Born, respectively, on 10 July 1837 in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, in 1840 in Reedsville in that same county, and on 20 February 1842 in Milroy in that same county, Thaddeus S. Fertig, William R. Fertig, and Franklin Morris Fertig were the grandsons of Dauphin County cabinet maker, Zachariah Fertig, and sons of Pennsylvania natives, Peter Fertig (1805-1877) and Francis (Stroop) Fertig (1806-1880). A daughter of Cumberland County Sheriff George Stroop, she was, according to Goodspeed’s History of Newton County, Missouri, “born in the county jail.”

In 1850, the Fertig brothers resided in Brown Township, Mifflin County with their parents and siblings, Matilda (aged six) and Moses (aged two). Two young men, John Lawyer (aged twenty-four) and Arthur Woods (aged seventeen), who worked in the same profession (blacksmith) as Peter Fertig, also resided with the family at this time.

At the dawn of the American Civil War in 1861, Thaddeus worked as a farm laborer and blacksmith, and resided in Milroy, Mifflin County. Frank Fertig, aged nineteen, also still lived in Mifflin County, and was employed as a laborer. William Fertig was a twenty-year-old printer in New Bloomfield, Perry County who boarded with the family of fellow printer John Magee.

Although the Fertig brothers did not yet know it, all three would be wounded in action in three different southern states. William would be the first of the three to be wounded injured—sometime during or around the time of the Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina (21-23 October 1862); Thaddeus would lose an arm on 3 June 1864 during his regiment’s fighting at Cold Harbor.

Frank would remain unscathed through the longest stretch of the brothers’ Civil War commitments—until being wounded twice during the Union Army’s Red River Campaign across Louisiana in 1864.

Civil War Military Service

William Fertig became one of the earliest of the volunteer responders to answer the call of President Abraham Lincoln for troops to defend the nation’s capital in April 1861 following the fall of Fort Sumter to Confederate forces. He enrolled and mustered in for duty as a private with Company D of the 2nd Pennsylvania Infantry in Harrisburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania on 20 April 1861. Following the honorable completion of his Three Months’ Service, he mustered out with his regiment in July 1861.

William R. Fertig then promptly signed up for a three-year tour of duty, re-enrolling at Bloomfield in Perry County, Pennsylvania on 20 August 1861. Mustering in at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg on 31 August, this time he was awarded the rank of sergeant. Military records at the time described him as being a twenty-two-year-old printer residing in Bloomfield, Perry County.

On those same days, at the age of nineteen, Franklin Morris Fertig also enrolled for service at Bloomfield in Perry County, Pennsylvania, and also mustered in at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg with the same company of the same regiment—Company D, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers. He entered the military as a private.

Following a brief light infantry training period, Sergeant William R. Fertig and Private Franklin M. Fertig were sent by train with the 47th Pennsylvania to Washington, D.C., and were stationed roughly two miles from the White House at “Camp Kalorama” on the Kalorama Heights near Georgetown beginning 21 September. The next day, Company C Musician Henry D. Wharton penned the following update for the Sunbury American, his hometown newspaper:

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

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

As a unit of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, Company D became part of the federal service when the regiment officially mustered into the U.S. Army on 24 September. On 27 September, the 47th Pennsylvania was assigned to the 3rd Brigade of Brigadier-General Isaac Ingalls Stevens, which also included the 33rd, 49th and 79th New York regiments. By that afternoon, the 47th Pennsylvania was on the move again. Ordered onward by Brigadier-General Silas Casey, the Mississippi rifle-armed 47th Pennsylvania infantrymen marched behind their regimental band until reaching Camp Lyon, Maryland on the Potomac River’s eastern shore. At 5 p.m., they joined the 46th Pennsylvania in moving double-quick (one hundred and sixty-five steps per minute using thirty-three-inch steps) across the “Chain Bridge” marked on federal maps, and continued on for roughly another mile before being ordered to make camp.

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

Once again, Company C Musician Henry Wharton recapped the regiment’s activities, noting, via his 29 September letter home to the Sunbury American, that the 47th had changed camps three times in three days:

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

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

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

Sometime during this phase of duty, as part of the 3rd Brigade, the 47th Pennsylvanians were moved to a site they initially christened “Camp Big Chestnut” for the large chestnut tree located within their lodging’s boundaries. The site would eventually become known to the Keystone Staters as “Camp Griffin,” and was located roughly ten miles from Washington, D.C.

On 11 October, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers marched in the Grand Review at Bailey’s Cross Roads. In a letter home in mid-October, Captain John Peter Shindel Gobin (the leader of C Company who would be promoted in 1864 to lead the entire 47th Regiment) reported that companies D, A, C, F and I (the 47th Pennsylvania’s right wing) were ordered to picket duty after the left wing companies (B, G, K, E, and H) had been forced to return to camp by Confederate  troops.

