Alternate Spellings of Surname: Wolf, Woolf, Woolfe

 

Among the many sons of Northumberland County who uprooted themselves in order to defend their nation when it had reached one of its most perilous times in history, Peter Wolf was another of the Northumberland County natives whose path in life was irrevocably altered by the hand of fate during the American Civil War. Had he been positioned several feet ahead or behind of where he stood one terrible day in October 1862—or even to his right or left, he might have had an entirely different future.

But he wasn’t. As a result, he drew his final breath on a battlefield far away from the loving arms of his mother and all he had come to know in the rural part of Pennsylvania where he had matured to manhood.

Formative Years

Born in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania circa 1838, Peter Wolf was a son of Thomas Wolf (1809-1864) and Susanna (Clemens) Wolf (1812-1887), who were married in Sunbury, Northumberland County by the Rev. Richard Fisher on 7 January 1833.

Peter Wolf was raised in Northumberland County with his siblings: Jacob (1832-1889); Mary Ann (1834-1919), who was born on 7 September 1834 and later wed Henry Bastian Conrad (1829-1899) in 1857; Samuel Wolf (1844-1903), who was born in 1844 and later wed a woman named Lucy (1847-1900); Susanna (1845-1921), who was born on 23 January 1845 and later wed James D. Lytle (1841-1910); Christiana, who was born circa 1846; and Cyrus (1847-1852), who was born on 12 March 1847, died at the age of four on 15 February 1852, and was interred at Lantz’s Emanuel Cemetery in Sunbury.

By 1860, Peter Wolf was still living with his parents in Lower Augusta Township. Also part of the household that year were his siblings Jacob, Samuel, Susanna, and Henry. Their father supported their family on the wages of a blacksmith.

Sometime during the early 1860s, Peter Wolf found work as a miller, enabling him to support his family by selling wheat and flour.

Civil War

On 19 August 1861, Peter Wolf became one of Pennsylvania’s early responders to President Abraham Lincoln’s calls for volunteers “to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union, and the perpetuity of popular government; and to redress wrongs already long enough endured” when he enrolled for military service at the Court House in Sunbury. He then officially mustered in for duty at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg on 2 September 1861 as a private with Company C of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.

Military records described him as a twenty-three-year-old miller from Sunbury who was five feet, seven inches tall with sandy hair, blue eyes and a light complexion.

* Note: Mustering in from mid-August through early September at Camp Curtin under the leadership of Captain John Peter Shindel Gobin, Company C’s roster of soldiers reached a total of 101 men by 17 September. Among Company C’s ranks were both the youngest and oldest members of the regiment, John Boulton Young (aged twelve) and Benjamin Walls (aged sixty-five).

In a letter sent to family during Company C’s earliest days, Captain Gobin provided these details regarding his regiment’s status:

We expect to leave tonight for Washington or Baltimore. Our company has been made the color company of the regiment, the letter being accorded to rotation used, C. It is the same as E in the 11th. Wm. M. Hendricks has been appointed Sergeant Major, so that Sunbury is pretty well represented in the regiment, having the Quartermaster, Sergeant Major and Color Company…. Boulton is lying by me as I write, just about going to sleep.

Following a brief training period in light infantry tactics, during which time the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were housed at Camp Curtin No. 2, which was located on the field next to the main camp, the men of Company C were then transported by train with their fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers to Washington, D.C. where, beginning 21 September, they were stationed roughly two miles from the White House at “Camp Kalorama” on the Kalorama Heights near Georgetown.

“It is a very fine location for a camp,” wrote Captain Gobin. “Good water is handy, while Rock Creek, which skirts one side of us, affords an excellent place for washing and bathing.”

Henry Wharton, a musician from C Company penned the following update for the Sunbury American on 22 September:

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.

We were reviewed by Gen. McClellan yesterday [21 September 1861] without our knowing it. All along the march we noticed a considerable number of officers, both mounted and on foot; the horse of one of the officers was so beautiful that he was noticed by the whole regiment, in fact, so wrapt [sic] up were they in the horse, the rider wasn’t noticed, and the boys were considerably mortified this morning on dis-covering they had missed the sight of, and the neglect of not saluting the soldier next in command to Gen. Scott.

Col. Good, who has command of our regiment, is an excellent man and a splendid soldier. He is a man of very few words, and is continually attending to his duties and the wants of the Regiment.

I am happy to inform you that our young townsman, Mr. William Hendricks, has received the appointment of Sergeant Major to our Regiment. He made his first appearance at guard mounting this morning; he looked well, done up his duties admirably, and, in time, will make an excellent officer. Our Regiment will now be put to hard work; such as drilling and the usual business of camp life, and the boys expect and hope for an occasional ‘pop’ at the enemy.

