1865)

May22

Willard’s Hotel, Washington, D.C., circa 1860-1865 (public domain; click to enlarge).

On the eve of the headline-making Grand Review of the National Armies in the nation’s capital in late May 1865, members of the 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers’ Regimental Band made their own small headlines in newspapers nationwide when they performed a selection of patriotic and popular musical numbers during an hour-long, impromptu concert for Union Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant and Major-General Philip H. Sheridan, who were engaged in a meeting at Willard’s Hotel. Also joining in the musical tribute were musicians from one of Maine’s volunteer infantry regiments.

Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant (public domain).

As the 47th Pennsylvanians performed, a crowd gathered nearby to listen. When the music ceased, calls of “Speech! Speech!” to Grant and Sheridan began to ripple through the crowd. Both men demurred, however, choosing instead to continue their “parting interview,” according to the Bangor Daily Whig and Courier — a decision which evidently did not disappoint the throng for long. Per The Philadelphia Inquirer, “The music was very fine, both bands rivaling each other in doing honor to the greatest General of the age” (General Grant).

Joseph Eugene Walter, Regimental Band, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, circa 1861.

Among the 47th Pennsylvanians who may very well have performed for Grant and Sheridan that evening were Private Joseph Eugene Walter and Principal Musician Daniel Dachrodt. (Walter, a private with Company E, had been a cornetist with Pomp’s Cornet Band in Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania prior to the start of the American Civil War and had previously served with the 47th Pennsylvania’s highly-regarded first Regimental Band, which had been led by Thomas Coates, the “Father of Band Music in America.” Dachrodt, who had been promoted to the rank of Drum Major and had then been placed in charge of all of the regiment’s field drummers, would ultimately survive the war — and all of his comrades — to become the last living member of the regiment in 1939.)

Major-General Philip Sheridan, U.S. Army (c. 1864, U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).

Standing on the balcony of Willard’s Hotel again the next morning (May 23), Major-General Sheridan was treated to another rousing tribute as members of his cavalry “passed before him to pay a farewell salute … while the bands played ‘Hail to the Chief!'” Those same units would take part, later that morning and afternoon, in the Army of the Potomac’s march down Pennsylvania Avenue during the parade on day one of the Grand Review. That evening, Sheridan would depart for the train depot in Baltimore, Maryland, for transportation to his new assignment — spearheading regional Reconstruction efforts as the military governor of Louisiana and Texas.

Sources:

“Discover Our History.” Washington, D.C.: Willard Intercontinental Hotel, retrieved online May 20, 1865.
“General Philip H. Sheridan.” Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Park Service, retrieved online, May 20, 2025.
“Grant” (television mini-series). New York, New York: History Channel Education, 2020.
“Our Heroes! The Grand Review at Washington. Honor to the Brave. Immense Outpouring of the People. The Troops Reviewed by Gen. Grant.” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Daily Telegraph, May 23, 1865.
Regimental Band of the 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers (report on the band’s performance for Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant in Washington, D.C.), in “Special Dispatch to the Boston Journal.” Bangor, Maine: Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, May 23, 1865.
“Review of the Armies; Propitious Weather and a Splendid Spectacle. Nearly a Hundred Thousand Veterans in the Lines.” New York, New York: The New York Times, May 24, 1865, front page.
“Serenade to General Grant” (performance for Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant by the 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers’ Regimental Band), in “Washington.” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Inquirer, May 22, 1865.
“The Final March: Grand Review of the Armies.” Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Park Service, retrieved online May 20, 2025.
“The Grand Review: The City Crowded with Visitors: Order of Corps, Divisions, Brigades and Regiments.” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Daily Constitutional Union, May 23, 1865.

Camp Brightwood, Washington, D.C. (Mid-April – June 2, 1865)

May22

Unidentified Union infantry regiment, Camp Brightwood, Washington, D.C., circa 1865 (public domain; click to enlarge).

Marched closer to the nation’s capital in the wake of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in mid-April 1865, the 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers were directed to proceed to the Brightwood district in the northwestern section of Washington, D.C. and erect their Sibley tents at the Union Army duty station known as Camp Brightwood.

Their new job was to prevent Confederate States Army troops and their sympathizers from reigniting the flames of civil war that had just been stamped out weeks earlier.

According to historians at Cultural Tourism DC, Brightwood was “one of Washington, DC’s early communities and the site of the only Civil War battle to take place within the District of Columbia” — the Battle of Fort Stevens.

This crossroads community developed from the Seventh Street Turnpike, today’s Georgia Avenue, and Military Road. Its earliest days included a pre-Civil War settlement of free African Americans…. Eventually Brightwood boasted a popular race track, country estates, and sturdy suburban housing. In 1861 the area was known as Brighton, but once it was large enough to merit a U.S. Post Office, the name was changed to Brightwood to distinguish it from Brighton, Maryland.

Also, according to Cultural Tourism historians, Camp Brightwood was established on the grounds of “Emery Place, the summer estate of Matthew Gault Emery,” who had “made a fortune in stone-cutting, including the cornerstone for the Washington Monument,” which was laid in 1848.

During the Civil War (1861-1865), Captain Emery led the local militia. His hilltop became a signal station where soldiers used flags or torches to communicate with nearby Fort DeRussy or the distant Capitol. Soldiers of the 35th New York Volunteers created Camp Brightwood here. During the Battle of Fort Stevens in July 1864, Camp Brightwood was a transfer point for the wounded.

By late April of 1865, it was home to multiple Union Army regiments, including the 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers.

Guarding the Lincoln Assassination Conspirators

Washington Arsenal Penitentiary, Washington, D.C., 1865 (Joseph Hanshew, public domain; click to enlarge).

Sometime after their arrival at Camp Brightwood during that fateful spring of 1865, a group of 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers were given a new assignment — guard duty at the Washington Arsenal and its prison facility, where eight people were being held in connection with their involvement in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. They had been arrested between April 17 and 26.

The key conspirators involved in President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination (Benn Pitman, The Assassination of President Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators,” 1865, U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).

While researchers for 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers: One Civil War Regiment’s Story have not yet determined the exact start date of the 47th Pennsylvania’s guard duties at the Washington Arsenal Penitentiary, they are now able to offer a better estimate — thanks to the work of Lincoln scholars Edward Steers, Jr. and Harold Holzer, who published documents written by Union Major-General John Frederick Hartranft, the Pennsylvanian appointed by U.S. President Andrew Johnson on May 1, 1865 “to command the military prison at the Washington Arsenal, where the U.S. government had just incarerated the seven men and one woman accused of complicity in the shooting.” Included in the Steers-Holzer compilation is a letter from Major-General Hartranft, governor and commander of the “Washington Arsenal Military Prison,” to Major-General Winfield S. Hancock, commanding officer of the United States Middle Military Division, which was dated May 11, 1865. Hartranft began by informing Hancock that “at 10:25 yesterday [May 10, 1865], Lt. Col. J. M. Clough, 18th N. H. reported with 450 muskets, for four days duty, relieving the 47th Pa. Vols.” He then went on to describe the duties performed by 18th New Hampshire Volunteers at the Washington Arsenal on May 10:

At 11:45, the prisoners on trial were taken into Court, in compliance with the orders of the same. At 1 P.M. the Court ordered the prisoners returned to their cells, which was done.

At 1:10 P.M. dinner was served to the prisoners in the usual manner.

At 1:30 in compliance with your orders Marshal McPhail was admitted to see the prisoner in 161 [Atzerodt], his hood having been previously removed; he remained with him until 2.35, immediately after which his hood was replaced and the door locked.

At 3:45 P.M. Mr. George L. Crawford in accordance with your instructions, was permitted to have an interview with prisoner in 209. I was present during the same, and heard all that was said. The conversation was in regard to the property of the prisoner in Philadelphia. At 4:25 the hood was replaced and the cell locked.

At 6 P.M. Supper was furnished the prisoners and at the same time Dr. Porter and myself made inspections of all the cells and prisoners.

At 6 P.M. in accordance with your instructions, Mr. Stone, counsel for Dr. Mudd, was permitted to visit his client. The interview took place in the presence of Lt. Col. McCall but not in his hearing.

At 6:35 the interview closed, and the door was again locked.

At 7 this A.M. breakfast was served to the prisoners in the usual manner. At 7:15, Dr. Porter and myself made Inspections of all the cells and prisoners.

I would respectfully recommend that the prisoner in 190 be removed to cell 165.

All passes admitting persons during the last 24 hours are here with enclosed.

