Alternate Spellings of Surname: Wilts, Wiltz, Wilz, Witts, Witz

 

One of the 47th Pennsylvania’s “mystery men,” John C. Witz was, in reality, a teenage boy who lied about his age in order to enroll for military service with the Union Army during the middle of the American Civil War. But unlike the many other teenagers who enlisted because they were seeking adventure or escape from a dreary home life, John Witz likely enlisted out of a sense of duty to his single-parent mom, who was struggling to keep a roof over his head and the heads of his siblings.

He had hoped that his military service would enable him to send his pay back home to his mother, but that hope was derailed by the powerful hand of fate.

Formative Years

Born on New Year’s Day in 1849 in Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, and baptized at Easton’s German Reformed Church on 27 July 1850, John C. Witz was a son of Pennsylvania natives David P. Witz (circa 1810-1861) and Rosanna (Ward) Witz (circa 1812-1883), who had been married in Easton on 26 July 1835 by the Rev. Bernard C. Wolf, who was the pastor of Easton’s German Reformed Church at that time.

John Witz was subsequently raised in Easton with his siblings: Susanna (1841-1899), who was born on 8 June 1841 and baptized on 17 June 1842; Samuel, who was born in 1843 and baptized on 15 May 1844; and Mary, who was born circa 1845. Both Susan and Samuel were documented on the 1850 federal census as students who were enrolled in school while their parents were described as unable to read or write, likely indicating that the Witz family were one of the many families who spoke German or Pennsylvania Dutch at home. Their father, David, was described by that same 1850 federal census enumerator as a boat builder.

Still living in Easton in 1860, John Witz resided that year in a much larger household that included his father, David, who was described as a laborer; his mother, Rosanna; and his siblings: Elizabeth (1839-1901), who had been born on 14 May 1837 and baptized on 14 January 1840; Susanna, who was also known as Susan; Samuel, who was employed as a boatman; Mary A.; Ellen Rebecca (1852-1868), who had been born on 8 February 1852 and baptized on 4 November 1853; and Susanna’s son, Henry (1859-1862), who had been born on 10 March 1859 and was listed on records of the German Reformed Church as the grandson of David and Rosanna Witz. Like her parents, Elizabeth was documented by that year’s census enumerator as being unable to read or write while Mary, John and Ellen were described as students who were attending school.

The Witz family’s sense of stability was soon shattered, however, when their patriarch, David P. Witz, contracted tuberculosis. Increasingly ill, he was ultimately diagnosed with consumption (tuberculosis), and died in Easton on 6 March 1861. Following his funeral, he was interred at that borough’s German Reformed Church Cemetery.

A second tragedy then followed in 1862 when Susanna’s son, Henry Witz, died from brain fever in Easton on 12 January. He was just two years, ten months and two days old.

According to Easton residents Samuel Stonebach and Charles Rulou, who had known the Witz family since the late 1840s and had filed an affidavit in support of a U.S. Civil War Mothers’ Pension claim filed by Rosanna Witz in 1864, Rosanna, “after the decease of said David P. her husband was in part dependent for her support upon her said son John whom she hired out and received the money for his labor—he being a minor.” Stonebach, who had been employed as a bricklayer in 1860, was documented by that year’s federal census enumerator as a neighbor of the Witz family.

Two other Easton residents who also knew the Witz family well, Stephen Smith and William Nicholas, also filed an affidavit in support of Rosanna Witz’s mother’s pension claim. They described Rosanna’s son, John Witz, as “a minor industrious and of good sober habits,” and said that both had “hired him from [Rosanna Witz] and paid her … her son’s wages”—Smith having personally hired John Witz “for about sixteen or eighteen months” and Nicholas having hired him “for two months.”

Civil War

The reason that Rosanna Witz had been eligible to apply for a U.S. Civil War Mothers’ Pension in 1864 is that her son, John C. Witz, had chosen to enlist that year. After enrolling for Union Army service on 26 February 1864, he mustered in the next day as, “John Wilts,” an Unassigned Recruit with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.