In his own letter of 13 October, Henry Wharton described their duties, as well as their new home:

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

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

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.” Less than a month later, in his letter of 17 November, Henry Wharton revealed more details about life at Camp Griffin:

This morning our brigade was out for inspection; arms, accoutrements [sic], clothing, knapsacks, etc, all were out through a thorough examination, and if I must say it myself, our company stood best, A No. 1, for cleanliness. We have a new commander to our Brigade, Brigadier General Brannen [sic], of the U.S. Army, and if looks are any criterion, I think he is a strict disciplinarian and one who will be as able to get his men out of danger as he is willing to lead them to battle….

The boys have plenty of work to do, such as piquet [sic] duty, standing guard, wood-chopping, police duty and day drill; but then they have the most substantial food; our rations consist of fresh beef (three times a week) pickled pork, pickled beef, smoked pork, fresh bread, daily, which is baked by our own bakers, the Quartermaster having procured portable ovens for that purpose, potatoes, split peas, beans, occasionally molasses and plenty of good coffee, so you see Uncle Sam supplies us plentifully….

A few nights ago our Company was out on piquet [sic]; it was a terrible night, raining very hard the whole night, and what made it worse, the boys had to stand well to their work and dare not leave to look for shelter. Some of them consider they are well paid for their exposure, as they captured two ancient muskets belonging to Secessia. One of them is of English manufacture, and the other has the Virginia militia mark on it. They are both in a dilapidated condition, but the boys hold them in high estimation as they are trophies from the enemy, and besides they were taken from the house of Mrs. Stewart, sister to the rebel Jackson who assassinated the lamented Ellsworth at Alexandria. The honorable lady, Mrs. Stewart, is now a prisoner at Washington and her house is the headquarters of the command of the piquets [sic]….

Since the success of the secret expedition, we have all kinds of rumors in camp. One is that our Brigade will be sent to the relief of Gen. Sherman, in South Carolina. The boys all desire it and the news in the ‘Press’ is correct, that a large force is to be sent there, I think their wish will be gratified….

On 21 November, the 47th participated in a morning divisional headquarters review by Colonel Tilghman H. Good, followed by brigade and division drills all afternoon. According to Schmidt, “each man was supplied with ten blank cartridges.” Brigadier-General John Milton Brannan later informed Colonel Good that General Smith had called the 47th “the best regiment in the whole division.”

As a reward—and in preparation for bigger things to come, Brannan had new Springfield rifles distributed to each member of the 47th.

1862

Next 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. Sent by rail to Alexandria, they then sailed the Potomac via the steamship City of Richmond to the Washington Arsenal, where they were reequipped before they were marched off for dinner and rest at the Soldiers’ Retreat in Washington, D.C. The next afternoon, the 47th Pennsylvanians hopped cars on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and headed for Annapolis, Maryland. Arriving around 10 p.m., they were assigned quarters in barracks at the United States Naval Academy. They then spent that Friday through Monday (24-27 January 1862) loading their equipment and other supplies onto the steamship Oriental.

Preparing to board the Oriental during the afternoon of 27 January, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were ferried to the big steamship by smaller steamers. The officers boarded last; then, per the directive of Brigadier-General Brannan, the Oriental steamed away for the Deep South at 4 p.m., and headed for Florida which, despite its secession from the Union, remained strategically important to the Union due to the presence of Forts Taylor and Jefferson in Key West and the Dry Tortugas.

Arriving at the harbor of Key West, Florida in early February 1862, the Fertig brothers and the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were assigned to garrison Fort Taylor. Drilling daily in heavy artillery tactics, they also built new roads and upgraded the facility’s fortifications. On 14 February, the regiment made itself known to area residents via a parade through the city’s streets.

Next ordered to Hilton Head, South Carolina from mid-June through July, they camped near Fort Walker before relocating to the Beaufort District, Department of the South, roughly thirty-five miles away. Frequently assigned to hazardous picket detail north of their main camp, which put them at increased risk from enemy sniper fire, the members of the 47th Pennsylvania became known for their “attention to duty, discipline and soldierly bearing,” and “received the highest commendation from Generals Hunter and Brannan,” according to historian Samuel P. Bates.

Detachments from the regiment were also assigned to the Expedition to Fenwick Island (9 July) and the Demonstration against Pocotaligo (10 July).

Sometime during this phase of service, however, several members of the 47th Pennsylvania developed health problems—chronic issues which would plague them for the remainder of their lives. Sergeant William R. Fertig was one of those men. While stationed at Beaufort, South Carolina in June, he contracted dysentery or a similar disease.

