“No one knew Catasauqua or Catasauquans better than he. A lifelong resident of the Iron Borough, his activities were related to its industrial, social and political life for almost three quarters of a century…. Through his memory he could picture Catasauquans of any of the four generations through which he lived, their characteristics and peculiarities. As a historian his great memory served as a storehouse of fact and knowledge of men and families, their romances, joys and sorrows.”

— The Morning Call, 14 June 1929

 

Formative Years

Born on 12 February 1839 on the estate of his grandfather Christian Swartz (alternate given name: “John”) in Dry Run, Pennsylvania, which was located approximately one mile north of the community of Catasauqua in Lehigh County, William Henry Glace was a son of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania native Samuel Glace (1805-1892) and Northampton County, Pennsylvania native Isabella S. (Swartz) Glace (1814-1880), and the maternal grandson of Dry Run native John Glace, who was a great-grandson of John Jacob Mickley, one of the American Revolutionary War Patriots who helped to prevent the troops of British General William Howe from capturing one of the United States of America’s most beloved symbols — the Liberty Bell.

By the early 1840s, William Glace was residing in the Lehigh County village of Craneville (now known as the Borough of Catasauqua). It was there that his younger sister, Amanda E. Glace (1843-1925), was born on 27 March 1843. William and his sister subsequently grew up in relative ease and comfort and were both well educated because their father, Samuel, was employed by the Lehigh Canal company as the superintendent of a heavily traveled segment of the canal system that was located between the Allentown and Laurys dams on the Lehigh River.

Educated in the public schools of Lehigh County, William Glace went on to attend, and graduate from, the Wyoming Seminary, a private college that was founded by the Methodist Church in the town of Kingston in Northampton County, Pennsylvania in 1844.

As a result, he became an eyewitness, during his childhood, to canal boats moving coal, food, clothing, lumber, and other goods along the Lehigh River to and from destinations throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania — and beyond. He also “saw the men who marched away to the Mexican war in 1847,” as well as a major fire that broke out in Allentown in 1848, according to that city’s Morning Call newspaper. By 1850, he “was employed in the offices of David Thompson, pioneer iron maker, as a letter copyist.”

In 1855 he was employed as an interpreter for engineers who laid out the Catasauqua and Fogelsville railroad. The same year he saw the first train on the Lehigh Valley railroad enter Catasauqua. In 1859 he was employed at Charleston, S.C., and saw slaves bought and sold.

According to historians James Franklin Lambert and Henry J. Reinhard, William Glace “had secured employment as entry clerk in the wholesale house of Thayer Dewing & Co.”

While engaged here, he saw the weekly sales of slaves in an enclosed yard adjoining Broad Street, the thoroughfare of the city, and he observed the secret preparations that were made there for “The Conflict.” A U.S. Arsenal was located in this prominent place, which was being filled with munitions of war by the then Secretary of War under President Buchanan. Great numbers of open boxes with rifles were carried there and this performance at the national depository attracted much public attention.

In reality, the company that employed William Henry Glace was far more than just a “wholesale house.” Thayer, Dewing & Co. was actively engaged in the practice of buying and selling enslaved women and their children — as was documented by a notice in the 28 September 1859 edition of South Carolina’s Edgefield Advertiser in which a South Carolina sheriff (“Jas. Eidson”), announced that he would “proceed to sell at Edgefield Court House, on the first Monday and Tuesday in October next, the following property, in the following cases”:

Thayer, Dewing & Co., vs. E. J. Youngblood & other Plaintiffs severally vs. the same, The following Negro slaves, viz.: Nan and her four children, Richard, Henry, Moses and an infant child Scipio; Mary and her two children, Bobb and Lew; Isaac, Norman, Ned; Sealey and her four children, William, Butler, Mariah and Dealey; Chaney and her two children, Richmond and Sam; Archy and John.

“Realizing that a conflict between the North and South was apparently imminent, Mr. Glace determined to return home while he could do so without embarrassment,” and did so sometime before the start of the American Civil War, according to historians Lambert and Reinhard — an assertion that is supported by the federal census of 1860, which was conducted on Catasauqua on 3 July that year and reported that William Glace and his sister were both residing at the home of their parents. That same census also noted that William’s father, Samuel Glace, was the “boss” of an “iron works” and owned real estate and personal property valued at five thousand dollars (the equivalent of roughly one hundred and twenty-four thousand U.S. dollars in 2025).

* Note: William H. Glace’s father, Samuel Glace would later become known as “the first person to manufacture hydraulic cement in the Lehigh Valley,” according to The Morning Call. Meanwhile, William’s sister, Amanda Glace, would also leave her mark on Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. After marrying Daniel Yoder, M.D. (1833-1920) in 1861, she would go on to adopt several children with him and would also become actively involved with multiple social and charitable organizations.

American Civil War

Having witnessed, firsthand, the deeply shocking beating and sale of enslaved men, women and children in South Carolina, William Henry Glace became one of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s early responders to President Abraham Lincoln’s calls for volunteer soldiers to bring an end not only to the secession crisis and civil war that had been instigated by the leaders of eleven of America’s fifteen slaveholding states, but to the brutal practice of chattel slavery itself.

After enrolling for military service in the Borough of Catasauqua in Lehigh County on 21 August 1861, William H. Glace officially mustered in for duty at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg, Dauphin County on 30 August as a sergeant with Company F of the newly-formed 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Military records at the time described him as a twenty-two-year-old accountant and resident of Catasauqua who was five feet, eight inches tall with brown hair, gray eyes and a light complexion.

* Note: Company F of the 47th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was the first company of that Union regiment to muster in for duty. Initial recruitment for the new company was conducted in Catasauqua, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania by Henry Samuel Harte, a native of Darmstadt, Grand Duchy of Hesse (now Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany) who had become a naturalized American citizen in New York on 15 October 1851 and had been appointed captain of the Lehigh County militia unit known as the Catasauqua Rifles during the late 1850s.

Following a brief training period in light infantry tactics at Camp Curtin, the men of Company F and their fellow members of the 47th Pennsylvania were transported south by rail to Washington, D.C. Stationed roughly two miles from the White House, they pitched their tents at “Camp Kalorama” on the Kalorama Heights near Georgetown beginning 21 September. Henry D. Wharton, a musician from the regiment’s C Company, penned an update the next day to the Sunbury American, his hometown newspaper:

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

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

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.

While at Camp Kalorama, Captain Harte issued his first directive (Company Orders, No. 1), that the men of F Company drill four times per day, each time for one hour.

On 24 September, the 47th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry finally became part of the United States Army when its men were officially mustered into federal service. On 27 September — a rainy day, 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 47th Pennsylvanians marched behind their Regimental Band until reaching Camp Lyon, Maryland on the Potomac River’s eastern shore. At five 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 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….

On 1 October 1861, Sergeant Glace’s friend, Sergeant James W. Fuller, Jr., was promoted from his service with Company F to the rank of first lieutenant and regimental adjutant with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry’s central command staff — a position he would lose due to “a protracted illness, which overtook him during the first year of the Civil War in Virginia” and culminated in his honorable discharge, according to A History of Catasauqua in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania by James Franklin Lambert and Henry J. Reinhard. The article, “Big Achievements in the House of Fuller,” which ran in the 27 June 1914 edition of The Allentown Leader, seems to confirm not only Fuller’s illness but a battle with disease that was waged by Sergeant William H. Glace at the same time:

After Mr. Fuller’s death William H. Glace, Esq., his friend for fifty years and his companion in sickness in the garret of a Virginia farm shack during the winter of 1863-1864 [sic, “1861-1862”], paid him a beautiful tribute. Mr. Glace wrote:–

‘Owing to the forethought of his uncle, Lieut. George W. Fuller, a victim of the same war, two young girls, daughters of the owner, Mr. Wren, attended us through that long siege of sickness where he lay nigh to death many weeks. After a tedious convalescence, he recovered only in a measure and was honorably discharged, whilst I recovered to serve the full period of three years.

‘In 1891 he said to me, ‘I wonder what became of the Wren girls; let us go down and see.’ We went to Washington and drove up along the Potomac to the Chain Bridge; thence over into Fairfax County, Virginia, and as we came near the place we could not fix our surroundings, as large trees had grown where there had been farm land, and we stopped at a farm house, when a man over thirty-five years of age, a Mr. Catlin, came out, and we inquired if that house on the hill was the Wren house and whether the 47th Pennsylvania Regiment and 7th Maine Regiment had encamped on yonder slope the first Winter of the war. ‘Oh, yes,’ he replied. ‘I heard my father say that the regiments lay there and lost 200 men that first Winter. Anyhow, the Wrens live there.’ I shall never forget as he turned to me and said, ‘How strange; did you hear him say, ‘My father told me?’ We forget a generation had grown up since that time.’ As we entered the house, the first object that attracted his attention was Lieut. George W. Fuller’s photograph in full uniform on the mantel.

