Category Archives: Holidays and Days of Remembrance

Juneteenth — Forever a Day to Remember

Union soldiers were depicted reading the Emancipation Proclamation to an enslaved family in 1864 by artist Lucius Stebbins (public domain).

“The people are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.” — Major-General Gordon Granger, United States Army, Galveston Texas, June 19, 1865

 

With those words, the United States of America took another step forward in the effort to completely eradicate the savage practice of chattel slavery across the nation. It was on that date that Union Major-General Gordon Granger, commanding officer of the United States’ District of Texas, began to inform African American men, women and children who were still being held in bondage across Texas (despite President Abraham Lincoln’s announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 and despite the Confederacy’s surrender in Virginia on April 9, 1865) that the people who had enslaved and brutalized them no longer had any power over them.

That same day, Major-General Granger also served notice to enslavers across Texas that their days of treating other human beings as their personal property were over. He did so by publishing General Orders, No. 3 in newspapers statewide. Not as forceful as it should have been, because its wording discouraged many newly-freed people from truly escaping from their enslavers while also effectively encouraging those enslavers to continue their efforts to dominate and subjugate the same people they had long exploited (as poorly-paid “employees”), his directive was still forceful enough to move the United States forward in its long struggle to become a fairer and more just nation:

Headquarters, District of Texas,
Galveston, Texas, June 19, 1865.

General Orders, No. 3.

The people are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property, between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them, becomes that between employer and hired labor. — The Freedmen are advised to remain at their present homes, and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts; and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.

By order of
Major-General Granger (Signed,)
F. W. Emery, Maj. and A. A. G.

Around that same time, a reporter for The New York Tribune described the atmosphere in and around the city where Major-General Granger was headquartered:

Galveston is a city of dogs and desolation. It is hard to tell which a stranger would be soonest impressed with — the multiplicity of the canine or the poverty and degradation of the human species.

…. No other Southern city of its prominence and local importance is so utterly insignificant and God-forsaken in appearance. It is desolation desolated, for before the war it was a parched and barren land. There is no shady park, and but one pleasant ride. The trees are stunted and scraggy like the people…. 

Loyalty does not manifest itself. There are loud professions. There are bitter and, I doubt not, sincere cursings of Davis and Kirby Smith. There are more welcomes to our presence, and especially to our greenbacks. But true loyalty — that prefers the United States to Texas; that venerates Washington above Houston; that loves freedom more than Slavery — is an exceedingly rare pearl in Galveston. I know how hard it is to distinguish the genuine from the counterfeit, but I am forced to believe the statement made to me a few days since by one who was well acquainted in every part of the State.

I asked him what he thought of the Amnesty Proclamation. He replied, “If it is carried out strictly, with its exceptions, not a wealthy man in Texas can escape, for all have aided and voluntarily assisted the Rebellion.”

THE LONE STAR CONFEDERACY

Even now, while Union soldiers patrol the streets, and a powerful fleet is anchored off the city, these narrow-minded and impoverished people cling to the idea of State independence. They want to fly the “Lone Star” flag once more, to subdivide their country into four States or more, and to become a recognized power in the world. Hireling editors and selfish leaders have actually made the masses believe that Texas came into the Union with the promise that she could go out again next year if she chose to do so….

THE SLAVES

There are many more slaves in Texas than there were before the war, but the institution is waning even here….

Aiding with Reconstruction

It is worth noting that, during the Union’s 1864 Red River Campaign, a small group of 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantrymen actually became eyewitnesses to what life was like in Texas during the American Civil War. While their perspectives would have been somewhat limited, because they were actually watching events unfold while they were being force marched to Camp Ford near Tyler, Texas, and were then confined there as prisoners of war (POWs), they encountered both impoverished Texans and the brutality of chattel enslavement — compelled to watch helplessly as Confederate civilians and soldiers terrorized enslaved Black men, women and children while forcing them to perform back-breaking work.

Although a significant number of the seventeen 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers who were imprisoned at Camp Ford died there from starvation, disease and harsh treatment, most managed to survive — many of whom were subsequently given medical care by Union Army physicians and then honorably discharged on surgeons’ certificates of disability because their bodies and minds were no longer fit for duty.

But some actually recovered, returned to duty with the 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers and continued to serve with the regiment — by trying to help communities in Georgia and South Carolina rebuild as they returned to the Union. First Sergeant James Crownover, Corporal James Downs, Sergeant John Garber Miller, and Private William J. Smith were among the former Camp Ford POWs who traveled with their fellow 47th Pennsylvanians to Savannah, Georgia and to Charleston, South Carolina for provost and Reconstruction Era-related duties during that same summer of 1865 when enslaved people in Texas were being informed that they were finally free. Also traveling with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers to Georgia and South Carolina were nine formerly enslaved Black men who had enlisted in the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry in 1862 (in South Carolina) and in 1864 (in Louisiana): Aaron Bullard (later known as “Aaron French“), James Bullard, John Bullard, Bristor Gethers, John Hamilton (later known as “Hamilton Blanchard“), Thomas Haywood, Abraham Jassum, Edward Jassum, and Samuel Jones.

Likely unaware of Major-General Gordon Granger’s emancipation announcement when it was first published on June 19, 1865, they eventually learned about what had happened that day as word spread beyond the borders of Texas. All nine ultimately survived the war, and went on to forge new lives for themselves as Freedmen. One even went on to become a delegate to a Republican Party convention during his post-war years.

Meanwhile, that important date would come and go every year across the nation. Remembered and commemorated as “Juneteenth” in Texas initially, and then in Louisiana and other states, as community elders, church leaders and educators taught new generations about the Emancipation Days of 1863 and 1865, June 19th was finally declared as an official federal holiday when the United States of America’s Juneteenth National Independence Day Act was signed into law on June 17, 2021.

 

Sources:

  1. “Blacks Celebrate Their Day of Independence.” Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Associated Press Wire Service, June 1975; Pascagoula, Mississippi: Mississippi Press Register, June 22, 1975; and Greenwood, South Carolina: The Index-Journal, June 20, 1975.
  2. Carson, Kelly. “Juneteenth Parade Salutes Miss Lillie.” Hattiesburg, Mississippi: Hattiesburg American, December 14, 1989.
  3. Carter, Kevin L. “Blacks’ Juneteenth Here from Texas Roots.” Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: The Pittsburgh Press, June 15, 1987.
  4. “Celebrating June-Teenth.” Lake Charles, Louisiana: The American-Press, June 19, 1917.
  5. “From Texas: Galveston Occupied by Colored Troops — Dreariness and Desolation of the City — Questionable Loyalty of the People — The Lone Star Confederacy Again — The Reign of Terror” and “The Slaves Declared Free — The Acts of the Governor and Legislature Void — Public Property to Be Returned.” New York, New York: The New York Tribune, July 7, 1865.
  6. “From Texas: Granger in Command — His General Orders — Sheridan in Texas — Weitzel’s Command to Disembark at Brazos.” Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: The Daily Post, July 8, 1865.
  7. “General Granger’s Order on Personal Equality in Texas.” Wheeling, West Virginia: The Wheeling Daily Register, July 8, 1865.
  8. “General Orders, No. 3” (announcement by Union Major-General G. Granger that “all slaves are free”). Galveston, Texas: The Galveston Daily News, June 21, 1865.
  9. “Grambling Slates Juneteenth Holiday.” Monroe, Louisiana: Monroe News-Star, June 17, 1976.
  10. Jackson, Anna and Katherine Schaeffer. “More Than Half of States Will Recognize Juneteenth as a Legal Holiday in 2026.” Washington, D.C.: Pew Research Center, June 11, 2026.
  11. Juneteenth, in “Swimming Hero Will Be Heard.” Greenville, South Carolina: The Greenville News, August 15, 1937.
  12. “‘Juneteenth’ a Big Day in This Section on Last Tuesday.” Jena, Louisiana: The Jena Times, June 21, 1934.
  13. “‘Juneteenth’ Committee,” in “Emancipation Celebration.” San Antonio, Texas: The Daily Light, May 16, 1893.
  14. “Juneteenth Is Here Again: Celebration of Negro Freedom Will Extend Over Period of Two Days.” Houston, Texas: The Houston Chronicle, June 19, 1910.
  15. “‘Juneteenth’ Is Marked By B.B.Q.” Opelousas, Louisiana: Daily World, June 20, 1948.
  16. Maraniss, David. “Juneteenth Celebration Makes Comeback in Texas.” Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post, June 1990; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 24, 1990.
  17. “Our American Story — Juneteenth.” Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, retrieved online June 15, 2026.
  18. Pradarits, Rick. “Black Mayors Ask Holiday Off.” Houston, Texas: United Press International Wire Service, May 1980; and Shreveport, Louisiana: The Times, May 21, 1980.
  19. “Public Law 117 – 17- Juneteenth National Independence Day Act,” in “GovInfo.” Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Publishing Office, retrieved online June 15, 2026.
  20. Ramsey, Sonya Y. “Juneteenth Recalls Black Heritage.” Rosslyn, Virginia: Gannett News Service, June 1988; and Shreveport-Bossier, Louisiana: The Times, June 15, 1988.
  21. “The Colored Citizens Make Further Arrangements for Their Emancipation Celebration.” Houston, Texas: Houston Daily Post, April 23, 1901.
  22. “The Emancipation Proclamation,” in “Featured Documents.” Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, retrieved online June 15, 2026.