He was subsequently assigned the rank of private.

Little else is known about John Witz’s enrollment or military service because very little was recorded about his enrollment or service save for the data that was generated by the U.S. Office of the Adjutant General, the U.S. Pension Bureau and the U.S. Treasury Department in response to his mother’s claim for his U.S. Civil War Pension funds.

What is known for certain is that Private John Witz (alternate surname spelling: Wilts) was transported to Louisiana at some point after his enlistment, and eventually caught up with his regiment sometime before or while it was stationed in Alexandria because the U.S. Office of the Adjutant General wrote the following in a 20 February 1866 letter which confirmed his service with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry:

“Present with Regt. in Camp near Alexandra, La. Pay due from Enlistment Feb. 26, 64.”

That same letter also noted that he had appeared on the regiment’s muster rolls for March and April 1864, and that he had been moved from the ranks of unassigned men to the roster of Company E, the unit with which he would serve for the remainder of his life.

Sadly, that life proved to be a short one. Sometime during the 47th Pennsylvania’s long, grueling marches through a harsh climate that exposed members of the regiment to multiple different tropical diseases, Private John Witz fell ill during the 1864 Red River Campaign and was diagnosed with typhoid fever by the 47th Pennsylvania’s Regimental Surgeon Elisha W. Baily, M.D. As his condition worsened, he was transported to the USS Laurel Hill, a Union hospital ship that was docked near Morganza, Louisiana. Still not yet married, he subsequently died aboard that ship on 23 June 1864 (alternate death date: 21 June 1864).

It is not known for certain whether or not he was physically involved in any of the battles in which the 47th Pennsylvania took part during this phase of its duty, but based on the U.S. Adjutant General’s statement that he had been documented on the regiment’s muster rolls in March and April 1864 and his physician’s attestation that he died on 23 June of that same year, researchers for 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers: One Civil War Regiment’s Story theorize that he may have fought side-by-side with his fellow E Company members in the Battle of Sabine Cross Roads (8 April), the Battle of Pleasant Hill ( 9 April) and the Battle of Cane River at Monett’s Ferry (23 April).

It is quite possible, however, that he missed the Battle of Mansura near Marksville on 16 May because he was reported as having fallen ill while the regiment was engaged in its return march toward New Orleans, which had begun on 13 May, and because the incubation period for typhoid fever can be as long as thirty days with symptoms taking from one to three weeks to appear. (Based on his 23 June 1864 date of death, this timing may have put his disease start date in early to mid-May.)

A memorial has been created for Private Witz on Find A Grave.

What Happened to the Mother and Siblings of Private John Witz?

Sometime after receiving the U.S. Army’s report of her son’s death in Louisiana, Rosanna Witz sought advice from Easton attorney A. S. Knecht, who helped her begin the application process for a U.S. Civil War Mothers’ Pension. On 24 April 1866, Rosanna Witz was awarded that pension in the amount of eight dollars per month—a pension award that was made retroactive to 23 June 1864 (the date of her son’s death while in service to the nation). Her surname was repeatedly spelled as “Wilts” on all of her pension paperwork—a spelling she likely had been unable to correct since census records indicate that she could not read or write English. When “signing” required pension documents, she simply marked those documents with an “X” to signify her approval; the accuracy of her mark was then verified by witnesses via affidavits filed on her behalf.

Despite this success in being granted a U.S. Civil War Mothers’ Pension, hardship and tragedy continued to stalk the Witz family as the family struggled to make ends meet. Sometime during the fall of 1868, Rosanna’s daughter, Ellen R. Witz, fell ill with consumption (tuberculosis); she then succumbed to the disease on 22 October 1868, and was subsequently laid to rest near her father at the German Reformed Cemetery in Easton.