On 24 September, the men of Company C became part of the federal military service, mustering in with great pomp and gravity to the United States Army with their fellow members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers. Three days later, the 47th Pennsylvania was assigned to the 3rd Brigade of Brigadier-General Isaac Ingalls Stevens, which also included the 33rd, 49th and 79th New York regiments. By that afternoon, the 47th Pennsylvania was on the move again. Ordered onward by Brigadier-General Silas Casey, the Mississippi rifle-armed 47th Pennsylvania infantrymen marched behind their regimental band until reaching Camp Lyon, Maryland on the Potomac River’s eastern shore. At 5 p.m., they joined the 46th Pennsylvania in moving double-quick (one hundred and sixty-five steps per minute using thirty-three-inch steps) across the “Chain Bridge” marked on federal maps, and continued on for roughly another mile before being ordered to make camp.

The next morning, they broke camp and moved again. Marching toward Falls Church, Virginia, they arrived at Camp Advance around dusk. There, about two miles from the bridge they had crossed a day earlier, they re-pitched their tents in a deep ravine near a new federal fort under construction (Fort Ethan Allen). They had completed a roughly eight-mile trek, were situated close to the headquarters of Brigadier-General William Farrar Smith (also known as “Baldy”), and were now part of the massive U.S. Army of the Potomac (“Mr. Lincoln’s Army”). Under Smith’s leadership, their regiment and brigade would help to defend the nation’s capital from the time of their September arrival through late January when the men of the 47th Pennsylvania would be shipped south.

Once again, Company C Musician Henry Wharton recapped the regiment’s activities, noting, via his 29 September letter home to the Sunbury American, that the 47th had changed camps three times in three days:

On Friday last we left Camp Kalorama, and the same night encamped about one mile from the Chain Bridge on the opposite side of the Potomac from Washington. The next morning, Saturday, we were ordered to this Camp [Camp Advance near Fort Ethan Allen, Virginia], one and a half miles from the one we occupied the night previous. I should have mentioned that we halted on a high hill (on our march here) at the Chain Bridge, called Camp Lyon, but were immediately ordered on this side of the river. On the route from Kalorama we were for two hours exposed to the hardest rain I ever experienced. Whew, it was a whopper; but the fellows stood it well – not a murmur – and they waited in their wet clothes until nine o’clock at night for their supper. Our Camp adjoins that of the N.Y. 79th (Highlanders.)….

We had not been in this Camp more than six hours before our boys were supplied with twenty rounds of ball and cartridge, and ordered to march and meet the enemy; they were out all night and got back to Camp at nine o’clock this morning, without having a fight. They are now in their tents taking a snooze preparatory to another march this morning…. I don’t know how long the boys will be gone, but the orders are to cook two days’ rations and take it with them in their haversacks….

There was a nice little affair came off at Lavensville [sic, Lewinsville], a few miles from here on Wednesday last; our troops surprised a party of rebels (much larger than our own.) killing ten, took a Major prisoner, and captured a large number of horses, sheep and cattle, besides a large quantity of corn and potatoes, and about ninety six tons of hay. A very nice day’s work. The boys are well, in fact, there is no sickness of any consequence at all in our Regiment….

Sometime during this phase of duty, as part of the 3rd Brigade, the 47th Pennsylvanians were moved to a site they initially christened “Camp Big Chestnut” in reference to the large chestnut tree located within their campsite’s boundaries. The site would eventually become known to the Keystone Staters as “Camp Griffin,” and was located roughly ten miles from Washington, D.C.

On 11 October, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers marched in the Grand Review at Bailey’s Cross Roads. In a letter home in mid-October, Captain John Peter Shindel Gobin (the leader of C Company who would be promoted in 1864 to lead the entire 47th Regiment) reported that companies D, A, C, F and I (the 47th Pennsylvania’s right wing) were ordered to picket duty after the left-wing companies (B, G, K, E, and H) had been forced to return to camp by Confederate troops:

I was ordered to take my company to Stewart’s house, drive the Rebels from it, and hold it at all hazards. It was about 3 o’clock in the morning, so waiting until it was just getting day, I marched 80 men up; but the Rebels had left after driving Capt. Kacy’s company [H] into the woods. I took possession of it, and stationed my men, and there we were for 24 hours with our hands on our rifles, and without closing an eye. I took ten men, and went out scouting within half a mile of the Rebels, but could not get a prisoner, and we did not dare fire on them first. Do not think I was rash, I merely obeyed orders, and had ten men with me who could whip a hundred; Brosius, Piers [sic, Pyers], Harp and McEwen were among the number. Every man in the company wanted to go. The Rebels did not attack us, and if they had they would have met with a warm reception, as I had my men posted in such a manner that I could have whipped a regiment. My men were all ready and anxious for a ‘fight.