 

Flag Days: The History of One Regiment’s Battle Flags

Cared for by archivists of the Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the two battle flags that were carried by the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry during its tenure of service in the American Civil War were known as the First and Second State Colors.

First State Color

The First State Color of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was presented to the regiment by Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin on September 20, 1861, and was officially retired on May 11, 1865 (source: Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee, 1985.057, Evans and Hassall, v1p126).

Presented to the regiment by Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Gregg Curtin in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on September 20, 1861, the First State Color of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was manufactured by Evans and Hassall of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to the September 17, 1861 edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper:

Under an act of the Legislature, passed during the extra session of 1861, the Governor of the State was authorized to purchase stands of colors for the several regiments of Pennsylvania. — Twelve of these have been completed, marked with the appropriate numbers of the regiments, and sent to Gov. Curtin. We have been shown one of these new standards. It bore upon it the Stars and Stripes, with the coat of Arms of Pennsylvania exquisitely painted on the blue field, and surrounded by the thirty-four Stars. On the central stripe the number of the regiment was emblazoned. The material is rich, heavy and lustrous silk. The sunlight never flashed on a more beautiful ensign…. The trimmings of the flags are very handsome. The work was completed by Messrs. Evans & Hassall, No. 51 S. Fourth Street.

The First State Color was the battle flag that was initially cared for and carried by the 47th Pennsylvania’s first color bearer, Sergeant Benjamin Walls, as the regiment took part in multiple military engagements, including the:

The First State Color was then carried by Sergeant William Pyers in subsequent military engagements, including the:

Subsequently carried by a third regimental color bearer, the First State Color was also the flag carried by the regiment during the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry’s defense of Washington, D.C., following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln (beginning mid-April 1865 and lasting until the First State Color was officially retired on May 11, 1865).

Second State Color

Second State Color, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, presented to the regiment on March 7, 1865, this battle flag documents the regiment’s major engagements (source: Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee, 1985.058, Horstmann Brothers and Company, v1p127).

The Second State Color of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was the battle flag that was carried by the regiment’s color-bearer as the 47th Pennsylvania marched through the streets of Washington, D.C. during the Grand Review of the National Armies on May 23, 1865, and as it marched into Savannah, Georgia in early June 1865 and into Charleston, South Carolina in July of that same year (while stationed in both cities on provost duty during the Reconstruction Era).

Presented to Captain Daniel Oyster on March 7, 1865, the commanding officer of the 47th Pennsylvania’s C Company (the regiment’s color guard unit), while Captain Oyster was at home in Sunbury, Pennsylvania on a thirty-day military furlough (after having been wounded in action twice during Sheridan’s 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign), it had been shipped to Sunbury in February by its manufacturer, Horstmann Brothers & Company of Philadelphia. According to archivists at the American History Museum in Washington, D.C.:

“William Hortsmann [sic, “Horstmann”], born in Germany, emigrated to the United States and established himself as a maker of fringe, laces, and trimmings in Philadelphia, in 1815. William Horstmann & Sons were located at North Third Street between 1830 and 1857, manufacturing and importing everything from textiles and trimmings to military goods including drums, pistols, and swords. As the company expanded, Horstmann & Sons moved the factory to 5th and Cherry Streets and their storefront to 2223 Chestnut Street. Later the company would grow to two stores in New York and an agency in Paris. William Horstmann retired from the company in 1845, and his sons, William and Sigmund continued the family business until 1872.”

Sources:

  1. “47th Infantry,” in “Pennsylvania Civil War Battle Flags.” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee, retrieved online June 3, 2026.
  2. “A Handsome Flag.” Sunbury, Pennsylvania: The Sunbury American, March 11, 1865.
  3. Bates, Samuel P., in History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, vol. 1. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.
  4. “Flags for Pennsylvania Regiments.” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 17, 1861.
  5. “Historical Listing of Pennsylvania Civil War Color Bearers,” in “Pennsylvania Civil War Battle Flags.” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee, retrieved online June 3, 2026.
  6. “Horstmann Brothers & Co. Military Trumpet.” Washington, D.C.: American History Museum, Smithsonian Institute, retrieved online June 3, 2026.
  7. Schmidt, Lewis G. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1986.
  8. “The History of the Forty-Seventh Regt. P. V.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Lehigh Register, July 20, 1870.

 

A Significant Confederate Threat to Black Union Soldiers and Their White Commanders (May 1, 1863)

Cover page of The Statutes at Large of the Confederate States of America, Passed at the Third Session of the First Congress, 1863 (Richmond, Virginia: R. M. Smith, Printer to Congress, 1863, public domain; click to enlarge).

During its legislative session on May 1, 1863, the Confederate Congress enacted several pieces of legislation prior to approving additional new resolutions. The most important, perhaps (from the perspective of historians and students engaged in research about the American Civil War), was resolution number five in which leaders of the Confederacy made clear their intent to re-enslave or execute Black Union soldiers if and when they were captured by Confederate troops — and to also execute their White commanding officers should any of those officers be captured by Confederate troops. The text of that resolution read as follows:

Resolved, by the Congress of the Confederate States of America, in response to the message of the President, transmitted to Congress at the commencement of the present session, that in the opinion of Congress the commissioned officers of the enemy ought not to be delivered to the authorities of the respective States, as suggested in the said message; but all captives taken by the confederate forces ought to be dealt with and disposed of by the confederate government.

Sec. 2. That, in the judgment of Congress, the Proclamations of the President of the United States, dated respectively September twenty-second, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, and January first, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, and the other measures of the Government of the United States and of its authorities, commanders and forces, designed or tending to emancipate slaves in the confederate States, or to abduct such slaves, or to incite them to insurrection, or to employ negroes in war against the confederate States, or to overthrow the institution of African slavery and bring on a servile war in these States, would, if successful, produce atrocious consequences, and they are inconsistent with the spirit of those usages which in modern warfare prevail among civilized nations; they may, therefore, be properly and lawfully repressed by retaliation.

Sec. 3. That in every case wherein, during the present war, any violation of the laws or usages of war among civilized nations shall be, or has been, done and perpetrated by those acting under the authority of the Government of the United States, on the persons or property of citizens of the confederate States, or of those under the protection or in the land or naval service of the confederate States, or of any State of the Confederacy, the President of the confederate States is hereby authorized to cause full and complete retaliation to be made for every such violation, in such manner and to such extent as he may think proper.

Sec. 4. That every white person, being a commissioned officer, or acting as such, who, during the present war, shall command negroes or mulattoes in arms against the confederate States, or who shall arm, train, organize, or prepare negroes or mulattoes for military service against the confederate States, or who shall voluntarily aid negroes or mulattoes in any military enterprise, attack, or conflict in such service, shall be deemed as inciting servile insurrection, and shall, if captured, be put to death, or be otherwise punished at the discretion of the court.

Sec 5. Every person, being a commissioned officer, or acting as such in the service of the enemy, who shall, during the present war, excite, attempt to excite or cause to be excited servile insurrection, or who shall incite or cause to be incited a slave to rebel, shall, if captured, be put to death, or be otherwise punished at the discretion of the court.

Sec 6. Every person charged with an offence punishable under the preceding resolutions shall, during the present war, be tried before the military court attached to the army or corps by the troops of which he shall have been captured, or by such other military court as the President may direct, and in such manner and under such regulations as the President shall prescribe, and, after conviction, the President may commute the punishment in such manner and on such terms as he may deem proper.

Sec. 7. All negroes and mulattoes who shall be engaged in war or taken in arms against the confederate States, or shall give aid or comfort to the enemies of the Confederate States, shall, when captured in the Confederate States, be delivered to the authorities of the State or States in which they shall be captured, to be dealt with according to the present or future laws of such State or States.

Approved May 1, 1863.

