Raised in Pennsylvania’s bucolic Wyoming Valley during the early to mid-nineteenth century, the Gardner brothers were brought up in an agrarian world—destined to become farmers who would feed their immediate neighbors, as well as residents of neighboring towns.

That destiny, however, would change forever while they were still just young men.

Formative Years

Born in Pennsylvania circa 1832 and on 19 June 1837, respectively, Jeremiah Gardner and his younger brother, Jasper B. Gardner (1837-1864), were sons of Champlin Gardner (1794-1869), a native of Rhode Island. Their mother was Pennsylvania native Eunice (Billings) Gardner (1806-1884), who was a daughter of Jasper Billings (1770-1831) and Mary (Mullison) Billings (1773-1853).

As residents of Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, they lived in Clinton Township with their parents and siblings: Wilber Gardner (1824-1909), Mary Gardner, who was born circa 1827; Andrew Jackson Gardner (1829-1917), Pauline/Perlina Gardner, who was born circa 1834, and Henry A. Gardner (1840-1841).

Tragically, the youngest of the Gardner clan, Henry, was just ten months old when he died on 11 January 1841. His life was later memorialized on the same cenotaph at the Square Top Cemetery in Clinton Township, Wyoming County that paid tribute to his brother, Jasper.

Subsequently listed on the 1850 U.S. Census as residents of Clinton Township, Jasper and Jeremiah Gardner were documented as the sons of farmer Champlin Gardner and his wife, Eunice, and siblings of Wilber, a farmer; Mary; Jackson, a farmer; and “Perlina.” Jeremiah was already being described as a farmer by that year’s federal census enumerator, signaling the life path that had been planned for him by his parents.

* Note: Named for Pennsylvania’s Wyoming Valley, an area of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that had been so named in reference to the many meadows found within its boundaries, Wyoming County was a relatively new political division within the Great Keystone State. Born on 4 April 1842, it had been carved out from lands that were originally part of Luzerne County. Clinton Township, where the Gardner family members made their home in 1850, had been incorporated in 1843 with lands taken from Falls, Nicholson and Tunkhannock townships, and has been “settled during the first years of the present century [the nineteenth century], by families from Rhode Island,” according to Munsell’s History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming Counties.

The first school was kept in a little log building about a mile south of the village, by Job Briggs. Hulda Allsworth, of Pittston, was the next teacher. About 1824 the old ‘square-top’ school-house was built, on the site of the depot, and for many years it served as a church and school building….

The first saw-mill was built a short distance from where Matthewson’s grist-mill [stood in 1880] by Joseph Capwell, about 1820. The first grist-mill was built by Capwell about 1838.

The first post office had been established a decade earlier, in 1828, in nearby Factoryville, a town that had been given its name in reference to the cotton mill that had been erected in the area roughly a decade after the first settlers had arrived there. In addition, according to Munsell, a school “class was in existence at the ‘square-top’ in 1830, and Rev. Selah Stocking was the preacher at that time, when ‘Aunt’ Eunice Gardner with the [Methodist] church, it being then an outlying appointment on the Wyoming circuit. Preaching was had once in two or three weeks for nearly twenty years following.”

Sometime during the late 1850s, Jeremiah Gardner married and began a new life with his wife, Martha. Their first child, Milo Monroe Gardner (1859-1950), was born in Springfield, Pennsylvania on 19 April 1959.

On 16 December 1860, Jasper B. Gardner wed Mary Beidleman. Born in Pennsylvania circa 1840, she was a daughter of Daniel and Esther Beidelman.

Four days later, elected officials from South Carolina announced their state’s intent to secede from the Union, sparking one of the most disastrous periods in American History.

On 1 February 1861, Jeremiah and Martha Gardner welcomed the birth of their second child, Watie A. Gardner (February 1861-1955), who was born in Springville Township, Susquehanna County on 1 February 1861 and was shown on later census records as “Maty.” Their third child, Nelson R. Gardner (November 1861-17), followed quickly thereafter, opening his eyes for the first time in Clinton Township, Wyoming County on 18 November 1861.

Civil War

On 12 September 1861, Jasper B. Gardner became one of the early responders to President Abraham Lincoln’s calls for volunteers to help defend the nation’s capital and bring a swift end to the Civil War that had broken out between America’s northern and southern states in mid-April of that year. He then officially mustered in for duty later that day at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg. Entering at the rank of private, he was attached to the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry’s C Company, the regiment’s color guard unit, which was commanded by Captain John Peter Shindel Gobin.

Military records at the time described Private Jacob Gardner as a twenty-five-year-old conductor from Wyoming County, who was five feet, eleven inches tall with black hair, gray eyes and a dark complexion.

Following a brief training period in light infantry tactics, the men of Company C were then sent 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 field 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.

Then, on 24 September, the soldiers of Company C became part of the federal service when the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry officially mustered into the U.S. Army. On 27 September—a rainy day, 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 fairly close to the headquarters of Brigadier-General William Farrar Smith (also known as “Baldy”), and were now part of the massive 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 to the nation’s Deep 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 Gobin reported that the right wing of the 47th Pennsylvania (companies A, C, D, F and I) was ordered to picket duty after the left wing’s companies (B, G, K, E, and H) were 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], 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.”

Captain Gobin had been referring to Brigadier-General James Ewell Brown (“J.E.B.”) Stuart, commanding officer of the Confederate Army of the Potomac (later known as the Army of Northern Virginia), under whose authority the 4th Virginia Cavalry (“Black Horse Cavalry”) fell. Stuart’s Fairfax County, Virginia home had been commandeered by the Union Army and used by the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers and other Union regiments as the base of operations for their picket lines in that area.

In his own letter of this period (on 13 October to the Sunbury American), Henry Wharton described the typical duties of the 47th Pennsylvanians, 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….

Wharton had also reported that all of the men were well; unfortunately, he was proven wrong.

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 had “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.

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 barely 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 sent 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 morning, 22 October 1861, the 47th participated in a Divisional Review, described by Schmidt as massing “about 10,000 infantry, 1000 cavalry, and twenty pieces of artillery all in one big open field.”

By early November, Gobin was reporting that “the health of the Company and Regiment are in the best condition. No cases of small pox have appeared since the death of Boultie.” A few patients remained in the hospital with fever, including D. W. Kembel and another from 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 Gobin. In another letter home on 17 November, Henry Wharton revealed 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….

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.

Nine days later, on 30 November 1861, the Sunbury American announced that Captain Gobin had helped multiple Sunbury Guardsmen to send a total of $900 from their collective pay back home to their families and friends in Pennsylvania.

Shortly before Christmas, the newspaper that Regimental Quartermaster James Van Dyke, who was enjoying an approved furlough at home in Sunbury, had procured “various articles of comfort, for the inner as well as the outer man.” 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 train to Alexandria, Virginia, where they boarded the steamship City of Richmond and subsequently sailed the Potomac River to the Washington Arsenal. After disembarking there, they were reequipped with weapons and ammunition before being marched off again for dinner and rest at the Soldiers’ Retreat in Washington, D.C.

The next afternoon, the 47th Pennsylvanians hopped aboard a Baltimore & Ohio Railroad train 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 during the afternoon of 27 January 1862, with the officers boarding last, they sailed away for the Deep South at 4 p.m., per the direction of Brigadier-General Brannan. 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 Jasper Gardner arrived in Key West with his fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers in order to garrison 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 there 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 were also many episodes of frustration and heartache. The time here for the 47th was 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.

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 United States 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 47th Pennsylvanians 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, Private Jasper Gardner and his fellow 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 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.

On Saturday, 4 October 1862, Brigadier-General Brannan directed several officers to order 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 roughly 2,100 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 infantrymen aboard gunboats, the latter of which were commanded by Captain Charles E. Steedman. Their mission was to destroy all Confederate vessels they encountered in order to hamper the movement of enemy 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, C Company’s 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 Florida. That salvage operation also gave Wharton and several of his C Company comrades the opportunity to take a parting, verbal “shot” at Confederate sympathizers in the region by publishing a snarky, final edition of the paper. Dated October 4, 1862, its text included the following:

On account of the presence of distinguished visitors, the election is indefinitely postponed. A few lines have been taken from the matter of this page to make room for explanation.

The form from which we strike off a few copies, is the same taken from Secession Printing Office at Jacksonville, Fla., on the expedition of Gen. J.M. Brannan to the St. John’s River.

Wishing to know whether secesh type would print under Federal rule, we concluded to bring along with us the press and fixtures; to our surprise and gratification we find the machine prints almost alone, satisfying us that it rejoices at the change. We have no doubt it will continue the good spirit already manifested and will make itself generally useful under the kind treatment already received, in printing various blanks required by the Post. It is possible it may get patriotic and issue a Constitutional Union Paper.

Beaufort, S.C. Oct. 17, 1862
Notice

The editor of this paper is absent from town for a few days on urgent business in the interior. It is therefore announced that the publication of this Paper will hereafter be weekly suspended as it has been heretofore, weakly continued.

The taking of our battery after a loss of courage, but no blood, and the presence of the yankee [sic] fleet, and the fearful proximity of Gen. Brannan and his forces, render the Southern Rights precarious.

The friends of Col. Hopkins are informed that the Colonel declines to run as a candidate for the office of Senator, notwithstanding the good time he made running from St. John’s Bluff.

The original newspaper had also included the announcement of a $25 reward for the capture of Ned, a 28-year-old Black man who had escaped slavery near Jacksonville. 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 immediately 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 Lt. Williams of the U.S. Navy, who would command the “convoy of gunboats to cut them out.”

Also according to Schmidt, the small force steamed upriver roughly one to two hundred miles “to Lake Beresford, where they then assisted in capturing the [sixty-eight-ton] steamer Governor Milton,” which had been renamed in honor of Florida’s governor after having been “formerly known as the George M. Bird [under its previous owners] a New England family named ‘Swift’, who were timber cutters and used it as a tug boat to tow rafts loaded with live oak to the lumber market.” After the boiler on the Gov. Milton was repaired, it was moved back down the river and placed safely behind Union Army lines. Meanwhile, Brigadier-General and his men had begun making their way back to Saint John’s Bluff.

Integration of the Regiment

While all of that action was unfolding, other members of the 47th Pennsylvania, who had remained at their duty station back in South Carolina, were making history by processing the enlistments on 5 and 15 October 1862 of several Black men who had escaped chattel enslavement from plantations near Beaufort and Hilton Head. Among the formerly enslaved men who enlisted at this time were Bristor Gethers, Abraham Jassum and Edward Jassum.

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 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.”

During this expedition, C Company Captain Gobin “contracted intermittent fever during the expedition and was hospitalized as soon as he returned” to Hilton Head, according to Schmidt. Fortunately, he survived and was able to return to active duty on 20 October. Crediting his recovery to “good nursing and an abundance of quinine,” he resumed leadership of the 47th Pennsylvania’s C Company, which had returned to South Carolina nine days earlier.

That day [20 October] also proved to be important for the regiment because The New York Times published a letter that had been penned six days earlier by 47th Pennsylvanian Henry Wharton, in which he recapped the events of the St. John’s Bluff Expedition and subsequent successes by Brigadier-General Brannan’s troops. Among the remarkable details included by Wharton was this description of the 12 October 1862 dedication of the First African Baptist Church on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina by Union Major-General Ormsby Mitchel, commander of the U.S. Army’s 10th Corps and Department of the South—during which Mitchel outlined his plans for the creation of Mitchelville—the first self-governed town created for formerly enslaved people:

On Sunday the negro church at Hilton Head was dedicated to Divine service. Gen. HUNTER authorized the construction of the building, and before he left the work was nearly finished. The situation of the church is good; the appearance is neat, though plain as a Quaker meeting-house, and in all respects the building meets the requirements of the case. Three hundred persons may be comfortably seated. The Pastor is a black man from Savannah, named ABRAM MURCHISON, who has been in due form ordained a Baptist minister by the army Chaplains, and installed in office. ABRAM, though able to read and write, is not polished in his manners; but what he lacks in culture is more than compensated in earnest eloquence, a vigorous and clear expression of his views, deep piety, and a powerful influence over the colored people. The dedication exercises were interesting in themselves, being conducted by Rev. H.N. HUDSON, Chaplain of the New-York Volunteer Engineer Regiment, and elocutionist of celebrity. Gen. MITCHEL was present, with the members of this Staff, and, by invitation, addressed the audience. His remarks were pointed, impressive and instructive. They were listened to attentively, and indorsed [sic] with nods of approbation from young and old. I do not think that a portion of the TIMES could be better filled than with this frank and unmistakable expression of the Gen. MITCHEL’s views on the negro question. He said:

‘I have been requested to say a few words to you by your teacher, who is a good man. Any good man I like, regardless of color. I respect him as much whether he is black or white. If he be a bad man I shall treat him as such, whether he is white or black. Most of you know that I have talked to all my soldiers since I came here, and now I am talking to you who are another set of soldiers, who have not yet arms in their hands, but are under my protection and guidance, and in whom I take interest. With your past life I fully sympathize. I know and understand it all. I was reared in the midst of Slavery, born in Kentucky, and know all about it. While there are many things connected with it that are pleasant, to which you will testify, there are a vast many other things which are not pleasant, and I think that God intends all men shall be free, because he intends that all men shall serve him with their whole heart. I think this is true. I am not certain. I don’t know. But in any condition we can all love and serve God. That privilege cannot be taken away. I care not how savage and wicked the master may be, he cannot prevent you from praying in the midst of the night, and God hears and answers the prayer of all, slave or free.

But it seems to me that there is a new time coming for you colored people; a better day is dawning for you oppressed and down-trodden blacks. I don’t know that this is true, but I hope that the door is being opened for your deliverance. And now, how deeply you should ponder these words. If now you are unwilling to help yourselves nobody will be willing to help you. You must trust yourselves to the guidance of those who have had better opportunities and have acquired superior wisdom, if you would be carried through this crisis successfully. And I believe the good God will bless your efforts, and lift you up to a higher level than you have yet occupied, so that you and your children may become educated and industrious citizens. You must organize yourselves into families. Husbands must love their wives and children, clinging to them and turning from all others, and feeling that their highest object in life, next to serving the good God, is to do all they can for their families, working for them continually.

Good colored friends, you have a great work to do, and you are in a position of responsibility. The whole North, all the people in the Free States, are looking at you and the experiment now tried on your behalf with the deepest interest. This experiment is to give you freedom, position, home and your own families—wives, property, your own soil. You shall till and cultivate your own crops; you shall gather and sell the products of your industry for your own benefit; you shall own your own savings, and you shall be able to feel that God is prospering you from day to day and from year to year, and raising you to a higher level of goodness, religion and a nobler life.

Supposing you fail down here; that will be an end to the whole matter. It is like attaching a cable to a stranded vessel, and all the strength that can be mustered is put upon this rope to haul her off. If this only rope breaks the vessel is lost. God help you all and help us all to help you. If you are idle, vicious, indolent and negligent, you will fail and your last hope is gone; if you are not faithful you rivet eternally the fetters upon those who to-day are fastened down by fetters and suffer by the driver’s goad. You have in your hands the rescuing of those sufferers over whose sorrows you mourn continually. If you fail, what a dreadful responsibility it will be when you come to die to feel that the only great opportunity you had for serving yourselves and your oppressed race was allowed to slip.

And you, women, you must be careful of your children. You must teach them to be industrious, cleanly, obedient, and dutiful at all times. You must keep your houses neat and tidy, working all day, if necessary, to have them in the best possible condition, always thinking and contriving to make them cleaner and more comfortable. When your husband comes home from the labors and fatigues of the day, always have something good and nice for his supper, and speak kindly to him, for these little acts of love and attention will bring you happiness and joy.

And when you men go out to work, you must labor with diligence and zeal. It seems to me, had I the stimulus to work that you have that I could labor like a giant. Now you know who I am. My first duty here is to deal justly; second, to love mercy, and third, to walk humbly. First, justly—I shall endeavor to get you to do your duty faithfully. If you do I shall reward you; and if you refuse, then what comes next? Why, the wicked must be punished and made to do right. I will take the bad man by the throat and force him to his duty. I do not mean that I will take hold of him with my own hands, but with the strong arm of military power. Now do we understand each other? I am working for you already. I am told by your Superintendent that a gang of fifty men are building your houses at the rate of six a day. These houses are to make you more comfortable. You are to have a patch of ground, which you can call your own, to raise your own garden truck, and you may work for the Government for good wages. And you women must make your houses shine; you must plaster them and whitewash them, and gradually get furniture in your cabins, and a cooking-stove. I have arranged in such a way that you will get your clothing cheaper and better than before, and you are to have a school for your children. And you must have flowers in your gardens and blossoms before your doors. You will see in a little while how much happier you will be made. Are you not willing to work for this? Yes, God helping, you will all work. This is only for yourselves; but if you are successful, this plan will go all through the country, and we will have answered the question that has puzzled all good, thinking men in the world for one hundred years. They have asked, ‘What will you do with the black man after liberating him?’ We will show them what we will do. We will make him a useful, industrious citizen—give him the earnings of the sweat of his brow, and as a man, we will give him what the Lord ordained him to have.

I shall watch everything closely respecting this experiment. It is something to be permanent—more than for a day, more than for a year. Upon you depends whether this mighty result shall be worked out, and the day of jubilee come to God’s ransomed people.’

Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina

Later that same month, the 47th Pennsylvania’s fight to preserve America’s Union while also helping to eradicate slavery across the Deep South went on. From 21-23 October, the 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. 10th Army’s 1st Brigade. This time, however, their luck would run out.

Their brigade was bedeviled by snipers and faced massive 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 higher ground of the Frampton Plantation were pounded by Confederate artillery and infantry hidden in the surrounding forests.

Part-way into the conflict, their brigade’s commanding officer was wounded, requiring Colonel Good to assume command of the 1st Brigade and Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander to assume command of the 47th Pennsylvania.

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; an additional two officers and one hundred and fourteen enlisted were wounded.

On 23 October, the 47th Pennsylvania headed back to Hilton Head. Just over a week later, members of the regiment were assigned to serve on the honor guard during the funeral of Major-General Ormsby M. Mitchel, who had died from yellow fever at the Union Army’s hospital at Hilton Head on 30 October.

1863

Having been ordered back to Key West on 15 November 1862, Private Jasper Gardner and his fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers spent the year of 1863 and first two months of 1864 guarding federal installations in Florida as part of the U.S. Army’s 10th Corps (X Corps) and Department of the South. Companies A, B, C, E, G, and I were assigned to garrison Fort Taylor in Key West, under the command of Colonel Good, while Companies D, F, H, and K were placed under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander and assigned to garrison Fort Jefferson in Florida’s Dry Tortugas.

Far from being a punishment for the regiment’s recent combat performance, though, as several historians have claimed over the years, the return to Florida of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers was viewed by senior Union military officers as a critically important assignment because both forts were at continuing risk of attack and capture by foreign powers, as well as by Confederate States Army troops. The 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were specifically chosen for this mission because of their “bravery and praiseworthy conduct” during the Battle of Pocotaligo,” as well as for their “attention to duty, discipline and soldierly bearing” since the regiment’s founding in 1861.

Weakening Florida’s abilities to supply and transport food and troops throughout the area to the Confederate States by conducting raids on cattle ranches and salt production facilities, they also prevented foreign powers from assisting the Confederate Army and Navy in gaining control key points of entry in the Deep South.

Once again, though, water quality was a challenge for members of the regiment; as a result, disease became their constant companion and most dangerous foe. Even so, when their initial three-year terms of enlistment were about to expire, more than half of the officers and enlisted members of the 47th Pennsylvania opted to re-enroll for additional tours of duty with the regiment. Among those choosing to reenlist during this time was Private Jasper B. Gardner, who re-enrolled at Fort Taylor on 12 October 1863, earning for himself the coveted title of “Veteran Volunteer.”

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 Major-General D. P. Woodbury, commanding officer, U.S. Department of the Gulf, District of Key West and the Tortugas, that the fort be reclaimed 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.

Meanwhile, all of the other companies of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry were preparing for the regiment’s history-making journey to Louisiana. Boarding yet another steamer—the Charles Thomas—on 25 February 1864, Private Jasper Gardner and the men from Companies B, C, D, I, and K headed for Algiers, Louisiana (across the river from New Orleans), followed on 1 March by other members of the regiment from Companies E, F, G, and H who had been stationed at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas.

Upon the second group’s arrival, the now almost-fully-reunited regiment moved by train on 28 February to Brashear City (now Morgan City, Louisiana) before heading to Franklin by steamer through the Bayou Teche. There, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry joined the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division of the Department of the Gulf’s 19th Army Corps (XIX Corps), and became the only Pennsylvania regiment to serve in the Red River Campaign of Union Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks. (Unable to reach Louisiana until 23 March, the men from Company A were effectively placed on a different type of detached duty in New Orleans while they awaited transport to enable them to catch up with the main part of their regiment. Charged with guarding and overseeing the transport of two hundred and forty-five Confederate prisoners, they were finally able to board the Ohio Belle on 7 April, and reached Alexandria, Louisiana with those prisoners on 9 April.)

Red River Campaign

The early days on the ground in Louisiana quickly woke the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers up to just how grueling this new phase of duty would be. From 14-26 March, most members of the regiment marched for Alexandria and Natchitoches, Louisiana, by way of New Iberia, Vermilionville (now part of Lafayette), Opelousas, and Washington.

From 4-5 April 1864, the regiment added to its roster of young Black soldiers when Aaron Bullard (later known as Aaron French), James Bullard, John Bullard, Samuel Jones, and Hamilton Blanchard (also known as John Hamilton) enrolled for military service with the 47th Pennsylvania at Natchitoches. According to their respective entries in the Civil War Veterans’ Card File at the Pennsylvania State Archives and on regimental muster rolls, the men were then officially mustered in for duty on 22 June at Morganza. Several of their entries noted that they were assigned the rank of “(Colored) Cook” while others were given the rank of “Under Cook.”

Often short on food and water throughout their long harsh-climate trek through enemy territory, the 47th Pennsylvania encamped briefly at Pleasant Hill (now the Village of Pleasant Hill) the night of 7 April before continuing on the next day.

Rushed into battle ahead of other regiments in the 2nd Division, sixty members of the 47th were cut down on 8 April during volley of fire unleashed during the Battle of Sabine Cross Roads (also known as the Battle of Mansfield due to its proximity to the town of Mansfield). The fighting waned only when darkness fell. The exhausted, but uninjured 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 Major-General Richard Taylor (a plantation owner who was the 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.

Casualties were once again high. Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander was severely wounded in both legs, and the regiment’s two color-bearers, both from Company C, were also wounded while preventing the American flag from falling into enemy hands. Still others from the 47th were captured, marched roughly one hundred and twenty-five miles to Camp Ford, a Confederate Army prison camp near Tyler, Texas, and held there as prisoners of war (POWs) until released during prisoner exchanges beginning 22 July 1864. At least two men from the 47th never made it out of that camp alive; another member of the regiment died while being treated at the Confederate Army hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana.

While all of that action was unfolding in Louisiana, Private Jasper Gardner’s older brother, Jeremiah Gardner, was enlisting for Civil War military service in Scranton, Pennsylvania. After enrolling on 28 March 1864, he officially mustered in for duty at Scranton the next day as a private with the same company and regiment in which Jasper had enlisted—Company C of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.

Military records at the time described Private Jeremiah Gardner as a thirty-three-year-old farmer residing in Gibson Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, who was five feet, eleven-and-one-half inches tall with dark hair, blue eyes and a dark complexion.

Tragically, though, Jeremiah Gardner’s military service was short-lived. Within days after mustering in, he contracted meningitis, and was hospitalized at Camp Cadwalader in Philadelphia, where he died on 11 April 1864. Initially interred at Philadelphia’s Glenwood Cemetery, his remains were subsequently exhumed when the federal government began its major effort to rebury all Union soldiers at national cemeteries. Among the men interred at the Philadelphia National Cemetery was Private Jeremiah Gardner. His widow, Martha, was subsequently awarded a U.S. Civil War Widow’s Pension of eight dollars per month, as well as an additional six dollars per month, total, as part of a U.S. Civil War Orphans’ Pension that was approved for their three children: Milo M. (1859-1950), whose pension support would later end on 18 April 1875 after he reached the age of sixteen; Watie A. (February 1861-1955), who was listed as “Maty” and whose pension assistance would end on 31 January 1877; and Nelson R. (November 1861-1917), whose pension would end on 17 November 1878.

Back in Louisiana, as Private Jasper Gardner was learning about, and beginning to mourn, the death of his older brother, Jeremiah, he and his fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantrymen were making their new home at Grand Ecore, after having retreated there following the Battle of Pleasant Hill. Stationed there for eleven days, they were engaged yet again in the hard labor of strengthening regimental and brigade fortifications. They then headed back to Natchitoches Parish, beginning 22 April. Marching forty-five miles that day, they arrived in Cloutierville at 10 p.m. 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 Pennsylvania took on the Confederate cavalry of Brigadier-General Hamilton P. Bee 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’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 the other two 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.

In a new letter penned around this same time (which ran in the 18 June 1864 edition of the Sunbury American), Henry Wharton reported that:

Company C, on last Saturday [21 May 1864] was detailed by the General in command of the Division to take one hundred and eighty-seven prisoners (rebs) to New Orleans. This they done [sic] satisfactorily and returned yesterday [28 May 1864] to their regiment, ready for duty. While in the City some of the boys made Captain Gobin quite a handsome present, to show their appreciation of him as an officer gentleman. The boys are well.

The full 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”—the men of Company C learned from their superior officers that their independence from military life would not be happening anytime soon because the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers had received new orders to return to the Eastern Theater of the war.

On 7 July 1864, Private Jasper Gardner and his fellow C Company soldiers boarded the U.S. Steamer McClellan and sailed out of the harbor at New Orleans, along with the members of Companies A, D, E, F, H, and I. (Meanwhile, the remaining men from Companies B, G and K remained behind, awaiting transport. They departed later that month aboard the Blackstone.)

Following the arrival of the McClellan in Virginia and a memorable encounter with President Abraham Lincoln on 12 July, the members of Companies A, C, D, E, F, H, and I joined up with Major-General David Hunter’s forces at Snicker’s Gap in mid-July 1864. There, they fought in the Battle of Cool Spring and assisted, once again, in defending Washington, D.C. while also driving Confederate troops from Maryland.

Sheridan’s 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign

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

On 1 September 1864, First Lieutenant Daniel Oyster was commissioned as captain of Company C. William Hendricks was promoted from second to first lieutenant, Sergeant Christian S. Beard was promoted to second lieutenant, Sergeant William Fry was promoted to the rank of first sergeant, and Corporal John Bartlow was promoted to the rank of sergeant. Private Timothy M. Snyder was also promoted to the rank of corporal that same day.

From 3-4 September, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers then fought in the Battle of Berryville, and engaged in related post-battle skirmishes with the enemy over subsequent days. On one of those days (5 September 1864), Captain Oyster and a subordinate, Private David Sloan, were wounded at Berryville.

On 18 September, Color-Sergeant Benjamin Walls, the oldest member of the entire regiment, was mustered out upon expiration of his three-year term of service—despite his request that he continued to be allowed to continue his service to the nation. In addition, Privates D. W. and Isaac Kemble, David S. Beidler, R. W. Druckemiller, Charles Harp, John H. Heim, former POW Conrad Holman, George Miller, William Pfeil, William Plant, and Alex Ruffaner also mustered out the same day upon expiration of their respective service terms.

Battles of Opequan and Fisher’s Hill, September 1864

Together with other regiments under the command of Union Major-General Sheridan and Brigadier-General William H. Emory, commander of the 19th Corps (XIX Corps), the members of Company C and their fellow 47th Pennsylvanians helped to inflict heavy casualties on Lieutenant-General Jubal Early’s Confederate forces during the Battle of Opequan (also spelled as “Opequon” and referred to as “Third Winchester”). The battle is still considered by many historians to be one of the most important during Sheridan’s 1864 campaign; the Union’s victory here helped to ensure the reelection of President Abraham Lincoln.

The 47th Pennsylvania’s march toward destiny at Opequan began at 2 a.m. on 19 September 1864 as the regiment left camp and joined up with others in the Union’s 19th Corps (XIX Corps). Advancing slowly from Berryville toward Winchester, the 19th Corps became bogged down for several hours by the massive movement of Union troops and supply wagons, enabling Early’s men to dig in. Finally reaching the Opequan Creek, Sheridan’s men came face to face with Early’s Confederate Army.

The fighting, which began in earnest at noon, was long and brutal. The Union’s left flank (6th Corps) took a beating from Confederate artillery stationed on high ground.

Meanwhile, the 47th Pennsylvania and the 19th Corps were directed by General William Emory to attack and pursue Major-General John B. Gordon’s Confederate forces. Some success was achieved, but casualties mounted as another Confederate artillery group opened fire on Union troops trying to cross a clearing. When a nearly fatal gap began to open between the 6th and 19th Corps, Sheridan sent in units led by Brigadier-Generals Emory Upton and David A. Russell. Russell, hit twice—once in the chest, was mortally wounded. The 47th Pennsylvania opened its lines long enough to enable the Union cavalry under William Woods Averell and the foot soldiers of General George Crook to charge the Confederates’ left flank.

The 19th Corps, with the 47th in the thick of the fighting, then began pushing the Confederates back. Early’s “grays” retreated in the face of the valor displayed by Sheridan’s “blue jackets.” Leaving 2,500 wounded behind, the Rebels retreated to Fisher’s Hill, eight miles south of Winchester (21-22 September), and then to Waynesboro, following a successful early morning flanking attack by Sheridan’s Union men which outnumbered Early’s three to one. Afterward, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were sent out on skirmishing parties before making camp at Cedar Creek.

Moving forward, the surviving members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers would continue to distinguish themselves in battle, but they would do so without two of their senior and most respected commanders: Colonel Tilghman H. Good and Good’s second in command, Lieutenant-Colonel George Alexander, who mustered out 23-24 September upon the expiration of their respective terms of service. Fortunately, they were replaced with leaders who were equally respected for their front-line experience and temperament, including Major John Peter Shindel Gobin, formerly of the 47th’s Company C, who had been promoted up through the regimental staff and would be promoted again on 4 November to the rank of lieutenant-colonel and regimental commanding officer.

Battle of Cedar Creek

It was also during the fall of 1864 that Major-General Sheridan began the first of the Union’s true “scorched earth” campaigns, starving the enemy into submission by destroying Virginia’s crops and farming infrastructure. Viewed through today’s lens of history as inhumane, the strategy claimed many innocents—civilians whose lives were cut short by their inability to find food. This same strategy, however, almost certainly contributed to the further turning of the war’s tide in the Union’s favor during the Battle of Cedar Creek on 19 October 1864. Successful throughout most of their engagement with Union forces at Cedar Creek, Early’s Confederate troops began peeling off in ever growing numbers to forage for food, thus enabling the 47th Pennsylvania and others under Sheridan’s command to rally.

From a military standpoint, it was another impressive, but heartrending day. During the morning of 19 October, Early launched a surprise attack directly on Sheridan’s Cedar Creek-encamped forces. Early’s men were able to capture Union weapons while freeing a number of Confederates who had been taken prisoner during previous battles—all while pushing seven Union divisions back. According to Bates:

When the Army of West Virginia, under Crook, was surprised and driven from its works, the Second Brigade, with the Forty-seventh on the right, was thrown into the breach to arrest the retreat…. Scarcely was it in position before the enemy came suddenly upon it, under the cover of fog. The right of the regiment was thrown back until it was almost a semi-circle. The brigade, only fifteen hundred strong, was contending against Gordon’s entire division, and was forced to retire, but, in comparative good order, exposed, as it was, to raking fire. Repeatedly forming, as it was pushed back, and making a stand at every available point, it finally succeeded in checking the enemy’s onset, when General Sheridan suddenly appeared upon the field, who ‘met his crest-fallen, shattered battalions, without a word of reproach, but joyously swinging his cap, shouted to the stragglers, as he rode rapidly past them – “Face the other way, boys! We are going back to our camp! We are going to lick them out of their boots!’”

The Union’s counterattack punched Early’s forces into submission, and the men of the 47th were commended for their heroism by General Stephen Thomas who, in 1892, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his own “distinguished conduct in a desperate hand-to-hand encounter, in which the advance of the enemy was checked” that day. Bates described the 47th’s actions:

When the final grand charge was made, the regiment moved at nearly right angles with the rebel front. The brigade charged gallantly, and the entire line, making a left wheel, came down on his flank, while engaging the Sixth Corps, when he went “whirling up the valley” in confusion. In the pursuit to Fisher’s Hill, the regiment led, and upon its arrival was placed on the skirmish line, where it remained until twelve o’clock noon of the following day. The army was attacked at early dawn…no respite was given to take food until the pursuit was ended.

On this day alone, the 47th Pennsylvania lost the equivalent, in killed and wounded, of nearly two full companies of men, including Private Jasper B. Gardner. According to C Company Captain Daniel Oyster and Regimental Adjutant W. Scott Johnston:

Jasper B. Gardner a Private of Company “C” 47th Regt. Penna. Vet. Vols was killed at Cedar Creek Va.

That the said Jasper B. Gardner was killed during an engagement with the enemy at the place aforesaid and that his death was caused by a Rifle ball passing through his head which resulted in his death at the time and place aforesaid.

Captain Oyster, who had sustained a wound to his right arm during that same battle, also attested that he was “present at the time,” and had “personal knowledge of the facts.”

One can only speculate whether or not Jasper Gardner had had any time to have any last thoughts before he drew his last breath and, if so, what those thoughts were. But if he did, they may very likely been about his widow, Mary, and the children he had not yet had the time to have with her.

Initially buried near where he fell on Cooley’s Farm, his remains were later exhumed as part of the federal government’s effort to bury its Union Army dead in a more respectful manner. He still rests at the Winchester National Cemetery in Winchester, Virginia.

A separate cenotaph was created for him at the Square Top Cemetery in Clinton Township, Wyoming County, Pennsylvania to enable his parents and widow to visit a place closer to home where they could pay their respects and honor his memory.

In recounting the events of that terrible day in a letter later sent to the Sunbury American, Corporal Henry Wharton wrote, “This victory was, to us, of company C, dearly brought, and will bring with it sorrow to more than one Sunbury.”

What Happened to the Gardner Brothers’ Parents and Siblings?

Both of the Gardner brothers’ parents survived them. Their father, Champlin Gardner, died at the age of sixty-eight on 19 June 1869, and was laid to rest at the same cemetery where his sons, Henry and Jasper, were memorialized on a cenotaph—the Square Top Cemetery in Clinton Township, Wyoming County. The Gardner brothers’ mother, Eunice (Billings) Gardner, died at the age of seventy-eight, on 10 April 1884, and was interred beside her husband.

The Gardner brothers’ older brothers, Wilber and A. Jackson Gardner, both also outlived them. Wilbur Gardner grew up to become a farmer in Gibson Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. Together, he and his wife, Emeline, welcomed the births of six children: Morris, who was born in 1853; Louisa J., who was born in 1856; Della, who was born in 1859; Emma, who was born in 1862; Hattie, who was born in 1865; and Jasper E., who was born in 1869. After a long full life, Wilber Gardner died in Gibson Township on 17 April 1909, and was laid to rest at the South Gibson Cemetery.

Meanwhile, Andrew Jackson Gardner, who was known more commonly as “Jackson,” also grew up to be a farmer. Married by 1860, he and his wife, Ellen (Jones) Gardner, were establishing their own home in Factoryville, Clinton Township, Wyoming County. By 1880, their household had grown to include their children, Frank, a nineteen-year-old farm laborer who had been born on 29 September 1860; Paulina (aged twelve) and Reuben (aged four), and Ellen’s father, Jasper Jones. As the new century progressed, their household was documented as a smaller one, with the 1900 federal census documenting that Jackson was now living only with his wife, Ellen, and their twenty-four-year-old son, Reuben, who was described by the enumerator as being “at school.” After a long, full life, Andrew Jackson Gardner died in 1917. He, too, was buried at the Square Top Cemetery in Clinton Township, Wyoming County.

The Gardner brothers’ older sister, Perlina, grew up, married New York native David Nelson Waterman, and relocated with him to the community of Lathrop in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. Together, they welcomed the births of two sons, Charles and Edward, who were born, respectively, in 1855 and 1859, and a daughter, Eunice, who was born in 1866. A memorial has been created for her on Find A Grave.

What Happened to Jeremiah Gardner’s Widow and Children?

Following her husband’s death, Martha M. (Carpenter) Gardner, filed for a U.S. Civil War Widow’s Pension, as well as U.S. Civil War Orphans’ Pensions for the couple’s three children: Mile, Watie (shown on various records as “Maty”) and Nelson. She was awarded a widow’s pension of eight dollars per month, which was made retroactive to the date of her husband’s death (11 April 1864), and was also subsequently awarded two dollars per month for each of their children, beginning on 25 July 1866, with their respective individual orphans’ pension slated to expire when each child turned sixteen, which, in Milo’s case was on 18 April 1875, in the case of Watie was on 31 January 1877, and in Nelson’s case was on 17 November 1878.

Although the 1870 federal census indicated that Martha Gardner (also shown as “Matilda” on various records) resided with her children in North Abington Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, the 1950 obituary of her son, Milo, indicates that all three children were sent to the Pennsylvania Soldiers’ Orphans’ School in the community of Harford in Harford Township, Susquehanna County. Located on the grounds of the former Franklin Academy, this orphans’ school was opened on 7 November 1865. From that time until March 1868, a “Mr. Deans” served as the school’s principal. Professor Henry S. Sweet then took over, according to orphans’ home historian James L. Paul.

Eighteen children were in attendance at the opening of the school, but enough were admitted to raise the number to one hundred before the year closed. Additions were frequent, and the school constantly increased until the year 1871, when the maximum number was reached, there being then one hundred and seventy-four in attendance. Since that time the school has slowly decreased. There are at present [in 1877] one hundred and sixty-three on the roll.

During the first year the school was fully organized. Competent persons were procured to superintend the various industrial departments. Lessons were given to the girls in the various domestic duties, as well as in the use of the needle and sewing-machine; and the boys were taught how to do ‘chores’ and to work on the farm. Habits of industry were thus formed, and that degree of skill acquired, which has enabled many of the orphans, on leaving school at sixteen years of age, to secure good positions.

The system of making work-details being observed, no child has been robbed of his or her opportunities for study. A full and experienced corps of teachers have been employed, and the school properly graded according to the proficiency of the pupils. All the common and higher English branches have been thoroughly taught, and occasionally lessons in the ancient languages have been imparted. Especial attention has been given to those desiring to become teachers, and many are offered schools immediately after leaving the orphan school, and have proved themselves competent. Five, accepting the gratuity of the State, have received a normal school training; and permission has been granted by the State Superintendent to several others who will soon accept of the privilege so generously provided. Quite a number have remained at the school after becoming sixteen, being supported by friends or by their own labor, while others have continued their studies at other institutions than the normals schools. Vocal music has not been neglected, there being daily practice, and weekly instruction in the art of reading music. Lessons are also given, to those who desire it, in instrumental music.

Drill in military tactics has, for a number of years, been required daily when the weather was favorable—company movements being understood by the boys.

Religious observances and instruction have formed an interesting feature of the school since its origin. The pupils have, at all periods of its history, been required to repair to the main school-room at eight o’clock in the morning and at seven in the evening for devotional exercises, which have often been interspersed with short lectures on manners and morals. Religious services have been conducted at the school alternately by ministers of the various religious denominations residing in the vicinity. On Sundays, all the pupils have regulary attended Sunday-school, which is conducted by the Principal, assisted by the teachers and various employees.

From 1871 to 1874 the boarding department was conducted separately by Mr. Chas. S. Hallstead. This was transferred, at the latter date, to Mr. A. J. Seamans, who still boards the school.

The sanitary condition of the school has always been excellent. During the year 1871, however, typhoid fever prevailing in the vicinity, the orphans did not escape the epidemic. Five cases proved fatal. Besides these there has been one sudden death, one from erysipelas, one from diphtheria, and two from dropsy. No serious accident has ever befallen any of the pupils. The school has passed through the ordinary diseases of childhood without any fatal results. A hospital is connected with the institution under the charge of an excellent nurse, but it has been vacant the greater part of the time.

The Gardner children likely remained at that school for such an extended period of time because Martha Gardner reportedly died in 1871. Milo and Nelson were both still listed on the school’s roster in 1877.

Milo M. Gardner subsequently grew up to become a railroad company employee just like his father. By 1880, he was employed as a locomotive engineer, and was living as an unmarried, twenty-two-year-old boarder at the home of machinist William Nicol in Carbondale, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania. On New Year’s Day in 1883, he began his own family, marrying Harriet A. Curtis. Together, they welcomed the births of sons Raymond (1887-1892), who did not survive early childhood, and Burdette Curtis Gardner, who was born in Carbondale on 21 November 1894 and later wed Ellen Nellie Richards (1894-1989); and daughters Edith A. Gardner (1897-1990), who was born in Carbondale on 8 July 1897, grew up to become a high school English teacher, and died on 15 October 1990; and Gertrude Gardner (1900-1994), who was born on 11 February 1900, also grew up to become a high school teacher and later wed Charles Snyder (1889-1974).

By the time that the federal census enumerator arrived in 1900, Milo Gardner and his family were residing in Carbondale’s Sixth Ward and employed a live-in servant. By 1910, their household remained the same, save for the absence of the servant. After a successful career, he retired as a railroad engineer. By 1930, he was residing alone in Carbondale with his wife, Harriet. By 1940, their unmarried daughter Edith had moved back in with them. On 17 December 1946, he became a widower when his wife Harriet passed away in Carbondale.

After a long, full life, Milo Gardner died in Carbondale at the age of ninety-one from heart disease and arteriosclerosis on 3 July 1950, and was laid to rest at the Clinton Center Cemetery in Clinton Township, Wyoming County. The Scranton Tribune paid the following tribute to him in his 5 July 1950 obituary:

Milo M. Gardner, 91, retired Delaware and Hudson Railroad engineer, died late Monday night in his home, 80 Cemetery St., Carbondale, after a long illness.

Born in Springfield, Pa., April 19, 1859, he was a son of the late Jeremiah and Matilda Gardner. His father volunteered for duty with the Union Army during the Civil War and was killed two weeks after his enlistment.

The Gardner children, of whom Mr. Gardner, then eight years old, was the eldest were sent to the Orphans of Veterans Home at Harford where each remained until reaching the age of 16 years.

Mr. Gardner came to Carbondale and obtained work on the D&H Railroad. He soon was made a fireman and later was advanced to engineer. During his almost 48 years of service, from Oct. 1, 1876, to June 1, 1923, Mr. Gardner served on all passenger yard freight and road runs. His record was commended by officials of the railroad upon his retirement.

He was married Jan. 1, 1883, at Clinton Twp., to Harriet Curtis, who died in 1946. Mr. Gardner was a member of the Berean Baptist Church, the D&H Veterans Association and the Brotherhood of Railroad Fireman and Engineers.

Surviving are: a son, Dr. Burdette C. Gardner, Waymart; two daughters, Miss Edith A. Gardner, a teacher at Benjamin Franklin High School, and Miss Gertrude Gardner, a teacher at Danville High School;, a sister, Mrs. Hiram Worden, and two grandsons, Waymart.

The funeral will be held from his home Thursday at 2 p.m. Interment, Clinton Center Cemetery. Arrangements, Donald W. Bartholomay.

Jeremiah Gardner’s daughter, Watie A. (Gardner) Snyder, wed Hiram Sutton Worden (1851-1943) in 1879. They then welcomed the births of: sons Milo Worden (1881-1957) and Kenneth Worden (circa 1883-1885), and daughters Delna A. Worden (1885-1971), who later wed Sidney James Rumbold, and Isabelle Olive Worden (1888-1974), who later wed William J. Rice (1884-1944) before marrying Walter Eber Banning (1889-1972). After a long, full life, Watie (Gardner) Snyder died at the age of ninety-four at her home in Lake Sheridan, Nicholson, Wyoming County on 10 May 1955, and was laid to rest at the Evergreen Woodlawn Cemetery in Factoryville. In its 20 May 1955 edition, The Scranton Times paid the following tribute to her:

Mrs. Watie Gardner Worden, who marked her 94th birthday on Feb. 1, died yesterday at her home, Lae Sheridan, RD 2, Nicholson, after an illness.

Mrs. Worden was born in Springville, daughter of the late Matilda and Jeremiah Gardner, and was one of the first members of the Lake Sheridan Union Chapel. Her father died during the Civil War, two weeks after he enlisted in the Army. Mrs. Worden, her sister and brother were reared at the old Orphans School in Harford until they turned 16 years of age. Her husband, Hiram S., who died in 1943, fought in the Indian Wars and was one of the founders of Lake Sheridan Union Chapel.

Surviving are a son, Milo Ward Worden, Islip, L.I., NY.; two daughters, Mrs. Dalna Rumbold, at home, and Mrs. Isabella Branning, Factoryville; three grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and several nieces and nephews.

The funeral will be Sunday at 2:30 P.M. from the home. Rev. G. Wilson Young, Factoryville Baptist Church, will officiate. Interment will be in Evergreen Woodlawn Cemetery, Factoryville. Friends may call at the home tonight from 7 to 9 and tomorrow from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M.

Jeremiah Gardner’s youngest son, Nelson R. Gardner, grew up to become a farmer. After marrying Rena Miller, he and his wife resided in Clinton Township, Wyoming County, where they welcomed the births of daughters Leona Maud Gardner (1887-1939), who later wed Charles A. Wilson (1881-1975); Vida Mae Gardner (1891-1980), who later wed Arthur Pierce Stark (1886-1946); and Geneva H. Gardner (892-1980), who later wed Glenn Cobb Dean (1889-1980). While still in his early fifties, Nelson Gardner fell ill. As his condition worsened, he developed lobar pneumonia, and he died in Clinton Township, Wyoming County on 6 February 1917. He was subsequently interred at the Evergreen Woodlawn Cemetery in Factoryville.

What Happened to Jasper Gardner’s Widow?

Following her husband’s death, Mary (Beidleman) Gardner, filed for a U.S. Civil War Widow’s Pension.

Documenting for the U.S. Pension Bureau that she had wed Jasper B. Gardner on 16 December 1860, via an affidavit that she completed on 18 January 1865 for attachment to her widow’s pension application to the federal government, she also confirmed that the couple had not yet had children, and that she was a resident of the community of Clinton in Wyoming County at that time, but that her post office was located in the community of Factoryville.

Assisting her in this endeavor to secure the financial support to which she was entitled, were her father, Daniel Beidleman, and “A. J. Gardener,” who was her brother-in-law, Andrew Jackson Gardner. Both residents of Wyoming County, they filed attestations on her behalf on 18 January 1865, which documented that she had married Jasper Gardner in 1860 and had continued to live as widow, having never married since her husband had been killed in battle in 1864.

Still trying to obtain pension support in May, she asked the minister who performed her 1860 wedding ceremony to submit an attestation on her behalf to confirm for U.S. Pension Bureau officials that she actually had been officially married to Jasper Gardner. That minister, John F. Wilber, personally appeared before Judge William Terry, a Wyoming County justice of the peace, on 18 May 1865 and swore under oath, that “he is and was on the 16th day of December 1860 a minister of the Gospel, of the Methodist denomination,” that he had been “duly authorized by law to perform the marriage ceremony, and that on said 16th day of December 1860 Jasper B. Gardner and Mary L. Bidleman [sic] were duly united in marriage by and before him according to the laws of Pennsylvania, both parties at the time resident in Clinton township, Wyoming county Penna and that he gave to said parties at the time a certificate of a duplicate of said marriage, a duplicate of which accompanies this affidavit … and that said parties resided and lived together as husband and wife….”

The Justice of the Peace then added his own commentary to the affidavit, noting that “said John F. Wilber is a preacher of the Methodist denomination of good repute and entitled to credit,” as if to drive home the point to federal government officials that they needed to stop throwing up hurdles to Mary (Beidleman) Gardner, and get on with granting her the war widow’s pension to which she was rightfully entitled.

After months of wrangling, she was finally awarded her U.S. Civil War Widow’s Pension Certificate on 6 June 1865. Sent to the Factoryville Post Office address that she had provided, the certificate informed her that she would be receiving a pension of eight dollars per month (roughly $156 per month in 2024 dollars).

Mary Gardner’s life evidently did not unfold smoothly after securing her widow’s pension, however; on 27 March 1879, The Honorable Charles W. Roesler, Alderman of the 8th Ward in the City of Scranton, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, filed a formal request on her behalf in which he attested that she was the Civil War widow she claimed to be and asked the Commissioner of Pensions at the U.S. Pension Bureau in Washington, D.C. to resolve the problems she had been experiencing in receiving her U.S. Civil War Widow’s Pension payments by promptly paying her the “arrears” she was due.

This alderman’s attestation also documented that Mary (Beidleman) Gardner had become a resident of Scranton by 1879.

Researchers have not yet determined the date or location of Mary (Beidleman) Gardner’s death or burial; however, a memorial has been created for her at Find A Grave.

* To view more of the key U.S. Civil War Pension records related to the Gardner brothers, visit our Jeremiah and Jasper B. Gardner Collection.

 

Sources:

1. Jackson Gardner, in Death Certificates (file no.: 117736, registered no.: 15, 19 November 1917). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
2. Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, vol. 1. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.
3. “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, 15 January 2020.
4. Gardner, A. Jackson and Ellen, in U.S. Census (Clinton Township, Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, 1860). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
5. Gardner, A. Jackson, Ellen, Frank, Paulina, and Reuben, and Jones, Jasper, in U.S. Census (Clinton Township, Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, 1880). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
6. Gardner, A. Jackson, Ellen and Reuben in U.S. Census (Clinton Township, Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, 1900). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
7. Gardner, C. (Champlin), Eunice, Wilbur, Mary, Jackson, Jeremiah, Perlina, and Jasper, in U.S. Census (Clinton Township, Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, 1850). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
8. Gardner/Carpenter, Matilda, Milo, “Maty” (sic, Watie) and Nelson, in U.S. Census (North Abington Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, 1870). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
9. Gardner, J.B., in Roll of Honor. Names of Soldiers Who Died in Defence of the American Union, vol. XV, p. 198. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Office of the Adjutant General and Government Printing Office, 1867.
10. Gardner, J. B., in U.S. National Cemetery Interment Control Forms (1864). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
11. Gardner, J. B., in U.S. Registers of Deaths of Volunteer Soldiers (1864). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
12. Gardner, Jasper B, in Civil War Muster Rolls (Company C, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
13. Gardener, Jasper, in Compiled Military Service Records (Company C, 47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
14. Gardner, Jasper B. and Gardner, Jeremiah, in Civil War Veterans’ Card File, 1861-1866 (Company C, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
15. Gardner, Jasper and Mary L. (Beidelman) Gardner, in U.S. Civil War Widows’ Pension Files and U.S. Civil War Widows’ Pension General Index Cards (application no.: 80314, certificate no.: 48520, filed by the veteran’s widow on 24 January 1865). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
16. Gardner, Jeremiah, in Burial Records (Philadelphia National Cemetery, 1864). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
17. Gardner, Jeremiah, in Death Records (City and County of Philadelphia, 1864). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Philadelphia City Archives.
18. Gardner, Jeremiah, in Roll of Honor. Names of Soldiers Who Died in Defence of the American Union, vol. XII, p. 22. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Office of the Adjutant General and Government Printing Office, 1867.
19. Gardner, Jeremiah, Gardner, Martha, and Carpenter, Nelson, Guardian, in U.S. Civil War Pension General Index Cards (veteran’s application no.: 103606, certificate no.: 99708, filed by the veteran on 27 July 1865; widow’s application no.: 233405, certificate no.: 230299, filed by the widow on 24 September 1877; guardian’s name: Carpenter, Nelson). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
20. Gardner, Milo and Nicol, William and family, in U.S. Census (Carbondale, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, 1880). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
21. Gardner, Milo, Harriet, Burdette, Edith, and Gertrude, in U.S. Census (Carbondale, Sixth Ward, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, 1900 and 1910). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
22. Gardner, Milo and Harriet, in U.S. Census (Carbondale, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, 1930). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
23. Gardner, Milo, Harriet and Edith, in U.S. Census (Carbondale, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, 1940). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
24. Gardner, Nelson, Rena, Leona, Vida, and Geneva, in U.S. Census (Clinton Township, Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, 1900 and 1910).
25. History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming counties, Pa. : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers. New York, New York: W. W. Munsell & Co., 1880.
26. “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, 20 October 20 1862.
27. Milo Monroe Gardner, in Death Certificates (file no.: 60307, registered no.: 168, 3 July 1950). Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
28. “Milo Gardner, 91, Claimed by Death; Funeral Thursday.” Scranton, Pennsylvania: The Scranton Tribune, 5 July 1950.
29. “Mitchelville: Freedom’s Home,” in “Think Like a Historian.” Beaufort County, South Carolina: Finding Freedom’s Home: Archaeology at Mitchelville, retrieved online, January 18, 2021.
30. “Mrs. Watie Worden Of Nicholson Dead.” Scranton, Pennsylvania: The Scranton Times, 20 May 1955.
31. Nelson R. Gardner, in Death Certificates (file no.: 16380, registered no.: 2, 6 February 1917). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
32. Paul, James Laughery (1877). Pennsylvania’s Soldiers’ Orphan Schools, Giving a Brief Account of the Origin of the Late Civil War, the Rise and Progress of the Orphan System, and Legislative Enactments Relating Thereto, pp. 268-277. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Lane S. Hart, 1877.
33. 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.
34. Reports of Lieut. Col. Tilghman H. Good, Forty-seventh Pennsylvania Infantry, in Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 1861-1865 (Microfilm M262). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
35. Schmidt, Lewis G. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1986.