Alternate Presentations of Name: Emanuel P. Rhoads, Emmanuel P. Rhoads, E. P. Rhoads, Emanuel P. Rhodes

 

Born in Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania on 11 November 1833, Emanuel P. Rhoads was a son of Stephen and Helen (Newhard) Rhoads, a grandson of Peter Rhoads, Jr., former president of the Northampton Bank, and a lineal descendant of the American Patriot Peter Rhoads who reportedly “read the Declaration of Independence to the citizenry in front of the Zion Reformed Church” in Northampton Towne (later known as “Allentown”) on 8 July 1776 and later became a justice of the peace and Northampton Towne’s first burgess.

Multiple mentions in newspapers throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries almost always represented Emanuel Rhoads as “E. P. Rhoads,” rather than spelling out his given name. Those included obituaries of men from the military units he commanded during the Civil War, as well as announcements of regimental reunions. (Obituaries of former 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers who served under him in Company B frequently included at least one reference to E. P. Rhoads, an indication of the respect the men and their surviving family members had for the man.)

Early Adulthood

Two days before Christmas in 1856, E. P. Rhoads wed Amanda Ahlum in Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.

On 25 April 1858, E. P. and Amanda welcomed son Allen G. Rhoads (1858-1928) to their Allentown home. They also welcomed to the world three daughters: Elmira, Cora and Nellie. Nellie preceded her father in death; her son, Alvin Karr, was raised by E. P. The other three Rhoads offspring married, and began their own families in Ohio. Elmira wed L. C. Brittain, and resided in Toledo; Allen, who lived in Bellevue, passed away in Toledo. Cora wed Edwin Finn, and made her home in Defiance.

American Civil War

Emanuel P. Rhoads was perhaps best known to Keystone Staters as the commanding officer of Company B, 47th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. The initial recruitment for men to fill Company B launched in Allentown, Lehigh County. After the fall of Fort Sumter in April 1861, many of B Company’s earliest recruits entered the fray as members of Allentown’s famed Allen Rifles. Formed in 1849, the men of the Allen Rifles “wore regulation blue uniforms, carried Minie rifles, and under the instruction of Captain Good, who was noted as one of the ablest tacticians in the State of Pennsylvania, attained a degree of proficiency in Hardee’s tactics and the Zouave drill which won for them a reputation extending beyond the borders of the state,” according to Alfred Mathews and Austin N. Hungerford, authors of History of the Counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Responding to President Abraham Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers in April 1861, the Allen Rifles joined with the Jordan Artillerists, and marched off to defend the nation’s capital as Company I of the 1st Regiment, Pennsylvania Infantry.

E. P. Rhoads was one of those early responders. Having already served previously as a first lieutenant with the Allen Rifles in Allentown, he was awarded the same rank when he mustered into Company I of the 1st Pennsylvania Infantry at the age of twenty-seven.

After completing their Three Months’ Service with the 1st Pennsylvania Infantry and honorably mustering out at Camp Curtin in July 1861, E. P. Rhoads and many others from the Allen Rifles reenlisted, becoming the core of Company B in the newly formed 47th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. According to A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, authored by Lewis Schmidt, E. P. Rhoads was promoted to the rank of captain on 30 August 1861. Military records at the time described him as an imposing figure. Six feet tall with dark brown hair and black eyes, he had worked as a blacksmith in Lehigh County before enlisting.

The members of Company B re-enrolled (or enrolled for the first time) in Lehigh County at Allentown, and then mustered in for duty with the 47th Pennsylvania under E. P. Rhoads’ leadership on the final two days of August 1861 at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg, Dauphin County.

Following a brief training period at Camp Curtin in light infantry techniques, the 47th Pennsylvanians headed for Washington, D.C. There, roughly two miles from the White House, they were stationed at “Camp Kalorama” on the Kalorama Heights of Georgetown beginning 21 September. The next day, C Company Musician Henry D. Wharton penned the following update to the Sunbury American newspaper:

After a tedious ride we have, at last, safely arrived at the City of ‘magnificent distances.’ We left Harrisburg on Friday last at 1 o’clock A.M. and reached this camp yesterday (Saturday) at 4 P.M., as tired and worn out a sett [sic] of mortals as can possibly exist. On arriving at Washington we were marched to the ‘Soldiers Retreat,’ a building purposely erected for the benefit of the soldier, where every comfort is extended to him and the wants of the ‘inner man’ supplied.

After partaking of refreshments we were ordered into line and marched, about three miles, to this camp. So tired were the men, that on marching out, some gave out, and had to leave the ranks, but J. Boulton Young, our ‘little Zouave,’ stood it bravely, and acted like a veteran. So small a drummer is scarcely seen in the army, and on the march through Washington he was twice the recipient of three cheers.

Just days later, on 24 September, the men of Company B finally became part of the federal military service, mustering in with great ceremony to the U.S. Army with their fellow members of the 47th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. On a rainy 27 September, the men spent a drill-free morning writing letters home and reading, as regimental leaders were learning the 47th was being assigned to the 3rd Brigade of Brigadier-General Isaac Ingalls Stevens. By afternoon, they were on the move again, under marching orders to head for Camp Lyon, Maryland on the eastern side of the Potomac River.

Arriving late in the afternoon, they joined the 46th Pennsylvania in a double-quick march across a chain bridge, and then marched into Confederate territory toward Falls Church, Virginia. By dusk, after covering a total of roughly eight miles that day, they were ordered to erect their tents in a deep ravine at Camp Advance. Located about two miles from the Chain Bridge (strategically important enough to be labeled on federal maps as the “Chain Bridge”), they were also stationed near the Union’s new Fort Ethan Allen (still being completed) and near the headquarters of Brigadier-General William Farrar Smith, commander of the Union’s Army of the Potomac (“Mr. Lincoln’s Army”). There, they joined their regiment, 3rd Brigade and larger Army of the Potomac in helping to defend the nation’s capital with the Mississippi rifles supplied by their beloved Keystone State.

In October, they were ordered to proceed with the 3rd Brigade to Camp Griffin. On the 11th, Captain E. P. Rhoads and his Company joined the 47th in marching in the Grand Review at Bailey’s Cross Roads. Performing with great skill and enthusiasm, the soldiers of the 47th Pennsylvania were rewarded afterward with new Springfield rifles, courtesy of Brigadier-General John Milton Brannan.

Their next truly important assignment saw them quartered briefly in barracks at Annapolis, Maryland before receiving orders from the 3rd Brigade’s commander, Brigadier-General Brannan, to head for Key West, Florida.

1862

Departing for Florida on 27 January 1862 via the steamer Oriental, they arrived in February and were assigned to garrison Fort Taylor, one of several federal installations deemed strategically important by Union leaders. Although Florida had seceded from the Union in 1861, the state remained home to a fair number of Union supporters, including slaves fleeing captivity. Additionally, Forts Taylor (Key West) and Jefferson (Dry Tortugas) were key to the Union’s defense. While here, the men of the 47th drilled in heavy artillery and other battle strategies — as much as eight hours per day. On 14 February 1862, the regiment made itself known to area residents via a parade through the streets of Key West. That weekend, a number of the men mingled with residents while attending local church services.

Their time here was made more difficult due to the harsh climate and prevalence of disease. Many of the 47th’s men lost their lives to typhoid fever, or to dysentery and other ailments spread by poor sanitary conditions.

Ordered to Hilton Head, South Carolina from mid-June through July, the 47th Pennsylvania camped near Fort Walker and then quartered in the Beaufort District, Department of the South. Duties of 3rd Brigade at this time involved hazardous picket duty to the north of their main camp. According to Pennsylvania military historian, Samuel P. Bates, the 47th’s soldiers were known for their “attention to duty, discipline and soldierly bearing,” and “received the highest commendation from Generals Hunter and Brannan.”

On 30 September the 47th was sent on a return expedition to Florida where Captain E. P. Rhoads and B Company participated with their regiment and other Union forces from 1 to 3 October in capturing Saint John’s Bluff. Led by Brigadier-General Brannan, the fifteen hundred-plus Union force disembarked from gunboat-escorted troop carriers at Mayport Mills and Mount Pleasant Creek. With the 47th Pennsylvania in the lead and braving alligators, skirmishing Confederates and killer snakes, the brigade negotiated twenty-five of thickly forested swamps in order to take the bluff and pave the way for the Union’s occupation of Jacksonville, Florida.

Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina

From 21-23 October, the 47th engaged Confederate forces in the Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina. Landing under the brigade and regimental commands of Colonel Tilghman H. Good and Lieutenant-Colonel George W. Alexander at Mackay’s Point, the men of the 47th were placed on point once again. This time, however, their luck would run out. Bedeviled by snipers, they also faced resistance from an entrenched Confederate battery, which opened fire on the Union troops as they headed through an open cotton field. Those trying to reach the Frampton Plantation’s higher ground of were pounded by Confederate artillery and infantry hidden in the surrounding forests.

Charging into the fire, Union forces fought the Confederates where they found them, pushing them into a four-mile retreat to the Pocotaligo Bridge. At this juncture, the 47th then relieved the 7th Connecticut, but after two hours of exchanging fire while attempting, unsuccessfully, to take the ravine and bridge, the men of the 47th were forced by their dwindling ammunition to withdraw to Mackay’s Point.

Losses for the 47th Pennsylvania at Pocotaligo were significant. Two officers and eighteen enlisted men died; another two officers and one hundred and fourteen enlisted men were wounded. Several resting places for members of the 47th remain unidentified, their locations lost to sloppy Army or hospital records management, or because one comrade was forced to hastily bury or leave behind the body of another while dodging fire or retreating.

On 23 October, the 47th Pennsylvania headed back to Hilton Head, where it was awarded the high honor of firing the salute over the grave of Major-General Ormsby M. Mitchel, commander of the U.S. Army’s 10th Corps and Department of the South. Mitchel, who died of yellow fever on 30 October, had gained fame in 1846 as the astronomer who discovered the region on Mars known as The Mountains of Mitchel. The town of Mitchelville, the first Freedmen’s self-governed community created after the Civil War, was also named for him.

1863

By 1863, Captain E. P. Rhoads and the men of B Company were once again based with the 47th Pennsylvania in Florida. Having been ordered back to Key West on 15 November, they spent the whole of 1863 at Fort Taylor with their comrades from Companies A, C, E, G, and I while those from Companies D, F, H, and K were sent to garrison Fort Jefferson in the remote Dry Tortugas area of the state.

Much of their time was spent strengthening the fortifications of both installations. It also became a noteworthy year due to the casualties wrought among members of the regiment by disease and also for the clear commitment of the men of the 47th to preserving the Union. Many chose to reenlist when their terms of service expired, opting to finish the fight rather than returning home to families and friends.

1864

In early January 1864, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was ordered to expand the Union’s reach by sending part of the regiment north to retake possession of Fort Myers, a federal installation that had been abandoned in 1858 following the U.S. government’s third war with the Seminole Indians. Per orders issued earlier in 1864 by General D. P. Woodbury, Commanding Officer, U.S. Department of the Gulf, District of Key West and the Tortugas, that the fort be used to facilitate the Union’s Gulf Coast blockade, Captain Richard Graeffe and a group of men from Company A were charged with expanding the fort and conducting raids on area cattle herds to provide food for the growing Union troop presence across Florida. Graeffe and his men subsequently turned the fort into both their base of operations and a shelter for pro-Union supporters, escaped slaves, Confederate Army deserters, and others fleeing Rebel troops. According to Schmidt:

Often short on food and water, the regiment encamped briefly at Pleasant Hill the night of 7 April before continuing on the next day, marching until mid-afternoon.

Rushed into battle ahead of other regiments in the 2nd Division, sixty members of the 47th were cut down on 8 April during the volley of fire unleashed in the Battle of Sabine Cross Roads (also known as the Battle of Mansfield). The fighting waned only when darkness fell; the exhausted, uninjured men collapsed beside the gravely wounded. After midnight, the surviving Union troops withdrew to Pleasant Hill.

The next day, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were ordered into a critically important defensive position at the far right of the Union lines, their right flank spreading up onto a high bluff. By 3 p.m., after enduring a midday charge by the troops of Confederate General Richard Taylor (a plantation owner and son of Zachary Taylor, former president of the United States), the brutal fighting still showed no signs of ending. Suddenly, just as the 47th was shifting to the left side of the massed Union forces, the men of the 47th Pennsylvania were  forced to bolster the 165th New York’s buckling lines by blocking another Confederate assault.

During that engagement, which is now known as the Battle of Pleasant Hill, the 47th Pennsylvania succeeded in recapturing a Massachusetts artillery battery lost during the earlier Confederate assault but, once again, casualties were severe. Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander was nearly killed, and the regiment’s two color bearers, both from Company C, were also wounded while preventing the regimental flag from falling into enemy hands. Still others from the 47th were captured, marched roughly one hundred and twenty-five miles to Camp Ford near Tyler, Texas, and held there as prisoners of war (POWs) until they died there or were released during prisoner exchanges that began on 22 July and continued into November 1864.