 

Sources:

  1. “Act Passed by the Rebel Congress: No. 74: Joint Resolution on the Subject of Retaliation.” St. Louis, Missouri: Daily Missouri Republican, June 5, 1863.
  2. “Acts Passed by the Rebel Congress: No. 74.” New York, New York: New York Herald, May 31, 1863.
  3. “Joint Resolutions on the Subject of Retaliation,” in “Acts Passed by the Confederate Congress [No. 74],” in “Late and Interesting News from the South — The Spirit and Tone of Rebel Journals.” Lafayette, Indiana: The Lafayette Weekly Argus, June 11, 1863.
  4. “Joint Resolutions on the Subject of Retaliation,” in “Latest News from the South.” Baltimore, Maryland: The Sun, June 2, 1863.
  5. “No. 5: Joint Resolution on the Subject of Retaliation” (approved on May 1, 1863), in “Resolutions ” in “The Statutes at Large of the Confederate States of America, Passed at the Third Session of the First Congress; 1863. Carefully Collated with the Originals at Richmond,” in “Documenting the American South.” Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, retrieved online April 24, 2026.
  6. “Rebel Law of Retaliation.” Keokuk, Iowa: The Gate City, June 18, 1863.
  7. “Rebel Law of Retaliation.” Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: The Daily Pittsburgh Gazette, June 5, 1863.
  8. “Rebel Law of Retaliation” and “Gen. Hunter’s Letter to Jeff. Davis.” Indiana, Pennsylvania: Weekly Register, June 9, 1863.
  9. “Rebel Retaliation.” Kansas City, Missouri: The Journal of Commerce, June 11, 1863.
  10. “Retaliation Upon the Enemy: Report of the Judiciary Committee of the Confederate Senate — The Action of Congress.” Richmond, Virginia: The Richmond Whig, May 15, 1863.
  11. “The Retaliatory Act, Confederate Congress, May 1, 1863,” in “House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College.” Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Dickinson College, retrieved online April 24, 2026.
  12. “The Retaliatory Code.” Washington, D.C.: Daily National Intelligencer, June 5, 1863.

 

Women’s History: A 47th Pennsylvania Wife Who Was “Married by Slave Custom”

“I was married about 14 years before the late War of the Rebellion, on Mr. Pringle plantation, in Georgetown County, S.C. I do not know the date, but from our crops we make for our former master I judged it was about 14 years before the war that I got married to Bristo Geddes by slave custom.” — Rachael (Richardson) Gethers, excerpt from an affidavit filed by her attorney on February 12, 1895

 

Attestation made February 12, 1895 by Rachael (Richardson) Gethers of her 1847 marriage “by slave custom” on the Pringle plantation in Georgetown County, South Carolina to Bristor Gethers (affidavit excerpt, U.S. Civil War Widow’s Pension File of Bristor and Rachael Gethers, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, public domain; click to enlarge).

We do not know the names of this woman’s parents, but we do know her name and the names of her husband and their closest friends, thanks to documents that were filed on her behalf by an attorney in Beaufort County, South Carolina, as part of her application for a U.S. Civil War Widow’s Pension during the late 1890s.

Her name was Rachael (Richardson) Gethers, and she was born into slavery in South Carolina circa 1825. Her parents, who had also been born in South Carolina, according to Rachael’s U.S. Census entries for 1870 and 1880, had also likely been born into slavery.

Virtually nothing else is known at present about her childhood and teen years. What researchers do know is that Rachael was still enslaved at the time of her marriage in Georgetown County, South Carolina, circa 1847 — during her early twenties, to Bristor Gethers, a man who was enslaved on the same plantation in that county.

* Note: The plantation where Rachael Richardson and Bristor Gethers were enslaved was owned by one of the largest family of enslavers in the United States — the Pringles. Among their multiple plantations and other Georgetown County properties were Beneventum and the White House Plantation, both of which were devoted primarily to rice production and profited from the labor of hundreds of enslaved Black men, women and children. (The Pringles had been actively engaged in the slave trade since the 1700s, and had broadened their wealth and power by marrying members of other families that were also heavily involved in chattel slavery, including the Allstons.)

Unfortunately, the first and last names of Rachael (Richardson) Gethers’ husband were repeatedly misspelled in multiple civic, Freedmen’s Bureau, and military records throughout the nineteenth century. Variants of his given name between 1862 and 1893 included: Brista, Brister, Bristo, Bristor, Presto, Prestor, and Pristo; variants of his surname included: Gaddis, Garres, Garrees, Garris, Gathers, Geddes, Geddis, Gethers, Gettes. Affidavits filed in later life by Bristor Gethers and his attorney during the early 1890s finally confirmed the correct spelling of his name as “Bristor Gethers.” Rachael’s married surname was also spelled in various ways during her lifetime. In later years, an attorney who filed documents on her behalf for her application for a U.S. Civil War Widow’s Pension chose to spell her married surname as “Geddes.” Written as “Rachael” by that same attorney, her given name was spelled as “Rachel” on other records of the mid to late nineteenth century.

American Civil War

Spelling variants for Rachael (Richardson) Gethers and Bristor Gethers (U.S. Civil War General Pension Index Cards, U.S. National Archives, public domain).

The exact details of what happened to Rachael (Richardson) Gethers and her husband between the time of her marriage and the first years of the American Civil War are presently not known, but researchers do know that a new chapter in their life story began when her husband enlisted with a Union Army regiment in the city of Beaufort, South Carolina during the fall of 1862. Freed or escaped from slavery by that time, he joined the Union Army as a “Negro Under-Cook,” was entered onto the roster of Company F of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry on October 5, 1862, would go on to receive promotions to the rank of cook and then private during his three-year term of enlistment, and would travel with the 47th Pennsylvania as a member of its F Company to multiple duty stations and battle sites in Florida, Louisiana, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. during that war — and then to Georgia and South Carolina during five post-war months of the Reconstruction Era, at which point he was honorably discharged and allowed to return home to his wife.

Researchers have not yet determined what happened to Rachel during that same period, however; she may have escaped with Bristor and traveled with him to Beaufort or may have been freed herself by Union troops — or she may have remained behind, still enslaved on the Georgetown County plantation where they had been married, hoping that her husband would eventually return to free her.

What is known for certain is that Bristor did find her again.

Post-War Years

Horse Island, slightly above and to the left of Parris Island in Beaufort County, South Carolina (public domain; click to enlarge).

Following her husband’s honorable discharge from the Union Army, Rachael (Richardson) Gethers and her husband, Bristor, resumed life as a married couple. U.S. Census and Freedmen’s Bureau records confirm that they initially made their home in or near the city of Beaufort, South Carolina. Sometime around 1869, however, they relocated to Horse Island, in Beaufort Township, Beaufort County. According to the 1870 federal census, they resided there with their six-year-old son, Peter. By the time that the federal census was enumerated in 1880, however, their Horse Island household no longer included Peter.

Throughout their post-war years, Rachael and Bristor Gethers were farmers who often struggled to make ends meet. This was largely due to the fact that they were often required to turn over a significant portion of the funds they earned from their crops each harvest — under the terms of Freedmen’s Bureau contracts and other legal agreements that favored the wealthy White landowners whose land they were hired to farm. Adding to their worries was Bristor’s failing health. Having fallen seriously ill with dysentery during his military service, he was plagued by lifelong heart problems and chronic diarrhea that often left him too disabled to work.

But they persisted and managed to build a life together on Horse Island that lasted for nearly three decades. Preceded in death by her husband when he passed away on Horse Island in Beaufort Township on June 25, 1894, Rachael was so financially insecure at that point in her life that she was unable to pay for his burial. So, she reached out to friends for help.

Her husband’s close friend, Samuel Gilliard, was among the first to come to her rescue. He brought a coffin to the Gethers’ home, placed Bristor’s body in it and enlisted the help of Rachael’s neighbors in carrying the coffin down to the water, where they placed it on a boat, enabling Sam to transport it to Beaufort County’s Parris Island. Met there by William Green and other able-bodied men, Sam and his friends carried the coffin to a graveyard somewhere on that island, dug a new grave and laid Bristor to rest on June 26, 1894, according to affidavits that Sam and William both filed in support of Rachael’s Civil War widow’s pension application.

Life as a Widow

U.S. Pension Agency’s confirmation of Rachael (Richardson) Gethers’ date of death (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, public domain; click to enlarge).

With a small U.S. Civil War Widow’s Pension of eight dollars per month (roughly three hundred and fifteen dollars per month in 2026 dollars), Rachael (Richardson) Gethers managed to survive her late husband by roughly four years. A certificate prepared by J. T. Wilder on behalf of the U.S. Pension Agency on June 30, 1899 confirmed that she died in Beaufort County, South Carolina on July 8, 1898.

Her exact burial location remains unknown, but is believed by researchers to be located somewhere on Parris Island in Beaufort County, South Carolina, based on U.S. Civil War Pension records which confirm that Parris Island was the burial location of her husband, Bristor Gethers.

* Note: To learn more about Rachael (Richardson) Gethers and her husband, Bristor, please read their full biography here and view their census and pension records, which are located on our website, Freedmen of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry (part of our special project dedicated to documenting the life histories of the nine formerly enslaved Black men who enlisted with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers).

