The product of a broken home in which he had been witness to multiple, serious episodes of domestic violence as a young child, John Francis Egolf grew up to become a devoted and loving son who did everything within his power to protect his mom.

A successful blacksmith by the time he reached his late teens, he joined the Union Army at the dawn of the American Civil War to help preserve his nation’s union — and save his mother from a life of poverty and fear.

Formative Years

Born in Perry County, Pennsylvania in 1839 (alternate birth year: 1838), John Francis Egolf was a son of Joseph Egolf (1814-1867) and Susannah (Mickey) Egolf (1818-1886), who was a daughter of Northampton County, Pennsylvania native Lewis Mickey (1788-1854) and Anna (Schenck) Mickey (1789-1861), a native of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

He was also the older brother of: David Porter Egolf (1840-1905), who was born in 1840 and would later work for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company (PRR) and wed Susan Catherine Shearer (1841-1932); Joseph Egolf (1841-1920), who was born in Shermans Dale, Perry County on 7 March 1841 and would later wed Margaret Eckles Huston (1839-1906) in 1865, before divorcing her and marrying Mary Ann Swartz (1834-1927) in 1913; Lewis Aron Egolf (1842-1898), who was born on 30 June 1842 and would later wed Maggie M. Murphy (1854-1902), who was a native of Hugginstown, County Kilkenny, Ireland; William Henry Egolf (1844-1933), who was born in Shermans Dale on 27 October 1844; Sarah Elizabeth Egolf (1847-1918), who was born on 15 September 1847 and would later wed Henderson Smiley (1840-1908); George W. Egolf (1849-1859), who was born on 15 December 1849; Oliver Franklin Egolf (1851-1853), who was born on 20 October 1851; Edmond Egolf (1858-1858), who was born on 23 September 1858; and Charles Egolf (1852-1856), who was born on 6 January 1852.

In 1850, John F. Egolf resided in Spring Township, Perry County with his parents, Joseph and Susannah Egolf, and his younger siblings: David, Joseph, Lewis, William, Oliver, Sarah, and George. Also residing with the family were eighteen-year-old Lidy Moses and Frances Gibson, a twenty-two-year-old clerk. The township in which they now resided had been carved out from Tyrone Township in 1848. According to historian John W. Jordan:

Tyrone township once included all that part of Perry county lying west of the Juniata river and has been called “the mother of townships,” fourteen new ones having been created from its original territory…. Shermans creek flow[ed] through the central portion and the Newport and Sherman’s Valley railroad cross[ed] the northern part [by the 1860s].

But there were already signs of trouble in the Egolf family. When a federal census enumerator arrived on their doorstep on 25 September 1850, he described patriarch Joseph Egolf’s occupation as “None.” Two months later, on 28 November, Perry County Sheriff Samuel Huggins announced the planned sale of a two-story house and cultivated farmland in Spring Township that had been seized from Joseph Egolf. Then, after having been mentioned in local newspapers during the late 1840s as an agent who was employed to promote and sell the products of local manufacturers and retailers, he became the subject of negative advertisements published by those same newspapers in 1852 and 1853 in which one local business owner took great pains to deny that he had any relationship whatsoever with Joseph Egolf. Although newspapers of that decade did not report on what caused the family patriarch’s life to unravel, records created later by the family’s matriarch, Susannah (Mickey) Egolf, show that Joseph Egolf had become a batterer who beat his wife on a regular basis — so severely at one point that she was motivated to seek refuge at a neighbor’s home during the winter of 1858. By early March 1859, he had moved out of the family’s home in Spring Township and into an inn in the Borough of Landisburg, Perry County. Once there, he began operating a small saddle and harness making shop.

Further heartache then befell the family when John F. Egolf’s little brother, George W. Egolf, died on 9 May 1859. Just ten years, four months and twenty-four days old, George was quickly laid to rest at the Landisburg Cemetery. Upon further inspection, however, it appears that George’s death may have been more than “just” a childhood disease-related tragedy. It may actually have been part of a pattern of domestic violence and parental neglect that had resulted in the untimely deaths of multiple Egolf children, including:

• Oliver Franklin Egolf, who had died at the age of two on 11 November 1853 and was buried at the Liverpool Union Cemetery in Liverpool;
• Charles Egolf, who had been just four years, one month and seven days old when he was buried at the Landisburg Cemetery after passing away on 13 February 1856; and
• Edmond Egolf, who had been just fifteen days old when he died on 8 October 1858 and was interred at Youngs Church Cemetery in Shermans Dale.

A Shattered Family Moves On

As federal census takers began arriving on the doorsteps of families across Perry County in 1860, it became clear that the Egolf family had dispersed to multiple locations. Patriarch Joseph Egolf, who was still residing in Landisburg, was living at an inn with multiple unmarried adults — but not his wife or any of his children, and matriarch Susannah (Mickey) Egolf, who was now employed as a milliner, was living with their daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Egolf, in the Borough of New Bloomfield. Faced with unrelenting strife at home, John F. Egolf and his other siblings had all made the difficult decision to leave their mother behind and strike out on their own.

* Note: A closer look at that June 1860 census record, in comparison with documents that were created by Susannah (Mickey) Egolf and her attorney later that same decade, reveals that Susannah and her daughter, Sarah, were living next door or across the street from Thomas and Eliza Murphy, a couple who had helped Susannah flee from her abusive husband during the late 1850s.

It is from such records as the 1860 federal census and the U.S. Civil War Pension files, which are maintained by dedicated public servants at the U.S. National Archives, that present-day researchers for 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers: One Civil War Regiment’s Story have been able to paint this picture of John F. Egolf’s early years. Perry County’s newspapers, however, were of little value in this regard. Their publishers chose to omit any mention of the trauma that John and his siblings had been experiencing during the 1850s and 1860s.

By April 1861, John F. Egolf had become a sturdy, thoughtful, twenty-two-year-old resident of Shermans Dale, who was earning enough as a blacksmith to give part of his wages to his mother, during periodic visits to New Bloomfield to check on her health and safety.

American Civil War — 2nd Pennsylvania Volunteers

An early responder to President Abraham Lincoln’s 15 April 1861 call for state militia troops to defend the nation’s capital following the fall of Fort Sumter, John Francis Egolf enrolled and mustered in on 20 April 1861 in Harrisburg, Dauphin County as a private with Company D of the 2nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.

Transported to Cockeysville, Maryland with his regiment the next day, via the Northern Central Railway, and then to York, Pennsylvania, Private Egolf and the 2nd Pennsylvania remained in York until 1 June 1861 when they moved to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. There, they were attached to the 2nd Brigade (under Brigadier-General George Wynkoop), 2nd Division (under Major-General William High Keim), in the Union Army corps commanded by Major-General Robert Patterson.

Ordered to Hagerstown, Maryland on 16 June and then to Funkstown, the regiment remained in that vicinity until 23 June. On 2 July, Private John Egolf and his fellow 2nd Pennsylvania Volunteers served in a support role during the Battle of Falling Waters, Virginia — an encounter that would also see the participation of soldiers from other regiments who would, like Egolf and the 2nd Pennsylvania’s Company D, later join the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers. One such unit engaged at Falling Waters was Company F of the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.

The Battle of Falling Waters, fought on 2 July 1861, was the first Civil War battle in the Shenandoah Valley. (A second battle with a different military configuration occurred there in 1863.) Also known as the Battle of Hainesville or Hoke’s Run, that first Battle of Falling Waters helped pave the way for the Confederate Army’s victory at Manassas (Bull Run) on 21 July, according to several historians.

The next day, Private John Egolf and his fellow 2nd Pennsylvanians occupied Martinsburg, Virginia. On 15 July, they advanced on Bunker Hill, and then moved on to Charlestown on 17 July before reaching Harper’s Ferry on 23 July. Three days later, on 26 July 1861, he and his regiment were honorably discharged.

American Civil War — 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers

Having returned home to Perry County, John F. Egolf tried to resume life as a blacksmith in Bloomfield, Perry County — but his sense of civic duty would not allow him to do so while his neighbors and friends were trying to end the American Civil War. So, on 3 January 1862, at the age of twenty-three, he re-enlisted for a three-year term of Union Army service. After re-enrolling in Bloomfield, he re-mustered at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg that same day as a private with Company D of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Subsequently connected with his regiment via a recruiting depot on 7 January 1862, he quickly settled in to life with his new comrades at Camp Griffin near Langley, Virginia.

Piercing the Heart of the Confederacy

Ordered to relocate to Maryland, Private John F. Egolf and his fellow 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 to Alexandria, Virginia, where they boarded the steamship City of Richmond. They then sailed the Potomac River to the Washington Arsenal, where they disembarked and were re-equipped. Subsequently marched to the Soldiers’ Rest in Washington, D.C., they were fed and given the opportunity to relax there. The next afternoon, they were marched to the railroad station, where they hopped aboard a train from the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and headed for Annapolis, Maryland.

Arriving around 10 p.m., they disembarked and were marched to a barracks at the United States Naval Academy, where they bedded down for the night. They then spent that Friday through Monday (24-27 January) loading their equipment and supplies onto the U.S. Oriental.

During the afternoon of 27 January, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers began boarding the Oriental, enlisted men first, and then, per the directive of Brigadier-General Brannan, they steamed away at 4 p.m. and headed for Florida, which, despite its secession from the United States remained strategically important to the Union due to the presence of several key federal installations.

Arriving in Key West, Florida by early February 1862, the men of Company D and their fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers disembarked and were ordered to pitch their tents on the beach, where they rested and were subsequently directed to their respective quarters inside and outside of Fort Taylor. Assigned to garrison the fort, they drilled daily in infantry and artillery tactics, began strengthening the fortifications of this key federal installation and also began making infrastructure improvements to the city by felling trees and building new roads.

During the weekend of 14 February, the regiment introduced itself to area residents via a parade through the city’s streets. That Sunday, the 47th Pennsylvanians began mingling with locals at area church services.

Among the lighter moments, the regiment commemorated the birthday of President George Washington with a parade, a special ceremony involving the reading of Washington’s farewell address to the nation (first delivered in 1796), the firing of cannon at the fort, and a sack race and other games on 22 February. The festivities resumed two days later when the Regimental Band hosted an officers’ ball at which “all parties enjoyed themselves, for three o’clock of the morning sounded on their ears before any motion was made to move homewards,” according to Musician Henry Wharton. This was then followed by a concert by the regimental band on Wednesday evening, 26 February.

Next ordered to Hilton Head, South Carolina, from early June through July, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers camped near Fort Walker before relocating roughly thirty-five miles away in the Beaufort District in the U.S. Army’s Department of the South. Frequently assigned to hazardous picket duty north of their main camp, they faced an increased risk of enemy sniper fire. Despite this danger, though, the men of the 47th Pennsylvania “received the highest commendation from Generals Hunter and Brannan” for their “attention to duty, discipline and soldierly bearing,” 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).

Capture of Saint John’s Bluff, Florida and a Confederate Steamer

During a return expedition to Florida, beginning 30 September, the 47th Pennsylvania joined with the 1st Connecticut Battery, 7th Connecticut Infantry and part of the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry in assaulting Confederate forces at their heavily protected camp at Saint John’s Bluff, overlooking the Saint John’s River. Trekking through roughly twenty-five miles of swampland and forests, after disembarking from their Union troop transports at Mayport Mills on 1 October, the 47th Pennsylvanians captured artillery and ammunition stores (on 3 October) that had been abandoned during the Union Navy’s bombardment of the bluff.

Men from the 47th Pennsylvania’s Companies E and K were then led by Captain Charles H. Yard on a special mission; initially joining with other Union troops in the reconnaissance and capture of Jacksonville, Florida, they were subsequently ordered to sail up the Saint John’s River to seek out and capture any Confederate ships they found. Departing aboard the Darlington, a former Confederate steamer, with protection by the Union gunboat Hale, they traveled two hundred miles upriver, captured the Governor Milton, a Confederate steamer that was docked near Hawkinsville, and returned back down the river with both Union ships and their new Confederate prize without incident. (Identified as a thorn that needed to be plucked from the Union’s side, that steamer had been engaged in ferrying Confederate troops and supplies around the region.)

Integration of the Regiment

Meanwhile, back at its South Carolina base of operations, the 47th Pennsylvania was making history as it became an integrated regiment. On 5 and 15 October, the regiment added to its rosters several young Black men who had endured plantation enslavement near Beaufort and other areas of South Carolina, including Bristor Gethers, Abraham Jassum and Edward Jassum.

Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina

From 21-23 October 1862, under the brigade and regimental commands of Colonel Tilghman Good and Lieutenant-Colonel George Warren Alexander, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers joined with other Union troops in engaging heavily protected Confederate troops in and around Pocotaligo, South Carolina, including at Frampton’s Plantation and the Pocotaligo Bridge, a key piece of Deep South infrastructure that senior Union military leaders felt should be eliminated.

Harried by snipers while en route to destroy the bridge, they met resistance from an entrenched, heavily fortified Confederate battery that opened fire on the Union troops as they entered an open cotton field.

Those headed toward higher ground at the Frampton Plantation fared no better as they encountered artillery and infantry fire from the surrounding forests. But the Union soldiers would not give in. Grappling with the Confederates where they found them, they pursued the Rebels for four miles as the Confederate Army retreated to the bridge. Once there, the 47th Pennsylvania relieved the 7th Connecticut.

Unfortunately, the enemy was just too well armed. After two hours of intense fighting in an attempt to take the ravine and bridge, the 47th Pennsylvanians were forced by depleted ammunition to withdraw to Mackay’s Point. Losses for the 47th were significant. Two officers and eighteen enlisted men died; two officers and an additional one hundred and fourteen enlisted men were wounded.

Badly battered when they returned to Hilton Head on 23 October, a number of 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were subsequently selected to serve as the funeral honor guard for General Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel, the commander of the U.S. Army’s 10th Corps and Department of the South who had succumbed to yellow fever on 30 October. The Mountains of Mitchel, a part of Mars’ South Pole discovered by Mitchel in 1846 while working as a University of Cincinnati astronomer, and Mitchelville, the first Freedmen’s town created after the Civil War, were both later named for him. Men from the 47th Pennsylvania were given the honor of firing the salute over his grave.

Having been ordered back to Key West on 15 November 1862, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers would spend much of 1863 guarding federal installations in Florida as part of the 10th Corps, Department of the South. Companies A, B, C, E, G, and I would once again garrison Fort Taylor in Key West, while the men of Companies D, F, H, and K would garrison Fort Jefferson, the Union’s remote outpost in the Dry Tortugas off the southern coast of Florida.

After packing their belongings at their Beaufort, South Carolina encampment and loading their equipment onto the U.S. Steamer Cosmopolitan, the officers and enlisted members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry sailed toward the mouth of the Broad River on 15 December 1862, and anchored briefly at Port Royal Harbor in order to allow the regiment’s medical director, Elisha W. Baily, M.D., and members of the regiment who had recuperated enough from their Pocotaligo-related battle injuries at the Union’s general hospital at Hilton Head, to rejoin the regiment.

At 5 p.m. that same evening, the regiment sailed for Florida, during what was described by several members of the regiment as a treacherous and nerve-wracking voyage. According to Schmidt, the ship’s captain “steered a course along the coast of Florida for most of the voyage,” which made the voyage more precarious “because of all the reefs.” On 16 December, “the second night, the ship was jarred as it ran aground on one during a storm, but broke free, and finally steered a course further from shore, out in the Gulf Stream.”

In a letter penned to the Sunbury American on 21 December, Musician Henry Wharton provided the following details about the regiment’s trip:

On the passage down, we ran along almost the whole coast of Florida. Rather all dangerous ground, and the reefs are no playthings. We we jarred considerably by running on one, and not liking the sensation our course was altered for the Gulf Stream. We had heavy sea all the time. I had often heard of ‘waves as big as a house,’ and thought it was a sailors yarn, but I have seen ’em and am perfectly satisfied; so now, not having a nautical turn of mind, I prefer our movements being done on terra firma, and leave old neptune to those who have more desire for his better acquaintance. A nearer chance of a shipwreck never took place than ours, and it was only through Providence that we were saved. The Cosmopolitan is a good riverboat, but to send her to sea, loadened [sic, loaded] with U.S. troops is a shame, and looks as though those in authority wish to get clear of soldiers in another way than that of battle. There was some sea sickness on our passage; several of the boys ‘casting up their accounts’ on the wrong side of the ledger.

According to Corporal George Nichols of Company E, “When we got to Key West the Steamer had Six foot of water in her hole [sic, hold]. Waves Mountain High and nothing but an old river Steamer. With Eleven hundred Men on I looked for her to go to the Bottom Every Minute.”

Although the Cosmopolitan arrived at the Key West Harbor on Thursday, 18 December, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers did not set foot on Florida soil until noon the next day. The men from Companies C and I were immediately marched to Fort Taylor, where they were placed under the command of Major William Gausler, the regiment’s third-in-command. The men from Companies B and E were assigned to the older barracks that had been erected by the United States Army, and were placed under the command of B Company Captain Emanuel P. Rhoads, while the men from Companies A and G were placed under the command of A Company Captain Richard Graeffe, and stationed at newer facilities known as the “Lighthouse Barracks,” which were located on “Lighthouse Key.”

On Saturday, 21 December, Lieutenant-Colonel George W. Alexander, the regiment’s second-in-command, sailed away aboard the Cosmopolitan with the men from Companies D, F, H, and K, and headed south to Fort Jefferson, roughly seventy miles off the coast of Florida (in the Gulf of Mexico) to assume garrison duties there. According to Musician Henry Wharton:

We landed here [Fort Taylor] on last Thursday at noon, and immediately marched to quarters. Company I. and C., in Fort Taylor, Company E. and B. in the old Barracks, and A. and G. in the new Barracks. Lieut. Col. Alexander, with the other four companies proceeded to Tortugas, Col. Good having command of all the forces in and around Key West. Our regiment relieved the 90th Regiment N. Y. S. Vols. Col. Joseph Morgan, who will proceed to Hilton Head to report to the General commanding. His actions have been severely criticized by the people, but, as it is in bad taste to say anything against ones [sic, one’s] superiors, I merely mention, judging from the expression of the citizens, they were very glad of the return of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers….

Key West has improved very little since we left last June, but there is one improvement for which the 90th New York deserve a great deal of praise, and that is the beautifying of the ‘home’ of dec’d soldiers. A neat and strong wall of stone encloses the yard, the ground is laid off in squares, all the graves are flat and are nicely put in proper shape by boards eight or ten inches high on the end sides, covered with white sand, while a head and foot board, with the full name, company and regiment, marks the last resting place of the patriot who sacrificed himself for his country….

1863

Although water quality was a challenge for members of the regiment at both of their duty stations in Florida throughout 1863, it was particularly problematic for the 47th Pennsylvanians who were stationed at Fort Jefferson. According to Schmidt:

‘Fresh’ water was provided by channeling the rains from the city’s barbette through channels in the interior walls, to filter trays filled with sand; and finally to the 114 cisterns located under the fort which held, 1,231,000 gallons of water. The cisterns were accessible in each of the first level cells or rooms through a ‘trap hole’ in the floor covered by a temporary wooden cover…. Considerable dirt must have found its way into these access points and was responsible for some of the problems resulting in the water’s impurity…. The fort began to settle and the asphalt covering on the outer walls began to deteriorate and allow the sea water (polluted by debris in the moat) to penetrate the system…. Two steam condensers were available … and distilled 7000 gallons of tepid water per day for a separate system of reservoirs located in the northern section of the parade ground near the officers [sic, officers’] quarters. No provisions were made to use any of this water for personal hygiene of the [planned 1,500-soldier garrison force]….

As a result, the soldiers stationed there washed themselves and their clothes, using saltwater from the ocean. As if that weren’t difficult enough, “toilet facilities were located outside of the fort,” according to Schmidt:

At least one location was near the wharf and sallyport, and another was reached through a door-sized hole in a gunport and a walk across the moat on planks at the northwest wall…. These toilets were flushed twice each day by the actions of the tides, a procedure that did not work very well and contributed to the spread of disease. It was intended that the tidal flush should move the wastes into the moat, and from there, by similar tidal action, into the sea. But since the moat surrounding the fort was used clandestinely by the troops to dispose of litter and other wastes … it was a continuous problem for Col. Alexander and his surgeon.

As for daily operations in the Dry Tortugas, there was a fort post office and the “interior parade grounds, with numerous trees and shrubs in evidence, contained officers’ quarters, [a] magazine, kitchens and out houses,” per Schmidt, as well as “a ‘hot shot oven’ which was completed in 1863 and used to heat shot before firing.”

Most quarters for the garrison … were established in wooden sheds and tents inside the parade [grounds] or inside the walls of the fort in second-tier gun rooms of ‘East’ front no. 2, and adjacent bastions  … with prisoners housed in isolated sections of the first and second tiers of the southeast, or no. 3 front, and bastions C and D, located in the general area of the sallyport. The bakery was located in the lower tier of the northwest bastion ‘F’, located near the central kitchen….

Additional Duties: Diminishing Florida’s Role as the “Supplier of the Confederacy”

On top of the strategic role played by the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers in preventing foreign powers from assisting the Confederate Army and Navy in gaining control over federal forts in the Deep South, the regiment was also called upon to play an ongoing role in weakening Florida’s abilities to supply and transport food and troops throughout areas held by the Confederate States of America. Prior to intervention by the Union Army and Navy, the owners of plantations and livestock ranches, as well as the operators of small, family farms across Florida, had been able to consistently furnish beef and pork, fish, fruits, and vegetables to Confederate troops stationed throughout the Deep South during the first year of the American Civil War. Large herds of cattle were raised near Fort Myers, for example, while orchard owners in the Saint John’s River area were actively engaged in cultivating sizeable orange groves (while other types of citrus trees were found growing throughout more rural areas of the state).

Florida was also a major producer of salt, which was used as a preservative for food. As a result, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers and other Union troops across Florida were ordered to capture or destroy salt manufacturing facilities in order to further curtail the enemy’s access to food.

But they were undertaking all of these duties in conditions that were far more challenging than any they had previously faced (and that were far more challenging than what many other Union troops were facing up north). The weather was frequently hot and humid as spring turned to summer, mosquitos and other insects were an ever-present annoyance (and serious threat when they were carrying tropical diseases) and there were also scorpions and snakes that put the men’s health at further risk.

As part of their efforts to ensure the efficacy of their ongoing operations, regimental officers periodically tweaked the assignments of individual companies during that year of garrison duty. One of those changes occurred on 16 May 1863 when D Company Captain Henry D. Woodruff and his men marched to the wharf at Fort Jefferson and climbed aboard yet another ship — this time for their return to Fort Taylor in Key West, where they resumed garrison duties under the command of Colonel Tilghman H. Good.

Four days later, enlisted members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry were finally given eight months’ worth of their back pay — a significant percentage of which was quickly sent home to family members who had been struggling to make ends meet.

Despite all of those hardships, when members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry were offered the opportunity to re-enlist during the fall of 1863, more than half of the regiment’s personnel did so without hesitation.

1864

In early January 1864, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers experienced yet another significant change when members of the regiment were 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 federal government’s third war with the Seminole Indians. In response, A Company Captain Richard Graeffe and a group of soldiers from Company A traveled north, captured the fort and began conducting cattle raids to provide food for the growing Union troop presence across Florida. They subsequently turned the fort not only into their base of operations, but into a shelter for pro-union supporters, escaped slaves, Confederate deserters, and others fleeing Rebel troops.

Red River Campaign

Meanwhile, all of the other companies of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry had begun preparing for the regiment’s history-making journey to Louisiana. Boarding yet another steamer, the Charles Thomas, 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 men from Companies E, F, G, and H.

Upon the second group’s arrival, the now almost-fully-reunited regiment moved by train to Brashear City (now Morgan City, Louisiana) before heading to Franklin by steamer through the Bayou Teche. There, the 47th Pennsylvania Infantry joined the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division of the Department of the Gulf’s 19th Army Corps (XIX Corps), and became the only Pennsylvania regiment to serve in the Red River Campaign of Union Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks. (Unable to reach Louisiana until 23 March, the soldiers from Company A were assigned to detached duty while awaiting transport that enabled them to reconnect with their regiment at Alexandria, Louisiana on 9 April).

From 14-26 March, the 47th passed through New Iberia, Vermilionville (now part of Lafayette), Opelousas, and Washington while en route to Alexandria and Natchitoches. Often short on food and water, the regiment encamped briefly at Pleasant Hill the night of 7 April before continuing on the next day, marching until mid-afternoon.

Rushed into battle ahead of other regiments in the 2nd Division, sixty members of the 47th were cut down on 8 April during the volley of fire unleashed during the Battle of Sabine Cross Roads. The fighting waned only when darkness fell. Exhausted, those who were uninjured collapsed between the bodies of the gravely wounded and 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 and son of Zachary Taylor, former president of the United States), the brutal fighting still showed no signs of ending. Suddenly, just as the 47th was shifting to the left side of the massed Union forces, the men of the 47th Pennsylvania were forced to bolster the 165th New York’s buckling lines by blocking another Confederate assault during what has since become known as the Battle of Pleasant Hill.

Once again, casualties were severe. And this time, the roster included the names of a number of men from Company D, including Private Ephraim Clouser, who was listed among the wounded and missing. Shot in the right knee by a Confederate rifle, he and multiple other 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantrymen had been captured by Rebel troops and marched roughly one hundred and twenty-five miles southwest to Camp Ford, the largest Confederate States prison camp west of the Mississippi River.

* Note: Located in Smith County, Texas, near the town of Tyler, that prisoner of war camp has been portrayed by some historians as far less dangerous of a place of captivity for Union soldiers than Andersonville and other Confederate prisons because its living conditions were reportedly “better” than the conditions found at those infamous POW camps — theoretically because the number of POWs held at Camp Ford was smaller and, therefore, “more easily cared for.” But as Camp Ford’s POW population skyrocketed in 1864, fueled by the capture of thousands of Union soldiers during multiple Red River Campaign battles, those living conditions quickly deteriorated.

As food, safe drinking water and adequate shelter became increasingly scarce, more and more of the Union soldiers confined there grew weak from starvation, fell ill and died due to the spread of typhoid and other infectious diseases, as well as the cases of dysentery and chronic diarrhea that were caused by the unsanitary placement of outdoor latrines near the camp’s water source.

Meanwhile, as the captured 47th Pennsylvanians were being spirited away to Camp Ford, Private John Egolf and the bulk of his regiment were carrying out orders from senior Union Army leaders to head for Grand Ecore, Louisiana. Encamped there from 11-22 April, they engaged in the hard labor of strengthening regimental and brigade fortifications.

They then moved back to Natchitoches Parish on 22 April. While en route, they were attacked again, this time, at the rear of their retreating brigade, but they were able to end the encounter quickly and move on to reach Cloutierville at 10 p.m. that same night (after a forty-five-mile march).

The next morning (23 April), episodic skirmishing quickly roared into the flames of a robust fight. As part of the advance party led by Union 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 positioned near a bayou and atop a bluff, Brigadier-General Emory directed one of his brigades to keep Bee’s Confederates busy while sending two other brigades to find a safe spot for the Union force to cross the Cane River. As part of the “beekeepers,” the 47th Pennsylvania supported Emory’s artillery.

Meanwhile, additional troops under Smith’s command, attacked Bee’s flank to force a Rebel retreat, and then erected a series of pontoon bridges that enabled the 47th Pennsylvania and other 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, C Company’s Henry Wharton described what had happened:

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 at 10 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 rebels 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 in 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, they learned they would remain at their latest new camp for at least two weeks. Placed temporarily under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Bailey, they were assigned yet again to the hard labor of construction work, helping to erect “Bailey’s Dam,” a timber structure that was designed to enable Union Navy gunboats to safely navigate the fluctuating waters of 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 gun boats from operating with us, and kept our transports from supplying the troops with rations, (and you know soldiers, like other people will eat), so Banks was compelled to relinquish his designs on Shreveport and fall back to the Mississippi. To do this a large dam had to be built on the falls at Alexandria to get the iron clads down the river. After a great deal of labor this was accomplished and by the morning of May 13th the last one was through the shute [sic, chute], 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 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 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 gun boat 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.

Continuing their march, Private John Egolf and his fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers headed toward Avoyelles Parish. According to Wharton:

On Sunday, May 15th, we left the river road and took a short route through the woods, saving considerable distance. The windings of the Red river are so numerous that it resembles the tape-worm railroad where with 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.

“Resting on their arms,” (half-dozing, without pitching their tents, and with their rifles right beside them), they were now positioned just outside of Marksville, on the eve of the 16 May 1864 Battle of Mansura, which unfolded as follows, according to Wharton:

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

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

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

The regiment then moved on and arrived in New Orleans in late June. On 4 July, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers received orders to return to the East Coast. Three days later, they began loading their men onto ships, a process that unfolded in two stages. Companies A, C, D, E, F, H, and I boarded the U.S. Steamer McClellan on 7 July and steamed away that day, while the members of Companies B, G and K remained behind, awaiting transport. (The latter group subsequently departed aboard the Blackstone, weighing anchor and sailing forth at the end of that month.)

As a result of this twist of fate, Private John Egolf and his fellow “early travelers” had the good fortune to have a memorable encounter with President Abraham Lincoln on 12 July 1864. They then took part in the mid-July Battle of Cool Spring near Snicker’s Gap, Virginia.

Sheridan’s 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign

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

From 3-4 September, Private John Egolf and the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers took on Early’s Confederates again — this time in the Battle of Berryville. But that month also saw the departure of several 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers who had served honorably, including Company D’s Captain Henry Woodruff, First Lieutenant Samuel Auchmuty, Sergeants Henry Heikel and Alex Wilson, and Corporals Cornelius Stewart and Samuel A. M. Reed — many of whom mustered out on 18 September 1864, upon expiration of their respective service terms.

Those members of the 47th who remained on duty were about to engage in their regiment’s greatest moments of valor.

Battles of Opequan and Fisher’s Hill, September 1864

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

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

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

Afterward, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were sent out on skirmishing parties before making camp at Cedar Creek. Moving forward, they would continue to distinguish themselves in battle, but would do so without two more of their respected commanders: Colonel Tilghman Good, founder of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers; and Good’s second-in-command, Lieutenant-Colonel George Alexander, who mustered out from 23-24 September upon the expiration of their respective terms of service.

Fortunately, they were replaced by others equally admired both for their temperament and their front line experience: Second Lieutenant George Stroop, who was promoted to lead Company D, and John Peter Shindel Gobin, Charles W. Abbott and Levi Stuber, who ultimately became the three most senior leaders of the regiment.

Battle of Cedar Creek

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

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

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

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

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

The High Price of Victory

As the smoke from the intense cannon fire began to dissipate from the farmlands where the most intense moments of combat had been waged, officers and enlisted men on both sides of the conflict began to understand just how brutal that day’s fight had been. The numbers of casualties was truly shocking. The 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry alone had lost the equivalent of nearly two full companies of men (killed, wounded, missing, or captured by the enemy).

Sadly, Private John F. Egolf was one of those who had been killed in action during the Battle of Cedar Creek. According to one of his D Company comrades known as “W. S. P.”:

I think it was the most decisive victory we have yet had in the valley. We encamped on the old ground on the night of the 19th. In the morning I went out to the woods where the 47th had stood, and the dead bodies strewn thickly over the ground showed that this had been a hot place. There were four killed out of Company D. There [sic, their] names are John Egolf, Daniel Powell, Joseph Aucker [sic, Acker], and W. H. Jones [Private William Harrison Jones]. There were also seven wounded out of the same company, viz: Corp. Edward Harper, Cyrus B. Sailor, Isaac Baldwin, Franklin Fertig, James Tagg, Henry Foreman and Jerome Small — the latter mortally, in an exchange after the rebels had begun to retreat.

Initially buried on the battlefield near where he fell, Private John Francis Egolf’s remains would later be exhumed and reinterred at the Winchester National Cemetery in Winchester, Virginia, as part of the federal government’s massive effort to ensure that all those who had served with the Army of the United States received proper burials.

He remains at rest there to this day. A good son, he had regularly sent as much of his military pay back home to his mom as he could throughout the war. He had also been prescient enough to understand that his days were numbered.

 

The Girl He Left Behind

Two years before his death — and exactly one month and one day after he successfully took part in the bloody Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina, which had ended the lives of so many of his comrades, Private John F. Egolf put pen to paper in his tent at the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry’s encampment in Beaufort, South Carolina, to create a brief, but compelling directive to his military superiors and family:

If I should be called away by death which you say is very uncertain while in the army, I want what I am worth divided equally between mother and Miss Susan Fenicle unless I should alter my mind and then I will let you know. This I wish done if I never live to get home but I hope to see you all again.

He had met Susannah E. Fenicle (1843-1918) while she was living with, and working for, his maternal uncle and aunt, David and Harriet Mickey, in the Borough of New Bloomfield in Perry County, where David Mickey was employed as the borough’s prothonotary in 1860.

Known to family and friend as “Susan,” Susannah E. Fenicle was forced by fate to pick up the pieces of her broken heart, and carry them with her as she carved a new path forward in life, following the death of her beloved blacksmith-soldier. Four years after John Egolf’s death in 1864, she decided to marry Jacob N. Wise (circa 1841-1903), a Union artilleryman who had sustained a gunshot wound to his head while serving with Battery B of the 1st Pennsylvania Light Artillery in combat with Confederate troops near Culpeper, Virginia (in 1864).

After making a new home with her husband in Perry County, where he worked as a shoemaker, she became the mother of: Grace E. Wise (1873-1942), who was born on 12 August 1873 and later wed Joseph E. Smith (1854-1925); and David H. Wise (1877-1950), who was born on 22 April 1877 and later wed Anna Laura Hoffman (1882-1963).

But her husband’s health soon began to decline, prompting him to leave their family’s home and relocate to Hampton, Virginia, where he could receive the kind of medical care he needed and deserved. Admitted to the U.S. Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers there on 25 July 1896, Jacob Wise continued to reside at that soldiers’ home for the remainder of his life. Following his passing on 21 February 1903, he was laid to rest at the Hampton National Cemetery.

Waging war against grief yet again, Susan (Fenicle) Wise endured. With the help of her children, she went on to survive her husband by nearly fifteen years (and her American Civil War-era love, John F. Egolf, by more than half a century). Following her death in Harrisburg at the age of seventy-five, on 12 May 1918, she was laid to rest at the East Harrisburg Cemetery in Harrisburg.

What Happened to the Parents of John F. Egolf?

Private John Egolf’s mother was legally widowed on 23 December 1867, but she had been hurt and abandoned by his father, Joseph Egolf, long before that. According to an affidavit filed on 18 May 1869 by Susan Egolf’s longtime friends, George and Agnes Souder, in support of her application for a U.S. Civil War Mother’s Pension between the winter of 1864 and the summer of 1870, Susan (Mickey) Egolf had been taken in by the Souders during the winter of 1858-1859, after “being driven from the house of her husband by his cruel, harsh and unmerciful treatment,” adding that Susan “would not have been safe to remain with him.” They also stated that, during the time that Susan Egolf had lived with them, “she had no means,” and was “in very delicate health,” adding that it actually had been Susan’s son, John, who had “supported her financially” during the late 1850s and early 1860s because Susan’s husband “never after tendered her any support.”

In addition to giving his mom money whenever he could spare it (which was often), John F. Egolf, had “hired a nurse & bought meat & wood & supplied her” during the years in which she was trying to break free from her abuser.

The next year soldier [John F. Egolf] bought a house expressly for his mother, where she lived four years free of rent. Since soldier’s death she had the rent of the house $8 per year. — This is all she had except what she can earn. Husband has no property — could not be compelled to support her.

At the time that she filed her pension application on 15 December 1864, Susan Egolf was living in New Bloomfield, Perry County. During the subsequent review of her application by officials at the U.S. Pension Bureau (a review that was not completed until 29 July 1870), federal, state and county officials were able to confirm that Susan Egolf’s son, John Egolf, had “continued to provide for her from his wages as a blacksmith until his enlistment, & after enlistment.” John Egolf’s siblings, “L. A. & W. A. Egolf corroborate[d] the above statements; that soldier was the oldest son & provided for his mother — that she also received his back pay & bounty.”

Those siblings who made that joint attestation on 20 August 1866 were Lewis Aron Egolf and William Henry Egolf. According to their testimony that day, “their mother was compelled by the outrageous ill treatment and violence and threatened destruction of her life by and on the part of their father … to leave the habitation of her husband Joseph Egolf” in 1858, adding that “from the year 1858 their father has never ministered to the amount of one cent to the support of their mother to this day.”

Like John F. Egolf, both Lewis and William Egolf had served with the Union Army during the American Civil War. Although both had survived the war, both had been debilitated by their service, according to Susan Egolf; as a result, they had been, and continued to be, unable to assist her financially. What little income she was able to bring in to support herself consisted of the few dollars she made through the sewing projects she completed for neighbors — and by making and selling cakes and beer.

By early June 1870, Susan Egolf was residing at the Mifflintown in Juniata County, Pennsylvania home of her son, William Henry Egolf, who was employed as a merchant. Also living with them were William’s wife, Alice (Notestine) Egolf, and their four-month-old daughter, Minnie, according to that year’s federal census. Two months later, on 1 August 1870, Susan Egolf was awarded a U.S. Civil War Mother’s Pension of eight dollars per month, which was backdated to 20 October 1864 — the day after her son was killed in combat. Per those records, she was a resident of Patterson, Juniata County, Pennsylvania at the time that she received word that her pension request had finally been approved by the U.S. Pension Bureau.

Less than five months later, on New Year’s Day in 1871, Susan Egolf married for a second time — to Martin Morton (circa 1807-1877). Whether it was a genuine love match or simply an attempt to ensure a safer, more stable life for herself, researchers may never know. What is certain is that her second marriage was a short one. She was widowed by Martin Morton when he died in his early seventies in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on 3 November 1877.

Shortly afterward, she moved into the home of her oldest surviving son, David Egolf, who was employed as a carpenter by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company (PRR) and was residing in the Borough of Huntingdon’s Third Ward with his wife, Susan, and their children: William H., Samuel J., John W., and Susan R. Egolf.

* Note: Sixty-two-year-old Susan (Mickey Egolf) Morton was incorrectly identified on the 1880 federal census as “Martin, Susan” who was the “Mother-in-Law” of David Egolf.

After such a troubled life, John F. Egolf’s mother, Susan, had finally achieved some measure of safety and stability, but the abuse that she had endured at the hands of her first husband had taken a terrible toll on her health. Following her death at the age of sixty-eight on 22 May 1886, she was subsequently laid to rest by her surviving children at Youngs Church Cemetery in Shermans Dale.

What Happened to the Siblings of John F. Egolf?

John F. Egolf’s brother, David Porter Egolf, who had also served with the Union Army during the American Civil War — but with the 173rd and 149th Pennsylvania Volunteers — had married Susan Catherine Shearer on Christmas Eve in December 1863. He welcomed the births with her of: William Harry Egolf, who was born on 12 November 1864; Samuel J. Egolf (1867-1939), who was born on 28 December 1867 and later wed Annie Lucinda Faust (1871-1943); John W. Egolf, who was born circa 1872; Susan Rebecca Egolf (1876-1954), who was born in the Borough of Huntingdon on 31 March 1876 and later wed George Ellis Jeffries (1873-1959) in 1897; and Lewis A. Egolf (1881-1914), who was born on 10 December 1881 and was later in charge of payroll for the Harrisburg Pipe and Pipe Bending Works.

Hired by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company (PRR) sometime after he was honorably discharged from the military, David Porter Egolf rose through the ranks to become foreman of the group of carpenters employed by the railroad’s Middle Division. During his professional life and following his retirement in 1904, he was an an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic (Post No. 58), the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Malta (Egyptian Commandery, No. 114). On 3 July 1905, he suffered an episode of apoplexy, while tending the grapevines in the garden at his home in Harrisburg, and died a short time later. Following funeral services, he was laid to rest at the Harrisburg Cemetery.

John F. Egolf’s brother, Joseph Egolf, who had also grown up to become a blacksmith and Union Army soldier like John, had been captured by Confederate troops while serving as a private with Company H of the 36th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry during the Battle of the Wilderness on 5 May 1864. Initially held captive as a prisoner of war (POW) at the Confederate States’ prisons in Lynchburg and Danville, Virginia, Private Joseph Egolf had ultimately been transferred to the Confederates’ notorious Andersonville POW camp in Georgia, where he fell ill with scurvy and languished until he was released on 28 April 1865. Subsequently awarded an honorable discharge from the Union Army on 29 May, he returned home to Perry County, Pennsylvania, where he had married Margaret Eckles Huston.

Together, they welcomed the 14 September 1866 births of twins Lewis A. Egolf (1866-1866) and Francis Huston Egolf (1866-1866), both of whom subsequently died just over a month later (on 14 and 16 October, respectively). A third child, Worthington Egolf (1867-1868), was then born on 9 December 1867, but then also died in early childhood — on 23 August 1868, at the age of eight months and twenty-three days. Their fourth child, Arthur V. Egolf, was born on 25 September 1870.

Preceded in death by his wife, Margaret Eckles (Huston) Egolf, who died at the age of sixty-seven in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania on 18 October 1906, Joseph Egolf married again for the second time — to Mary Ann (Swartz) Bailey (1834-1927) on 25 October 1913. Paralyzed during his final months, Joseph Egolf died at the age of seventy-nine in Perry Township, Snyder County, Pennsylvania, on 14 March 1920, and was subsequently laid to rest at the Old Graveyard in Carlisle, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.

But John F. Egolf’s younger brother, Lewis Aron Egolf, chose to follow an entirely different path. After migrating west to Minnesota, he met and married Maggie Murphy (1854-1992), a native of Hugginstown in County Kilkenny, Ireland who had been making a living in Minnesota as a “sewing girl” during the 1870s. Residents of the city of Minneapolis in Hennepin County, Lewis operated a restaurant to support Maggie, and then became a street inspector for the city. Active members of their Grand Army of the Republic chapter, Maggie became a steadying influence as Lewis battled a “nervous” condition, according to the federal government’s special veterans’ census of 1890 — a condition that would most likely be diagnosed today as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). She was there beside him even as he was felled by heat stroke while working in his garden in mid-July 1898, and then became paralyzed and unable to eat. Following his death in Minneapolis at the age of fifty-six on 5 August 1898, Lewis Aron Egolf was laid to rest at that city’s Lakewood Cemetery. His widow grieved — and then continued on with her mission to ease the suffering of his fellow G.A.R. members, becoming a beloved fixture at chapter events before her own death three years later.

John F. Egolf,’s brother, William Henry Egolf, who had also served with the Union Army during the American Civil War — but with the United States Volunteers’ Signal Corps — initially returned home to Pennsylvania, where he wed Alice Notestine (circa 1851-unknown) and settled with her in Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, where he was employed as a merchant. Together, they welcomed the births of: Minnie L. Egolf (1870-1955), who was born in Patterson, Juniata County, Pennsylvania and later wed W. D. Welch; Anna Flora Egolf (1871-1939), who was also born in Patterson, was known to family and friends as “Annie,” grew up to become a nurse in Arkansas, and never married; William Daniel Egolf (1878-1947), who was born in Mifflintown, Juniata County on 13 July 1878 and later wed Emily McCutchan (1875-1964), with whom he welcomed the birth of son Willard in Kansas City, Missouri, before divorcing her and marrying Sidney Anne Freeman (1884-1976), with whom he then raised two sons in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma; and Charles Thatcher Egolf (1887-1983), who was born in Americus, Kansas on 19 May 1887 (alternate birth year: 1888), and later served as a second lieutenant with the U.S. Army during World War I before becoming an oil and gas industry professional in Oklahoma.

In 1899, William Henry Egolf was married again — to Mary Ann (Wright) Haskins (1837-1920), who was a native of Warwickshire, England. Following their wedding in Americus, Lyon County, Kansas in 1899, they continued to reside there for nearly two decades. He then relocated with her to the city of Pasadena in Los Angeles County, California circa 1918. Subsequently widowed by her when she passed away at the age of eighty-two in Pasadena, on 2 November 1920, he moved to the town of Mena in Polk County, Arkansas, where he lived with his daughter, Minnie (Egolf) Welch, who had been residing in Mena since at least June 1921. In declining health during the final seven years of his life, William Henry Egolf died at his daughter’s home in Mena, at the age of eighty-eight on 27 July 1933. Following funeral services, he was laid to rest at that community’s Pinecrest Memorial Park.

Following her marriage to Henderson Smiley, John F. Egolf’s sister, Sarah Elizabeth (Egolf) Smiley, became the mother of: John M. Smiley (1867-1926), who was born on 1 February 1867 and later wed Ida E. Stone (1867-1929); Charles H. Smiley (1868-1939), who was born in Shermans Dale on 28 July 1868; Frank Louis Smiley (1870-1944), who was born on 8 September 1870 and later wed Mary Susan Barnhart (1875-1943) in 1901; George Washington Smiley (1876-1958), who was born on 30 March 1876 and later wed Elizabeth Clepper (1876-1948); Joseph Smiley (1870-1880), who was born on 30 April 1879 but died at the age of two on 6 July 1880; William Thomas Smiley (1879-1952), who was born in 1879 and later grew up to be an engine house foreman for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company (PRR); an unnamed infant, who was stillborn on 10 August 1880; and Harvey F. Smiley (1881-1941), who was born on 24 November 1881 and later wed Minnie R. Gaintner (1880-1961).

A resident of Harrisburg during her later years, Sarah Elizabeth (Egolf) Smiley died at the age of seventy-one, at the home of her daughter in Enola, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, on 9 December 1918. Following funeral services, she was laid to rest beside her husband at the Duncannon Union Cemetery in Duncannon, Perry County.

* How to Get Help: If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please reach out for help. Confidential support is available free of charge through the the National Domestic Violence Hotline at: 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), or by visiting the hotline’s website. 

 

Sources:

1. Anna Flora Egolf (death of a niece of John F. Egolf and a daughter of William Henry Egolf), in Death Certificates (registration district no.: 501, primary registration district no.: 6538, date of death: 27 May 1930). Little Rock, Arkansas: Arkansas State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
2. Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, vol. 1. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.
3. “Cash for Sumac” (advertisement in which William H. Sheibley declared that he had no affiliation whatsoever with John F. Egolf’s father, Joseph Egolf). Bloomfield, Pennsylvania: The Perry County Democrat, 25 January 1853.
4. “Cleanse and Purify” and “Agents” (advertisements naming John F. Egolf’s father, Joseph Egolf, as a sales agent for A. C. Klink of Bloomfield, Pennsylvania). Bloomfield, Pennsylvania: The Perry County Democrat, 4 April and 4 July 1850.
5. “D. P. Egolf A Veteran Railroader Is Dead” (obituary of John F. Egolf’s brother, David Porter Egolf). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: The Patriot, 4 July 1905.
6. Egolf, David (a brother of John F. Egolf), Susan (David’s wife), and William H., Samuel J., John W., and Susan R. (David’s children; and Martin [sic, Morton], Susan [the mother of David and John F. Egolf), in U.S. Census (Borough of Huntingdon, Third Ward, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, 1880). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
7. Egolf, John F., in Civil War Muster Rolls (Company D, 47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
8. Egolf, John F., in Civil War Veterans’ Card File, 1861-1866 (Company D, 47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
9. Egolf, John F., in U.S. Registers of Deaths of Volunteers (Cedar Creek, Virginia, 19 October 1864). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
10. Egolf, John F. and Susan, in U.S. Civil War Mothers’ Pension Files (mother’s application no.: 75958, certificate no.: 144187, filed from Pennsylvania, 15 December 1864). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
11. Egolf, Joseph (father), Susannah (mother), John F., David, Joseph (son), Lewis, William H., Oliver F., Sarah, and George W.; Moses, Lidy; and Gibson, Frances, in U.S. Census (Spring Township, Perry County, Pennsylvania, 1850). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
12. Egolf, Joseph, et. al., in U.S. Census (Borough of Landisburg, Perry County, Pennsylvania, 1860). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
13. Egolf, Susannah (mother) and Sarah Elizabeth (daughter), in U.S. Census (Borough of New Bloomfield, Perry County, 1860). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
14. Egolf, Wm. H. (a brother of John F. Egolf), Alice (William’s wife), Minnie (William’s daughter), and Susan (the mother of John F. and William H. Egolf), in U.S. Census (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, 1870). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
15. Egolf, William H. (a brother of John F. Egolf), Mary A., Minnie L., Annie F., and William D., in U.S. Census (Patterson, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, 1880). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
16. Egolf, William and Mary A., in U.S. Census (Americus, Lyon County, Kansas, 1900). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
17. “Estate of Joseph Egolf, Deceased” (death record of John F. Egolf’s father, Joseph Egolf, via the publication of his estate’s 2 January 1868 probate announcement). Bloomfield, Pennsylvania: The Perry County Democrat, 6 February 1868.
18. “It Hangs by a Thread: L. A. Egolf. Who Was Overcome by Heat, Is Still Alive, But the Doctors Have No Hope” (report on the illness of John F. Egolf’s younger brother, Lewis Aron Egolf). Minneapolis, Minnesota: The Minneapolis Tribune, 5 August 1898.
19. Jacob N. Wise (the husband of John F. Egolf’s former girlfriend), in Admissions Ledgers, U.S. National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (Hampton, Virginia, 25 July 1896-21 February 1903). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
20. Jordan, John W. A History of the Juniata Valley and Its People. New York, New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913.
21. Mary Ann Egolf (death of the third wife of John F. Egolf’s brother, William Henry Egolf), in Death Certificates (state index no.: 6649, local registered no.: 476, date of death: 2 November 1920). Sacramento, California: California State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
22. Mary Ann Egolf (obituary of the third wife of John F. Egolf’s brother, William Henry Egolf). Pasadena, California: Pasadena Star-News, 3 November 1920.
23. Minnie Lou Welch (death of a niece of John F. Egolf and a daughter of William Henry Egolf), in Death Certificates (registration district no.: 501, primary registration district no.: 3782, date of death: 3 January 1955). Little Rock, Arkansas: Arkansas State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
24. “Mrs. Sarah E. Smiley” (obituary of a sister of John F. Egolf). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Harrisburg Telegraph, 10 December 1918.
25. “Mrs. Susan E. Wise” (obituary of John F. Egolf’s former sweetheart). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Harrisburg Telegraph, 13 May 1918.
26. “Morton” (death notice of the second husband of John F. Egolf’s mother, Susan (Mickey Egolf) Morton), in “Deaths.” Bloomfield, Pennsylvania: The Perry County Democrat, 7 November 1877 and Newport, Pennsylvania: The News, 9 November 1877.
27. “Morton-Egolf” (marriage notice of John F. Egolf’s mother, Susan (Mickey) Egolf, to Martin Morton), in “Marriages.” New Bloomfield, Pennsylvania: The Times, 3 January 1871.
28. “Perry Soldiers Killed and Wounded” (mention of John F. Egolf’s death in battle). Bloomfield, Pennsylvania: The Perry County Democrat, 3 November 1864.
29. “Rev. J. J. Haynes Is Very Sick” (mention of the nursing career of Anna Flora Egolf, a niece of John F. Egolf and a daughter of William Henry Egolf). Mena, Arkansas: The Mena Weekly Star, 12 October 1916.
30. “Saddle and Harness Manufactory” (business opening announcement by John F. Egolf’s father, Joseph Egolf). Bloomfield, Pennsylvania: The Perry County Democrat, 17 March 1859.
31. “Sale of Harness &c.” (announcement of the sale of the harness manfacturing business of John F. Egolf’s deaceased father, Joseph Egolf, by the Egolf estate administrator). Bloomfield, Pennsylvania: The Perry County Democrat, 2 January 1868.
32. Schmidt, Lewis. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1986.
33. “Sheriff’s Sale” (seizure and planned sale of a house and farm owned by John F. Egolf’s father, Joseph Egolf). Bloomfield, Pennsylvania: The Perry County Democrat, 28 November 1850.
34. W. H. Egolf (John F. Egolf’s brother, William Henry Egolf), C. Thatcher Egolf and Mrs. W. D. Welch (children of W. H. Egolf), in “Personal Notes.” Mena, Arkansas: The Mena Weekly Star, 30 June 1921.
35. W. H. Egolf (marriage license notice for a marriage of John F. Egolf’s brother, William Henry Egolf) and Mrs. Mary A. Haskins. Emporia, Kansas: Emporia Daily Gazette, 16 March 1899.
36. “Wm. Egolf Dies After Long and Fruitful Life” (obituary of John F. Egolf’s brother, William Henry Egolf). New Bloomfield, Pennsylvania: The Perry County Times, 17 August 1933.