Following what some historians have called a rout by Confederates at Pleasant Hill and others have labeled a technical victory for the Union or a draw for both sides, the 47th fell back to Grand Ecore, where they engaged in the hard labor of strengthening regimental and brigade fortifications for eleven days. They then moved back to Natchitoches Parish on 22 April, arriving at 10 p.m. that same night in Cloutierville, after marching forty-five miles. While en route, they were attacked again — this time at the rear of their brigade, but they were able to quickly end the encounter and continue on.

The next morning (23 April 1864), episodic skirmishing quickly roared into the flames of a robust fight. As part of the advance party led by Brigadier-General William Emory, the 47th Pennsylvanians took on Brigadier-General Hamilton P. Bee’s Confederate Cavalry in the Battle of Cane River (also known as “the Affair at Monett’s Ferry” or the “Cane River Crossing”).

Responding to a barrage from the Confederate artillery’s twenty-pound Parrott guns and raking fire from enemy troops situated near a bayou and on a bluff, Emory directed one of his brigades to keep Bee’s Confederates busy while sending two other brigades to find a safe spot where his Union troops could ford the Cane River. As part of the “beekeepers,” the 47th Pennsylvanians supported Emory’s artillery.

Meanwhile, other troops in Emory’s command worked their way across the Cane River, attacked Bee’s flank, forced a Rebel retreat, and erected a series of pontoon bridges, enabling the 47th and other remaining Union troops to make the Cane River Crossing by the next day. As the Confederates retreated, they torched their own food stores, as well as the cotton supplies of their fellow southerners. In a letter penned from Morganza, Louisiana on 29 May, Henry Wharton described what had happened to the 47th Pennsylvanians during and immediately after making camp at Grand Ecore:

Our sojourn at Grand Ecore was for eleven days, during which time our position was well fortified by entrenchments for a length of five miles, made of heavy logs, five feet high and six feet wide, filled in with dirt. In front of this, trees were felled for a distance of two hundred yards, so that if the enemy attacked we had an open space before us which would enable our forces to repel them and follow if necessary. But our labor seemed to the men as useless, for on the morning of 22d April, the army abandoned these works and started for Alexandria. From our scouts it was ascertained that the enemy had passed some miles to our left with the intention of making a stand against our right at Bayou Cane, where there is a high bluff and dense woods, and at the same attack Smith’s forces who were bringing up the rear. This first day was a hard one on the boys, for by ten o’clock at night they made Cloutierville, a distance of forty-five miles. On that day the rear was attacked which caused our forces to reverse their front and form in line of battle, expecting too, to go back to the relief of Smith, but he needed no assistance, sending word to the front that he had ‘whipped them, and could do it again.’ It was well that Banks made so long a march on that day, for on the next we found the enemy prepared to carry out their design of attacking us front and rear. Skirmishing commenced early in the morning and as our columns advanced he fell back towards the bayou, when we soon discovered the position of their batteries on the bluff. There was then an artillery duel by the smaller pieces, and some sharp fighting by the cavalry, when the ‘mule battery,’ twenty pound Parrott guns, opened a heavy fire, which soon dislodged them, forcing the chivalry to flee in a manner not at all suitable to their boasted courage. Before this one cavalry, the 3d Brigade of the 1st Div., and Birges’ brigade of the second, had crossed the bayou and were doing good service, which, with the other work, made the enemy show their heels. The 3d brigade done some daring deeds in this fight, as also did the cavalry. In one instance the 3d charged up a hill almost perpendicular, driving the enemy back by the bayonet without firing a gun. The woods on this bluff was so thick that the cavalry had to dismount and fight on foot. During the whole of the day, our brigade, the 2d was supporting artillery, under fire all the time, and could not give Mr. Reb a return shot.

While we were fighting in front, Smith was engaged some miles in the rear, but he done his part well and drove them back. The rebel commanders thought by attacking us in the rear, and having a large face on the bluffs, they would be able to capture our train and take us all prisoners, but in this they were mistaken, for our march was so rapid that we were on them before they had thrown up the necessary earthworks. Besides they underrated the amount of our artillery, calculating from the number engaged at Pleasant Hill. The rebel prisoners say it ‘seems as though the Yankees manufacture, on short notice, artillery to order, and the men are furnished with wings when they wish to make a certain point.