 

Sources:

  1. Gaddis, Rachael, in U.S. Freedmen’s Bureau Hospital Records (Beaufort, South Carolina, December 1867), in Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
  2. Garris, Presto [sic, “Bristor Gethers”], in Civil War Muster Rolls and Civil War Veterans’ Card File, 1861-1866 (Company F, 47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
  3. Garris, Presto (alias “Geddes, Bristor” and “Gethers, Bristor”) and Gethers, Rachel, in U.S. Civil War General Pension Index Cards (veteran’s application no.: 773063, veteran’s certificate no.: 936435, filed by the veteran from South Carolina, February 1, 1890; veteran’s widow’s application no.: 598937, veteran’s widow’s certificate no.: 447893, filed by the veteran’s widow from South Carolina, July 27, 1894). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
  4. Geddes, Brister [sic, “Bristor Gethers”], Rachel and Peter, in U.S. Census (Beaufort, Beaufort Township, Beaufort County, South Carolina, 1870). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
  5. Geddis, Brista [sic, “Bristor Gethers”] and Rachel, in U.S. Census (Beaufort Township, Beaufort County, South Carolina, 1880). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
  6. Power, J. Tracy and Sherry Piland. “National Register of Historic Places Form: Beneventum Plantation” (filed by historians at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina, September 15, 1987). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service.
  7. Roldán-Shaw, Michele. “Exploring the Sea Islands of Beaufort County.” Hilton Head, South Carolina: Local Life Insiders, retrieved online March 31, 2026.

 

Black History Month: Say His Name, Then Share His Story

Page one of the U.S. Army’s Civil War enlistment paperwork for Bristor Gethers (mistakenly listed as “Presto Garris”), 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, Company F, 5 October 1862 (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, public domain; click to enlarge).

Our realization, as researchers, that there were at least nine formerly enslaved Black men who enlisted with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry during the American Civil War was sparked by a single index card for a soldier named “Presto Garris” that we found in the Pennsylvania Civil War Veterans’ Card File, which is maintained by the Pennsylvania State Archives.

Our ability to determine the true name of that soldier and correct the historical record about his life by researching and writing his biography was made possible by reading the dozens of pages contained in his U.S. Civil War Pension file and Compiled Military Service Records, which are maintained by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.

It was worth every penny of the roughly one hundred and ten dollars that we spent to obtain copies of those records from the National Archives because one of those documents confirmed the precise location of where that soldier had been enslaved prior to the war while others told us that he had survived the war and had lived out his life as a farmer. Another document even provided clues to the location of his grave.

That knowledge was so much more than we could have ever have hoped to gain because so many of the millions of men, women and children who were sold into, born into and re-sold throughout the American system of chattel slavery were never identified by name on state and federal census records prior to the war or were listed under names that had been created for them by their enslavers.

So, it matters that we’re able to tell you, for certain, that the true name of the soldier listed on that aforementioned index card was Bristor Gethers, that he lived near Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina after the war and that he resided with his wife and son near Beaufort, South Carolina after that. Please take the time to learn more about him by reading his bio on our educational program’s special website, Freedmen of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Then, look through the records that document his life’s journey.

Mr. Gethers’ story teaches us all that it is possible to find a new way forward after surviving the darkest of times.

 

Sources:

  1. “Garris, Presto,” in Civil War Muster Rolls (Company F, 47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
  2. “Garris, Presto,” in Pennsylvania Civil War Veterans’ Card File, 1861-1866 (Company F, 47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
  3. “Geddis, Brista” and “Geddis, Rachel,” in U.S. Census (Beaufort Township, Beaufort County, South Carolina, 1880). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
  4. “Geddis, Brister,” in “Agreement Between B. J. Whitesides and Fifteen Freedmen” (Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, 12 February 1868), in “Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands.” Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
  5. “Gethers, Bristor,” “Garris, Presto” and “Geddes, Bristor,” in U.S. Civil War Pension and U.S. Civil War Widows’ Pension Files (widow’s pension application no.: 598937, widow’s certificate no.: 447893, filed by the widow, Rachel Geddes, from South Carolina, 27 July 1894). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.

 

Seven Continents: The Year of 2025 in Review

“The Blue Marble” (Earth, photographed by Apollo 17 astronauts, December 7, 1972; NASA, public domain).

Another year almost gone. More milestones achieved for a personal research project that has grown into a multi-faceted, educational outreach program with connections on all seven continents of our planet.

Seven out of seven continents.

That statistic is the one that astonishes me most of all as I sit here compiling our annual Year in Review report for 2025. 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers: One Civil War Regiment’s Story is truly now a global community of lifelong learners.

Children and adults are engaged, at the moment I write this, in a quest to understand what it actually meant to be a member of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry during the American Civil War. As they do so, they are learning that the light of hope persists even when the world is filled with darkness.

Key Project Statistics (as of 6 p.m. Pacific Time on December 31, 2025):

  • First Content Posted to Website: May 25, 2014
  • Total Website Page Views to Date: 967,350
  • Total Number of Website Visitors to Date: 767,532
  • Total Number of Facebook Followers: 2,213
  • Total Number of Instagram Followers: 1,160
  • Total Number of 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Gravesites Documented Via the Project’s Virtual Cemetery: 1,446
  • Total Number of Individual Officers and Enlisted Men Profiled to Date: 345
  • Most Popular Post in 2025: Finding Your 47th Pennsylvanian: Use “Bates’ History” — But With Caution

Why Is There So Much Interest, Globally, in a Single, Seemingly “Obscure” Civil War Regiment from Pennsylvania?

The light and dark blue areas of this map show the reach of 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers: One Civil War Regiment’s Story as of December 31, 2025 (image courtesy of Snyder Family Archives).

What started as a personal research interest of one descendant of a 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantryman soon became the research focus of a half dozen descendants of 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers — and then dozens more as the website and social media sites for 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers: One Civil War Regiment’s Story launched and gradually attracted followers, including family historians, Civil War enthusiasts, history professors, and students in high schools and universities across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania — and beyond.

In 2020, the project’s audience grew substantially as teachers and students turned to distance learning and the “47th Pennsylvania Volunteers’ Project” as a way to keep minds sharp during the COVID pandemic that prompted the closure of schools and businesses worldwide. It was that year that educators from India residing in the United States and teachers across India found our website and began helping their students better understand the history of the United States by encouraging them to “see” the American Civil War “through the eyes of” the soldiers and families whose biographies were available on our website.

As more people heard about our website, supporters of our work began donating photographs of young soldiers in uniform and letters penned by 47th Pennsylvanians stationed far from home — each artifact a “log on the fire” of expansion — growth that continued even as in-person instruction returned to classrooms across the globe. Since that time, Pennsylvanians have been reading and learning from the same content as students in:

  • Amsterdam (the Netherlands)
  • Bangkok (Thailand)
  • Barcelona, Madrid and Zaragoza (Spain)
  • Bengaluru and Mumbai (India)
  • Brussels (Belgium)
  • Bogota (Columbia)
  • Dubai (the United Arab Emirates)
  • Dhaka (Bangladesh)
  • Dublin (Ireland)
  • Falkenstein, Bielefeld, Frankfurt, and Koeln (Germany)
  • Glasgow (Scotland)
  • Helsinki (Finland)
  • Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)
  • Hrebinka (Ukraine)
  • Istanbul (Türkiye)
  • Jakarta (Indonesia)
  • Lagos (Nigeria)
  • Lima (Peru)
  • London, Durham, Leeds, and Manchester (Great Britain)
  • Luleå (Sweden)
  • Manama (Bahrain)
  • Manila (the Philippines)
  • Melbourne and Sydney (Australia)
  • Montreal, Courtenay, Edmonton, Ottawa, Saskatoon, Toronto, and Vancouver (Canada)
  • Nairobi (Kenya)
  • Santiago (Chile)
  • São Paulo (Brazil)
  • Seongnam and Seoul (South Korea)
  • Warsaw and Witkowo (Poland)
  • Singapore (Republic of Singapore)
  • Tokyo and Kumamoto (Japan)
  • Vientiane (Laos)
  • Xiamen, Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Zhengzhou (China), and
  • Christchurch (New Zealand).

We now even have contacts at McMurdo Station in Antarctica! (Not a bad way to close the book on a challenging and often heartbreaking year.)

A Resolution for 2026

The 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers fought long and hard to help end a devastating civil war, eradicate the shameful practice of slavery and rebuild their shattered nation, and for those reasons alone, should be remembered for their service to the nation.

But perhaps the most important part of their collective story is that soldiers who somehow managed to survive unimaginable horrors never gave up trying to make their world a better one.

And neither should we.

My hope for 2026 is that more individuals in our world will “see wrong and try to right it” while also doing what is humanly possible to heal suffering in ways that “send forth ripples of hope and change.”

Happy New Year!

 

On Crutches, Convalescing in Carolina: The Fight by Pocotaligo’s Wounded to Recover

Captain John Peter Shindel Gobin, Company C, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, shown here circa 1863, went on to become Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania after the war (public domain).

Still ruminating about the carnage that he and his fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantrymen had survived just weeks earlier during the Battle of Pocotaligo, C Company Captain John Peter Shindel Gobin sat down in his quarters at his regiment’s encampment in Beaufort, South Carolina in mid-November 1862 and began to pen an update to a letter that he had recently written to friends back home. Despite his belief that he had “nothing to write home about,” his letter proved to be an important historical artifact — a handwritten, dated and signed eyewitness account that detailed what happened to multiple Union Army soldiers who had been wounded in action at that 1862 battle in South Carolina.

Head Quarters Co. C 47 P.V.
Beaufort S.C. Nov. 13. 1862

Dear Friends

I have just learned that a mail leaves for the North tomorrow morning although I have nothing particular to write about, and there is no telling when you will get it, as I understand vessels from here are now quarantined ten days at New York. Still I suppose you will be anxious to hear from me.

I have not heard from Sergt. Haupt today. Yesterday he was still living and improving, and I now have hopes of his recovery. I was down on Saturday last and both nurses and doctor promised me to do everything in their power to save him. If money or attention can save him it must be done.

The rest of the wounded of my Company are doing very well. All will recover, I think, and lose no limbs, but how many will be unfit for service I cannot yet tell. Billington, Kiehl, Barlton [sic, “Bartlow”], Sergt. Haupt and Leffler are yet at Hilton Head. Billington is on crutches and attending to Haupt or helping. Barlton [sic, “Bartlow”] and Leffler are also on crutches. Kiehl is walking about, but his jaw is badly shattered. Corp S. Y. Haupt is on duty. Haas’ wound is healing up nicely. Corp. Finck is about on crutches. O’Rourke, Holman, Lothard, Rine [sic, “Rhine”], and Larkins are in camp, getting along finely. Those who were wounded in the body, face and legs all get along much better than Sergt. Haupt who was wounded in the foot. His jaws were tightly locked the last time I saw him.

The Yellow fever is pretty bad at the Head, and I do not like to send any body down. I am holding a Court Martial, and keep very busy. The fever creates no alarm whatever here. No cases at all have occurred save those brought from Hilton Head. We have had two frosts and all feel satisfied that will settle the fever. Some good men have fallen victims to it. Gen. Mitchell [sic, Major-General Ormsby Mitchel] is much regretted here.

Sixty of my men are on picket under Lieut. Oyster, Lieut. Rees [sic, “Reese”] having been on the sick list. However he is well again. The balance of the men are all getting along finely. Warren McEwen had been sick but is well again. My health is excellent. Spirits ditto. I suppose however by the looks of things I will be kept in Court Martials for a month longer, the trial list being very large. The men begin to look on me as a kind of executioner as it seems I must be upon every Court held in the Dep’t [Department of the South].

We are waiting patiently and anxiously for a mail, not having had any news from the North since the 24th of last month. Three weeks without news seems a terrible time, when you come to realize it.

I wrote home from the Head the last time I was down. Was my last received. Write soon and give me all the news. With love to all

I remain
Yours JPSG

What Ultimately Happened to the Men Identified in That Gobin Letter?

Captain Daniel Oyster, Company C, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, circa 1864 (public domain).

The “Rees” and “Oyster” mentioned by Captain J. P. S. Gobin were his immediate subordinates, First Lieutenant William Reese and Second Lieutenant Daniel Oyster, who both ended up surviving the war. Reese would later be accused of cowardice during the 1864 Red River Campaign but cleared of that false charge, while Oyster would rise through the regiment’s ranks to become captain of Company C before being wounded in two different battles of Sheridan’s 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign.

The “Billington” and “Barlow” who had sustained leg wounds were Privates Samuel Billington and John Bartlow. Although both ultimately recovered from those wounds, Private Billington would later be deemed unable to continue serving with the 47th Pennsylvania and would be honorably discharged on a surgeon’s certificate of disability on July 1, 1863, while Private Bartlow would go on to become a sergeant with the 47th’s C Company, effective September 1, 1864, only to be killed in action just over a month later, during the Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia.

“Corp. Finck” was Corporal William F. Finck, who had also been wounded in the leg and who also subsequently recovered and returned to duty. Unlike Sergeant Bartlow, however, he would survive a second wound that he would later sustain during the Battle of Cedar Creek and would be promoted to the rank of sergeant on April 1, 1865.

“Haas” was Private Jeremiah Haas, who had been wounded in the breast and face. Known as “Jerry” to his friends and family, he also eventually recovered and returned to duty, but was then mortally wounded in action during the Battle of Sabine Cross Roads near Mansfield, Louisiana on April 8, 1864 and died “almost instantly,” according to a letter written by his Company C comrade, Henry Wharton.

The “Haupts” were Sergeant Peter Haupt and his brother, Private Samuel Y. Haupt. Sergeant Peter Haupt, whose foot and ankle had been wounded at Pocotaligo, later developed lockjaw and died after contracting tetanus from the lead in the canister shot that had struck him. His brother, Samuel, however, survived. Wounded in the face and chin, Samuel would later be cleared for active duty and then be promoted steadily up through the ranks to become a first sergeant.

“Holman” was Private Conrad P. Holman, who had also been wounded in the face and who also recovered and returned to duty, would later be captured by Confederate troops during the Battle of Pleasant Hill in Louisiana on April 9, 1864 and be held as a prisoner of war (POW) at Camp Ford near Tyler, Texas until he was released during a prisoner exchange on July 22 of that same year.

“Kiehl” was Private Theodore Kiehl, whose jaw had shattered when his mouth was struck by a rifle ball at Pocotaligo, also recovered and returned to active duty. Sadly, he would later be killed in action on the grounds of Cooley’s farm near Winchester, Virginia during the Battle of Cedar Creek in October 1864.

“Larkins” and “Leffler” were Privates Michael F. Larkin and Charles W. Lefler, who had sustained wounds to the hip and side and/or arm and stomach (Larkins) and leg (Lefler) at Pocotaligo. They also both recovered and returned to active duty. Unlike so many of their comrades, however, they both survived their respective tenures of service and were both honorably discharged.

“Lothard” was actually Charles L. Marshall — one of several “mystery men” of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. A native of Virginia who had relocated to Luzerne County, Pennsylvania to work in a coal mine prior to the American Civil War, he had enlisted as a private with the 47th Pennsylvania under the assumed name of “Thomas Lothard.” Shot in the head and/or body at Pocotaligo, he would ultimately recover and return to active duty, only to be wounded again in his head (top), body (right side) and left shin left during the Battle of Sabine Cross Roads in Louisiana on April 8, 1864. Later mistakenly labeled as a deserter, his military records were subsequently clarified to reflect his honorable discharge on January 7, 1866, as well as his legal name and alias.

“Warren McEwen” was Private Warren C. McEwen, whose illness would later become so persistent that he would be honorably discharged on a surgeon’s certificate of disability on December 7, 1862.

“O’Rourke” and “Rine” were Privates Richard O’Rourke and James R. Rhine, who had also sustained wounds to the side (O’Rourke) and leg (Rhine) at Pocotaligo, and would also recover, return to active duty, serve out their respective terms of enlistment, and be honorably discharged.

Veteran Volunteers

Samuel Y. Haupt, Company C, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers (circa 1863, public domain).

John Bartlow, William Finck, Samuel Haupt, Charles Marshall (as “Thomas Lothard”), Richard O’Rourke, and James Rhine were among multiple members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry who would go on to be awarded the coveted title of “Veteran Volunteer” when they chose to re-enlist for additional tours of duty and helped to bring an end to one of the darkest times in America’s history.

Remember their names. Honor the sacrifices that they made.

 

Sources:

  1. Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, vol. 1. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.
  2. Gobin, John Peter Shindel. Personal Letters, 1861-1865. Northumberland, Pennsylvania: Personal Collection of John Deppen.
  3. MacConkey, Alfred. “Tetanus: Its Prevention and Treatment by Means of Antitetanic Serum.” London, England: The British Medical Journal, vol. 2, no. 2806, October 10, 1914, pp. 609-614.
  4. Schmidt, Lewis G. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1986.
  5. Wharton, Henry D. “Letters from the Sunbury Guards.” Sunbury, Pennsylvania: The Sunbury American, 1862.

 

Remembering the Red River Campaign Prisoners of War on National POW/MIA Recognition Day

This POW/MIA Recognition Flag designed by Newt Heisley was formally recognized by U.S. House of Representatives Resolution No. 467 on September 21, 1990 (public domain).

