Given Name: Joseph Slayer. Aliases and Spelling Variants: “Dead Eye Dick,” “E. J. McMeeser,” “E. J. McMeezer,” “E. J. McNeeser,” “E. J. McNeezer,” “Eugene J. McMeeser,” “Eugene J. McMeezer,” “Eugene J. Mc Neeser”

 

A miner in his late teens, Joseph Slayer went on to become an inventor during his later adult years, but that was not the most important transformation that he would make during his lifetime, nor would it be the most extraordinary.

This 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantryman chose to assume an entirely new name — and an entirely new identity in the aftermath of the American Civil War.

More than a century after his death, researchers still have yet to determine why.

Formative Years

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, according to his 1905 Bismarck Tribune obituary and his Union Army enlistment records, Joseph Slayer was a nineteen-year-old miner residing in Willliams Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania at the dawn of the American Civil War.

Very little else is known about his formative years, which appear to have unfolded during the mid-1840s and 1850s in the Great Keystone State.

American Civil War

What is known for certain is that, at the age of nineteen, Joseph Slayer decided to leave his mining job behind to enlist for military service during the early months of the American Civil War. After enrolling in Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania on 9 September 1861, he traveled to Dauphin County, where he officially mustered in for duty at Camp Curtin, a Union Army staging ground and training facility that was located just outside of Harrisburg.

Entering at the rank of private, he was assigned to Company E of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Military records at the time described him as a nineteen-year-old miner from Williams Township in Northampton County, who was five feet, six inches tall with light hair, blue eyes and a light complexion.

This data indicates that his birth would likely have occurred circa 1842.

* Note: The initial recruitment of members to fill Company E of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was conducted at Yard’s Saloon on Northampton Street in Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania. The smallest of the regiment’s ten companies, Company E officially mustered in with just eighty-three men at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg on 16 September 1861, and was led by Captain Charles Hickman Yard, a former first sergeant of the Easton National Guards who had recently completed his Three Months’ Service during the opening months of the Civil War as a second lieutenant with Company C of the 1st Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. The saloon where Company E’s recruiting efforts took place was operated by Charles Yard’s older brother, Lafayette, a resident of Williams Township. 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. George R. Nichols was one who joined as he wrote on August 25 ‘going to war again and going to stay until it is settled.’ George had returned home sick during his Three Month enlistment, and did not complete his term of service…. 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. [Lawrence] Bonstein [sic, 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.

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 field 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 for 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 Private Joseph Slayer and its other members were officially mustered into federal service. The next day (25 September 1861), 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, the 47th Pennsylvania was assigned to the 3rd Brigade of Brigadier-General Isaac Stevens, which also included the 33rd, 49th and 79th New York regiments. By that afternoon, the 47th Pennsylvania was on the move again. Ordered onward by Brigadier-General Silas Casey, the Mississippi rifle-armed 47th Pennsylvania infantrymen marched behind their regimental band until reaching Camp Lyon, Maryland on the Potomac River’s eastern shore. At 5 p.m., they joined the 46th Pennsylvania in moving double-quick (one hundred and sixty-five steps per minute using thirty-three-inch steps) across the “Chain Bridge” marked on federal maps, and continued on for roughly another mile before being ordered to make camp.

The next morning, they broke camp and moved again. Marching toward Falls Church, Virginia, they arrived at Camp Advance around dusk. There, about two miles from the bridge they had crossed a day earlier, they re-pitched their tents in a deep ravine near a new federal fort under construction (Fort Ethan Allen). They had completed a roughly eight-mile trek, were situated fairly close to the headquarters of Brigadier-General William Farrar Smith (also known as “Baldy”), and were now part of the massive Army of the Potomac (“Mr. Lincoln’s Army”). Under Smith’s leadership, their regiment and brigade would help to defend the nation’s capital from the time of their September arrival through late January when the men of the 47th Pennsylvania would be shipped 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 this phase of duty, as part of the 3rd Brigade, the 47th Pennsylvanians were moved to a site they initially christened “Camp Big Chestnut” in reference to a large chestnut tree 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 the Grand Review at Bailey’s Cross Roads. In a mid-October letter home, 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, Brannan], of the U.S. Army, and if looks are any criterion, I think he is a strict disciplinarian and one who will be as able to get his men out of danger as he is willing to lead them to battle….

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

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

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

On 21 November, the 47th participated in a morning divisional headquarters review monitored by 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, there were transported by rail to Alexandria, where they boarded the steamship City of Richmond and then sailed the Potomac River to the Washington Arsenal, where they were reequipped and 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 U.S. Oriental.

Ferried to the big steamship by smaller steamers for the final time during the afternoon of 27 January 1862, with the officers boarding last, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers steamed away for the Deep South at 4 p.m. Per orders from Union Brigadier-General John Milton Brannan, they were headed for Florida which, despite its secession from the Union, remained strategically important to the Union due to the presence of Fort Taylor (Key West) and Fort Jefferson (Dry Tortugas).

Private Joseph Slayer and his 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 also met and mingled with residents from the area at local church services.

Drilling daily in heavy artillery tactics, they also strengthened the fortifications at this federal installation.

According to Schmidt, in April 1862, Captain Charles H. Yard commanded three regiments charged with “clearing land and cutting roads.” A “fine military road had been cut by the brigade from Fort Taylor directly through the island.”

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

On 9 and 10 July, respectively, detachments from the regiment were assigned to the Expedition to Fenwick Island and the Demonstration against Pocotaligo.

During a return expedition to Florida beginning 30 September, the 47th 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. Trekking and skirmishing through roughly twenty-five miles of dense swampland and forests after disembarking from ships at Mayport Mills on 1 October, the 47th captured artillery and ammunition stores (on 3 October), which had been abandoned by Confederate forces due to the bluff’s bombardment by Union gunboats.

With those successes, Union leaders ordered the gunboats and army troops to extend the expedition. As they did, they captured assorted watercraft as they advanced farther up the river.

Companies E and K of the 47th were then led by Captain Yard on a special mission; the men of E and K Companies joined with other Union Army soldiers in the reconnaissance and subsequent capture of Jacksonville, Florida on 5 October 1862.

A day later, sailing up the Saint John’s River aboard the Union gunboat Darlington (formerly a Confederate steamer) — with protection from the Union gunboat Hale, men from the 47th Pennsylvania’s Companies E and K traveled two hundred miles in order to capture the Governor Milton, which was reported to be docked near Hawkinsville, and was known to have been engaged in furnishing troops, ammunition and other supplies to Confederate Army units scattered throughout the region, including the batteries at Saint John’s Bluff and Yellow Bluff.

Identified as a thorn that needed to be plucked from the Union’s side, the Governor Milton was seized by Companies E and K with support from other Union troops. Corporal George R. Nichols of E Company was one of the men involved in the steamer’s capture. According to Schmidt, Corporal Nichols later wrote about the incident:

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, board] take the Painter with him. That however Belongs to Wm. Adams or Jacob Kerkendall. It was So dark I could not tell witch [sic, which] Struck the deck first. But when I Struck the deck I demanded the Surrend [sic, surrender] of the Boat in the name of the U.S. after we had the boat an offercier off [sic, officer of] the Paul Jones, a Gun Boat was with us he ask [sic, asks] me how Soon could I move her out in the Stream I said five minuts [sic, minutes]. So an Engineer one of coulered [sic, colored] Men helped Me. and I will Say right hear [sic, here] 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 [sic, Palatka] to get wood for the Steamer I went out and Borrowed a half of a deer that hung up in a [sic, an] out house and a bee hive for some honey for the Boys. I never forget the boys.

Nichols also noted that he and his party “returned with our prize the next day,” adding that he was then ordered to remain with the Governor Milton:

So hear [sic, here] we are at Jacksonville and off we go down the river again, and the Captain Yard said you are detailed on detached duty as Engineer well that beats hell. I told him I did not Enlist for an Engineer. well I cannot help it he said. I got orders for you to stay hear [sic, here]. When the Boys was gone about a week orders came for us to come to Beaufort, S. Carolina by the inland rout [sic, route] over Museley Mash Rout [sic, route]. So I Borrowed a twelve pound gun with amanition [sic, ammunition] for to Protect ourselves with. But I only used it once to clear Some cavalry away. We Passed fort Palask [sic, Pulaski]. But that was in our Possession and we got Back to Beaufort all right. and I whent [sic, went] up to see the Boys and Beged [sic, begged] captain to get me Back in the company, But he could not make it go.”

After the steamer was moved behind Union lines and sometime prior to the 47th Pennsylvania’s return to Key West, Florida, Corporal George Nichols was finally permitted to return to service with Company E.

Integration of the Regiment

On 5 and 15 October 1862, respectively, the 47th Pennsylvania made history as it became an integrated regiment, adding to its muster rolls several Black men who had escaped chattel enslavement from plantations near Beaufort, South Carolina. Among the formerly enslaved men who enlisted at this time were Bristor Gethers, Abraham Jassum and Edward Jassum.

More men of color would then continue to be added to the 47th Pennsylvania’s rosters in the weeks and years to come.

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, 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 that needed to be destroyed, according to senior Union Army leaders.

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 Company G was killed, and Captain George Junker of Company K was mortally wounded. First Lieutenant William Geety of H Company was also reported as mortally 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 he was unable to serve at all; as a result, he was transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps on 16 March 1864.

When the final casualty figures were tallied, Union Army leaders realized that two officers and eighteen enlisted members of the 47th Pennsylvania had died and two officers and one hundred and fourteen enlisted had been wounded — the equivalent of more than one full company of soldiers.