As a result, researchers for the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers’ project postulate that:

As many as four hundred and fifty 47th Pennylvania Veteran Volunteer Infantrymen may have been stationed at the Washington Arsenal between May 6-10, 1865; and
At least some of those 47th Pennsylvanians may very well have interacted with the key Lincoln assassination conspirators (Samuel Bland Arnold, George A. Atzerodt, David E. Herold, Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd, Michael O’Laughlen, Lewis Thornton Powell/Lewis Payne, Edman Spangler/Ned Spangler, and Mary Elizabeth Surratt) — interactions which likely took place while those eight prisoners were confined at the Washington Arsenal prison; on the way to and from the courtroom, where they were being tried for conspiring to assassinate President Lincoln; inside that courtroom during trial proceedings; and possibly also at other sites related to their confinement and trial.

Although the duties performed between by 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers between May 6-9 would not have been exactly the same as those performed by the New Hampshire soldiers on May 10, they may very well have been similar — meaning that at least some 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers may have been involved in locking and unlocking the doors of the conspirators’ cells, escorting the conspirators into the courtroom of their military trial (which began on May 9, 1865), standing guard over the conspirators during their trial to prevent their escape, escorting them from the courtroom, and interacting with them in their cells by:

Bringing meals to them;
Removing and replacing the hoods that covered their heads so that they could interact with their lawyers and other visitors;
Verifying the legitimacy of passes held by would-be visitors and denying or granting access to those visitors as appropriate;
Escorting visitors to and from their cells; and
Monitoring their visits with anyone granted entry to their cells.

With their guard assignment completed by the morning of May 10, 1865, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers who were serving on detached duty at the Washington Arsenal were marched back to Camp Brightwood, where they would remain until their next assignment — participating in the Union’s Grand Review of the National Armies on May 23, 1865.

19th Corps, Army of the United States, Grand Review of the National Armies, Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C., May 23, 1865 (Matthew Brady, U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).

The Grandest of the Grand Reviews

The 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteer Infantry was just one group of the more than one hundred and forty-five thousand Union military men who marched from Capitol Hill through the streets of Washington, D.C. during a two-day spectacle designed to celebrate the end of the American Civil War and heal Americans’ heartbreak in the wake of President Lincoln’s assassination. Held from May 23-24, 1865, it was a sight that had never been seen before — and one that would likely never be seen anywhere in the United States of America ever again. The first day’s parade alone lasted six hours.

Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant, leaning forward, President Andrew Johnson to his left, Grand Review of the National Armies, Washington, D.C., May 23, 1865 (U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).

According to The New York Times, the 47th Pennsylvanians were positioned behind the parade’s third division, as part of the Nineteenth Army Corps (XIX Corps) in Dwight’s Division. Marching with the precision for which they had become renowned, they passed in front of a review stand which sheltered U.S. President Andrew Johnson, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant. The division directly behind the 47th Pennsylvanians in that day’s line of march included other officers and general staff of the Army of the United States and regiments commanded by American Civil War icon Brigadier-General Joshua L. Chamberlain, one of the most beloved heroes from the tide-turning Battle of Gettysburg.

Rev. William DeWitt Clinton Rodrock, chaplain, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers (courtesy of Robert Champlin, used with permission).

Afterward, 47th Pennsylvania Chaplain William DeWitt Clinton Rodrock summed up the experience in a report penned at Camp Brightwood on May 31:

The wise king of the Scriptures speaks of a sorrow that pervades the human heart “in the midst of laughter.” The truthfulness of this Divine philosophy is a matter of daily experience. Our most joyous seasons are intermingled with a sadness that often challenges definition. Every garden has its sepulchre. Every draft of sweet has its ingredient of bitter. This fact has never been so fully realized as this month. With the mighty army of brave soldiers congregated and reviewed in Washington and the … expressions of deep regret that Abraham Lincoln is not here to have witnessed the great pageant of the 23rd and 24th inst. have been universal. Not the splendid victories which our brave soldiers have won — not the pleasing prospect that they are “homeward bound” — not the consolatory thought that the reins of government have fallen into the hands of so good a man as Andrew Johnson — have served to restrain these utterances of grief and sorrow. Had it been God’s will to spare Mr. Lincoln’s life, what an eclat his presence would have imparted to the mighty pageant.

But as He willed otherwise and “doeth all things well,” it is ours to learn the great lesson of the hour.

Rebuilding a Shattered Nation

Ruins of Charleston, South Carolina as seen from the Circular Church, 1865 (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, public domain).

As the cheers of the Grand Review crowds faded, the 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers resumed life at Camp Brightwood, with many assuming that their days of wearing “Union Blue” were finally coming to an end. But that assumption proved to be an incorrect one when the 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers received word that they were being reassigned. Ordered to pack their belongings in late May 1865, they would be heading back to America’s Deep South — this time to assist with Reconstruction duties in Georgia and South Carolina, beginning the first week in June.

Sources:

“Assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.” Washington, D.C.: U.S. Library of Congress, retrieved online May 21, 2025.
Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, vol. 1. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.
“Battleground National Cemetery: Battleround to Community — Brightwood Heritage Trail,” “Fort Stevens” and “Mayor Emery and the Union Army.” United States: Historical Marker Database, retrieved online May 20, 2025.
“Battleground to Community: Brightwood Heritage Trail.” Washington, D.C.: Cultural Tourism DC, 2008.
“Grand Military Review: Streets Crowded with Spectators: Sherman Greeted with Deafening Cheers.” Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: The Daily Post, May 25, 1865.
“Grant” (television mini-series). New York, New York: History Channel Education, 2020.
“Our Heroes! The Grand Review at Washington. Honor to the Brave. Immense Outpouring of the People. The Troops Reviewed by Gen. Grant.” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Daily Telegraph, May 23, 1865.
Pitman, Benn. The Assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators. Cincinnati, Ohio and New York, New York: Moore, Wilstach & Boldwin, 1865.
“Reconstruction: An Overview.” Washington, D.C.: American Battlefield Trust, November 28, 2023.
“Review of the Armies; Propitious Weather and a Splendid Spectacle. Nearly a Hundred Thousand Veterans in the Lines.” New York, New York: The New York Times, May 24, 1865, front page.
Rodrock, Rev. William D. C. Chaplain’s Reports (47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, 1865). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
Schmidt, Lewis. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1986.
“Serenade to General Grant” (performance for Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant by the 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers’ Regimental Band), in “Washington.” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Inquirer, May 22, 1865.
Steers, Edward Jr. and Harold Holzer. The Lincoln Assassination Conspirators: Their Confinement and Execution, as Recorded in the Letterbook of John Frederick Hartranft. Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 2009.
“The Final March: Grand Review of the Armies.” Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Park Service, retrieved online May 20, 2025.
“The Grand Review: A Grand Spectacle Witnessed.” Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: The Daily Post, May 24, 1865.
“The Grand Review: Immense Crowds in Washington: Fine Appearance of the Troops: Their Enthusiastic Reception.” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Daily Telegraph, May 24, 1865; and West Chester, Pennsylvania: The Record, May 17, 1865.
“The Grand Review: The City Crowded with Visitors: Order of Corps, Divisions, Brigades and Regiments.” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Daily Constitutional Union, May 23, 1865.
“The History of the Forty-Seventh Regt. P. V.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Lehigh Register, 20 July 1870.
“The Lincoln Conspirators,” in “Ford’s Theatre.” Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Park Service, retrieved online May 21, 2025.

National Poetry Month: The Meaning of Life During War and Peace

Apr28

“Launched by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996, National Poetry Month is a special occasion that celebrates poets’ integral role in our culture and that poetry matters. Over the years, it has become the largest literary celebration in the world, with tens of millions of readers, students, K–12 teachers, librarians, booksellers, literary events curators, publishers, families, and — of course — poets, marking poetry’s important place in our lives.”

— American Academy of Poets

As we come to the close of National Poetry Month in 2025, we take a look back at poems that were written during the American Civil War, Reconstruction, Gilded Age, Progressive, World War I, and Roaring Twenties eras of American History by the famous (Thomas Buchanan Read and Walt Whitman) and less famous (Martha A. John), as well as by members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry and their families who penned poems to express their insights about life and death during and after the war.

Read, reflect, remember, and share because humanities education programs really still do matter.

“A Comet” (Martha A. John, a sister of Private George Dillwyn John, in A Souvenir: Incidents, Experiences, and Reflections,” 1902);
“An Evening in Camp” (in The Sunbury American, December 28, 1861);
“Drum-Taps” (Walt Whitman, in Leaves of Grass, October 1865);
“The Battle of Cedar Creek” (Private H. B. Robinson, October 1864);
“The Friendly Trio” (Jesse L. Bernheisel, a son of Private Luther Bernheisel, in Berny’s Poems; Hints Towards Happiness, 1927); and
“Sheridan’s Ride” (Thomas Buchanan Read, in The Daily Evening Telegraph, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 9, 1864).

Inkwell and book (excerpt of an illustration by F. Y. Cory, in Memoirs of a Baby, Josephine Daskam, author, 1893, public domain).

Sources:

“An Evening in Camp.” Sunbury, Pennsylvania: The Sunbury American, December 28, 1861; and West Chester, Pennsylvania: The West Chester (Pa.) Times.
Bernheisel, Jesse L. Berny’s Poems; Hints Towards Happiness. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1927.
John, Martha A. “A Comet, in A Souvenir: Incidents, Experiences, and Reflections. Sterling, Illinois: Sterling Gazette Print, 1902-3.
Robinson, H. B. “The Battle of Cedar Creek.” Cedar Creek, Virginia: Composed following the October 19, 1864 battle; preserved in The H. B. Robinson Collection, in The Maurer Family Archives, Amy Lowers Maurer, curator).
“Sheridan’s Ride.” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Daily Evening Telegraph, November 9, 1864; Cleveland, Ohio: The Evening Post, November 17, 1864; Davenport, Iowa: The Democrat, November 25, 1864; Brownsville, Nebraska Territory: Nebraska Advertiser, December 1, 1864; and Sacramento, California: The Sacramento Bee (in “Entertainment”), December 17, 1864.
Whitman, Walt. “Drum-Taps,” in Leaves of Grass. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: David McKay, 1891 (first published by Whitman in Drum-Taps, New York, October 1865).

April 15th: A Date of Decision and Death for President Abraham Lincoln

Apr15

This 1865 photograph of President Abraham Lincoln by Alexander Gardner is believed by historians to be the final photo taken of Lincoln (1865, U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).

There were multiple key moments in the life of the man who would become the sixteenth president of the United States of America. Some, like the deaths of his mother and sister, would dramatically alter the trajectory of his life; others, like his decision to embark upon a life of public service, would reshape the future of a nation.

But his actions on one particular date, during two entirely different years, did both.

So pivotal in history, that particular date’s annual arrival still stops average Americans in their tracks each year, prompting them to reflect on the legacy of that one man — and the question, “What if?”

That man was U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and that date is April 15.

Lincoln’s Call for Seventy-Five Thousand Volunteers (April 15, 1861)

Proclamation issued by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, calling for seventy-five thousand state militia troops to bring an end to the secession of, and insurrection by, eleven of fifteen southern slaveholding states, April 15, 1861 (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, public domain; click to enlarge).

In response to the fall of Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina to Confederate States troops on April 14, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation in which he called for seventy-five thousand men across the United States to risk their lives to defend the nation’s capital and bring a swift end to the secession crisis and insurrection initiated by eleven of fifteen southern slave holding states. That proclamation, which was issued on April 15, 1861 read as follows:

By the President of the United States.

A Proclamation.

Whereas the laws of the United States have been, for some time past, and now are, opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the Marshals by law:

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution and the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth, the militia of the several States of the Union, to the aggregate number of seventy-five thousand, in order to suppress said combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed.

The details for this object will be immediately communicated to the State authorities through the War Department.

I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union, and the perpetuity of popular Government, and to redress wrongs already long enough endured.

I deem it proper to say that the first service assigned to the forces hereby called forth will probably be to repossess the forts, places, and property which have been seized from the Union; and in every event the utmost care will be observed, consistently with the objects aforesaid, to avoid any devastation, any destruction of or interference with property, or any disturbance of peaceful citizens in any part of the country.

And I hereby command the persons composing the combinations aforesaid to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes within twenty days from this date.

Deeming that the present condition of public affairs presents an extraordinary occasion, I do hereby, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution, convene both Houses of Congress.

Senators and Representatives are therefore summoned to assemble at their respective Chambers, at 12 o’clock, noon, on Thursday, the fourth day of July next, then and there to consider and determine such measures as, in their wisdom, the public safety and interest may seem to demand.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this fifteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-fifth.

Abraham Lincoln

By the President: William H. Seward, Secretary of State.

Four years later, on the exact same date, President Abraham would draw his last breath.

Lincoln’s Death from an Assassin’s Bullet (April 15, 1865)

President Abraham Lincoln on his deathbed at the Petersen House in Washington, D.C., April 15, 1865 (Harper’s Weekly, 1865, public domain; click to enlarge).

Mortally wounded by a shot to his head, which was fired by an assassin and Confederate sympathizer while President Abraham Lincoln was watching a performance of the popular stage play, Our American Cousin, at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., on the evening of Good Friday, April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was initially examined on site in the presidential box, by fellow theatre attendee and physician Charles Leale, before being carried downstairs by Union Army soldiers and taken across Tenth Street — and into a room at the Petersen boarding house, where he was then gently lowered onto the bed of Willie Clark.

As additional physicians arrived and assessed the president’s condition, a decision was made to make him as comfortable as possible, when it was determined that he would likely not survive the night.

A remarkably strong man, even as he waged his toughest battle, President Lincoln managed to hang onto until the following morning, drawing his final ragged breath at 7:22 a.m. on April 15, 1865 — and leaving the work of national healing and Reconstruction in far less capable hands.

One hundred and sixty years later, Americans still wonder, “Would we be a better nation if Lincoln had survived?”

Sources:

“A Proclamation by the President of the United States, April 15, 1861.” Washington, D.C.: U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, retrieved online April 15, 2025.
“Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination,” in “History Channel: Civil War.” New York, New York: A&E Television Networks, February 27, 2025.
“Eric Foner: Reconstruction and the Constitution” (video). Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Humanities Festival, 2019.
“Lincoln’s Death,” in “Lincoln Assassination.” Washington, D.C.: Ford’s Theatre, retrieved online December 1, 2024.
“The Petersen House.” Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Park Service, December 1, 2024.

April 12th: This Date in 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry History

Apr13

April 12th would prove to be an important date for the men who served with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry during the American Civil War and Reconstruction eras. This abridged timeline illustrates why:

1861

The bombardment of Fort Sumter 12-14 April 1861 (Currier & Ives, public domain).

At 4:30 a.m., on April 12, 1861, artillery batteries of the Confederate States Army open fire on United States Army troops stationed at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. A long and disastrous period of civil war begins in America.

The majority of Pennsylvanians and residents of other states throughout America who will ultimately serve with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry are at home, asleep in their beds — or just rising and readying themselves for their work days on family farms, as canal boatmen, in iron foundries, silk mills, tanneries or tobacco factories, as quarrymen toiling away in the slate industry, or as miners tunneling deeper inside of the Earth in poorly-lighted coal mines, along with countless other blue collar laborers who are risking their own health and safety just to keep their families housed and fed.

The 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry isn’t even “a glimmer” in anyone’s eyes — yet. (It won’t be founded until August 5, 1861.)

1862

In 1862, The Gazette, one of two hometown newspapers read by the majority of men serving with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry’s C Company, carries the following news in its April 12th edition:

Jeff. Davis is becoming desperate. He has issued an extraordinary Message ordering the enrollment of all citizens of the Confederate States between the ages of 18 and 35, for military service, the residue of the fighting population, above 35 to form a fighting force.

Although that particular edition of the newspaper has not yet reached the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers who are stationed in Florida, a warning about the Confederate Conscription Act’s pending passage has likely been telegraphed by the U.S. War Department to senior officers at the 47th Pennsylvania’s headquarters at Fort Taylor in Key West in order to prepare them for the increased threat they and their troops will face.

1864

On April 12, 1864, Captain Charles William Abbott, commanding officer of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry’s K Company, pens a brief report from his regiment’s camp at Grand Ecore, Louisiana to his superior officers in the United States Army of the Gulf, which partially documents the losses in soldiers and supplies sustained by his regiment during the Battle of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana on April 9, 1864. That report also contains details about the regiment’s movements during this phase of duty.

Sergeant John Gross Helfrich then describes this same battle in a letter to his parents on May 5th, in which he notes:

I have learned additional news of the late fight of our boys of the “Nineteenth Corps”…. The casualties of our boys amounted to a great deal more than at first reported. The Lt. Col. of our Forty-seventh Regt. is missing, and supposed he is wounded or perhaps killed. Lt. Swoyer is dead.