The damage done to the Confederate cause by the burning of cotton was immense. On the night of the 22d our route was lighted up for miles and millions of dollars worth of this production was destroyed. This loss will be felt more by Davis & Co., than several defeats in this region, for the basis of the loan in England was on the cotton of Western Louisiana.

After the rebels had fled from the bluff the negro troops put down the pontoons, and by ten that night we were six miles beyond the bayou safely encamped. The next morning we moved forward and in two days were in Alexandria. Johnnys followed Smith’s forces, keeping out of range of his guns, except when he had gained the eminence across the bayou, when he punished them (the rebs) severely.

Having finally reached Alexandria on 26 April, the 47th Pennsylvanians learned they would remain at their latest new camp for at least two weeks. Placed temporarily under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Bailey, they were assigned yet again to the hard labor of fortification work, helping to erect “Bailey’s Dam,” a timber structure that enabled Union gunboats to more easily make their way back down the Red River. While stationed in Rapides Parish in late April and early May, according to Wharton:

We were at Alexandria seventeen days, during which time the men were kept busy at throwing up earthworks, foraging and three times went out some distance to meet the enemy, but they did not make their appearance in numbers large enough for an engagement. The water in the Red river had fallen so much that it prevented the gunboats from operating with us, and kept our transports from supplying the troops with rations, (and you know soldiers, like other people, will eat) so Banks was compelled to relinquish his designs on Shreveport and fall back to the Mississippi. To do this a large dam had to be built on the falls at Alexandria to get the ironclads down the river. After a great deal of labor this was accomplished and by the morning of May 13th the last one was through the shute [sic], when we bade adieu to Alexandria, marching through the town with banners flying and keeping step to the music of ‘Rally around the flag,’ and ‘When this cruel war is over.’ The next morning, at our camping place, the fleet of boats passed us, when we were informed that Alexandria had been destroyed by fire – the act of a dissatisfied citizen and several negroes. Incendiary acts were strictly forbidden in a general order the day before we left the place, and a cavalry guard was left in the rear to see the order enforced. After marching a few miles skirmishing commenced in front between the cavalry and the enemy in riflepits [sic] on the bank of the river, but they were easily driven away. When we came up we discovered their pits and places where there had been batteries planted. At this point the John Warren, an unarmed transport, on which were sick soldiers and women, was fired into and sunk, killing many and those that were not drowned taken prisoners. A tin-clad gunboat was destroyed at the same place, by which we lost a large mail. Many letters and directed envelopes were found on the bank – thrown there after the contents had been read by the unprincipled scoundrels. The inhumanity of Guerrilla bands in this department is beyond belief, and if one did not know the truth of it or saw some of their barbarities, he would write it down as the story of a ‘reliable gentleman’ or as told by an ‘intelligent contraband.’ Not satisfied with his murderous intent on unarmed transports he fires into the Hospital steamer Laurel Hill, with four hundred sick on board. This boat had the usual hospital signal floating fore and aft, yet, notwithstanding all this, and the customs of war, they fired on them, proving by this act that they are more hardened than the Indians on the frontier.

On Sunday, May 15, we left the river road and took a short route through the woods, saving considerable distance. The windings of Red river are so numerous that it resembles the tape-worm railroad wherewith the politicians frightened the dear people during the administration of Ritner and Stevens. – We stopped several hours in the woods to leave cavalry pass, when we moved forward and by four o’clock emerged into a large open plain where we formed in line of battle, expecting a regular engagement. The enemy, however, retired and we advanced ‘till dark, when the forces halted for the night, with orders to rest on their arms. – ‘Twas here that Banks rode through our regiment, amidst the cheers of the boys, and gave the pleasant news that Grant had defeated Lee.

Having entered Avoyelles Parish, they “rested on their arms” for the night, half-dozing without pitching their tents, but with their rifles right beside them. They were now positioned just outside of Marksville, Louisiana on the eve of the 16 May 1864 Battle of Mansura, which unfolded as follows, according to Wharton:

Early next morning we marched through Marksville into a prairie nine miles long and six wide where every preparation was made for a fight. The whole of our force was formed in line, in support of artillery in front, who commenced operations on the enemy driving him gradually from the prairie into the woods. As the enemy retreated before the heavy fire of our artillery, the infantry advanced in line until they reached Mousoula [sic], where they formed in column, taking the whole field in an attempt to flank the enemy, but their running qualities were so good that we were foiled. The maneuvring [sic] of the troops was handsomely done, and the movements was [sic] one of the finest things of the war. The fight of artillery was a steady one of five miles. The enemy merely stood that they might cover the retreat of their infantry and train under cover of their artillery. Our loss was slight. Of the rebels we could not ascertain correctly, but learned from citizens who had secreted themselves during the fight, that they had many killed and wounded, who threw them into wagons, promiscuously, and drove them off so that we could not learn their casualties. The next day we moved to Simmsport [sic, Simmesport] on the Achafalaya [sic, Atchafalaya] river, where a bridge was made by putting the transports side by side, which enabled the troops and train to pass safely over. – The day before we crossed the rebels attacked Smith, thinking it was but the rear guard, in which they, the graybacks, were awfully cut up, and four hundred prisoners fell into our hands. Our loss in killed and wounded was ninety. This fight was the last one of the expedition. The whole of the force is safe on the Mississippi, gunboats, transports and trains. The 16th and 17th have gone to their old commands.

It is amusing to read the statements of correspondents to papers North, concerning our movements and the losses of our army. I have it from the best source that the Federal loss from Franklin to Mansfield, and from their [sic] to this point does not exceed thirty-five hundred in killed, wounded and missing, while that of the rebels is over eight thousand.

Continuing on, the surviving members of the 47th marched for Simmesport and then Morganza, where they made camp again. While encamped there, the nine formerly enslaved Black men who had enlisted with the 47th Pennsylvania in Beaufort, South Carolina (1862) and Natchitoches, Louisiana (April 1864) were officially mustered into the regiment between 20-24 June 1864. The regiment then moved on once again, and arrived in New Orleans in late June.

As they did during their tour through the Carolinas and Florida, the men of the 47th had battled the elements and disease, as well as the Confederate Army, in order to continue to defend their nation. Ironically, on the Fourth of July — “Independence Day” — they learned from their superior officers that their independence from military life would not be happening anytime soon. The regiment had received new orders to return to the Eastern Theater of the war.

* Note: Removed from command amid the controversy over the Union Army’s successes and failures during the Red River Expedition, Union Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks was placed on leave by President Abraham Lincoln. Banks subsequently spent much of his time in Washington, D.C. as a Reconstruction advocate for Louisiana.

Sheridan’s 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign

After receiving orders to return to the East Coast, they did so in two stages. Companies A, C, D, E, F, H, and I steamed for the Washington, D.C. area beginning 7 July while the men from Companies B, G and K remained behind on detached duty and to await transportation. Led by F Company Captain Henry S. Harte, they finally sailed away at the end of the month, arrived in Virginia on 28 July, and reconnected with the bulk of the regiment at Monocacy, Virginia on 2 August.

Due to the delay, the boys from B Company missed out on a memorable encounter with President Abraham Lincoln, and also missed the fighting at Snicker’s Gap, Virginia.

Attached to the Middle Military Division, U.S. Army of the Shenandoah in Virginia, beginning in August 1864, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was initially assigned to defensive duties in and around Halltown during the opening days of that month before engaging in a series of back-and-forth movements over the next several weeks between Halltown, Berryville and other locations within that vicinity (Middletown, Charlestown and Winchester) as part of a “mimic war” being waged by the Union forces of Major-General Philip H. Sheridan with those commanded by Confederate Lieutenant-General Jubal Early.

From 3-4 September, the 47th Pennsylvania took part in the Battle of Berryville, Virginia. Clean-up skirmishes were then waged with Confederate stragglers over the next several days. But that would be the last battle that Captain Emanuel P. Rhoads would fight. On 18 September 1864, he and multiple other members of the regiment were honorably discharged at Berryville upon expiration of their respective three-year terms of enlistment.

Return to Civilian Life

Following his honorable discharge from the military, E. P. Rhoads returned home to his wife and children in Pennsylvania. Sometime around 1865, he moved his wife and children to West Lodi in Seneca County, Ohio. There, he supported his family as a merchant while serving his community as postmaster.

After roughly a decade, he and his family moved to the community of Defiance in Defiance County, Ohio. The site of Forts Defiance and Winchester, key locations in the U.S. Government’s westward expansion plans for America in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Defiance officially became a town in 1822, the county seat in 1845 and, in 1881, a full-fledged city.

It was here, in Defiance, that Rhoads began his 30-year tenure with the Turnbull Wagon Works. A brief mention in The Tiffin Tribune of Tiffin, Ohio also described him as one of the “village blacksmiths” during the early 1870s. The same newspaper reported in its 4 May 1876 edition that “E. P. Rhoads has resumed work again in the blacksmith shop.”

He never forgot his roots, however, making periodic trips back to Pennsylvania to visit family and old friends. An active member of the Grand Army of the Republic, his aging, but still dignified visage was captured by his G.A.R. comrades from the Bishop Post No. 22 in a 1908 photograph that has been preserved by the Defiance County Public Library.

Following a long, full life dedicated to country and community, Emanuel P. Rhoads died at his residence at 200 Main Street in Defiance, Ohio on Wednesday, 19 August 1914 at 10:45 a.m. He was interred as E. P. Rhoads at the Riverside Cemetery in Defiance on 21 August 1914.

The Allentown Democrat reported the passing of the old soldier in its 22 August 1914 edition as follows:

CAPT. E. P. RHOADS DIED WEDNESDAY
End Came at His Ohio Home; Was Native of Lehigh County.

Captain Emmanuel P. Rhoads [sic], who commanded Company B, Forty-seventh Regiment, in the Civil War, died at his residence, 200 Main street, Defiance, Ohio, on Wednesday morning at 10:45 and was buried yesterday. Captain Rhoads was born in a stone house at Seventh and Linden streets, where J. S. Lentz’s grocery store is now located on November 11, 1833. He was the son of Stephen Rhoads and his wife Helen H. Newhard, and the grandson of Peter Rhoads, Jr., President of the old Northampton Bank from 1814 to 1836.

In 1857 he engaged in the manufacture of agricultural implements with his uncle, Thomas Newhard, at Linden and Church streets, and later at Linden, above Seventh street.

He became active in military affairs and was First Lieutenant in the Allen Rifles. At the outbreak of the Civil War when the Allen Rifles and Jordan Artillerists combined and formed Company I of the First Pennsylvania Regiment, he was elected First Lieutenant. The company left for Harrisburg, on Thursday April 18, 1861, and was mustered into the U.S. service on April 20th, serving until July 26th.

Upon the organization of the Forty-seventh Regiment, he was elected Captain, of Company B, on August 30, 1861, and served until mustered out on Sept. 18, 1864 at Berryville, Va.

He participated in the battles of Pocotaligo, S.C.; St. John’s Bluff, Fla.; Munsura [sic] Plains, Yellow Bayou, Berryville and Bunker’s Hill, in engagements in the Shenandoah Valley, in the Red River expedition and was stationed at Key West.

In October, 1862, Company B and Company E, of Easton, were sent in pursuit for the enemy, through pine woods and swamps, and after a sharp skirmish took Jacksonville, Fla., and proceeded 200 miles up the St. John’s river and captured the Confederate steamer, “Gov. Milton.”

Caption Rhoads removed to Ohio, after the war and was storekeeper and postmaster at West Lodi, Seneca county, for ten years, after which he removed to Defiance, Ohio, where he was connected with the Turnbull Wagon Works for thirty years.

He was a member of Wm. Bishop Post, No. 22, G.A.R., of Ohio, and Past Major of Phelps Commandery, No. 4, Union Veteran Legion.

He married, at Allentown, Dec. 23, 1856, Amanda C. Ahlum, who died Feb. 20, 1913. Three children survive: Allen G. Rhoads of Bellevue, Ohio; Elmira K., wife of L.C. Brittain, of Toledo, Ohio and Cora L., wife of Edwin Finn, of Defiance, one daughter, Nellie M., is deceased, whose son, Alvin, P. Karr, made his home with his grandfather.

Captain Rhoads was a noted drillmaster and was greatly admired by his men. Twelve grandchildren, survive, with one brother, Edwin A. Rhoads, of North Whitehall, and two sisters, Mrs. Sarah C. Lightcap and Mrs. Alice S. Roberts, of Allentown, as well as several nephews and nieces, among whom is Charles R. Roberts, who received the telegram announcing his uncle’s death, and who last visited him in 1904. Captain Rhoads’ last visit to Allentown was in 1899.

 

Sources:

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