1863

Having been ordered back to Key West on 15 November 1862, the year of 1863 was spent garrisoning federal installations in Florida as part of the U.S. Army’s 10th Corps, Department of the South. The men of E Company again 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.

As with their previous assignments, the men soon came to realize that disease would be their constant companion and foe — making it all the more remarkable that, during this phase of service, the majority of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers chose to re-enlist when their three-year service terms were up. Many, who could have returned home with their heads held legitimately high after all they had endured, re-enlisted in order to preserve the Union of their beloved nation and eradicate slavery across America.

Among those choosing to re-enlist during this time was Private Joseph Slayer, who re-enrolled for a second tour of duty at Fort Jefferson on 4 January 1864.

1864

In early January 1864, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was ordered to expand the Union’s reach even further 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 Major-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, escaped slaves, 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 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 (XIX Corps), and became the only Pennsylvania regiment to serve in the Red River Campaign of Union Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks. (Unable to reach Louisiana until 23 March, the 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, Louisiana 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 this 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 “Under-Cook.”

Often short on food and water throughout their long harsh-climate trek through enemy territory, the 47th Pennsylvania encamped briefly at Pleasant Hill (now the Village of Pleasant Hill) the night of 7 April before continuing on the next day.

Rushed into battle ahead of other regiments in the 2nd Division, sixty members of the 47th were cut down on 8 April during 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. Private Richard Hahn was 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 on 22 July and continuing through November. Corporal James Huff, wounded in action during the Battle of Pleasant Hill on 9 April, was one of those released on 29 August 1864. Sadly, at least two members of the 47th Pennsylvania never made it out of that POW camp 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, after marching forty-five miles, at 10 p.m. that night. 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 Brigadier-General William Emory, the 47th Pennsylvania took on the Confederate cavalry of Brigadier-General Hamilton P. Bee in the Battle of Cane River (also known as “the Affair at Monett’s Ferry” or the “Cane River Crossing”).

Responding to a barrage from the Confederate’s twenty-pound Parrott guns and raking fire from enemy troops situated near a bayou and on a bluff, 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 in Emory’s command 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 had happened to the 47th Pennsylvanians during and immediately after making camp at Grand Ecore:

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

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

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

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

Having finally reached Alexandria on 26 April, the 47th Pennsylvanians learned that they would remain at their latest new camp for at least two weeks. Placed temporarily under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Bailey, they were assigned yet again to the hard labor of fortification work, helping to erect “Bailey’s Dam,” a timber structure that enabled Union gunboats to more easily make their way back down the Red River. According to Wharton:

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

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

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

Early next morning we marched through Marksville into a prairie nine miles long and six wide where every preparation was made for a fight. The whole of our force was formed in line, in support of artillery in front, who commenced operations on the enemy driving him gradually from the prairie into the woods. As the enemy retreated before the heavy fire of our artillery, the infantry advanced in line until they reached Mousoula [sic], where they formed in column, taking the whole field in an attempt to flank the enemy, but their running qualities were so good that we were foiled. The maneuvring [sic] of the troops was handsomely done, and the movements was [sic] one of the finest things of the war. The fight of artillery was a steady one of five miles. The enemy merely stood that they might cover the retreat of their infantry and train under cover of their artillery. Our loss was slight. Of the rebels we could not ascertain correctly, but learned from citizens who had secreted themselves during the fight, that they had many killed and wounded, who threw them into wagons, promiscuously, and drove them off so that we could not learn their casualties. The next day we moved to Simmsport [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. While encamped there, the nine formerly enslaved Black men who had enlisted with the 47th Pennsylvania in Beaufort, South Carolina (1862) and Natchitoches, Louisiana (April 1864) were officially mustered into the regiment between 20-24 June 1864. During this same time, Corporal Francis A. Parks was also 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. But the Red River Campaign’s most senior leader, Union Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks, would not. Removed from command amid the controversy regarding the Union Army’s successes and failures, he was placed on leave by President Abraham Lincoln. He later redeemed himself by spending much of his time in Washington, D.C. as a Reconstruction advocate for the people of Louisiana.

Sheridan’s 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign

Still able and willing to fight after their Bayou battles, the soldiers of Company E and their fellow members of the 47th Pennsylvania’s Companies A, C, D, F, H, and I returned to the Washington, D.C. area aboard the U.S. Steamer McClellan beginning 7 July 1864.

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, and assisted in defending Washington, D.C. while also helping to drive Confederate troops from Maryland.

Attached to the Middle Military Division, U.S. 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, and then 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 the Union forces of Major-General Philip H. Sheridan against those commanded by Confederate Lieutenant-General Jubal Early.

From 3-4 September, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers then fought in the Battle of Berryville.

The month of September also saw the departure of several 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, including Company D’s Captain Henry Woodruff, E Company’s Captain Charles H. Yard and Captain Henry S. Harte of F Company. All three mustered out at Berryville, Virginia on 18 September 1864 upon expiration of their respective three-year terms of service. Those members of the 47th who remained on duty were about to engage in their regiment’s greatest moments of valor.

Battles of Opequan and Fisher’s Hill, September 1864

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

The 47th Pennsylvania’s march toward destiny at Opequan began at 2 a.m. on 19 September 1864 as the regiment left camp and joined up with others in the Union’s 19th Corps (XIX Corps). Advancing slowly from Berryville toward Winchester, the 19th Corps became bogged down for several hours by the massive movement of Union troops and supply wagons, enabling Early’s men to dig in. Finally reaching the Opequan Creek, Sheridan’s men came face to face with Early’s Confederate Army.

The fighting, which began in earnest at noon, was long and brutal. The Union’s left flank (6th Corps) took a beating from Confederate artillery stationed on high ground.

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

The 19th Corps, with the 47th in the thick of the fighting, then began pushing the Confederates back. Early’s “grays” retreated in the face of the valor displayed by Sheridan’s “blue jackets.” Leaving twenty-five hundred wounded behind, the Rebels retreated to Fisher’s Hill, eight miles south of Winchester (21-22 September), and then to Waynesboro, following a successful early morning flanking attack by Sheridan’s Union men which outnumbered Early’s three to one. Afterward, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were sent out on skirmishing parties before making camp at Cedar Creek.

Moving forward, the surviving members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers would continue to distinguish themselves in battle, but they would do so without two of their senior and most respected commanders: Colonel Tilghman H. Good and Good’s second-in-command, Lieutenant-Colonel George Alexander, who mustered out 23-24 September upon the expiration of their respective terms of service. Fortunately, they were replaced with leaders who were equally respected for their front-line experience and temperament, including Major John Peter Shindel Gobin, formerly of the 47th’s Company C, who had been promoted up through the regimental staff and would be promoted again on 4 November to the rank of lieutenant-colonel and regimental commanding officer.

Battle of Cedar Creek, 19 October 1864

During the fall of 1864, Major-General Sheridan began the first of the Union’s true “scorched earth” campaigns, starving the enemy into submission by destroying Virginia’s farming infrastructure. Viewed through today’s lens of history as inhumane, the strategy claimed many innocents — civilians whose lives were cut short by their inability to find food. This same strategy, however, almost certainly contributed to the further turning of the war’s tide in the Union’s favor during the Battle of Cedar Creek on 19 October 1864. Successful throughout most of their engagement with Union forces at Cedar Creek, Early’s Confederate troops began peeling off in ever growing numbers to forage for food, thus enabling the 47th Pennsylvania and others under Sheridan’s command to rally and win the day.

From a military standpoint, it was another impressive, but heartrending day. During the morning of 19 October, Early launched a surprise attack directly on Sheridan’s Cedar Creek-encamped forces. Early’s men were able to capture Union weapons while freeing a number of Confederates who had been taken prisoner during previous battles — all while pushing seven Union divisions back. According to Bates:

When the Army of West Virginia, under Crook, was surprised and driven from its works, the Second Brigade, with the Forty-seventh on the right, was thrown into the breach to arrest the retreat…. Scarcely was it in position before the enemy came suddenly upon it, under the cover of fog. The right of the regiment was thrown back until it was almost a semi-circle. The brigade, only fifteen hundred strong, was contending against Gordon’s entire division, and was forced to retire, but, in comparative good order, exposed, as it was, to raking fire. Repeatedly forming, as it was pushed back, and making a stand at every available point, it finally succeeded in checking the enemy’s onset, when General Sheridan suddenly appeared upon the field, who ‘met his crest-fallen, shattered battalions, without a word of reproach, but joyously swinging his cap, shouted to the stragglers, as he rode rapidly past them – “Face the other way, boys! We are going back to our camp! We are going to lick them out of their boots!’”

The Union’s counterattack punched Early’s forces into submission, and the men of the 47th were commended for their heroism by General Stephen Thomas who, in 1892, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his own “distinguished conduct in a desperate hand-to-hand encounter, in which the advance of the enemy was checked” that day. Bates described the 47th’s actions:

When the final grand charge was made, the regiment moved at nearly right angles with the rebel front. The brigade charged gallantly, and the entire line, making a left wheel, came down on his flank, while engaging the Sixth Corps, when he went “whirling up the valley” in confusion. In the pursuit to Fisher’s Hill, the regiment led, and upon its arrival was placed on the skirmish line, where it remained until twelve o’clock noon of the following day. The army was attacked at early dawn…no respite was given to take food until the pursuit was ended.