‘We had dinner, after which we gave each of the two women a bank bag of gold. A young son of one of them, when he heard the click of gold, exclaimed, ‘Now I can go to Washington and learn to be an architect.’

* Note: While William Glace’s recollection of his convalescence may have been truthful, its recounting by The Allentown Leader may warrant further scrutiny because it contained a number of factual errors, including statements that he and James W. Fuller served with Company I and that their winter convalescence occurred between late 1863 to early 1864 instead of late 1861 to early 1862. (The 47th Pennsylvania was stationed in Florida in 1863, not Virginia.)

Sometime around this same time, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers and their fellow 3rd Brigade soldiers 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 regimental historian Lewis Schmidt as massing “about 10,000 infantry, 1000 cavalry, and twenty pieces of artillery all in one big open field.” Less than a month later, in his letter of 17 November, Henry Wharton revealed more details about life at Camp Griffin:

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

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

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

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

On 21 November, the 47th participated in a morning divisional headquarters review that was overseen by the regiment’s founder and 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 bigger things to come, Brigadier-General John Milton Brannan obtained brand new Springfield rifles for every member of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers.

According to Allentown’s Morning Call newspaper, “While in the army he [William Glace] saw Lincoln at the grand review of the army of the Potomac in Virginia in December, 1861. “Lincoln, wearing a high hat, dismounted near a group of soldiers of which he [William Glace] was a member.”

1862

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

The next afternoon, the 47th Pennsylvanians hopped cars on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and headed for Annapolis, Maryland. Arriving around 10 p.m., they were assigned quarters in barracks at the United States Naval Academy. They then spent that Friday through Monday (24-27 January 1862) loading their equipment and other supplies onto the steamship U.S. Oriental.

On 27 January 1862, Sergeant William Glace’s friend and comrade, James W. Fuller, Jr., resigned his commission with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry and headed back to Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, Sergeant Glace continued his service to the nation by boarding the Oriental with his fellow 47th Pennsylvanians. Then, at 4 p.m., per the directive of Brigadier-General John Milton Brannan, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers steamed away for the Deep South. 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).

Sergeant Glace and the other members of Company F arrived in Key West in early 1862 and were assigned with their fellow 47th Pennsylvanians to garrison Fort Taylor. During the weekend of Friday, 14 February, the regiment announced its presence to Key West residents by parading through the streets of the city. That Sunday, members of the regiment also mingled with locals by attending area church services.

Drilling daily in heavy artillery tactics, they also strengthened the fortifications at this federal installation. On 1 April 1862, Sergeant Augustus Eagle was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant.

In addition to their exhausting military duties, the 47th Pennsylvanians also encountered the persistent and formidable foe of disease. Several members of the regiment fell ill, largely due to poor sanitary conditions and water quality. As a result, Privates W. H. Moyer, II and Frederick Eagle were discharged on surgeons’ certificates of disability and Second Lieutenant Henry H. Bush and Private Edward Bartholomew died at Fort Taylor, respectively, on 31 March and 3 April. Privates Samuel Smith and John G. Seider were then also both discharged on surgeons’ certificates on 12 April 1862.

But there were lighter moments as well.

According to a letter penned by Henry Wharton on 27 February 1862, the regiment commemorated the birthday of former U.S. President George Washington with a parade, a special ceremony involving the reading of Washington’s farewell address to the nation (first delivered in 1796), the firing of cannon at the fort, and a sack race and other games on 22 February. The festivities resumed two days later when the 47th Pennsylvania’s Regimental Band hosted an officers’ ball at which “all parties enjoyed themselves, for three o’clock of the morning sounded on their ears before any motion was made to move homewards.” This was then followed by a concert by the Regimental Band on Wednesday evening, 26 February.

According to Schmidt, 4 June 1862 was also a festive day for the regiment. As the USS Niagara sailed for Boston after transferring its responsibilities as the flagship of the Union Navy squadron in that sector to the USS Potomac, the guns of fifteen warships anchored nearby fired a salute, as did the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers. Captain Harte and F Company played a prominent role in the day’s events as they “fired 15 of the heavy casemate guns from Fort Taylor at 4 PM.”

Next ordered to Hilton Head, South Carolina from mid-June through July, the 47th Pennsylvanians camped near Fort Walker before relocating to the Beaufort District in the U.S. 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.

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

During the second week of July, according to Schmidt, Major William H. Gausler and Captain Henry S. Harte returned home to the Lehigh Valley to resume their recruiting efforts. After arriving in Allentown on 15 July, they quickly re-established an efficient operation, which they would keep running through early November 1862. During that time, Major Gausler was able to persuade fifty-four new recruits to join the 47th Pennsylvania while Harte rounded up an additional twelve.

Meanwhile, back in the Deep South, Captain Harte’s F Company men were commanded by Harte’s direct subordinates, First Lieutenant George W. Fuller and Second Lieutenant August G. Eagle. On 12 September, Colonel Tilghman Good and his adjutant, First Lieutenant Washington H. R. Hangen, issued Regimental Order No. 207 from the 47th Pennsylvania’s Headquarters in Beaufort, South Carolina:

I. The Colonel commanding desires to call the attention of all officers and men in the regiment to the paramount necessity of observing rules for the preservation of health. There is less to be apprehended from battle than disease. The records of all companies in climate like this show many more casualties by the neglect of sanitary post action then [sic] by the skill, ordnance and courage of the enemy. Anxious that the men in my command may be preserved in the full enjoyment of health to the service of the Union. And that only those who can leave behind the proud epitaph of having fallen on the field of battle in the defense of their country shall fail to return to their families and relations at the termination of this war.

II. All the tents will be struck at 7:30 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday of each week. The signal for this purpose will be given by the drum major by giving three taps on the drum. Every article of clothing and bedding will be taken out and aired; the flooring and bunks will be thoroughly cleaned. By the same signal at 11 a.m. the tents will be re-erected. On the days the tents are not struck the sides will be raised during the day for the purpose of ventilation.

III. The proper cooking of provisions is a matter of great importance more especially in this climate but have not yet received from a majority of officers of the regiment that attention that should be paid to it.

IV. Thereafter an officer of each company will be detailed by the commander of each company and have their names reported to these headquarters to superintend the cooking of provisions taking care that all food prepared for the soldiers is sufficiently cooked and that the meats are all boiled or seared (not fried). He will also have charge of the dress table and he is held responsible for the cleanliness of the kitchen cooking utensils and the preparation of the meals at the time appointed.

V. The following rules for the taking of meals and regulations in regard to the conducting of the company will be strictly followed. Every soldier will turn his plate, cup, knife and fork into the Quarter Master Sgt who will designate a permanent place or spot each member of the company and there leave his plate & cup, knife and fork placed at each meal with the soldier’s rations on it. Nor will any soldier be permitted to go to the company kitchen and take away food therefrom.

VI. Until further orders the following times for taking meals will be followed Breakfast at six, dinner at twelve, supper at six. The drum major will beat a designated call fifteen minutes before the specified time which will be the signal to prepare the tables, and at the time specified for the taking of meals he will beat the dinner call. The soldier will be permitted to take his spot at the table before the last call.

VII. Commanders of companies will see that this order is entered in their company order book and that it is read forth with each day on the company parade. All commanding officers of companies will regulate daily their time by the time of this headquarters. They will send their 1st Sergeants to this headquarters daily at 8 a.m. for this purpose.

Great punctuality is enjoined in conforming to the stated hours prescribed by the roll calls, parades, drills, and taking of meals; review of army regulations while attending all roll calls to be suspended by a commissioned officer of the companies, and a Captain to report the alternate to the Colonel or the commanding officer.

At 5 a.m., Commanders of companies are imperatively instructed to have the company quarters washed and policed and secured immediately after breakfast.

At 6 a.m., morning reports of companies request [sic] by the Captains and 1st Sgts and all applications for special privileges of soldiers must be handed to the Adjutant before 8 a.m.