1865

In a letter that he is writing to the Sunbury American on April 12, 1865 from the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry’s camp near Summit Point, Virginia, 47th Pennsylvanian Henry D. Wharton describes a celebration that took place following the surrender at Appomattox by Confederate General Robert E. Lee and his army on April 9, 1865:

Since yesterday a week we have been on the move, going as far as three miles beyond Winchester. There we halted for three days, waiting for the return or news from Torbett’s cavalry who had gone on a reconnoisance [sic] up to the valley. They returned, reporting they were as far up as Mt. Jackson, some sixty miles, and found nary an armed reb. The reason of our move was to be ready in case Lee moved against us, or to march on Lynchburg, if Lee reached that point, so that we could aid in surrounding him and [his] army, and with Sheridan and Mead capture the whole party. Grant’s gallant boys saved us that march and bagged the whole crowd. Last Sunday night our camp was aroused by the loud road of artillery. Hearing so much good news of late, I stuck to my blanket, not caring to get up, for I suspected a salute, which it really was for the ‘unconditional surrender of Lee.’ The boys got wild over the news, shouting till they were hoarse, the loud huzzas [sic, huzzahs] echoing through the Valley, songs of ‘rally round the flag,’ &c., were sung, and above the noise of the ‘cannons opening roar,’ and confusion of camp, could be heard ‘Hail Columbia’ and Yankee Doodle played by our band. Other bands took it up and soon the whole army let loose, making ‘confusion worse confounded.’

The next morning we packed up, struck tents, marched away, and now we are within a short distance of our old quarters. – The war is about played out, and peace is clearly seen through the bright cloud that has taken the place of those that darkened the sky for the last four years. The question now with us is whether the veterans after Old Abe has matters fixed to his satisfaction, will have to stay ‘till the expiration of the three years, or be discharged as per agreement, at the ‘end of the war.’ If we are not discharged when hostilities cease, great injustice will be done.

The members of Co. ‘C,’ wishing to do honor to Lieut. C. S. Beard, and show their appreciation of him as an officer and gentleman, presented him with a splendid sword, sash and belt. Lieut. Beard rose from the ranks, and as one of their number, the boys gave him this token of esteem.

A few nights ago, an aid [sic] on Gen. Torbett’s staff, with two more officers, attempted to pass a safe guard stationed at a house near Winchester. The guard halted the party, they rushed on, paying no attention to the challenge, when the sentinel charged bayonet, running the sharp steel through the abdomen of the aid [sic], wounding him so severely that he died in an hour. The guard did his duty as he was there for the protection of the inmates and their property, with instruction to let no one enter.

The boys are all well, and jubilant over the victories of Grant, and their own little Sheridan, and feel as though they would soon return to meet the loved ones at home, and receive a kind greeting from old friends….

1866

On April 12, 1866, members of the 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers who survived the American Civil War are three months into their post-war civilian lives. Many are back home in Pennsylvania, trying to regain some sense of their old selves with normal work and family routines. Others have already left their pre-war and war lives behind, choosing to migrate west in search of better opportunities — or a certain peace of mind they hope to find in knowing they will be far away from any decision-makers who might drag their communities and nation back down into another disastrous war in the future.

Sources:

Abbott, Charles W. Report from Captain Charles W. Abbott, Captain, Company K, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, to Senior Officers of the U.S. Army of the Gulf’s XIX Corps (19th Corps), Grand Ecore, Louisiana, April 12, 1864. Nazareth, Pennsylvania: Personal Collection of Julian Burley.
“Agriculture and Rural Life,” in “Stories from PA History.” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 2023.
“Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Park.” Washington, D.C.: National Park Foundation, retrieved online April 12, 2025.
Harris, Howard and Perry K. Blatz. Keystone of Democracy: A History of Pennsylvania Workers. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1999.
Helfrich, John Gross. Letter to His Parents, May 5, 1864. Mesa, Arizona: Personal Collection of the Colin Cofield Family Archives.
Miller, Randall M. and William A. Pencak. Pennsylvania: A History of the Commonwealth. University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002.
“Mining Anthracite,” in “Stories from PA History.” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 2023.
Montgomery, Morton L. Early Furnaces and Forges of Berks County, Pennsylvania, in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 1884. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1884.
News Regarding the Confederate States’ New Conscription Order. Sunbury, Pennsylvania: The Gazette, April 12, 1862.
Palladino, Grace. Another Civil War: Labor, Capital, and the State in the Anthracite Regions of Pennsylvania, 1840-1868. New York, New York: Fordham University Press, March 30, 2006.
Sacher, John M. Confederate Conscription and the Struggle for Southern Soldiers. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: LSU Press, 2021.
“The Industrial Age,” in “Stories from PA History: Science and Invention.” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 2023.
“The Pennsylvania Iron Industry: Furnace and Forge of America,” in “Stories from PA History.” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 2023.
“The Railroad in Pennsylvania,” in “Stories from PA History.” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 2023.
“Timeline of Labor History in Pennsylvania.” Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Labor History Society, retrieved online April 12, 2025.

Women’s History Month: A Look Back at the Mothers, Wives, Widows, Daughters, and Granddaughters of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers

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Leanna (Diehl) Hornbeck (1851-1934).

As Women’s History Month 2025 comes to a close, we take a look back at the mothers, wives, widows, daughters, and granddaughters of 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantrymen who helped to preserve America’s Union and rebuild their shattered nation following the end of the American Civil War.

The backbones of their respective families, they not only kept the home fires burning while their husbands were engaged in combat far from their loving arms, they each left their own marks on the communities where they lived, and deserve to be remembered and celebrated for their own courage and resilience. Learn more about these remarkable women by watching our YouTube video, “Faces of the 47th: Wives, Widows and Daughters of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers,” and by reading the following biographies:

Nona Mae (Snyder) Albert (1900-1987);
Margaret Jane (Zinn) Breneman (1838-1930);
Catharine Rebecka (Snyder) Courtney (1906-1995);
Amanda Beatrice (Wright) French (1851-1901);
Catharine (Fleck) Fusselman (1828-1915);
Rachael (Richardson) Gethers (circa 1820-1898);
Leanna (Diehl) Hornbeck (1851-1934);
Mary Alice (Miller) John (1848-1937);
Anna (Gish) Jury (1841-1918);
Anna E. (Weiser) Leisenring (1851-1942);
Julia Ann (Kuehner Minnich) Magill (circa 1836-1904);
Mary Barbara (Nyhart) Moyer (1837-1901);
Julia Margaretta (Weldy) Rodrock (1832-1905);
H. Corrine Snyder (1901-1988);
Lillie May Snyder (1887-1956); and
So many more whose stories are just waiting to be told.

Remember their names. Be inspired by their strength. Honor the sacrifices they made for community and country.

Sources:

“Allen and Nona Albert’s Retirement a Loss to Long-Time Customers.” Tremont, Pennsylvania: The Press-Herald and The Pine Grove Herald, 12 February 1970.
“Allentown Woman on the Roll of Honor: Gov. Brumbaugh Retires Mrs. Anna S. Leisenring, Factory Inspector, with Half Pay.” Reading, Pennsylvania: Reading Eagle, 20 January 1918.
“Allentown Woman to Come to Reading to Inspect Bake Shops and Textile Establishments: Mrs. Annie Leisenring Is Lineal Descendant of Conrad Weiser, the Great Colonial Pioneer Who Lived Near Womelsdorf. Was First Appointed to Factory Inspection Service in 1893.” Reading, Pennsylvania: Reading Eagle, 20 May 1914.
Baptismal, marriage, military, death, and burial records of the Snyder family. Pennsylvania, California, Florida, Louisiana, Nevada, Ohio, etc.: Snyder Family Archives, 1650-present and Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records (baptismal, marriage, death, and burial records of various churches across Pennsylvania). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, 1905-1956; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1776-1956.
Beyerle, Emma; and Snyder, H. Corinne [sic, Corrine], Catharine R. and Lillian E., in U.S. Census (City of Reading, Fourteenth Ward, City of Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania, 1930). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
Breneman, Christian K. and Margaret J., in U.S. Civil War Pension Index (application no.: 432815, certificate no.: 307318, filed by the widow from Pennsylvania on 7 July 1891). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
Breneman, Margaret A., Wm. L. Gardner, and Margaret J. Breneman; Victor L., Carrie I. Landis, Christian and Margaret J. Breneman, and R. M. Landis; Benj. C Breneman, Lena M. Rupley, Christian K. and Margaret J. Breneman, and Henry M. and Phoebe Rupley; Harry S. Breneman, Anna May Gebhard, C. K. and M. J. Breneman, and Jacob and Anna Gebhard, in Applications for Marriage Licenses. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Clerk of the Orphans’ Court of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, 21 December 1897; 21 November 1906; 17 June 1911; and 3 October 1914.
“Catharine Courtney, 89, Private Secretary” (obituary). Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Intelligencer Journal, 28 August 1995.
Catharine S. Courtney, in “Clubs: York Woman Heads State Secretaries.” Lancaster, Pennsylvania: New Era, 23 April 1956.
Chalkley John, in Portrait and Biographical Album of Whiteside County, Illinois, Containing Full-Page Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens of the County, Together with the Portraits and Biographies of All the Governors of Illinois, and the Presidents of the United States. Chicago, Illinois: Chapman Brothers, 1863.
Charles Magill and “Julian Ruston” [sic], in Certificate of Marriage. Camden, New Jersey: St. Paul’s Protestant Episcopal Church, 18 January 1887.
Courtney, Charles F. and Catharine R., in Polk’s Lancaster City Directory, 1950. Boston, Massachusetts: R. L. Polk & Co., Inc., Publishers, 1950.
Davis, William W. History of Whiteside County, Illinois from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908: Illustrated, with Biographical Sketches of Some Prominent Citizens of the County, vols. 1 and 2. Chicago, Illinois: Pioneer Publishing Co., 1908.
“Death of a Highly Esteemed Citizen.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Democrat, 5 October 1898.
Edwin Minnich, Juliann (Kuehner) Minnich, and George Minnich, in U.S. Civil War Widows’ Pension Files. Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, 1865-1901.
“Explaining Trends in the Gender Wage Gap: A Report by The Council of Economic Advisors.” Washington, D.C.: The White House, June 1998.
“Funeral of Mrs. Mary B. Moyer from Her Late Home on East Market Street,” in “Green Ridge Items.” Scranton, Pennsylvania: The Scranton Tribune, 9 December 1901.
Fusselman, Daniel, Catherine, Celistia [sic, Salista], Catherine, John W. R., Caroline, Mary E., and Sarah, in U.S. Census (East Waterford, Tuscarora Township, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, 1860). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
Fusselman, Daniel (father), Kate, John, Caroline, Emna Sarah, Daniel (son), Amanda, Rosa, and Josiah, in U.S. Census (McCullochs Mills, Tuscarora Township, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, 1870). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
Fusselman, Daniel and Catharine, in U.S. Civil War Pension Files (application no.: 254530, certificate no.: 315939, filed from Pennsylvania by the veteran, 8 May 1878; application no.: 250052, certificate no.: 347812, filed by the veteran’s widow, 20 August 1879). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
Gordon, Elizabeth Putnam. Women Torch-Bearers: The Story of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Evanston, Illinois: National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union Publishing House, 1924.
“Holland Farmer Passed Away Friday.” Abilene, Kansas: Abilene Daily Reflector, 29 August 1914.
“John Family Papers, 1775-1951” (RG5/077). Swarthmore, Pennsylvania: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College.
John, Clark E. History and Family Record of the “John” Family, 1683 to 1964: The Descendants of John Phillips and Ellen, His Wife, from Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales. Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of the Church of Latter Day Saints, 1967.
John, Don D. and Helen Doup John. “Eliza John Diary from 1839 to 1863: An Historical and Genealogical Record of the Quakers in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania and What Befell Them,” in Historical Collections of the John Family in America, 1950. Louisville, Kentucky: J. D. John, Self-published, 1951.
John, George D., Mary Alice John, Elida P. John, Sarah Hughes, and Sidney A. John, in Illinois Deaths and Stillbirths, 1916-1947 (database via Public Board of Health, Archives, Springfield, Illinois, Family History Library microfilm 1,614,419, 1,786,728 and 1,818,801; dates: 1928, 1937, 1938). Salt Lake City, Utah: Family History Library.
Leanna D. Hornbeck, in Illinois Deaths and Stillbirths, 1916–1947. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 1934.
Leanna D. Hornbeck, in U.S. Passport Applications (No. 5492 on Roll No. 184). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Citizenship and U.S. National Archives, 10 May 1913.
Lecture Presentation by Annie E. Leisenring, in “Addresses and Discussions: Fourth Annual Welfare and Efficiency Conference, Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, November 21, 22, 23, 1916.” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Monthly Bulletin of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, William Stanley Ray, State Printer, March 1917.
Leisenring, Annie, in U.S. Census of Union Veterans and Widows of the Civil War. Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania: 1890.
Leisenring, Annie E., in United States Veterans Administration Pension Payment Cards (Certificate No.: 240043). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, 1887-1920.
“Letter from Key West” (from “W. D. C. R., Chaplain, Forty-seventh Regiment, P. V.”; dated 13 March 1862). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Press, 31 March 1862, front page.
Lewis, Jim. “Not Forgotten: She Was Both Pediatrician and Pioneer” (obituary of Sandra Rowan, MD, one of the children cared for by Lillie May Snyder). Reading, Pennsylvania: Reading Eagle, 16 July 2016.
“Lillian Snyder, 92, Was Registered Nurse” (obituary of H. Corrine Snyder’s younger sister, Lillian Estelle Snyder). Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Intelligencer Journal, 9 June 2001.
“Local Group Returns from Tour of Orient” (photo with article about the travels of Catharine R. (Snyder) Courtney and friends). Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Intelligencer Journal, 2 April 1963.
“Many Attend Funeral of Stephen J. Moyer.” Scranton, Pennsylvania: The Scranton Tribune, 9 August 1915.
Maurer, Russ. “Lavelle Telegraph Telephone Company Charted in 1908,” in “Memories of Russ Maurer.” Hegins, Pennsylvania: The Citizen-Standard, circa 1990s.
“Minick, Julia A. (nee) Megill, Julia A.” [sic], in U.S. Civil War Pension General Index Cards, 1896. Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
Minnich, Capt. Edwin G. and Mrs. Julia (Kuehner) Minnich (images and military paperwork). Pennsylvania: Personal Collection of Chris Sapp.
“Miss Nona Snyder Is Married Today to Pine Grove Man” (article describing the wedding ceremony of Nona M. Snyder and Allen A. Albert). Lebanon, Pennsylvania: Lebanon Daily News, 23 September 1953.
Mrs. Julia Magill, in “Prominent Army Nurses,” in “The National Association of Army Nurses of the Civil War.” Washington, D.C.: The Evening Times, Wednesday, October 8, 1902.
“Mrs. Margaret J. Breneman” (obituary). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Harrisburg Telegraph, 20 March 1930.
“Nona Albert” (obituary). Lebanon, Pennsylvania: The Daily News, 3 June 1960.
Notice of Mrs. Henry Hornbeck’s Return from Chicago. Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Democrat, 23 September 1909.
Occupational Outlook Handbook, 1959 Edition, pp. 239-249, in Bulletin No. 1255. Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Labor, 1959.
Rodrock, William D. C. and Julia M. Rodrock, in U.S. Civil War Pension Index (application no.: 296549, certificate no.: 260499, filed by the veteran on 17 July 1879; application no.: 793449, certificate no.: 574458, filed by the veteran’s widow from New Jersey on 24 October 1903). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
“Shopping Nights Are Agreed Upon.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Leader, 17 December 1917.
Smalser, Robert. Letter of Mary Barbara (Nyhart) Moyer to her husband, Stephen J. Moyer, and photographs of Stephen J. and Mary Moyer and their children. Seabeck, Washington: Personal Collection of Col. Bob Smalser (used with permission).
Snyder, Catharine, John, Timothy, Lillie, and Salome, in A Directory of the Eleventh Census of the Population of Schuylkill County, Giving the Names and Ages of Males and Females, Published by Cities, Boroughs, Wards, Townships, Precincts or Towns, in Connection with a Business Directory of the Same for Advertising Purposes. Lebanon, Pennsylvania: E. A. Schartel, Publisher, 1891.
Snyder, Catharine R. and Courtney, Charles F., in “Massachusetts Vital Records Index to Marriages” (documentation of the marriage of H. Corrine Snyder’s younger sister, Catharine, in Boston in 1947). Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society.
Snyder, Catharine R. and Lillian, E., in The Boston Directory for the Year Commencing July 1, 1942 (Boston Massachusetts, 1942). Chicago, Illinois: R. L. Polk Publishers, 1942.
Snyder, Corrine and Catharine, in Reading City Directory, 1926. Reading, Pennsylvania: Boyd’s City Directories.
Snyder, Corrine, Lillian E. and Catharine R., in U.S. Census (City of Reading, Fourteenth Ward, Berks County, Pennsylvania, 1940). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
Snyder, H. Corrine, in U.S. Census (Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, 1950). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
Snyder, John H., Minnie R., Timothy P. and Nona M., in U.S. Census (Butler Township, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, 1900). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
Snyder, John H., Minnie R., Timothy P., Nona M., H. Corrine, John S., Catharine R., and Lillian E., in U.S. Census (Lavelle, Northwest Butler Township, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, 1910). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
Snyder, John H., Minnie, Nona M., John S., and Willard E. in U.S. Census (Butler Township, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, 1930). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
Snyder, John H., Minnie R., Nona, Corrine, John S., Catharine R., Lillian E., Chester H., and Willard E. in U.S. Census (Butler Township, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, 1920). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
Snyder, Lillie May, in Gibson & Sanders Funeral Home Records (1956). Reading, Pennsylvania: Sanders Funeral Home, retrieved in 2011.
Snyder, Miss Lillie (obituary and funeral notice). Reading, Pennsylvania: Reading Eagle, 16 and 18 May 1956.
“Stephen J. Moyer,” in “Deaths.” Scranton, Pennsylvania: The Scranton Tribune, 6 August 1915.
“Veterans Who Will Be at the G.A.R. Celebration Owe Their Lives to the Heroic Self-Sacrifice of These Wgomen Nurses.” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Philadelphia Times, Sunday, 20 August 1899.
“Violate Child Labor Law: One Employer Heavily Fined and Others to Be Arrested. Special to The Telegraph.” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Harrisburg Telegraph, 8 September 1911.
Wattenberg, Ben. “FMC Program Segments 1900-1930: Infant and Maternal Mortality,” in “The First Measured Century.” Washington, D.C.: PBS, 2000 (retrieved online 14 February 2025).
“W.C.T.U. Convention,” in “Frackville News.” Shenandoah, Pennsylvania: Evening Herald, 30 September 1950.
“Will of Henry J. Hornbeck.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Democrat, 19 October 1898.