In his letter of 13 October, Henry Wharton described their duties, as well as their new home:

The location of our camp is fine and the scenery would be splendid if the view was not obstructed by heavy thickets of pine and innumerable chesnut [sic] trees. The country around us is excellent for the Rebel scouts to display their bravery; that is, to lurk in the dense woods and pick off one of our unsuspecting pickets. Last night, however, they (the Rebels) calculated wide of their mark; some of the New York 33d boys were out on picket; some fourteen or fifteen shots were exchanged, when our side succeeded in bringing to the dust, (or rather mud,) an officer and two privates of the enemy’s mounted pickets. The officer was shot by a Lieutenant in Company H [?], of the 33d.

Our own boys have seen hard service since we have been on the ‘sacred soil.’ One day and night on picket, next day working on entrenchments at the Fort, (Ethan Allen.) another on guard, next on march and so on continually, but the hardest was on picket from last Thursday morning ‘till Saturday morning – all the time four miles from camp, and both of the nights the rain poured in torrents, so much so that their clothes were completely saturated with the rain. They stood it nobly – not one complaining; but from the size of their haversacks on their return, it is no wonder that they were satisfied and are so eager to go again tomorrow. I heard one of them say ‘there was such nice cabbage, sweet and Irish potatoes, turnips, &c., out where their duty called them, and then there was a likelihood of a Rebel sheep or young porker advancing over our lines and then he could take them as ‘contraband’ and have them for his own use.’ When they were out they saw about a dozen of the Rebel cavalry and would have had a bout with them, had it not been for…unlucky circumstance – one of the men caught the hammer of his rifle in the strap of his knapsack and caused his gun to fire; the Rebels heard the report and scampered in quick time….

A Sad, Unwanted Distinction

On 17 October 1861, death claimed the first member of the entire regiment—the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers’ little drummer boy, John Boulton Young. The pain of his loss was deeply and widely felt; Boulty (also spelled as “Boltie”) had become a favorite not just among the men of his own C Company, but of the entire 47th. After contracting Variola (smallpox), he was initially treated in camp, but was shipped back to the Kalorama eruptive fever hospital in Georgetown when it became evident that he needed more intensive care than could be provided at the 47th’s regimental hospital in Virginia.

According to Lewis Schmidt, author of A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers, Captain Gobin wrote to Boulty’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell Young of Sunbury, “It is with the most profound feelings of sorrow I ever experienced that I am compelled to announce to you the death of our Pet, and your son, Boulton.” After receiving the news of Boulty’s death, Gobin said that he “immediately started for Georgetown, hoping the tidings would prove untrue.”

Alas! when I reached there I found that little form that I had so loved, prepared for the grave. Until a short time before he died the symptoms were very favorable, and every hope was entertained of his recovery… He was the life and light of our company, and his death has caused a blight and sadness to prevail, that only rude wheels of time can efface… Every attention was paid to him by the doctors and nurses, all being anxious to show their devotion to one so young. I have had him buried, and ordered a stone for his grave, and ere six months pass a handsome monument, the gift of Company C, will mark the spot where rests the idol of their hearts. I would have sent the body home but the nature of his disease prevented it. When we return, however, if we are so fortunate, the body will accompany us… Everything connected with Boulty shall by attended to, no matter what the cost is. His effects that can be safely sent home, together with his pay, will be forwarded to you.

Also according to Schmidt, Gobin added the following details in a separate letter to friends:

The doctor… told me it was the worst case he ever saw. It was the regular black, confluent small pox… I had him vaccinated at Harrisburg, but it would not take, and he must have got the disease from some of the old Rebel camps we visited, as their army is full of it. There is only one more case in our regiment, and he is off in the same hospital.

Boulty’s death even made the news nationally via Washington newspapers and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Just thirteen years old when he died, John Boulton Young was initially interred at the Military Asylum Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Established in August 1861 on the grounds of the Soldiers’ Home, the cemetery was easily seen from a neighboring cottage that was used by President Abraham Lincoln and his family as a place of respite.

In letters home later that month, Captain Gobin asked Sunbury residents to donate blankets for the Sunbury Guards:

The government has supplied them with one blanket apiece, which, as the cold weather approaches, is not sufficient…. Some of my men have none, two of them, Theodore Kiehl and Robert McNeal, having given theirs to our lamented drummer boy when he was taken sick… Each can give at least one blanket, (no matter what color, although we would prefer dark,) and never miss it, while it would add to the comfort of the soldiers tenfold. Very frequently while on picket duty their overcoats and blankets are both saturated by the rain. They must then wait until they can dry them by the fire before they can take their rest.

On Friday, 22 October, the 47th engaged in a morning Divisional Review, described by Schmidt as massing “about 10,000 infantry, 1000 cavalry, and twenty pieces of artillery all in one big open field.”

In early November, Captain Gobin observed that “the health of the Company and Regiment are in the best condition. No cases of small pox [sic]  have appeared since the death of Boultie.” A few patients remained in the hospital with fever, including D. W. Kembel and another member of Company C. Gobin reported that Kembel was “almost well.”

Half of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, including Company C, were next ordered to join parts of the 33rd Maine and 46th New York in extending the reach of their division’s picket lines, which they did successfully to “a half mile beyond Lewinsville,” according to Captain Gobin.

In his letter of 17 November, Henry Wharton revealed still more details about life at Camp Griffin:

This morning our brigade was out for inspection; arms, accoutrements [sic], clothing, knapsacks, etc, all were out through a thorough examination, and if I must say it myself, our company stood best, A No. 1, for cleanliness. We have a new commander to our Brigade, Brigadier General Brannen [sic], of the U.S. Army, and if looks are any criterion, I think he is a strict disciplinarian and one who will be as able to get his men out of danger as he is willing to lead them to battle….

The boys have plenty of work to do, such as piquet [sic] duty, standing guard, wood-chopping, police duty and day drill; but then they have the most substantial food; our rations consist of fresh beef (three times a week) pickled pork, pickled beef, smoked pork, fresh bread, daily, which is baked by our own bakers, the Quartermaster having procured portable ovens for that purpose, potatoes, split peas, beans, occasionally molasses and plenty of good coffee, so you see Uncle Sam supplies us plentifully….

A few nights ago our Company was out on piquet [sic]; it was a terrible night, raining very hard the whole night, and what made it worse, the boys had to stand well to their work and dare not leave to look for shelter. Some of them consider they are well paid for their exposure, as they captured two ancient muskets belonging to Secessia. One of them is of English manufacture, and the other has the Virginia militia mark on it. They are both in a dilapidated condition, but the boys hold them in high estimation as they are trophies from the enemy, and besides they were taken from the house of Mrs. Stewart, sister to the rebel Jackson who assassinated the lamented Ellsworth at Alexandria. The honorable lady, Mrs. Stewart, is now a prisoner at Washington and her house is the headquarters of the command of the piquets [sic]….

Since the success of the secret expedition, we have all kinds of rumors in camp. One is that our Brigade will be sent to the relief of Gen. Sherman, in South Carolina. The boys all desire it and the news in the ‘Press’ is correct, that a large force is to be sent there, I think their wish will be gratified….

Then, on 21 November, the 47th participated in a morning divisional headquarters review overseen by Colonel Tilghman H. Good, followed by brigade and division drills all afternoon. According to Schmidt, “each man was supplied with ten blank cartridges…. After the reviews and inspections, Gen. Smith requested Gen. Brannan to inform Col. Good that the 47th was the best regiment in the whole division.”

As a reward for the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers’ outstanding performance during this review and in preparation for the even bigger adventures yet to come, Brigadier-General John Milton Brannan directed his staff to ensure that new Springfield rifles were obtained and distributed to every member of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers.

As the holidays approached, Regimental Quartermaster James Van Dyke, who was enjoying an approved furlough at home in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, was able to procure “various articles of comfort, for the inner as well as the outer man,” according to the 21 December 1861 edition of the Sunbury American. Upon his return to camp, many of the 47th Pennsylvanians of German heritage were pleasantly surprised to learn that the well-liked former sheriff of Sunbury had thoughtfully brought a sizable supply of sauerkraut with him. The German equivalent of “comfort food,” this favored treat warmed stomachs and lifted more than a few spirits that first cold winter away from loved ones.

1862

Having been ordered to move from their Virginia encampment back to Maryland, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers left Camp Griffin at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, 22 January 1862. Marching through deep mud with their equipment for three miles in order to reach the railroad station at Falls Church, they were transported by rail to Alexandria, where they boarded the steamship City of Richmond in order to sail the Potomac River to the Washington Arsenal, where they were reequipped before they were marched off again for dinner and rest at the Soldiers’ Retreat in Washington, D.C.

The next afternoon, the 47th Pennsylvanians hopped aboard Baltimore & Ohio Railroad cars and headed for Annapolis, Maryland. Arriving around 10 p.m., they were assigned quarters in barracks at the United States Naval Academy. They then spent that Friday through Monday (24-27 January 1862) loading their equipment and other supplies onto the steamship U.S. Oriental.

Ferried to the big steamship by smaller steamers on 27 January, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers commenced boarding the Oriental for the final time, with the officers stepping aboard last. Then, per the directive of Brigadier-General John Milton Brannan, they steamed away for the Deep South at 4 p.m. They were headed for Florida which, despite its secession from the Union, remained strategically important to the Union due to the presence of Fort Taylor (Key West) and Fort Jefferson (Dry Tortugas).

In February 1862, Private Peter Wolf and his fellow 47th Pennsylvanians arrived in Key West to assume garrison duties at Fort Taylor. Initially pitching their Sibley tents on the beach after disembarking, they were gradually reassigned to improved quarters. During this phase of duty, they drilled daily in heavy artillery tactics and other military strategies, felled trees, helped to build new roads, and strengthened the fortifications in and around the Union Army’s presence at Key West and began to introduce themselves to locals by parading through the town’s streets during the weekend of Friday, 14 February. They also attended area church services that Sunday—a community outreach activity they would continue to perform on and off for the duration of their Key West service.

But while there were pleasant moments, there was also more frustration and heartache—the time here for the 47th made more difficult by the presence of typhoid fever and other tropical diseases, as well as the always likely dysentery from soldiers living in close, unsanitary conditions. A significant number of 47th Pennsylvanians were ultimately discharged via surgeons’ certificates of disability.

In a letter penned from the Judicial Department Headquarters in Key West on 30 March 1862, C Company Captain Gobin wrote:

Henry W. Wolf has been very sick, but is almost well again. He had the Typhoid fever. The fever is broke, but he is weak yet. He will go on duty in a day or two. Theodore Keihl [sic, Kiehl] is the only sick man I have now that is at all bad, and he is not dangerous. Sam Miller was in the Hospital but he came back this morning. The weather is very warm. The [two illegible words] commences on Tuesday after which all [repels?] will be searched before allowed to come in. By this means we will keep off the Yellow fever which is the only thing dangerous. One of my men (Whisler) was bit by a scorpion yesterday but took precautionary measures instantly and no danger is apprehended. But my sheet is full. Remember me to all friends. Write soon. God bless you all.

Your
J. P. Shindel Gobin

Attached to a letter written on 10 April 1862 by Henry Wharton from the Court Room in the Key West Barracks, where Captain Gobin was getting up to speed with his new job as Judge Advocate General for the city of Key West, Gobin wrote the following note to his family and friends back home in Sunbury:

I did not think I would have time to add a word, but I did not get this in the mail this afternoon, and tonight after eleven  [illegible word] I get an opportunity to scribble this. Four letters were rcvd and I was glad to hear from you. I am kept very busy but have got a house, and get along [fully?]. I like my new position despite the hard work. My men are getting along very well. Theo Keihl [sic] is in the Hospital, but is nearly well. [Illegible name due to damaged letter segment which was poorly repasted] is well but weak. The rest are all well. Remember me to all friends.

Your Shindel

Next ordered to Hilton Head, South Carolina from mid-June through July, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers camped near Fort Walker before relocating to the Beaufort District in the U.S. Army’s Department of the South, roughly thirty-five miles away. Frequently assigned to hazardous picket detail north of their main camp, which put them at increased risk from enemy sniper fire, the members of the 47th Pennsylvania became known for their “attention to duty, discipline and soldierly bearing,” and “received the highest commendation from Generals Hunter and Brannan,” according to historian Samuel P. Bates.

Detachments from the regiment were also assigned to the Expedition to Fenwick Island (9 July) and the Demonstration against Pocotaligo (10 July).

Victory and First Blood

Sent on a return expedition to Florida as September 1862 waned, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers saw their first truly intense moments of military service when their respective companies participated with other Union regiments in the capture of Saint John’s Bluff from 1 to 3 October.

Commanded by Brigadier-General Brannan, the 47th Pennsylvanians disembarked with a 1,500-plus Union force at Mayport Mills and Mount Pleasant Creek from troop carriers guarded by Union gunboats.

Taking point, the 47th Pennsylvanians then led the 3rd Brigade through twenty-five miles of dense, pine forested swamps populated with deadly snakes and alligators. By the time the expedition ended, the Union brigade had forced the Confederate Army to abandon its artillery battery atop Saint John’s Bluff.

According to Henry Wharton, “On the day following our occupation of these works the guns were dismounted and removed on board the steamer Neptune, together with the shot and shell, and removed to Hilton Head. The powder was all used in destroying the batteries.”

Meanwhile that same weekend (Friday and Saturday, 3-4 October 1862), Brigadier-General Brannan, who was quartered on board the Ben Deford as the Union expedition’s commanding officer, and other Union officers serving under Brannan, were busy penning reports to their respective superiors, and were also planning their next move to further secure this region of Florida, which had been deemed of key strategic importance by senior Union military leaders due to the significant role the state had been playing as a supplier of food to the Confederacy.

On Saturday, Brannan chose several officers to direct their subordinates to prepare rations and ammunition for a new expedition that would take them roughly twenty miles upriver to Jacksonville. (A sophisticated hub of cultural and commercial activities with a racially diverse population of more than two thousand residents, the city had repeatedly changed hands between the Union and Confederacy until its occupation by Union forces on 12 March 1862.) Among the Union soldiers selected for this mission were 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers from Company C, Company E and Company K.

One of the first groups to depart—Company C of the 47th Pennsylvania—did so that Saturday as part of a small force made up of infantry and gunboats, the latter of which were commanded by Captain Charles E. Steedman. Their mission was to destroy all enemy boats they encountered to stop the movement of Confederate troops throughout the region. Upon arrival in Jacksonville later that same day, the infantrymen were charged by Brannan with setting fire to the office of that city’s Southern Rights newspaper. Before that action was taken, however, Captain Gobin and his subordinate, Henry Wharton, who had both been employed by the Sunbury American newspaper in Sunbury, Pennsylvania prior to the war, salvaged the pro-Confederacy publication’s printing press so that Wharton could more efficiently produce the regimental newspaper he had launched while the 47th Pennsylvania was stationed at Fort Taylor in Key West, Florida.

On Sunday, 5 October, Brannan and his detachment sailed away for Jacksonville at 6:30 a.m. Per Wharton, the weekend’s events unfolded as follows:

As soon as we had got possession of the Bluff, Capt. Steedman and his gunboats went to Jacksonville for the purpose of destroying all boats and intercepting the passage of the rebel troops across the river, and on the 5th Gen. Brannan also went up to Jacksonville in the steamer Ben Deford, with a force of 785 infantry, and occupied the town. On either side of the river were considerable crops of grain, which would have been destroyed or removed, but this was found impracticable for want of means of transportation. At Yellow Bluff we found that the rebels had a position in readiness to secure seven heavy guns, which they appeared to have lately evacuated, Jacksonville we found to be nearly deserted, there being only a few old men, women, and children in the town, soon after our arrival, however, while establishing our picket line, a few cavalry appeared on the outskirts, but they quickly left again. The few inhabitants were in a wretched condition, almost destitute of food, and Gen. Brannan, at their request, brought a large number up to Hilton Head to save them from starvation, together with 276 negroes—men, women, and children, who had sought our protection.

Receiving word soon after his arrival at Jacksonville that “Rebel steamers were secreted in the creeks up the river,” Brigadier-General Brannan ordered Captain Charles Yard of the 47th Pennsylvania’s Company E to take a detachment of one hundred men from his own company and those of the 47th’s Company K, and board the steamer Darlington “with two 24-pounder light howitzers and a crew of 25 men.” All would be under the command of Lieutenant Williams of the U.S. Navy, who would order the “convoy of gunboats to cut them out.”

According to Brigadier-General Brannan, the Union party “returned on the morning of the 9th with a Rebel steamer, Governor Milton, which they captured in a creek about 230 miles up the river and about 27 miles north [and slightly west] from the town of Enterprise.… On the return of the successful expedition after the Rebel steamers … I proceeded with that portion of my command to St. John’s Bluff, awaiting the return of the Boston.”

Integration of the Regiment

Meanwhile, as those activities were unfolding at Saint John’s Bluff, Yellow Bluff, Jacksonville, and aboard the Governor Milton, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was making history back in South Carolina when it became an integrated regiment on Sunday, 5 October 1862—three months before President Abraham Lincoln officially issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

Mop Up and Return to Headquarters

As that integration of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was taking place in Beaufort, South Carolina, Brigadier-General Brannan’s expeditionary force was winding down its activities in Duval County, Florida. According to a letter penned by Private William Brecht of the 47th Pennsylvania’s K Company, once the artillery pieces were carried away from Saint John’s Bluff by Brannan’s troops, Brannan ordered Captain Henry D. Woodruff of the 47th’s D Company to take his company as well as men from Company F and Company I to “blow up the fort, which was done with the most terrific explosions, filling the air for a great distance with fragments of timber and sand.”

“And thus came to an end Fort Finnegan, on St. John’s Bluff,” mused Brecht, who added that “after we destroyed the fort and it exploded into the air, the steamer Cosmopolitan which had been damaged and was full of water, we pumped out and fixed up again.”

Recapping the activities of his troops for his superiors, Brannan subsequently stated that, on Saturday, 11 October, “I embarked the section of the 1st Connecticut Battery, with their guns, horses, &c., and one company of the 47th on board the steamer Darlington, sending them to Hilton Head via Fernandina, Fla.”

[T]he Boston having returned, I embarked myself, with the last remaining portion of my command, except one company of the 47th left to assist and protect the Cosmopolitan…which was stuck on the bar…for Hilton Head, S.C., on the 12th instant, and arrived at that place on the 13th instant. The captured steamer Governor Milton I left in charge of Capt. Steedman, U.S. Navy and Cpl. Nichols.

According to Schmidt:

Company F embarked for Hilton Head on Friday and arrived home on Sunday, while Company D embarked on Saturday…but did not leave the St. John’s River til Sunday…. Some of the troops, including Company C, had returned to Beaufort on Saturday, October 11, but at least portions of Company K did not return until the following Tuesday. Returning with Company C was Capt. Gobin, who had contracted intermittent fever during the expedition and was hospitalized as soon as he returned….

Company D arrived back at Hilton Head on Saturday, and Company B and F on Sunday; and by Monday, October 13, most of the troops were back in camp in Beaufort, including Companies, A, G and K which arrived on this date. Company E did not arrive until Wednesday and Company H on Thursday night.

Fortunately, Captain Gobin was able to return to active duty on 20 October. Crediting his recovery to “good nursing and an abundance of quinine,” he resumed his leadership of the 47th Pennsylvania’s C Company, which had returned to South Carolina nine days earlier.

The day of 20 October also proved to be an important date for the regiment because The New York Times published a letter that had been penned six days earlier by Wharton. Recapping the events of the Saint John’s Bluff Expedition and subsequent successes by Brigadier-General Brannan’s troops, it also included the following insights:

Gen. BRANNAN thinks it evident, from his experience on this expedition, that the rebel troops in this portion of the country have not sufficient organization and determination, in consequence of their living in separate and distinct companies, to sustain any position, but seem rather to devote themselves to a system of guerrilla warfare. This was exemplified by the advance on St. John’s Bluff, where, after evacuating the fort, they continued to hover on our flanks and front, but did not come near enough to make their fire effective. We learned at Jacksonville that they commenced evacuating the Bluff immediately after our surprise of their pickets at Mount Pleasant Creek.

Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina

From 21-23 October, Private Peter Wolf and his fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers engaged Confederate forces in the Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina. Landing at Mackay’s Point under the regimental command of Colonel Tilghman H. Good and Lieutenant-Colonel George W. Alexander, the men of the 47th were placed on point once again as part of the U.S. Tenth Army’s 1st Brigade.

This time, however, their luck would run out.

Completing just three miles of the anticipated “seven or eight” that the primary group was expected to cover to reach its intended target, the Tenth Army infantrymen suddenly ran smack into strongly entrenched Confederate troops.

They fought valiantly, driving the Confederates up and across the Pocotaligo River. But they were forced to waste precious ammunition and physical energy to do so.

And those who were trying to reach the higher ground of the Frampton Plantation, like Private Peter Wolf, were pounded by Confederate artillery and infantry hidden in the surrounding forests.

As they continued their respective advances into the fire around them, the Union troops continued to engage the Confederates wherever 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 to withdraw to Mackay’s Point. They simply just did not have enough ammunition to finish the fight they had begun with so much determination.

Losses for the 47th Pennsylvania at Pocotaligo were significant. Two officers and eighteen enlisted men died; an additional two officers and one hundred and fourteen enlisted were wounded. The bodies of the dead and dying were removed from the places where they had fallen and carried by their Union Army comrades along the long routes they had marched in order to reach their respective Union Navy ships.

Among those who were killed in action was Private Peter Wolf. His combat-related death was certified by Assistant Regimental Surgeon Jacob Scheetz, M.D.

According to burial records maintained by the Department of Military Affairs, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the remains of Private Peter Wolf were then returned to Pennsylvania for interment at Emanuel Lutheran Evangelical Church Cemetery in Wolf’s Crossroads, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania.

What Happened to Peter Wolf’s Parents  and Siblings?

Following Peter Wolf’s death in South Carolina, his parents and siblings grieved and then soldiered on. Less than two years later, tragedy struck again when Peter Wolf’s father, Thomas Wolf, died in Lower Augusta Township, Northumberland County on 31 March 1864. Following funeral services, he too was interred at Lantz’s Emanuel Cemetery in Sunbury.

As the shock wore off, Peter’s mother realized that she had been left to struggle harder, financially. In order to keep a roof over her head, she filed for a U.S. Civil War Mother’s Pension on 14 October 1865. According to the pension paperwork that she submitted that day, “the little real estate left by [her husband, Thomas, was] sold to pay the debts of her deceased husband,” and she was “left without support”—including support that her son, Peter, had provided for her even while her husband was still living.

In an affidavit filed in support of her mother’s pension claim, Benjamin Hoover attested “that the said Susan Wolf is old, infirm and unable to support herself [and that] her means are entirely insufficient for that purpose, and that she was dependent upon her said son for her support, and that during his life he assisted in supporting her.”

In June 1866, Jacob and Gideon Wolf backed up Benjamin Hoover’s attestations with affidavits of their own in which they confirmed the Civil War-related death of Susan’s son, Peter, in 1862, and the subsequent death of her husband, Thomas, in 1864, and verified the financial hardships Susan had been experiencing in the wake of these twin tragedies, noting that, by 1865, she had become dependent “on the charity of others.” They further explained that the small log house she had shared with her husband and the six acres of land in Sunbury on which it was located had been sold for somewhere between five hundred fifteen dollars to six hundred seventy-five dollars to pay off her husband’s debts, and that even before the death of Thomas Wolf, Susan’s son, Peter, had supported her financially—both prior to the war through the wages he earned from selling wheat and flour as a miller and during the war through the wages he earned as a member of Company C of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers.

On 13 July 1866, she was finally awarded a mother’s pension of eight dollars per month, which was made retroactive to 22 October 1862 (the date of her son Peter’s death in battle).

When that pension support was interrupted before the end of the decade, Susan Wolf’s financial struggles increased. In response, she secured help from the Philadelphia law firm of Mathews, Poulson & Co., who filed a Declaration for Arrears in Pension claim on her behalf on 19 March 1869. Her mother’s pension was then restored at the rate of eight dollars per month, effective 20 April 1869.

She continued to live on until her mid-seventies, passing away at the age of seventy-five at her home in Purdytown, Upper Augusta Township, Northumberland County on 28 November 1887. She was subsequently laid to rest at the Emanuel Lutheran Church Cemetery in Wolf’s Crossroads, Northumberland County.

In late December 1887, her son, Jacob Wolf, who had been appointed as executor of her estate, announced a public sale of her property, including “Bedstead and Bedding, Lounge, two Rocking Chairs, half dozen Chairs, one Bureau, Hat Rack, one new Sink, Table, Mirror, Buckets, Cooking Stove and Pipe, lot of Oil Cloth, Window Blinds, Spinning Wheel, Hoe, Axe, Carpet, and other articles too numerous to mention.”

Also at the same time and place a HOUSE and LOT in Purdytown. The house is a two-story frame with necessary outbuildings. The lot is 30 feet front by 185 in depth.

Jacob Wolf, Susan’s son and Peter Wolf’s brother, had begun his own family when he wed Elizabeth Young (1834-1902). He died on 7 August 1889, and was laid to rest at the Shamokin Cemetery.

His sister Mary Ann (Wolf) Conrad grew up to become the mother of: Mary Alice (1858-1951), Emma Jane (1860-1946), Simon Peter (1863-1941), William Morris (1864-1936), David Allison (1864-1936), Margaret Ann (1871-1946), and Charles Henry Conrad (1876-1902). She died in Sunbury on 26 September 1919, and was laid to rest at the Pomfret Manor Cemetery.

Younger brother Samuel Wolf died on 21 June 1903, and was also buried at the Emanuel Lutheran Church Cemetery in Wolf’s Crossroads.

Younger sister, Susan (Wolf) Lytle, also grew up to become the matriarch of a large family. She was the mother of: George (1863-1943), Theodore Ellsworth (1864-1943), Lloyd Clinton (1867-1938), Mary Alice (1869-1872), Clarence (1871-1954), Rosetta (1875-1951), Amanda (1878-1895), Josephine (1878-1896), Stella (1884-1968), and Domer (1885-1895). In failing health in later years due to heart disease, she died from chronic myocarditis on 1 May 1921, and was laid to rest at the Mount Zion United Brethren Cemetery in Mile Run, Northumberland County on 4 May.

 

* To view more of the key U.S. Civil War Military and Pension records related to the Wolf family, visit our Peter and Susan Wolf Collection.

 

Sources:

1. Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, vol. 1. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.
2. “Florida’s Role in the Civil War: Supplier of the Confederacy.” Tampa, Florida: Florida Center for Instructional Technology, University of South Florida (College of Education), retrieved online, January 15, 2020.
3. Gobin, John Peter Shindel. Personal Letters, 1861-1865. Northumberland, Pennsylvania: Personal Collection of John Deppen.
4. “Important From Port Royal.; The Expedition to Jacksonville, Destruction of the Rebel Batteries. Capture of a STEAMBOAT. Another Speech from Gen. Mitchell. His Policy and Sentiments on the Negro Question.” New York, New York: The New York Times, October 20, 1862.
5. “List of Pensioners.” Sunbury, Pennsylvania: Northumberland County Democrat, 2 November 1883.
6. Proctor, Samuel. “Jacksonville During the Civil War,” in Florida Historical Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 4, 1962, pp. 343-355. Orlando, Florida STARS (Showcase of Text, Archives, Research & Scholarship), University of Central, Florida.
7. “Public Sale.” Sunbury, Pennsylvania: Northumberland County Democrat, 30 December 1887.
8. Schmidt, Lewis. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1986.
9. Susan Lytle, in Death Certificates (file no.: 51122, registered no.: 100; date of death: 1 May 1921). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
10. Wharton, Henry D. Letters from the Sunbury Guards. Sunbury, Pennsylvania: Sunbury American, 1861-1868.
11. Wolf, Peter, in Civil War Muster Rolls (Co. C, 47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
12. Wolf, Peter, in Civil War Veterans Card File, 1861-1866 (Co. C, 47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
13. Wolf, Peter, in Records of Places of Burials of Veterans. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Military Affairs.
14. Wolf, Susan and Peter, in U.S. Civil War Mothers’ Pension Files. Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
15. Wolf, Thomas, Susannah (mother), Mary, Christiana, Peter, Jacob, Samuel, Susannah (daughter), and Cyrus, in U.S. Census (Lower Augusta Township, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, 1850). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
16. Wolf, Thomas, Susanna (mother), Peter, Jacob, Samuel, Susanna (daughter), and Henry, in U.S. Census (Lower Augusta Township, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, 1860). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.