Emanuel Walters (circa 1837-1865), Joseph Rhodes Walters (1841-1920) and Samuel Walters (1843-1927) were brothers-in-arms, as well as brothers by blood in mid-nineteenth century Pennsylvania. Natives of Juniata County, they were sons of David Walters (1806-1881) and Elizabeth (Rhodes) Walters (1816-1895), who were both natives of Lancaster County, and the older siblings of Elizabeth, Sarah, David A., John Walters, Susan Walters, and William Lewis Walters (1863-1946).

Formative Years

The first of this trio to arrive at the Juniata County home of David and Elizabeth Walters was Emanuel, who was born sometime between 1837 and 1840. Joseph subsequently opened his eyes for the first time on 18 June 1841, followed by Samuel, who made his first appearance two years later, on 18 September 1843, followed over the next several years by sisters Elizabeth (1844-1925) and Sarah (1848-1895).

In 1850, the fraternal trio resided with their parents and grandparents in Beale Township, Juniata County, where their father supported their growing family on the wages of a laborer. Sometime during that same year, their younger brother, David A. Walters, was born. Another brother, John Walters (1852-1930), arrived on 27 February 1852.

By early 1860, the Walters family was expanding again — this time with the arrival of Susan Walters (1860-1930). Born in Juniata County on 31 January 1860, she would ultimately grow up to marry Henry Hostler. But for now, she was spending her infancy as part of a group of siblings ranging from five months to twenty-one years of age. By July of that year, she and her older siblings were living in the town of Patterson in Milford Township, Juniata County, where the family’s patriarch still worked as a laborer. Also employed as in similar occupations at this time were Emanuel, Joseph and Samuel Walters.

The family’s life together grew more difficult, however, as the United States of America descended into the darkness of disunion when the state of South Carolina seceded from the Union on 20 December 1860. As they and their neighbors labored to eke out their existence, their worries over the nation’s fate increased during the opening months of 1861 as one southern state after another seceded as well.

And then Fort Sumter fell.

American Civil War

The first of the Walters brothers to head off to war was Joseph R. Walters. Following his enrollment for Civil War military service in Sunbury, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania on 12 September 1861, he traveled to Harrisburg in Dauphin County, where he was officially mustered in that same day at Camp Curtin as a private with Company C of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, the regiment’s color guard unit, which was commanded by Captain John Peter Shindel Gobin.

Military records at the time described him as a nineteen-year-old farmer residing in Mifflintown, Juniata County, who was five feet, four inches tall with black hair, blue eyes and a light complexion.

* Note: Officially enrolled for Civil War duty in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania in August 1861, Company C of the 47th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, was more commonly known as the “Sunbury Guards.” A military unit that began as a small-town militia, and has, according to several historians, protected the United States of America in every major military engagement from the American Revolution to the present, the Sunbury Guards was the first of Northumberland’s militia units to respond to the 15 April 1861 call by President Abraham Lincoln for 75,000 volunteers “to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union.”

Officially mustered into service at Camp Curtin on 23 April 1861 as Company F of the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteers, under the leadership of Captain Charles J. Bruner and then-First Lieutenant John Peter Shindel Gobin, the unit saw action at Falling Waters, Martinsburg and Bunker Hill before being honorably discharged on 31 July 1861. Knowing the fight to preserve their nation’s union was not yet over, the majority of men from the Sunbury Guards then opted to re-enlist — this time as members of Company C of the newly-formed 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Joining those seasoned veterans were multiple new volunteers from Juniata and Northumberland counties, including Joseph Walters.

From Basic Training to the Nation’s Capital

Following a brief training period in light infantry tactics from mid-August through mid-September 1861, Private Joseph Walters and the other members of Company C were sent by train with their fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers from Harrisburg to Washington, D.C. By 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.” On 22 September, Henry Wharton, a field musician from C Company, penned the following update for the Sunbury American:

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

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

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

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

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

On 24 September, the soldiers of Company C became part of the federal service when the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was officially mustered into the U.S. Army. Three days later, the regiment 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 U.S. Army of the Potomac (“Mr. Lincoln’s Army”). Under Smith’s leadership, their regiment and brigade would help to defend the nation’s capital from the time of their September arrival through late January when the men of the 47th Pennsylvania would be shipped 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 [sic, Brosious], Piers [sic, Pyers], Harp and McEwen were among the number. Every man in the company wanted to go. The Rebels did not attack us, and if they had they would have met with a warm reception, as I had my men posted in such a manner that I could have whipped a regiment. My men were all ready and anxious for a “fight.” 

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 (to the Sunbury American on 13 October), Henry Wharton described their new home and outlined the typical duties of the 47th Pennsylvanians:

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

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

A Sad, Unwanted Distinction

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

According to Lewis Schmidt, author of A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers, Captain Gobin wrote to Boulty’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell Young of Sunbury, “It is with the most profound feelings of sorrow I ever experienced that I am compelled to announce to you the death of our Pet, and your son, Boulton.” After receiving the news of Boulty’s death, Gobin said that he 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 the soldiers from 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 send a total of $900 from their collective pay back home to their families and friends.

Shortly before Christmas, the newspaper reported 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 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 USS 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 Joseph Walters arrived in Key West with his fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers. 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 at Fort Taylor, felled trees and helped to build new roads in Key West, and strengthened the fortifications in and around the Union Army’s presence there. During the weekend of Friday, 14 February, they formally introduced themselves to locals during a parade through the town’s streets and at 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 episodes of frustration and heartache — the time here made more difficult by typhoid fever and the frequent appearance of dysentery sparked by soldiers who were 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).

During the second week of July, according to Schmidt, the regiment’s third-in-command — Major William H. Gausler — and F Company’s Captain Henry S. Harte returned home to Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley to resume the 47th Pennsylvania’s recruiting efforts. After arriving in Allentown on 15 July, they quickly re-established an efficient operation, which they maintained through early November 1862. During this time, Major Gausler was able to persuade fifty-four new recruits to join the 47th Pennsylvania while Harte rounded up an additional twelve.

Meanwhile, the remainder of the regiment continued to soldier on, performing picket duty at assigned locations throughout the area they occupied. On 12 September, Colonel Tilghman Good and his adjutant, First Lieutenant Washington H. R. Hangen, issued Regimental Orders, No. 207 from the 47th Pennsylvania’s Headquarters in Beaufort, South Carolina:

I. The Colonel commanding desires to call the attention of all officers and men in the regiment to the paramount necessity of observing rules for the preservation of health. There is less to be apprehended from battle than disease. The records of all companies in climate like this show many more casualties by the neglect of sanitary post action then [sic] by the skill, ordnance and courage of the enemy. Anxious that the men in my command may be preserved in the full enjoyment of health to the service of the Union. And that only those who can leave behind the proud epitaph of having fallen on the field of battle in the defense of their country shall fail to return to their families and relations at the termination of this war.

II. All the tents will be struck at 7:30 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday of each week. The signal for this purpose will be given by the drum major by giving three taps on the drum. Every article of clothing and bedding will be taken out and aired; the flooring and bunks will be thoroughly cleaned. By the same signal at 11 a.m. the tents will be re-erected. On the days the tents are not struck the sides will be raised during the day for the purpose of ventilation.

III. The proper cooking of provisions is a matter of great importance more especially in this climate but have not yet received from a majority of officers of the regiment that attention that should be paid to it.

IV. Thereafter an officer of each company will be detailed by the commander of each company and have their names reported to these headquarters to superintend the cooking of provisions taking care that all food prepared for the soldiers is sufficiently cooked and that the meats are all boiled or seared (not fried). He will also have charge of the dress table and he is held responsible for the cleanliness of the kitchen cooking utensils and the preparation of the meals at the time appointed.

V. The following rules for the taking of meals and regulations in regard to the conducting of the company will be strictly followed. Every soldier will turn his plate, cup, knife and fork into the Quarter Master Sgt who will designate a permanent place or spot for each member of the company and there leave his plate & cup, knife and fork placed at each meal with the soldier’s rations on it. Nor will any soldier be permitted to go to the company kitchen and take away food therefrom.

VI. Until further orders the following times for taking meals will be followed Breakfast at six, dinner at twelve, supper at six. The drum major will beat a designated call fifteen minutes before the specified time which will be the signal to prepare the tables, and at the time specified for the taking of meals he will beat the dinner call. The soldier will be permitted to take his spot at the table before the last call.

VII. Commanders of companies will see that this order is entered in their company order book and that it is read forth with each day on the company parade. All commanding officers of companies will regulate daily their time by the time of this headquarters. They will send their 1st Sergeants to this headquarters daily at 8 a.m. for this purpose.

Great punctuality is enjoined in conforming to the stated hours prescribed by the roll calls, parades, drills, and taking of meals; review of army regulations while attending all roll calls to be suspended by a commissioned officer of the companies, and a Captain to report the alternate to the Colonel or the commanding officer.

At 5 a.m., Commanders of companies are imperatively instructed to have the company quarters washed and policed and secured immediately after breakfast.

At 6 a.m., morning reports of companies request [sic] by the Captains and 1st Sgts and all applications for special privileges of soldiers must be handed to the Adjutant before 8 a.m.

By Command of Col. T. H. Good
W. H. R. Hangen Adj

In addition, First Lieutenant and Regimental Adjutant Hangen clarified the regiment’s schedule as follows:

• Reveille (5:30 a.m.) and Breakfast (6:00 a.m.)
• First and Second Calls for Guard (6:10 a.m. and 6:15 a.m.)
• Surgeon’s Call (6:30 a.m.)
• First and Second Calls for Company Drill (6:45 a.m. and 7:00 a.m.)
• Recall from Company Drill (8:00 a.m.)
• First and Second Calls for Squad Drill (9:00 a.m. and 9:15 a.m.)
• Recall from Squad Drill (10:30 a.m.) and Dinner (12:00 noon)
• Call for Non-commissioned Officers (1:30 p.m.)
• Recall for Non-commissioned Officers (2:30 p.m.)
• First and Second Calls for Squad Drills (3:15 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.)
• Recall from Squad Drill (4:30 p.m.)
• First and Second Calls for Dress Parade (5:10 p.m. and 5:15 p.m.)
• Supper (6:10 p.m.)
• Tattoo (9:00 p.m.) and Taps (9:15 p.m.)

As the one-year anniversary of the 47th Pennsylvania’s departure from the Great Keystone State dawned on 20 September, thoughts turned to home and Divine Providence as Colonel Tilghman Good issued Special Orders, No. 60 from the 47th’s Regimental Headquarters in Beaufort, South Carolina:

The Colonel commanding takes great pleasure in complimenting the officers and men of the regiment on the favorable auspices of today.

Just one year ago today, the organization of the regiment was completed to enter into the service of our beloved country, to uphold the same flag under which our forefathers fought, bled, and died, and perpetuate the same free institutions which they handed down to us unimpaired.

It is becoming therefore for us to rejoice on this first anniversary of our regimental history and to show forth devout gratitude to God for this special guardianship over us.

Whilst many other regiments who swelled the ranks of the Union Army even at a later date than the 47th have since been greatly reduced by sickness or almost cut to pieces on the field of battle, we as yet have an entire regiment and have lost but comparatively few out of our ranks.

Certain it is we have never evaded or shrunk from duty or danger, on the contrary, we have been ever anxious and ready to occupy any fort, or assume any position assigned to us in the great battle for the constitution and the Union.

We have braved the danger of land and sea, climate and disease, for our glorious cause, and it is with no ordinary degree of pleasure that the Colonel compliments the officers of the regiment for the faithfulness at their respective posts of duty and their uniform and gentlemanly manner towards one another.

Whilst in numerous other regiments there has been more or less jammings and quarrelling [sic] among the officers who thus have brought reproach upon themselves and their regiments, we have had none of this, and everything has moved along smoothly and harmoniously. We also compliment the men in the ranks for their soldierly bearing, efficiency in drill, and tidy and cleanly appearance, and if at any time it has seemed to be harsh and rigid in discipline, let the men ponder for a moment and they will see for themselves that it has been for their own good.

To the enforcement of law and order and discipline it is due our far fame as a regiment and the reputation we have won throughout the land.

With you he has shared the same trials and encountered the same dangers. We have mutually suffered from the same cold in Virginia and burned by the same southern sun in Florida and South Carolina, and he assures the officers and men of the regiment that as long as the present war continues, and the service of the regiment is required, so long he stands by them through storm and sunshine, sharing the same danger and awaiting the same glory.

Victory and First Blood

Sent on a return expedition to Florida as September 1862 waned, Private Joseph Walters 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 fifteen-hundred-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 ordered several officers to direct their men 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 twenty-one hundred 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 on gunboats. Their mission was to destroy all Confederate vessels they encountered and hamper enemy troop movement. Upon arrival that same day, the infantrymen were ordered to set fire to the office of Jacksonville’s Southern Rights newspaper; before that could happen, however, Captain Gobin and his C Company subordinate, Henry Wharton, salvaged the pro-Confederacy publication’s printing press.

Receiving word soon after his arrival at Jacksonville that “Rebel steamers were secreted in the creeks up the river,” Brigadier-General Brannan ordered Captain Charles Yard of the 47th Pennsylvania’s Company E to take a detachment of one hundred men from his own company and those of the 47th’s Company K, and board the steamer Darlington “with two 24-pounder light howitzers and a crew of 25 men.” 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.”

The steamer was subsequently 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 from chattel enslavement on plantations near Beaufort and Hilton Head. Among the formerly enslaved men who enlisted with the regiment at this time were Bristor Gethers, Abraham Jassum and Edward Jassum.

As that integration 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.”

Sometime during this expedition, however, C Company Captain Gobin fell ill with intermittent fever. Hospitalized when the regiment returned to Hilton Head, he survived and returned 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 from 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 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 established 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

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 again as part of the U.S. 10th Army’s 1st Brigade. But this time, their luck ran out.

Bedeviled by snipers, their brigade 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 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 to take the ravine and bridge, dwindling ammunition forced the 47th Pennsylvanians 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 the honor guard at 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 Joseph Walters and his fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers spent the year of 1863 and the 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 Confederate States by conducting raids on cattle ranches and salt production facilities near Key West, they also prevented foreign powers from assisting the Confederate Army and Navy in gaining control key points of entry in the Deep South.

But once again, the fluctuating quality of available drinking water became 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 re-enlist was Private Joseph Walters, who re-enrolled at Fort Taylor on 10 October 1863, earning the coveted title of “Veteran Volunteer.”

Back home in Pennsylvania, just over a month later, Private Joseph Walters’ parents, David and Elizabeth Walters, welcomed the arrival of yet another child — Joseph’s youngest brother, William Lewis Walters (1863-1946), who was born on 20 November 1863.

That same day (20 November 1863), two other brothers of Private Joseph Walters — Emanuel R. Walters and Samuel Walters — enrolled for Civil War military service in Mifflintown, Juniata County. Officially mustered in for duty at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg on 28 November, they joined Joseph’s regiment and company as recruits at the rank of private. Military records at the time described Emanuel as a twenty-three-year-old native of Juniata County who was five feet, six inches tall with black hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion, and was employed as a farmer while Samuel was described as a red-haired, nineteen-year-old farmer and native of Juniata County, who was five feet, eight inches tall with blue eyes and a fair complexion.

Transported south by ship to Florida, they were reunited with their brother at Fort Taylor. Although they did not realize it at that time, they were all now serving with a regiment that was about to make history.

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, 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, the Walters brothers 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 the members 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) before heading to Franklin by steamer through the Bayou Teche. There, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry joined the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division of the U.S. 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.)

Sometime around this same time, Private Emanuel Walters fell ill. As his condition worsened, he was confined to the Union Army’s division hospital in Franklin, Louisiana on 15 March 1864. That hospitalization began yet another period of separation between the brothers as Privates Joseph and Samuel Walters marched on with their regiment toward Alexandria and Natchitoches, by way of New Iberia, Vermilionville (now part of Lafayette), Opelousas, and Washington from 14-26 March 1862.

* Note: Private Emanuel Walters ultimately recovered from his illness, enabling him to rejoin his brothers and the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Regimental rosters confirmed that he was present from at least June 1864 through mid-August 1865.

Red River Campaign

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. According to their respective entries in the Civil War Veterans’ Card File at the Pennsylvania State Archives and on regimental muster rolls, the men enlisted at Natchitoches but were officially mustered 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 Pennsylvanians 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 and the dead. 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 during the Battle of Pleasant Hill.

Once again, the 47th Pennsylvania suffered greatly. 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.

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

The next morning (23 April 1864), episodic skirmishing quickly roared into the flames of a robust fight. As part of the advance party led by Brigadier-General William Emory, the 47th Pennsylvanians took on 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 artillery’s twenty-pound Parrott guns and raking fire from enemy troops situated near a bayou and on a bluff, Emory directed one of his brigades to keep Bee’s Confederates busy while sending 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 Pennsylvania supported Emory’s artillery.

As Emory’s troops worked their way toward the Cane River, they attacked Bee’s flank, forced a Rebel retreat, and erected a series of pontoon bridges, enabling the 47th Pennsylvania 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 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 two weeks. Placed temporarily under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Bailey, they were assigned 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. 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 [Bailey’s Dam] had to be built on the falls at Alexandria to get the ironclads down the river.

As Wharton continued on with his letter, he noted that:

After a great deal of labor [the construction of Bailey’s Dam] was accomplished and by the morning of May 13th the last [Union gunboat] 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, the 47th Pennsylvanians “rested on their arms” for the night, half-dozing without pitching their tents, their rifles within easy reach — and positioned just outside of Marksville, Louisiana on the eve of the 16 May 1864 Battle of Mansura, which unfolded as follows, per 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] on the Achafalaya [sic] 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.

As Wharton noted, the 47th Pennsylvanians subsequently marched on — first to Simmesport and then to Morganza, where they made camp again. While encamped there, the nine formerly enslaved Black men who had enlisted with the 47th Pennsylvania in Beaufort, South Carolina (1862) and Natchitoches, Louisiana (April 1864) were officially mustered into the regiment between 20-24 June 1864.

The regiment then moved on again, marching for New Orleans. Arriving in late June, the 47th Pennsylvanians barely had a chance to sit down before they received new orders — learning that their fight was far from over. Those orders were read to them on the Fourth of July.

Battered but undaunted, the Walters brothers packed up their gear yet again. Boarding the U.S. Steamer McClellan with their C Company comrades and the members of Companies A, D, E, F, H, and I, they steamed away for the East Coast on 7 July. Although they arrived in the Washington, D.C. area as the Battle of Fort Stevens (11-12 July 1864) was under way, they appear not to have been engaged in the actual fighting; however, they did manage to have a memorable encounter with President Abraham Lincoln almost immediately after their arrival on the East Coast.

In all too short order, they were then engaged in new combat activities, most notably at Snicker’s Gap, Virginia (17-19 July). Also known as the Battle of Cool Spring, the Union Army chased the troops of Lieutenant-General Jubal Early through the countryside as the Rebels retreated from their loss at Fort Stevens. That Union force was commanded by Major-General David Hunter, and its success in scattering Confederate soldiers helped pave the way for the 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign of Union Major-General Philip H. (“Little Phil”) Sheridan to firmly turn the war’s tide in the Union’s favor.

* Note: While all of that was unfolding, the men from the 47th Pennsylvania’s B, G and K Companies had stayed behind in New Orleans, Louisiana. Assigned to detached duty there while awaiting transportation to the East Coast, they were led by F Company Captain Henry S. Harte. The stragglers finally sailed away at the end of the month aboard the Blackstone and arrived in Virginia on 28 July. They then reconnected with their comrades at Monocacy, Virginia on 2 August.

On 24 July, C Company Captain John Peter Shindel Gobin was promoted from leadership of the Sunbury Guards/Company C to the central regimental command staff at the rank of major. Just over two weeks later, the Walters brothers received the happy news that Private Joseph Walters was also being promoted — to the rank of corporal on 10 August 1864. This was followed by the promotion of First Lieutenant Daniel Oyster to the rank of captain on 1 September; Oyster was then also awarded the command of Company C.

Attached to the Middle Military Division, U.S. Army of the Shenandoah from August through November of 1864, it was at this time and place, under the leadership of Major-General Sheridan and Brigadier-General Emory, that the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers would exhibit their greatest moments of valor. Of the experience, C Company Drummer Boy Samuel Pyers would later describe it as “our hardest engagement.”

Sheridan’s 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign

From 3-4 September, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers fought in the Battle of Berryville, Virginia. The next day (5 September 1864), Captain Oyster was shot in the left shoulder during related actions at Berryville. In a recap letter to the Sunbury American Wharton noted that:

Capt. Oyster was struck by a ball, staggering him, but otherwise doing no injury. In his being hit there is a circumstance connected, that I cannot help but giving you, even you may put it down as a fish story, though for the truth the whole company will vouch. The ball struck him on the back of his shoulder, made a hole in his vest and shirt and none in the coat….

I wrote to you a few days ago of the promotions in Company C, but for fear they did not reach you, I send them again: Daniel Oyster, Captain; William M. Hendricks, 1st Lieutenant; and Christian S. Beard, 2nd Lieutenant. They are well liked, and in their new positions give satisfaction….

Despite the intensity of the combat at Berryville, though, the 47th Pennsylvania’s casualty rates were surprisingly low — roughly six hundred total (the combined figure for all Union and Confederate units in killed, wounded, captured, or missing soldiers). The battle is now viewed by many present-day historians as a stalemate.

Valor and Persistence — Opequan and Fisher’s Hill

While Captain Oyster recuperated from his shoulder wound, the Walter brothers and their fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers continued to fight on. Their next major offensive 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.

After advancing slowly from Berryville toward Winchester, the 19th Corps was hampered for several hours in its forward march by the massive movement of Union troops and their supply wagon — a delay that enabled Early’s Confederates to dig in. Upon reaching the Opequan Creek, Sheridan’s men finally came face to face with them. The fighting, which began in earnest at noon, was long and brutal.

The Union’s left flank (6th Corps) took a beating from Rebel artillery stationed on higher ground. Meanwhile, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers and their fellow 19th Corpsmen were directed by Brigadier-General Emory to attack and pursue Major-General John B. Gordon’s Confederates. Gradually, success was achieved by the Union’s Army of the Shenandoah, but many casualties ensued when another Confederate artillery group opened fire as Union soldiers tried to cross a clearing.

As a nearly fatal gap began to appear between the 6th and 19th Corps, Sheridan sent in the units commanded by Brigadier-Generals David A. Russell and Emory Upton. Russell, hit twice — once in the chest, was mortally wounded. In response, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers opened their lines long enough to enable the Union cavalrymen of 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 whittling away and pushing the Confederates steadily back.

Confederate Lieutenant-General Early’s men ultimately retreated in the face of the valor displayed by the “blue jackets” in what became known as the Battle of Opequan (or “Third Winchester”; also spelled as “Opequon”). Leaving twenty-five hundred wounded behind, they retreated to Fisher’s Hill, where another battle ensued from 21-22 September. Early’s men then retreated further — to Waynesboro.

Sent out on skirmishing parties afterward, the men of the 47th Pennsylvania finally made camp at Cedar Creek. Moving forward, they would continue to distinguish themselves in battle, but they would do so without two respected commanders: Colonel Tilghman Good and his second in command, Lieutenant-Colonel George W. Alexander, who mustered out on 23-24 September upon expiration of their respective terms of service. Fortunately, Good and Alexander were replaced by others equally admired both for their temperament and the front-line experience: John Peter Shindel Gobin, C Company’s former captain who had been promoted to the regiment’s central command staff, and who would now assume command of the entire regiment; Charles W. Abbott, and Levi Stuber.

Battle of Cedar Creek

Just over a month after being wounded in action during the fighting at Berryville, Virginia, C Company Captain Daniel Oyster was wounded in action again — this time severely — and in the other shoulder (the right) — during the Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia on 19 October 1864.

That morning, Lieutenant-General Jubal Early’s Confederate forces briefly stunned the Union Army, launching a surprise attack on their encampment at Cedar Creek, Virginia. Union Major-General Philip Sheridan, who had been called away to his headquarters at Winchester for a strategy session, was notified of the attack, quickly mounted up and spurred his horse, Rienzi, toward his troops. According to historian, Samuel P. 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 Rebels, weakened by hunger due to the Union Army’s “scorched Earth” destruction of Virginia’s farming infrastructure, gradually peeled off, one by one, to forage for food while Sheridan’s forces fought on, and won the day. The men of the 47th did their part, fighting so bravely that they were later commended for their valor 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.” In 1869, Bates described the 47th’s actions as follows:

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, and no respite was given to take food until the pursuit was ended.

A 1922 Evening Star newspaper reported on how that day had unfolded for the men from the 47th Pennsylvania’s C Company:

Capt. Oyster also was with Gen. Sheridan’s forces at the battle of Cedar Creek. Where he performed meritorious service. He and his men held a knoll against the Confederates and fought off attacks at a distance of only forty yards. He was severely wounded in this engagement and after losing more than thirty men, ordered the rest to retire. Himself weak from the loss of blood and unable to retreat, was captured by the enemy, but when Gen. Sheridan’s timely arrival from Washington by horseback turned defeat into victory, he was recaptured.

As the casualty rate for the 47th Pennsylvania was finally tallied, the cost of the Union’s victory became shockingly clear. The regiment had lost the equivalent of nearly two full companies of men (killed in action, mortally wounded, wounded but survived with injuries severe enough that they were no longer fit for duty, wounded but able to return to duty at some point down the road, missing in action, or captured by Confederate troops).

C Company’s Sergeant William Pyers, who had prevented the American flag from falling into enemy hands just six months earlier during the Battle of Pleasant Hill, was “mowed down,” according to his son, C Company Musician Samuel Pyers, as were many of their comrades. Those who had been captured by Confederate troops were being transported to Confederate prisons, including Andersonville, Libby and Salisbury, where they would be held as prisoners of war (POWs). A significant number of those men ultimately never made it out alive.

Among the “mixed blessings,” Corporal Joseph R. Walters was wounded, but then saved by medical treatment that enabled him to return to duty after convalescing. Following these engagements, the 47th was ordered to Camp Russell near Winchester from November through most of December before taking up outpost and railroad guard duties at Camp Fairview in Charlestown, West Virginia five days before Christmas.

They marched through an intense snowstorm to get there.

1865

Assigned in February 1865 to the Provisional Division of the 2nd Brigade of the U.S. Army of the Shenandoah, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were marched back to Washington, D.C., via Winchester and Kernstown, Virginia. Around this same time, C Company Captain Daniel Oyster was authorized to take a furlough; he ended up using the time to visit his family in Sunbury and pick up a replacement for the regiment’s very tattered battle flag. Manufactured by Horstmann Brothers & Co. and shipped to Sunbury in 1865, the regiment’s new Second State Color was presented to Captain Oyster, commanding officer of Company C (the color-bearer unit), on 7 March 1865. He then formally presented it to the regiment upon his return to duty.

Just over a month later, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox. But the Walters brothers and their fellow 47th Pennsylvanians barely had time to celebrate the war’s end before they received the heartbreaking news that their beloved commander-in-chief, President Abraham Lincoln, had been assassinated.

Still in shock as 19 April 1865 dawned, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were now responsible for helping to defend the nation’s capital — this time to prevent any attempts by Confederate sympathizers to re-start the American Civil War in the wake of the President Lincoln’s death. Making camp near Fort Stevens, they were issued new uniforms and resupplied with ample ammunition. Three days later, on 22 April, Corporal Joseph Walters was reduced in rank to that of private.

Letters penned by 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers to family and friends during this period of service and interviews conducted with 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers by newspaper reporters many years after the Civil War’s end noted that several members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry were given the high honor of guarding President Lincoln’s funeral train while other members of the regiment were assigned to guard one or more of the key Lincoln assassination conspirators during the early days of their imprisonment and trial, which began on 9 May 1865. During this phase of duty, the regiment was headquartered at Camp Brightwood in the Brightwood section of Washington, D.C.

Regimental Chaplain Rodrock described Lincoln’s assassination as “a crime against God, against the Nation, against humanity and against liberty” and “the madness of Treason and murder!” in a report to his superiors on 30 April 1865, while also observing that “We have great duties in this crisis. And the first is to forget selfishness and passion and party, and look to the salvation of the Country.”

On 11 May 1865, the 47th Pennsylvania’s First State Color was officially retired and replaced with the regiment’s Second State Color. That new flag was then carried by the regiment when, as part of Dwight’s Division of the 2nd Brigade, U.S. Department of Washington’s 22nd Corps, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry marched in the Union’s Grand Review of the National Armies on 23 May.

Reconstruction

On their final southern tour, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers served in Savannah, Georgia in early June. Attached again to Dwight’s Division, they were assigned to Reconstruction-related duties as part of the 3rd Brigade, Department of the South. Ordered to relieve the 165th New York Volunteers in July, they subsequently quartered in the former mansion of the Confederate Secretary of the Treasury in Charleston, South Carolina. Assigned to provost responsibilities, they helped to ensure the peace and facilitate the smooth operation of the judicial system by serving as guards at the city jail and judges in city and regional court systems. They even helped to protect the public by rounding up animals and taking them to the city pound.

But, once again, typhoid and other diseases stalked the men of the 47th.

After falling ill sometime in June or early July 1865, Private Emanuel Walters was confined to the Union Army’s post hospital in Charleston, South Carolina on 8 July 1865. Diagnosed with remittent fever, his condition worsened as he developed severe, chronic diarrhea. That illness then took his life. His 20 August 1865 death was reported the next day in The Charleston Daily Courier:

DIED, at the Orphan House Hospital, Sunday morning, August 20, 1865, Private EMANUEL WALTERS, Company C, 47th Regiment Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers, aged 28 years, a native of Juniata County, Pennsylvania.

Initially interred at the Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston, his body was later exhumed during the federal government’s large-scale reburial of Union soldiers at national cemeteries. Reinterred at the Florence National Cemetery in Florence, South Carolina, his military headstone memorialized him simply as “T. E. J. Walters.”

With the triple threat of the Walters brothers now reduced to that of a dynamic duo, Privates Joseph R. Walters and Samuel Walters continued to soldier on, performing their civic governance-related tasks faithfully for the remainder of that year. Finally, on Christmas Day in 1865, they were officially mustered out with their regiment. Transported with their fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers by ship to New York City and then by train to Philadelphia, the weary warriors were given their final discharge paperwork at Camp Cadwalader in Philadelphia in early January 1866.

Return to Civilian Life — Joseph Rhodes Walters

Following his honorable discharge from the military Joseph Rhodes Walters returned home to Juniata County, Pennsylvania. Sometime during the early 1870s, he wed Barbara Elizabeth Brandt (1850-1926), a native of Pennsylvania who had been born on 27 February 1850. Together, they welcomed the births of: Jennie Walters (1872-1921), who was born in Academia, Juniata County on 2 October 1872 and who later wed Gardner David Meredith (1867-1955); Harry Sheridan Walters (1878-1965), who was born in Juniata County on 6 May 1878); Anna Irene Walters (1880-1954), who was born in Juniata County on 6 February 1880 and who later wed Miller Martin (1884-1961) in 1910; Maud M. Walters (1884-1955), who was born in Academia on 27 March 1884, was known to family and friends as “Mary,” and who later wed Banks A. Brubaker (1881-1962); Daisy C. Walters (1890-1980), who was born in Juniata County in 1890 and who later wed Reed Robert Hess (1887-1974); and Arthur J. Walters (1892-1970), who was born in Juniata County on 13 December 1892.

In 1880, Joseph Walters and his family resided in Tuscarora Township, Juniata County, where he farmed the land. At the turn of the century, he was a day laborer who resided with his wife and children in Beale Township of that same county. By 1910, he was residing with his wife and children at 33 Pannebaker Avenue in Lewistown, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. No longer working at this point in his life, his daughters, Margaret and Daisy, and son Arthur, all of whom were employed by the local silk mill.

In later years, Joseph Rhodes Walters continued to live at his home at 33 Pannebaker Avenue. Like many of his fellow Civil War veterans, his health declined as he aged. Sadly, his most troublesome ailment became a serious one. Diagnosed with cancer of the hand, he died at the age of seventy-nine at his home in Lewistown on 16 April 1920. Following funeral services, he was laid to rest at that city’s Lind Memorial Cemetery. The News of Newport, Perry County, Pennsylvania reported his passing as follows:

Joseph R. Walters, one of the few Lewistown surviving veterans of the Civil War, died at his home, 33 Pannebaker Ave., Friday April 16, aged 79 years, the cause of his death being cancer of his right hand. He was a member of Company C, 47th Regiment Penna. Volunteers and served 4 years, 5 months and 11 days in the war, a longer period than any other Lewistown soldier served in that war. He was born in Mifflintown, and leaves his wife and eight children. He was a member of the Lewistown Methodist church and was a diligent bible student. His funeral was held Monday of this week [26 April 1920], six of his sons in law serving as pallbearers.

Return to Civilian Life — Samuel Walters

Following his own honorable discharge from the military, Joseph Walters’ brother Samuel also returned home to Juniata County; however, Samuel chose not to start a family of his own. Residing with his parents until his father’s death in 1880, he was elected as an inspector for Beale Township in March 1882.

On 5 July 1889, he filed for a U.S. Civil War Pension. When the special veterans’ census of 1890 was conducted roughly a year later, he was documented as a resident of Walnut — the community in Beale Township where his mother still lived. That year’s census also noted that he was suffering from “Dyspepsia” that was “getting worse.”

Five years later, his mother was also gone. Still unmarried and still employed as a day laborer after the turn of the century, Samuel Walters was the owner of his Beale Township residence and was also doing well enough financially to hire a live-in housekeeper. According to that year’s census, forty-nine-year-old Jane Beckwith was living with him but documented as a servant — an arrangement that continued through and, apparently, well beyond 1910. By 1920, they were listed on the federal census as husband and wife, with Jane adopting the Walters’ surname. That year, Samuel was also a working farmer.

Also ailing with heart disease, Samuel Walters died at the age of eighty-three in Beale Township, Juniata County on 12 August 1927. Following funeral services, he was interred at the Lower Tuscarora Church Cemetery (Academia Cemetery) in Beale Township, Juniata County. His brother, William, was the informant on his death certificate.

What Happened to Their Parents and Siblings?

A resident of Walnut in Beale Township, Juniata County, Pennsylvania in 1870, Emanuel Walters’ father, David, continued to support his large family on the wages of a laborer. That year’s federal census enumerator noted that he was a fence maker whose personal and real estate were valued at one thousand one hundred and forty dollars. Residing with David Walters at that time were his wife, Lizzie, and their children: Samuel, Sarah, David, John, Susan, and William. Samuel also helped to support the family on his wages as a farm hand while David and John helped out as paid laborers.

On 6 March 1876, Emanuel Walters’ younger brothers, Samuel, John and William, were baptized by “sprinkling” at a waterway near the Pomeroy Mill in Juniata County. The Rev. Walter R. Whitney of the Port Royal Methodist Church officiated.

By early June of 1880, the Walters household had shrunk to just David, Elizabeth, and their sons, Samuel and William. All three men were still employed as laborers. Within a few days of that census taker’s arrival, Emanuel Walters’ mother filed for a U.S. Civil War Mother’s Pension on 5 June 1880. Just over eighteen months later, she became a widow when David Walters died in Juniata County on 11 December 1881. Surviving her husband by more than a decade, she died at the age of seventy-nine in Walnut, Beale Township on 21 November 1895.

Emanuel Walters’ younger brother, David, went on to have a large family of his own. After marrying Perry County native Ellen Brandt (1853-1928) sometime between late 1870 and the summer of 1872, he welcomed the births of the following children: Margaret Bell Walters (1873-1923), who was born in Juniata County on 6 February 1873, was known to family and friends as “Maggie,” and later wed Andrew Grant Hartman (1868-1942); Charles T. Walters (1874-1946), who was born in Milford Township, Juniata County on 1 September 1874; David Bruce Walters (1880-1939), who was born in Juniata County on 13 February 1880; Clarence Brandt Walters (1882-1949), who was born in Academia on 28 December 1882; Mary Ellen Walters (1892-1951), who was born in Milford Township on 16 February 1892 and later wed Grover Ellsworth Wolfgang, Sr. (1886-1960); and Anna Grayce Walters (1893-1960), who was born in Juniata County on 12 December 1893 and later wed William Austin Rice (1880-1952).

Unlike many of his siblings, however, David A. Walters did not go on to live a long life. He died in his early fifties in 1901 and was interred at the Lower Tuscarora Church Cemetery.

John Walters, who had wed Rebecca Jane Hosler (1858-1921) sometime during the early to mid-1870s, also went on to have his own large family. Their children were: Mary Etta Walters (1876-1931), who was born in Academia, Juniata County on 21 December 1876 and later wed George Preston Dunn (1879-1940); Annie Elizabeth Walters (1878-1857), who was born in Juniata County on 23 May 1878 and later wed Reuben Howard Burd (1878-1935); Sarah Alice Walters (1883-1961), who was born in Beale Township, Juniata County on 1 October 1883 and later wed Edgar Luther Maffett (1883-1953); Barbara Matilda Walters (1885-1962), who was born in Juniata County on 24 October 1885 and later wed Oliver W. Kauffman (1896-1953); Martin Luther Walters (1892-1949), who was born in Juniata County on 7 December 1892); and Michael W. Walters (1896-1967), who was born in Academia on 16 June 1896. Ailing with heart disease in later life, John Walters died in Port Royal, Juniata County at the age of seventy-eight on 7 August 1930, and was laid to rest at the Academia Cemetery on 9 August.

On 2 September 1890, Emanuel Walters’ younger brother, William, wed Phoebe Mae Pannabaker (1867-1831) in Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pennsylvania. Their children were: Lewis Albert Walters (1895-1964), who was born in Milford Township, Juniata County on 22 April 1895; Mary Rae Walters (1897-1984), who was born in Juniata County, Pennsylvania in 1897 and later wed Isaac Newton Shirk (1889-1940); Bertha Margaretta Walters (1901-1943), who was born in Juniata County in 1901; and John Bergwan Walters (1905-1984), who was born in Juniata County on 11 April 1905. William Lewis Walters subsequently went on to live a long, full life. He died in Juniata County on Christmas Day in 1946 and was laid to rest at the New Church Hill Cemetery in Turbett Township, Juniata County.

Emanuel Walters’ younger sister, Susan (Walters) Hostler, who had wed Henry Hostler sometime before the summer of 1880, also became the mother of a large family. Their children were: David Walter Hostler (1881-1941), who was born in Milford Township on 6 September 1881; Joseph Stuart Hostler (1889-1941), who was born in Juniata County on 19 May 1889; John R. Hostler (1892-1968), who was born in Juniata County on 26 November 1892; Lewis James Hostler (1895-1959), who was born in Beale Township on8 September 1895; Noah Ellsworth Hostler (1897-1964), who was born in Juniata County on 15 August 1897; and Edgar V. Hostler (1895-1975), who was born in Juniata County on 5 September 1905.

Ailing with both heart and kidney disease, Susan (Walters) Hostler died from complications related to those diseases in Juniata County on 26 November 1930. Just sixty-nine at the time of her passing, she was also laid to rest at the Academia Cemetery. Her interment there took place three days later.

Weakened by his own serious heart condition, Emanuel Walters’ youngest brother, Arthur J. Walters, died in Lewistown, Mifflin County on 14 March 1970 and was laid to rest at that city’s Mount Rock Cemetery. He was survived by his wife, Lulu Marie (Shelhammer/Shelhamer) Walters (1892-1974), whom he had married sometime after 1910, and their Lewistown-born children: Marian Elizabeth Walters (1916-2006), who was born on 27 April 1916 and who later wed Frederick Edgar Bobb (1911-1981) and Paul Adam Dagnell (1919-2017); Jean Walters (1918-2002), who was born on 7 April 1918 and who later wed Thomas Varish (1913-1995); Arthur Donald Walters (1928-2014), who was born on 9 March 1928); and Joseph Richard Walters (1931-2023), who was born on 8 January 1931.

 

Sources:

1. “A Handsome Flag.” Sunbury, Pennsylvania: Sunbury American, 11 March 1865.
2. Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, vol. 1. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.
3. “Capt. Daniel Oyster, 87, Civil War Veteran, Dead: Brother of Washington Resident Given Military Funeral at Arlington National Cemetery Today” and Funeral Notice. Washington, D.C.: Evening Star, 11 August 1922.
4. “Florida’s Role in the Civil War,” in Florida Memory. Tallahassee, Florida: State Archives of Florida.
5. Hostler, Susan (sister of Emanuel Walters), in Death Certificates (file no.: 106257, registered no.: 20, date of death: 26 November 1930). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
6. “Lewistown” (includes obituary of Joseph R. Lewis). Newport, Pennsylvania, The News, 27 April 1920.
7. “Little Lines from Nearby” (includes death notice of Joseph R. Lewis). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Harrisburg Telegraph, 19 April 1920.
8. “Obituary” (death notice of Private Emanuel Walters). Charleston, South Carolina: The Charleston Daily Courier, Monday, 21 August 1865.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. Samuel Walters, in “Election Returns.” Mifflintown, Pennsylvania: Juniata Sentinel and Republican, 1 March 1882.
12. Schmidt, Lewis. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1986.
13. Stegall, Joel T. “Salisbury Prison: North Carolina’s Andersonville.” Fayetteville, North Carolina: North Carolina Civil War & Reconstruction History Center, 13 September 2018.
14. Walters, D., E., M., E., J., S., E., S., D., Jas., and M., in U.S. Census (Beale Township, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, 1850). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
15. Walters, Arthur J., in Death Certificates (No. 29248, date of death: 14 March 1970). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
16. Wallace [sic, Walters], David, Elizabeth, Emanuel, Joseph, Samuel, David (son), John, Susana, Elizabeth (daughter), and Sarah, in U.S. Census (Milford Township, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, 1860). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
17. Walters, David, Lizzie, Samuel, Sarah, David, John, Susan, and William, in U.S. Census (Walnut, Beale Township, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, 1870). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
18. Walters, David, Elizabeth, Samuel, John, and Willian, in Baptismal Records (Port Royal Methodist Church, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, 6 March 1876). Port Royal, Pennsylvania: Port Royal Methodist Church.
19. Walters, David, Elizabeth, Samuel, and William, in U.S. Census (Beale Township, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, 1880). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
20. Walters, Emanuel R., Joseph R. and Samuel, in Pennsylvania Civil War Veterans’ Card File, 1861-1866 (Company C, 47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
21. Walters, Emanuel R. and Elizabeth, in U.S. Civil War Pension General Index Cards (mother’s application no.: 267044, certificate no.: 206372, filed 5 June 1880). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
22. Walters, John (son), David Walters and Elizabeth Rhodes (parents), in Death Certificates (file no.: 77305, registered no.: 23, date of death: 7 August 1930). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
23. Walters, Joseph, Barbra, Jennie L., Lizzie S., Alice C., Harry S., and Annie, in U.S. Census (Tuscarora Township, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, 1880). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
24. Walters, Joseph, Barbara E., Harry S., Annie, Mary M., Margaret E., Daisy, and Joseph, in U.S. Census (Beale Township, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, 1900). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
25. Walters, Joseph, Barbra E., Anna I., Margret E., Daisy C., and Arthur J., in U.S. Census (Lewistown, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, 1910). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
26. Walters, Samuel, in Death Certificates (file no.: 80079, registered no.: 21, date of death: 12 August 1927). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
27. Walters, Samuel, in U.S. Census (Walnut, Beale Township, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, Eleventh Census of the United States: Special Schedule: Surviving Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines, and Widows, etc., 1890). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
28. Walters, Samuel and Jane Beckwith, in U.S. Census (Beale Township, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, 1900, 1910). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
29. Walters, Samuel and Jane, in U.S. Census (Beale Township, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, 1920). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
30. Walters, Samuel, in U.S. Civil War Pension General Index Cards (application no.: 715432, certificate no.: 780613, filed from Pennsylvania by the veteran, 5 July 1889). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
31. Walters, William Lewis (groom and son), David and Elizabeth Walters (parents), Phoebe Mae Pannabaker (bride and daughter) and E. Pannabaker (father), in Marriage Records (Juniata County, Pennsylvania, August and September, 1890). Mifflintown, Pennsylvania: Clerk of the Orphans’ Court, Juniata County, Pennsylvania.