By 1870, Rosanna Witz was still residing in Easton, but was documented on that year’s federal census as living only with her thirty-two-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, and Elizabeth’s nine-year-old daughter, Emma Bird, who had been born on 25 April 1861, was baptized on 20 June 1862, and was shown on records of the German Reformed Church as the granddaughter of David and Rosanna Witz. A decade later, Rosanna was living with her eldest daughter Elizabeth (Witz) Purdy and her family at their Sixth Ward Home in Easton. That 1880 Purdy household included Elizabeth’s husband, John D. Purdy (1832-1890), a cordwainer (shoemaker) who had served with the 3rd Pennsylvania Volunteers during the Civil War; and their children: Emma, who was now using the Purdy surname and was employed as a dressmaker; Agnes/Agness, who had been born circa 1862 and was employed as a tailoress; Winslow, who had been born circa 1867; and Herbert Witz Purdy, who had been born on 16 May 1876 and was baptized at the German Reformed Church in Easton on 19 January 1877. Their son, Chester Purdy (1880-1892), was then born sometime after the federal census taker visited their home in 1880, and son Walter S. Purdy (1882-1969) was born in Easton on 29 March 1882.

Sadly, Rosanna Witz had little time to enjoy her youngest grandchildren. Having made the decision to never remarry, she died on 6 February 1883 in Port Morris, Morris County, New Jersey. Her remains were then returned to Pennsylvania, and she was laid to rest, initially, in lot number 446 beside her husband at the German Reformed Church Cemetery in Easton. Her remains and the remains of her daughter, Ellen R. Witz, who is shown on Find A Grave as having been interred in lot number 445 and also later moved to a vault, were subsequently exhumed and reinterred in a vault at the Easton Heights Cemetery when the graves of those who had been buried at the German Reformed Church Cemetery were relocated during the construction of the Easton Area Public Library.

According to Rosanna Witz’s son-in-law, John Purdy, Rosanna had a life interest in a small property which at her death went to her children.” Described in an 1864 affidavit by Samuel Stonebach and Charles Rulou, that small property was “a small Frame Dwelling house in West Alley in said Borough of Easton” with “a little household furniture.” U.S. Pension Bureau officials were also informed at that time that “her house would not bring over fifty dollars rent—that she occup[ied] it herself,” and that she had “no income but her own labor” in 1864.

In her own affidavit for her Civil War Mothers’ Pension, Rosanna Witz described her house in a similar fashion, noting that her household furnishings were “not worth more than one hundred & fifty dollars” and that she had “no income whatever” at the time of her son’s death and “supported herself by her own labor, going out washing & other labor.” She also attested to having hired out her son, while he was still a minor, and had depended on the wages he had brought in, following the death of her husband.

Controversy

Rosanna Witz’s story did not end with her death in 1883, however; an affidavit penned on 29 June 1885 to The Honorable John C. Black, Commissioner of Pensions by a Mr. Brooks, “Special Examiner,” provided details about an investigation of the U.S. Pension Agency in Philadelphia, following the December 1884 arrest of Thomas Lawrence, a former clerk with that pension agency who had allegedly conspired with fellow clerk Walter Fries in a scheme in which they had “drawn pension money in the names of a large number of unmarried or deceased pensioners.” Lawrence was subsequently convicted on 24 February 1885 and “sentenced to a term of four years imprisonment at hard labor,” plus a $500 fine and the “costs of prosecution,” but Fries’ trial was postponed.

In response to that postponement, John Purdy, Rosanna Witz’s son-in-law, was asked by Brooks to provide a deposition attesting to the date of Rosanna’s death. Noting that “she last received pension money sometime in December 1882,” Brooks and Purdy confirmed that the authorities in Washington, D.C. had been notified of her death,” adding that Rosanna Witz had not had sufficient funds remaining in her pension account to defray the cost of her funeral and other bills that had not yet been paid at the time of her passing, and that her three surviving daughters had taken it upon themselves to pay their mother’s outstanding expenses. Brooks subsequently recommended to Black that Rosanna Witz’s pension be closed and that her name be dropped from the Civil War Pension rolls.