During the Army of the United States’ 1864 Red River Campaign across Louisiana in the American Civil War, multiple members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry were declared as “Missing in Action” (MIA) — largely due to the confusion caused by a series of engagements with the enemy in which Union soldiers were repeatedly required to retreat, regroup and resume the fight as they faced down wave after wave of Confederate troops attempting to outflank and perform end runs around the outer edges of Union Army lines.

Each time the cannon smoke began to clear from those battles, many of those MIA members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry found their way back to the regiment, carrying word to senior officers of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers that members of the regiment had been captured by Confederate troops. By mid-May of 1864, it was clear that at least twenty-three 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were being held as prisoners of war (POWs) by the Confederate States Army.

Regimental leaders would later learn that many of those men had been force marched roughly one hundred and fifty miles to Camp Ford, which was located outside of Tyler, Texas and would become the largest Confederate POW camp west of the Mississippi River by the summer of 1864. Once there, they were starved, given minimal to no medical care for any wounds they had sustained, exposed to extreme variations in temperature and weather, due to inadequate shelter, and sickened by dysentery and other diseases that were spread by living in the cramped, overcrowded conditions that became increasingly unsanitary, due to the placement of latrine facilities near water supplies meant for drinking or bathing. As their days dragged on, their treatment by Confederate soldiers grew more and more harsh. According to representatives of the Smith County Historical Society who have been working on documenting the history of Camp Ford:

On April 8th and 9th 1864 at the battles of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, Confederate forces captured more than 2,000 Union soldiers, who were quickly marched to Tyler…. The existing stockade did not have sufficient area to house them, and an emergency enlargement was undertaken. Local slaves were again impressed, the north and east wall was dug up and the logs cut in half, and the top ten feet of the logs of the south and west walls were cut off. The resulting half logs gave sufficient timber to quadruple the area of the stockade, and it was expanded to about eleven acres.

With additional battles in Arkansas and Louisiana, the prison population had grown to around 5,000 by mid-June. Hard-pressed CS officials had no ability to provide shelter for the new prisoners, and their suffering was intense. The number of tools was inadequate, and many men could only dig holes in the ground for shelter. Rations were often insufficient and the death rate soared…. Of 316 total deaths at the camp, 232 occurred between July and November 1864….

At least three 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers are confirmed to have died while imprisoned at Camp Ford. Another member of the regiment was later removed from that prison and moved to Andersonville, the most notorious of all American Civil War POW camps. Two others died as POWs who were confined to a Confederate hospital.

In recognition of National POW/MIA Recognition Day, which is observed on the third Friday each September in the United States of America, we pay tribute to those twenty-three brave souls.

DeSoto and Sabine Parishes (Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, Louisiana)

Possibly wounded in action during the Battle of Pleasant Hill, Privates Solomon Powell and Jonathan Wantz of Company D were captured during that battle on April 9, 1864. Private Powell died either that same day or on June 7, 1864, while still being held by Confederate troops as a POW at Pleasant Hill. Private Wantz also died while still being held as a POW at Pleasant Hill; his death was reported as having occurred on June 17, 1864. Their exact burial locations remain unidentified.

Confederate Hospital (Shreveport, Louisiana)

G Company Private Joseph Clewell — who had only been a member of the 47th Pennsylvania since mid-November 1863, fell ill sometime after being captured by Confederate troops during one of the 47th Pennsylvania’s Red River Campaign engagements in the spring of 1864. Suffering from chronic diarrhea due to the poor water quality and unsanitary living conditions that he endured while being held as a POW, he was subsequently confined to the Confederate States Army Hospital No. 59 in Shreveport, Louisiana sometime in May or early June. Held at that hospital as a POW, his health continued to decline until he died there on June 18, 1864, according to the U.S. Army’s Registers of Deaths of Volunteer Soldiers. His exact burial location also remains unidentified.

This illustration presented a rosier view of life at Camp Ford, the largest Confederate Army prison camp west of the Mississippi River, than was the actual situation for the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers confined there (Harper’s Weekly, March 4, 1865, public domain).

Camp Ford or Camp Groce (Texas)

The 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers confirmed to have been released from Camp Ford or Camp Groce in Texas during a series of prisoner exchanges between the Army of the United States and the Confederate States Army were:

  • Private Charles Frances Brown, Bugler of Company D and Regimental Band No. 2 (date of release: July 22, 1864; discharged after receiving medical treatment; re-enlisted with the 7th New York Volunteers in October 1864);
  • Private Charles Buss/Bress of Company D (fell ill with dysentery while confined as a POW at Camp Ford and developed chronic diarrhea and severe hemorrhoids — conditions that would plague him for the remainder of his life, date of release: July 22, 1864; received medical treatment and was honorably discharged from a Union Army medical facility in Philadelphia in May 1865);
  • Private Ephraim Clouser of Company D (captured after being shot in the right knee, date of release: November 25, 1864; placed on Union Army sick rolls after being diagnosed as being too traumatized to remain on duty, he was transferred to the Union Army’s Jefferson Barracks Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, then to a Union Army hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio and then to the Union Army’s general hospital in York, Pennsylvania, where he remained until the end of the war; still suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after the war, he was declared by the Pennsylvania court system to be unable to care for himself, and was confined to the Harrisburg State Hospital for the remainder of his life);
  • Sergeant James Crownover of Company D (captured after being shot in the right shoulder, date of release: November 25, 1864; received medical treatment, recovered and returned to duty);
  • Private James Downs of Company D (date of release: July 22, 1864; received medical treatment and returned to duty; possibly suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), he fell from a window of the Brookville Memorial Home in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania in 1921);
  • Private Conrad P. Holman, of Company C (date of release: July 22, 1864; received medical treatment, recovered and returned to duty);
  • Corporal James Huff of Company E (captured after being wounded, date of release: August 29, 1864; received medical treatment, recovered and returned to duty; captured by Confederate troops during the Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia on October 19, 1864, was transported and force marched to North Carolina, where he was held as a POW at the Salisbury Prison Camp until his death there from starvation and harsh treatment on March 5, 1865; he was subsequently buried somewhere on the POW camp grounds in an unmarked mass trench grave of Union soldiers);
  • Private John Lewis Jones of Company F (captured after being wounded, date of release: September 24, 1864; received medical treatment, recovered and returned to duty);
  • Private Edward Mathews of Company C (date of release: July 22, 1864; received medical treatment, recovered and returned to duty);
  • Private Adam Maul/Moll/Moul of Company C (captured on May 3, 1864, while away from his regiment’s encampment in Alexandria, Louisiana — possibly while assigned to duties related to the construction of Bailey’s Dam, date of release: July 22, 1864; received medical treatment, recovered and was assigned to detached duty at Hilton Head, South Carolina on January 3, 1865, but was reportedly not given discharge paperwork by his regiment; his exact burial location remains unidentified);
  • Private John W. McNew of Company C (captured after being wounded, date of release: July 22, 1864; received medical treatment, recovered and returned to duty);
  • Corporal John Garber Miller of Company D (date of release: July 22, 1864; received medical treatment, recovered and returned to duty);
  • Private Samuel W. Miller of Company C (date of release: July 22, 1864; received medical treatment, recovered and returned to duty);
  • Private John Wesley Smith of Company C (date of release: July 22, 1864; received medical treatment, recovered and returned to duty;
  • Private William J. Smith of Company D (date of release: July 22, 1864; received medical treatment, recovered and returned to duty; and
  • Private Benjamin F. Wieand/Weiand of Companies B and D (captured after being wounded; received medical treatment after his release from captivity and was honorably discharged on July 21, 1865.

The 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers confirmed to have died on the grounds of Camp Ford were:

  • Private Samuel M. Kern of Company D (date of death: June 12, 1864);
  • Private Frederick Smith of Company I (date of death: May 4, 1864); and
  • Private John Weiss, Company F (captured after being severely wounded, he was initially confined to Camp Ford, but was then transferred to a “Rebel hospital” for treatment of his wounds, according to regimental records; died at that Confederate hospital on July 15, 1864).

The burial locations of Privates Samuel Kern, Frederick Smith and John Weiss remain unidentified. (The Confederate hospital where Private John Weiss died may have been the Confederate Army Hospital No. 59 in Shreveport, Louisiana — the same Confederate hospital where G Company Private Joseph Clewell died on June 18, 1864.)

Issuing Rations at the Andersonville POW Camp, August 17, 1864 (view from Main Gate, U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).

Andersonville (Fort Sumter, Georgia)

According to an article in the April 12, 1911 edition of the Reading Eagle, Private Ben Zellner of the 47th Pennsylvania’s Company K had also begun his imprisonment as a POW at Camp Ford, but was later transported to Georgia, where he was confined to Andersonville, the most notorious Confederate prison camp of them all.