* Note: Thaddeus Fertig attempted to join the fight around this time as well but, after enrolling for service as a private with Company F of the 18th Pennsylvania Militia at Milroy, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania on 12 September 1862, he was discharged with his regiment just over two weeks later on 25 September 1862.

Meanwhile, the two Fertigs serving with the 47th Pennsylvania were sent with their regiment on an expedition to Florida. It was during this phase of service that they first saw truly intense combat as the 47th Pennsylvania and other Union regiments captured Saint John’s Bluff (1-3 October). Led by Brigadier-General John M. Brannan, a fifteen-hundred-plus Union force disembarked from gunboat-protected troop carriers at Mayport Mills and Mount Pleasant Creek. Taking point, the 47th led the 3rd Brigade through twenty-five miles of dense, pine forested swamps populated with deadly snakes and alligators. By the time the expedition ended, the brigade had forced the Confederate Army to abandon its artillery battery atop Saint John’s Bluff, and had paved the way for the Union to occupy Jacksonville, Florida.

From 5-15 October 1862, a teenager and several young to middle-aged Black men who had endured plantation enslavement in Beaufort, South Carolina enlisted with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers. Initially assigned to kitchen duties, they would be officially mustered in for service with the regiment as Cooks and Under-Cooks at Morganza, Louisiana in June 1864. More men of color would continue to be added to the 47th Pennsylvania’s rosters in the weeks and years to come.

From 21-23 October, under the brigade and regimental commands of Colonel Tilghman H. Good and Lieutenant-Colonel George W. Alexander, the 47th engaged Confederate forces in and around Pocotaligo, South Carolina. Landing at Mackay’s Point, the men of the 47th were placed on point once again, but they and the 3rd Brigade were less fortunate this time.

Harried by snipers en route to the Pocotaligo Bridge, they met resistance from an entrenched, heavily fortified Confederate battery which 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.

The Union soldiers grappled with the Confederates where they found them, pursuing the Rebels for four miles as they retreated to the bridge. There, the 47th relieved the 7th Connecticut. But the enemy was just too well armed. After an intense, two-hour attempt to take the ravine and bridge, depleted ammunition forced the 47th to withdraw to Mackay’s Point.

Losses for the 47th were significant. Two officers and eighteen enlisted men died; two officers and another one hundred and fourteen enlisted men were wounded. Several resting places for men from the 47th still remain unidentified, the information lost to the sloppy records of Army Quartermaster and hospital personnel, or to the trauma-impaired memories of soldiers who hastily buried or were forced to leave behind the bodies of comrades upon receiving orders to retreat.

On 23 October, the 47th Pennsylvania returned to Hilton Head, where it served as the funeral Honor Guard for Major-General Ormsby M. 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 southern polar area on Mars discovered in 1846 by Mitchel as a University of Cincinnati astronomer, and Mitchelville, the first post-Civil War Freedmen’s town, were both named for him. Men from the 47th Pennsylvania were given the honor of firing the salute over his grave.

On 6 November 1862, Sergeant William R. Fertig was discharged from military service on a surgeon’s certificate of disability, and sent home from Fort Taylor.

1863

By June of 1863, William R. Fertig had re-enlisted again for military duty. Enrolling at Clinton, Pennsylvania as “William R. Feritig” on 17 June 1863, according to his Civil War Veterans’ Card File entry in the Pennsylvania State Archives, he mustered in as a private with Company C of the 26th Pennsylvania Militia on 20 June, but was mustered out just ten days later. He then successfully re-enlisted with the 9th Cavalry in August 1863.

On the Fourth of July 1863, his brother Thaddeus S. Fertig also joined up, mustering in as a private with Company H of the the 36th Pennsylvania Militia, but was also honorably mustered out with his company just a short time later—on 11 August 1863.

Meanwhile, that same year, Private Frank Fertig and the men of D Company were based again with the 47th Pennsylvania in Florida. Having been ordered back to Key West on 15 November, they spent most of 1863 at Fort Jefferson in the remote Dry Tortugas area off the coast of Florida with their comrades from Companies F, H, and K while the remaining 47th Pennsylvanians from Companies A, B, C, E, G, and I were assigned again to garrison Fort Taylor in Key West. Soldiers from the 47th were also sent on skirmishes and off to Fort Myers, which had been abandoned in 1858 after the third U.S. war with the Seminole Indians. (Note: The members of Company would remain at Fort Jefferson for just over five months. On 16 May, they were marched to the wharf at Fort Jefferson, where they climbed aboard yet another ship—this time to return to Fort Taylor, where they resumed garrison duties under the command of Colonel Tilghman H. Good.)

As before, disease was a constant companion and foe for the members of the regiment. But despite these hardships, when those who were eligible to return home were given the opportunity to do so, many chose to continue to serve their nation, including Private Franklin M. Fertig who re-upped for a second three-year term of service, re-enlisting at Fort Taylor in Key West, Florida on 10 October 1863.

1864

During the opening months of 1864, the wish of Thaddeus Fertig—to serve with a Union regiment that would see actual combat—finally came true. He enrolled at Harrisburg’s Camp Curtin on 24 February 1864, but mustered into an entirely different regiment from his brother, Frank, who was still in Florida with the 47th Pennsylvania. Thaddeus Fertig entered the fray as a private with Company C of the 45th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and went on to engage in some of the war’s most brutal moments as a participant in the Battles of the Wilderness (5-7 May 1864), Spotsvlvania Court House (8-21 May 1864) and North Anna (23-26 May 1864), and the Battle of Cold Harbor—from 31 May to 3 June 1864, when he was severely wounded in action.

The day after Thaddeus successfully enlisted, Private Frank Fertig and his fellow 47th Pennsylvanians set off on 25 February 1864 for their own phase of service in which their regiment would also make history.

Steaming for New Orleans via the Charles Thomas, the 47th Pennsylvania’s Companies B, C, D, I, and K arrived at Algiers, Louisiana on 28 February, followed by the men from Companies E, F, G, and H on 1 March. Transported by train to Brashear City (now known as Morgan City), they then hopped aboard another steamer and were taken to Franklin via the Bayou Teche. Joining the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division of the U.S. Department of the Gulf’s 19th Army Corps, the 47th became the only regiment from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to serve in the Red River Campaign of Union Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks.

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 exchange of fire in the Battle of Sabine Cross Roads. The fighting waned only when darkness fell. Exhausted, the uninjured collapsed next to the gravely wounded and the dead. After midnight, the Union survivors slipped away 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.

Casualties were severe. Lieutenant-Colonel G. W. Alexander was nearly killed, and the regiment’s two color-bearers from Company C were also wounded while preventing the American flag from falling into enemy hands. Private Ephraim Clouser of Company D was shot in his right knee and captured by Confederate troops. Corporal Isaac Baldwin was also wounded, but avoided a similar fate.

Others from the 47th who were also captured, like Private Clouser, were force marched roughly one hundred and twenty-five miles to Tyler, Texas, where they were confined to Camp Ford, the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi River. Held there as prisoners of war (POWs), several died. The others who managed to survive were released during a series of prisoner exchanges which began in July 1864 and stretched into November.

Following what some historians have called a rout by Confederates at Pleasant Hill and others have labeled a technical victory for the Union or a draw for both sides, the 47th Pennsylvanians fell back to Grand Ecore, where they remained for a total of eleven days. After engaging in the hard labor of strengthening regimental and brigade fortifications in a brutal climate, they moved back to Natchitoches Parish on 22 April 1864, arriving in Cloutierville at 10 p.m. that night after marching forty-five miles. En route, the Union forces were attacked again—this time in the rear, but they were able to quickly end the encounter and continue on.

On 23 April, episodic skirmishing quickly roared into the flames of a robust fight as 47th Pennsylvanians and other members of their brigade engaged the Confederate troops of Brigadier-General Hamilton Bee in the Battle of Cane River (also known as “the Affair at Monett’s Ferry.” Part of the advance party led by Brigadier-General William Emory, the 47th Pennsylvania supported Emory’s artillery as it countered the barrage from the Confederate artillery’s twenty-pound Parrott guns and raking fire from enemy troops situated near a bayou and on a bluff.

Meanwhile, other troops under Emory’s command worked their way across the Cane River, attacked Bee’s flank, and forced a Rebel retreat. Those Union troops then erected a series of pontoon bridges, enabling the 47th and other remaining Union soldiers to make the Cane River Crossing the next day. As the Confederates retreated, they torched their own food stores, as well as the cotton supplies of their fellow southerners.

In a letter penned from Morganza, Louisiana on 29 May, Henry Wharton described what had happened to the 47th Pennsylvanians during and immediately after making camp at Grand Ecore:

Our sojourn at Grand Ecore was for eleven days, during which time our position was well fortified by entrenchments for a length of five miles, made of heavy logs, five feet high and six feet wide, filled in with dirt. In front of this, trees were felled for a distance of two hundred yards, so that if the enemy attacked we had an open space before us which would enable our forces to repel them and follow if necessary. But our labor seemed to the men as useless, for on the morning of 22d April, the army abandoned these works and started for Alexandria. From our scouts it was ascertained that the enemy had passed some miles to our left with the intention of making a stand against our right at Bayou Cane, where there is a high bluff and dense woods, and at the same attack Smith’s forces who were bringing up the rear. This first day was a hard one on the boys, for by ten o’clock at night they made Cloutierville, a distance of forty-five miles. On that day the rear was attacked which caused our forces to reverse their front and form in line of battle, expecting too, to go back to the relief of Smith, but he needed no assistance, sending word to the front that he had ‘whipped them, and could do it again.’ It was well that Banks made so long a march on that day, for on the next we found the enemy prepared to carry out their design of attacking us front and rear. Skirmishing commenced early in the morning and as our columns advanced he fell back towards the bayou, when we soon discovered the position of their batteries on the bluff. There was then an artillery duel by the smaller pieces, and some sharp fighting by the cavalry, when the ‘mule battery,’ twenty pound Parrott guns, opened a heavy fire, which soon dislodged them, forcing the chivalry to flee in a manner not at all suitable to their boasted courage. Before this one cavalry, the 3d Brigade of the 1st Div., and Birges’ brigade of the second, had crossed the bayou and were doing good service, which, with the other work, made the enemy show their heels. The 3d brigade done some daring deeds in this fight, as also did the cavalry. In one instance the 3d charged up a hill almost perpendicular, driving the enemy back by the bayonet without firing a gun. The woods on this bluff was so thick that the cavalry had to dismount and fight on foot. During the whole of the day, our brigade, the 2d was supporting artillery, under fire all the time, and could not give Mr. Reb a return shot.

While we were fighting in front, Smith was engaged some miles in the rear, but he done his part well and drove them back. The rebel commanders thought by attacking us in the rear, and having a large face on the bluffs, they would be able to capture our train and take us all prisoners, but in this they were mistaken, for our march was so rapid that we were on them before they had thrown up the necessary earthworks. Besides they underrated the amount of our artillery, calculating from the number engaged at Pleasant Hill. The rebel prisoners say it ‘seems as though the Yankees manufacture, on short notice, artillery to order, and the men are furnished with wings when they wish to make a certain point.

The damage done to the Confederate cause by the burning of cotton was immense. On the night of the 22d our route was lighted up for miles and millions of dollars worth of this production was destroyed. This loss will be felt more by Davis & Co., than several defeats in this region, for the basis of the loan in England was on the cotton of Western Louisiana.

After the rebels had fled from the bluff the negro troops put down the pontoons, and by ten that night we were six miles beyond the bayou safely encamped. The next morning we moved forward and in two days were in Alexandria. Johnnys followed Smith’s forces, keeping out of range of his guns, except when he had gained the eminence across the bayou, when he punished them (the rebs) severely.

Having finally reached Alexandria on 26 April, 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 fortification work, helping to erect “Bailey’s Dam,” a timber structure that enabled Union gunboats to more easily make their way back down the Red River. According to Wharton:

We were at Alexandria seventeen days, during which time the men were kept busy at throwing up earthworks, foraging and three times went out some distance to meet the enemy, but they did not make their appearance in numbers large enough for an engagement. The water in the Red river had fallen so much that it prevented the gunboats from operating with us, and kept our transports from supplying the troops with rations, (and you know soldiers, like other people, will eat) so Banks was compelled to relinquish his designs on Shreveport and fall back to the Mississippi. To do this a large dam had to be built on the falls at Alexandria to get the ironclads down the river. After a great deal labor this was accomplished and by the morning of May 13th the last one was through the shute [sic], when we bade adieu to Alexandria, marching through the town with banners flying and keeping step to the music of ‘Rally around the flag,’ and ‘When this cruel war is over.’ The next morning, at our camping place, the fleet of boats passed us, when we were informed that Alexandria had been destroyed by fire – the act of a dissatisfied citizen and several negroes. Incendiary acts were strictly forbidden in a general order the day before we left the place, and a cavalry guard was left in the rear to see the order enforced. After marching a few miles skirmishing commenced in front between the cavalry and the enemy in riflepits [sic] on the bank of the river, but they were easily driven away. When we came up we discovered their pits and places where there had been batteries planted. At this point the John Warren, an unarmed transport, on which were sick soldiers and women, was fired into and sunk, killing many and those that were not drowned taken prisoners. A tin-clad gunboat was destroyed at the same place, by which we lost a large mail. Many letters and directed envelopes were found on the bank – thrown there after the contents had been read by the unprincipled scoundrels. The inhumanity of Guerrilla bands in this department is beyond belief, and if one did not know the truth of it or saw some of their barbarities, he would write it down as the story of a ‘reliable gentleman’ or as told by an ‘intelligent contraband.’ Not satisfied with his murderous intent on unarmed transports he fires into the Hospital steamer Laurel Hill, with four hundred sick on board. This boat had the usual hospital signal floating fore and aft, yet, notwithstanding all this, and the customs of war, they fired on them, proving by this act that they are more hardened than the Indians on the frontier.

On Sunday, May 15, we left the river road and took a short route through the woods, saving considerable distance. The windings of Red river are so numerous that it resembles the tape-worm railroad wherewith the politicians frightened the dear people during the administration of Ritner and Stevens. – We stopped several hours in the woods to leave cavalry pass, when we moved forward and by four o’clock emerged into a large open plain where we formed in line of battle, expecting a regular engagement. The enemy, however, retired and we advanced ‘till dark, when the forces halted for the night, with orders to rest on their arms. – ‘Twas here that Banks rode through our regiment, amidst the cheers of the boys, and gave the pleasant news that Grant had defeated Lee.

Having entered Avoyelles Parish, they “rested on their arms” for the night, half-dozing without pitching their tents, but with their rifles right beside them. They were now positioned just outside of Marksville, Louisiana on the eve of the 16 May 1864 Battle of Mansura, which unfolded as follows, according to Wharton:

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

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

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

As they did during their tour through the Carolinas and Florida, the men of the 47th had battled the elements and disease, as well as the Confederate Army, in order to survive and continue to defend their nation. But the Red River Campaign’s most senior leader, Union Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks, would not. Removed from command amid the controversy regarding the Union Army’s successes and failures, he was placed on leave by President Abraham Lincoln. He later redeemed himself by spending much of his time in Washington, D.C. as a Reconstruction advocate for the people of Louisiana.

* Note: From the time he arrived in Louisiana until the day he departed with his regiment, Private Frank Fertig was twice wounded in action. (The 1890 U.S. Veterans’ Schedule entry for Franklin Fertig confirms these wounds, and gives a description of one that was particularly personal in nature.)

Meanwhile, on 3 June 1864, Frank’s brother, Thaddeus S. Fertig, was engaged in the Battle of Cold Harbor with Company C, 45th Pennsylvania Volunteers. According to Goodspeed’s History of Newton County, Missouri:

[Of] 609 men who went into the fight only 303 came out alive. Mr. Fertig [Thaddeus] was shot through the elbow, and had to have his arm amputated on the field while the battle was raging, and from August, 1864, until June, 1865, was in the hospital at Philadelphia. At the latter date he was honorably discharged, and came to Sullivan County, Mo., purchasing 200 acres of land.

Sheridan’s 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign

Still able and willing to fight after their Bayou battles, Frank Fertig’s fellow 47th Pennsylvanians from Companies A, C, D, E, F, H, and I boarded the McClellan on 7 July 1864, and steamed away for the East Coast. Following their arrival in Virginia where they had a memorable encounter with President Abraham Lincoln, they then joined Major-General David Hunter’s forces in the fighting at Snicker’s Gap and, once again, assisted in defending Washington, D.C. while helping to drive Rebel troops from Maryland.

Attached to the Middle Military Division, Army of the Shenandoah beginning in August, early and mid-September saw the departure of several 47th Pennsylvanians who had served honorably, including Company D’s commanding officer, Captain Henry Woodruff, First Lieutenant Samuel Auchmuty, and Sergeants Henry Heikel and Alex Wilson. All mustered out on 18 September 1864 upon expiration of their respective service terms. Those 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 47th Pennsylvanians helped inflict heavy casualties on Lieutenant-General Jubal Early’s Rebel Army at Opequan (also spelled as “Opequon” and referred to as “Third Winchester”). The battle is considered by many historians to be one of the most important during Sheridan’s 1864 campaign; the Union’s victory here may very well have helped ensure President Abraham Lincoln’s reelection.

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

The 19th Corps, with the 47th in the thick of things, began pushing the Confederates back. Ultimately, Early’s “grays” retreated in the face of the valor displayed by Sheridan’s “blue jackets.”

Leaving twenty-five hundred wounded behind, the Rebels retreated to Fisher’s Hill, eight miles south of Winchester (21-22 September), and to Waynesboro, following a successful early morning flanking attack by Sheridan’s Union men which outnumbered Early’s three to one.

Afterward, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were sent out on skirmishing parties before encamping at Cedar Creek. Moving forward, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers would continue to distinguish themselves in battle, but would do so without two more of their respected commanders: Colonel Tilghman Good and Good’s second in command, Lieutenant-Colonel George Alexander. Both mustered out 23-24 September upon the expiration of their terms of service. Fortunately, they were replaced by others admired for their front line experience and temperament: Second Lieutenant George Stroop, who was promoted to lead Company D, and at the regimental level, John Peter Shindel Gobin, Charles W. Abbott and Levi Stuber.

Battle of Cedar Creek, October 1864

During the fall of 1864, Major-General Philip Sheridan began the first of the Union’s true “scorched earth” campaigns, starving the enemy into submission by destroying Virginia’s 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, particularly 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 peeled off in ever growing numbers to forage for food, enabling those under Sheridan’s command to rally and win the day.

The 19th of October was an impressive, but heartrending day that year. That morning, Early launched a surprise attack directly on Sheridan’s Cedar Creek-encamped forces; his men captured Union weapons while freeing a number of Confederates who had been taken prisoner during earlier battles—all while pushing seven Union divisions back. Per 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 pounded Early’s forces into submission; the men of the 47th Pennsylvania were later 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 buried later 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 suffered a near miss as a bullet pierced his cap.

Following these 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 — 1866

Assigned to the Provisional Division of the 2nd Brigade of the Army of the Shenandoah in February 1865, the men of the 47th moved, via Winchester and Kernstown, back to Washington, D.C. where, on 19 April, they were again responsible for helping to defend the nation’s capital—this time following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Encamped near Fort Stevens, they were issued new uniforms and resupplied with ample rounds of ammunition.

Letters home and later newspaper interviews with survivors of the 47th Pennsylvania indicate that at least one 47th Pennsylvanian was given the high honor of guarding President Lincoln’s funeral train; others may also have guarded the Lincoln assassination conspirators during the early days of their imprisonment and trial, which began on 9 May 1865. During this phase of duty, the regiment was headquartered at Camp Brightwood in the Brightwood section of Washington, D.C.

Private Franklin M. Fertig is reported by one source to have been based at Montgomery Blaire’s home and on guard duty during this period, but it has not yet been determined by the researchers of this biographical sketch if this duty was related to the Lincoln funeral or trial of the alleged assassination conspirators, or to general protective services for the city of Washington, D.C.

As part of Dwight’s Division, 2nd Brigade, U.S. Army, U.S. Department of Washington’s 22nd Corps, the 47th Pennsylvania also participated in the Union’s Grand Review on 23 May.

Reconstruction

On their final tour of duty in the Deep South, the soldier of Company D and their fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers served in Savannah, Georgia from 31 May to 4 June. Attached once again to Dwight’s Division, this time they were assigned to the 3rd Brigade, U.S. Department of the South. Relieving the 165th New York Volunteers in Charleston, South Carolina in July, they quartered in the former mansion of the Confederate Secretary of the Treasury. Although this was a safer time for the 47th because the fighting had ended, the regiment still experienced several casualties, including from disease.

While here, Private Franklin M. Fertig was assigned to provost (military police) and Reconstruction tasks. Typical duties for the 47th Pennsylvania included rebuilding railroads near Savannah and removing Rebel armaments from military installations around Charleston.

Meanwhile, William R. Fertig received the good news that he would muster out with his company, and be shipped home.

Beginning on Christmas day of 1865, the majority of the men of Company D, 47th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, including Private Franklin M. Fertig, also finally began honorably mustering out at Charleston, a process which continued through early January.

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

Return to Civilian Life — William R. Fertig

Sometime after his discharge, William R. Fertig returned to Pennsylvania and settled in Philadelphia, where he found employment as a printer.

On 21 April 1881, he was admitted to the Southern Branch of the U.S. National Home for Disabled Soldiers’ at Hampton, Virginia, where he was treated for chronic health problems related to his teeth and to the dysentery or dysentery-like disease that he contracted while serving in Beaufort, South Carolina in 1862. He was transferred from the Hampton Soldiers’ Home on 20 March 1882 to the Central Branch at Dayton, Ohio, and was then discharged on 3 September 1885. His residence subsequent to discharge listed on his Soldiers’ Home register entry was Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

To date, the location and date of death for William R. Fertig have not yet been determined by researchers; as his name does not appear on the 1890 U.S. Veterans’ Schedule, it may be that he passed away sometime between his discharge from the Soldier’s Home in Dayton (1885) and the time of the federal veterans census (1890).

Return to Civilian Life — Thaddeus S. Fertig

Following his own convalescence at a Union hospital in Philadelphia and subsequent honorable discharge from the military in June 1865, Thaddeus S. Fertig moved to Sullivan County, Missouri, where his parents, Peter and Francis (Stroop) Fertig, had relocated in 1865.

The 1870 federal census shows that Thaddeus Fertig lived on the Fertig family farm in Milan, Bowman Township, Sullivan County, along with his twenty-one-year-old brother, Mitchell, and sisters Helen (age thirty-four) and Tillie (a twenty-five-year-old teacher in the local schools), and their parents. Both Thaddeus and Mitchell worked the Fertig farm.

According to Goodspeed’s History of Newton County, Missouri, Thaddeus bought two hundred acres of land in Sullivan County sometime after relocating to the state in 1865; however, this is not evident from federal census records, which show that he resided with his parents as a single adult in 1870 and as a married man in 1880.

What is clear is that he wed Susannah Boyer (1854-1939) around this time. Born in Ohio, she was a daughter of Abraham and Mary Boyer. Daughter Violet May (1870-1945), who arrived on 17 October 1870, would later marry John E. Larson (1862-1943).

The marriage of Thaddeus S. Fertig and Susannah (Boyer) Fertig was officially solemnized for the State of Missouri by James S. Todd, M.G., a circuit Minister of the Gospel of the Methodist Church in Sullivan County, Missouri on 11 April 1875.

In 1880, Thaddeus and Susannah Fertig lived with their daughter, Violet, at the Fertig family home, along with his mother, who was widowed by Peter Fertig three years earlier.

Son James A. Fertig (1880-1951) arrived next. In the Spring of 1882, Thaddeus and Susannah Fertig bought a sixty-acre farm in Humphreys, Sullivan County, and resettled their family there. Son Willie S. Fertig arrived three years later, followed by daughter Mary Frances (1887-1974), who was born on 11 October. Franny would later marry Lee Lloyd Reynolds (1887-1970).

Still a farmer by the time of the 1900 federal census, Thaddeus resided in Wentworth, Van Buren Township, Newton County, Missouri with his wife, daughter Franny, and sons James and Willie. His widowed sister, Helen (Fertig) Wattenburg (born February 1835 in Pennsylvania) also lived with his family at this time. His wife, Susannah, is shown on the 1900 census as having given birth to five children, only four of whom were still alive at this time.

A decade later, Thaddeus S. Fertig was gone. Passing away in Humphrey’s, Sullivan County, Pennsylvania on 7 May 1910, the old soldier was eulogized in his local newspaper as follows:

Our Community is grieved to learn of the death of uncle Thad. S. Fertig of one mile west of Wentworth. Mr. Fertig was one of our Uncle Sam’s old braves and had his right arm shot off in battle at Cold Harbor…. From Aug. 1864, till June 1865 he was at the hospital at Philadelphia. In June 1862 he was honorably discharged, and came to Sullivan county Mo., where he lived till the spring of 1882. He moved that spring to the home where he died, and was one of Newton County’s most beloved and respected citizens.

Thaddeus S. Fertig was laid to rest at the Van Buren Union Cemetery in Ritchey, Newton County, Missouri.

Return to Civilian Life — Franklin M. Fertig

Following his honorable discharge from the military, Franklin M. Fertig made New Jersey his home base. In 1871, he wed Mary Radenau Bishoff. Born on 23 October 1844, she was a native of Bridgeboro in Burlington County, New Jersey. Together, they welcomed daughter Ella Matilda to their Bridgeboro home on 10 August 1872. (Ella would later marry John Jacob Hamilton; she passed away in Trenton, Grundy County, Missouri on 1 August 1960.)

But he and his family would not remain in New Jersey for long. Sometime between Ella’s birth and June 1878, Franklin M. Fertig packed up his family and moved west in search of a better life. Daughter Lillie was born in Missouri on 22 June 1878, but did not survive infancy. She passed away on 27 July 1879, and was laid to rest in a cemetery different from the one in which her parents would be buried decades later – indicating that the family likely relocated at least once after arriving in their new home state.

By 1880, according to the federal census, Franklin became a farmer, and settled his family in Humphreys, Bowman Township, Missouri. In addition to his wife, the Fertig family included New Jersey-born Ella (age seven), Missouri-born Mildred B. (age one), and Emaline H. Fertig (born in Missouri in February 1880).

In 1900, Franklin supported his family as a laborer, and still lived in Humphreys with his wife, Mary, and their twenty-one-year-old daughter Mildred.

Sadly, on 6 March 1915, Mary widowed Franklin, passing away in Humphreys, Sullivan County, Missouri. She was interred at the Humphreys Cemetery in Humphreys, Sullivan County.

In 1920, Franklin was shown on the census as living without his daughter as a boarder at the Humphreys home of widowed milliner, Leona Crawford, and her son Jesse.

More than a decade later, Franklin Morris Fertig joined his wife in death, passing away in Humphreys, Sullivan County, Missouri on 6 May 1928. He was interred with his wife at the Humphrey’s Cemetery.

 

Sources:

1. Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, vol. 1. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.
2. Civil War Veterans’ Card File (“Fertig, Franklin M.”, “Fertig, Thaddeus S.”, “Fertig, “William R.”). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
3. Missouri Marriage Records (“Thadaus Fertig” and “Susannah Boyer”). Jefferson City, Missouri: Missouri State Archives, 1875.
4. Registers of National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (“William R. Fertig,” Hampton, Virginia and Dayton, Ohio branches, 1881-1882), in U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Record Group 15 (Microfilm M1749). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
5. Schmidt, Lewis. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1986.
6. U.S. Census (Washington, D.C., Missouri and Pennsylvania: 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920) and U.S. Veterans’ Schedule (Washington, D.C., Missouri and Pennsylvania, 1890). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.