Alternate Spellings of Surname: Arehart, Earhart, Earheart, Ehrhart, Erhart, Everheart

 

He was a Maryland native who fought for Pennsylvania during the American Civil War.

Formative Years

Born in Graceham, Frederick County, Maryland on 19 August 1841, William Earhart was a son of Andrew Earhart (1818-1896), who was a native of “Mt. Alto” (according to Andrew’s obituary), and Margaret Sophia (Delaplane) Earhart (1818-1901), who was a native of Double Pipe Creek, Carroll County, Maryland.

* Note: Although William Earhart’s Pennsylvania death certificate stated that he was born in St. Louis, Missouri, this appears to have been an error commited by the informant providing data for the certificate or by the person who completed it. (That death certificate clearly illustrates that William Earhart’s birth history was not known to the person completing the certificate because the names and birth locations for both of William Everhart’s parents were listed as “Unknown.”) In addition, federal census record entries for William Earhart uniformly documented that his state of birth was Maryland. 

From the time of his birth until the late 1840s, William Earhart resided in Graceham with his parents and most of his Graceham-born siblings: Emily Earhart, who was born circa 1839; Charles E. Earhart (1844-1904), who had been born in 1844 and would later reside in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Joshua Deleplane Earhart (1847-1924), who had been born in 1847 and would later wed Sophia Summers (1852-1939) and reside in Altoona, Blair County, Pennsylvania.

According to the Reverend A. L. Oerter’s history of Graceham:

In the northern part of Frederick County, Maryland, fifty-seven miles west of Baltimore, on the line of the Western Maryland Railroad … lies the pleasantly situated village of Graceham.

The main street of the village ascends the gradual slope of a hill rising from the Moravian church and parsonage at its foot, which the geodetic survey has marked as being 449 feet above sea-level, until at its crest near the upper end of the street, about one-fifth of a mile towards the west, it reaches an elevation of 490 feet. Shade-trees on both sides of the street, and fruit trees in the gardens and orchards in the rear of the houses — some of the latter having been built, in part, during the early years of its history [during the mid to late 1700s] — and the absence of the toil and turmoil incident to towns in which factories or other great business enterprises are located, give to Graceham an air of peaceful repose, which seems in keeping with its early character as a Moravian church-settlement.

The Moravian church and adjoined parsonage, the only ones in the place even by 1913], are solidly constructed of brick, the former, the third church-edifice erected — preceded by the first in 1749, and the second in 1772 — dating from 1822, and the present parsonage [in 1913] on the site of the original “Gemeinhaus” as it was called, from 1797. They stand in a spacious and well-kept lawn, bordered with locust trees and surrounded by a neat wire fence. The church-steeple, similar in style to that of the Central Moravian church at Bethlehem, Pa., is one of the first objects to greet the eye on approaching Graceham from the east or north.

By 1848, though, change was afoot as William Earhart and his family packed up their belongings and relocated to the community of Hagerstown in Washington County, Maryland. Very little is presently known about his older sister, Emily, or his younger sister, Mary Earhart, who was born in either Graceham or Hagerstown circa 1848.

The details of William Earhart’s life become more clear, however, with documents that were created during the next decade. In mid-July 1850, a federal census enumerator confirmed that William Earhart was a resident of Hagerstown who lived with his parents and his siblings: Charles, Joshua, and four-month-old John Harry Earhart (1850-1929), who had been born in Hagerstown on 10 January 1850. (John would later go on to marry Emma C. McCarter.)

William Earhart’s brother, James Addison Earhart (1855-1923), was subsequently born in Hagerstown on 25 September 1855. (Known to family and friends as “Addison,” he would later wed Lillian Rose Hammerslea.)

As their family grew, patriarch Andrew Earhart supported his wife and children on the wages of a moulder while matriarch Sophia worked as a “tailoress.” (Andrew Earhart would subsequently be appointed as the foreman of the Hagerstown Foundry — a position which improved his family’s financial stability. He also became an active member of the Republican Party and of the Methodist Church, serving on his congregation’s board of directors for many years.) By 1860, the Earhart’s Hagerstown household included parents Andrew and Sophia, and their children: William, Charles, Joshua, John, and Addison, as well as two-year-old Elizabeth McKare.

Sometime around this same time, William Earhart wed fellow Pennsylvanian Lydia Gensemer (1839-1919; alternate surname spellings: “Gensermer”, “Gensener”), who was a daughter of Pennsylvanian John Gensemer. After settling with her in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, the couple welcomed the birth of: Mary E. Earhart, who was born circa 1861.

By the dawn of the American Civil War, William Earhart was a nineteen-year-old laborer and resident of Bloomfield, Perry County, Pennsylvania. A father with a young daughter, he watched as friends and neighbors boarded trains bound for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s capital city, Harrisburg, where they would be formed into a series of military regiments collectively known as the “Pennsylvania Volunteers,” and drilled in basic infantry tactics before being transported south by rail to prevent Confederate States Army troops from attacking the capital of the United States.

American Civil War

A year later, twenty-year-old William Earhart decided that he could no longer sit on the sidelines as the American Civil War raged. Following his enrollment with the Union Army in Elliottsburg, Perry County on 4 August 1862, he mustered in as a private with Company D of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry on 15 August. Transported south by ship, he connected with his regiment at its encampment in Beaufort, South Carolina.

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

On 30 September 1862, Private William Earhart and his fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers boarded troop transports and sailed south on an expedition to Florida — a return visit to the state for the majority of 47th Pennsylvanians. Upon the regiment’s arrival, 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 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 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”

In addition to 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 these 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, 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 into their base of operations — and 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 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 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 William Earhart 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 William Earhart 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.

Continuing on, the surviving members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry 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 William Earhart 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 William Earhart 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

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

The 47th Pennsylvania’s march toward destiny at Opequan began at 2 a.m. on 19 September 1864 as the regiment left camp and joined up with others in the Union’s 19th Corps. 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, October 1864

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.

Once again, the casualties for the 47th were high. Sergeant William Pyers, the C Company man who had so gallantly rescued the flag at Pleasant Hill was cut down and later buried on the battlefield. Corporal Edward Harper of Company D was wounded, but survived, as did Corporal Isaac Baldwin, who had been wounded earlier at Pleasant Hill. Even Perry County resident and Regimental Chaplain William Rodrock of Perry County suffered a near miss as a bullet pierced his cap.

Others who had been captured by Confederate troops were spirited away to the Libby Prison in Virginia, the notorius Salisbury Prison in North Carolina, or the infamous Andersonville prisoner of war camp in Georgia. Multiple 47th Pennsylvanians never returned; those who did were never the same again.

Following those major engagements, the 47th was ordered to Camp Russell near Winchester from November through most of December. On 14 November, Second Lieutenant George Stroop was promoted to the rank of captain.

Rested and somewhat healed, the 47th was then ordered to outpost and railroad guard duties at Camp Fairview in Charlestown, West Virginia five days before Christmas.

1865

Still stationed at Camp Fairview in West Virginia as the New Year of 1865 dawned, members of the regiment continued to patrol and guard key Union railroad lines in the vicinity of Charlestown, while other 47th Pennsylvanians chased down Confederate guerrillas who had made repeated attempts to disrupt railroad operations and kill soldiers from other Union regiments.

Assigned in February 1865 to the Provisional Division of the 2nd Brigade of the U.S. Army of the Shenandoah, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers continued to perform their guerrilla-fighting duties until late March, when they were ordered to head back to Washington, D.C., by way of Winchester and Kernstown, Virginia.

Joyous News and Then Tragedy

As April 1865 opened, the battles between the Army of the United States and the Confederate States Army intensified, finally reaching the decisive moment when the Confederate troops of General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox on 9 April.

The long war, it seemed, was finally over. Less than a week later, however, the fragile peace was threatened when an assassin’s bullet ended the life of President Abraham Lincoln. Shot while attending an evening performance of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre on 14 April 1865, he had died from his wound at 7:22 a.m. the next morning.

Shocked, and devastated by the news, which was received at their Fort Stevens encampment, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were given little time to mourn their beloved commander-in-chief before they were ordered to grab their weapons and move into the regiment’s assigned position, from which it helped to protect the nation’s capital and thwart any attempt by Confederate soldiers and their sympathizers to re-ignite the flames of civil war that had finally been stamped out.

So key was their assignment that the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were not even allowed to march in the funeral procession of their slain leader. Instead, they took part in a memorial service with other members of their brigade that was officiated by the 47th Pennsylvania’s regimental chaplain, the Reverend William D. C. Rodrock.

Present-day researchers who read letters sent by 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers to family and friends back home in Pennsylvania during this period, or post-war interviews conducted by newspaper reporters with veterans of the regiment in later years, will learn that the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were collectively heartbroken by Lincoln’s death and deeply angry at those whose actions had culminated in his murder. Researchers will also learn that at least one member of the regiment, C Company Drummer Samuel Hunter Pyers, was given the high honor of guarding President Lincoln’s funeral train, while other members of the regiment were assigned to guard duty at the prison where the key assassination conspirators were being held 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.

Attached to Dwight’s Division of the 2nd Brigade of the U.S. Department of Washington’s 22nd Corps, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers also participated in the Union’s Grand Review of the National Armies, which took place in Washington, D.C. on 23 May.

On 1 June 1865, Private William Earhart was honorably discharged from Washington, D.C. by General Orders, No. 53 of Headquarters of the U.S. Army’s Middle Military Division.

Return to Civilian Life

Following his final muster out from the military, William Earhart returned home to Pennsylvania and tried to regain some semblance of a normal life with his wife Lydia in Dauphin County.

By 1880, their home in Middle Paxton, Dauphin County included children: Mary E. Earhart, aged nineteen; Alva D. Earhart (1871-1930), who had been born on 17 January 1871, was mistakenly identified on the 1880 federal census as “Abby” and would later wed John M. DeWald (alternate surname spelling: “DeWalt”); John Earhart (1873-1943), who had been born on 15 January 1873 and would later wed Emma Laura Launse (1877-1969; alternate surname spelling: “Lanuse”); George Earhart, who had been born circa 1875; Frank Earhart (1877-1954), who had been born in Middle Paxton Township, Dauphin County on 6 August 1877 and would later wed Emna Jane Shaffner; and Joseph Earhart (1880-1959), who was born on 6 February 1880, was misidentified on the 1880 federal census as “Susan” and would later wed Sally May Lightner (1882-1968) in 1905.

By 1890, William Earhart was residing in Powells Valley in Halifax Township, Dauphin County. According to the 1890 federal census, he had been shot through the right leg during the American Civil War.

Throughout this decade of his life and beyond, William Earhart faced serious financial hardships, which appear to have begun after he was sued by Mary E. Shoepler during the fall of 1894. According to The Harrisburg Telegraph, Shepler alleged that William Earhart, as “owner of the farm on which he lived in Middle Paxton township, kept more stock on the farm and appropriated more grain than [an agreement between them had] called for.”

Two years later, his father, Andrew Earhart, succumbed to complications from heart disease and congestion of the lungs. Following his death at the age of one hundred and two in Hagerstown, Maryland on 11 May 1896, Andrew was laid to rest at that city’s Rose Hill Cemetery. That loss was followed by the death of William Earhart’s mother, Margaret Sophia (Delaplane) Earhart, who was buried beside her husband at the Rose Hill Cemetery, following her death in Washington County, Maryland, at the age of eighty-one, on 16 February 1901.

Residing in Linglestown during the early 1900s, William Earhart suffered further financial setbacks. On 22 July 1904, he placed an advertisement in the The Harrisburg Telegraph newspaper, which announced that he was offering “a reward of $25 for information leading to the recovery of a dark bay mare stolen from his stable about two weeks ago.” On October of that same year, The Harrisburg Telegraph reported that “Sheriff Sellers” would be selling “the horse and buggy of William Earhart, of Lower Paxton Township, on Tuesday, November 1.”

In November 1905, the Dauphin County Sheriff, “sold the personal property of William Earhart, Lower Paxton township.” According to Harrisburg’s Patriot newspaper, “The sheriff yesterday [13 November 1905] seized the personal property of William Earhart, of Lower Paxton township [to sell] it at public sale shortly. The list includes farm implements, animals and interests in fields of wheat and corn.”

Death and Interment

Ailing with tuberculosis and asthma during his later years, William Earhart died from disease-related complications at the age of seventy-five, on 20 May 1917, at his home, which was located west of Linglestown in Lower Paxton Township. Following funeral services, he was laid to rest at the Willow Grove Cemetery in Linglestown, Dauphin County.

What Happened to William Earhart’s Widow and Children?

Very little is presently known about William Earhart’s oldest daughter, Mary E. Earhart, who was born in Dauphin County, circa 1861, or about his son George Earhart, who was born circa 1875.

William Earhart’s widow, Lydia (Gensemer) Earhart, suffered a cerebral hemorrhage roughly two years after William’s death. Lingering for eight days, she died on 1 October 1919, and was laid to rest beside her husband at the Willow Grove Cemetery in Linglestown.

Their unmarried daughter, Alva D. Earthart, lived in Walter’s Park, Pennsylvania in 1906, according to Harrisburg’s Daily Independent newspaper. Following her marriage to Cumberland County native and carpenter John M. DeWald (1870-1843; alternate surname spelling: “DeWalt”) in Carlisle on 1 April 1908, Alva resided with her husband in Wernersville, Berks County, Pennsylvania. Ailing with heart disease, she died from myocarditis and auricular fibrillation at the age of fifty-three in Harrisburg on 1 October 1930, was laid to rest at Saint John’s Hains Cemetery in Wernersville on 4 October, and was survived by her husband and three brothers, Frank, John and Joseph Earhart.

Following his marriage to Emma Laura Launse (alternate surname spelling: “Lanuse”) in Dauphin County on 6 July 1901, William Earhart’s son, John Earhart, Sr. resided in Londonderry Township, Dauphin County with his wife and their sons: William Albert Earhart (1901-1930), who had been born on 14 July 1901 and, tragically, was struck by an automobile and killed, during a hit-and-run incident near Jonestown, Lebanon County on 1 February 1930; John Earhart, Jr. (1908-1992), who had been born on 15 November 1908 and would later wed Maggie M. Gundrum (1911-1986); and Charles Russell Earhart (1915-1999), who had been born on 21 January 1915 and would later wed Alberta E. Neuin (1920-1984). A resident of Enola, Pennsylvania by 1917, John Earhart, Sr. worked for a railroad company. Employed as a track walker with the railroad by 1920, he resided in West Donegal Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania with his wife and their children: William Earhart, John H. Earhart, Jr. and Charles R. Earhart. Employed as a farm laborer in Lebanon County by 1930, John Earhart, Sr. resided in Union Township with his wife and sons John Jr., who worked as a laborer in road construction, and Charles Earhart. Ailing with myocarditis in his final years, John Earhart, Sr. fell ill with “La Grippe” (the flu) in early April 1943 and succumbed to disease-related complications in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania on 18 April 1943. Following funeral services, he was laid to rest at the Ono Cemetery in Ono, Lebanon County.

William Earhart’s son, Frank Earhart, grew up to become a farmer and marry Emma Jane Shaffner in Dauphin County on 16 October 1897. Ailing with heart disease in his later years, he died in Linglestown on 11 April 1954 and was also buried at that town’s Willow Grove Cemetery.

A resident of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania by 1917, William Earhart’s son, Joseph Earhart, had wed Sallie May Lightner (1886-1968) circa 1905. A native Pennsylvanian, she was a daughter of Levi Lightner (1853-1926) and Elizabeth Ann Knoll (Shanaman) Lightner (1859-1928). Subsequently divorced from Sallie, he then wed Catherine (Neidich) Welker (1902-1993) circa 1948, but was also later divorced from her. After a long life, Joseph Earhart died on his birthday (6 February) in Lower Paxton Township in 1959, and was laid to rest at the at the Willow Grove Cemetery in Linglestown.

What Happened to William Earhart’s Siblings?

Very little is presently known about William Earhart’s older sister, Emily Earhart, who was born in Graceham, Maryland circa 1839, or about his younger sister, Mary Earhart, who was born in either Graceham or Hagerstown, Maryland circa 1848.

William Earhart’s brother, Charles E. Earhart (1844-1904), was married and living with his wife, Ellen, and their nine-year-old daughter, Margaret, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by 1880. Widowed by June of 1900, Charles Earhart was employed as a millwright and was living with his mother in Hagerstown, Maryland. He died in Hagerstown on 5 January 1904, and was subsequently buried at that city’s Rose Hill Cemetery.

Following his marriage to Sophia Summers, William Earhart’s brother, Joshua Deleplane Earhart (1847-1924), resided in Altoona, Blair County, Pennsylvania, where he was employed as a moulder. Living with him were his wife, Sophia, and their children: Howard Lorenza Dowell Earhart (circa 1874-1957), who had been born circa 1 December 1874 and later later lived with his wife, Nora, in the Philadelphia area; and Nellie May Earhart (1879-1965), who had been born on 26 December 1879 and would remain single for the duration of her life. Still employed as a moulder after the turn of the century, Joshua Earhart also still resided in Altoona with his wife and children: Howard, who was employed as a clerk by the Pennsylvania Railroad; and Nellie, who was still attending school. By 1910, however, his son Howard had moved out of the family home in Altoona. (In 1920, his household had the same three residents. Ailing with stomach cancer, Joshua Delaplane Earhart died four years later in Hagerstown, Maryland, on 15 July 1924, and was interred near other family members at that city’s Rose Hill Cemetery.

William Earhart’s brother, John Harry Earhart (1850-1929), grew up to become a confectioner and baker. In 1870, he resided and worked in Meadville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania with fellow Marylander and master confectioner William H. Herbert. Following his marriage to Emma C. McCarter sometime during the early 1870s, he settled with his wife in Hagerstown, Maryland, where they welcomed the births of: A. Edgar Earhart (1873-1875), who was born on 22 March 1873, but died on 22 July 1875; Edith Adelia Earhart (1875-1959), who was born on 17 September 1875, was christened on 11 June 1876 and later wed Harvard University graduate Robert Worthington Hastings, M.D. (1866-1922) in 1904; John Harry Earhart, Jr. (1877-1945), who was born in 1877 and later worked at a tannery before becoming an accountant at a lumber company; and Elmer Oscar Earhart (1880-1882), who was born in 1880, but died on 8 November 1882. Employed as a baker in 1880, John H. Earhart, Sr. continued to reside in Hagerstown with his wife and their children: Edith, John and Elmer. Daughter Emma C. Erhart (1885-1957) was then born in 1885. (She would later go on to wed Frederick Socks.)

Employed as a machinist after the turn of the century, John H. Earhart, Sr. still resided in Hagerstown with his wife and children: Edith, who was employed as a school teacher; John Jr., who was employed as a bookkeeper and was known by his middle name “Harry”; and Emma, who was still attending school. Retired by 1910, the Hagerstown household of John H. Earhart, Sr. had shrunk to just his wife and son John, Jr., who was employed as an accountant at a tannery. The trio still lived together in Hagerstown as of 1920. But John Harry Earhart, Sr. would not live to see the next federal census. Following his death in Hagerstown on his birthday (10 January 1929), his remains were also interred at Hagerstown’s Rose Hill Cemetery.

Following his marriage to Lillian Rose Hammerslea during the early to mid-1870s, William Earhart’s brother, James Addison Earhart (1855-1923), also settled with his wife in Hagerstown, Maryland, where he was employed as an iron moulder. Together, they welcomed the births of: Daisy Earhart (1876-1961), who was born on 13 February 1876 and later wed Carl Hamill; Nora Earhart (1877-1945), who was born on 19 October 1877; William A. Earhart (1880-1882), who was born in April 1880, but died on 4 May 1882; Howard Addison Earhart (1883-1955), who was born on 18 July 1883 and later wed Edna Elizabeth Garis; and Rosalie Earhart (1887-1917), who was born in 1887 and later wed Albert Cost. Still employed as an iron moulder after the turn of the century, James Addison Earhart was a widower living in Hagerstown with his children: Daisy, Nora, Howard, and Rose. Still working in 1910, his household included his daughter Nora and a boarder, William Thompson. By 1920, he was also still working, but was now living alone in Hagerstown. Following his death there three years later, on 8 October, 1923, his remains were also buried at Hagerstown’s Rose Hill Cemetery.

 

Sources:

1. “Alva E. DeWalt” [sic, DeWald] (obituary of a daughter of William Earhart). Reading, Pennsylvania: The Reading Times, 3 October 1930.
2. Alva Earhart (daughter of William Earhart), in “Linglestown.” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Harrisburg Daily Independent, 31 January 1906.
3. Alva Earhart and John M. Dewalt [sic, DeWald], in Marriage Records (Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, 1 April 1930). Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Office of the Clerk of the Orphans’ Court, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.
4. “Andrew Earhart” (obituary of William Earhart’s father). Chambersburg, Pennsylvania: The Franklin Repository, 13 May 1896.
5. Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, vol. 1. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly State Printer, 1879.
6. Charles R. Earhart (groom and son) and John and Emma Earhart (parents); and Neuin, Alberta (bride and daughter) and Howard and Maggie Neuin (parents), in Marriage Records (Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, 25 December 1936). Lebanon, Pennsylvania: Office of the Clerk of the Orphans’ Court, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania.
7. Charles Russell Earhart (a grandson of William Earhart and a son of John Earhart, Sr.), in U.S. Social Security Applications and Claims. Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
8. Earehart [sic, Earhart], Joshoway [sic, Joshua] (a brother of William Earhart), Sophia, Howard, and Nellie, in U.S. Census (Altoona, Second Ward, Blair County, Pennsylvania, 1880). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
9. “Earhart” (death notice of William Earhart), in “Deaths.” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: The Patriot, 21 May 1917.
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12. Earhart, Edith Adelia (infant and a niece of William Earhart), John H. (a brother of William Earhart and father of the infant) and Emma C. (mother of the infant), in Birth and Baptismal Records (Methodist Episcopal Church, Hagerstown, Maryland, 1875-1876). Hagerstown, Maryland: Saint Paul’s Methodist Episcopal Church.
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18. Earhart, John (groom and son), William (father and 47th Pennsylvania veteran) and Lydia (mother); and Lanuse [sic, Launse], Emma Laura (bride and daughter), Levi (father) and Elina (mother), in Marriage Records (Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, 6 July 1901). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Office of the Clerk of the Orphans’ Court, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
19. Earhart, John (father), Emma, William, and John (son), in U.S. Census (Londonderry Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, 1910). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
20. Earhart, John (father), Emma, William, John H. (son), and Charles R., in U.S. Census (West Donegal Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 1920). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
21. Earhart, John (father), Emma, John (son), and Charles, in U.S. Census (Union Township, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, 1920). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
22. Earhart, Joshua (a brother of William Earhart), Sophia, Howard, and Nellie, in U.S. Census (Altoona, Blair County, Pennsylvania, 1900). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
23. Earhart, Joshua (a brother of William Earhart), Sophia and Nellie; and Yeager, Catherine F. (lodger), in U.S. Census (Altoona, Blair County, Pennsylvania, 1910, 1920). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
24. Earhart, Margaret S. (mother of William Earhart) and Charles E. (a brother of William Earhart, in U.S. Census (Hagerstown, Washington County, Maryland, 1900). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
25. Earhart, William, in Civil War Muster Rolls (Company D, 47th Pennylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
26. Earhart, William, in Civil War Veterans’ Index Cards, 1861-1866 (Company D, 47th Pennylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
27. Earhart, William, in U.S. Census (“Special Schedule. — Surviving Soldiers, Sailors and Marines, and Widows, etc.”: Halifax Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, 1890). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
28. Earhart, William and Lydia, in U.S. Civil War Pension General Index Cards (veteran’s application no.: 392471, certificate no.: 378399, filed 30 June 1880; widow’s application no.: 1101710, certificate no.: 847722, filed from Pennsylvania by the veteran’s widow, Lydia Earhart, 2 June 1917). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
29. Ehrhart [sic, Earhart], William, Lydia, Mary E., Abby D., John, George, Frank, and Susan, in U.S. Census (Middle Paxton Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, 1880). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
30. Erehart [sic, Earhart], Charles, Ellen and Margaret, in U.S. Census (Philadelphia, Phikadelphia County, Pennsylvania, 1880). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
31. “Florida’s Role in the Civil War,” in Florida Memory. Tallahassee, Florida: State Archives of Florida.
32. Frank Earhart (groom and son) and William (father); and Shaffner, Emma Jane (bride), in Marriage Records (Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, 16 October 1897). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Office of the Clerk of the Orphans’s Court, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
33. Frank Earhart (a son of William Earhart), in Death Certificates (file no.: 30887, registered no.: 581, date of death: 11 April 1954). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
34. Herbert, William H. (confectioner); Earhart, John (confectioner and a brother of William Earhart); Thompson, Andrew (confectioner); and Frace, Alice D. (waiter in saloon), in U.S. Census (Meadville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, 1870). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
35. Joshua D. Earhart (a brother of William Earhart), in Death Certificates (file no.: 67124, registered no.: 461, date of death, 15 July 1924). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
36. Lydia Earhart (widow of William Earhart), in Death Certificates (file no.: 101920, registered no.: 1219, date of death: 1 October 1919). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
37. Mrs. Alva De Walt [sic, DeWald] (a daughter of William Earhart), in Death Certificates (file no.: 95030, registered no.: 1264, date of death: 1 October 1930). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
38. Oerter, Rev. A. L. Graceham, Frederick County, Md.: An Historical Sketch. Nazareth, Pennsylvania: Moravian Historical Society, 1913.
39. “Reward Offered” (advertisement by William Earhart offering a reward for the return of a horse that had been stolen from his Linglestown stable). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: The Harrisburg Telegraph, 22 July 1904.
40. Schmidt, Lewis. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1986.
41. “Seized Farmer’s Property.” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: The Patriot, 14 November 1905.
42. “The History of the Forty-Seventh Regt. P. V.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Lehigh Register, 20 July 1870.
43. William Earhart, in “A Glance at the City News.” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: The Harrisburg Telegraph, 26 October 1904.
44. William Earhart, in Death Certificates (file no.: 53666, registered no.: 637, date of death: 20 May 1917). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
45. William Earhart, in “Doings at Court.” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: The Harrisburg Telegraph, 11 October 1894.
46. William Earhart, in “Notes of Court.” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: The Harrisburg Telegraph, 21 November 1905.