Music of the American Civil War Era

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“The Songs of the War,” Homer Winslow (Harper’s Weekly, November 23, 1861, public domain; click image to enlarge).

“Music has done its share, and more than its share, in winning this war.” — Major-General Philip H. Sheridan

“The Civil War played an instrumental role in the development of an American national identity,” according to historians at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. “Specifically for American folk music, the war inspired songwriting on both sides of the conflict, as amateurs and professionals wrote new, timely lyrics to old English, Scottish, and Irish ballads as well as original compositions.”

That new music, in turn, inspired one American artist, Winslow Homer, to capture the support he was witnessing and hearing for the United States government and its Union Army defenders during the mid-nineteenth century — support that was conveyed through the enthusiastic singing of pro-Union songs by soldiers, abolitionists and others who had dedicated themselves to the preservation of America’s Union and the eradication of the brutal practice of chattel slavery.

His sketch, “The Songs of the War,” which first appeared in print in the November 23, 1861 edition of Harper’s Weekly, featured seven of the most popular songs during the first year of the American Civil War: “The Bold Soldier Boy,” “Hail to the Chief,” “We’ll Be Free and Easy Still,” “Rogue’s March,” “Glory Hallelujah,” “The Girl I Left Behind Me,” and “Dixie.”

“The Bold Soldier Boy,” excerpt from the illustration, “The Songs of the War” (Winslow Homer, Harper’s Weekly, November 23, 1861, public domain).

“The Bold Soldier Boy” was an old folk song that had been arranged by multiple composers in different ways throughout the nineteenth century prior to Homer’s first hearing of it. The specific variant of the tune that sparked Homer’s imagination as he drew the scene in the upper left corner of “The Songs of the War” was most likely the version that had been arranged by S. Lover and William Dressler. Published by Wm. Hall & Son of New York in 1851, that variant was one of the selections that was included in book one of Dressler’s Scraps of Melody for Young Pianists.

According to Dressler’s obituary in the The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, William Dressler had created this arrangement shortly after his emigration to the United States. A native of Nottingham, England, he was a son of the “court flutist to the King of Saxony” and an 1847 graduate of the Cologne Conservatory of Music in Germany, and had become well-known across the United States as an “organist and professor of music.”

“Hail to the Chief,” excerpt from “The Songs of the War” (Winslow Homer, Harper’s Weekly, November 23, 1861).

“Hail to the Chief,” has since become familiar to generations of Americans as the triumphal tune performed by the United States Marine Band (“The President’s Own“) to herald the arrival of presidents of the United States at State of the Union addresses presented to the United States Congress, as well as other functions of the United States government. According to military music historian Jari Villaneuva, this particular piece of music “was already very popular when the Marine Band played it from a barge for the opening of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal on July 4, 1828, in the presence of President John Quincy Adams.”

During the American Civil War, “Hail to the Chief” was frequently performed by the bands of state and federal military regiments to announce the arrival of Union Army generals at special events, including the often well-attended public ceremonies when generals reviewed their troops. On September 17, 1861, for example, the Lancaster Intelligencer noted that Major-General George B. McClellan was greeted with a performance of “Hail to the Chief” as he arrived with a group of dignitaries at the camp of the Seventy-Ninth New York Volunteer Infantry on September 10.

“We’ll Be Free and Easy Still,” excerpt from “The Songs of the War” (Winslow Homer, Harper’s Weekly, November 23, 1861, public domain).

With his scene, “We’ll Be Free and Easy Still,” Homer was referencing a song that had been promoted in broadside advertisements in London, England as far back as 1832. The song had been made popular thanks to its frequent performance in music halls across Great Britain during the 1840s.

According to historians at the U.S. Library of Congress, the melody was included as “Free and Easy,” in a medley of songs for cornet that was arranged by David L. Downing circa 1861 for concert band performance, and had been included in one of the manuscript books of the Manchester Cornet Band.

The source for the tune appears to have been the chorus of “‘Gay and Happy.’ Composed and sung by Miss Fanny Forrest (with unbounded applause) (Baltimore: Henry McCaffrey [1860])…. This version, or one similar to it, was almost certainly what Winslow Homer had in mind:

I’m the lad that’s free and easy,
Wheresoe’er I chance to be;
And I’ll do my best to please ye,
If you will but list to me.

Chorus.–So let the world jog along as it will,
I’ll be free and easy still….

“We’ll Be Free and Easy Still” had become so popular by the mid-nineteenth century, in fact, that composer Stephen Foster referenced it in his 1866 song, “The Song of All Songs.

“Rogue’s March,” excerpt from “The Songs of the War” (Winslow Homer, Harper’s Weekly, November 23, 1861, public domain).

Rogue’s March can be traced to an even earlier time — the mid-eighteenth century. It “was one of the most widespread and recognized melodies in martial repertory of the era,” according to Andrew Kuntz and Valerio Pelliccioni, creators of The Traditional Tune Archive. Also known as “Poor Old Robinson Crusoe,” this English march in G Major “was played in the British and American armies when military and civil offenders and other undesirable characters were drummed from camps and cantonments, sometimes with a halter about their necks, sometimes with the final disgrace of a farewell ritual kick from the regiment’s youngest drummer.” Also according to Kuntz and Pelliccioni:

[T]he actual ceremony consisted of as many drummers and fifers as possible (to make it the more impressive) [who] would parade the prisoner along the front of the regimental formation to this tune, and then to the entrance of the camp. The offender’s coat would be turned inside out as a sign of disgrace, and his hands were bound behind him…. The sentence would then be published in the local paper.

The fifers and drummers of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry were actually called upon to play the “Rogue’s March” during the punishment and dismissal of one of their regiment’s own while the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were preparing for the regiment’s departure for America’s Deep South. According to regimental historian Lewis Schmidt, the public shaming of Private James C. Robinson of the 47th Pennsylvania’s Company I began at 10 a.m. on Monday, January 27, 1862, at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where the regiment was briefly stationed.

The regiment was formed and instructed by Lt. Col. Alexander ‘that we were about drumming out a member who had behaved himself unlike a soldier.’ …. The prisoner, Pvt. James C. Robinson of Company I, was a 36 year old miner from Allentown who had been ‘disgracefully discharged’ by order of the War Department. Pvt. Robinson was marched out with martial music playing and a guard of nine men, two men on each side and five behind him at charge bayonets. The music then struck up with ‘Robinson Crusoe’ as the procession was marched up and down in front of the regiment, and Pvt. Robinson was marched out of the yard.

“Glory Hallelujah,” excerpt from “The Songs of the War” (Winslow Homer, Harper’s Weekly, November 23, 1861, public domain).

“Glory Hallelujah” was almost certainly a reference to the chorus verse of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” the song which quickly became an anthem for the Union Army after the lyrics were written by abolitionist and suffragist Julia Ward Howe during November 1861. Set to the melody (and partially derived from the lyrics) of “John Brown’s Body,” a song sung often by Union soldiers during the earliest months of the war, Howe’s “Battle Hymn” was published in The Atlantic Monthly in February 1862 and remains one of the most popular patriotic songs in the United States.

The chorus of “Glory Hallelujah” was also then employed by Mrs. M. A. Kidder in an arrangement for piano by Augustus Cull of “Brave McClellan Is Our Leader Now, or Glory Hallelujah!“, which was published by Horace Waters of New York in 1862.

“The Girl I Left Behind Me,” excerpt from “The Songs of War” (Winslow Homer, Harper’s Weekly, November 23, 1861, public domain).

Dating back to the 1700s, “The Girl I Left Behind Me” was derived from a popular Irish folk tune that reportedly served as the melody for multiple popular and military songs during the eighteenth and ninetenth centuries, according to Kuntz and Pelliccioni.

There are a few literary references to the song or melody. For example, “The Girl I Left Behind Me,” clearly a reference to the military use of the song, was the title of a chapter (XXX) in William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair (1848)…. The English novelist Thomas Hardy, himself an accordianist and fiddler, mentioned the tune in scene notes to The Dynasts….

James Fenimore Cooper mentions the tune in his novel of the sea, The Pilot (1824)….

“The Girl I Left Behind Me” has a long and illustrious history in America…. [I]t appears in Riley’s Flute Melodies, published in several volumes in New York beginning in 1814…. The melody appears in Bruce and Emmett’s Drummers’ and Fifers’ Guide, published in 1862 to help codify and train the hordes of new musicians needed for service in the Union Army early in the American Civil War. Therein it is remarked: “This air and (drum) beat is generally played at the departure of the soldiers from one city (or camp) to another….

“Dixie,” excerpt from “The Songs of the War” (Winslow Homer, Harper’s Weekly, November 23, 1861, public domain).

The final song that Homer chose to include in his pro-Union music montage, “Dixie” (an anthem of the Confederacy), might seem to have been an odd choice on his part, were in not for the way in which he chose to illustrate it. In the foreground, a free Black man looks thoughtfully off into the distance as he sits atop a barrel labeled with the word, “Contraband,” while a still-enslaved Black man struggles to move a heavy bale of cotton in the background, his body buckling from the burden he shoulders. That image was Homer’s powerful way of reminding Harper’s Weekly readers that, although some progress had already been made in the fight against the brutal practice of chattel slavery in parts of the United States, that fight was not yet won in “Dixie,” where many who were still enslaved continued to suffer greatly.

Sources:

“Band Instruments,” in “Collection: Band Music from the Civil War Era.” Washington, D.C.: U.S. Library of Congress, retrieved online January 17, 2025.
“Band Music,” in “Collection: Band Music from the Civil War Era.” Washington, D.C.: U.S. Library of Congress, retrieved online January 17, 2025.
Baxter, John. “Free and Easy,” in “Folk Song and Music Hall.” Self-published, John Baxter, retrieved online January 17, 2025.
“Brave McClellan Is Our Leader Now, or Glory Hallelujah!”, in “New Music,” in “Local Items.” Brooklyn, New York: The Brooklyn Daily Times, 9 February 1862.
“Brave McClellan Is Our Leader Now, or Glory Hallelujah!”, in “Notated Music.” Washington, D.C.: U.S. Library of Congress, retrieved online January 17, 2025.
“Civil War Music: Dixie.” Washington, D.C.: American Battlefield Trust, retrieved online January 17, 2025.
“Free and Easy,” in “A Concert for Brass Band Voice and Piano,” in “Band Music from the Civil War Era.” Washington, D.C.: U.S. Library of Congress, retrieved online January 17, 2025.
Homer, Winslow. “The Songs of the Civil War.” New York, New York: Harper’s Weekly, November 23, 1861.
Kuntz, Andrew and Valerio Pelliccioni. “Rogue’s March.” Wappingers Falls, New York and Basiano, Italy: The Traditional Tune Archive, November 14, 2024.
Kuntz, Andrew and Valerio Pelliccioni. “The Girl I Left Behind Me.” Wappingers Falls, New York and Basiano, Italy: The Traditional Tune Archive, December 22, 2024.
McCollum, Sean. “Battle Hymn of the Republic: The Story Behind the Song.” Washington, D.C.: The Kennedy Center, September 17, 2019.
“Pennsylvanians at Washington” (performance of “Hail to the Chief” to honor Major-General George B. McClellan). Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Lancaster Intelligencer, September 17, 1861.
“Songs of the Civil War,” in “Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.” Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, retrieved online January 17, 2025.
“The Bold Soldier Boy,” in “Notated Music.” Washington, D.C.: U.S. Library of Congress, retrieved online January 17, 2025.
“The Bold Soldier Boy,” in Scraps of Melody for Young Pianists, in “New Music.” Cleveland Ohio: Morning Daily True Democrat, December 25, 1861.
“The Civil War Bands,” in “Collection: Band Music from the Civil War Era.” Washington, D.C.: U.S. Library of Congress, retrieved online January 17, 2025.
Thomas, Anne Elise. “Music of the Civil War.” Washington, D.C.: The Kennedy Center, retrieved online January 17, 2025.
Thompson, Beth. in “The Song of All Songs,” in “Beth’s Notes: Supporting and Inspiring Music Educators.” Self-published: Beth Thompson, retrieved online January 17, 2025.
Villanueva, Jari. “Hail to the Chief.” Catonsville, Maryland: TapsBugler, January 17, 2025.
“William Dressler” (obituary). Brooklyn, New York: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 3, 1914.

The Thanksgiving Messages of Pennsylvania’s Civil War-Era Governor, Andrew Gregg Curtin

Nov22

Andrew Gregg Curtin, Governor, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, circa 1860 (public domain).

Proclamation of a Day of Thanksgiving. – 1862.

Pennsylvania, ss.
(Signed) A. G. Curtin.

IN THE NAME AND BY the Authority of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Andrew G. Curtin, Governor of the said Commonwealth.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas, It is a good thing to render thanks unto God for His Mercy and loving kindness:

Therefore, I, Andrew G. Curtin, Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, do recommend that Thursday the 27th day of November next, be set apart by the people of this Commonwealth, as a day of solemn Prayer and Thanksgiving to the Almighty: – Giving Him thanks that He has been graciously pleased to protect our free institutions and Government, and to keep us from sickness and pestilence; and to cause the earth to bring forth her increase, so that our garners are choked with the harvest; and to look so favorably on the toil of His children, that industry has thriven among us and labor had its reward; and also that He hath delivered us from the hands of our enemies, and filled our officers and men in the field with a loyal and intrepid spirit and given them victory; and that He has poured out upon us (albeit unworthy) other great and manifold blessings:

Beseeching Him to help and govern us, in his steadfast fear and love, and to put into our minds good desires, so that by His continued help we may have a right judgement in all things:

And especially praying Him to give to Christian churches grace to hate the thing which is evil, and to utter the teachings of truth and righteousness, declaring openly the whole counsel of God:

And most heartily entreating Him to bestow upon our Civil Rulers, wisdom and earnestness in council and upon our military leaders zeal and vigor in action, that the fires of rebellion may be quenched, that we, being armed with His defense, may be preserved from all perils, and that hereafter our people living in peace and quietness, may, from generation to generation, reap the abundant fruits of His mercy; and with joy and thankfulness praise and magnify His holy name.

Given under my Hand and the Great Seal of the State at Harrisburg, this twentieth day of October in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty two, and the Commonwealth, the eighty-seventh.

By the Governor:

Eli Slifer,
Secretary of the Commonwealth.

Thanksgiving Proclamation. – 1863.

Pennsylvania, ss.
(Signed) A. G. Curtin

IN THE NAME AND BY the Authority of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Andrew G. Curtin, Governor of the said Commonwealth.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas, The President of the United States, by his proclamation, bearing, date on the third day of this month, has invited the citizens of the United States to set apart Thursday, the twenty-sixth day of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Prayer, now I, Andrew G. Curtin, Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, do hereby recommend, that the people of Pennsylvania do set apart and observe the said day accordingly, and that they do especially return thanks to Almighty God, for the gathered harvests of the fruits of the earth;

For the prosperity with which He has blessed the Industry of our people;

For the general health and welfare which He has graciously bestowed upon them;

And for the crowning mercy by which the blood-thirsty and devastating enemy was driven from our soil by the valor of our brethren freemen of this and other States;

And that they do especially pray for the continuance of the blessings which have been heaped upon us by the Divine Hand;

And for the safety and welfare and success of our brethren in the field, that they may be strengthened to the overthrow and confusion of the rebels now in arms against our beloved country;

So that peace may be restored to all our borders, and the Constitution and laws of the land be everywhere within them re-established and sustained.

Given under my Hand and the Great Seal of the State at Harrisburg, this twenty-eighth day of October in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three and of the Commonwealth, the eighty-eighth.

By the Governor:

Eli Slifer,
Secretary of the Commonwealth.

Thanksgiving Proclamation. – 1864.

Pennsylvania, ss.
(Signed) A. G. Curtin.