Once again, the casualties for the 47th were high. Although Regimental Chaplain William Rodrock suffered only the terror of a near miss when a bullet pierced his cap, Sergeant William Pyers, the C Company man who had so gallantly rescued the flag at Pleasant Hill, was cut down in full view of his drummer boy son. He was subsequently buried on the battlefield, near where he fell, as were Sergeant Francis A. Parks and Private Marcus Berksheimer.

Company E’s Corporal Edward W. Menner and Privates Andrew Burk, John Kunker, Owen Moser, Jacob Ochs, and John Peterson were wounded in action. Kunker, Menner, Moser, Ochs, and Peterson survived but Private Burk, who had sustained gunshot wounds to the head and upper right arm and had initially been declared killed in action by mistake, was shipped from one hospital to another in an attempt to save his life. Treated first at a field hospital following the battle, he was then sent to the Union Army’s post hospital at Winchester where, on 13 December 1864, he underwent surgery to remove bone matter from his brain. He was then shipped to the Union Army’s General Hospital at Frederick, Maryland, where he died two days before Christmas (on 23 December 1864) from phthisis, a chronic wasting away from disease-related complications (often tubercular) commonly suffered by soldiers convalescing in hospitals after being severely wounded in battle.

* Note: With respect to the survivors, it is worth noting that, in many instances, the experience of being wounded during intense combat resulted in long-term physical and/or mental health struggles. Private Reuben Golio was reportedly absent and sick at muster out, and Private Jacob Ochs, who had finally recuperated enough from being shot in the foot at Cedar Creek to be discharged from the Union Army’s General Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland on a surgeon’s certificate of disability on 19 June 1865, ended his life by suicide in 1884.

Still others, who had been captured by Confederate troops during the battle, were held as prisoners of war (POWs). Some survived their ordeal, but many did not. Corporal James Huff, who had been wounded in action and captured by Confederates during the Battle of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana just six months earlier, was captured again by Rebels during the Battle of Cedar Creek. Marched to the notorious Confederate Army prison camp at Salisbury, North Carolina, he died there as a POW on 5 March 1865. Corporal Frederick J. Scott died in captivity at Danville, Virginia on 22 February 1865. During his imprisonment, he had been promoted to the rank of, but not mustered as a second lieutenant on 20 March 1865.

Corporal William H. Eichman was one of the “fortunate” ones; wounded in action on 19 October, he was then captured, and held as a prisoner of war until he was released on 11 May 1865. He was honorably mustered out less than a month later — on 1 June 1865. Privates Jacob Haggerty and Henry Beavers were also captured and held as POWs until being released on 1 March and 8 March 1865, respectively. Private Franklin Moser, who was also wounded in action, was then also declared as missing in action following the battle.

Following these major engagements, the 47th was ordered to Camp Russell near Winchester from November through most of December. While stationed there, Private Charles Arnold was accidentally wounded on 23 November 1864; he was discharged seven months later, on 25 June 1865, on a surgeon’s certificate of disability.

Rested and somewhat healed, the 47th was then ordered to Camp Fairview in Charlestown, West Virginia, in order to bring an end to the guerrilla attacks that had been damaging the Union’s railroad operations and supply distribution efforts in the region. Five days before Christmas, they trudged through a snowstorm in order to reach their new home.

1865 — 1866

On New Year’s Day, First Sergeant William A. Backman was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant, Sergeant George A. Diehl was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant, and Corporal Adam Ward was promoted to the rank of sergeant. First Lieutenant William A. Backman was promoted again on 15 February 1865 — this time to the rank of captain of Company E. George A. Diehl was also made first lieutenant on that day.

Assigned in February to the Provisional Division of the 2nd Brigade of the U.S. Army of the Shenandoah, the men of the 47th were ordered to move back to the Washington, D.C. area, via Winchester and Kernstown. In March 1865, Private Jacob M. Kerkendall, who had been wounded during the fighting at Fisher’s Hill on 22 September 1864, was wounded again at Charlestown, West Virginia. (He was subsequently discharged on a surgeon’s certificate of disability four months later, on 20 July 1865).

On 19 April 1864, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were once again responsible for helping to defend the nation’s capital — this time following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Encamped near Fort Stevens, they were issued new uniforms and were resupplied with fresh ammunition.

Letters written to family members back home during this time and newspaper interviews that were conducted, post-war, with veterans of the 47th Pennsylvania indicate that at least one 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer was given the high honor of guarding President Lincoln’s funeral train while others may have guarded the key Lincoln assassination conspirators during the early days of their imprisonment and trial, which began on 9 May 1865. During this phase of service, the regiment was headquartered at Camp Brightwood.

While attached to Dwight’s Division of the 2nd Brigade of the U.S.  Department of Washington’s 22nd Corps, the 47th Pennsylvania also participated in the Union’s Grand Review of the National Armies on 23 May.

Reconstruction

Assigned next to a final tour of duty in America’s Deep South, Company E and their fellow 47th Pennsylvanians served in Savannah, Georgia in early June. Attached again to Dwight’s Division, this time they were assigned to the 3rd Brigade, U.S. Department of the South. Taking over for the 165th New York Volunteers in July, they quartered in Charleston, South Carolina at the former mansion of the Confederate Secretary of the Treasury.

Finally, beginning on Christmas day of that year, Private Joseph Slayer and the majority of the men from Company E, 47th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers began to honorably muster out at Charleston, South Carolina, a process which continued through early January. Following a stormy voyage home, the very weary 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers disembarked in New York City, and were then transported to Philadelphia by train where, at Camp Cadwalader on 11 January 1866, Private Slayer was officially given his honorable discharge papers.

Civilian Life — A Mystery Begins

Sometime after his honorable discharge from the military, Joseph Slayer departed forever from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, where he had been employed as a miner prior to the Civil War, and relocated to Zanesville, Ohio, where, according to his 1905 obituary in the Bismarck Tribune, he joined the Grand Army of the Republic (Hazlett Post No. 81).

He may then have relocated briefly to St. Paul, Minnesota sometime around the 1870s or early 1880s, or may simply have had a child and grandchild living there because newspaper reports of his death noted that he had been carrying a photograph with him of a toddler named Robert — a photo which had a “To Grandpa” inscription on it and which indicated that the grandchild, Robert, was a resident of St. Paul in 1892.

By the 1880s, Joseph Slayer had made it as far west as the Dakota Territory — but this was where his life’s journey took a strange twist. Discarding the name he had used in the army, “Joseph Slayer,” he changed his name several times over the next several years, as if he were trying to shed his prior life and all of its associations. Acquaintances he met in the southern part of the Dakota Territory during the early to mid-1880s knew him as “Dead Eye Dick” while others who met him after he had resettled in Bismarck in the northern part of the Dakota Territory knew him as “Eugene McMeeser” or “E. J. McMeeser” (alternate surname spelling” “McNeeser”).

Why Relocate to the Dakota Territory?

According to historian Stephen T. Morgan, “Thousands of former Union Army soldiers settled in Dakota Territory after the Civil War seeking jobs, prosperity, and a new start.

They homesteaded, founded towns, and participated in local affairs. They served in political office and established business enterprises. They carried on Memorial Day traditions and agitated for veterans’ benefits that exist today. Many of these ex-soldiers were active in the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), a fraternal organization that counted several hundred thousand former Union Army soldiers among its members nationwide. In Dakota, as elsewhere, these citizen soldiers shared a common bond of past experience and concern for the future….

The former Union soldiers who constituted the membership of the GAR had come to support the Republican Party during the war for various reasons. Some were convinced that Republicans were committed to order, stability, and preserving the nation. Others joined the party ranks because they were drawn to Abraham Lincoln, who was not only their president but also their commander-in-chief, and they wholeheartedly supported his handling of the war. Still other soldiers were attracted to the favorable stance the Republicans took on abolitionism, a transcontinental railroad, and a homestead act…. Because the Republican party supported land bounties and pensions in return for soldiers’ service, many remained politically loyal to the party.

Factors aside from politics built up the GAR as an organization, as well. Soldiers who had recently left the battlefield sought out others with whom they could share their wartime experiences. The GAR became a source of solidarity and fellowship for veterans, providing these men an opportunity to support one another in readjusting to civilian life or coping with their new disabilities….

The basic organizational structure of the GAR was much like that of other late-nineteenth-century fraternal groups such as the Masons or the Odd Fellows. Like the Masons the GAR had its own initiation rituals and secret orders. Members used secret handgrips, passwords, and a procedure for admission into the “post room” at their meetings. While the Masons built temples for their meeting places … the GAR built memorial halls with post rooms decorated in a particular fashion. On the walls hung portraits of famous generals, flags, and photographs or maps of major battles. In some GAR halls, a library of war books or Civil War memorabilia formed part of the post room attire. In many halls, the focal point was a coffin overlaid with an American flag, crossed sabers, and a Bible. In later years, altars were added….

The establishment and growth of the GAR in Dakota Territory coincided with the Great Dakota Boom years of the 1880s, when cheap land, favorable weather, and railroad development drew tens of thousands of settlers to the territory…. About one-quarter of the veterans who settled in Dakota during the decade received scrip certificates for land as part of their compensation for serving in the Civil War. Union veterans could also settle and claim ownership of 160 acres of land, just as civilian farmers were allowed under the Homestead Act.

Heading Into a New Century

By the time that the United States conducted its special census of Civil War veterans in Bismarck in June 1890, Joseph Slayer was so comfortable fusing parts of his old and new lives together that he was convincingly documented by a federal census enumerator that year as “Eugene McMeeser,” a veteran who had served as a private with Company E of the 47th Pennsylvania Infantry from 9 September 1861 until 11 January 1866.

He was also documented that same year (1890) as having rheumatism so severe that he was “at times confined at home.”

By late winter of the following year, his health had worsened to the extent that he felt that he needed to file for a U.S. Civil War Pension, which he did, from North Dakota, on 28 March 1891 — but he did so as “Joseph Slayer” — the name under which he had first enrolled for military service in Northampton County, Pennsylvania in September 1861. Apparently his application process went relatively smoothly because he was ultimately awarded that pension — which would likely not have happened as quickly (or possibly even at all) if U.S. Pension Bureau officials had been unable to verify his identity and match it to his existing military service records.

Illness, Death and Interment

As his health continued to decline during the late 1890s and early 1900s, Joseph Slayer (aka “E. J. McMeeser”) developed heart disease. On 1 November 1904, he was diagnosed with angina pectoris (chest pain that was likely caused by coronary artery disease) by his personal physician, Dr. F. R. Smyth, M.D.

Despite this illness, he still managed to secure a U.S. patent for one of his inventions — a napkin holder on 22 December 1904 (U.S. Patent No. 747,647; patent holder: Eugene J. McMeeser, Bismarck, North Dakota). Having submitted his first application for the device on 1 April 1903, it had taken him more than a year to see his vision approved.

Less than a month after that success, he was gone, having passed away in Bismarck, North Dakota on 12 or 13 January 1905. According to a report in the Bismarck Tribune on Saturday, 14 January 1905, Slayer was “Found Cold in Death”:

At an early hour last evening E. J. McNeezer [sic, McMeeser], an old resident, was found lying on the floor of his room, cold in death.

Mr. McNeezer [sic] had been visiting for some time past and neighbors had taken a kindly interest in him and had shown him many kindnesses.

They had last seen him Thursday evening as he had carried coal into his house and fearing he had taken a change for the worse, went over to investigate. The doors were found locked. Apprehension was then thoroughly aroused and Night Patrolman Thompson summoned.

The latter, accompanied by Sheriff Welch visited and forcibly entered the house and found the deceased, who was adjudged to have been dead many hours. The body was cold and stiff.

He had evidently arisen from the couch on which he slept near the stove to replenish the fire and before accomplishing his object death is supposed to have overtaken him.

He lay with his feet close to the couch and his head close to the door.

A coroner’s inquest will be held at 10 o’clock today.

The next day, the publisher of the Bismarck Tribune provided the following update for the newspaper’s Sunday readers:

Joseph Slayer, always known as E. J. McNeeser [sic, McMeeser], and long a resident of this city was found dead in his room Friday evening [13 January 1905] where he had lain on the floor since death overtook him, presumably early Friday morning or late Thursday night. The body was cold and stiff indicating the length of time that it had lain there. The lamp and the fire had burned out, making further indications of many hours since death.

He had been ailing for several months and neighbors who had been assisting him in many ways missed him. Officers were summoned and he was found as described.

At a coroner’s inquest held yesterday it was decided that he came to his death by a second attack of angina pectoris, an affection of the heart. Dr. F. R. Smyth, who had attended him when he was first taken ill was called in and testified that at the time of his professional visits to the deceased, about November 1st, that the above named was his ailment and that he was not surprised to hear of his sudden death.

It was during that coroner’s investigation that the good citizens of Bismarck realized that they had been the unwitting participants in a real-life mystery that remains as puzzling and engrossing today as the opening chapters of any Sherlock Holmes whodunnit.

They ultimately learned, through a series of news reports, that the man they had known as Eugene J. McMeeser was actually Joseph Slayer, who had been born in Philadelphia, had served with the Union Army during the Civil War as a member of Company E of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry from 1861 until he was honorably discharged in Philadelphia in 1865, and had then made his way to Bismarck by way of Zanesville, Ohio sometime after the war.

Arriving in the Dakota Territory during the early to mid-1880s, he “was for a time in the southern part of the state,” according to his Bismarck Tribune obituary, which was “where he [was] said by others to have been known as ‘Dead Eye Dick,’ a nick name which was probably attached to him owing to his having lost the sight of one eye.”

By the time he had moved north to Bismarck during the late 1880s, he was introducing himself as “E. J. McMeeser” (alternate spelling: “McNeeser”) — a name that was entered for him onto the membership rosters of the James B. McPherson Post No. 2 of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) when he joined that chapter on 9 September 1890.

Sometime that same year (1890), he wed Mary Catherine Sarvis (circa 1850-1897), a native of Newburgh, Orange County, New York who had been a resident of Bismarck since 1885. She took the married surname of McMeeser (alternate spelling: “McNeeser”), evidently not realizing that her husband’s true name was Joseph Slayer.

Their union was not a long one, however; she died at their home in Bismarck on 21 March 1897, and was interred at Saint Marys Cemetery in Bismarck.

As the coroner and his investigators continued their efforts to solve the unexpected mystery on their hands, they found a stack of letters and other paperwork in Joseph Slayer’s house (letters “from Geo. Gibson at Billings, Mont., letters from patent attorneys, [Slayer] having been an inventive genius and also a letter from Jessie Sarvis, Crow Valley, Orange county, New York, supposedly his deceased wife’s sister,” according to the Bismarck Tribune).

The only thing that was found that would indicate that he had living relatives was a photo of a little boy which was incased [sic, encased] in a celluloid frame. On the frame were the words ‘Robert, aged 3½ years.’ On the back of the same were the words ‘Merry Christmas to Grandpa’ and date St. Paul, December 25, ’92. The photo was taken by Essery of that city.

Why he should have been living under what seems to have been an assumed name is a mystery as he has always been a most retiring man since coming here and one of very industrious habits, living his own quiet life and making few if any intimate friends. He was always spoken of by those who had employed him as a most conscientious workman.

Funeral and Interment

On Sunday 15 January 1905, Joseph Hare, commander of the Bismarck chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic published a notice in the Bismarck Tribune, encouraging his chapter’s members to “meet at Webb’s parlors at 1:30” in order to attend the funeral of “E. J. McNeeser” as a group.

That funeral was held at the Catholic Church in Bismarck, North Dakota at 2 p.m. on Sunday, 15 January 1905. He was then laid to rest at that city’s Saint Mary’s Cemetery. The Bismarck Tribune subsequently published a brief report about the funeral, saying:

The remains of Jos. Slayer were laid to rest Sunday afternoon, the services being held at the Catholic church. Besides the G.A.R. of which he was a comrade, there were many to pay a last tribute.

His military headstone at Saint Mary’s Cemetery in Bismarck was carved using his true name, Joseph Slayer, and still stands as a testament to his service to the nation as a member of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers’ E Company.

Bismarck city officials evidently made a significant effort to locate surviving family members of Joseph Slayer, but were either unable to make contact with those survivors, or were told by the survivors that they were not interested in becoming involved in the probate of Joseph Slayer’s estate because those authorities in Bismarck held off on disposing of his personal effects for nine months, presumably to allow time for investigators to locate Joseph Slayer’s grandson.

As a result of that failed search, “a private sale of the effects of E. J. McMeezer, deceased” finally took place during the afternoon of 16 September 1905 at the corner of “Mandan and Rosser streets,” according to the Bismarck Tribune — leaving the full mystery of what actually happened to Joseph Slayer in the years before and after the American Civil War still largely unsolved.

* Researchers for 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers: One Civil War Regiment’s Story are continuing the search for more details about Joseph Slayer’s life, and hope to purchase copies of his U.S. Civil War military and pension files from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, which will likely provide crucial details about his birth, his family life before the war and his work life and travels after the war. You can help support this research by making a donation to this project on our website’s secure donations page.

 

Sources:

1. Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, vol. 1. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.
2. “Found Cold in Death.” Bismarck, North Dakota: Bismarck Tribune, 14 January 1905.
3. “Funeral Sunday.” Bismarck, North Dakota: Bismarck Tribune, 17 January 1905.
4. McMeeser, Eugene, in “Eleventh Census of the United States: Special Schedule: Surviving Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines, and Widows, etc.” (Bismarck, Burleigh County, North Dakota, June 1890). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
5. McMeeser, Eugene J., in The Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office, vol. 107, part 2, p. 2025. Washington, D.C.: United States Patent Office, 1903 and 1904.
6. Morgan, Stephen T. Fellow Comrades: The Grand Army of the Republic in South Dakota. Pierre, South Dakota: South Dakota State Historical Society, 2006.
7. “Mystery of Deceased: Man Found Dead in His Room Yesterday Always Known by the Name of E. J. McNeeser: His Real Name Was Joseph Slayer and the Reason for the Change Is Not Known: Evidence of Family in the East Has Been Found—Served Through Civil War.” Bismarck, North Dakota: Bismarck Tribune, 15 September 1905.
8. “Notice to G.A.R. Comrades” (instructions for attending the funeral of E. J. McNeeser). Bismarck, North Dakota: Bismarck Tribune, 15 January 1905.
9. “Private Sale.” Bismarck, North Dakota: Bismarck Tribune, 15 September 1905.
10. Schmidt, Lewis. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1986.
11. Slayer, Joseph, in Civil War Veterans Card File, 1861-1866 (Company E, 47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
12. Slayer, Joseph, in Civil War Muster Rolls, 1861-1865 (Company E, 47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
13. Slayer, Joseph, in. U.S. Civil War Pension General Index Cards (application no.: 1008733, certificate no.: 867431, filed by the veteran from North Dakota, 28 March 1891). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.