Henry F. Miller was “the oldest member of a family of eleven children all of whom preceded him in death,” according to his 1927 obituary in Allentown’s Morning Call newspaper. At the time of his death, he was also “one of the oldest residents of South Side, Easton.”

* Note: The Henry F. Miller (1838-1927) profiled in this biography and who served with Company E of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was a different soldier than the Henry Miller (1846-1895) who served with Company B and the Henry E. Miller (1831-1895) who served with Company I of the same regiment. The Henry F. Miller (of Company E) who is profiled in this biography was a thirty-four-year-old boatman from South Easton, Northampton County. Five feet, seven and one-half inches tall with black hair, black eyes and a dark complexion, Henry F. Miller had previously served with the 1st Pennsylvania Volunteers before re-enlisting with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. After re-enrolling in Easton on 2 September 1861, Henry F. Miller then mustered in at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg, Dauphin County on 16 September 1861 as a corporal, was subsequently reduced to the rank of private on 30 June 1862 and was later honorably discharged as a private at Berryville, Virginia on 18 September 1864.

Conversely, the other two 47th Pennsylvanians named Henry Miller (of Company I and Company B) enlisted later than the Henry F. Miller of Company E — and at different locations. They also differed physically and had been employed in different types of work at the time of their respective enlistments:

• Henry E. Miller (1831-1895) of Company I was a Lehigh County laborer who enrolled in Allentown on 5 August 1861, mustered in at Camp Curtin on 30 August 1861 as a corporal and was honorably discharged as a corporal at Berryville, Virginia on 18 September 1864. Military records described him as being five feet, seven inches tall with dark hair, dark eyes and a dark complexion.

• Henry Miller (1846-1895) of Company B was an eighteen-year-old bartender and resident of Allentown who enrolled and mustered in as a private at a recruiting depot in Norristown, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania on 18 January 1864, served for the remainder of the war and was honorably discharged as a private in Charleston, South Carolina on Christmas Day in 1865. Military records described him as being five feet, seven inches tall with brown hair, gray eyes and a fair complexion.

Formative Years

Born as William Henry F. Miller in Northampton County, Pennsylvania on 16 January 1838 (alternate birth dates: 16 January 1837, 16 December 1838), and baptized at the Lutheran Church in Williams Township on 21 October 1838, Henry F. Miller was a son of Jesse Miller (1809-1875) and Susana (Hackman/Heckman) Miller (1811-1873).

He then grew to manhood in that county, raised and educated there with his siblings: Sophia Miller (1833-1888), who was born on 6 June 1833 and would later wed George Sunderland (1824-1889); Anna L. Miller (1835-1894), who was born on 27 December 1835 and would later wed Frederick Mayer (1830-1898); James Miller, who was born circa 1841; John Miller (1842-1906), who was born in South Easton on 21 April 1842 and would later serve during the American Civil War with the 27th Pennsylvania, Emergency Militia of 1863 and the 12th Pennsylvania Cavalry, before marrying Anna Louise Wolfe (1847-1892) in 1866; Aaron Miller (1845-unknown), who was born on 5 October 1845 and was baptized at the Lutheran Church in Easton on 14 September 1852; and Josiah Miller, who was born circa 1848.

In 1850, Henry F. Miller resided in the Borough of South Easton with his parents and siblings: Sophia, Ann, John, James, Aaron, and Josiah. His father supported their family on the wages he earned at a cotton factory. Another sibling — Sarah Jane Miller (1850-1918) — was then born in Northampton County on 27 December 1850. (Sarah Jane would later go on to marry Adam D. Keiper.)

Employed as a laborer by 1860 and still living with his parents in the Borough of South Easton that year, Henry F. Miller resided there with his siblings: John; James, who was employed as a boatman; Aaron, Josiah, and Sarah. Their father was employed as a sawyer. But their largely average lives and the lives of their fellow Pennsylvanians were about to take an unimaginable turn — one that was a direct result of the push by “fire eaters” across the nation’s Deep South to secede from the United States, launching the nation into a disastrous civil war.

American Civil War — 1st Pennsylvania Volunteers

In mid-April 1861, Henry F. Miller became one of the early responders to President Abraham Lincoln’s call for seventy-five thousand volunteers to help defend the nation’s capital following the fall of Fort Sumter to Confederate States Army troops. After enrolling for military service in Northampton County, he then officially mustered in at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg, Dauphin County on 20 April 1861 as a private with Company C of the 1st Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.

* Note: Two days before President Lincoln issued his 15 April 1861 call for volunteer troops to help defend the city of Washington, residents of the counties of Lehigh and Northampton in Pennsylvania had “called a public meeting at Easton ‘to consider the posture of affairs and to take measures for the support of the National Government,'” according to Alfred Mathews and Austin N. Hungerford, authors of History of the Counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Worried about the worsening relations between America’s North and South, the citizens had voted to establish and equip an entirely new military unit, one that would be readied for duty as quickly as possible — a decision that proved to be remarkably prescient.

Several of the men in attendance that evening, including Charles Heckman and Samuel Yohe, had already begun recruiting local militia members and other volunteers to fulfill that charge and protect the nation’s capital if needed. Yohe, the owner-operator of a local distillery, mill and store in Easton who had also served his community as an associate judge, county treasurer and prothonotary, was the commanding officer of the Washington Grays, an Easton-based militia unit.

The same day that President Lincoln called for volunteer troops, those same community leaders then contacted Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Gregg Curtin to volunteer the support of their local recruits to the Keystone State and nation. Three days later, those experienced militia members left hearth and home to head for the city of Harrisburg in Dauphin County. They then mustered in there for duty, on 20 April 1861, at Camp Curtin, a military training camp on Agricultural Society land just outside of the city, and became members of the 1st Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.

Yohe’s Washington Grays were subsequently ordered to form Company C of that new regiment and Yohe was commissioned as that regiment’s new colonel, while Thomas W. Lynn and Tilghman H. Good were awarded the ranks of major and lieutenant-colonel, respectively. George Warren Alexander and William H. Gausler, the captains of the Reading and Jordan Artillerists, were placed in charge of Companies G and I, respectively. 

Led by Captain William H. Armstrong and First Lieutenant Robert Ramsden, Private Henry F. Miller’s unit — Company C — was largely composed of members of the Washington Grays. Transported by Northern Central Railway cars with their regiment to Cockeysville, Maryland, the 1st Pennsylvanians then spent time at Camp Scott near York, Pennsylvania before being ordered to railroad guard duties along the rail lines between Pennsylvania and Druid Park in Baltimore, Maryland from 14-25 May.

From there, they were assigned to Catonsville (25 May) and Franklintown (29 May) before being ordered back across the border with their regiment and stationed at Chambersburg (3 June). There, they were attached to the 2nd Brigade (under Brigadier-General George Wynkoop), 2nd Division (under Major-General William High Keim), in the Union Army corps commanded by Major-General Robert Patterson. Ordered on to Hagerstown, Maryland on 18 June and then to Funkstown, Goose Creek and Edward’s Ferry, the regiment remained in that vicinity until 22 June, when it was ordered to Frederick, Maryland. Assigned with other Union regiments to occupy the town of Martinsburg, Virginia from 8-21 July (following the Battle of Falling Waters earlier that month), the 1st Pennsylvanians were ordered to Harpers Ferry on 21 July. Following the completion of their Three Months’ Service, they were then honorably mustered out from 23-24 July. (Private Henry F. Miller was honorably discharged on 24 July 1861.)

Realizing that the war was far from over, many of the Washington Grays subsequently chose to re-enroll for three-year tours of duty, including Henry F. Miller, who re-enlisted with the newly-formed 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, which was established on 5 August 1861.

American Civil War — 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers

Following the completion of his service with the 1st Pennsylvania Volunteers, Henry F. Miller returned home to his family in Northampton County, and watched as people he admired and loved marched off to a war that was widening more and more each week. So, he decided to re-enlist. After re-enrolling in Easton on 2 September 1861, he re-mustered at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg on 16 September 1861 as a corporal with Company E of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers.

* Note: Company E was commanded by Captain Charles Hickman Yard, who had been a second lieutenant with Company C of the 1st Pennsylvania Volunteers and a superior officer of Henry F. Miller during their initial period of Three Months’ Service at the beginning of the war. According to Lewis Schmidt, author of A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers:

Capt. Yard had been enrolling men at Yard’s Saloon in Easton and took part of his company to Harrisburg on Friday, August 23, to be attached to Col. Good’s ‘Zouaves’ (a title that did not remain long with the 47th). The Captain had been recruiting men since August 13, and a number of men were still needed to fill the unit which would become Company E in the 47th.… By Monday the 26th, an additional 40 men were ready and another group left for Harrisburg. But the company was still not filled and the Captain planned to return to recruit the remaining members.

These groups were ‘sworn’ (probably enrolled) into the state service on the 28th, and placed in the hands of 1st Lt. Bonstein [sic, “Lawrence Bonstine”] for instruction in the drill, while the Captain returned to Easton to ‘shanghai’ some more recruits at Yard’s Saloon.

It was not until the following Monday, September 2 that an additional group of 24 men had been recruited and Capt. Yard left with these men in the morning, planning to return and complete the enrollment of the unit later.

Military records at the time of his re-enlistment described Private Henry F. Miller as a thirty-four-year-old boatman and resident of South Easton who was five feet, seven and one-half inches tall with black hair, black eyes and a dark complexion. In addition to reporting to Captain Yard and First Lieutenant Bonstein, Henry also served under Second Lieutenant William H. Wyker. Nine more men mustered into Company E on 19 September with another, James Huff, joining as a private on 1 November for a total of ninety-three — a number that remained static until 1862. Also according to Schmidt, the men of E Company were issued:

1 light blue overcoat, 1 extra good blouse, 1 pair dark pantaloons, 2 white flannel shirts, 2 pair drawers, 2 pair socks, 1 pair shoes, 1 cap, 1 knapsack (suspended from shoulder), 1 haversack (suspended from waist), 1 canteen, and received 71 rifles on the 19th.

Following a brief training period in light infantry tactics at Camp Curtin, the men of Company E and their fellow 47th Pennsylvanians were transported by rail to Washington, D.C. Stationed roughly two miles from the White House, they pitched tents at “Camp Kalorama” on the Kalorama Heights near Georgetown beginning 21 September. Henry D. Wharton, a Musician with C Company, penned the following update to the Sunbury American on 22 September:

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

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

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

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

…. 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 an occasional ‘pop’ at the enemy.

On the 24th of that same month, the 47th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry finally became part of the U.S. Army when its men were officially mustered into federal service. The next day, 25 September, George Washington Hahn of E Company, David Huber and F. J. Scott described their early days via a letter from Camp Kalorama to the Easton Daily Evening Express:

[A]fter a ride of about twenty-four hours in those delightful cattle cars, we came in sight of the Capitol of the U.S. with colors flying and the band playing and everyone in the best of spirits…. We have one of the best camps in the Union; plenty of shade trees, water and food at present; we have had no ‘Hardees’ [hardtack] yet in this camp, but no doubt we will have them in abundance by and by. But we can cook them in so many different ways, they are better than beef. We soak them over night, fry them for breakfast, stew them for dinner, and warm them over for supper…. The way we pass our time in the evening is as follows: first, after supper, we have a good Union song, then we read, write, crack jokes and sing again. We are ‘gay and happy’ and always shall be while the stars and stripes float over us.

…. We have a noble Colonel and an excellent Band, and the company officers throughout are well drilled for their positions. Our boys are well and contented; satisfied with their clothing, satisfied with their rations, and more than all satisfied with their officers, from Captain to the 8th Corporal. Our boys will stand by the Captain till the last man falls….

This morning we … visited Georgetown Heights; we stood on top of the reservoir and from there had a fine view of the Federal forts and forces on the other side of the Potomac. It looks impossible for an enemy to enter Washington, so strongly fortified is every hill and the camps connect for miles along the river. We saw General McClellan and Professor Lowe taking a view of the Confederate army from the balloon. The rebels are now only four miles from here….

On 27 September — a rainy day, the 47th Pennsylvania was assigned to the 3rd Brigade of Union 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 close to the headquarters of General William Farrar Smith (nicknamed “Baldy”), and were now part of the Union’s 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 to the nation’s Deep South.

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

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

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

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

Sometime during that 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 located nearby. 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 a Grand Review at Bailey’s Cross Roads. In a mid-October letter to his family back in Pennsylvania, 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 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 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 20 November, First Lieutenant Lawrence Bonstein, Private Henry F. Miller and their fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers marched in The Grand Review of the Army of the Potomac at Bailey’s Crossroads, Virginia. According to National Portrait Gallery historian James Barber:

For three hours some 70,000 polished troops marched passed the reviewing stand, where the president, members of his cabinet, and Washington dignitaries were in attendance. It was the largest military assemblage up to that time in North America. ‘The Grand Review went off splendidly,’ wrote McClellan that night in a letter to his wife, ‘not a mistake was made, not a hitch. I never saw so large a Review in Europe so well done—I was completely satisfied & delighted beyond expression.’

Among the 20,000 spectators to witness the Grand Review was the poet and social activist Julia Ward Howe of Boston, Massachusetts, who was visiting the Washington area with her husband, Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe.

After leaving the review, during the carriage ride back to Washington, she heard troops singing the song ‘John Brown’s Body.’ A companion suggested that she should write new lyrics to the song, the melody of which lingered in her mind that night in her room at Willard’s Hotel in Washington. She awoke ‘in the gray of the morning twilight’ with the song still in her head and ‘the long lines of the desired poem began to twine themselves in my mind.’ She arose quickly and in the dimness of the early hour she began scribbling the verses on stationery ‘almost without looking at the paper.’

Her poem, The Battle Hymn of the Republic, was first published in The Atlantic Monthly in February 1862; the magazine paid her five dollars. Soon thereafter her verse was set to music and her inspirational song became a wartime favorite….

The next day, according to Schmidt, the regiment participated in a morning divisional headquarters review that was overseen by the regiment’s commanding officer, Colonel Tilghman H. Good, 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 for their performance—and in preparation for even bigger adventures and honors to come, Brannan obtained brand new Springfield rifles for every member of the 47th Pennsylvania.

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, they were then transported by rail to Alexandria, before sailing the Potomac River aboard the steamship City of Richmond to the Washington Arsenal. While there, they were reequipped before being marched off for dinner and rest at the Soldiers’ Retreat in Washington, D.C.

The next afternoon, the 47th Pennsylvanians hopped aboard 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. According to Schmidt and letters home from members of the regiment, those preparations ceased on Monday, 27 January, at 10 a.m. when:

The regiment was formed and instructed by Lt. Col. Alexander ‘that we were about drumming out a member who had behaved himself unlike a soldier.’ …. The prisoner, Pvt. James C. Robinson of Company I, was a 36 year old miner from Allentown who had been ‘disgracefully discharged’ by order of the War Department. Pvt. Robinson was marched out with martial music playing and a guard of nine men, two men on each side and five behind him at charge bayonets. The music then struck up with ‘Robinson Crusoe’ as the procession was marched up and down in front of the regiment, and Pvt. Robinson was marched out of the yard.

Reloading then resumed. By that afternoon, as the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers commenced boarding the Oriental, they were ferried to the big steamship by smaller steamers. The officers boarded last and, per the directive of Brigadier-General John Milton Brannan, they 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 Fort Taylor in Key West and Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas.

Company E and their fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers arrived in Key West by early 1862. There, they were assigned to garrison Fort Taylor. During the weekend of Friday, 14 February, they introduced their presence to Key West residents as the regiment paraded through the streets of the city. That Sunday, a number of soldiers from the regiment attended services at local churches, where they also met and mingled with residents from the area.

By April 1862, according to Schmidt, Captain Charles H. Yard had been placed in charge of three regiments that were charged with “clearing land and cutting roads” with a “fine military road … cut by the brigade from Fort Taylor directly through the island.” Continuing to drill daily in heavy artillery tactics, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers also continued to work on strengthening the fortifications at Fort Taylor. As their stay there lingered on, the quality of water available to them for drinking and bathing became increasingly problematic — just as Florida’s punishing heat and humidity worsened. As a result, multiple members of the regiment fell ill with dysentery or typhoid fever. Far too many died. Others lived, but found it harder and harder to perform their duties because they were weakened by the weather or disease.

Next ordered to Hilton Head, South Carolina from mid-June through July, First Lieutenant Lawrence Bonstine, Corporal Henry F. Miller and their fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers made camp 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 47th Pennsylvanians became known for their “attention to duty, discipline and soldierly bearing,” and “received the highest commendation from Generals Hunter and Brannan,” according to historian Samuel P. Bates.

On 30 June 1862, Henry F. Miller was reduced in rank from corporal to private. On 9 and 10 July, respectively, detachments from the regiment were assigned to the Expedition to Fenwick Island and the Demonstration against Pocotaligo.

Capture of Saint John’s Bluff

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 area.

Backed by the U.S. gunboats Cimarron, E.B. Hale, Paul Jones, Uncas, and Water Witch and their twelve-pound boat howitzers, the fifteen hundred-strong Union Army force commanded by Brigadier-General Brannan advanced up the Saint John’s River and inland along the Pablo and Mt. Pleasant Creeks on 1 October 1862 before disembarking and marching for the battery atop Saint John’s Bluff.  The next day, Union gunboats exchanged shellfire with the Rebel battery while the Union ground force continued on. When the 47th Pennsylvanians reached Saint John’s Bluff with their fellow brigade members on 3 October 1862, they found an abandoned battery. (Other Union troops discovered that the Yellow Bluff battery was also Rebel-free.)

Companies E and K of the 47th Pennsylvania were then led by Captain Yard on a special mission with other Union Army soldiers in the reconnaissance and recapture of the city of Jacksonville, Florida on 5 October 1862. A day later, after receiving intelligence that a Confederate steamer — the Governor Milton — had been engaged in furnishing troops, ammunition and other supplies to Confederate Army units scattered throughout the region, and was reportedly docked near Hawkinsville, men from the 47th Pennsylvania’s Companies E and K boarded the Union gunboat Darlington (a former Confederate steamer) — and set out in search of the Governor Milton. Traveling two hundred miles along the Saint John’s River — with protection from the Union gunboat Hale — th 47th Pennsylvanians found their prize, captured it and steamed it back down the river to place it safely behind Union Navy lines. According to Schmidt, Corporal George R. Nichols of E Company was one of the men involved in that steamer’s capture and later described that mission:

At 9 PM … October 7, discovered the steamer Gov. Milton in a small creek, 2 miles above Hawkinsville; boarded her in a small boat, and found that she had been run in there but a short time before, as her fires were not yet out. Her engineer and mate, then in charge, were asleep on board at the time of her capture. They informed us that owing to the weakness of the steamer’s boiler we found her where we did….

I commanded one of the Small Boats that went in after her. I was Boatman and gave orders when the headman jumped on Bord [sic] take the Painter with him. That however Belongs to Wm. Adams or Jacob Kerkendall. It was So dark I could not tell witch [sic] Struck the deck first. But when I Struck the deck I demanded the Surrend [sic] of the Boat in the name of the U.S. after we had the boat an offercier [sic] off [sic] the Paul Jones, a Gun Boat was with us he ask me how Soon could I move her out in the Stream I said five minuts [sic]. So an Engineer one of coulered [sic] Men helped Me. and I will Say right hear [sic] he learned Me More than I ever knowed about Engineering. Where we started down the River we was one hundred and twenty five miles up the river. When we Stopped at Polatkey [Palatka] to get wood for the Steamer I went out and Borrowed a half of a deer that hung up in a [sic] out house and a bee hive for some honey for the Boys. I never forget the boys.

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 1862, respectively, the regiment added to its muster rolls several young Black men who had endured plantation enslavement in the Beaufort vicinity, including sixteen-year-old Abraham Jassum, twenty-two-year-old Edward Jassum and thirty-three-year-old Bristor Gethers — all of whom would go on to successfully complete their three-year periods of enlistment and be honorably discharged in October 1865.

Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina

From 21-23 October, under the brigade and regimental commands of Colonel Tilghman H. (“T. H.”) Good and Lieutenant-Colonel George Warren (“G. W.”) Alexander, members of the 47th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry joined with other Union regiments to engage the heavily protected Confederate forces in and around Pocotaligo, South Carolina — including at Frampton’s Plantation and the Pocotaligo Bridge — a key piece of the South’s railroad infrastructure which Union leaders felt should be destroyed.

Harried by snipers en route to the Pocotaligo Bridge, they met resistance from yet another 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. 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. There, the 47th 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 was forced by depleted ammunition supplies to withdraw to Mackay’s Point.

Losses for the 47th Pennsylvania were significant. Captain Charles Mickley of G Company was killed, and Captain George Junker of Company K was mortally wounded. Privates Henry A. Backman, Nathan George, Samuel Minnick, George B. Rose and fourteen other enlisted men died; a total of one hundred and fourteen had been wounded in action. Although Private John Lind initially survived, he died from his wounds two days later at the Union Army hospital at Hilton Head, South Carolina (on 24 October 1862).

First Lieutenant William Geety of H Company was grievously wounded, but survived, as did E Company’s Corporal Reuben Weiss, and Privates Nathan Derr, William A. Force and George Coult. Wounded in both legs (including a gunshot to the left leg), Corporal Weiss returned to action after convalescing, and served for another two years until being honorably discharged on a surgeon’s certificate of disability. Privates Nathan Derr, George Hahn and William Force were discharged on surgeons’ certificates on 2 February 1863, 25 February 1863, and 10 April 1863, respectively. Private George Coult was deemed too unfit to serve with the 47th Pennsylvania — but not so unfit that he was unable to serve at all. As a result, he was transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps on 16 March 1864.

On 23 October, the surviving 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers returned to Hilton Head, where several members were appointed later that month to serve 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 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. The men selected from the 47th Pennsylvania for honor guard duty were given the honor of firing the salute over his grave.

1863

Having been ordered back to Key West on 15 November 1862, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers then spent the entire year of 1863 garrisoning federal installations in Florida as part of the U.S. Army’s 10th Corps, Department of the South. Once again, the men of E Company joined with Companies A, B, C, G, and I in guarding Key West’s Fort Taylor while Companies D, F, H, and K garrisoned Fort Jefferson, the Union’s remote outpost in the Dry Tortugas off the coast of Florida.

According to the U.S. Army’s records collection known as “Returns from Military Posts,” sometime shortly after returning to Key West, Company E’s First Lieutenant Lawrence Bonstine was assigned to special duty as post adjutant — a position he continued to hold from at least 10 January 1863 through the end of December 1863. Reporting directly to the regiment’s commanding officer, Colonel Tilghman Good, he was essentially Good’s right hand, and was responsible for ensuring that regimental records and reports to senior military officials were kept up to date.

As with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers’ previous assignments, officers and enlisted members of the regiment soon came to realize that disease would again be their constant companion and foe — making it all the more remarkable that, during that phase of service, the majority of 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers chose to re-enlist when their three-year service terms were up.

On 5 March 1863, Private William H. Eichman was promoted to the rank of corporal, and exactly one month later, on 5 April 1863, Second Lieutenant W. Scott Johnston was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant and also appointed as adjutant with the central regimental staff.

1864

In early January 1864, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was ordered to expand the Union Army’s reach by sending part of the regiment north to retake possession of, and rehabilitate, Fort Myers, which had been abandoned in 1858 following the U.S. government’s third war with the Seminole Indians. Per orders issued earlier in 1864 by General D. P. Woodbury, Commanding Officer, U.S. Department of the Gulf, District of Key West and the Tortugas, that the fort be reclaimed to facilitate the Union’s Gulf Coast blockade, Captain Richard Graeffe and a group of men from Company A were assigned to the duty of raiding cattle herds in northern Florida in order to provide food for the growing Union troop presence in the state. Graeffe and his men subsequently turned the fort into both their base of operations and a shelter for pro-Union supporters, men, women and children who were escaping slavery, Confederate Army deserters, and others fleeing Rebel troops.

Meanwhile, the men from E Company and the other members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry were preparing to embark on the regiment’s history-making journey to Louisiana. Boarding yet another steamer — the Charles Thomas — on 25 February 1864, the men from Companies B, C, D, I, and K of the 47th Pennsylvania headed for Algiers, Louisiana (across the river from New Orleans), followed on 1 March by other members of the regiment from Companies E, F, G, and H who had been stationed at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas. Upon the second group’s arrival, the now almost fully reunited regiment moved by train on 28 February to Brashear City (now Morgan City, Louisiana) before heading to Franklin by steamer through the Bayou Teche. There, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry joined the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division of the Department of the Gulf’s 19th Army Corps, and became the only Pennsylvania regiment to serve in the Red River Campaign of Union Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks. (Unable to reach Louisiana until 23 March, the men from Company A were effectively placed on a different type of detached duty in New Orleans while they awaited transport to enable them to catch up with the main part of their regiment. Charged with guarding and overseeing the transport of two hundred and forty-five Confederate prisoners, they were finally able to board the Ohio Belle on 7 April, and reached Alexandria with those prisoners on 9 April.)

Red River Campaign

The early days on the ground in Louisiana quickly woke the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers up to just how grueling that new phase of duty would be. From 14-26 March, most members of the regiment marched for Alexandria and Natchitoches, Louisiana, by way of New Iberia, Vermilionville (now part of Lafayette), Opelousas, and Washington.

From 4-5 April 1864, the regiment added to its roster of young Black soldiers when Aaron Bullard (later known as Aaron French), James Bullard, John Bullard, Samuel Jones, and Hamilton Blanchard (also known as John Hamilton) enrolled for military service with the 47th Pennsylvania at Natchitoches. According to their respective entries in the Civil War Veterans’ Card File at the Pennsylvania State Archives and on regimental muster rolls, the men were then officially mustered in for duty on 22 June at Morganza. Several of their entries noted that they were assigned the rank of “(Colored) Cook” while others were given the rank of “UnderCook.”

Often short on food and water throughout their long harsh-climate trek through enemy territory, the men encamped briefly at Pleasant Hill (now the Village of Pleasant Hill) the night of 7 April before continuing on the next day.

Marching until mid-afternoon on 8 April, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were rushed into battle ahead of other regiments in the 2nd Division. Sixty members of the 47th were cut down that day during the back-and-forth volley of fire unleashed during the Battle of Sabine Cross Roads (also known as the Battle of Mansfield due to its proximity to the town of Mansfield). The fighting waned only when darkness fell. The exhausted, but uninjured collapsed beside the gravely wounded. After midnight, the surviving Union troops withdrew to Pleasant Hill.

The next day, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were ordered into a critically important defensive position at the far right of the Union lines, their right flank spreading up onto a high bluff. By 3 p.m., after enduring a midday charge by the troops of Confederate Major-General Richard Taylor (a plantation owner who was the son of Zachary Taylor, former president of the United States), the brutal fighting still showed no signs of ending. Suddenly, just as the 47th was shifting to the left side of the massed Union forces, the men of the 47th Pennsylvania were forced to bolster the 165th New York’s buckling lines by blocking another Confederate assault, during what has since become known as the Battle of Pleasant Hill.

Casualties were severe. Second Lieutenant Alfred Swoyer of Company K and Private Richard Hahn of Company E were killed in action. The regiment’s second-in-command, Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander, was nearly killed, and the regiment’s two color-bearers, both from Company C, were also seriously wounded while preventing the American flag from falling into enemy hands. Still others from the 47th were captured by Confederate troops, marched roughly one hundred and twenty-five miles to Camp Ford, a Confederate Army prison camp near Tyler, Texas, and held there as prisoners of war until they were released during prisoner exchanges beginning 22 July and into November 1864. Corporal James Huff, who had been wounded in action during the Battle of Pleasant Hill on 9 April, was one of those POWs who were finally released (on 29 August 1864). Sadly, at least two members of the 47th Pennsylvania never made it out alive.

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 to resupply and regroup. They remained at Grand Ecore for a total of eleven days (through 22 April 1864), where they engaged in the hard labor of strengthening regimental and brigade fortifications in a brutal climate. They then moved back to Natchitoches Parish, where they arrived 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 end the encounter fairly quickly and continue on.

The next morning (23 April 1864), episodic skirmishing quickly roared into the flames of a robust fight. As part of the advance party led by Union Brigadier-General William Emory, the 47th Pennsylvania took on the Confederate cavalry of Brigadier-General Hamilton P. Bee during 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’s twenty-pound Parrott guns and raking fire from enemy troops situated near a bayou and on a bluff, Brigadier-General Emory directed one of his brigades to keep Bee’s Confederates busy while sending the other two brigades to find a safe spot where his Union troops could ford the Cane River. As part of the “beekeepers,” the 47th Pennsylvanians supported Emory’s artillery.

Meanwhile, other troops under Emory found and worked their way across the Cane River, attacked Bee’s flank, and forced a Rebel retreat. That Union brigade then erected a series of pontoon bridges, enabling the 47th and other remaining Union units 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, Louisiana on 29 May, Henry Wharton described what happened to the 47th Pennsylvanians during and immediately after making camp at Grand Ecore:

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

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

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

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

Having finally reached Alexandria on 26 April, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers 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 — this time 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, 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] of the troops was handsomely done, and the movements was [sic] one of the finest things of the war. The fight of artillery was a steady one of five miles. The enemy merely stood that they might cover the retreat of their infantry and train under cover of their artillery. Our loss was slight. Of the rebels we could not ascertain correctly, but learned from citizens who had secreted themselves during the fight, that they had many killed and wounded, who threw them into wagons, promiscuously, and drove them off so that we could not learn their casualties. The next day we moved to Simmsport [sic, 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 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. According to Wharton, the members of Company C were sent on a special mission which took them on an intense one hundred and twenty-mile journey:

Company C, on last Saturday was detailed by the General in command of the Division to take one hundred and eighty-seven prisoners (rebs) to New Orleans. This they done [sic] satisfactorily and returned yesterday to their regiment, ready for duty. While in the City some of the boys made Captain Gobin quite a handsome present, to show their appreciation of him as an officer gentleman.

While encamped at Morganza, 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. During that same time, Corporal Francis A. Parks was promoted to the rank of sergeant (on 22 June).

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. On 7 July 1864, First Lieutenant Lawrence Bonstein, Private Henry F. Miller and their fellow E Company men boarded yet another steamer, the U.S. McClellan, along with the 47th Pennsylvania’s Companies A, C, D, F, H, and I, and returned to the Washington, D.C. area.

Following their arrival and a memorable encounter with President Abraham Lincoln, they joined up with Major-General David Hunter’s forces at Snicker’s Gap, Virginia to fight in the Battle of Cool Spring, and then assisted in defending Washington, D.C. once again while also helping to drive Confederate troops from Maryland.

Sheridan’s 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign

Attached to the Middle Military Division, United States’ Army of the Shenandoah beginning in August 1864, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was assigned to defensive duties in and around Halltown, Virginia during the opening days of that month. Now involved in the 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign of Union Major-General Philip Sheridan, they subsequently engaged in a series of back-and-forth movements over the next several weeks between Halltown, Berryville and other locations within the vicinity (Middletown, Charlestown and Winchester) as part of a “mimic war” being waged by Sheridan’s Union forces with those commanded by Confederate Lieutenant-General Jubal Early.

From 3-4 September, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers also fought in the Battle of Berryville. But it would be the last fight for multiple commissioned officers and enlisted members of the regiment because those 47th Pennsylvanians had completed their respective, original three-year terms of enlistment and had decided not to re-enlist. Among those awarded honorable discharges at Berryville on 18 September were Private Henry F. Miller and his longtime superior officers, Captain Charles H. Yard and First Lieutenant Lawrence Bonstine.

Return to Civilian Life

Following his honorable discharge from the military, Henry F. Miller returned home to Northampton County, where he secured work at a foundry and, in 1864, also married fellow Northampton County native Helena Funk (1841-1906), who was known to family and friends as “Lena” and was a daughter of German immigrant Peter Funk and Northampton County native Susanna (Messinger) Funk (1817-1863).

Together, Henry F. Miller and his wife, Helena, then welcomed the Northampton County births of: Susanna Miller (1865-1894), who was born on 10 August 1865 and would later wed Evan T. James (1861-1930); Frederick M. Miller (1866-1948), who was born in South Easton on 4 September 1866, was known to family and friends as “Fred” and would later wed and be widowed by Maud Jarrard (1873-1906), before marrying Barbara L. Taylor (1872-1967); Frank Eddinger Miller (1868-1940), who was born on 15 March 1868 and would later wed Elizabeth Ann Kuebler (1872-1958) in 1893; Mary M. Miller (1874-1938), who was born on 1 August 1874, was known to family and friends as “Mame” and would later wed Samuel Stone (1862-1944); Archibald Leroy Miller (1878-1939), who was born on 15 January 1878, was known to family and friends as “Arch” or “Archie” and would later wed Charlotte H. Unangst (1885-1951); William Henry Miller (1880-1954), who was born in South Easton on 26 May 1880 and would later have a son with Mae Gray, become a machinist with the Lehigh Valley Railroad and marry Florence Ward; Elsie Marion Miller (1883-1957), who was born on 26 September 1883 and would later wed Harry Jordan Gerstenberg (1887-1970); and Clyde Russell Miller (1884-1960), who was born in Easton on 26 May 1884 and would later wed Stella M. King (1887-1960) in 1913.

* Note: Henry F. Miller’s son, William Henry Miller, who was known to friends as “Pete,” played professional baseball for seven seasons with the Pacific Coast and International leagues, after having gotten his start as a pro with the Bradford, Pennsylvania baseball team in the Interstate League and other teams in the Atlantic and New England leagues. In addition, Henry’s sons Fred, Frank and Clyde Miller, also became baseball players. They each played for the Jeanesville baseball team in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, according to Henry F. Miller’s death notice in The Record-American newspaper of Mahanoy City.

In 1870, Henry F. Miller resided in Belvidere, Warren County, New Jersey with his wife and their children: Susanna, Fred and Frank. He supported his growing family on the wages of a laborer. That decade would prove to be a difficult one for Henry, however, due to the loss of both his parents. His mother, Susana (Hackman/Heckman) Miller died first. Still in her early sixties when she passed away on 23 April 1873, she was subsequently buried at Hays Cemetery in Easton. His father then died at the age of sixty-four on 29 December 1875, and was buried beside Susanna at Hays Cemetery.

Having moved his family to a home in the Upper District of Williams Township in Northampton County by 1880, and employed as a moulder, Henry F. Miller headed a household that included his wife and their children: Susanna, Fred, Frank, Mame, and Archie. On 13 March 1883, he filed for a U.S. Civil War Pension, which was subsequently awarded to him. By 1900, he was working as a core maker in a tool factory and living in Easton’s Twelfth Ward with his wife, Helena, and their children: Mame; William, who was a laborer in an iron foundry; Elsie, Clyde, and Archie. That same year, Henry Miller was likely one of the veterans of the American Civil War who took part in the breakfast meetings, parade, dedication ceremony, and evening campfire reunion that were held in conjuction with the unveiling of the new Northampton County Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in Easton, which attracted roughly thirty thousand men, women and children from Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley and beyond.

His life then continued in an often pleasant and comfortable fashion until shortly after the New Year of 1906 dawned. Sadly, on 9 January, Henry’s wife, Helena (Funk) Miller, lost her battle with cancer and died in Easton at the age of sixty-four. Following funeral services, she was laid to rest at that city’s Hays Cemetery.

The next year (1907), after more than half a century of foundry work at plants in the Lehigh Valley, Ingersoll Rand in Easton — and at his own shop in Belvidere, New Jersey — Henry F. Miller retired. He continued to remain active in his community, however, dividing his time between visits with his children and grandchildren — and with old comrades from his Civil War days, as a member of the Grand Army of the Republic’s Lafayette Post No. 217 — and at annual reunions of the 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. In 1910, Henry’s Twelfth Ward home was also still the home of his children Mame, Clyde and William — and it also included William’s son, William Gray Miller (1903-1950). That contented quartet would continue to live together well into the next decade.

Death and Interment

Ailing with prostate cancer during the final year of his life, Henry F. Miller died from general debility at the age of ninety at his home at 809 Milton Avenue in Easton’s South Side, on 9 April 1927 (alternate death date: 10 April 1927). Following funeral services at his home on Wednesday, 13 April, at 2:30 p.m., he was laid to rest at the beside his wife at Hays Cemetery in Easton.

He was survived by his son and daughter, William H. Miller and Mame Miller, and a grandson, William Gray Miller (1903-1950), all three of whom had resided with him at his Milton Avenue home until his death, as well as by his children, Arch L. Miller, Elsie (Miller) Gerstenberg, Fred M. Miller, and Frank E. Miller, all of whom were also living in Easton at the time of his death, and by “eight other grandchildren and four great-grandchildren,” according to his obituary in The Morning Call.

What happened to Henry F. Miller’s Surviving Siblings?

Following her marriage to boatman George Sunderland (1824-1889), who was an immigrant from Holland, Henry F. Miller’s oldest sister, Sophia (Miller) Sunderland (1833-1888), welcomed the births with him of: Sarah Ann Sunderland, who was born circa 1852; Edwin Sunderland (1853-1920), who was born on 10 May 1853 and would later become a blacksmith and marry Mary A. Seibel (1856-1941); Annie Sunderland (1855-1939), who was born in Northampton County on 3 September 1855, was baptized at the Lutheran Church in Easton on 31 January 1856 and would later wed Samuel Bachman Van Norman (1851-1894) in 1881; Agnes Frances Sunderland (1866-1952), who was born in Northampton County on 23 September 1866 and would later wed Harry Kline Paul (1864-1925) in 1886; and Susanna Sophia Sunderland (1859-1896), who was born in Northampton County on 7 January 1859, baptized at the Lutheran Church in Easton on 13 March 1859 and would later wed Clinton A. Richards (1862-1948). In 1860, Sophia (Miller) Sunderson resided in Williams Township, Northampton County with her husband and children: Sarah Ann, Edwin, Annie, and Susanna. Another child, George Wilbur Sunderland (1868-1910), was then born on in August 1867. (He would later become a teacher and the husband of Minnie Teichman.) Sometime after that federal census of 1860 was taken, Sophia’s oldest daughter, Sarah Ann Miller, either married or died because she was not listed as one of the Sunderland children still living at home when a federal census enumerator interviewed the Sunderlands in South Easton in 1870. That year (1870), the Sunderland household included parents George and Sophia and their children: Edwin, Annie, Susan, Agnes, and Wilburn. Another daughter, Edna Sunderland, was then born circa 1874. Suffering from melancholia (known today as clinical depression) since 1876, Sophia (Miller) Sunderland was subsequently declared as “insane” sometime during the late 1870s or early 1880s and was sent to the Northampton County Poor House in Upper Nazareth Township. According to her entry on a census of that institution that was conducted in June 1880, she had never been a patient at a hospital or asylum before and was not so ill that she needed to be “kept in a cell or other apartment under lock and key” or restrained by straps or a straitjacket. She died at the age of fifty-five on 11 June 1888, and was laid to rest at the same cemetery where her parents were buried — Hays Cemetery in Easton.

* Note: Susan, Agnes and Lizzie Miller, daughters of of Sophia (Miller) Sunderland, resided at the South Easton home of Sophia’s younger sister, Anna L. (Miller) Mayer in June of 1880.

Following her marriage to German immigrant Frederick Mayer (1830-1898) at the parsonage of the Lutheran Church in Easton on 31 December 1854, Henry F. Miller’s older sister, Anna L. (Miller) Meyer (1835-1894), settled with her husband in South Easton, where he was employed as a boatman. Their daughter, Susan Miller, was then born sometime after the federal census of June 1860. In 1870, the trio resided in South Easton in 1870. Still residing in South Easton in June 1880, their household had expanded to include Anna’s nieces, Susan, Agnes and Lizzie Sunderland, after their mother (Anna’s sister), Sophia (Miller) Sunderland, had fallen into a deep depression and had been sent to the Northampton County Poor House. Like many of her family members, Anna L. (Miller) Mayer did not have a long life. She subsequently died at the age of fifty-eight on 30 March 1894, and was also buried at the same cemetery where her parents were buried — Hays Cemetery in Easton.

* Note The Susan Mayer listed on the 1870 federal census as a daughter of Frederick and Anna (Miller) Mayer may have actually been Anna’s niece. No daughter named “Susan Miller” was listed as a child of Frederick and Anna on their subsequent entries on the 1880 federal census, but a “Susan Sunderland” was listed as Anna’s niece in 1880, along with two of Susan’s sisters, Agnes and Lizzie Sunderland.

Following his marriage to Anna Louise Wolfe (1847-1892) at the Lutheran Church in Easton on 7 April 1866, Henry F. Miller’s younger brother, John Miller (1842-1906), welcomed the births with her of: Elizabeth Miller (1866-1939), who was born in Easton on 11 November 1866 and would later wed Frank C. Hahn (1864-1935); and Harry Irwin Miller (1869-1926), who was born in Easton on 18 June 1869 and would later marry Rena A. Kunkle in 1892. In 1870, John Miller resided in Easton with his wife and two children. More children soon followed: Edwin Miller, who was born circa 1872; Susana Miller (1873-1940), who was born in Easton on 27 April 1873 and would later wed Audley R. McDevitt (1877-1948); Annie Miller, who was born circa 1875; and Jennie Miller (1877-1961), who was born in Easton on 18 January 1877 and would later wed Claude J. Hartzell (1877-1943). Employed as an iron roller by 1880, John Miller resided in South Easton’s First Ward with his wife and their children: Elizabeth, Harry, Edwin, Susan, Annie, and Jennie. Widowed by his wife when she died at the age of forty-four on 26 January 1892, John Miller continued to reside with his children. By 1900, he was living at the Easton home of his married daughter, Elizabeth (Miller) Hahn, her husband and their four children, John, Marie, Stanley, and Freida. Also living with them were John’s daughters, Jessie Miller [sic] and Susan (Miller) McDevitt. Following his death at the age of sixty-three on 8 January 1906, John Miller was interred beside his wife at Easton’s Hays Cemetery.

Following her marriage to Adam D. Keiper (1849-1919), Henry F. Miller’s youngest sister, Sarah Jane (Miller) Keiper (1850-1918), welcomed the birth with him of John Raymond Keiper (1879-1947), who was born on 27 December 1879 and would later wed Emma Ehrig (1883-1961). In 1880, Sarah resided with her husband and son in the Borough of South Easton. More children soon followed: Herbert Stanley Keiper (1882-1967), who was born on 7 December 1882 and would later wed Ethel Enola Wantz (1884-1967); Frederick M. Keiper (1885-unknown), who was born in August 1885; Hazel I. Keiper (1890-1955), who was born in Easton on 16 November 1890 and would later wed Arthur E. Werkheiser; and Myra A. Keiper (1893-1983), who was born in January 1893 and would later wed Russell B. Fine (1894-1958). In 1900, Sarah (Miller) Keiper resided in Easton’s Tenth Ward with her husband, Adam, and their children: Herbert, Frederick, Hazel, and Myra. Still residing in Easton’s Tenth Ward by 1910, she and her husband resided there with just their two daughters. Ailing with valvular heart disease and then also sickened by influenza during the fall of 1918, Sarah Jane (Miller) Keiper succumbed to disease-related complications at the age of sixty-seven in Easton, on 18 October of that same year. Following funeral services, she, too, was buried at Hays Cemetery in Easton. Her devastated husband, who had reportedly prayed for his own death following her passing, suffered a stroke three months later and died on 14 January 1919, according to his obituary. He was subsequently laid to rest beside her.

What Happened to Henry F. Miller ‘s Children?

Following her marriage to Evan T. James (1861-1930), Henry F. Miller’s daughter, Susanna (Miller) James (1865-1894), settled with her husband in Easton, where they welcomed the birth of Louis Miller James (1894-1963), who was born on 18 April 1894 and would later wed and be widowed by Elizabeth F. Giddens (1891-1934), before marrying Hazel K. Weber (1898-1985) in 1955. Tragically, Susanna (Miller) James died roughly a month after her son was born. Just twenty-eight years old at the time of her death, she was subsequently buried at Hays Cemetery in Easton.

Following her marriage to Samuel Stone (1862-1944) on 29 November 1928, Henry F. Miller’s daughter, Mary M. (Miller) Stone (1874-1938), who was known to family and friends as “Mame” and was listed on the 1880 federal census as “Marietta,” settled with her husband in Easton, where he was employed as a boiler fireman at a hospital. Also living with them was her nephew, William G. Miller (1903-1950), who was a son of Mame’s older brother, William H. Miller, and was employed by a butcher shop as a delivery man. Ailing with diabetes and an infected toe during her final months, Mame (Miller) Stone suffered a coronary embolism on 2 July 1938 and died in Easton fifteen minutes later. A month shy of her sixty-fourth birthday at the time of her passing, she was then laid to rest at Easton’s Hays Cemetery on 6 July.

Following his marriage in Northampton County on 27 August 1902 to Charlotte H. Unangst (1885-1951), who was a daughter of George W. Unangst, Henry F. Miller’s son, Archibald Leroy Miller (1878-1939), settled with her in Easton, where they experienced the heartache of losing their first child, George Miller (June 1907-June 1907), who was buried at Easton’s Hays Cemetery. Archie and Charlotte then welcomed the successful arrivals of: Robert Jesse Miller (1908-1975), who was born on 26 April 1908 and would later wed Gladys Woodring; and Edna Lavinia Miller (1909-1911), who was born on 25 July 1909. By 1910, Archie Miller and his wife were residing with their two children, Robert and Edna; however, tragedy struck again the next year when Edna contracted the measles and died on 5 March 1911. Just two years old at the time of her passing, she was also laid to rest at the Hays Cemetery in Easton. Once again, more children followed: Paul H. Miller (1911-1967), who was born in 1911 and would later marry Kathryn Terkeski (1920-2021) and become a sergeant with the Easton Police Department; and Archibald Leroy Miller, Jr. (1916-1992), who was born on 24 March 1916, would also come to be known as “Arch” and would later marry Myrtle C. Eckert in 1941. Employed in the railroad industry as a machinist in 1920, the elder Arch Miller resided with his wife, Charlotte, and their children, Robert, Paul and Arch Jr. at the home of Arch Sr.’s sister, Elsie (Miller) Gerstenberg, on Grant Street in Easton’s Twelfth Ward. Two more sons, John James Miller (1920-2005) and Richard Unangst Miller (1921-1997), were then born to Arch and Charlotte on 1 February 1920 and 24 October 1921, respectively. By 1930, Arch was working as a pipe cutter’s helper and he and Charlotte were living on Milton Avenue in Easton’s Eleventh Ward with their children, Robert, Paul, Arch Jr., James, and Richard. Ailing with colon cancer during the final years of his life, Archibald Leroy Miller, Sr. died at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 26 February 1939. His remains were subsequently returned to Easton for interment at Hays Cemetery.

Following his marriage to Elizabeth Ann Kuebler (1872-1958) in 1893, Henry F. Miller’s son, Frank Eddinger Miller (1868-1940), settled with her in Easton, where he was employed as an iron moulder and where they welcomed the birth of Arthur Henry Miller (1898-1957), who was born on 28 September 1898. In 1900, the trio resided in Easton’s Eleventh Ward — an arrangement that continued into the 1920s. By the time of the federal census of 1920, however, Frank had changed employers, and was working as a laborer in the railroad industry. A moulder at a foundry in 1930, he continued to reside in Easton with his wife and son. By 1949, he and his wife were “empty nesters” at their Easton home. Ailing with rectal cancer during the final years of his life, Frank Eddinger Miller died at the age of seventy-two at the Betts Hospital in Easton, on 25 August 1940, and was also interred at that city’s Hays Cemetery.

A resident of Jeanesville Township in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania at the time of his marriage to Maud Jarrard (1873-1906) on 2 December 1893, Henry F. Miller’s son, Frederick M. Miller (1866-1948), who was known to family and friends as “Fred,” welcomed the birth with her of a daughter, Thelma Miller, circa 1898. By 1900, Fred was employed as an iron moulder and resided in Easton’s Eleventh Ward with his wife and daughter. Also renting a room from them that year was thirty-year-old machinist James Barr. Widowed by his wife Maud (Jarrard) Miller in 1906, when she passed away at the age of thirty-two in Bethlehem, Northampton County, on 29 September of that year, Fred Miller continued to care for their daughter while continuing to work as an iron moulder. He then married Barbara L. Taylor (1872-1967) shortly thereafter. Still employed as a moulder at a foundry at the time of the federal census of 1910, Fred Miller had moved his second wife, Barbara, and his daughter from his first marriage, Thelma, to a home in the Borough of Glendon in Northampton County. He had also hired Rosie Gavaliar, a live-in domestic worker to help his wife with the maintenance of their household. By 1920, however, Fred and Barbara were residing alone at their home in Glendon. Still empty nesters in 1930, they resided in Williams Township, Northampton County that year, where they continued to reside in the 1940s. Living with them in 1940 was Barbara’s mother, Isabelle N. Taylor (1883-1955). Ailing with bronchopneumonia during the final weeks of his life, Frederick M. Miller died at the age of eighty-two at the Easton Hospital in Easton, on 28 September 1948, and was also buried at Hays Cemetery in Easton.

Henry F. Miller’s son, William Henry Miller (1880-1954), grew up to become a baseball player, initially playing for amateur clubs in Phillipsburg, New Jersey and Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Around  that same time, he fathered a child with Mae Gray — William Gray Miller (1903-1950), who was born in Phillipsburg. William Henry Miller then “broke into professional ball shortly after the turn of the century with the Bradford, Pa. team in the old Interstate League,” according to Allentown’s Morning Call newspaper. A short stop and first baseman during a professional career that lasted roughly seven seasons, William H. Miller “played with the Reading club in the old Atlantic League” after his stint in Bradford; “for Waterbury in the Connecticut State League; Lynn, Mass., in the New England League; Oakland in the Pacific League and Newark in the International League.” Sometime around 1910, he also began working as a machinist with the Lehigh Valley Railroad during the off season — a career he continued to pursue until his retirement in 1945. Married to Florence Ward (1899-1993), he widowed her after suffering a cerebral embolism in early February 1954. Following his death at the age of seventy-three in Easton, on 16 February, he was laid to rest at the Riegelsville Union Cemetery in Riegelsville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania on 21 February.

Following her marriage to Harry Jordan Gerstenberg (1887-1970; alternate surname spelling: “Gerstenburg”), Henry F. Miller’s daughter, Elsie (Miller) Gerstenberg (1883-1957), settled with her husband in Easton, where he was employed as a machinist and where they welcomed the birth of daughter Frances Gerstenberg (1910-1989; alternate birth year: 1908), who was born on 16 February 1910 and would later wed Herbert W. Stecker in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania on 16 December 1933, before divorcing him and marrying William T. Condon (1905-1986). In 1920, Elsie’s Easton household on Grant Street also included her brother, Arch Miller, and his wife, Charlotte, and their children: Robert, Paul and Arch. That year, Elsie’s husband was employed as a machinist at a silk mill, while her brother, Arch, worked as a railroad industry machinist. By 1930, however, her household had shrunk to include just her husband and daughter, as well as her husband’s sixty-seven-year-old mother, Rosa (Miley) Gerstenberg. Separated from her husband by 1940, Elsie (Miller) Gerstenberg and her divorced daughter, Frances (Gerstenberg) Stecker, were the only occupants of their Grant Street home. Still separated from her husband in 1950, Elsie had moved into the South Easton home of her daughter, Frances (Gerstenberg Stecker) Condon, and Frances’ second husband William Condon. Ailing with heart disease during her final years, Elsie (Miller) Gerstenberg suffered a heart attack in late September 1957 and died three weeks later at the Easton Hospital in Easton, on 10 October. Seventy-four years old at the time of her passing, she was then then also buried at Hay’s Cemetery in Easton.

Following his marriage to Stella M. King (1887-1960) in 1913, Henry F. Miller’s son, Clyde Russell Miller (1884-1960), also settled with his wife in Easton. Employed as a moulder at a foundry in 1920, he resided with his wife at the home of her widowed father, machine shop laborer John King (1862-1937), in Easton’s Third Ward. Also residing with them was Clyde’s twenty-seven-year-old brother-in-law, Russell King, who was employed as a driver for a local brewery. That living arrangement continued into the next decade, although the occupations of the male residents of the household had changed. Clyde Miller was employed that year as a plumber, while John and Raymond King were employed, respectively, as a butcher at a grocery store and as a bookkeeper at a foundry. Following the death of Stella’s father, Clyde, Stella and Miller continued to live together into the 1940s. By 1950, however, Clyde was retired and residing only with Stella in Easton. Ailing with metastatic cancer during his final months, Clyde Russell Miller died at the age of seventy-five at the Easton Hospital in Easton, on 3 May 1960, and was then laid to rest at that city’s Easton Heights Cemetery on 6 May.

 

Sources:

1. Aaron Miller (infant and a younger brother of Henry F. Miller) and Jesse and Susan Miller (parents), in Birth and Baptismal Records (St. John’s Lutheran Church, Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, date of birth: 5 October 1845, baptism: 14 September 1852). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
2. Archie L. Miller (the groom, who was a grandson of Henry F. Miller and son of Elsie (Miller) Gerstenberg) and Charlotte H. Unangst (the bride), in “Marriage License Docket of Lehigh County, Pa.” (application no.: 10206, date of marriage: 29 a August 1902). Allentown, Pennsylvania: Clerk of the Orphans’ Court of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.
3. Archie Le Roy Miller (a son of Henry F. Miller), in Death Certificates (registered no.: 04433, date of death: 26 February 1939). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
4. Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, vol. 1. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1902.
5. Candon [sic, “Condon”], William and Frances (a daughter of Elsie (Miller) Gerstenberg and a granddaughter of Henry F. Miller); and Gerstenberg, Elsie (Frances’ mother), in U.S. Census (South Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1950). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
6. Clyde R. Miller (a son of Henry F. Miller), in Death Certificates (file no.: 49465, local reg. no.: 262, date of death: 3 May 1960). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
7. Edna C. Miller (a granddaughter of Henry F. Miller and a daughter of Archibald L. Miller, Sr.), in Death Certificates (file no.: 23774, registered no.: 126, date of death: 5 March 1911). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
8. Edna Lavinia Miller (a granddaughter of Henry F. Miller and a daughter of Archibald L. Miller, Sr.), in Birth Certificates (registration district no.: 762, registered no.: 553, date of birth: 25 July 1909). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
9. Edwin Sunderland (a nephew of Henry F. Miller and a son of Sophia (Miller) Sunderland), in Death Certificates (file no.: 79183, registered no.: 398, date of death: 15 July 1920). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
10. Elizabeth Hahn (a niece of Henry F. Miller and a daughter of John Miller), in Death Certificates (file no.: 30385, registered no.: 159, date of death: 4 March 1939). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
11. Elsie H. Gerstenberg (a daughter of Henry F. Miller), in Death Certificates (file no.: 93277, registered no.: 540, date of death: 10 October 1957). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
12. F. M. Miller [sic, “Frederick M. Miller”] (the groom and a son of Henry F. Miller) and Maude Jarrad (the bride and a daughter of James Jarrard), in Marriage License Docket (Jeanesville, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, date of marriage: 2 December 1893). Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania: Clerk of the Orphans’ Court of Luzerne County.
13. Frances Helen Gerstenberg (the bride, who was a granddaughter of Henry F. Miller and daughter of Elsie (Miller) Gerstenberg) and Harry J. and Elsie Gerstenberg (parents); and Herbert W. Stecker (the groom) and Walter and Mattie Stecker (parents), in “Marriage License Docket of Lehigh County, Pa.” (application no.: 56338, date of marriage: 16 December 1933). Allentown, Pennsylvania: Clerk of the Orphans’ Court of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.
14. Frances Helen Gerstenberg (a granddaughter of Henry F. Miller and a daughter of Elsie (Miller) Gerstenberg), in Birth Certificates (file no.: 16838, registered no.: 112, date of birth: 16 February 1910). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
15. Frank Miller (a son of Henry F. Miller), in Death Certificates (file no.: 78295, registered no.: 481, date of death: 25 August 1940). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
16. Frederick M. Miller (a son of Henry F. Miller), in Death Certificates (file no.: 81337, registered no.: 515, date of death: 28 September 1948). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
17. Frederick Meyer [sic, “Frederick Mayer”] (the groom) and Frederick and Maria Meyer (the groom’s parents); and Anna Miller (the bride and an older sister of Henry F. Miller) and Jesse and Susanna Miller (the bride’s parents), in Marriages (St. John’s Lutheran Church, Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, date of marriage: 31 December 1854). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
18. Gerstenberg, Harry, Elsie (a daughter of Henry F. Miller) and Frances, in U.S. Census (Easton, Eleventh Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1910). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
19. Gerstenberg, Harry, Elsie (a daughter of Henry F. Miller) and Frances H.; Miller, Arch L. (a son of Henry F. Miller and Elsie’s brother), Charlotte, Robert, Paul, and Arch L. (Elsie’s son), in U.S. Census (Easton, Twelfth Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1920). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
20. Gerstenberg, Harry, Elsie (a daughter of Henry F. Miller) and Frances; and Gerstenberg, Rose (Harry’s mother), in U.S. Census (Easton, Twelfth Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1930). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
21. Grant, Ulysses S. Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant. New York, New York: Charles L. Webster & Company, 1885.
22. Grodzins, Dean and David Moss. “The U.S. Secession Crisis as a Breakdown of Democracy,” in When Democracy Breaks: Studies in Democratic Erosion and Collapse, from Ancient Athens to the Present Day (chapter 3). New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 2024.
23. Hahn, Frank C., Elizabeth (a niece of Henry F. Miller and a daughter of John Miller), John M., Marie, Stanley P., and Freida L.; Miller, John (a younger brother of Henry F. Miller and Elizabeth’s father) and Jessie [sic] (Elizabeth’s sister and John Miller’s daughter); and McDevitt, Susan (Elizabeth’s sister and John Miller’s daughter), in U.S. Census (Easton, Tenth Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1900). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
24. Harry I. Miller (a nephew of Henry F. Miller and a son of John Miller), in Death Certificates (file no.: 101736, registered no.: 28, date of death: 3 October 1926). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
25. Harry I. Miller (a niece of Henry F. Miller and a daughter of Sarah Jane (Miller) Keiper), in Death Certificates (file no.: 99276, registered no.: 580, date of death: 6 November 1955). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
26. Heidler, David S. and Jeane T. Heidler. “The Fire-Eaters,” in Essential Civil War Curriculum. Blacksburg, Virginia: Virginia Center for Civil War Studies, Virginia Tech University, retrieved online 12 May 2026.
27. Helena Miller (the wife of Henry F. Miller), in Death Certificates (file no.: 5916, registered no.: 12, date of death: 9 January 1906). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
28. “Henry F. Miller, Veteran of Civil War, Dies at 90.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Morning Call, 12 April 1927.
29. Henry, Fred, Frank, and Clyde Miller, in “Necrology.” Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania: The Record-American, 14 April 1927.
30. “His Prayer Fulfilled” (report on the deaths of Henry F. Miller’s sister, Sarah Jane (Miller) Keiper and her husband, Adam). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Inquirer, 15 January 1919.
31. Irwin, Richard Bache. History of the Nineteenth Army Corps. New York, New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1893.
32. Jennie M. Hartzell (a niece of Henry F. Miller and a daughter of John Miller), in Death Certificates (file no.: 116361-61, local reg. no.: 634, date of death: 7 December 1961). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
33. John Miller (the groom and a younger brother of Henry F. Miller) and Jesse and Susan Miller (the groom’s parents); and Louisa Wolf (the bride) and John and Susanna Wolf the bride’s parents), in “Marriages Performed by B. M. Schmucker, Pastor” (St. John’s Lutheran Church, Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, date of marriage: 7 April 1866). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
34. Keiper, Adam, Sarah J. (the youngest sister of Henry F. Miller), and Raymond, in U.S. Census (Borough of South Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1880). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
35. Keiper, Adam, Sarah J. (the youngest sister of Henry F. Miller), Herbert S., Frederick M., Hazel I., and Myra A., in U.S. Census (Easton, Tenth Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1900). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
36. Keiper, Adam, Sarah J. (the youngest sister of Henry F. Miller), Hazel I., and Myra A., in U.S. Census (Easton, Tenth Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1910). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
37. King, John F. and Russell S.; and Miller, Clyde R. (a son of Henry F. Miller) and Stella M., in U.S. Census (Easton, Third Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1920, 1930). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
38. “Mame E. Miller Bride of Samuel A. Stone” (a daughter of Henry F. Miller). Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Morning Call, 23 November 1928.
39. Mathews, Alfred and Austin Hungerford. History of the Counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Everts & Richards, 1884.
40. Meyers [sic, “Mayer”], Frederick and Ann (an older sister of Henry F. Miller), in U.S. Census (Borough of South Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1860). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
41. Meyres [sic, “Mayer”], Frederick, Anna L. (an older sister of Henry F. Miller); and Sunderland, Susan, Agnes, and Lizzie (nieces of Anna (Miller) Mayer and daughters of Sophia (Miller) Sunderland, in U.S. Census (South Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1880). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
42. Miller, Arch (a son of Henry F. Miller), Charlotte, Robert, Paul, Arch Jr., James, and Richard, in U.S. Census (Easton, Eleventh Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1930). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
43. Miller, Clyde R. (a son of Henry F. Miller) and Stella M.; and King, Raymond (Stella’s brother), in U.S. Census (Easton, Third Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1940). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
44. Miller, Clyde R. (a son of Henry F. Miller) and Stella M., in U.S. Census (Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1950). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
45. Miller, Elsie (Henry F. Miller’s daughter) and Stecker, Frances (Elsie’s daughter), in U.S. Census (Easton, Twelfth Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1940). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
46. Miller, Frank (a son of Henry F. Miller), Elizabeth and Arthur H., in U.S. Census (Easton, Eleventh Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
47. Miller, Frederick (a son of Henry F. Miller), Maud (Frederick’s first wife) and Thelma (Frederick’s daughter); and Barr, James (boarder), in U.S. Census (Easton, Eleventh Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1900). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
48. Miller, Frederick (a son of Henry F. Miller), Barbara (Frederick’s second wife) and Thelma (Frederick’s daughter from his first marriage); and Gavaliar, Rosie (live-in domestic worker), in U.S. Census (Glendon, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1910). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
49. Miller, Frederick (a son of Henry F. Miller) and Barbara (Frederick’s second wife), in U.S. Census (Glendon, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1920). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
50. Miller, Frederick (a son of Henry F. Miller) and Barbara (Frederick’s second wife), in U.S. Census (Williams Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1930). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
51. Miller, Fred (a son of Henry F. Miller) and Barbara (Frederick’s second wife); and Taylor, Isabelle (Barbara’s mother), in U.S. Census (Williams Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1940). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
52. Miller, Henry, in Civil War Muster Rolls (Company E, 47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania State Archives.
53. Miller, Henry, in Civil War Veterans’ Card File, 1861-1866 (Company E, 47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania State Archives.
54. Miller, Henry, in U.S. Civil War Pension General Index Cards (application no.: 475736, certificate no.: 919390, filed by the veteran from Pennsylvania, 13 March 1883). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
55. Miller, Henry, Lenah, Susanna, Frederick M., Frank E., Marietta, and Archie Leroy, in U.S. Census (Williams Township, Upper District, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1880). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
56. Miller, Henry, Helena, Mary, William, Elsie, Clyde, and Archie, in U.S. Census (Easton, Twelfth Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1900). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
57. Miller, Henry, Mamie, Clyde, William (Henry’s son), and William G. (Henry’s grandson), in U.S. Census (Easton, Twelfth Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1910). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
58. Miller, Henry, in Records of Burial Places of Veterans (Hays Cemetery, Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1927). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Military Affairs.
59. Miller, Henry W. [sic, “Henry F. Miller”], Mame, William H., and William G., in U.S. Census (Easton, Twelfth Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1920). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
60. Miller, Jasse, Susan, Sophia, Ann, Henry [sic, “Henry F. Miller”], John, James, Aaron, and Josiah, in U.S. Census (Borough of South Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1850). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
61. Miller, Jesse, Susan, William [sic, “Henry F. Miller”], John, James, Aaron, Josiah, and Sarah, in U.S. Census (Borough of South Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1860). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
62. Miller, John (a younger brother of Henry F. Miller), in Records of Burial Places of Veterans (Hays Cemetery, Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania: date of death: 8 January 1906). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Military Affairs.
63. Miller, John (a younger brother of Henry F. Miller), Louisa, Elizabeth, and Harry, in U.S. Census (Borough of South Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1870). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
64. Miller, John (a younger brother of Henry F. Miller), Louisa, Elizabeth, Harry, Edwin, Susan, Annie, and Jennie, in U.S. Census (Borough of South Easton, First Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1880). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
65. Miller, Wm. H. [sic, “Henry F. Miller”], Lenah, Susanna, Frederick, and Frank E., in U.S. Census (Belvidere, Warren County, New Jersey, 1870). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
66. Myers [sic, “Mayer”], Frederick, Ann (an older sister of Henry F. Miller) and Susan, in U.S. Census (Borough of South Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1870). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
67. “Retired Baseball Player, LVRR Machinist, Dies” (obituary of Henry F. Miller’s son, William Henry Miller). Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Morning Call, 18 February 1954.
68. “Roster of the 47th P. V. Inf.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Morning Call, 26 October 1930.
69. Sanderson [sic, “Sunderland”], George, Sophia (the oldest sister of Henry F. Miller), Sarah Ann, Edward, Annie, and Susanna, in U.S. Census (Williams Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1860). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
70. Sarah Jane Miller Keiper (a younger sister of Henry F. Miller), in Death Certificates (file no.: 117159, registered no.: 789, date of death: 18 October 1918). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
71. Schaadt, James L. Company I, First Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers: A Memoir of Its Service for the Union in 1861, in The Penn Germania: A Popular Journal of German History and Ideals in the United States, vol. 1, no. 1. Lititz and Cleona, Pennsylvania: H.W. Kriebel, editor. Holzapfel Publishing Co, 1912.
72. Schmidt, Lewis. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1986.
73. Sheridan, Philip Henry. Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan, General, United States Army in Two Volumes. New York, New York: Charles L. Webster & Company, 1888.
74. Sonderland [sic, “Sunderland”], Anna (infant), Gerhard (father) and Sophia (mother and the oldest sister of Henry F. Miller), in Birth and Baptismal Records (St. John’s Lutheran Church, Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, date of birth: 3 September 1855, baptism: 31 January 1856). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
75. Stone, Mary (a daughter of Henry F. Miller), in Death Certificates (file no.: 65494, registered no.: 401, date of death: 2 July 1938). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
76. Sunderland, Susan Sophia (infant), Gerhard (father) and Sophia (mother and the oldest sister of Henry F. Miller), in Birth and Baptismal Records (St. John’s Lutheran Church, Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, date of birth: 7 January 1859, baptism: 13 March 1859). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
77. Sunderland, George, Sophia (the oldest sister of Henry F. Miller), Edwin, Annie, Susan, Agnes, and Wilburn, in U.S. Census (South Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania,1870). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
78. Sunderland, Sophia (the oldest sister of Henry F. Miller), in U.S. Census (“Suplemental Schedule No. 1 — Insane Inhabitants in Upper Nazareth Township in the County of Northampton, State of Pennsylvania”: Northampton County Poor House, June 1880). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
79. Susan McDevitt (a niece of Henry F. Miller and a daughter of John Miller), in Death Certificates (file no.: 114756, registered no.: 667, date of death: 11 December 1940). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
80. “The History of the Forty-Seventh Regt. P. V.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Lehigh Register, 20 July 1870.
81. “Veterans of the Gallant 47th Regiment Gather in Reunion: Celebrate Anniversary of Battle of Pocotaligo at 44th Meeting, Incidentally Battle of Fisher’s Hill.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Morning Call, 24 October 1916.
82. “Veterans’ Reunion: Heroes of the 47th Assembled at the Duck Farm: Their Old Commander Present: Large Gathering of Old Soldiers in Whom Martial Spirit Is Still Strong.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Leader, 22 October 1902.
83. Wm. Henry Miller [sic, “Henry F. Miller”] (infant), Jesse Miller (father) and Susanna Miller (mother), in Birth and Baptismal Records (St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, Williams Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, date of birth: 16 December 1838, baptism: 21 October 1838). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
84. Wharton, Henry D. “Letters from the Sunbury Guards.” Sunbury, Pennsylvania: The Sunbury American, 1861-1864.
85. William G. Miller (a grandson of Henry F. Miller and a son of William H. Miller), in Death Certificates (file no.: 53347, registered no.: 319, date of death: 26 June 1950). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
86. William Henry Miller [sic, “Henry F. Miller”], in Death Certificates (file no.: 39591, registered no.: 219, date of death: 9 April 1927). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
87. William Henry Miller (a son of Henry F. Miller), in Death Certificates (file no.: 15164, registered no.: 100, date of death: 16 February 1954). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.