Benjamin Zellner, who was one of the youngest soldiers during the Civil War, was captured by the Confederates at Pleasant Hill, La., April 8, 1864. He was a member of Co. K, 47th Regiment, with Gen. Banks’ army on the Red River expedition. Comrade Zellner was wounded in a charge to the left of the lines and fell on the field. The Union forces being driven back, he, with a number of others was captured. After being kept at Pleasant Hill two weeks, they were removed to Mansfield, La., on a Saturday night and kept over night [sic] in the Court House until Sunday morning. Thence they were removed to Shreveport, La., and again kept in the Court House. From thence they were marched 110 miles to Unionville prison at Tyler, Tex…. The 47th was the only Penn’a Regiment to participate in the Red River campaign.

Although POW records from Camp Ford that are maintained by the Smith County Historical Society note that a “Ben Cellner” was released in that camp’s July 22, 1864 prisoner exchange with the Union Army, interviews by several different newspaper reporters of Zellner in his later life contradict those records. According to Zellner and the Reading Eagle, he had been transported to Camp Sumter near Anderson, Georgia sometime in May or June 1864:

In about a month [after arriving at Camp Ford in Texas, following their 8 April capture in Louisiana] 300 or 400 of the strongest were brought back to Shreveport and then transported down the Red River to an old station and marched four days, when they were taken by train to Andersonville….

At the time of Private Zellner’s internment, Andersonville was under the command of Henry Wirz, who would later be convicted of war crimes for his brutal treatment of Union prisoners. According to the September 21, 1864 edition of The Soldiers’ Journal:

Those Union prisoners recently released from Camp Sumter, at Andersonville, Ga., have made affidavit of the condition of the 35,000 prisoners confined there. The horrors of their imprisonment, plainly and unaffectedly narrated, have no parallel outside of Taeping or Malay annals. Twenty-five acres of human beings – so closely packed that locomotion is made obsolete, compelled to drink from sewers, and to eat raw meat like cannibals – are dwelling under vigilant espionage, hopeless, helpless, and Godless. Some are lunatic, and others have become desperately wicked; all are living, loathing, naked, starved fellow-men.

Reportedly held as a POW for six months and fourteen days, according to the March 26, 1915 edition of The Allentown Leader, Zellner was freed from captivity during a Union and Confederate army prisoner exchange in September 1864 (per a report in the April 12, 1911 edition of the Reading Eagle). The April 8, 1911 Allentown Leader noted that, after this prisoner exchange, which took place “along the James River,” he was then sent with a number of his fellow former POWs “to Washington, to Fortress Monroe, to New York and home.” Following a period of recovery, he then returned to service with his regiment just in time to participate in a key portion of Union Major-General Phillip Sheridan’s 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign.

Read their stories. Remember their names. Honor their individual sacrifices.

 

Sources:

  1. “47 Years Today Since Rebels Caught Him: This Is a Memorable Anniversary for Comrade Ben Zellner.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Leader, April 8, 1911.
  2. Allentown’s Youngest Civil War Veteran (profile of Private Ben Zellner). Reading, Pennsylvania: Reading Eagle, April 12, 1911.
  3. Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, vol. 1. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.
  4. “Camp Ford,” in “Texas Beyond History.” Austin, Texas: Texas Archaeological Research Laboratory, University of Texas at Austin, retrieved online January 24, 2025.
  5. Camp Ford Prison Records (47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, 1864). Tyler, Texas: Smith County Historical Society.
  6. “Camp Sumter,” in “Editorial Jottings.” Washington, D.C.: The Soldiers’ Journal, September 21, 1864.
  7. Civil War Muster Rolls (47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
  8. Civil War Veterans’ Card File, 1861-1866 (47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
  9. Gilbert, Randal B. A New Look at Camp Ford, Tyler, Texas: The Largest Confederate Prison Camp West of the Mississippi River, 3rd Edition. Tyler, Texas: The Smith County Historical Society, 2010.
  10. “His Glorious Record as a Soldier: Fought at Gettysburg, Red River and Shenandoah Valley and Besides Enduring the Horrors of Andersonville, Carries Bullet to This Day.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Leader, March 26, 1917.
  11. Horwitz, Tony. “Did Civil War Soldiers Have PTSD?“, in Smithsonian Magazine, January 2015. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
  12. Lawrence, F. Lee. “Camp Ford,” in “Hand Book of Texas.” Austin, Texas: Texas State Historical Association, retrieved online January 24, 2025.
  13. “Newport: Special Correspondence” (notice documenting Ephraim Clouser’s confinement for mental illness and later death at the asylum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Harrisburg Daily Independent, March 18, 1899.
  14. “POW/MIA Recognition Day.” Indianapolis, Indiana: The American Legion National Headquarters, retrieved online September 19, 2025.
  15. Registers of Deaths of Volunteers. Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, 1864-1865.
  16. Schmidt, Lewis. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1986.
  17. Simmons, G. W. “Camp Ford, Texas” (sketch, Harper’s Weekly, March 4, 1865; retrieved June 9, 2015, via University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, crediting Star of the Republic Museum, Washington, Texas).
  18. Slattery, Joe. “Confederate Soldiers Who Died at the Confederate General Hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana,” in The Genie, vol. 37, no. 1 (First Quarter, 2003), p. 12. Shreveport, Louisiana: Ark-La-Tex Genealogical Association.
  19. “The Exchange of Prisoners; The Cartel Agreed Upon by Gen. Dix for the United States, and Gen. Hill for the Rebels,” in “Supplementary Articles.” New York, New York: The New York Times, October 6, 1862.
  20. Thoms, Alston V., principal investigator and editor, and David O. Brown, Patricia A. Clabaugh, J. Philip Dering, et. al., contributing authors. Uncovering Camp Ford: Archaeological Interpretations of a Confederate Prisoner-of-War Camp in East Texas. College Station, Texas: Center for Ecological Archaelogy, Department of Anthropology, Texas A & M University.
  21. “Union Army Deaths in Shreveport 1864-1865.” Shreveport, Louisiana: Sons of Union Veterans, Brig. Gen. Joseph Bailey Camp No. 5, retrieved April 29, 2021.
  22. “Up in Perry” (notice of Ephraim Clouser’s arrest and sanity hearing). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Harrisburg Telegraph, September 22, 1892.
  23. Wharton, Henry D. Letters from the Sunbury Guards, 1861-1866. Sunbury, Pennsylvania: Sunbury American.

 

 

Reconstruction and Diplomacy: The 47th Pennsylvania in Georgia (Summer 1865)

War-damaged houses in Savannah, Georgia, 1865 (Sam Cooley, U.S. Army, U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).

Stationed in Savannah, Georgia since June 7, 1865, the soldiers still serving with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry that first summer after the American Civil War were assigned to provost duties — as peacekeepers, public information specialists and public works officials, during what has since become known as the Presidential Reconstruction Era (1865-1867) of American History.

Commanded by Colonel John Peter Shindel Gobin, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles William Abbott and Major Levi Stuber, multiple members of the regiment were literally involved in the re-construction of small southern towns and larger cities, helping to shore up war-damaged structures that could be restored — and in tearing down others that were deemed too dangerous for civilians to leave standing.

John Young Shindel, M.D., assistant surgeon, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1865 (public domain).

It was hazardous work, according to John Young Shindel, M.D., an assistant regimental surgeon who had joined the medical staff of the 47th Pennsylvania earlier that same year. On Wednesday, June 18, 1865, he noted that:

10 o’clock wall fell in and buried 15 or 20 men. 6 or 7 were taken out some dead. Zellner Co. K badly hurt. Sent him to Hosp. Capt. Hoffman, Chief of Police, seriously hurt. In P.M. was with Capt. Hoffman.

The 47th Pennsylvanian mentioned by Dr. Young was Private Ben Zellner, who had survived repeated battle wounds and confinement as a prisoner of war (POW) at two Confederate States Army prison camps, only to nearly lose his life while assigned to police duty during peacetime. According to Private Zellner’s 1896 account of that 1865 accident, his jawbone had been broken during the wall’s collapse “and he sustained 11 scalp wounds”; as a result, he “lost the sight of his left eye and the hearing of his left ear.”

The 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry’s Regimental Band performed in concert for James Johnson, provincial governor of the State of Georgia, at the Pulaski Hotel in Savannah on June 30, 1865 (Pulaski Hotel, Savannah, Georgia, circa 1906, U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).