IN THE NAME AND BY the Authority of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Andrew G. Curtin, Governor of the said Commonwealth.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas, It is the honored custom of Pennsylvania to set apart, on the recommendation of the Executive, a day for returning thanks to the Giver of all Good, the Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls: Now, therefore,

I, Andrew G. Curtin, Governor as aforesaid, do recommend that the people throughout the Commonwealth observe Thursday, the twenty-fourth day of November instant, as a day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God,

For the gathered fruits of the earth;

For the continuance of health;

For the prosperity of industry;

For the preservation of good order and tranquility throughout our borders;

For the victories which He has vouchsafed to us over armed traitors,

And for the manifold blessings which he has heaped upon us, unworthy.

And that they do, moreover, humbly beseech Him to renew and increase his merciful favor to us during the year to come, so that rebellion being overthrown, peace may be restored to our distracted country, and, in every State, with grateful and loving accord, the incense of Praise and Thanksgiving may be offered by all the people unto His Holy Name.

Given under my Hand and the Great Seal of the Commonwealth at Harrisburg, this second day of [L. S.] November in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four and of the Commonwealth, the eighty-ninth.

By the Governor:

Eli Slifer,
Secretary of the Commonwealth.

Proclamation By the Governor.
The 7th of December Appointed a State Thanksgiving Day.

PROCLAMATION.

With feelings of the most profound gratitude to Almighty God, I invite the good people of the Commonwealth to meet in their places of public worship, on Thursday, the seventh day of December next, and raise their hearts and voices in praise and thanksgiving to Him, not only for the manifest ordinary blessings which, during the past year, He has continued to heap upon us,

For abundant and gathered harvests;

For thriving industry;

For general health;

For domestic good order and government;

But also most expressly and fervently for His unequalled goodness in having so strengthened and guarded our people during the last four years that they have been able to crush to the earth the late wicked rebellion–to exterminate the system of human slavery, which caused it.

As we wrestled in prayer with Him in the dark time of our trouble, when our brothers and sons were staking life and limb for us on a bloody field, or suffering by torture or famine in the hells of Andersonville or the Libby, so now, when our supplications have been so marvellously [sic, marvelously] and graciously answered, let us not withhold from Him the homage of our thanksgiving.

Let us say to all, “Choose, ye, this day, whom he will serve, but for us and our house, we will serve the Lord.”

Great Seal of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (public domain).

Come, then, ye people whom He hath so helped and led; come, ye war-worn and mutilated men whom He hath spared to return to your dear homes, let us throng the gates of His temples; let us throw ourselves on the knees of our hearts with a wilful joy at the foot of His throne, and render aloud our praise and thanksgiving to Him, because He hath made the right to prevail; because He hath given us the victory; because he has cleansed our land from the stain of human slavery, and because He hath graciously shown forth in the eyes of all men the great truth that no government is so strong as a republic controlled under His guidance by an educated, moral and religious people.

By the Governor:

Eli Slifer,
Secretary of the Commonwealth.
Harrisburg, November 7, 1865.

Sources:

Curtin, Andrew Gregg. Proclamation of a Day of Thanksgiving – 1862, in Pennsylvania Archives: Fourth Series, Vol. VIII: Papers of the Governors, 1858-1871, Samuel Hazard, John Blair Lynn, William Henry Egle, et. al., editors. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Wm. Stanley Ray, State Printer, 1902.
“Thanksgiving Proclamation.” Reading, Pennsylvania: Gazette and Democrat, November 21, 1863.
“In the Name and by the Authority of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Andrew G. Curtin, Governor of Said Commonwealth: A Proclamation.” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Daily Telegraph, November 10, 1864.
“Proclamation by the Governor.” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The American Presbyterian, November 10, 1865.

Research Update: New Details Learned About Abraham Jassum, One of Nine Formerly Enslaved Men Who Enlisted with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers

Oct27

Enlistment form for Abraham Jassum, Undercook, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, 5 October 1862, p. 1 (Compiled Military Service Records, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, public domain; click to enlarge).

Fleeing the brutal practice of chattel slavery in South Carolina during the fall of 1862, a Black youth walked into a recruiting station for the Army of the United States in Beaufort, South Carolina and told an officer there that he wanted to become a soldier. His name, according to his enlistment paperwork, was Abraham Jassum, and he was just sixteen years old.

Sadly, much of that teenager’s life has remained a mystery that has stubbornly resisted unraveling–until now. Thanks to documents recently copied by the U.S. National Archives for 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers: One Civil War Regiment’s Story, researchers now know that Abraham Jassum was born into slavery in Charleston, South Carolina sometime around 1846.

Although specific details about what happened to this teenager between the dates of his birth and army enlistment have not yet been found, researchers do already have several ideas. One theory is that Abraham’s surname was not actually “Jassum” because that surname does not appear to have been present on any federal census records for any plantation owners or other enslavers in South Carolina between 1840 and 1860, nor was it used for any Black Freedmen in South Carolina on federal census records that were completed after the American Civil War. Furthermore, there appear to be no U.S. Civil War Pension records that exist for any soldier with the surname of “Jassum.”

Another theory is that, by the time that Abraham reached the age of sixteen, he had been transported to Beaufort to be used as an enslaved laborer there (or was “sold as property” by his enslaver in Charleston to a plantation owner or other enslaver near Beaufort), and that he was freed by Union soldiers when Beaufort was occupied by the Union Army.

Fortunately, the Compiled Military Service Records (CMSR) file for Abraham Jassum does contain important details about his life between October 1862 and October 1865.

Bay Street Looking West, Beaufort, South Carolina, circa 1862 (Sam A. Cooley, 10th Army Corps, photographer, public domain).

What is known for certain is that he enlisted for military service on October 5, 1862 as an “undercook“–a designation that was first authorized for use by regiments serving with the Army of the United States by the U.S. War Department. Examined and certified as fit for duty by William F. Reiber, M.D., an assistant regimental surgeon with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, Abraham Jassum was then assigned to the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers’ F Company.

Military records at the time of his enlistment noted that he was five feet, six inches tall and had black hair, black eyes and a black complexion. Muster sheets subsequently described him as a “Negro.”

During his three-year term of enlistment, he traveled with the 47th Pennsylvania to its battle, garrison, occupation, and other duty assignments in Florida, Louisiana, Virginia, Washington D.C., and South Carolina. While stationed with his regiment in Louisiana, he was documented as having been officially mustered into the regiment in June 1864, along with the other Black soldiers of the 47th Pennsylvania.

Additional military records of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry confirm Abraham Jassum’s service in 1864 and 1865, describing him as a “cook” or as a “private,” which appears to indicate that he may have been promoted at some point prior to his honorable discharge.

Issued his honorable discharge paperwork on October 4, 1865, while his regiment was assigned to Reconstruction-related duties in Charleston, South Carolina, he was given a small travel allowance to enable him to return to his place of enlistment (Beaufort, South Carolina), which seems to indicate that he chose to settle in Beaufort, at least initially, rather than remaining in the city where he had been born (Charleston), and instead of relocating north with his former regiment when it returned to Pennsylvania.

Researchers will continue to search for records that can shed more light on what happened to Abraham Jassum after the war, and will post updates if and when new data is uncovered.

Sources:

Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, vol. 1. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.
Jassum, Abraham, in Civil War Veterans’ Card File, 1861-1866 (Company F, 47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
Jassum, Abraham, Civil War Muster Rolls (Company F, 47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
Jassum, Abraham, in Compiled Military Service Records (Company F, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
Jassum, Abraham, in Registers of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-1865 (Company F, 47th Pennsylvania Infantry), in Records of the Department of Military and Veterans’ Affairs (RG-19). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
Schmidt, Lewis. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1986.

47th Pennsylvania Volunteers

ONE CIVIL WAR REGIMENT'S STORY

Category Archives: 1865

“Propitious Weather and a Splendid Spectacle”: The United States of America’s Grand Review of the Armies (May 23, 1865)

A Musical Tribute to Beloved Commanding Officers: The 47th Pennsylvania’s Regimental Band “Serenades” Generals Grant and Sheridan (May 22, 1865)

Camp Brightwood, Washington, D.C. (Mid-April – June 2, 1865)

National Poetry Month: The Meaning of Life During War and Peace

April 15th: A Date of Decision and Death for President Abraham Lincoln

April 12th: This Date in 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry History

Women’s History Month: A Look Back at the Mothers, Wives, Widows, Daughters, and Granddaughters of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers

Music of the American Civil War Era

The Thanksgiving Messages of Pennsylvania’s Civil War-Era Governor, Andrew Gregg Curtin

Research Update: New Details Learned About Abraham Jassum, One of Nine Formerly Enslaved Men Who Enlisted with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers