Alternate Spellings of Surname: Raffensbarger, Raffensparger, Raffensberger, Raffensperger, Raffensburger, Raffenspurger

 

A wide-eyed farm boy when he left his rural Pennsylvania community for military service at the dawn of the American Civil War, Samuel S. Raffensperger would go on to pack one adventure after another into the thirty-four years he was given — experiencing more episodes of “daring do” than most nineteenth-century Americans could ever hope to have if given two lifetimes.

By the time his life was over, he had set foot in more than a dozen states, traveling with his Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry regiment by train, ship and on foot as far as Louisiana during the war, before forging a new life with his parents and siblings in Iowa during the nation’s Reconstruction Era.

Formative Years 

Born in Perry County, Pennsylvania on 21 August 1842, Samuel Raffensperger was a son of Pennsylvania natives Daniel Raffensberger (1817-1894) and Catherine (Avey) Raffensperger (1817-1892).

By the early 1850s, he was living in Perry County’s Centre Township with his parents and siblings: Joseph Jefferson Raffensperger (1843-1918), who had been born in Cumberland, Pennsylvania on 10 February 1843 and would later wed North Carolina native Hattie Euphemia Epps (1843-1909); William Henry Raffensperger (1846-1927), who had been born in 1846 and would later wed New Hampshire native Caroline Frances Buzzell (1849-1933) in 1870; Mary Mahala Raffensperger (1848-1942), who had been born on 15 October 1848 and would later wed Venango County, Pennsylvania native Jacob Siglar Funk (1838-1918); John Wesley Raffensperger (1849-1928), who had been born on 15 November 1849 and would later wed Illinois native Etta Bell McBride (1864-1957) in 1879; and Franklin B. Raffensperger (1851-1864), who had been born on 8 September 1851.

Early that same decade, however, a pre-teen Samuel S. Raffensperger would be thrust into the harsh realities of the mid-nineteenth century when his parents made two major decisions — to hire Samuel out as a live-in farm laborer with David Tressler of Centre Township in Perry County — and to leave Samuel behind when they packed up their family and migrated west to Iowa to begin new lives as farmers in Cedar County. Then, by 1858, Samuel Raffensperger’s parents were welcoming the birth of yet another child — Amanda E. Raffensberger (1857-1943) — who was born in Tipton, Cedar County, Iowa on 23 May 1857 (alternate birth year: 1858) and would go on to marry Henry Reichart.

A twenty-one-year-old resident of the community of Bloomfield at the time that federal census enumerators began counting the residents of Perry County in 1860, Samuel Raffensperger was documented as a farm laborer who was still employed by David Tressler in Centre Township.

Later that same year, the State of South Carolina initiated a secession crisis that ultimately devolved into a civil war — a war that has since been decribed by present-day historian James McPherson as “the central event in America’s historical consciousness” and “the largest and most destructive conflict in the Western world between the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and the onset of World War I in 1914.” According to historians Dean Grodzins and David Moss, “The secession crisis of 1860-1861 involved both the mass rejection of a lawful electoral outcome and a large-scale turn to violence to resolve political differences.

Notably, almost no one seriously disputed the procedural results of the election. Lincoln had won a plurality of the national popular vote and a majority of the Electoral College. Under the Constitution, he had won the election and was the president-elect. Indeed, until this point in U.S. history, no matter how bitterly contested a presidential election had been (and some had been very bitterly fought), the losers had always abided the outcome….

This time was different.

American Civil War

On 20 August 1861, at the age of twenty-one, Samuel Raffensperger enrolled for military service in Bloomfield, Perry County, Pennsylvania. He mustered in for duty at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg, Dauphin County as a private and wagoner with Company D of the newly-formed 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry on 31 August.

According to author Eric Ethier, “Wagon masters and teamsters generally worked under the thumb of a quartermaster, whose duties included making sure food and supplies reached the men on the front lines when they needed it.” Ethier adds that:

Drivers often found themselves down in the dirt, digging out their wagons or helping mechanics with repairs. They were also responsible for the care of their hard-working teams and constantly fed their animals from the sacks of forage they lugged in each 2500- to 2800-pound wagonload….

The importance of all these workers was reflected in their salaries: skilled wagon masters earned upward of $75 a month; assistant wagon masters might also earn $45-$50; white teamsters earned $25-$30 a month, while blacks were paid $10-$20. Wagon masters occasionally earned extra money (as much as $10-$25 per load) transporting the considerable wares of sutlers — a risky proposition that could result in forfeiture of pay or immediate discharge for everyone involved in their conveyance.

Military records at the time of enlistment described Private Raffensberger as a laborer who was five feet, eight inches tall with light hair and gray eyes. His new job, while exciting, would also prove to be a dangerous one, as evidenced by the grievous injury that would be suffered by one of his comrades — G Company Private Reuben Wetzel — during a wagon-related accident that collectively shocked and saddened the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers just over three months into their tenure of service.

Defense of the Nation’s Capital

Following a brief training period in light infantry tactics, at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Private Samuel Raffensperger and his company were transported by train with their fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers to Washington, D.C. where they were stationed at “Camp Kalorama” on the Kalorama Heights near Georgetown, about two miles from the White House, beginning 20 September. Two days later, C Company Musician Henry D. Wharton penned these words to his hometown newspaper, the Sunbury American:

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

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

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

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

…. Our Regiment will now be put to hard work; such as drilling and the usual business of camp life, and the boys expect and hope for an occasional ‘pop’ at the enemy.

Acclimated somewhat to their new life, the soldiers of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry subsequently became part of the Army of the United States when they were officially mustered into federal service on 24 September. Three days later, they were assigned to the 3rd Brigade of Brigadier-General Isaac Ingalls Stevens, which also included the 33rd, 49th and 79th New York regiments. By that afternoon, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were on the move again.

Ordered onward by Brigadier-General Silas Casey, the Mississippi rifle-armed 47th Pennsylvania infantrymen marched behind their Regimental Band until reaching Camp Lyon, Maryland on the Potomac River’s eastern shore. At 5 p.m., they joined the 46th Pennsylvania in moving double-quick (one hundred and sixty five steps per minute using thirty-three-inch steps) across the “Chain Bridge” marked on federal maps, and continued on for roughly another mile before being ordered to make camp.

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

Once again, Company C Musician Henry Wharton recalled the regiment’s activities, noting, via his 29 September letter to the Sunbury American:

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

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

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

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

On 11 October, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers marched in the Grand Review at Bailey’s Cross Roads. In a mid-October letter to his own family and friends, Captain John Peter Shindel Gobin, the commanding officer of Company C, reported that Companies D, A, C, F, and I (the 47th Pennsylvania’s right wing) were ordered to picket duty after the regiment’s left-wing companies (B, E, G, H, and K) had been forced to return to camp by Confederate troops.

In his letter of 13 October, Musician Henry Wharton described the duties of the average 47th Pennsylvanian, as well as the regiment’s new home:

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

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

On Friday morning, 22 October 1861, the 47th engaged in a divisional review, described by historian Lewis Schmidt as massing “about 10,000 infantry, 1000 cavalry, and twenty pieces of artillery all in one big open field.” On 21 November, the 47th participated in a morning divisional headquarters review that was monitored by the regiment’s founder and commanding officer, Colonel Tilghman H. Good — a formal inspection that was followed by brigade and division drills all afternoon. According to Schmidt, “each man was supplied with ten blank cartridges.” Afterward, “Gen. Smith requested Gen. Brannan to inform Col. Good that the 47th was the best regiment in the whole division.”

As a reward — and in preparation for bigger things to come, Brigadier-General John Milton Brannan obtained new Springfield rifles for every member of the 47th Pennsylvania.

1862

Ordered to move from their Virginia encampment back to Maryland, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers left Camp Griffin at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, 22 January 1862. Marching through deep mud with their equipment for three miles in order to reach the railroad station at Falls Church, they were transported to Alexandria, where they boarded the steamship City of Richmond and 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.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).

Later that same summer, Private Samuel Raffensperger’s younger brother, Joseph Raffensperger decided to join the fight to save the Union. A nineteen-year-old resident of Tipton, Cedar County, Iowa, Joseph enrolled for military service on 15 August 1862 as a private with Company C of the 24th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and was officially mustered in for duty on 29 August.

* Note: Private Joseph Raffensperger would go on to serve with the 24th Iowa in expeditions throughout Arkansas and Mississippi, and would subsequently participate in the Battle of Port Gibson, Mississippi (1 May 1863); the Battle of Champion Hill (16 May), which was the largest battle of Major-General Ulysses S. Grant’s Vicksburg Campaign; the capture of eighteen hundred Confederate troops at the Big Black River Bridge (17 May), and the Siege of Vicksburg, which began on 18 May 1863. Wounded or sick enough to require intervention by a physician during this phase of duty, he would be transported to St. Louis, Missouri, where he would receive advanced medical care until he was honorably discharged on a surgeon’s certificate of disability on 16 July 1863. He would then re-enlist for a second tour of duty — but this time as a twenty-one-year-old private with Company E of the 9th Iowa Volunteer Cavalry. He would subsequently go on to serve with that regiment in expeditions throughout Missouri, Texas and Arkansas.

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”

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 those 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. Among those choosing to re-up for an additional tour of duty was Samuel S. Raffensperger, who re-enlisted as a private with the same regiment and company at Fort Taylor in Key West on 10 October 1863.

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 multiple members of 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 Samuel Raffensperger 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.

While all of that action was unfolding, 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 Samuel Raffensperger 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 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 Samuel Raffensperger 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, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers took on Early’s Confederates again — this time in the Battle of Berryville.

Sadly, six days after that battle was waged and won by Private Samuel Raffensperger and his comrades in Virginia, another more personal battle was being waged and lost by the Raffensperger family in Iowa, On 10 September 1864, Samuel’s younger brother, Franklin B. Raffensperger, died in Tipton, Cedar County — just two days after his thirteenth birthday. Following funeral services, Franklin was laid to rest at the South Bethel Cemetery in Tipton.

Back in Virginia later that month, multiple 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers chose to honorably muster out upon expiration of their respective terms of enlistment. Among those departing on 18 September 1864 were 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.

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.

That same fall, Private Samuel Raffensperger’s younger brother, William Henry Raffensperger, also decided to join his brothers in the fight to preserve America’s Union. On 5 October 1864, he enrolled for military service in Cedar County, Iowa and officially mustered in for duty that same day as an eighteen-year-old private with Company E of the 9th Iowa Volunteer Cavalry — the same regiment in which his older brother, Private Joseph Raffensperger, had been serving since 15 September 1863.

* Note: Privates Joseph and William Raffensperger would go on to serve with their regiment in expeditions throughout Texas and Arkansas, including the pursuit of Confederate States Army troops commanded by Major-General Sterling Price as they fled from Missouri through Texas, with the hope of reaching Mexico.

Battle of Cedar Creek, October 1864

It was during the fall of 1864 that Union 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 for the Union Army — and for the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers. 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.

But once again, the casualty figures for the 47th Pennsylvania were appallingly high. On that historic, tide-turning day, the regiment lost the equivalent of nearly two full companies of men (killed, wounded, missing, or captured by the enemy).

Sergeant William Pyers, the C Company officer who had so gallantly rescued the flag at Pleasant Hill was cut down in full view of his son, C Company Drummer Boy Samuel Hunter Pyers. G Company Privates John Becher and Julius Lasker were also killed in action. Among the most grievously wounded of the survivors was G Company Captain John Joseph Goebel; he later died from complications related to the gunshot wound to his left leg.

As casualty figures continued to be revised upward, G Company Private Franklin Moser, who had also reportedly been wounded in action, was officially declared as missing and “presumed dead.” (His final resting place remains unidentified to this day.)

Following that intense battle, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were ordered to Camp Russell near Winchester, where they remained from November through most of December. On 14 November, Second Lieutenant George Stroop was promoted to the rank of captain, replacing the fallen John Joseph Goebel.

Rested and somewhat healed as winter began to take hold across the East Coast, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers received new orders — to assume outpost and railroad guard duties at Camp Fairview in Charlestown, West Virginia five days before Christmas.

Their new assignment would prove to be another dangerous one as they also assumed the responsibility of ending Confederate guerrilla attacks on multiple Union army units that were stationed throughout the region.

1865 — 1866

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 multiple Union Army units.

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 those 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. The regiment was headquartered at Camp Brightwood during this period.

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

Reconstruction

Afterward, Private Samuel Raffensperger and his fellow 47th Pennsylvanians were ordered to America’s Deep South. Stationed in Savannah, Georgia in early June, they were assigned again to Dwight’s Division, but this time, they were attached to the 3rd Brigade, U.S. Department of the South.

Subsequently ordered to relieve the 165th New York Volunteers in Charleston, South Carolina in July 1865, they were quartered in the former mansion of the Confederate Secretary of the Treasury.

Beginning on Christmas day of that same year, the majority of 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantrymen, including Private Samuel Raffensperger, began to honorably muster out in Charleston — a process which continued through early January 1866.

Following a stormy voyage home, the 47th Pennsylvanians disembarked in New York City and were then transported to Philadelphia by train where, at Camp Cadwalader on 9 January 1866, they were officially given their honorable discharge papers.

* Note: While all of those events were unfolding for Private Samuel Raffensberger, similar events were occurring for two of his brothers, Privates Joseph and William H. Raffensberger, who had been serving together in Company E of the 9th Iowa Volunteer Cavalry. William became the first of the duo to depart from military life, when he was honorably mustered out in Little Rock, Arkansas, upon expiration of his term of enlistment on 28 October 1865. Joseph was then honorably mustered out in Little Rock on 3 February 1866.

Return to Civilian Life

As he was preparing for his honorable discharge from the military, Samuel S. Raffensberger had a decision to make. Would he return to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, where he had been born and raised, or would he join his parents and siblings in Iowa, where they had begun to build new lives for themselves as homesteaders and farmers?

By 1870, his decision was clear. He had migrated west to Iowa, and was residing at the farm of his brother and fellow Union Army veteran, Joseph Raffensberger, in Hartford Township, Iowa County, where he was helping to work the land, along with their younger brother, John. Also residing at the farm were Joseph’s wife, Hattie (who was listed on several records from that period as “Hetta” and was a native of North Carolina), and their children, Daniel and Bertha, who had both been born in Iowa. In addition, their household included fourteen-year-old Mary E. Riley, a New Jersey native who was employed as a domestic servant, and twelve-year-old William Bowls, who was attending school.

But Samuel Raffensberger was not as content as he had hoped to be and soon made the decision to begin his own branch of the Raffensberger family tree by marrying Jean McAdams (1850-1938) in Victor, Iowa County on 7 March 1871. A native of Glasgow, Scotland, Jean had emigrated with her parents, Janet and Thomas McAdams, during her early childhood, and had settled with them in Utica, New York before migrating west with them to Scott County, Iowa.

Subsequently making a home in Victor, which was located roughly six miles from the town of Ladora in Hartford Township, Iowa County, Samuel and Jean Raffensperger welcomed the births of: Charles John Raffensberger (1872-1936), who was born on 13 December 1872 (alternate birth year: 1871) and later wed Anna M. Kempf (1877-1926) in 1899; Janet Raffensberger (1874-1942), who was born on 16 May 1874 (given name variants: Janette, Jeanette; alternate birth year: 1876) and later wed Ulysses Simpson Grant (1865-1939) in 1898; and Mae Raffensberger (1876-1956), who was born on 19 July 1876 and later wed Walter C. Wilkins (1872-1906) in 1900, was widowed by him in 1906, and then married David Wendell Phillips, M.D. (1858-1932) in 1927.

Death and Interment

Sadly, though, Samuel S. Raffensperger was not destined to have a long, full life. Less than six months after the birth of his third child, he died in Ladora, Iowa County on 6 January 1877. Just thirty-four years old at the time of his passing, he was subsequently laid to rest at the Ohio Cemetery in Ladora.

What Happened to the Widow and Children of Samuel S. Raffensperger?

Samuel Raffensperger’s widow, Jean (McAdams) Raffensperger, continued to reside with their children in Victor, Iowa. Before the 1870s were over, however, she decided to marry Hartford Township farmer Daniel Campbell (1847-1897). She then welcomed the births with him of: Ellen Campbell (1881-1958), who was born in Victor on 27 May 1881, later wed Ernest J. Gortner, before marrying Joseph F. Roushar (alternate spelling: “Rousher”) in 1933; and Inda Campbell (1886-unknown), who was born on 1 August 1886, later wed William Lacy and was a resident of Chicago, Illinois by 1938.

Widowed by her second husband, Daniel Campbell, five days before Christmas in 1897, Jean (McAdams Raffensperger) Campbell remained in Victor, as her children each began their own lives. Active with the Women’s Relief Society of the Victor Methodist Church for forty years, she went on to live a long life, passing away at the age of eighty-seven, at her home in Victor, Iowa, on 13 January 1938. Her funeral was held at her church in Victor on Saturday, 15 January.

Following his marriage to Anna Kempf, Samuel and Jean Raffensberger’s son, Charles J. Raffensperger, embarked on a business career that spanned nearly forty years. A furniture dealer in his hometown of Victor, Iowa, as well as the town’s undertaker, he also became a trusted civic leader who was elected to the positions on the Victor City Council and his local school board, and was also elected by his fellow businessmen to the position of president of Victor’s commercial association.

Together, Charles J. Raffensperger and his wife, Anna, welcomed the Iowa County births of: Orville Edward Raffensberger (1900-1963), who was born in 1900; Bernice Raffensberger (1901-1987), who was born in Victor on 23 September 1901 and later wed Charles D. McAninch (1894-1972); and Leonard Raffensperger (1903-1974), who was born in Victor on 6 November 1903 and later became the athletic director at Waterloo East High School in Waterloo, Iowa.

Preceded in death by his wife, Anna (Kempf) Raffensperger in 1926, Charles John Raffensperger was married for a second time to Hope Mason in June 1928. After roughly eight years together, he fell ill during the summer of 1936 and suffered a heart attack at his home in Victor while convalescing. Aged sixty-four at the time of his passing on 7 September 1936, he was laid to rest at the Victor Memorial Cemetery.

Following her marriage to Ulysses Simpson Grant in Victor, Iowa on 2 March 1898, Samuel and Jean Raffensperger’s daughter, Janet Raffensperger, initially relocated with her husband to Iroquois, South Dakota, where their son, Kenneth R. Grant (1899-1954), was born on 12 March 1899. By June of 1900, Janet and her husband had returned to Iowa, where they farmed their own land in Warren Township, Poweshiek County, and raised their young son. Also living with them that year were Janet’s mother and sister-in-law, Sarah Grant, and Charles Ormiston, a twenty-one-year-old farm hand. Together, Janet Grant and her family then welcomed the births of: Margaret R. Grant (1901-unknown), who was born in Warren Township on 18 March 1901, graduated from Iowa State College in 1925 and later wed Diederick Johannes Schutte, a native of the Union of South Africa, before emigrating with him in 1928 to Victoria, South Africa, where she became a teacher at the University of Pretoria, while he was employed by the South African federal government as a senior animal husbandry expert; and Charles Walter Grant (1994-1981) and Jean Ellen Grant (1907-1997), who were born in Brooklyn, Poweshiek County on 13 May 1904 and 5 November 1907, respectively.

In 1910, the six Grants were residing in Bear Creek Township, Poweshiek County, where Janet’s husband, Ulysses, continued to farm his own land. By 1920, however, Ulysses Simpson Grant had retired from farming and had moved his wife and three of their children (Margaret, Charles and Jean) to the city of McAllen in Hidalgo County, Texas, where they brought in income by opening their home to five members of the Allen family from Illinois. Motivated to return to Iowa by the dire economic conditions created by the Great Depression, Janet Grant was residing with her husband and son, Charles, in the city of Ames in Story County, where her husband and son were keeping the family afloat by working as gardeners. A resident of Louisiana by 1938, according to her mother’s obituary, Janet Grant then suffered another loss when she was widowed by her husband in 1939. She subsequently relocated to Arkadelphia in Clark County, Arkansas, where she made a new home with her son, Charles, and his family. Ailing with kidney cancer in her final months, she was hospitalized at the St. John’s Infirmary in Hot Springs, Arkansas, where succumbed to disease-related complications on 2 September 1942. Her son served as the informant on her death certificate and arranged for her remains to be transported to Iowa for burial next to her husband at the Calvary Cemetery in Victor.

Following her marriage to Walter C. Wilkins, Samuel Raffensperger’s daughter, Mae (Raffensperger) Wilkins, welcomed the birth of daughter Janet A. Wilkins (1905-1986), who was born in Victor, Iowa County, Iowa on 29 Dec 1905 and would never marry but would go on to achieve prominence as director of the Iowa County Department of Social Services.

Widowed by her husband on 29 July 1906, Mae (Raffensperger) Wilkins continued to reside in Victor as the single mother of a seven-month-old baby. After guiding her young daughter through her public school and business college years, Mae (Raffensperger) Wilkins married again in 1927 — this time to David Wendell Phillips, M.D. (1858-1932), who then also widowed her in 1932. Subsequently witness to her daughter’s public service career, she became an active member of her church and a charter member of the Victor Woman’s Club. Ailing with heart disease during her final months, she was admitted to St. Francis Hospital in Grinnell, Poweshiek County, Iowa in early December 1955. Following her death there at 6:30 p.m. on New Year’s Day in 1956 and subsequent funeral services, she was laid to rest beside her first husband at the Victor Memorial Cemetery in Victor.

What Happened to the Parents and Siblings of Samuel S. Raffensperger?

Samuel S. Raffensperger was survived by his parents and multiple siblings. His parents, Catherine (Avey) Raffensperger and Daniel Raffensperger, went on to live full lives after his death, and passed away in Iowa County, Iowa in 1892 and 1894, respectively. Preceded in death by his wife, Daniel Raffensperger had lived out his final years at the home of his daughter, Amanda (Raffensperger) Reichart, in Ladora, and died there at the age of seventy-seven on 14 May 1894. Researchers for 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers: One Civil War Regiment’s Story are still working to determine the Raffensperger’s final resting place.

Following his marriage to Hattie Euphemia Epps, Samuel Raffensperger’s brother, Joseph Jefferson Raffensperger welcomed the births of: Daniel Rufus Raffensperger (1867-1954), who was born in Tipton, Cedar County on 30 May 1867 and later wed Alta May Beecher (1871-1964) in 1889; Bertha Viola Raffensperger (1869-1955), who was born in Victor, Iowa County on 18 January 1869 and later wed George Elmer Richardson (1867-1946); Ina May Raffensperger (1870-1945), who was born in Victor on 5 October 1870 and later wed Edwin Leroy Richardson (1869-1958) in 1894; William R. Raffensperger (1874-1904), who was born in 1874 and was later killed when struck by a train in Adair County, Iowa on 25 November 1904; and Sadie Raffensperger (1880-1880), who was born in February 1880, but died in infancy on 11 March of that same year. An active member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Joseph Jefferson Raffensperger died at the age of seventy-four in Adair on 28 January 1918 and was laid to rest at that community’s Sunny Hill Cemetery.

Having migrated west to Iowa with his parents and most of his siblings at the age of nine, and having then served with the Union Army during the American Civil War, Samuel Raffensperger’s brother, William Henry Raffensperger, married Caroline Frances Buzzell during the early 1870s. Together, he and his wife then welcomed the births of: Minnie M. Raffensperger (1873-1927), who was born in January 1873 and later wed Lewis Albert McDaniel (1870-1940); Harry F. Raffensperger (1873-1959), who was born later in 1873 and went on to marry Mary Jane McAfee (1873-1914); and Earl L. Raffensperger (1885-1891), who was born on 1 August 1895 but died at the age of six years, three months and ten days on 10 November 1891. An active member of the Grand Army of the Republic, like his older brother, Joseph J. Raffensperger, William Henry Raffensperger had made a life with his wife and children in Des Moines Iowa, where he resided for thirty-one years. Following his death there at the age of eighty-one, on 14 September 1927, he was laid to rest at that community’s Oak Grove Cemetery.

Following his marriage to Etta Bell McBride, Samuel Raffensperger’s brother, John Wesley Raffensperger (1849-1928), welcomed the births with her of: Avey Myrneta Raffensperger (1881-1958), who was born in Iowa County, Iowa on 6 April 1881 and later wed George Wallace Martin (1875-1960) in 1907; Mabel Sylvilla Raffensperger (1883-1973), who was born in Victor, Iowa County on 30 May 1883 and later wed Earl O’Bryan (1883-1934) in 1904; Myrtle Iona Raffensperger (1886-1962), who was born in Williamsburg, Iowa County on 13 June 1886 and later wed Russell Mint Baker (1886-1966) in 1905; John Daniel Raffensperger (1890-1972), who was born in Williamsburg on 28 October 1890 and later wed Grace Irene Underwood (1891-1983); Albert Lysle Raffensperger (1895-1960), who was born in Forest City, Winnebago County, Iowa on 15 September 1895, relocated to Winnipeg, Canada prior to World War I, served in the Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary Force (CEF) during World War I, and later became a fisherman in Alaska whose wife, Bernice, worked at a salmon canning factory in 1950; Etta May Raffensperger (1898-1905), who was born in October 1908 but died in early childhood in 1905); Charles Raymond Raffensperger (1900-1979), who was born in Forest City on 27 January 1900 and later wed and was widowed by Katherine Dorothy Glaser (1905-1938), before marrying Lillian Viola Abernathy (1908-1971) in 1939; Orris William Raffensperger (1903-1982), who was born in Kiester, Faribault County, Minnesota on 5 March 1903; Francis Luverne Raffensperger (1906-1973), who was born in Kiester on 14 January 1906 and later wed Margaret Agnes Lee (1909-2009) in 1928; and Hazel Mercedes Raffensperger (1908-1991), who was born in South Dakota on 23 August 1908 and later Lyman Hay Young in 1938. Following an adventure-filled life, John Wesley Raffensperger died at the age of seventy-eight in Custer County, South Dakota on 14 August 1928, and was laid to rest at that county’s Fairburn Cemetery.

Following her marriage to Jacob Siglar Funk, Samuel Raffensperger’s sister, Mary Mahala Raffensperger (1848-1942), welcomed the births of Nettie and Ellie Raffensperger, neither of whom survived their early childhood; Oral Randolph Funk (1867-1920), who was born in Washington, Marshall County, Iowa on 5 June 1867, was known to family and friends as “Orie” and later wed Florence Edith Miller (1868-1941); Alice A. Funk (1878-1956), who was born on 16 February 1878 and later wed Claus Gode (1862-1946) in 1912; and Anna Maud Funk (1882-1926), who was born in Victor, Iowa County on 22 March 1882 and later wed Charles G. Jones (1873-1966). Following her 1887 move to Belle Plaine, Kansas, with her husband and children, Mary Mahala (Raffensperger) Funk made a life there for more than a quarter of a century, before returning to Williamsburg, Iowa with her husband. Widowed by him in 1918, she remained active with her church until her death there at the age of seventy-four, on 4 November 1922. Following funeral services, she was interred beside her husband at the Victor Memorial Cemetery in Victor.

Following her marriage to Henry Reichart, Samuel Raffensperger’s youngest sister, Amanda E. (Raffensperger) Reichart, welcomed the birth of daughter Jessie Blanche Reichart (1879-1966), who was born on 11 August 1879 and later wed Ellsworth Earl Eddy (1869-1939) in 1898. Widowed by her husband in 1926, Amanda (Raffensperger) Reichart went on to live a long, full life, finally succumbing to heart disease-related complications in Marengo, Iowa County just two months shy of her eighty-fifth birthday. Following funeral services, she was buried at the Ohio Cemetery in Ladora.

 

Sources:

1. “African Educators” (photograph of Samuel S. Raffenberger’s granddaughter, Margaret (Grant) Schutte, with caption describing her employment as a university professor in South Africa). Des Moines, Iowa: The Des Moines Register, 27 January 1929.
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3. “Campbell” (obituary of Samuel S. Raffensperger’s widow), in “Deaths.” Williamsburg, Iowa: Journal-Tribune, 27 January 1938.
4. “Charles J. Raffensperger” (obituary of a son of Samuel S. Raffensperger), in “Deaths.” Waterloo, Iowa: The Courier, 9 September 1936.
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6. “Daniel Raffensperger” (death notice of Samuel S. Raffensperger’s father). Newport, Pennsylvania: The News, 31 May 1894.
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8. Ellen Gortner (a daughter of Samuel S. Raffensperger’s widow, Janet (McAdams Raffensperger) Campbell, and her second husband, Daniel Campbell), and Ernest J. Gortner, in Marriage Records (Poweshiek County, Iowa, 23 December 1907). Des Moines, Iowa: Iowa State Department of Health, Division of Vital Statistics.
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17. Grant, Charles (a grandson of Samuel S. Raffensperger), Dorothy F. (wife of Charles), Charlene and U. S. [Ulysses Simpson Grant, II] (children of Charles and Dorothy Grant), and Janet (a daughter of Samuel S. Raffensperger and mother of Charles Grant), in U.S. Census (Caddo Township, Clark County, Arkansas, 1940). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
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25. Margaret R. Grant (a granddaughter of Samuel S. Raffensperger and a daughter of Janet (Raffensperger) Grant), in Birth Records (Warren Township, Poweshiek County, Iowa, 18 March 1901). Des Moines, Iowa: Iowa State Department of Health, Division of Vital Statistics.
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