By Command of Col. T. H. Good
W. H. R. Hangen Adj

In addition, First Lieutenant and Regimental Adjutant Hangen clarified the regiment’s schedule as follows:

• Reveille (5:30 a.m.) and Breakfast (6:00 a.m.)
• First and Second Calls for Guard (6:10 a.m. and 6:15 a.m.)
• Surgeon’s Call (6:30 a.m.)
• First and Second Calls for Company Drill (6:45 a.m. and 7:00 a.m.)
• Recall from Company Drill (8:00 a.m.)
• First and Second Calls for Squad Drill (9:00 a.m. and 9:15 a.m.)
• Recall from Squad Drill (10:30 a.m.) and Dinner (12:00 noon)
• Call for Non-commissioned Officers (1:30 p.m.)
• Recall for Non-commissioned Officers (2:30 p.m.)
• First and Second Calls for Squad Drills (3:15 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.)
• Recall from Squad Drill (4:30 p.m.)
• First and Second Calls for Dress Parade (5:10 p.m. and 5:15 p.m.)
• Supper (6:10 p.m.)
• Tattoo (9:00 p.m.) and Taps (9:15 p.m.)

As the one-year anniversary of the 47th Pennsylvania’s departure from the Great Keystone State dawned on 20 September, thoughts turned to home and Divine Providence as Colonel Tilghman Good issued Special Orders, No. 60 from the 47th’s Regimental Headquarters in Beaufort, South Carolina:

The Colonel commanding takes great pleasure in complimenting the officers and men of the regiment on the favorable auspices of today.

Just one year ago today, the organization of the regiment was completed to enter into the service of our beloved country, to uphold the same flag under which our forefathers fought, bled, and died, and perpetuate the same free institutions which they handed down to us unimpaired.

It is becoming therefore for us to rejoice on this first anniversary of our regimental history and to show forth devout gratitude to God for this special guardianship over us.

Whilst many other regiments who swelled the ranks of the Union Army even at a later date than the 47th have since been greatly reduced by sickness or almost cut to pieces on the field of battle, we as yet have an entire regiment and have lost but comparatively few out of our ranks.

Certain it is we have never evaded or shrunk from duty or danger, on the contrary, we have been ever anxious and ready to occupy any fort, or assume any position assigned to us in the great battle for the constitution and the Union.

We have braved the danger of land and sea, climate and disease, for our glorious cause, and it is with no ordinary degree of pleasure that the Colonel compliments the officers of the regiment for the faithfulness at their respective posts of duty and their uniform and gentlemanly manner towards one another.

Whilst in numerous other regiments there has been more or less jammings and quarrelling [sic] among the officers who thus have brought reproach upon themselves and their regiments, we have had none of this, and everything has moved along smoothly and harmoniously. We also compliment the men in the ranks for their soldierly bearing, efficiency in drill, and tidy and cleanly appearance, and if at any time it has seemed to be harsh and rigid in discipline, let the men ponder for a moment and they will see for themselves that it has been for their own good.

To the enforcement of law and order and discipline it is due our far fame as a regiment and the reputation we have won throughout the land.

With you he has shared the same trials and encountered the same dangers. We have mutually suffered from the same cold in Virginia and burned by the same southern sun in Florida and South Carolina, and he assures the officers and men of the regiment that as long as the present war continues, and the service of the regiment is required, so long he stands by them through storm and sunshine, sharing the same danger and awaiting the same glory.

A Regiment Victorious — and Bloodied

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) that had been abandoned by Confederate forces during the bluff’s bombardment by Union gunboats.

The capture of Saint John’s Bluff followed a string of U.S. Army and Navy successes that enabled the Union to gain control over key southern towns and transportation hubs. In November 1861, the Union’s South Atlantic Blockading Squadron had established an operations base at Port Royal, South Carolina, facilitating Union expeditions to Georgia and Florida, during which U.S. troops were able to take possession of Fort Clinch and Fernandina, Florida (3-4 March 1862), secure the surrender of Fort Marion and Saint Augustine (11 March), and establish a Union Navy base at Mayport Mills (mid-March). That summer, Brigadier-General Joseph Finnegan, commanding officer of the Confederate States of America’s Department of Middle and Eastern Florida, ordered the placement of earthworks-fortified gun batteries atop Saint John’s Bluff overlooking the Saint John’s River and at Yellow Bluff nearby. Confederate leaders hoped to disable the Union’s naval and ground force operations at and beyond Mayport Mills with as many as eighteen cannon, including three eight-inch siege howitzers and eight-inch smoothbores and Columbiads (two of each).

After the U.S. gunboats Uncas and Patroon exchanged shell-fire with the Confederate battery at Saint John’s Bluff on 11 September, Rebel troops were initially driven away, but then returned to their battery on the bluff. When a second, larger Union gunboat flotilla tried and failed again six days later to shake the Confederates loose, Union military leaders ordered an army operation with naval support.

Backed by U.S. gunboats Cimarron, E. B. Hale, Paul Jones, Uncas, and Water Witch armed with twelve-pound boat howitzers, the fifteen hundred-strong Union Army force commanded by Brigadier-General Brannan moved up the Saint John’s River and further 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 its advance. When the 47th Pennsylvanians reached Saint John’s Bluff with their fellow Union brigade members on 3 October 1862, they found the battery abandoned. (Other Union troops discovered that the Yellow Bluff battery was also Rebel free.)

According to Henry Wharton, “On the day following our occupation of these works the guns were dismounted and removed on board the steamer Neptune, together with the shot and shell, and removed to Hilton Head. The powder was all used in destroying the batteries.”

Meanwhile that same weekend (Friday and Saturday, 3-4 October 1862), Brigadier-General Brannan, who was quartered on board the Ben Deford as the Union expedition’s commanding officer, was busy penning reports to his superiors while also planning the next move of his expeditionary force. That Saturday, Brannan chose several officers to direct their subordinates to prepare rations and ammunition for a new foray that would take them roughly twenty miles upriver to Jacksonville. (A sophisticated hub of cultural and commercial activities with a racially diverse population of more than two thousand residents, the city had repeatedly changed hands between the Union and Confederacy until its occupation by Union forces on 12 March 1862.) Among the Union soldiers selected for this mission were 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers from Company C, Company E and Company K.

One of the first groups to depart — Company C of the 47th Pennsylvania — did so that Saturday as part of a small force made up of infantry and gunboats, the latter of which were commanded by Captain Charles E. Steedman. Their mission was to destroy all enemy boats they encountered to stop the movement of Confederate troops throughout the region. Upon arrival in Jacksonville later that same day, the infantrymen were charged by Brannan with setting fire to the office of that city’s Southern Rights newspaper. Before that action was taken, however, Captain Gobin and his subordinate, Henry Wharton, who had both been employed by the Sunbury American newspaper in Sunbury, Pennsylvania prior to the war, salvaged the pro-Confederacy publication’s printing press so that Wharton could more efficiently produce the regimental newspaper he had launched while the 47th Pennsylvania was stationed at Fort Taylor in Key West, Florida.

On Sunday, 5 October, Brannan and his detachment sailed away for Jacksonville at 6:30 a.m. Per Wharton, the weekend’s events unfolded as follows:

As soon as we had got possession of the Bluff, Capt. Steedman and his gunboats went to Jacksonville for the purpose of destroying all boats and intercepting the passage of the rebel troops across the river, and on the 5th Gen. Brannan also went up to Jacksonville in the steamer Ben Deford, with a force of 785 infantry, and occupied the town. On either side of the river were considerable crops of grain, which would have been destroyed or removed, but this was found impracticable for want of means of transportation. At Yellow Bluff we found that the rebels had a position in readiness to secure seven heavy guns, which they appeared to have lately evacuated, Jacksonville we found to be nearly deserted, there being only a few old men, women, and children in the town, soon after our arrival, however, while establishing our picket line, a few cavalry appeared on the outskirts, but they quickly left again. The few inhabitants were in a wretched condition, almost destitute of food, and Gen. Brannan, at their request, brought a large number up to Hilton Head to save them from starvation, together with 276 negroes — men, women, and children, who had sought our protection.

Receiving word soon after his arrival at Jacksonville that “Rebel steamers were secreted in the creeks up the river,” Brigadier-General Brannan ordered Captain Charles Yard of the 47th Pennsylvania’s Company E to take a detachment of one hundred men from his own company and those of the 47th’s Company K, and board the steamer Darlington “with two 24-pounder light howitzers and a crew of 25 men.” All would be under the command of Lieutenant Williams of the U.S. Navy, who would order the “convoy of gunboats to cut them out.”

According to Brigadier-General Brannan, the Union party “returned on the morning of the 9th with a Rebel steamer, Governor Milton, which they captured in a creek about 230 miles up the river and about 27 miles north [and slightly west] from the town of Enterprise.… On the return of the successful expedition after the Rebel steamers … I proceeded with that portion of my command to St. John’s Bluff, awaiting the return of the Boston.”

In his report on the matter, filed from Mount Pleasant Landing, Florida on 2 October 1862, Colonel Tilghman H. Good described the Union Army’s assault on Saint John’s Bluff:

In accordance with orders received I landed my regiment on the bank of Buckhorn Creek at 7 o’clock yesterday morning. After landing I moved forward in the direction of Parkers plantation, about 1 mile, being then within about 14 miles of said plantation. Here I halted to await the arrival of the Seventh Connecticut Regiment. I advanced two companies of skirmishers toward the house, with instructions to halt in case of meeting any of the enemy and report the fact to me. After they had advanced about three-quarters of a mile they halted and reported some of the enemy ahead. I immediately went forward to the line and saw some 5 or 6 mounted men about 700 or 800 yards ahead. I then ascended a tree, so that I might have a distinct view of the house and from this elevated position I distinctly saw one company of infantry close by the house, which I supposed to number about 30 or 40 men, and also some 60 or 70 mounted men. After waiting for the arrival of the Seventh Connecticut Volunteers until 10 o’clock, and it not appearing, I dispatched a squad of men back to the landing for a 6-pounder field howitzer which had been kindly offered to my service by Lieutenant Boutelle, of the Paul Jones. This howitzer had been stationed on a flat-boat to protect our landing. The party, however, did not arrive with the piece until 12 o’clock, in consequence of the difficulty of dragging it through the swamp. Being anxious to have as little delay as possible, I did not await the arrival of the howitzer, but at 11 a.m. moved forward, and as I advanced the enemy fled.

After reaching the house I awaited the arrival of the Seventh Connecticut and the howitzer. After they arrived I moved forward to the head of Mount Pleasant Creek to a bridge, at which place I arrived at 2 p.m. Here I found the bridge destroyed, but which I had repaired in a short time. I then crossed it and moved down on the south bank toward Mount Pleasant Landing. After moving about 1 mile down the bank of the creek my skirmishing companies came upon a camp, which evidently had been very hastily evacuated, from the fact that the occupants had left a table standing with a sumptuous meal already prepared for eating. On the center of the table was placed a fine, large meat pie still warm, from which one of the party had already served his plate. The skirmishers also saw 3 mounted men leave the place in hot haste. I also found a small quantity of commissary and quartermasters stores, with 23 tents, which, for want of transportation, I was obliged to destroy. After moving about a mile farther on I came across another camp, which also indicated the same sudden evacuation. In it I found the following articles … breech-loading carbines, 12 double-barreled shot-guns, 8 breech-loading Maynard rifles, 11 Enfield rifles, and 96 knapsacks. These articles I brought along by having the men carry them. There were, besides, a small quantity of commissary and quartermasters stores, including 16 tents, which, for the same reason as stated, I ordered to be destroyed. I then pushed forward to the landing, where I arrived at 7 p.m.

We drove the enemys [sic] skirmishers in small parties along the entire march. The march was a difficult one, in consequence of meeting so many swamps almost knee-deep.

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 were Bristor Gethers, Abraham Jassum and Edward Jassum.

Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina

Serving under the brigade and regimental commands of Colonel Tilghman H. Good and Lieutenant-Colonel George W. Alexander, respectively, roughly six hundred of the more than one thousand members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry courageously engaged Confederate forces in and around Pocotaligo, South Carolina on what turned out to be a date so difficult that surviving members of the regiment would continue to honor the anniversary of that battle for decades after the American Civil War’s end.

Landing at Mackay’s Point, the men of the 47th were placed on point once again, leading their 3rd Brigade comrades into a direct faceoff with a larger and better-equipped Confederate force than senior Union Army officials had anticipated. Harried by snipers en route to the Pocotaligo Bridge during what would come to be known as the Second Battle of Pocotaligo, they also met resistance from an entrenched, heavily-fortified Confederate battery which opened fire on the Union troops as they entered an open cotton field. Those headed toward higher ground at the Frampton Plantation fared no better as they encountered artillery and infantry fire from the surrounding forests.

Losses for the 47th Pennsylvania were significant. Two officers and eighteen enlisted men died; an additional two officers and one hundred and fourteen enlisted were wounded. Following their return to Hilton Head, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers recuperated from their wounds and resumed their normal duties. In short order, several members of the 47th were called upon to serve as the funeral honor guard for Major-General Ormsby M. Mitchel, and given the high honor of firing the salute over this grave. (Commander of the U.S. Army’s 10th Corps and Department of the South, Mitchel succumbed to yellow fever on 30 October 1862. The Mountains of Mitchel, a part of Mars’ South Pole discovered in 1846 by Mitchel as a University of Cincinnati astronomer, and Mitchelville, the first Freedmen’s town created after the Civil War, were both named after him.)

Having been ordered back to Key West on 15 November 1862, much of 1863 would be spent garrisoning federal installations in Florida as part of the 10th Corps, U.S. Department of the South. Companies A, B, C, E, G, and I would once again garrison Fort Taylor in Key West — but this time, the men from Companies D, F, H, and K, would garrison Fort Jefferson, the Union’s remote outpost in the Dry Tortugas off the southern coast of Florida.

After packing their belongings at their Beaufort, South Carolina encampment and loading their equipment onto the U.S. Steamer Cosmopolitan, the officers and enlisted members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry sailed toward the mouth of the Broad River on 15 December 1862, and anchored briefly at Port Royal Harbor in order to allow the regiment’s medical director, Elisha W. Baily, M.D., and members of the regiment who had recuperated enough from their Pocotaligo-related battle injuries at the Union’s General Hospital at Hilton Head, to rejoin the regiment.

At 5 p.m. that same evening, the regiment sailed for Florida, during what was later described by several members of the regiment as a treacherous and nerve-wracking voyage. According to Schmidt, the ship’s captain “steered a course along the coast of Florida for most of the voyage,” which made the voyage more precarious “because of all the reefs.” On 16 December “the second night, the ship was jarred as it ran aground on one during a storm, but broke free, and finally steered a course further from shore, out in the Gulf Stream.”

In a letter penned to the Sunbury American on 21 December, Henry Wharton provided the following details about the regiment’s trip:

On the passage down, we ran along almost the whole coast of Florida. Rather a dangerous ground, and the reefs are no playthings. We were jarred considerably by running on one, and not liking the sensation our course was altered for the Gulf Stream. We had heavy sea all the time. I had often heard of ‘waves as big as a house,’ and thought it was a sailor’s yarn, but I have seen ‘em and am perfectly satisfied; so now, not having a nautical turn of mind, I prefer our movements being done on terra firma, and leave old neptune to those who have more desire for his better acquaintance. A nearer chance of a shipwreck never took place than ours, and it was only through Providence that we were saved. The Cosmopolitan is a good river boat, but to send her to sea, loadened [sic, loaded] with U.S. troops is a shame, and looks as though those in authority wish to get clear of soldiers in another way than that of battle. There was some sea sickness on our passage; several of the boys ‘casting up their accounts’ on the wrong side of the ledger.

According to Corporal George Nichols of Company E, “When we got to Key West the Steamer had Six foot of water in her hole [sic]. Waves Mountain High and nothing but an old river Steamer. With Eleven hundred Men on I looked for her to go to the Bottom Every Minute.”

Although the Cosmopolitan arrived at the Key West Harbor on Thursday, 18 December, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers did not set foot on Florida soil until noon the next day. The men from Companies C and I were immediately marched to Fort Taylor, where they were placed under the command of Major William H. Gausler, the regiment’s third-in-command. The men from Companies B and E were assigned to the older barracks that had been erected by the United States Army, and were placed under the command of B Company Captain Emanuel P. Rhoads while the men from Companies A and G were placed under the command of A Company Captain Richard A. Graeffe, and stationed at newer facilities known as the “Lighthouse Barracks” on “Lighthouse Key.”

Three days later, on Saturday, 21 December, Lieutenant-Colonel George Warren Alexander, the regiment’s second-in-command, sailed away aboard the Cosmopolitan with the men from the regiment’s remaining companies — Companies D, F, H, and K — and headed south to Fort Jefferson, where they would assume garrison duties at the Union’s remote outpost in the Dry Tortugas, roughly seventy miles off the coast of Florida (in the Gulf of Mexico). According to Henry Wharton:

We landed here on last Thursday at noon, and immediately marched to quarters. Company I. and C., in Fort Taylor, E. and B. in the old Barracks, and A. and G. in the new Barracks. Lieut. Col. Alexander, with the other four companies proceeded to Tortugas, Col. Good having command of all the forces in and around Key West. Our regiment relieves the 90th Regiment N.Y.S. Vols. Col. Joseph Morgan, who will proceed to Hilton Head to report to the General commanding. His actions have been severely criticized by the people, but, as it is in bad taste to say anything against ones [sic, one’s] superiors, I merely mention, judging from the expression of the citizens, they were very glad of the return of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers….

Key West has improved very little since we left last June, but there is one improvement for which the 90th New York deserve a great deal of praise, and that is the beautifying of the ‘home’ of dec’d. soldiers. A neat and strong wall of stone encloses the yard, the ground is laid off in squares, all the graves are flat and are nicely put in proper shape by boards eight or ten inches high on the ends sides, covered with white sand, while a head and foot board, with the full name, company and regiment, marks the last resting place of the patriot who sacrificed himself for his country….

1863

Although water quality was a challenge for members of the regiment at both of their Florida duty stations, it was particularly problematic for the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers who were stationed at Fort Jefferson. According to Schmidt:

‘Fresh’ water was provided by channeling the rains from the fort’s barbette through channels in the interior walls, to filter trays filled with sand; and finally to the 114 cisterns located under the fort which held 1,231,200 gallons of water. The cisterns were accessible in each of the first level cells or rooms through a ‘trap hole’ in the floor covered by a temporary wooden cover…. Considerable dirt must have found its way into these access points and was responsible for some of the problems resulting in the water’s impurity…. The fort began to settle and the asphalt covering on the outer walls began to deteriorate and allow the sea water (polluted by debris in the moat) to penetrate the system…. Two steam condensers were available … and distilled 7000 gallons of tepid water per day for a separate system of reservoirs located in the northern section of the parade ground near the officers [sic, officers’] quarters. No provisions were made to use any of this water for personal hygiene of the [planned 1,500-soldier garrison force]….

As a result, the soldiers stationed there washed themselves and their clothes, using saltwater from the ocean. As if that weren’t difficult enough, “toilet facilities were located outside of the fort,” according to Schmidt:

At least one location was near the wharf and sallyport, and another was reached through a door-sized hole in a gunport, and a walk across the moat on planks at the northwest wall…. These toilets were flushed twice each day by the actions of the tides, a procedure that did not work very well and contributed to the spread of disease. It was intended that the tidal flush should move the wastes into the moat, and from there, by similar tidal action, into the sea. But since the moat surrounding the fort was used clandestinely by the troops to dispose of litter and other wastes … it was a continuous problem for Lt. Col. Alexander and his surgeon.

As for daily operations in the Dry Tortugas, there was a fort post office and the “interior parade grounds, with numerous trees and shrubs in evidence, contained … officers quarters, [a] magazine, kitchens and out houses,” according to Schmidt, as well as “a ‘hot shot oven’ which was completed in 1863 and used to heat shot before firing.”

Most quarters for the garrison … were established in wooden sheds and tents inside the parade [grounds] or inside the walls of the fort in second-tier gun rooms of ‘East’ front no. 2, and adjacent bastions … with prisoners housed in isolated sections of the first and second tiers of the southeast, or no. 3 front, and bastions C and D, located in the general area of the sallyport. The bakery was located in the lower tier of the northwest bastion ‘F’, located near the central kitchen….

Additional Duties: Diminishing Florida’s Role as the “Supplier of the Confederacy”

In addition to the strategic role played by the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers in preventing foreign powers from assisting the Confederate Army and Navy in gaining control over federal forts in the Deep South, members of the 47th would also be called upon to play an ongoing role in weakening Florida’s abilities to supply and transport food and troops throughout the area held by the Confederate States of America.

Prior to intervention by Union Army and Navy forces, the owners of plantations and livestock ranches, as well as the operators of small, family farms across Florida, had been able to consistently furnish beef and pork, fish, fruits, and vegetables to Confederate troops stationed throughout the Deep South during the first year of the American Civil War. Large herds of cattle were raised near Fort Myers, for example, while orchard owners in the Saint John’s River area were actively engaged in cultivating large orange groves (while other types of citrus trees were easily found growing throughout the state’s wilderness areas).

The state was also a major producer of salt, which was used as a preservative for the foods. As a result, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers and other Union troops across Florida were ordered to capture or destroy salt manufacturing facilities in order to further curtail the enemy’s access to food.

And they would be undertaking all of these duties in conditions that were far more challenging than what many other Union Army units were experiencing up north in the Eastern Theater. The weather was frequently hot and humid as spring turned to summer, the mosquitos and other insects were an ever-present annoyance and serious threat when they were carrying tropical diseases, and there were also scorpions and snakes that put the men’s health at further risk.

1864

In early January 1864, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was ordered to expand the Union Army’s reach by sending part of the regiment north to retake possession of Fort Myers, a federal installation that had been abandoned in 1858 following the U.S. government’s third war with the Seminole Indians. Per orders issued earlier in 1864 by General D. P. Woodbury, Commanding Officer, U.S. Department of the Gulf, District of Key West and the Tortugas, that the fort be used to facilitate the Union’s Gulf Coast blockade, Captain Richard Graeffe and a group of men from Company A were charged with expanding the fort and conducting raids on area cattle herds to provide food for the growing Union troop presence across Florida. 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, all of the other companies of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry had begun preparing for the regiment’s history-making journey to Louisiana. Boarding yet another steamer — the Charles Thomas — on 25 February 1864, the men from Companies B, C, D, I, and K of the 47th Pennsylvania headed for Algiers, Louisiana (across the river from New Orleans), followed on 1 March by other members of the regiment from Companies E, F, G, and H who had been stationed at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas.

Upon the second group’s arrival, the now almost-fully-reunited regiment moved by train on 28 February to Brashear City (now Morgan City, Louisiana) before heading to Franklin by steamer through the Bayou Teche. There, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry joined the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division of the U.S. 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 that would enable them to catch up with the main part of their regiment. Charged with guarding two hundred and forty-five Confederates, those A Company men boarded the Ohio Belle with their prisoners on 7 April and reached Alexandria, Louisiana 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 the towns of Alexandria and Natchitoches, near the top of the L-shaped state. As they did, they passed through 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 the intense volley of fire unleashed during the Battle of Sabine Cross Roads (also known as the Battle of Mansfield because of its proximity to the community 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 that engagement, which has since become known as the Battle of Pleasant Hill, the 47th Pennsylvania succeeded in recapturing a Massachusetts artillery battery lost during the earlier Confederate assault. Unfortunately, the regiment’s second-in-command, Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander, was nearly killed during the fight that day, and Color-Sergeant Benjamin Walls was shot in the left shoulder while mounting the 47th Pennsylvania’s colors on one of the recaptured caissons. Sergeant William Pyers was then also wounded while grabbing the American flag from Walls as he fell to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.

Alexander, Walls and Pyers all survived the day and continued to fight on, but many others were killed in action or wounded so severely that they were unable to continue their service with the 47th. 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 that began in July and continued through November. At least two members of the 47th Pennsylvania never made it out of there alive, however; Private Samuel Kern of Company D died there on 12 June 1864 and Private John Weiss of F Company, who had been wounded in action at Pleasant Hill, died from his wounds on 15 July.

Meanwhile, as the captured 47th Pennsylvanians were being spirited away to Texas, the bulk of the regiment was carrying out orders from senior Union Army leaders to head for Grand Ecore, Louisiana. Encamped there from 11 April t0 22 April 1864, they engaged in the hard labor of strengthening regimental and brigade fortifications. They then moved back to Natchitoches Parish on 22 April. While en route, they were attacked again — this time at the rear of their retreating brigade, but were able to quickly end the encounter and continue on to reach Cloutierville at 10 p.m. that same night — after a forty-five-mile march.

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

Meanwhile, other troops from Emory’s brigade attacked Bee’s flank to force a Rebel retreat, and then erected a series of pontoon bridges that enabled the 47th and other remaining Union soldiers 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, they learned they would remain at their latest new camp for at least two weeks. Placed temporarily under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Bailey, they were assigned yet again to the hard labor of fortification work, helping to erect “Bailey’s Dam,” a timber structure that enabled Union gunboats to more easily make their way back down the Red River. According to Wharton:

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

Continuing their march, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers headed toward Avoyelles Parish. According to Wharton:

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 47th Pennsylvanians 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. According to Wharton, the members of Company C were sent on a special mission which took them on an intense one hundred and twenty-mile journey:

Company C, on last Saturday was detailed by the General in command of the Division to take one hundred and eighty-seven prisoners (rebs) to New Orleans. This they done [sic] satisfactorily and returned yesterday to their regiment, ready for duty.

The regiment then moved on once again, finally arriving in New Orleans in late June. On the Fourth of July, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers learned that their fight was not yet over as they received new orders to return to the East Coast for further duty. Shortly thereafter, they began a two-phase departure from Louisiana.

On 7 July, Companies A, C, D, E, F, H, and I steamed for the Washington, D.C. area aboard the McClellan while the men from Companies B, G and K remained behind on detached duty and to await transportation. Led by F Company Captain Henry S. Harte, the latter group which included Sergeant William H. Glace, finally sailed away at the end of the month, aboard the Blackstone, arrived in Virginia on 28 July, and reconnected with the bulk of the regiment at Monocacy, Virginia on 2 August.

* Note: Due to his delayed departure from Louisiana, Sergeant William Glace missed out on a memorable encounter with President Abraham Lincoln and also did not participate in the Battle of Cool Spring near Snicker’s Gap, Virginia in mid-July 1864.

Sheridan’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign

Attached to the Middle Military Division, Army of the Shenandoah in Virginia, beginning in August 1864, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was initially assigned to defensive duties in and around Halltown 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 with those commanded by Confederate Lieutenant-General Jubal Early.

From 3-4 September, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers fought in the Battle of Berryville, Virginia. That would be the last battle fought by Sergeant William H. Glace, however; availing himself of the opportunity to officially muster out from the regiment upon expiration of his initial three-year term of enlistment, he was honorably discharged at Berryville on 18 September 1864.

Return to Civilian Life

Following his honorable discharge from the military, William H. Glace returned home to Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, where he quickly found work as “the bookkeeper and paymaster of the C. & F. R. R. Co. [the Catasauqua & Fogelsville Railroad Company] at Catasauqua” – a job he held for two years. A member of the Republican Party during that same period, he participated in an election for the first time in his life by voting for Abraham Lincoln, the incumbent in the presidential election of 8 November 1864.

Over the next several years, he also pursued legal studies in Allentown. Trained by attorney John H. Oliver, Glace was subsequently admitted to the Lehigh County Bar on 13 April 1868, becoming one of twenty-six practicing attorneys in the city. His field of specialization was estate law, and his client list included many of the wealthiest and most powerful men in Lehigh County, including industrialist James Wheeler Fuller (the father of his former 47th Pennsylvania comrade, James W. Fuller, Jr.), Edwin, James and Samuel Thomas, and Daniel Milson — connections that resulted in his appointment by Pennsylvania Auditor General John Frederick Hartranft to the position of Assessor of National Banks in Lehigh, Monroe and Northampton counties — a position he held from 1868 to 1870.

Around that same time, he was nominated by his fellow area Republicans for the office of justice of the peace, and was elected to that post in 1869. Still unmarried and still living with his parents, Samuel and Isabella Glace, in Catasauqua when the federal census was enumerated there in 1870, he clearly lived a comfortable life as evidenced by records of the time that documented his portfolio of personal property and real estate worth one thousand three hundred dollars — the equivalent of more than thirty-two thousand U.S. dollars in 2025. (His parents were even more wealthy by the standards of that era, having amassed real estate and personal property valued at fifteen thousand dollars — the equivalent of roughly three hundred and seventy-one thousand U.S. dollars in 2025 — financial holdings that enabled them to employ a live-in servant — eighteen-year-old Martha Hock.)

Just three years later, however, the financial stability of the Glace family and other middle and upper income Americans was jeopardized by The Panic of 1873, a major economic crisis that turned into the world’s first Great Depression as it dragged on into 1874.

* Note: The Panic of 1873 had its genesis in a post-Civil War boom of the railroad industry, which was fueled by an aggressive, westward migration of Americans and American businesses underwritten by banks, coal companies, the iron industry, and other corporate concerns that had invested heavily in railroad companies that were competing to expand the Transcontinental Railroad. The financial crisis began when executives at Jay Cooke and Company (a major Union military financier during the American Civil War with ties to the post-war railroad construction boom) realized that the bank had “overextended itself” and declared bankruptcy, which set off runs against multiple banks, driving them into insolvency, which then triggered The Panic of 1873.

Despite that crisis, William Glace chose hope over fear, persevering in the face of adversity in 1874 by marrying Mary Jane Stark (1841-1910), a native of the community of Pittston in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.

* Note: Known to family and friends as “Jennie,” Mary Jane (Stark) Glace (1841-1910) was a daughter of John D. Stark and Ann (Sax) Stark and was also a great-granddaughter of Aaron Stark, who had been killed during “the massacre in Wyoming,” according to subsequent accounts of Mary Jane’s life.

A justice of the peace from 1869 to 1874, William Glace was subsequently elected as burgess by the residents of Catasauqua in 1876. The next year, he accepted the job of borough auditor — a somewhat part-time role that allowed him to continue operating his private law practice.

The next years of his life unfolded in a series of highs and lows, however, with one of the lowest moments occurring in the spring of 1880. That year, he lost the counsel of his mother, Isabella (Swartz) Glace, who died at her home in Catasauqua at the age of sixty-five on 6 May. Following funeral services, she was laid to rest at the Fairview Cemetery in West Catasauqua. Moving forward, William and his wife resided with his grieving, seventy-four-year-old father, Samuel Glace, at Samuel’s home on Bridge Street in Catasauqua.

Having completed his service as a borough auditor by 1883, William Glace took on a new challenge — as Catasauqua’s borough solicitor — a position that required him to provide legal advice to members of the borough council, but which also enabled him to continue practicing law while expanding his client base through work as a notary public. He then served as a school solicitor from 1890 to 1893, while also still working as a lawyer and notary. It was during that latter part of his work life, though, that he also lost his father, Samuel Glace, who passed away at the age of eighty-six at their home on 3 January 1892. Following funeral services, Samuel was also laid to rest at the Fairview Cemetery.

In the wake of that loss, William inherited his father’s house at 307 Bridge Street in Catasauqua, as well as an adjacent, smaller building that proved to be a perfect fit for his busy law and notary practice.

* Note: Built between 1847 and 1850, the building at 307 Bridge Street in Catasauqua’s Second Ward had been purchased by “Samuel Glace in 1855 for $2000,” according to the Historic Catasauqua Preservation Association. “The lot [was] located on what was the Breisch farm, one of the original four German farms that made up what is today Catasauqua.”

By 1900, William and Jennie Glace’s household had grown to include their foster daughters: Emma Walp (1870-1965; alternate given name: Emily), who had been born on 10 March 1870 and was described as a married mother of one child on that year’s census; and Isabella Stark Glace (1886-1970), who had been born on 7 November 1886. Also residing with them was Emma’s son, Reed Walp (1899-1982), who had been born on 5 December 1899. (That year’s federal census also noted that William and Jennie Glace had not been able to have children of their own.)

* Note: Reed Glace would later be identified in records as William H. Glace’s foster grandson, adopted grandson or grandson. According to Reed’s own marriage record, he was a son of Edward and Emma Walp.

Still actively involved in civil and business affairs after the turn of the century, William Glace was appointed as the first president of the newly-formed Lehigh National Bank in 1906. The second bank established in Catasauqua, it was created with one hundred twenty-five thousand dollars of capital (the equivalent of more than four million U.S. dollars in 2026). Construction of the bank’s building at the southeast corner of Front and Bridge Streets was completed in 1907. Two years later, William Glace joined forces with his old comrade from the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, Benjamin Franklin Swartz, in applying for a charter from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for a business that they intended to name as the Johnson & Swartz Company. Also joining them in filing that application in Harrisburg were Christian Swartz, Walter C. Swartz and Osmun Stettler. In December of that same year, William Glace was appointed as that company’s president. (Johnson & Swartz then went on to become a successful wholesale grocery and furniture company, according to multiple newspaper reports over the next several decades.)

Unfortunately, the years between 1900 and 1911 would also prove to be a mixture of highs and lows for William H. Glace and his wife, Jennie. Their foster daughter, Emma, who had divorced Edward Walp sometime before the federal census of 1910, was “quietly married” to William Blaine Bachman (1884-1953) on 1 June 1910 “by Rev. J. M. Mengel at Jacksonville,” according to Allentown’s Morning Call newspaper. Shortly thereafter, William Glace’s beloved wife, Jennie, then lost her battle with Bright’s Disease and died at their home on Bridge Street on 8 October 1910.

Even in the face of grief, though, William H. Glace managed to keep himself busy through his legal and business work — and also by researching and writing several historical publications, including:

• Glace, William H. A Narrative of Hydraulic Cement Mined in the Lehigh Valley. Catasauqua, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1912; and
• Glace, William H. Early History and Reminiscences of Catasauqua in Pennsylvania. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Searle & Dressler Co., Inc., 1914.

The first of those two publications recounted his father’s involvement in Lehigh County’s cement manufacturing industry during the early to mid-1800s; the latter was created for “Old Home Week” in Catasauqua in 1914. In addition, he wrote an article about the Union Army’s involvement in the 1864 Red River Expedition in Louisiana.

During that new phase of his life, seventy-six-year-old William H. Glace decided to marry for the second time and wed Anna Mantana Moser (1860-1945), a fifty-five-year-old, unmarried seamstress and native of Northampton County who was a daughter of William H. and Catharine Moser. The ceremony was held in Catasauqua on 11 August 1915, and was officiated by the Reverend W. L. Keel. Roughly five years later, when a federal census enumerator knocked on his Bridge Street door, William reported that the occupants of his household were his second wife, Anna, and his grandson, Reed Glace, as well as Elsie S. Jones, a twenty-one-year-old servant.

A member of the Fountain Hill school board during the 1920s, he continued to serve on that board’s finance committee into his early nineties.

Illness, Death and Interment

Ailing during the final three years of his life, William Henry Glace began receiving treatment from his physician for gastroenteritis circa 1927 — and then for prostatitis. Sadly, that treatment was of little help. According to his death certificate, he began refusing to eat. Increasingly malnourished, he died from starvation at the age of ninety-one at his home at 307 Bridge Street in Catasauqua, on 12 June 1929. He had lived in the same house for “more than seventy years,” according to Allentown’s Morning Call newspaper, which also later reported that his funeral at his Bridge Street home was well attended by relatives and friends, including Judges Richard W. Iobst and Claude T. Reno. Officiated by the Reverend R. W. Wright, the pastor of the Grace Methodist Episcopal Church, the service also featured an address by William Glace’s friend, George W. McCandless of Philadelphia’s Plymouth Brethren Church. Frank Beck, Robert J. Beitel, Rowland Davies, John S. Matchette, William A. Riegel, M.D., and Grant Scheckler carried his casket from undertaker William H. Scherer’s hearse to his final resting place at the Fairview Cemetery in West Catasauqua, Lehigh County, where a second brief service was held, featuring a bugler from the American Legion’s Catasauqua Post (No. 215). As the last notes of “Taps” echoed and faded beyond the cemetery’s boundaries, his casket was lowered into the ground on 16 June 1929.

What Happened to the Children and Second Wife of William H. Glace?

William Henry Glace’s second wife, Anna M. (Moser) Glace, survived for another sixteen years after she was widowed by him. Roughly twenty years younger than he, she continued to reside at their home on Bridge Street in Catasauqua and remained active with the Plymouth Brethren Church. Residing with her in 1930 were her sister, Ella N. Moser, and the Glace family’s longtime servant, Elsie S. Jones. By 1940, Anna Glace resided alone with her servant, Elsie. After a long life, she died at the age of eighty-four at her home in Catasauqua, on 3 February 1945, and was laid to rest at the Glace family plot at the Fairview Cemetery in West Catasauqua.

The children whose lives were uplifted through through foster care or adoption by William H. Glace also lived productive lives. Daughter Isabella Stark Glace, who had married David C. Spencer (1885-1946), a native of Japan whose father managed the Methodist Publishing House in Tokyo, went on to welcome the births with him of: Helen Mary Spencer (1908-1994), who was born in Carlisle, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania on 3 November 1908 and would later wed Alden Crosby Mason (1893-1966); Ruth Ione Spencer (1910-2008), who was born in Catasauqua on 26 February 1910; Katherine Louise Spencer (1911-2006), who was born in Factoryville, Wyoming County, Pennsylvania on 12 May 1911 and would later wed and be widowed by Eugene Bruce Hyatt (1910-1952), before marrying Wyrth Post Baker (1905-2003); and Roberta Margaret Spencer (1913-1999), who was born in Factoryville on 18 August 1913. A resident of Cleveland, Ohio by 1929, Isabella (Glace) Spencer subsequently relocated with her husband and children to Kansas City, Missouri, where her husband became the vice president of the Globe Ticket Company. Widowed by her husband in 1946, she subsequently relocated to Washington, D.C. to be closer to her daughter, Katherine (Spencer) Baker, and continued to reside in the Washington, D.C.-Virginia area for many years, finally passing away in 1970 in her early eighties. (Her grave is located at the National Memorial Park in Idylwood, Fairfax County, Virginia.)

Following her marriage to William Blaine Bachman, William H. Glace’s foster daughter, Emma, settled with her husband in Allentown. Employed as a bookkeeper by the Empire Steel & Iron Company at the time of their marriage, he later became the president of the printing firm of Searle and Bachman before widowing her in 1953. A longtime resident of Allentown who was known after her marriage as “Emily Bachman,” she also went on to live a long life, finally passing away at the age of ninety-four at the Hamilton Convalescent Home in Allentown on 1 February 1965. (Her grave is located at Saint Peters Union Church Cemetery in Lynnville, Lehigh County.)

William H. Glace’s grandson, Reed Glace, who had been raised from infancy by William and his family, grew up to become a private first class in the U.S. Army during World War I. Stationed overseas for much of that war, he was wounded in action while serving with Company B of the 1st Engineers in a front-line trench in France on 3 May 1918, but was able to return to duty after medical treatment. A participant in the in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel in September of that year and in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive that same fall, he was honorably discharged on 26 September 1919. After returning home to Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, Reed resided at the home of his grandfather, William H. Glace, until his marriage on 28 June 1923 to Ivy E. R. Goldsmith (1900-1968), a public school teacher who was a daughter of George Christian Daniel Goldsmith and Jennie M. (Seigfried) Goldsmith. The young, Lehigh County couple then welcomed the birth of a son, William Oregon Glace (1924-2018), who was born in Allentown on 9 June 1924 and would later marry Ruth Alice Schall, R.N. on 25 February 1949.

Employed as a policeman by the Borough of Catasauqua by 1930, Reed Glace resided there with his wife, Ivy, and their son, William. They then also welcomed the birth of a daughter, Jessica Kathryn Glace (1931-1925), in Catasauqua on 15 September 1931. (Jessica would later graduate from Miami University in Miami, Florida and marry Frank E. Glotfelty of Illinois in 1955.) Still employed as a policeman in Catasauqua during the early 1940s, Reed continued to reside there with his wife and children — even after changing careers. Employed as an attendant at a state hospital by 1950, his Catasauqua household included his wife, their son, William O. Glace, and their daughter-in-law, Ruth, who was employed as a registered nurse at the city hospital. Two years later, his son, William O. Glace, accepted a position as a mathematics teacher at the Calapooia Middle School in Albany, Linn County, Oregon and relocated there with his wife, prompting Reed and Ivy Glace to relocate to Albany as well. Preceded in death by Ivy in 1968, Reed Glace continued to reside there until mid-1977, when he relocated to Salem, Oregon. He died at his home in Salem at the age of eighty-two on 21 January 1982. Following funeral services, he was laid to rest at the Willamette National Cemetery in Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon.

What Happened to the Younger Sister of William H. Glace?

Following her early 1860s marriage to Daniel Yoder, M.D. (1833-1920), William H. Glace’s younger sister, Amanda E. (Glace) Yoder, settled with her husband in Catasauqua, Lehigh County, where they welcomed the births of: Elizabeth E. Yoder (1868-1872), who was born on 6 September 1868 and was known to family and friends as “Lizzie”; and M. Jennie Yoder (1869-1950), who was born on 14 July 1869 and was later married in Catasauqua on 29 June 1898 to Elmer Ellsworth Heimbach, who would subsequently become a highly respected hotelier and civic leader in the Lehigh Valley.

Tragedy soon struck the Glace family, however, when Lizzie Yoder died in Catasauqua at the age of four. Following her death on 28 November 1872, she was laid to rest at the Fairview Cemetery in West Catasauqua.

But the Yoders soldiered on, and, sometime between late December 1873 and the federal census of August 1880, they made the decision to expand their family by adopting: Minnie M. Snyder (1864-1937), Anna Snyder (1870-1908) and Isabella Snyder (1873-1899). Natives of the town of Schoenersville in Lehigh County, the Snyder girls were daughters of Nathan Snyder (1829-1884) and Hannah (Yoder) Snyder (1838-1873), the latter of whom had been laid to rest at the Schoenersville Cemetery, after succumbing to childbirth-related complications at the age of thirty-five, on 18 December 1873.

Amanda (Glace) Yoder and her husband then also adopted Thomas McHose (1881-1946), a native of Catasauqua who was a son of Edwin McHose (1844-1922) and Mary Jane (Yoder) McHose (circa 1846-1880), who had died shortly after giving birth to Thomas. (His surname was also subsequently changed to “Yoder.”)

* Note: According to the obituary of Minnie M. Yoder (1864-1937), which appeared in the 11 April 1937 edition of The Morning Call, Minnie and several of her siblings had been adopted sometime after their mother had passed away. Minnie, who had been born as “Minnie M. Snyder” in Schoenersville, Lehigh County on 14 October 1864 (alternate birth date: 7 October 1864) but was listed on the federal census of August 1880 as “Minnie M. Yoder,” would never marry — although her sisters would. Anna Snyder (1870-1908), who had been born in Schoenersville in February 1870 but was listed as “Hannah Yoder” on the 1880 federal census, would go on to marry Charles E. Ziegenfuss, Jr. in 1895, while Isabella Snyder (1873-1899), who had been born in Schoenersville on 4 December 1873 but was listed on the 1880 federal census as “Birdie Yoder,” would marry George Dreisbach in 1899.

Meanwhile, Thomas M. Yoder (1881-1946), who had been born in Catasauqua on 29 August 1881 (alternate birth year: 1880), would go on to graduate from Catasauqua High School and Muhlenburg College and secure employment in Chicago, Illinois before accepting a position with the Erie City Iron Works in Erie, Pennsylvania. A captain with the U.S. Army in France during World War I, he would later settle in Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio, where he would become the husband of Marie Tapper in 1927 and the vice president of a pump works. He would then relocate to New York during the mid to late 1930s to partner with his brother, Charles Wesley McHose (1874-1959) in operating a boiler, steam-fitting and machinery plant.

During their nearly sixty years of married life, Amanda E. (Glace) Yoder and her husband, Daniel Yoder, M.D., went on to become prominent members in the civic and social circles of Catasauqua society. A homeopathic physician, Dr. Yoder was one of the founding members of the Lehigh Valley Medical Society and served as the first president of that organization, while Amanda was actively involved with the Presbyterian Church and her local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.). During the fall of 1895, they also helped to plan the wedding of their adopted daughter Anna — a lavish ceremony that was described at length by Allentown’s Daily Leader as follows:

A Brilliant Nuptial Event
Catasauqua Is the Scene of a Very Elaborate Church Wedding

Miss Anna Yoder, the adopted daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Daniel Yoder, of Catasauqua, was married yesterday [16 October 1895] to Chas. E. Ziegenfuss, of Allentown. The wedding took place in Grace Methodist Episcopal Church, Catasauqua. The ceremony was performed by the pastor, Rev. C. Merritt Simpson. The wedding was the largest one that has taken place in Catasauqua for years. The church, which was beautifully decorated, was filled with guests.

The bridesmaids were misses Isabella Yoder and Addie Tait, of Catasauqua; Millie Giering, of Nazareth; Minnie M. Yeager, Mame Ziegenfuss and Annie Lackey, of Allentown. They wore white mull trimmed with cream lace and ribbons, and carried white carnations. The maid of honor was Miss Jennie Yoder, a sister of the bride. She was also gowned in mull, cream lace and ribbons and carried pink roses. The flower and ring girl was Miss Helen Ziegenfuss, the four-year-old sister of the bridegroom. She was daintily dressed in white, and carried a basket, in which was a bouquet of roses and the ring. 

The bridegroom was attended by Edwin A. Donecker as best man. The ushers were George Spang, of Lebanon, a student at Muhlenberg College; Roland Davies and Wm. Dyatt, of Catasauqua, and Walter J. Ziegenfuss, Wm. Penn Barr and Chas H. Bear, of Allentown.

In preparation for the ceremony the bridegroom and the best man took their stations in front of the altar. There they were met by the bridal procession as before enumerated. The bride was given away by her father. The bridal procession marched to the altar to the music of “The voice that breathed o’er Eden” sung by the Euterpean Club, of which Mr. Ziegenfuss is a member. The ceremony concluded the club sang the wedding chorus from “Lohengrin.” 

The wedding services were followed by a reception at the home of the bride. The house was finely decorated. Francis A. Mertz and Peters & Jacoby were the caterers. The house was crowded with guests from this city [Allentown], Catasauqua, New York, Philadelphia and Washington. Mr. and Mrs. Ziegenfuss received many magnificent presents. The bridegroom’s gift to the bride was a ring with beautiful emerald and diamond settings. The bride presented to her attendants pearl pins. The best man and ushers wore scarf pins studded with emeralds and pearls.

Mr. and Mrs. Ziegenfuss left for New York on the evening express. They will go as far as Washington on their bridal tour. They will live at Thirteenth and Linden Streets. The bridegroom is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Ziegenfuss, of 32 South Fifth Street. He is a member of the C. A. Dorney Furniture Co. and is one of the best known business men in Allentown.

Nearly four years to the day later, the fall wedding ceremony of Amanda and Daniel Yoder’s adopted daughter Isabella received similar attention by Allentown’s Morning Call newspaper:

Brilliant Wedding

At 6 o’clock last evening [18 October 1899] Miss Isabella Yoder, youngest daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Daniel Yoder, of corner Bridge and Third Street, Catasauqua, was united in marriage to George Dreisbach, of Mauch Chunk [now Jim Thorpe], in Grace Methodist Episcopal Church, by the pastor, Rev. Dr. I. M. Foster. The interior of the edifice was elegantly decorated with autumn leaves, palms, smilax and flowers.

Miss Helen Hornbeck was maid of honor and the bridesmaids were Miss Minnie Yoder, sister of the bride; Miss Mame Thomas, Catasauqua; Miss Stella McKenna, Slatington; Missies Sallie Klotz, Harriet Craig and Helen Bertolett, Mauch Chunk. Richard Ruddle, of Mauch Chunk, officiated as best man. Thomas Yoder, brother of the bride; Harry Graffin, Dr. James L. Hornbeck, Catasauqua; Fred. Hawkins, New York; Dr. Carter and Charles Dolan, of Mauch Chunk, were the ushers.

As the wedding party entered the church Mrs. Dai Emanuel played a wedding march. Immediately after the ceremony a reception was given the happy couple at the residence of Dr. and Mrs. Yoder. A luncheon was served. Music was rendered by Professor Lehman Ruhe’s Orchestra, of this city [Allentown], assisted by Setaro, the harpist, of Philadelphia. The bride’s favors to the maid of honor and bridesmaids were miniatures, in handsome settings of the bride. The bridegroom presented to the best man and ushers pearl star scarf pins.

Mr. and Mrs. Dreisbach left on the 8:50 Lehigh Valley train on a wedding trip to Wilkes-Barre, Harrisburg, Philadelphia and Washington. On their return they will reside at Mauch Chunk, where the bridegroom is cashier of the Second National Bank, of which institution his father, George Dreishbach, Sr., is president. The bride is one of Catasauqua’s handsomest and most accomplished young women. She is a graduate of high school, 1894.

In 1900, Amanda (Glace) Yoder’s Catasauqua household included her physician-husband Daniel Yoder and their adopted children, Minnie (aged thirty-two) and Thomas (aged nineteen), the latter of whom was a college student.

Widowed by her husband when he passed away in Catasauqua at the age of eighty-six, on 24 August 1920, Amanda E. (Glace) Yoder continued to reside in Catasauqua for the remainder of her life. Ailing with kidney disease during her latter years, she died at the age of eighty-two at her home at Third and Bridge Streets in Catasauqua on 26 October 1925, and was laid to rest beside her husband and daughter, Lizzie, at the Fairview Cemetery in West Catasauqua. She had resided in the same home for more than fifty years.

 

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