Meanwhile, other 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were being transformed into diplomats. Officers and enlisted members of the regiment, for example, helped to facilitate a warm welcome for James Johnson, the provisional governor of Georgia, during his official visit to Savannah in early July. According to the Charleston Daily Courier, Governor Johnson (who had been appointed to his gubernatorial post by U.S. President Andrew Johnson (but was not related to the president), had been invited to Savannah by members of the city council “to address the citizens … at some suitable place.” In that invitation, council members also suggested that “military and naval commanders of the United States army and navy at this post and their respective staffs be respectfully invited to attend said meeting.” Johnson subsequently accepted the invitation and made the trip to Savannah in late June. The night of his arrival (June 30), “the fine band of the 47th Pennsylvania Regiment, Eugene Walter, Leader, serenaded the Governor at the Pulaski House.”

Several patriotic airs were played, and as soon as practicable the Governor appeared on one of the balconies, in response to repeated calls. He was loudly welcomed. He made no elaborate speech, but addressed the immense assembly substantially as follows:

“Fellow-Citizens — I thank you for the consideration, on your part, which has occasioned this demonstration. I know that you have called on me as the Provisional Governor of the State of Georgia, and in the discharge of the high duties now incumbent upon me, I promise you to act to the best of my ability. I know that you will not expect, on this occasion, any very full remarks. Hoping to meet you hereafter, and then to have an opportunity to explain my sentiments and position, I will bid you good night.”

This brief address was received with loud cheers by the crowd, and the band then played several other appropriate airs.

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

On July 1, the Savannah Republican newspaper published a more detailed description of that evening’s events:

Last evening, through the exertions of a few citizens, an impromptu call was made upon Gov. Johnson at the Pulaski by a delegation of loyal men, accompanied by the fine band of the 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers, now stationed in this city. The object of the call was simply to manifest the joy of the people at the return of a loyal civil magistrate, who, in a measure, holds the future destiny of Georgia in his hands, and to pay the Governor the compliment of a serenade. After the band had performed several appropriate pieces of music, loud calls and cheers were given for the Governor, who at length appeared, and in a few brief remarks thanked the assemblage for their demonstrations of respect, and informed them that, being wearied with traveling he begged to be excused from making any formal speech. Before bidding the crowd good night, the Governor informed them that it would be his pleasure to address the people tonight at the Theatre, where he would state his position and give his views on the state of the country. Upon retiring, the crowd applauded and cheered the Governor lustily, while Johnson square was ablaze with the discharge of fire works, the shooting of rockets, roman candles, and the illumination of blue lights, gave the scene a very brilliant appearance and made the vicinity of Savannah lively for one hour. At a late hour the crowd quietly dispersed to their homes, well pleased with the impromptu ovation to the Governor. Governor Johnson was afterwards introduced to a large number of army officers, each of whom expresses the wish that the day was near when bayonets would not be necessary to maintain order in Georgia. The Governor, who is a most unostentatious gentleman, spoke very encouragingly of the future, and shook hands with all who were introduced.

The thanks of our citizens are due Colonel Gobin, of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, for the services of his excellent band, whose presence made the hasty reception a success. The Colonel has very kindly offered the use of his band for the meeting this evening at the theatre, and we may expect a brilliant gathering of the masses tonight at 8 o’clock.

James Johnson, provisional governor of the State of Georgia, 1865 (Lawton B. Evans, A History of Georgia for Use in Schools, 1898, public domain).

On Saturday evening (July 1), Governor Johnson fulfilled his promise. During a lengthy address, he spoke about cooperation and the rule of law, the true meaning of citizenship and the path forward following the nationwide eradication of chattel slavery. The crowd, which had been attentive throughout his speech, gave him a robust round of applause, and peacefully dispersed, according to subsequent newspaper reports. The festivities, which continued into the next week, also included a “Grand Review of the Garrison,” which was held in Savannah on Monday afternoon, July 3. According to the Savannah Republican:

The review of the entire garrison by Major General H. W. Birge, on Monday afternoon, was certainly one of the finest military pageants that we have witnessed since the departure of Gen. Sherman’s army. For perfection of military movements, neatness of appearance and true soldierly bearing on the part of privates as well as officers, won encomiums from the vast crowd of spectators who witnessed the review. We don’t blame Gen. Birge to feel proud of such a noble body of gallant men as he has the honor to command, and we are fortunate in having so excellent a command garrisoning our city.

The following composes the troops that participated in the review:

Brigadier General Joseph D. Fessenden, commanding 1st Division.

1st Brigade, 1st Division, Col. L. Peck commanding. — 90th New York, Lt. Col. Schamman; 173d New York, Lt. Col. Holbrook; 160th New York, Lt. Col. Blanchard; 47th Pennsylvania, Col. Gobin.

2d Brigade, Col. H. Day commanding. — 131st New York, Capt. Tilosting commanding; 128th New York, Capt. _____ ; 14th New Hampshire, Lt. Col. Mastern.

3d Brigade, 2d Division, Col. Graham commanding. — 22d Iowa, Lt. Col. _____ ; 24th Iowa, Lt. Col. Wright; 28th Iowa, Lt. Col. Wilson.

4th Brigade, Brevet Brig. Gen. E. P. Davis commanding. — 153d _____ , Lt. Col. Loughlin; 30th Maine, Col. Hubbard; 12th Connecticut, Lt. Col. Lewis; 26th Massachusetts, Lt. Col. Chapman; 75th New York, Lt. Col. York; 103rd U.S.C.T., Major Manning.

Civil conversation, community concerts and displays of kindness toward strangers were indeed replacing bayonets — becoming the most powerful tools ever wielded by the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers as they helped to rescue their nation from disunion.

 

Sources:

  1. Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1865-1, vol. 1. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.
  2. “Comrade Zellner’s Birthday” (includes description of Private Benjamin F. Zellner’s injury in 1865 while serving with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers during the Reconstruction Era). Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Leader, March 27, 1896.
  3. Evans, Lawton B. A History of Georgia for Use in Schools, p. 304. New York, New York: Universal Publishing Company, 1898.
  4. Foner, Eric. “Reconstruction.” Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Park Service, retrieved online July 1, 2025.
  5. “Governor Johnson’s Patriotic Address: A Stirring Appeal to Georgians.” Savannah, Georgia: Savannah Republican, July 6, 2025.
  6. “House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College.” Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Dickinson College, accessed July 1, 2025.
  7. “James Johnson,” in New Georgia Encyclopedia. Atlanta, Georgia: Georgia Humanities, retrieved online July 1, 2025.
  8. “Savannah Intelligence.” Charleston, South Carolina: Charleston Daily Courier, July 4, 1865.
  9. “Serenade to Our New Governor: The Pulaski House and Johnson Square Radiant with Fireworks: Remarks of the Governor: Music and Pyrotechnics.” Savannah, Georgia: Savannah Republican, July 1, 1865.
  10. Shindel, John Young. Diary and Personal Letters, 1865-1866. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Personal Collection of Lewis Schmidt.
  11. Wharton, Henry D. Letters from the Sunbury Guards, 1865. Sunbury, Pennsylvania: Sunbury American, 1865-1866.
  12. “The Grand Review of the Garrison.” Savannah, Georgia: Savannah Republican, July 6, 1865.
  13. “The History of the Forty-Seventh Regt. P. V.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Lehigh Register, July 20, 1870.

 

Observing Pennsylvania German Day on June 28

This Pennsylvania German Flag, which was created by Peter V. Fritsch, was officially dedicated at the Allentown Court House in 1989 (public domain).

On June 29, 1976, the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania enacted P. L. 458, No. 113, directing that Pennsylvania German Day be observed annually on June 28, across the great Keystone State:

Section 1. In recognition of the cultural, educational and historical contributions from their heritage to this Commonwealth, June 28 of each year is set aside to commemorate the Pennsylvania German, commonly known as Pennsylvania Dutch, and is hereby designated to be “Pennsylvania German Day.”

The Governor is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation each year calling upon the people of the Commonwealth to commemorate the contributions of the German people to the history and culture of the Commonwealth, and to approve that day with appropriate honors and ceremonies.

Section 2. This act shall take effect immediately.

Copy of the 1862 Taufschein of Mary Elisabeth Herman, daughter of Private William Herman, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers (U.S. Civil War Widows’ and Orphans’ Pension Files, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, public domain; click to enlarge).

That act carries special meaning for all who are involved with 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers: One Civil War Regiment’s Story because a significant portion of the men who served with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry during the American Civil War were men and boys of German heritage, including:

Read their stories. Remember their names. Honor the sacrifices they made for the United States of America and the world.

 

Sources: 

  1. “Act No. 113 of 1976: Pennsylvania German Day — Observance.” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania General Assembly, June 29, 1976 (retrieved online June 28, 2025).
  2. Civil War Veterans’ Card File, 1861-1866 (47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
  3. Moyer, Del-Louise. “John Daniel Eisenbrown: Fraktur Artist and Grave Monument Engraver.” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: AlyssumArts, September 7, 2015.
  4. U.S. Civil War Pension Files. Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.