What Happened to the Surviving Daughters of Rosanna Witz?

Rosanna Witz’s daughter, Susanna Witz (alternate spelling: Susanna Witts), died in Roxbury, Morris County, New Jersey on 14 June 1899.

Rosanna Witz’s daughter Elizabeth (Witz) Purdy was widowed by her husband, John D. Purdy, in 1890. She then also lost her son, Chester Purdy, two years later. Elizabeth went on to survive her husband by more than a decade, passing away in Easton in 1901. She was laid to rest beside him at the Easton Heights Cemetery.

* To view more of the key U.S. Civil War Pension records related to the Witz family, visit our John and Rosanna Witz Collection.

 

Sources:

1. Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, vol. 1. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.
2. David P. Witts [sic], in Death and Burial Records, 1861 (First United Church of Christ Easton, transcribed). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
3. Henry Witz and Susan Witz (parent), in Death and Burial Records, 1861 (First United Church of Christ Easton, transcribed). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
4. John Witz and David and Rosanna Witz (parents), in Birth and Baptismal Records, 1849 Death and Burial Records, 1861 (First United Church of Christ Easton, transcribed). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
5. Purdy, Elizabeth (widow of John Purdy and older sister of John Witz), in U.S. Census (Special Schedule: Surviving Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines, and Widows, etc., 1890). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
6. Purdy, Herbert Witz and John D. and Elizabeth Purdy, in Birth and Baptismal Records, 1877 (First United Church of Christ Easton , transcription). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
7. Purdy, John D., Elizabeth, Emma, Agnes, Winslow, and Herbert W., and Witts [sic], Rosanna, in U.S. Census (Easton, Sixth Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
8. Schmidt, Lewis. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1986.
9. Walter S. Purdy (grandson of David P. and Rosanna Witz), in Death Certificates (16 May 1969). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
10. Wilts [sic], David, Rosanna, Susan, Samuel, Mary, and John, in U.S. Census (Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1850). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
11. Wilts [sic], Rosanna and Elizabeth, and Emma Bird, in (Easton, Lehigh Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1870). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
12. Wilts [sic], John and Rosanna, et. al., in U.S. Civil War Mothers’ Pension Files. Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
13. Witts [sic], David, Rosanna, Elizabeth, Susanna, Samuel, Mary A., John, Ellen, and Henry, in U.S. Census (Easton, Lehigh Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1860). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
14. Witts [sic], Susan, in Death Records (Roxbury, Morris County, New Jersey, 14 June 1899). Succasunna, New Jersey: Office of Vital Records, Roxbury Township, New Jersey.
15. Witts [sic], Susan and Walter, Catharina and Rosetta, and Keiffer, William, Maria and their children, in U.S. Census (Easton, Lehigh Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1870). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
16. Witz, David, Rosanna (Ward) and Elizabeth, in Birth and Baptismal Records, 1840 (First United Church of Christ Easton, transcription). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
17. Witz, David, Rosanna (Ward) and Ellen Rebecca, in Birth and Baptismal Records, 1853 (First United Church of Christ Easton, transcription). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
18. Witz, David, Rosanna (Ward) and Emma (granddaughter), in Birth and Baptismal Records, 1862 (First United Church of Christ Easton, transcription). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
19. Witz, David, Rosanna (Ward) and Henry (grandson), in Birth and Baptismal Records, 1860 (First United Church of Christ Easton, transcription). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
20. Witz, David, Rosanna (Ward) and Samuel, in Birth and Baptismal Records, 1843 (First United Church of Christ Easton, transcription). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
21. Witz, David, Rosanna (Ward) and Susanna, in Birth and Baptismal Records, 1842 (First United Church of Christ Easton, transcription). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
22. Witz, Ellen, in Death and Burial Records, 1868 (First United Church of Christ Easton, transcription). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
23. Witz, Henry and Susan, in Burial Records, 1862 (First United Church of Christ Easton , transcription). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania.