Alternate Spellings of Surname: Minich, Minnich, Minnick

 

A carriage trimmer by the time he was a young man, Samuel B. Minnich was only just beginning to understand who he was before his life was snuffed out on a battlefield far from the arms of loved ones.

Formative Years

Born in Pennsylvania circa 1841, Samuel B. Minnich (circa 1841-1862; alternate spelling of surname: “Minnick”) was a son of native Pennsylvanians Peter Minnich (1811-1854) and Hannah L. (Falstick) Minnich (1816-1873).

In 1850, Samuel Minnich resided in the Borough of Easton in Northampton County, Pennsylvania with his parents and his older brother, William J. Minnich (1835-1918), who had been born in Rittersville, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania on 7 October 1835 and would later wed Caroline Amelia Fritz (1835-1921) in 1860. Their father was employed as a carpenter.

* Note: According to the birth and baptismal records of the First United Church of Christ in Easton, Pennsylvania, Peter and Hannah Minnich also had a third son, Edmund Owin Minnich, who had been born on 15 March 1838 and had been baptized at the First Church in Easton on 1 May of that same year. Researchers for 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers: One Civil War Regiment’s Story have not yet confirmed what happened to that child, but theorize that he may have died sometime prior to 1850 because his name is not listed as one of Hannah’s children on records of either the 1850 or 1860 federal census.

Sadly, tragedy struck the Minnich family six days before Christmas in 1854 when the family’s patriarch, Peter Minnich, died at the age of forty-three in Easton (on 19 December 1854). Following funeral services, he was laid to rest at the Easton Heights Cemetery in Easton.

By 1860, Samuel and his brother were still living at home in Easton’s West Ward with their mother, Hannah, who was employed as a seamstress and owned real estate and personal property valued at one thousand one hundred and fifty dollars (the equivalent of roughly forty-seven thousand U.S. dollars in 2026). William was employed as a joiner, while Samuel worked as a carriage trimmer.

But the lives of the Minnichs and others across Easton were about to be upended as their nation was struck by a worrisome secession crisis.

American Civil War

Two days before President Abraham Lincoln issued his 15 April 1861 call for volunteers to defend the nation’s capital (following the fall of Fort Sumter to Confederate forces), residents of the counties of Lehigh and Northampton in Pennsylvania “called a public meeting at Easton ‘to consider the posture of affairs and to take measures for the support of the National Government,’” according to Alfred Mathews and Austin N. Hungerford, authors of History of the Counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Worried about the worsening relations between America’s North and South, the citizens voted to establish and equip an entirely new military unit, one that would be readied for duty as quickly as possible — a decision that proved to be remarkably prescient.

Several of the men in attendance that evening, including Charles Heckman and Samuel Yohe, had already begun recruiting local militia members and other volunteers to fulfill that charge and protect the nation’s capital if needed. Yohe, the owner-operator of a local distillery, mill and store in Easton who had also served his community as an associate judge, county treasurer and prothonotary, was the commanding officer of the Washington Grays, an Easton-based militia unit. The same day that President Lincoln called for volunteer troops, those same community leaders reached out to Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin to volunteer the support of their local recruits to the Keystone State and nation.

Three days later, the Minnich family and other Easton residents watched the Washington Grays leave hearth and home in response to President Lincoln’s request for help. Although they were successful in preventing Rebel troops from entering Washington, D.C. during their Three Months’ Service, the secession crisis continued to deepen, propelling the formerly United States into a full-blown, disastrous civil war.

Realizing that he could no longer “sit on the sidelines” when his nation desperately needed his help, Samuel B. Minnich decided to join the fight. After enrolling for military service in Easton on 9 September 1861, he traveled by train to the city of Harrisburg in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, where he officially mustered in for duty at Camp Curtin on 16 September as a private with Company E of the newly-formed 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Military records at the time described him as a twenty-year-old coach trimmer and resident of Easton who was five feet, three and one-half inches tall with light hair, blue eyes and a light complexion.

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

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

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

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

Nine more men mustered into E Company on 19 September (with another, James Huff, joining as a private on 1 November for a total of ninety-three — a number that remained static until 1862). Also according to Schmidt, the men of E Company were issued:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On 11 October, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers marched in a Grand Review at Bailey’s Cross Roads. In a mid-October letter sent to his family back in Pennsylvania, Captain John Peter Shindel Gobin (the leader of C Company who would be promoted in 1864 to lead the entire 47th Regiment) reported that companies D, A, C, F and I (the 47th Pennsylvania’s right wing) were ordered to picket duty after the left wing companies (B, G, K, E, and H) had been forced to return to camp by Confederate troops. In his letter of 13 October, Henry Wharton described their duties, as well as their new home:

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

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

On Friday morning, 22 October 1861, the 47th engaged in a divisional review, described by Schmidt as massing “about 10,000 infantry, 1000 cavalry, and twenty pieces of artillery all in one big open field.” Less than a month later, in his letter of 17 November, Henry Wharton revealed more details about life at Camp Griffin:

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

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

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

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

On 20 November, Private Samuel Minnich and his fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers marched in The Grand Review of the Army of the Potomac at Bailey’s Crossroads, Virginia. According to National Portrait Gallery historian James Barber:

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

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

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

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

The next day, according to Schmidt, the regiment participated in a morning divisional headquarters review that was overseen by the regiment’s commanding officer, Colonel Tilghman H. Good, followed by brigade and division drills all afternoon. According to Schmidt, “each man was supplied with ten blank cartridges.” Afterward, “Gen. Smith requested Gen. Brannan to inform Col. Good that the 47th was the best regiment in the whole division.” As a reward for their performance — and in preparation for even bigger adventures and honors to come, Brannan obtained brand new Springfield rifles for every member of the 47th Pennsylvania.

1862

Ordered to move from their Virginia encampment back to Maryland, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers left Camp Griffin at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, 22 January 1862. Marching through deep mud with their equipment for three miles in order to reach the railroad station at Falls Church, they were then transported by rail to Alexandria, before sailing the Potomac River aboard the steamship City of Richmond to the Washington Arsenal. While there, they were reequipped before being marched off for dinner and rest at the Soldiers’ Retreat in Washington, D.C.

The next afternoon, the 47th Pennsylvanians hopped aboard cars on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and headed for Annapolis, Maryland. Arriving around 10 p.m., they were assigned quarters in barracks at the United States Naval Academy. They then spent that Friday through Monday (24-27 January 1862) loading their equipment and other supplies onto the steamship Oriental. During that phase of duty, E Company Sergeant John Callahan was reduced to the rank of private (on 25 January).

* Note: Regimental historian Lewis Schmidt was unable to find a definitive explanation for that significant demotion of Sergeant John Callahan on 25 January 1862, but theorized that it may have been an indicator that Sergeant Callahan had either failed to prevent two E Company privates from deserting and evading capture around that same time, or because members of the 47th Pennsylvania had been caught drinking alcohol. (Whatever it was that had unfolded had been serious enough that John Callahan would never again be promoted while serving with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.) 

While all of that was unfolding with Company E, the officers of Company I were also having a serious problem with one of their subordinates that also disrupted the loading of the Oriental. According to Schmidt and letters that were subsequently sent to family members by other 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, those preparations ceased on Monday, 27 January, at 10 a.m. when:

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

After that public shaming, the remaining 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantrymen resumed their duties. Finally finished with the loading of weapons, ammunition, food, and other supplies onto the Oriental by the afternoon of 27 January 1862, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were then ferried to the big steamship by smaller steamers, and began boarding the Oriental for the final time (enlisted men first, followed by their officers). Per the directive of Brigadier-General John Milton Brannan, they then steamed away for the Deep South at 4 p.m. and headed for Florida which, despite its secession from the Union, waa still strategically important to the Union due to the presence of Fort Taylor in Key West and Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas.

Florida and South Carolina

Private Samuel Minnich and his fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers arrived in Key West, Florida and disembarked from the Oriental in early February in 1862. Initially directed to pitch their tents on the beach, they were then assigned to garrison duties at Fort Taylor. During the weekend of Friday, 14 February, the regiment officially introduced its presence to locals by parading through the city’s streets. That Sunday, a number of 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers also attended services at area churches.

They were now diplomats, as well as soldiers. In addition to defending the fort, they were charged with inspiring area residents to support the efforts of the United States government to end the secession crisis and civil war. By April 1862, according to Schmidt, E Company Captain Charles H. Yard had been given command of three regiments that were responsible for “clearing land and cutting roads” and created a “fine military road … cut by the brigade from Fort Taylor directly through the island.”

Drilled daily in heavy artillery and light infantry tactics, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers also continued to work on strengthening the fortifications at Fort Taylor. But as their stay there lingered on, the quality of water available to them for drinking and bathing became increasingly problematic — just as Florida’s punishing heat and humidity worsened. As a result, multiple members of the regiment fell ill with dysentery or typhoid fever. Far too many died. Others lived, but found it harder and harder to perform their duties because they were weakened by the weather or disease.

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

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

* Note: By the time that the month of July had come to an end, Private Samuel Miller’s older brother, William J. Minnich (1835-1918), had made the decision to enlist in the Union Army himself. After enrolling for military service in Easton on 31 July 1862, he reported for duty at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg on 11 August, and was officially mustered in as a corporal with Company K of the 129th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.

Capture of Saint John’s Bluff

During a return expedition to Florida beginning 30 September, the 47th Pennsylvania joined with the 1st Connecticut Battery, 7th Connecticut Infantry, and part of the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry in assaulting Confederate forces at their heavily protected camp at Saint John’s Bluff overlooking the Saint John’s River area.

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

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

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

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

Integration of the Regiment

Meanwhile, back at its South Carolina base of operations, the 47th Pennsylvania was making history as it became an integrated regiment. On 5 and 15 October 1862, respectively, the regiment added to its muster rolls several young Black men who had endured plantation enslavement in the Beaufort vicinity, including sixteen-year-old Abraham Jassum, twenty-two-year-old Edward Jassum and thirty-three-year-old Bristor Gethers — all of whom would go on to successfully complete their three-year periods of enlistment and be honorably discharged in October 1865.

Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina

From 21-23 October, under the brigade and regimental commands of Colonel Tilghman H. Good and Lieutenant-Colonel George Warren Alexander, members of the 47th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry joined with other Union regiments to engage the heavily protected Confederate forces in and around Pocotaligo, South Carolina.

Harried by snipers en route to the Pocotaligo Bridge, which had been targeted for destruction during that expedition (in order to further disrupt the Confederacy’s ability to transport troops and ammunition), they met resistance from an entrenched, heavily fortified Confederate battery that opened fire on the Union troops as they entered an open cotton field.

Those headed toward higher ground at the Frampton Plantation fared no better as they encountered artillery and infantry fire from the surrounding forests. But the Union soldiers would not give in; grappling with Rebels wherever they met them, they pursued the enemy for four miles as the Confederate Army retreated to the bridge. Once there, the 47th Pennsylvania relieved the 7th Connecticut. Unfortunately, the enemy was just too well armed. After two hours of intense fighting in an unsuccesful attempt to take the ravine and bridge, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were finally forced to withdraw by their depleted ammunition, and retreated to Mackay’s Point.

Losses for the regiment were particularly high. Captain Charles Mickley of G Company was killed, and Captain George Junker of Company K was mortally wounded. Multiple enlisted men were also killed in action, including E Company Private Samuel B. Minnich.

His burial location remains unidentified.

* Note: Private Samuel B. Minnich was buried somewhere in South Carolina, possibly near where he fell during the Battle of Pocotaligo, initially, or near the Union Army’s general hospital on Hilton Head Island, where wounded members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry were taken for treatment after the battle. (Members of the regiment who did not survive surgery or died while recovering from their wounds were reportedly buried near that hospital’s cemetery. Although the remains of many of those men were later exhumed and reinterred at the Beaufort National Cemetery in Beaufort, South Carolina as part of the federal government’s large-scale reburial of Union soldiers at national cemeteries, some were never removed from their initial burial sites while many others were reinterred in graves as “unknown” soldiers because their remains could no longer be identified. It is possible, therefore, that Private Samuel Minnich is either still buried somewhere on Hilton Head Island or remains at rest in one of the unknown soldiers’ graves at Beaufort National Cemetery.)

What Happened to the Family of Samuel Minnich?

Roughly a month after the death of Private Samuel B. Minnich, his brother, Corporal William J. Minnich, was honorably discharged near Falmouth, Virginia on 28 November 1862, per a directive that was issued by Union General Daniel Butterfield. Researchers theorize that William Minnich’s discharge was ordered for compassionate reasons because William was now the only surviving son of Hannah L. (Falstick) Minnich (1816-1873), a widow, and was needed at home.

Roughly, one month after that, Hannah (Falstick) Minnich filed for a U.S. Civil War mother’s pension on 21 December 1863. That federal pension was subsequently awarded to her, following the review of her application materials by U.S. Pension Bureau officials, in recognition of the death of her son in combat. She then continued to make a life for herself in Easton, and went on to survive her husband by nearly two decades and to survive her son, Samuel, by nearly eleven years. She died at the age of fifty-seven in Easton, on 6 September 1873. Following funeral services, she was laid to rest beside her husband at the Easton Heights Cemetery in Easton.

Following his marriage to Caroline Amelia Fritz (1835-1921) circa 1860, Samuel B. Minnich’s older brother, William J. Minnich (1835-1918), settled with her in Easton, where they became the parents of: Peter Edwin Minnich (1861-1902), who was born on 13 February 1861 and would later wed Sarah Catharine Buttner in Easton on 28 November 1894; William Henry Minnich (1862-1942), who was born on 8 March 1862 and would later wed Catherine T. Breisch (1868-1940) circa 1891; Mary Belle Minnich (1864-1886), who was born on 25 November 1864, became known to family and friends as “Mamie” and would later wed Albert Piatt (1858-1889) in 1885 but would then die at the age of twenty-one on 10 March 1886; George Forrest Minnich (1866-1941), who was born on 22 March 1866 and would later wed Lizzie Mae Grawitz (1868-1958); Ida Minnich (1868-1915), who was born on 22 January 1868 and would later wed William E. Heath in Warren County, New Jersey on 2 September 1891; and Samuel Titus Minnich (1869-1904), who was born on 27 September 1869 and would later wed Mame E. Lynch in Easton on 2 July 1892.

A working carpenter in 1870, William J. Minnich resided in Easton’s West Ward that year with his wife, Amelia, and their children: Peter, William, Mary, Forrest, Ida, and nine-month old Samuel, the namesake of William’s younger brother who had been killed in the Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina in 1862. More children soon followed: Howard Edmund Minnich (1872-1922), who was born on 25 March 1872 and would later wed Carrie Luella Wieand (1873-1940) in Allentown on 15 June 1893; and Davis Daniel Minnich (1873-1943), who was born on 7 June 1873 and would grow up to become a piano teacher and church organist in Allentown, as well as the husband of Jennie C. Weidner (1875-1954); and Caroline Amelia Minnich (1880-1936), who was born circa January 1880 (alternate birth date: 1 November 1880) and would later wed James P. Wright (1877-1940) circa 1906.

Still employed as a carpenter during the summer of 1880, William J. Minnich resided at 220 South Sixth Street in Easton’s Fifth Ward with his wife, Amelia, and their children: Peter; William, who was employed as a clerk at a brush store; Mary, George, Ida, Samuel, Howard, and Daniel, who were all enrolled in the public school system; and Caroline Amelia Minnich, who was just six months old.

In 1900, however, his Fifth Ward household had dwindled to include just his wife and daughter. That year would prove to be a memorable one for William J. Minnich and his fellow Civil War veterans, thanks to the unveiling and dedication of the Northampton County Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in Easton on 11 May 1900. The day began with the firing of cannon at sunrise. Later that morning, wizened members of the Grand Army of the Republic sat down with old friends for breakfast in hotels and restaurants across the city. That afternoon, local and state officials, active duty soldiers, veterans of the American Civil War and their descendants, school students, and members of the Allentown Band, Fullerton Drum Corps and other marching bands made their way to their designated meeting places in preparation for a parade with roughly five thousand participants who stepped forward at 2 p.m. and marched through the city’s streets to Easton’s Grand Square, where the monument was then unveiled after multiple orators addressed the excited crowd during formal dedication ceremonies.

Later that same evening, “a campfire was held in the Easton Opera House and a military ball was given by the Sons of Veterans, followed by a reception to Governor and Mrs. Stone and the commissioned officers of the Thirteenth Regiment by General and Mrs. Reeder,” according to The Allentown Leader. Adjutant General Stewart presided over the campfire meeting, which featured speeches by the governor, Easton’s mayor and several senior officers of the Grand Army of the Republic. And then Lieutenant Governor John Peter Shindel Gobin, the final commanding officer of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry (Samuel B. Minnich’s former regiment), made a special appearance at the military ball. By day’s end, roughly thirty thousand people from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and other parts of the United States had joined in or witnessed the parade, monument dedication and evening’s gala events, according to The Allentown Democrat.

Afterward, William J. Minnich returned to his carpentry projects. By 1910, he and his wife, Amelia, were “empty nesters,” but were still living in their home at 220 South Sixth Street. Federal census records show that he was still a working carpenter that year. But he soon began to decline cognitively. Eventually diagnosed as “senile,” he died at the age of eighty-two in Easton, on 5 September 1918, and was also laid to rest at the Easton Heights Cemetery in Easton.

 

Sources:

1. Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, vol. 1. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.
2. Bordewich, Fergus M. “Fort Sumter: The Civil War Begins,” in Smithsonian Magazine, April 2011. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
3. Condit, Uzal. The History of Easton, Penn’a from the Earliest Times to the Present, 1738-1885. Easton, Pennsylvania: E. W. West, 1885.
4. “D. Davis Minnich” (obituary of a nephew of Samuel B. Minnich and a son of William J. Minnich). Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Morning Call, 16 March 1943.
5. Dyer, Frederick H. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, p. 1589. Des Moines, Iowa: The Dyer Publishing Company, 1908.
6. “Easton’s Big Day: Over 30,000 Strangers Attend the Unveiling of the Soldiers’ Monument.” Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania: The Wilkes-Barre Record, 11 May 1900.
7. “Easton’s Monument: Unveiled Yesterday with Patriotic Pomp.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Daily Leader, 11 May 1900.
8. Edmund Owin Minich [sic, “Minnich”] (an older brother of Samuel B. Minnich) and Peter and Hannah (parents), in Birth and Baptismal Records (First United Church of Christ, Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, date of birth: 15 March 1838, baptism: 1 May 1838). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
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10. Grodzins, Dean and David Moss. “The U.S. Secession Crisis as a Breakdown of Democracy,” in When Democracy Breaks: Studies in Democratic Erosion and Collapse, from Ancient Athens to the Present Day (chapter 3). New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 2024.
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12. Howard E. Minnich (the groom, who was a nephew of Samuel B. Minnich and a son of William J. Minnich) and William J. Minnich (father of the groom); and Carrie L. Wieand (the bride) and Elizabeth Wieand (mother of the bride), in “Marriage License Docket of Lehigh County, PA.” (Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, datw of marriage: 15 June 1893). Allentown, Pennsylvania: Clerk of the Orphans’ Court of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania).
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19. Minnich, William J. (an older brother of Samuel B. Minnich), Hannah (Samuel and William Minnich’s mother) and Samuel, in U.S. Census (Easton, West Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1860). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
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22. Minnich, William J. (an older brother of Samuel B. Minnich), Amelia, Peter E., William H., Mary B., George F., Ida, Samuel (William J. Minnich’s son), Howard E., and Amelia E. (daughter), in U.S. Census (Easton, Fifth Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1880). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
23. Minnich, William J. (an older brother of Samuel B. Minnich), Carolina A. [sic, “Amelia”] and Carolina [sic, “Amelia”] (daughter), in U.S. Census (Easton, Fifth Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1900). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
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27. “Northampton’s Monument Is Unveiled at Easton: Great Throngs from All Sections Participate in the Big Celebration.” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Philadelphia Inquirer, 11 May 1900.
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29. “Roster of the 47th P. V. Inf.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Morning Call, 26 October 1930.
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32. Samuel Minnick [sic, “Minnich”], in “The Killed and Wounded in the Battle.” New York, New York: The New York Herald, 29 October 1862.
33. Samuel T. Minnich (the groom, who was a nephew of Samuel B. Minnich and a son of William J. Minnich) and Mame E. Lynch (the bride), in Marriage Records (Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, date of marriage: 2 July 1892). Easton, Pennsylvania: Clerk of the Orphans’ Court of Northampton County, Pennsylvania.
34. Schmidt, Lewis. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1986.
35. “The History of the Forty-Seventh Regt. P. V.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Lehigh Register, 20 July 1870.
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39. William J. Minnich (an older brother of Samuel B. Minnich, in Death Certificates (file no.: 100123, registered no.: 543, date of death: 5 September 1918). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.