“The day of their departure is one never to be forgotten by many of our people. All was excitement. ‘Grim visaged war’ stared us in the face, the tramp of armed men, the nodding pompoon, the beating of the drums all through the streets, all gave evidence that something unusual was going on. Wherever the eye was turned knots of men could be seen discussing the events of the future; men were moving about fully uniformed and making ready for the field…. Stalwart, beardless boys of eighteen summers were side by side with the gray haired; the clerk, the dust-begrimed mechanic, the democrat, the republican, were in the same platoon. Party lines were obliterated, social distinctions were effaced, and one common sentiment ruled the hour — and that for the maintenance of the Union.” 

— “Allen Infantry — Anniversary Reunion,” The Allentown Democrat, 22 April 1891

 

One was a hatmaker and First Defender who shook President Abraham Lincoln’s hand; the other was that First Defender’s nephew. Both would go on to serve lengthy tours of duty during the American Civil War — one without a scratch and one even after being wounded.

They were the Geidners of Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, and this is their story.

Formative Years — James Henry Geidner, Sr.

Born in Salisbury Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania on 1 August 1819, James Henry Geidner was a son of Pennsylvania native Timothy Geidner (1793-1875) and Elizabeth (Kemmerer) Geidner (1795-1875), a native of Northampton County, Pennsylvania who was a daughter of Revolutionary War Patriot Frederick Kemmerer (1746-1843).

James was raised and educated in Lehigh County with his siblings: Samuel L. Geidner (1818-1901), who was born on 29 March 1818, was known to family and friends as “Sam,” wed Maria Freeby (1816-1888), and later settled in Rock Falls, Illinois; Charles Ludwig Geidner (1821-1873), who was born on 26 February 1821 and later wed Mary Ann Gutekunst (1822-1891); Elizabeth Geidner (1829-1901), who was born on 26 January 1829, was known to family and friends as “Eliza” and later wed William Alexander Gerhart, M.D. (1827-1882), a native of Hatfield in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania; Mary Ann Geidner (1831-1903), who was born in Allentown on 18 March 1831 and later wed John Biery (1829-1905); and John Geidner (1833-1877), who was born in Allentown on 28 March 1833.

During the spring and summer of 1850, the Geidner family’s patriarch, Timothy Geidner, worked as an undertaker who would “wash, dress, lay-out and dig graves for the dead … by day or night,” according to advertisements that he ran in The Lehigh Register. By September of that year, Timothy was described by a federal census enumerator as a “hatter,” and was residing in Allentown with his wife and just two of his children — Mary Ann and John Geidner.

That same year (1860), James Henry Geidner was no longer living at his parents’ home in Allentown. Married sometime during the early 1850s, he had settled with his wife in the city of Lancaster in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and had welcomed the birth with her there of their first and only child — James Henry Geidner, Jr. (1852-1927), who was born on 29 February 1852.

* Note: Although researchers for 47th  Pennsylvania Volunteers: One Civil War Regiment’s Story have found no definitive evidence to date of the name of the wife of James Henry Geidner, Sr., they currently theorize that her married name may have been “Anna Maria Geidner” and that she may have died shortly after giving birth to James H. Geidner, Jr., based on several sources. Among the most noteworthy of those is a Lancaster Intelligencer notice of the death of “Anna Maria, wife of James Gardner,” which was published in that newspaper’s Tuesday, 16 March 1852 edition, which reported that an Anna Maria Geidner died “On Friday morning last, in this City.” The timing of Anna Maria’s death was so close to the date of birth of James Henry Geidner, Jr. (29 February 1852), chronologically, that, when combined with the known dangers faced by nineteenth-century women during childbirth, it seems quite possible that they were mother and child.

However, that woman’s name (Anna Maria) conflicts with the data on another vital record — the death certificate that was created for James H. Geidner, Jr., in 1927, which noted that his mother’s given name was “Emma.” The information on that death certificate may be unreliable, however, because it was supplied by James Jr.’s son, William D. Geidner, who was so unsure of his grandmother’s exact name that he only identified her as “Emma” without providing her maiden or married surname. (If James Jr.’s mother did in fact die when he was only a few weeks old, he may never have learned her exact legal name if his father never spoke of her, or if his father referred to her by a “pet name” or nickname when speaking about her.)

Formative Years — Evan Geidner

Born in Lehigh County on 1 November 1843, Evan Geidner was a son of Mary Ann (Gutekunst) Geidner (1822-1891) and Charles Ludwig Geidner (1821-1873), who was a younger brother of James Henry Geidner, Sr. (1819-1895) mentioned above.

In 1850, Evan Geidner resided in Allentown with his parents and siblings: James L. Geidner (1840-1911), who had been born in Allentown on 22 October 1840 and would later wed Susanna Christman (1840-1898); Catherine A. Geidner (1845-1912), who had been born on 22 May 1845 and would later wed and was widowed by John Nagle; William Henry Geidner (1848-1920), who had been born on 27 March 1848 and would later wed Catherine Reichard (1863-1931). That year (1850), their father was employed as a tobacconist. Also residing with the family were Evan’s maternal grandmother and a maternal aunt.

After the 1850 federal census documented the lives of Evan Geidner and his family, more siblings soon arrived: Louisa Geidner (1855-1899), who was born on 22 January 1855 and would later wed Levan Sylvester Troxell (1848-1917); Annie S. Geidner (1857-1923), who was born on 29 April 1857 and would later wed Lewis G. Schoedler (1851-1926); and Emma Geidner (1857-1935), who was born in Allentown in 1857 and would later wed James S. Wieand (1857-1908).

Still residing with his parents and multiple siblings in Allentown in 1860, Evan Geidner helped to support his family on the wages of a laborer.

American Civil War — Allen Infantry (First Defenders)

Prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War, Evan Geidner’s uncle, James Henry Geidner, Sr., had served in a volunteer capacity as a private with the Allen Infantry. Also known as the Allen Guards, that Allentown-based militia unit was commanded by Captain Thomas Yeager. As a result of his affiliation with that organization, James H. Geidner, Sr. became one of the first Pennsylvanians to muster in for military duty when President Abraham Lincoln issued his call for volunteer militia units to defend the nation’s capital after the fall of Fort Sumter to the Confederate States Army in mid-April 1861. After enrolling for military service in Allentown, he officially reported for duty with his fellow Allen Infantrymen, mustering in at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg, Dauphin County on 18 April 1861 as a corporal with what would subsequently become known as Company G of the 25th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.

The timing of his muster-in means that James H. Geidner, Sr. officially became one of a select group of American soldiers who were known as “First Defenders.” Military records at that time indicated that he was forty-four years old. According to James L. Schaadt, a former mayor of Allentown who researched and wrote the history of the Allen Infantry:

On the 13th of April, 1861, being the day following the bombardment of Fort Sumter, and two days previous to the call of President Lincoln for 75,000 volunteers, the citizens of Northampton and Lehigh Counties called and held a public meeting in the Square at Easton, “to consider the posture of affairs and to take measures for the support of the National Government.” Eloquent and patriotic speeches were made and the First Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers was formed, as the result of the meeting. There were then in existence three military companies at Allentown: The Jordan Artillerists, commanded by Captain (later Major W. H. Gausler); the Allen Rifles, organized in 1849 and commanded by Captain (later Colonel) T. H. Good; and the Allen Infantry, organized about 1859 and commanded by Captain (later Major) Thomas Yeager. The Artillerists and the Rifles consolidated and became Company I of the First Regiment, and with the other companies of the regiment, were mustered in on April 20, 1861, Captain Good having been chosen lieutenant colonel of the regiment. Captain Gausler was selected to command Company I.

YEAGER GOES TO HARRISBURG

No sooner had the news of the attack on Fort Sumter come to Allentown than Captain Yeager of the Allentown Infantry hurried to Harrisburg and tendered the services of himself and his command to Governor Curtin. He received one of the first if not the first, captain’s commissions issued for the Civil War, and with it in his pocket, hurried back to Allentown and called upon his company for volunteers to defend the National Capitol, then threatened by the Secessionists.

The company had been organized in 1859, held regular drills, and had arrived at a fair stage of efficiency in Scott’s Tactics. The uniform was of gray cloth with black and gold bullion trimmings. The company paraded for the first time in the new uniform on Washington’s Birthday, 1861, at Philadelphia, on the occasion of the Flag over Independence Hall by President Lincoln, and with the Allen Rifles and the Jordan Artillerists accompanied the President to Harrisburg. The men of the Allen Infantry carried old-fashioned flint-lock guns with bayonets. The guns were generally ineffective and unreliable: ‘They kicked and spit in our faces,’ as one of the survivors says. The company was not otherwise equipped for the field, the men having neither great-coats nor blankets, knapsacks or canteens. The meeting and drill room was in an upper story in what is now [in 1910] No. 716 Hamilton Street, Allentown.

LISTS OPENED

On coming back from Harrisburg on the evening of the 16th of April, Captain Yeager opened the list for volunteers in the company’s armory and called upon the members of his command to enlist for the service of the United States. Men, especially young men, left furrow and work-shop and office in obedience to the call, and by noon of the next day 47 had signed the roll. The excited populace crowded the armory and the streets, but Captain Yeager determined to go that afternoon without waiting for more signers. The citizens packed a box with necessary articles of clothing, charged themselves with the care and support of the families of the departing men, and prepared a farewell dinner at the Eagle Hotel, Market (now Monument) Square, placing under each plate a five-dollar note, contributed by citizens. Unfortunately, these notes being issued by local state banks, had no purchasing power when afterward presented in Washington….

At 4 p.m. on 17 April 1861, Corporal James H. Geidner, Sr. and his fellow Allen Infantrymen “marched down Hamilton Street, lightly covered with snow, to the East Penn Junction and took [a] train to Harrisburg.” According to Schaadt:

The railroad Journey from Allentown to Harrisburg was marked by no incident, except the gathering of crowds at the different stations along the road, and their cheering. The company arrived at Harrisburg at about 8 p.m., and bivouacked at the Old Pennsylvania Depot with the Ringgold Light Artillery of Reading, the Logan Guards of Lewistown, the Washington Artillery and the National Light Infantry of Pottsville. At 1 o’clock in the morning of Thursday, April 18, General Keim ordered Captain Yeager to go on immediately to Washington with loaded guns….

Given breakfast that morning (18 April 1861), courtesy of the Reverend Jeremiah Schindel, “the five companies were mustered into the service of the United States by Captain Seneca G. Simmons, 7th Infantry, and with a detachment of 50 men of Company H, 5th Artillery … embarked at 8:10 a.m. on two Northern Central trains of 21 cars, for Baltimore, where they arrived at 2 p.m.,” according to Schaadt.

After disembarking from that train, Corporal James H. Geidner, Sr. and his fellow First Defenders were marched across the city to a second train depot in Baltimore, a trek that proved to be a challenging one, as the First Defenders were surrounded by a hostile crowd that initially hurled insults — and then began hurling bricks.

Undeterred, they reached the depot, with the help of a police escort, climbed aboard the boxcars of a freight train and departed for Washington, D.C., arriving there at 7 p.m. that same evening. Initially quartered in Vice President Breckenridge’s office at the U.S. Capitol, they were personally welcomed by U.S. Secretary of War Simon Cameron. The next day (19 April 1861), President Lincoln personally thanked and shook the hand of each First Defender, including Corporal James H. Geidner, Sr. Equipped with muskets and ammunition (minié balls) obtained from the arsenal at Harpers Ferry, the First Defenders guarded the U.S. Capitol until 1 May, during which time they honed their skills through daily drills. According to Schaadt, “Provisions were scarce, meals meagre; fresh meat and vegetables were wanting; the pork furnished was green and unpalatable. All the more welcome, therefore, were the supplies which came from home.”

As more troops arrived in late April and the beginning of May, new companies were created and expanded to the extent that there were now enough soldiers present to staff a new regiment, and the 25th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was born. When that happened Corporal James H. Geidner, Sr. and his fellow Allen Infantrymen were assigned to that new regiment’s Company G. Members of the Ringgold Band from Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania were then appointed to serve as the regimental band for the 25th Pennsylvania Volunteers. The regiment was then divided up and sent to key duty stations throughout the city. According to Schaadt:

On the first day of May, [Company G] was transferred with Captain McDonald’s Pottsville Light Infantry, Company D, Captain McCormick’s Company F, Captain Davis’ Company I, and Captain Dart’s Company K to the United States Arsenal, two miles south of the city, opposite Alexandria, on the Potomac, for the purpose of guarding the large quantity of valuable war materials, including 70,000 stand of arms and heavy guns with powder and ammunition, there stored. The company (Allen Infantry) was quartered at first on the second story of the penitentiary, which formed a part of the Arsenal, and later in rooms in the Arsenal. Here they were later joined by the Ringgold Artillery, Company A, and Captain Nagle’s Company C, under Major Ramsay, commandant at the Arsenal, were regularly drilled in Hardee’s Tactics, and instructed in target practice and skirmish drill by Lieutenant Mears of the U.S. Army. The daily routine consisted of reveille at 5 a.m., drill at 6, breakfast at 7, guard mounting at 8, dinner at 12, drill at 5, followed by dress parade, supper at 7, tattoo at 9, and taps at 9:45. Army rations were served. On May 10 regular army uniforms were issued to the men, consisting of blue pantaloons and frock coat, fatigue coat, forage cap, great coat, blue or red woolen shirt, two pairs of cotton stockings, two pairs cotton drawers, two pairs shoes, knapsack, haversack and canteen…. During this tour of duty, the Allen Infantry and Captain McKnight’s Ringgold Artillery were detailed on June 8 to cross the Long Bridge and go unload from the boats some 30 large and heavy cannon, and mount them on their cartridges in the intrenchments at Arlington Heights.

SKIRMISH WITH REBELS

On the 29th of June, the Allen Infantry, Captain Yeager, with the companies of Captains McDonald, McCormick, Davis and Dart, marched under Lieutenant Colonel Selheimer to Rockville, which they reached the next day, where they slept in the Fair building, but because of the heavy rain did not go any farther that day. They were provided with tents, ambulances, transportation wagons and all necessary camp equipage. Colonel Cake assumed charge. The next day, Monday morning, the battalion marched to Poolesville, reporting to Colonel Stone in charge of the Rockville expedition; then marched to Point Rocks, Sandy Hook, Harpers Ferry, where on the 4th of July some skirmishing took place with the Rebels, then occupying it. It was expected that an assault would be made on the morning of the 6th, but other orders being received, the command marched to Williamsport and across the Potomac to Martinsburg, where it went into camp.

From there, Corporal James H. Geidner, Sr. and the other members of his brigade marched to Bunker Hill on 15 July, made camp briefly, and then marched to Charlestown on 17 July, where they encamped “in the same field where John Brown and his comrades had been hanged,” according to Schaadt. “The next day the battalion moved to Harpers Ferry,” where they were directed to make camp, and were then given orders to return home because their initial terms of enlistment were expiring. Corporal Geidner was then officially mustered out with his company in Allentown on 24 July 1861 during a “welcome home” ceremony hosted by city residents.

Each private was paid thirty-seven dollars and thirty-six cents in gold (the equivalent of roughly one thousand three hundred and seventy-five U.S. dollars in 2025).

American Civil War — 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers

Motivated by the First Defender stories he was hearing from his uncle, James Henry Geidner, Sr., and realizing America’s Union was still in jeopardy, Evan Geidner decided to join the fight. Following his enrollment in Allentown on 20 August 1861, he officially mustered in for duty at Camp Curtin on 30 August 1861 as a private with Company B of the newly-formed 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Military records described him as an eighteen-year-old laborer and resident of Allentown who was six feet tall with brown hair, gray eyes and a dark complexion.

Less than a week later, his uncle, James Henry Geidner, Sr., then re-enrolled for a second tour of duty in Allentown on 4 September 1861. Technically still a corporal, due to his prior service with the 25th Pennsylvania Volunteers, James H. Geidner, Sr. was officially mustered in at Camp Curtin in Dauphin County on 18 September 1861 as a corporal with Company G of the same new regiment in which his nephew had recently enrolled — the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. According to Der Lecha Caunty Patriot, Allentown’s German language newspaper, James H. Geidner, Sr. entered at the rank of “fifth corporal” in Company G, which had a staff of eight corporals. Military records described him as a forty-year-old hatter residing in Lehigh County who was five feet, six inches tall with light hair, blue eyes and a florid complexion.

* Note: Company B was initially led by Emanuel P. Rhoads, a grandson of a former bank president. Rhoads had served as a first lieutenant with the Allen Rifles during the first three months of the American Civil War, had been commissioned as a captain on 30 August 1861 and had then been placed in charge of the 47th Pennsylvania’s Company B.

Meanwhile, Company G was led by Charles Mickley, a miller and merchant who was a native of Mickleys near Whitehall Township in Lehigh County. After recruiting the men who would form the 47th Pennsylvania’s G Company, Mickley had initially mustered in for duty as a corporal with the 47th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry on 18 September 1861, but had then been commissioned as a captain and given command of Company G that same day.

Following a brief light infantry training period at Camp Curtin, the Geidners were sent by train with the 47th Pennsylvania to Washington, D.C., where they were stationed at “Camp Kalorama” on the Kalorama Heights near Georgetown, about two miles from the White House, beginning 21 September. Henry Wharton, a field musician (drummer) with the regiment’s C Company, penned an update the next day to his hometown newspaper, the Sunbury American:

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

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

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

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

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

On 24 September 1861, the Geidners and their fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers officially mustered in with the U.S. Army. Three days later, on 27 September, a rainy, drill-free day which permitted many of the men to read or write letters home, the 47th Pennsylvanians were assigned to the 3rd Brigade of Brigadier-General Isaac Ingalls Stevens. By that afternoon, they were on the move again, headed for the Potomac River’s eastern side where, upon arriving at Camp Lyon in Maryland, they were ordered to march double-quick over a chain bridge and off toward Falls Church, Virginia.

Arriving at Camp Advance at dusk, the men pitched their tents in a deep ravine about two miles from the bridge they had just crossed, near a new federal military facility under construction (Fort Ethan Allen), which was also located near the headquarters of Brigadier-General William Farrar Smith (nicknamed “Baldy”), the commander of the Union’s massive Army of the Potomac (“Mr. Lincoln’s Army”). Armed with Mississippi rifles supplied by the Keystone State, their job was to help defend the nation’s capital.

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 [sic] tons of hay. A very nice day’s work. The boys are well, in fact, there is no sickness of any consequence at all in our Regiment….

Sometime during this phase of duty, as part of the 3rd Brigade, the 47th Pennsylvanians were moved to a site they initially christened “Camp Big Chestnut” in reference to a large chestnut tree located nearby. The site would eventually become known to the Keystone Staters as “Camp Griffin,” and was located roughly ten miles from Washington, D.C. While en route, according to historian Lewis Schmidt, “Pvt. Reuben Wetzel, a forty-six-year-old cook in Capt. Mickley’s Company G,” climbed up on a horse that was pulling his company’s wagon while his regiment was engaged in a march from Fort Ethan Allen to Camp Griffin (both in Virginia). When the regiment arrived at a deep ditch, “the horses lost their footing and the wagon overturned and plunged into the ditch, with ‘the old man, wagon, and horses, under everything.’” Although alive when pulled from the wreckage, Pvt. Wetzel had fractured a tibia, a serious injury even today. He succumbed to complications just five weeks later (on 17 November 1861) while being treated for the fracture and resulting amputation of his leg at the Union Hotel General Hospital in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. He was interred at Military Asylum Cemetery (now known as the U.S. Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery).

Pageantry and Hard Work

Meanwhile, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were engaged in the Grand Review at Bailey’s Cross Roads on 11 October 1861. In a letter that was written to family back home around this same time, Captain John Peter Shindel Gobin (the leader of C Company who would be promoted in 1864 to head 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 historian Lewis Schmidt as massing “about 10,000 infantry, 1000 cavalry, and twenty pieces of artillery all in one big open field.” In late October, according to Schmidt, the men from Companies B, G and H woke at 3 a.m., assembled a day’s worth of rations, marched four miles from camp, and took over picket duties from the 49th New York:

Company B was stationed in the vicinity of a Mrs. Jackson’s house, with Capt. Kacy’s Company H on guard around the house. The men of Company B had erected a hut made of fence rails gathered around an oak tree, in front of which was the house and property, including a persimmon tree whose fruit supplied them with a snack. Behind the house was the woods were the Rebels had been fired on last Wednesday morning while they were chopping wood there.

In his letter of 17 November, Henry Wharton revealed still 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 Colonel Tilghman 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 — 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.

1862

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

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

Ferried to the Oriental by smaller steamers during the afternoon of 27 January 1862, the enlisted members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry commenced boarding the big steamship, followed by their officers. Then, per the directive of Brigadier-General Brannan, the Oriental steamed away for the Deep South at 4 p.m. and headed for Florida which, despite its secession from the Union, remained strategically important due to the presence of Forts Taylor and Jefferson in Key West and the Dry Tortugas.

In early February 1862, the Geidners and their fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers arrived in Key West, Florida, where they were assigned to garrison Fort Taylor. During the weekend of Friday, 14 February, the regiment introduced itself to Key West residents as it paraded through the streets of the city. That Sunday, a number of the men from the regiment mingled with local residents at area church services.

Drilling daily in heavy artillery tactics and other military strategies, they felled trees, built new roads and helped to strengthen the facility’s fortifications. 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.

As the 47th Pennsylvanians soldiered on, many were realizing that they were operating in an environment that was far more challenging than what they had experienced to date — and in an area where the water quality was frequently poor. That meant that disease would now be their constant companion — an unseen foe that would continue to claim the lives of multiple members of the regiment during this phase of duty — if they weren’t careful.

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, 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), while men from Companies B and H “crossed the Coosaw River at the Port Royal Ferry and drove off the Rebel pickets before returning ‘home’ without a loss,” according to Schmidt. The actions were the Union’s response to the burning by Confederate troops of the ferry house at Port Royal.

On 27 September 1862, Corporal James H. Geidner, Sr. was reduced in rank to private (alternate date: 27 December 1862).

Saint John’s Bluff and the Capture of a Confederate Steamer

During a return expedition to Florida beginning 30 September, members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry 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, they subsequently captured artillery and ammunition stores (on 3 October) that had been abandoned by Confederate forces during a bombardment of the bluff by Union gunboats.

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.

Boarding the Union gunboat Darlington (formerly a Confederate steamer), they moved upriver, along the Saint John’s, with protection from the Union gunboat Hale, ultimately traveling a distance of two hundred miles. Charged with locating and capturing Confederate ships that had been engaged in furnishing troops, ammunition and other supplies to Confederate Army units scattered throughout the region, including the batteries at Saint John’s Bluff and Yellow Bluff, they played a key role in capturing the Governor Milton, a Confederate steamer that was docked near Hawkinsville.

* Note: While all of that was unfolding in South Carolina, Private Evan Geidner’s mother was giving birth to another child — Ella Geidner — who was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania on 6 October 1862.

Integration of the Regiment

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

Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina

From 21-23 October 1862, under the brigade and regimental commands of Colonel Tilghman Good and Lieutenant-Colonel George Warren Alexander, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers joined with other Union troops in engaging heavily protected Confederate forces in and around Pocotaligo, South Carolina, including at the Frampton Plantation and the Pocotaligo Bridge, a key piece of railroad infrastructure that senior Union military leaders felt should be eliminated.

Harried by snipers while en route to destroy the bridge, they also met resistance from Confederate artillerymen who opened fire as they entered an open cotton field.

Those headed toward higher ground at the Frampton Plantation fared no better as they encountered rifle and cannon fire from the surrounding forests. But the Union soldiers would not give in. Grappling with Rebel troops wherever they found them, they pursued them for four miles as the Confederate Army retreated to the bridge. Once there, the 47th Pennsylvania relieved the 7th Connecticut.

The engagement proved to be a costly one for the 47th Pennsylvania, however, with multiple members of the regiment killed instantly or so grievously wounded that they died the next day or within weeks of the battle. Among those killed in action was Captain Charles Mickley of Company G; one of the mortally wounded was K Company Captain George Junker, who had served with Private James H. Geidner, Sr. in the Allen Infantry, as a First Defender, at the beginning of the American Civil War.

Following the 47th Pennsylvania’s return to Hilton Head on 23 October, members of the regiment mourned their lost friends and attempted to heal from the physical and mental trauma they had sustained. A week later, several 47th Pennsylvanians were called upon to serve as the funeral honor guard for Major-General Ormsby M. Mitchel, commander of the U.S. Army’s Tenth Corps (X Corps) and Department of the South, who died from yellow fever on 30 October.

Having been ordered back to Key West on 15 November 1862, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers would spend the coming year guarding federal installations in Florida. Companies A, B, C, E, G, and I would once again garrison Fort Taylor in Key West, while 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 described by several members of the 47th as a treacherous and nerve-wracking voyage. According to historian Lewis 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, Company C soldier 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 all 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 sailors 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 riverboat, 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, hold]. 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 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, while the men from Companies B and E were assigned to older barracks that had previously been erected by the U.S. Army. Members of Companies A and G were marched to the newer “Lighthouse Barracks” located on “Lighthouse Key.”

On Saturday, 21 December, Lieutenant-Colonel George Warren Alexander, the regiment’s second-in-command, sailed away aboard the Cosmopolitan with the men from Companies D, F, H, and K, and headed south to Fort Jefferson, roughly seventy miles off the coast of Florida (in the Gulf of Mexico) to assume garrison duties there. According to Musician Henry Wharton:

We landed here [Fort Taylor] on last Thursday at noon, and immediately marched to quarters. Company I. and C., in Fort Taylor, Company 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 relieved the 90th Regiment N. Y. 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 superiors, I merely mention, judging from the expression of the citizens, they were very glad of the return of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers….

Sometime on Year’s Eve, G Company Private Henry J. Hornbeck, began the final entry in his diary for 1862:

Weather warm & fine. The Regiment was today mustered for pay. At 9 o’clock, the band serenaded us at the barracks. We also had a “string band”, composed of Blacks, playing all evening. At 12 o’clock, a party consisting of Wm. Hertz, James Knerr, George Henry, Henry Reiss, Will Steckel, Julius Lascon, James Geidner, Henry Getter & myself, visited the captains & lieutenants of our Company & Company A. being together in the new barracks at the Lighthouse, and wish them a Happy New Year and fired a salute. We were all called in and got something to drink.…

1863

Stationed in Florida for the entire year of 1863, the Geidners and their fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were literally ordered to “hold the fort.” Their primary duty was to prevent foreign powers from assisting the Confederate Army and Navy in gaining control over federal installations and other territories across the Deep South. In addition, the regiment was also called upon to play an ongoing role in weakening Florida’s ability to supply and transport food and troops throughout areas held by the Confederate States of America.

Prior to intervention by the Union Army and Navy, the owners of plantations, livestock ranches and fisheries, as well as the operators of smaller 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 sizeable orange groves. (Other types of citrus trees were found growing throughout more rural areas of the state.)

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

But once again, they were performing their duties in often dangerous conditions. The weather was frequently hot and humid as spring turned to summer, mosquitos and other insects were an ever-present annoyance (and a serious threat when they were carrying tropical diseases), and there were also scorpions and snakes that put the health of Private Geidner and his comrades at further risk. In addition, there was a serious shortage of clean water for drinking and bathing.

Still, they soldiered on. On 21 October 1863, Private James H. Geidner, Sr. was honorably discharged at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas. That action was taken by his superiors in response to General Orders, No. 191, in order to facilitate Private Geidner’s re-enrollment the next day as a private with the same company of the same regiment (Company G of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry).

The next day (22 October 1863), James H. Geidner, Sr. was appointed as a field musician with Company G — a role he would continue to fulfill for the remainder of his time in the Union Army.

A week before Christmas, Private Evan Geidner also re-enlisted — but did so at Fort Taylor in Key West. Officially re-enrolled on 15 December 1863, he then re-mustered there on 18 December.

1864

In early January 1864, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers experienced yet another significant change when leaders of the regiment were ordered to expand the Union’s reach by sending part of the regiment north to retake Fort Myers, a federal installation that had been abandoned in 1858, following the federal government’s third war with the Seminole Indians. In response, Company A Captain Richard Graeffe and a detachment of his subordinates traveled north, captured the fort and began conducting cattle raids to provide food for the growing Union troop presence across the region. They subsequently turned their fort not only into their base of operations, but into a shelter for pro-Union supporters, escaped slaves, Confederate deserters, and others fleeing Rebel troops.

Red River Campaign

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, the men from Companies B, C, D, I, and K headed for Algiers, Louisiana (across the river from New Orleans), followed on 1 March by the men from Companies E, F, G, and H.

Upon the second group’s arrival, the now almost-fully-reunited-regiment moved by train to Brashear City (now Morgan City), before heading to Franklin by steamer through the Bayou Teche. There, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry joined the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division of the 19th Corps (XIX) of the United States’ Army of the Gulf, and became the only regiment from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to serve in the Red River Campaign commanded by Union Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks. (Unable to reach Louisiana until 23 March, the soldiers from Company A were assigned to detached duty while awaiting transport that enabled them to reconnect with their regiment at Alexandria, Louisiana on 9 April.)

The early days on the ground quickly woke the Geidners and their fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers up to just how grueling their new phase of duty would be. From 14-26 March, most members of the 47th marched for Alexandria and Natchitoches, near the top of the L-shaped state. Among the towns that the 47th Pennsylvanians passed through were 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 officially mustered into the regiment on 22 June at Morganza, Louisiana. 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, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers 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 second division, sixty members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry were cut down on 8 April 1864 during the intense volley of fire in the Battle of Sabine Cross Roads (also known as the Battle of Mansfield due to its proximity to the town of Mansfield). The fighting waned only when darkness fell. The exhausted, but uninjured collapsed beside the gravely wounded and dead. 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 unto 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, a 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 Union force, the men of the 47th were forced to bolster the 165th New York’s buckling lines by blocking another Confederate assault.

During that engagement (now known as the Battle of Pleasant Hill), the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers succeeded in recapturing a Massachusetts artillery battery that had been lost during the earlier Confederate assault. Unfortunately, the regiment’s second-in-command, Lieutenant-Colonel George Warren Alexander, and its two color-bearers, Sergeants Benjamin Walls and William Pyers, were wounded. Alexander sustained wounds to both of his legs, and Walls was shot in the left shoulder as he attempted to mount the 47th Pennsylvania’s colors on caissons that had been recaptured, while Pyers was wounded as he grabbed the flag from Walls to prevent it from falling into Confederate hands.

All three survived the day, however, and continued to serve with the regiment, but many others, like K Company Sergeant Alfred Swoyer, were killed in action during those two days of chaotic fighting, or were wounded so severely that they were unable to continue the fight. (Swoyer’s final words were, “They’re coming nine deep!” Shot in the right temple shortly afterward, his body was never recovered).

Still others 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 a series of prisoner exchanges that began on 22 July and continued through November. At least two members of the regiment never made it out of that prison camp alive; another died at a Confederate hospital in Shreveport.

Meanwhile, as the captured 47th Pennsylvanians were being spirited away to Camp Ford, the bulk of the regiment was carrying out orders from senior Union Army leaders to head for Grand Ecore, Louisiana. Encamped there from 11-22 April, the Union soldiers engaged in the hard labor of strengthening regimental and brigade fortifications.

They then moved back to Natchitoches Parish on 22 April. While they were in route, they were attacked again, this time, at the rear of their retreating brigade, but they were able to end the encounter quickly and move on to reach Cloutierville at 10 p.m. that same night (after a forty-five-mile march).

The next morning (23 April), 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 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 from enemy troops positioned atop a bluff and near a bayou, Brigadier-General Emory directed one of his brigades to keep Bee’s Confederate troops busy while sending two other brigades to find a safe spot for the Union’s forces to cross the Cane River. As part of “the beekeepers,” the 47th Pennsylvania supported Smith’s artillery.

Meanwhile, additional troops under Smith’s command attacked Bee’s flank to force a Rebel retreat, and then erected a series of pontoon bridges that enabled the 47th Pennsylvania and other Union regiments 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, C Company Musician Henry Wharton described what had happened:

Our sojourn at Grand Score 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 for the boys, for at 10 o’clock at night they made Cloutierville, a distance of forty drive miles. On that day our 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 rebels 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 if 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 in 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 that they would remain at their latest new camp for at least two weeks. Placed temporarily under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Bailey, they were assigned yet again to the hard labor of construction work, helping to erect “Bailey’s Dam,” a timber structure that was designed to enable Union gun boats to safely navigate the fluctuating water levels of the Red River. According to Musician Henry 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 gun boats 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 iron clads down the river. After a great deal of labor this was accomplished and by the morning of May 13th the last one was through the shute [sic, chute], 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 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 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 15th, we left the river road and took a short route through the woods, saving considerable distance. The windings of the Red river are so numerous that it resembles the tape-worm railroad where with 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 into 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.

“Resting on their arms” (half-dozing, without pitching their tents, and with their rifles right beside them), they were now positioned just outside of Marksville, 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, they reached Missoula [sic, Mansura], where they formed in column, taking the whole field in an attempt to flank the enemy, but their running qualities were so good that we were foiled. The maneuvring [sic, maneuvering] of the troops was handsomely done, and the movements was [sic, were] 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 directly, 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 the army. I have it from the best source that the Federal loss from Franklin to Mansfield, and from their [sic, there] 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 healthy members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry 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 regiment in Beaufort, South Carolina (1862) and Natchitoches, Louisiana (1864) were officially mustered into the regiment between 22-24 June.

The regiment then moved on and arrived in New Orleans in late June. On the Fourth of July, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers received orders to return to the East Coast. Three days later, they began loading the regiment and its men onto ships, a process that unfolded in two stages. Companies A, C, D, E, F, H, and I boarded the U.S. Steamer McClellan on 7 July and departed that day, while the members of Companies B, G and K, including the Private Evan Geidner (Company B) and Field Musician James Henry Geidner, Sr. (Company G), remained behind, awaiting transport. They subsequently departed aboard the Blackstone, weighing anchor and sailing forth at the end of that month. Arriving in Virginia, on 28 July, the second group reconnected with the first group at Monocacy, having missed an encounter with President Abraham Lincoln and the Battle of Cool Spring at Snicker’s Gap in mid-July (a battle in which the first group of 47th Pennsylvanians had participated).

Sheridan’s 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign

Attached to the Middle Military Division, U.S. Army of the Shenandoah, beginning in early August of 1864, and placed under the command of Union Major-General Philip H. Sheridan, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was assigned to defensive duties in and around Halltown, and also engaged over the next several weeks in a series of back-and-forth movements between Halltown, Berryville, Middletown, Charlestown, and Winchester as part of a “mimic war” being waged by Sheridan’s Union forces with those commanded by Confederate Lieutenant-General Jubal Early.

The 47th Pennsylvania then engaged with Confederate forces in the Battle of Berryville from 3-4 September.

Battles of Opequan and Fisher’s Hill

On 19 September 1864, the Geidners and their fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers next began a series of battles that would turn the tide of the American Civil War firmly in favor of the Union and help President Abraham Lincoln to secure re-election.

Together, with other regiments under the command of Union Major-General Philip Sheridan and Brigadier-General William Emory, commander of the 19th Corps (XIX Corps), the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers helped to inflict heavy casualties on Lieutenant-General Jubal Early’s Confederate forces in the Battle of Opequan (also spelled as “Opequon” and known as “Third Winchester”).

The 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers’ march toward destiny began at 2 a.m. that 19 September as the regiment left camp and joined up with other regiments in the Union’s 19th Corps. Advancing from Berryville toward Winchester, the 19th Corps bogged down for several hours as Union wagon trains made their way slowly across the terrain. As a result, Early’s troops were able to dig in and wait.

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

Meanwhile, the 47th Pennsylvania and other 19th Corps regiments were directed by Brigadier-General William Emory to attack and pursue Major-General John B. Gordon’s Confederate forces. Some success was achieved, but casualties mounted as a Confederate artillery group opened fire on Union troops that were trying to cross clearing. When a nearly fatal gap began to open between the 6th and 19th Corps, Sheridan sent in units that were led by Brigadier-Generals Emory Upton and David A. Russell. Russell, hit twice (once in the chest), was mortally wounded.

The 47th Pennsylvania subsequently opened its lines long enough to enable the Union cavalry under William Woods Averell and the foot soldiers of Brigadier-General George Crook to charge the Confederates’ left flank. As the 19th Corps began pushing the Confederates back, with the 47th Pennsylvania in the thick of the fight, Early’s “grays” retreated.

Sheridan’s “blue jackets” ultimately went on to win the day.

Leaving twenty-five hundred wounded behind, the Rebels retreated to Fisher’s Hill, eight miles south of Winchester, where a second engagement, the Battle of Fisher’s Hill, was waged from 21-22 September. Following a successful morning flanking attack by Sheridan’s Union forces, which outnumbered Early’s Confederate troops three to one, Early’s troops fled to Waynesboro, but were pursued by the 47th Pennsylvania and other Union regiments. Afterward, the 47th Pennsylvanians made camp at Cedar Creek.

They would continue to distinguish themselves in battle, but they would do so without their two most senior leaders, Colonel Tilghman H. Good and Lieutenant-Colonel George Warren Alexander, who mustered out from 23-24 September, upon expiration of their respective terms of service. Fortunately, they were replaced by leaders who were equally respected for their front-line experience and temperament, including Major John Peter Shindel Gobin, formerly of Company C, who had been promoted up through the regimental officers’ corps to the regiment’s central command staff (and who would be promoted again on 4 November to the rank of lieutenant-colonel and appointed as the 47th Pennsylvania’s final commanding officer).

Battle of Cedar Creek

During the fall of 1864, Major-General Sheridan began the first of the Union’s true “scorched earth” campaigns, starving the enemy into submission by destroying Virginia’s farming infrastructure. Viewed today through the lens of history as inhumane, the strategy claimed the lives of many innocent civilians, whose lives were uprooted or even cut short by the inability to find food or adequate shelter. This same strategy, however, almost certainly contributed to the further turning of the war in the Union’s favor during the Battle of Cedar Creek on 19 October 1864.

Successful throughout most of their engagement with Union forces at Cedar Creek, Lieutenant-General Jubal Early’s Confederates began peeling off in ever greater numbers as the battle wore on in order to search for food to ease their gnawing hunger, thus enabling Sheridan’s well-fed troops to rally and win the day.

From a military standpoint, it was another impressive show of the Union’s might. From a human perspective, it was both inspiring and heartbreaking. During the morning of 19 October, Early launched a surprise attack on Sheridan’s Cedar Creek-encamped forces. Early’s men were able to capture Union weapons while freeing a number of Confederates who had been taken prisoner during previous battles, all while pushing seven Union divisions back. According to historian Samuel P. Bates:

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

In response, Union troops staged a decisive counterattack that punched Early’s forces into submission. Afterward, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were commended for their heroism by General Stephen Thomas, who, in 1892, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his own “distinguished conduct in a desperate hand-to-hand encounter, in which the advance of the enemy was checked” that day.

But the day proved to be a particularly costly one for the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. The regiment lost the equivalent of two full companies of men in killed, wounded and missing, as well as soldiers who were captured by Rebel troops and dragged off to prisoner of war (POW) camps. Among the wounded that day was Private Evan Geidner of Company B, who received medical treatment from Union Army physicians and was ultimately able to return to active duty with his regiment.

Following those major battles, Field Musician James H. Geidner, Sr. and his fellow healthy 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were ordered to march to Camp Russell near Winchester, where they rested and began the long recovery process from their physical and mental wounds.

In somewhat better shape by mid-December, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers subsequently received new orders directing them to head for outpost and railroad guard duties at Camp Fairview in Charlestown, West Virginia. They began their march five days before Christmas — in a driving snowstorm.

1865 — 1866

Still stationed at Camp Fairview in West Virginia as the New Year of 1865 dawned, members of the regiment continued to patrol and guard key Union railroad lines in the vicinity of Charlestown, while other 47th Pennsylvanians chased down Confederate guerrillas who had made repeated attempts to disrupt railroad operations and kill soldiers from other Union regiments.

In February 1865, the regiment was reassigned to the Provisional Division of the 2nd Brigade of the U.S. Army of the Shenandoah, but continued with the same assignment.

Joyous News and Then Tragedy

As April 1865 opened, the battles between the Army of the United States and the Confederate States Army intensified, finally reaching the decisive moment when the Confederate troops of General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox on 9 April.

The long war, it seemed, was finally over. Less than a week later, however, the fragile peace was threatened when an assassin’s bullet ended the life of President Abraham Lincoln. Shot while attending an evening performance of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre on 14 April 1865, the president died from his head wound at 7:22 a.m. the next morning.

Shocked, and devastated by the news, which was received at their Fort Stevens encampment, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were given little time to mourn their beloved commander-in-chief before they were ordered to grab their weapons and move into the regiment’s assigned position, from which it helped to protect the nation’s capital and thwart any attempt by Confederate soldiers and their sympathizers to re-ignite the flames of civil war.

So key was their assignment that the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were not even allowed to march in the funeral procession of their slain leader. Instead, they took part in a memorial service with other members of their brigade that was officiated by the 47th Pennsylvania’s regimental chaplain, the Reverend William D. C. Rodrock.

Present-day researchers who read letters sent by 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers to family and friends back home in Pennsylvania during this period, or post-war interviews conducted by newspaper reporters with veterans of the regiment in later years, will learn that the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were collectively heartbroken by Lincoln’s death and deeply angry at those whose actions had culminated in his murder. Researchers will also learn that at least one member of the regiment, C Company Drummer Samuel Hunter Pyers, was given the high honor of guarding President Lincoln’s funeral train, while other members of the regiment were assigned to guard duty at the prison where the key assassination conspirators were being held during the early days of their imprisonment and trial, which began on 9 May 1865. The regiment was headquartered at Camp Brightwood during this period.

Attached to Dwight’s Division of the 2nd Brigade of the Department of Washington’s 22nd Corps, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were permitted to march in the Union’s Grand Review of the National Armies, which took place in Washington, D.C. on 23 May.

Reconstruction

On their final southern tour, Private Evan Geidner and his uncle, Field Musician James H. Geidner, Sr. were stationed with their fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers in Savannah, Georgia in early June. Assigned again to Dwight’s Division, this time they were attached to the 3rd Brigade, Department of the South. Relieving the 165th New York Volunteers in Charleston, South Carolina in July, they quartered in the former mansion of the Confederate Secretary of the Treasury. Duties for the 47th during this phase were Provost (military police) and Reconstruction-related, including rebuilding railroads and other key segments of the region’s battered infrastructure.

Beginning on Christmas day of that year, Private Evan Geidner (Company B) and his uncle, Field Musician James Geidner, Sr. (Company G), joined with the majority of 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers, in the regiment’s final muster out in Charleston — a process which continued through early January. Following a stormy voyage home, they disembarked in New York City. Weary, but eager to see their loved ones, they were transported to Philadelphia by train where, at Camp Cadwalader between 9-11 January 1866, they were officially given their honorable discharge papers.

According to regimental muster-out rolls, James H. Geidner, Sr. had last been given his regular soldier’s pay by the federal government on 30 September 1864, but had only been paid one hundred and forty dollars of the two hundred and sixty-two dollars in extra bounty funds that the government had promised him for enlisting with a Union Army unit. The federal government also owed him four dollars and thirty-six cents toward the purchase of his uniform. He did not receive the full amount that was due him when he was mustered out, however, because he still owed the sutler seven dollars and seventy-five cents for supplies that he had purchased while in service to the nation.

Meanwhile, Private Evan Geidner had also only received one hundred and forty dollars of the two hundred and sixty-two dollars in bounty pay that was owed to him by the federal government. Last paid on 15 December 1864, he was also owed even more money than his uncle for clothing (six dollars and eighty-seven cents), but unlike his uncle, Evan still owed the federal government six dollars “for arms and acoutrements” — and he also owed the sutler two dollars.

If they ever did receive their back pay, they received tidy sums. The amounts owed to Evan Geidner and James H. Geidner, Sr. by the federal government would be the equivalent in 2025, respectively, of more than five thousand U.S. dollars (for Evan) and more than nine thousand dollars (for James).

Return to Civilian Life

Following their honorable discharge from the military in January 1866, Evan Geidner and his uncle, James Henry Geidner, Sr., both returned home to their families and tried to regain some semblance of their former lives. While Evan moved back in with his parents and sisters in the city of Allentown and helped to support his family on the wages he earned as a carpenter, James settled back into his own routine at his home at 7 South Water Street in the city of Lancaster with his son, James Henry Geidner, Jr., whom he supported through his work as a hatter. As his namesake son grew to manhood, he taught him the skills he would need to become a successful hatmaker in his own right.

Sadly, the Geidners soon suffered the first loss of several beloved family members. On 25 September 1871, James Henry Geidner, Sr.’s nephew and fellow 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteer — Evan Geidner — died in Allentown on 25 September 1871. Just weeks shy of his twenty-ninth birthday, Evan was subsequently laid to rest at Allentown’s Union-West End Cemetery.

Less than a year later, joy briefly returned as James Henry Geidner, Sr. celebrated the marriage of his son, James Henry Geidner, Jr., to Harriet Christ, who was known to family and friends as “Hattie.” Sometime around the time of their wedding ceremony, which was held at the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Lancaster on 26 June 1872, they also welcomed the Allentown birth of William D. Geidner (1872-1956), who had been born on 16 January 1872 and would later wed Eva L. Boyer (1874-1959), who was a daughter of Allentown butcher Zach Boyer.

But grief descended again a year later with the passing of Charles Ludwig Gardner, who was Evan Geidner’s father and a younger brother of James H. Geidner, Sr. Aged fifty-two at the time of his death in Allentown on 1 July 1873, Charles L. Geidner was also interred at the Union-West End Cemetery.

Roughly two years later, Elizabeth (Kemmerer) Geidner, the mother of James Henry Geidner, Sr. and Charles Ludwig Gardner, then also died in Allentown. Aged seventy-nine at the time of her passing on 2 March 1875, she was laid to rest at that city’s Fairview Cemetery. Their father, Timothy Geidner, then died later that same year at the age of eighty-on on 12 October 1875, and was buried beside their mother at Fairview. Less than two years later, John Geidner, the brother of James Henry Geidner, Sr. and Charles Ludwig Geidner, then also died in Allentown. Just forty-three at the time of his passing on 13 January 1877, John was also buried at Allentown’s Fairview Cemetery.

A longtime widower, James Henry Geidner, Sr. was still employed as a hat retailer and repairman at the time of the 1880 federal census. That year, he resided at the home of his son, James Henry Geidner, Jr., on Court Street in Allentown, along with James Jr.’s wife, Hattie, and their Allentown-born children, William D. Geidner; Grace Geidner (1876-1956), who had been born on 21 May 1876 and would later wed Nelson Allen Butz (1875-1952); and Charles I. Geidner (1879-1897), who had been born on 5 March 1879.

During the spring of 1884, James H. Geidner, Sr. attended a banquet at the Lafayette Hotel in Allentown, at which surviving First Defenders from the Allen Infantry were honored. That summer, he announced that he was opening a wholesale and retail hat store at 43 North 7th Street, near Linden, in Allentown.

Six years later, during the summer of 1890, James H. Geidner, Sr. “opened a branch hat store at 307 Hamilton street, where a full line of stylish silk, fur, wool and straw hats” were sold, per The Allentown Critic. He resided at 510 North Seventh Street in Allentown, according to the federal government’s special veterans’ census of June 1890. On 18 April 1891, he hosted a reunion of surviving First Defenders at his home to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the Allen Infantry’s muster-in as First Defenders of the U.S. Capitol Building during the first weeks of the American Civil War. That same year, he and the other surviving veterans of the Allen Infantry were presented with gold medals honoring their service as First Defenders. The medals, which were made of gold, were authorized and paid for by the Pennsylvania State Legislature in 1891, and were produced by the Philadelphia branch of the U.S. Mint. He then hosted another meeting for the group at his hat store in Allentown in early March of 1892. During the summer and early fall of 1893, he served on the planning committee for the annual reunion of the Grand Army of the Republic’s Eastern Division of Pennsylvania, which was scheduled for 5 October that year in Allentown. That same year, he was also documented in Allentown’s “Mercantile Assessment for 1893” as the operator of a hat business in partenership with his son, as “James H. Geidner & Son.”

On the thirty-third anniversary of the Allen Infantry’s muster-in for First Defender service (18 April 1894), seventy-five-year-old James H. Geidner, Sr. and his fellow Allen Infantry veteran William Ruhe, an eighty-four-year-old resident of Philadelphia at that time, were cheered by the crowd that witnessed a parade held in the city of Pottsville in Schuylkill County in tribute to the First Defenders. Transported together in a carriage during the parade, they were “the oldest members of the First Defenders’ Association,” according to The Critic newspaper of Allentown. A banquet was then held that same evening at the Pennsylvania Hall Hotel. Later that same year, James H. Geidner, Sr. became a grandfather again when his son and daughter-in-law, James H. Geidner, Jr. and Hattie (Christ) Geidner, welcomed the birth of another child — Paul Timothy Geidner (1894-1974), who was born on 9 July 1894. Another son, Harold W. Geidner (1896-1963), was then born to James Jr. and Hattie on 27 August 1896. (Paul would later go on to marry Madge A. Mack, while Harold would wed Minnie A. Reichard.)

Tragically, the Geidners suffered another loss when Charles I. Geidner, a son of James H. Geidner, Jr., fell ill and died shortly before his eighteenth birthday. Following his passing on 19 February 1897, he, too, was buried at Allentown’s Fairview Cemetery.

During the final years of his life, James H. Geidner, Sr. continued to reside at the home of his son, James H. Geidner, Jr., at 516 North Fifth Street in Allentown. Active with the Grand Army of the Republic’s E. B. Young Post (No. 87) throughout much of his post-war life, he was also a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church on Linden Street and of the Union Veteran Legion.

Death and Interment

Ailing during the final months of his life, James H. Geidner, Sr. died at the home of his son in Allentown, twenty minutes after midnight on 10 July 1895. Just twenty-two days shy of his seventy-seventh birthday, he was laid to rest with military honors at the at the Fairview Cemetery in Allentown.

What Happened to the Son of James H. Geidner, Sr.?

Following his father’s death, James Henry Geidner, Jr., continued to operate his family’s hat business. By 1910, he and his wife, Hattie, were residing at 829 Walnut Street in Allentown, with their sons Paul and Harold (aged fifteen and thirteen, respectively).

On 22 June 1922, he and his wife, Hattie, celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary (fiftieth anniversary) at their home at 114 8th Street in Allentown. They spent their day enjoying visits from friends and neighbors. That evening, a banquet was held in their honor in their dining room. Beginning at 5:30 p.m., the celebration featured speeches by their former pastor, the Reverend George Bowersox, and the Reverend John A. Richter, their current pastor at St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church. According to Allentown’s Morning Call newspaper:

The evening was a joyous one with delightful reminiscences of olden days and with brightest hopes for the future for the couple who have reached a wonderful stage in married life with spirits that are still youthful and ambitious. “We were married young,” said Mrs Geidner, “and have never regretted it. We think it would be vastly better for the average young folks if they were to be married at a younger age than seems to be the custom today.”

Mr. Geidner, who is known to practically every Allentonian, was in the best of spirits. For almost half a century he has been in the hat business in this city and there is not a single man in Allentown who knows more about the heads of Allentown’s men than he, for he made hats for hundreds of the most prominent men of the city in the days when handmade hats were the order and since then has fitted the leading men of the city with their head-gear and has kept their toppers, Stetsons and Panamas, in condition for them from season to season, bringing to his work the cleverness and knowledge of a craft that probably came to him partly by inheritance, for he came from a line of hatters of generations in extent, and to this he has added more than half a century of his own experience.

Mr. Geidner spoke interestingly of the old days of hat manufacture when a hatter secured rabbit fur from Russia and in his shop fashioned the cloth from which beavers, round hats and high hats and later derbies were made. He described the manufacture which consisted first in the weighing out of three ounces of the fur, then beating the fur into a cloth and then shaping of the hat, followed by the trimmings and finishing.

To some of these details Mrs. Geidner was able to add, for as she said, “I was a trimmer in the hat factory of Mr. Geidner’s father and there as a girl I met Mr. Geidner [James H. Geidner, Jr.] and we were married in Lancaster by the Rev. Dr. Smith, pastor of the M. E. Church, on June 26, 1872. So this is the exact anniversary of our wedding.”

The young couple resided in Lancaster for two years after their wedding and then came to this city [Allentown] to locate. Here they have resided during the past forty-eight years. For many years Mr. Geidner had the well known factory and shop at Seventh and Linden streets. Later he was located at various places in the city and for many years was associated with the late Louis L. Anewalt as a salesman in addition to conducting his own shop.

To the happy and handsome couple were born five children, four of whom survive, namely, William D., Mrs. Nelson A. Butz, Paul T. and Harold W., all of this city [Allentown]. There are four grandchildren.

The parents of both, who were prominent residents of Lancaster, are deceased, and there are no brothers or sisters surviving to either. There are but few collateral relatives and these were represented by Mrs. Clara Leibley and her grandchild, Mildred Rhen, both of Lancaster. Mrs. Leibley is an aunt to Mrs. Geidner.

Ailing with a gastric ulcer during his final years, James H. Geidner, Jr. suffered a gastric hemorrhage on 7 January 1927, and died two days later in Allentown. Following his passing at nine o’clock in the evening on 9 January, he was also laid to rest at the Fairview Cemetery in Allentown.

What Happened to the Siblings of James H. Geidner, Sr.?

Following his marriage to Maria Freeby, James H. Geidner’s brother, Samuel L. Geidner (1818-1901), who was known to family and friends as “Sam,” initially settled with her in Allentown, where they welcomed the birth of Timothy Geidner (1841-1864), who was born on 15 June 1841 and later died at the age of twenty-three on 22 June 1864 in Nashville, Tennessee, following the amputation of his right arm while in service to the nation as a corporal with Company G of the 34th Illinois Infantry. Sam Geidner then migrated west with his wife and young son to Illinois later that same decade (the 1840s), and settled with them in Whiteside County. Once there, he became a farmer who welcomed the births with his wife of more children in Como, Whiteside County: Georgianna Geidner (1847-1911), who was born on 30 August 1847 and later wed George Phipps (1837-1909); Mary Anna Geidner (1852-1927), who was born on 30 December 1852 and later wed and was widowed by Truman Charles Newton (1844-1881), before marrying Daniel H. Comingore (1848-1924); Anna Geidner (1850-1926), who was born on 14 January 1850 and later wed Julius Jerome Whitney (1849-1924); Maria Geidner (1853-1938), who was born in February 1853 and later wed Benjamin F. Kadel (1850-1925); James Henry Geidner (1855-1922), who was born on 9 July 1855 and later wed Emma Marie Adams (1856-1924); Jeannette Geidner (1859-1945), who was born on 13 January 1859 and later wed David Walker; and William H. Geidner (1862-1863), who was born on 6 February 1862 but died in Como at the age of one on 13 October 1863. Sometime after the federal census, Sam Geidner moved his family to Rock Falls in Whiteside County. By 1870, he was living there with his wife and their children: Annie, Mariah, James, and Jeanette. Widowed by his wife, Maria (Freeby) Geidner, when she passed away at the age of seventy-one in Rock Falls on 13 September 1888, he subsequently moved into the home of his daughter, Georgianna (Geidner) Phipps, in Lake Township, Monona County, Iowa, where Georgianna’s husband was farming the land after the turn of the century. Ailing during his final years, Sam Geidner died at the age of eighty-two at the Monona County, Iowa home of his daughter, Georgianna, on 21 March 1901, according to his obituary in The Daily Nonpareil of Council Bluffs, Iowa. His remains were subsequently returned to Illinois for interment beside his wife at the Coloma Township Cemetery in Rock Falls, Whiteside County.

Following her marriage to William Alexander Gerhart, M.D. (1827-1882) in the city of Philadelphia on 16 April 1856, James H. Geidner’s sister, Elizabeth Geidner (1829-1901), who was known to family and friends as “Eliza,” settled with him in Franconia Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, where her husband was a practicing physician. Their son, Paul Gerhart (1860-1860) was born on 20 January 1860, but died at the age of six months on 9 August of that same year. By 1870, Eliza and her husband were “empty nesters” residing alone in the Borough of Hatfield in Montgomery County, where her husband’s private medical practice was thriving. By that time, he had amassed personal and real estate property valued at two thousand three hundred dollars (the equivalent in 2025 of nearly fifty-seven thousand U.S. dollars). Still empty nesters in Hatfield in 1880, they moved to the Borough of Lansdale in Montgomery County during the spring of 1881, but their largely happy life together ended the following year when Eliza’s husband died suddenly from heart disease in Lansdale on 20 June 1882. His remains were subsequently returned to Lehigh County for burial at the Fairview Cemetery in Allentown. By June of 1900, she was residing at the home of her sister, Mary Ann (Geidner) Biery, in Allentown’s First Ward. Eliza died there, just over a year later, at the age of seventy-two on 3 July 1901, and was laid to rest beside her husband at Allentown’s Fairview Cemetery.

Following her marriage to John Biery (1829-1905), James H. Geidner’s sister, Mary Ann (Geidner) Biery (1831-1903), settled with her husband in Allentown, where he became a respected coal dealer and where they became active members of the Zion Reformed Church and welcomed the births of: Eliza Biery (1854-1932), who was born on 5 April 1854 and later wed Levi T. Camp (1851-1918); Emma L. Biery (1856-1936), who was born in 1856 and later wed William Mack (1855-1932); Jacob G. Biery (1859-1932), who was born in September 1859 and later wed Annie E. Esser (1865-1908); Charles T. Biery (1862-1886), who was born on 24 August 1862 but died two days after his birthday, at the age of twenty-four, in 1886; and Hannah M. Biery (1867-1934), who was born on 11 July 1867 and later wed Charles S. Esser (1869-1931). After suffering an episode of apoplexy, Mary Ann (Geidner) Biery died at the age of seventy-two at her home in Allentown, on 2 May 1903, and was also interred at Allentown’s Fairview Cemetery.

What Happened to Evan Geidner’s Mother and Siblings?

Evan Geidner’s mother, Mary Ann (Gutekunst) Geidner (1822-1891), survived him by nearly two decades and survived her husband by more than eighteen years. A longtime resident of Allentown, she died at the age of sixty-eight in Allentown, on 21 April 1891, and was laid to rest beside her husband at Allentown’s Union-West End Cemetery.

Following her marriage to Levan Sylvester Troxell, Evan Geidner’s sister, Louisa Geidner (1855-1899), settled with him in Lehigh County and welcomed the births of: Charles Owen Troxell (1873-1944), who was born in Mechanicsville, Lehigh County on 9 February 1873 and later wed Annie L. K. Schlader (1877-1926); Harry F. Troxell (1875-1947), who was born in Allentown on 3 January 1875, later wed Bertha G. Keiser and settled with her in Bethlehem, Northampton County, Pennsylvania; William H. Troxell (1877-1940), who was born in Allentown on 28 April 1877 and later wed S. Mable Knoll (1883-1959); Howard Milton Troxell (1879-1971), who was born in Allentown on 6 August 1879 and later wed Meda V. Mohr (1884-1970); Edwin James Troxell (1880-1936), who was born on 23 December 1880 and later wed Annie Amanda Snyder (1885-1910); Clara Estella Troxell (1883-1950), who was born in Allentown on 10 May 1883 and later wed Samuel Tilghman Reinhard (1883-1959); Fred Levan Troxell (1885-1967), who was born in Allentown on 10 November 1885 and later settled in Philadelphia; Florence M. E. Troxell (1888-1966), who was born on 28 May 1888 and later wed Morris Ernest Christman (1892-1979); Esther Angeline Troxell (1890-1953), who was born in Allentown on 12 November 1890 and later wed Charles Esterly; and Hattie Ellen Troxell (1891-1965), who was born in Allentown on 16 November 1891 and later wed Irvin/Irwin S. Leeser (1889-1961). Ailing with cancer, Louisa (Geidner) Troxell died at the age of forty-three at her home at 318 North Church Street in Allentown, on 5 January 1899 and was laid to rest at Allentown’s Greenwood Cemetery.

Following his marriage to Susanna Christman, Evan Geidner’s brother, James L. Geidner (1840-1911), also settled in Lehigh County with his wife. Together, they welcomed the births of: Sarah E. Geidner (1860-1914), who was born on 2 April 1860 and later wed Thomas Edward Smith (1855-1937); Mary Alice Geidner (1862-1938), who was born on 27 May 1862 and later wed Oscar E. Koch (1861-1939); Caroline A. Geidner (1866-1928), who was born on 6 March 1866, was known to family and friends as “Carrie” and later wed and was widowed by Amos W. Bertolet, Jr. (1859-1892), before marrying Joseph E. Rau (1857-1902); Lillie A. Geidner (1868-1943), who was born in Allentown on 29 November 1868 and later wed William Alfred Reichard (1866-1939); Martha J. Geidner (1873-1901), who was born in March 1873,was known to family and friends as “Mattie” and later wed Thomas William Schlicher (1880-1939); and Katie Rebecca Geidner (1875-1914), who was born on 1 November 1875 and later wed D. Samuel Roth (1872-1925). Widowed by his wife, Susanna (Christman) Geidner when she passed away at the age of fifty-seven on 3 February 1898, James L. Geidner continued to work as a carpenter until his death from dropsy at the age of seventy, at the home of his daughter, Lillie A. (Geidner) Reichard, in Allentown on 21 June 1911. Following funeral services, he was also interred at Allentown’s Union-West End Cemetery.

Following her marriage to John Nagle, Evan Geidner’s sister, Catherine A. Geidner, welcomed the births with him of: Elizabeth Nagle, who was known to family and friends as “Lizzie” and later wed James F. Guth and settled with him in Litzenburg; Mary Nagle, who later wed William A. Frantz; Ella J. Nagle (1872-1945), who was born on 15 November 1872 “at Chapmans,” according to her obituary, and later worked at the Adelaide Silk Mill in Allentown; and Emma S. Nagle (1876-1955), who was born at Chapmans on 4 September 1876 and also later settled in Allentown. Widowed by her husband, John Nagle, Catherine A. (Geidner) Nagle continued to reside in Allentown with her unmarried daughters, Ella and Emma. Ailing with pneumonia, Catherine died just months shy of her sixty-sixth birthday, at her home in Allentown, on 14 March 1912, and was also buried at Allentown’s Greenwood Cemetery.

Following his marriage to Catherine Reichard, Evan Geidner’s brother, William Henry Geidner (1848-1920), settled with her in Mauch Chunk (now Jim Thorpe) in Carbon County, Pennsylvania, where he was employed as a wire gager by Hazard Wire Rope Works and where they welcomed the births of: Mary R. Geidner (1872-1949), who was born on 9 July 1872 and later wed Elmer J. Oplinger (1870-1923); and Hattie E. Geidner (1873-1958), who was born on 3 October 1873 and later wed Harry Franklin Miller (1867-1950). William H. Geidner and his wife then moved their family to the city of Wilkes-Barre in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, where he continued to work as a wire gager for Hazard Wire Rope Works and where they welcomed the birth of Maurice Reichard Geidner (1881-1941), who was born on 24 January 1881 and later became a dentist. Employed by the same company for forty years, William H. Geidner retired due to health issues. Paralyzed for a week before his death at the age of seventy-one in Wilkes-Barre, on 26 February 1920, he was laid to rest at the Oak Lawn Cemetery and Mausoleum in Hanover Township, Luzerne County.

Following her marriage to Lewis G. Schoedler, Evan Geidner’s sister, Annie S. Geidner (1857-1923), settled with him in Allentown, where they welcomed the births of: Gertrude Mary Schoedler (1881-1933), who was born on 12 October 1881 and later wed Francis Oliver Heintzelman (1880-1961); William Henry Franklin Schoedler (1890-1971), who was born in 1891, later served overseas with the U.S. Army during World War I and became the husband of Miriam Schoenly (1901-1993); Ida May Schoedler (1896-1953), who was born on 8 May 1896 and later wed John H. M. Christman (1889-1964); and Margaret Idella Schoedler (1902-1945), who was born on 6 March 1902 and later wed Roy Albert Kranch (1900-1944). After a full life, Annie (Geidner) Schoedler died at the age of sixty-six at the home of her daughter, Gertrude (Schoedler) Heintzelman, in Allentown on 10 May 1923, and was laid to rest like many of her siblings at Allentown’s Union-West End Cemetery.

Following her marriage to barber James S. Wieand, Evan Geidner’s sister, Emma Geidner, settled with him in Allentown, where they welcomed the births of: Charles W. Wieand (1880-1928), who was born on 18 August 1880 and later wed Ella M. Kromer (1883-1971); Mary E. Wieand (1887-1939), who was born on 29 March 1887 and later wed George Harmony; and Harry James Wieand (1893-1963), who was born on 7 June 1893, later co-founded the Western Salisbury Jug Band and became the husband of Ellen Jane Mory (1891-1948). Widowed by her husband, James Wieand, in 1908, Emma (Geidner) Wieand continued to reside in Allentown, where she also performed with the Western Salisbury Jug Band. After a full life, she died at the age of seventy-five, at the home of her son, Harry J. Wieand, in Allentown on 31 October 1935, and was interred beside her husband at Allentown’s Greenwood Cemetery.

 

Sources:

1. “A Grand Army Day: The Boys in Blue Will Hold Their Autumn Bivouac Here.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Leader, 12 September 1893.
2. “Allen Infantry — Anniversary Reunion.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Democrat, 22 April 1891.
3. Anna Maria Geidner (possible wife of James H. Geidner, Sr.), in “Deaths.” Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Lancaster Intelligencer, 16 March 1852.
4. Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, vol. 1. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.
5. Biery, John, Mary A. (John Biery’s wife and a sister of James H. Geidner, Sr.), Elisa, Emma, and Jacob, in U.S. Census (Allentown, Third Ward, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, 1860). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
6. Biery, John, Mary Ann (John Biery’s wife and a sister of James H. Geidner, Sr.) and Hannah; Gerhart, Eliza (Mary Ann’s sister and a sister of James H. Geidner, Sr.); and Esser, Paul B. and J. Warren (grandsons of John Biery), in U.S. Census (Allentown, First Ward, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, 1900). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
7. “Borough Statement” (report on the payment by the Borough of Allentown to residents for various services, including to James H. Geidner, Sr.’s father, Timothy Geidner, for “work on streets”). Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Lehigh Register, 20 April 1853.
8. “Branch Hat Store” (announcement of the opening of a second hat store by James H. Geidner, Sr.). Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Critic, 10 August 1890.
9. “Death of James H. Geidner” (obituary of James H. Geidner, Sr.). Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Democrat, 17 July 1895.
10. “Death of Mrs. Biery” (obituary of James H. Geidner, Sr.’s sister, Mary Ann (Geidner) Biery).” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Leader, 2 May 1903.
11. “Death of Mrs. Gerhart” (obituary of James H. Geidner, Sr.’s sister, Elizabeth (Geidner) Gerhart). Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Leader, 5 July 1901.
12. “Do You Wish to Economize!” (advertisement for the business owned by James H. Geidner, Sr., hatter). Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Morning Call, 25 October 1890.
13. Dr. William A. Gerhart (groom) and Eliza Geidner (bride and a sister of James H. Geidner, Sr.), in Marriage Records (St. Matthew’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, date of marriage: 16 April 1856). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
14. “Extensive Hat Manufactory.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Critic, 2 August 1884.
15. “Geidner” (death notice of James H. Geidner, Sr.), in “Deaths.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Leader, 12 July 1895.
16. “Geidner” (death notice of James H. Geidner, Sr.), in “Deaths.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Morning Call, 13 July 1895.
17. Geidner, Charles (a brother of James H. Geidner, Sr. and the father of Evan Geidner), Mary Ann (Charles L. Geidner’s wife and the mother of Evan Geidner), James (the son of Charles L. Geidner and a brother of Evan Geidner and a nephew of James H. Geidner, Sr.), Evan, Catharine, William H., and Elizabeth; Gudekunst, Catharine (the maternal grandmother of Evan Geidner) and Sarah (a maternal aunt of Evan Geidner), in U.S. Census (Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, 1850). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
18. Geidner, Charles (a brother of James H. Geidner, Sr. and the father of Evan Geidner), Mary Ann (Charles L. Geidner’s wife and the mother of Evan Geidner), James (the son of Charles L. Geidner and a brother of Evan Geidner and a nephew of James H. Geidner, Sr.), Evan, Catharine, William H., Louisa, Anna, and Emma; and Gudekunst, Sarah (a maternal aunt of Evan Geidner); and Geidner, Susanna (the sister-in-law of Evan Geidner) and her daughter, Sarah, in U.S. Census (Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, 1860). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
19. Geidner, Charles (a brother of James H. Geidner, Sr. and the father of Evan Geidner), Mary Ann (Charles L. Geidner’s wife and the mother of Evan Geidner), Evan, Louisa, Anna, Emma, and Ella, in U.S. Census (Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, 1870). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
20. Geidner, Evan, in Civil War Muster Rolls (Company B, 47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
21. Geidner, Evan, in Civil War Veterans’ Card File, 1861-1866 (Company B, 47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
22. Geidner, Evan, in Headstones Provided for Deceased Union Civil War Veterans (Union Cemetery, Allentown, Pennsylvania, date of death, 25 September 1871). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
23. Geidner, Evan and Mary A., in U.S. Civil War Pension General Index Cards (application of veteran’s mother: 338949, filed from Pennsylvania, 7 May 1886). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
24. Geidner, J. H. [sic, “James H. Geidner, Jr.] (a son of James H. Geidner, Sr.), Hattie, Harold, and Paul; and Rockel, Annie (a boarder and dressmaker), in U.S. Census (Allentown, Third Ward, Pennsylvania, 1900). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
25. Geidner, James [sic, “James H. Geidner, Sr.”], in Civil War Muster Rolls (Company G, 25th Pennsylvania Infantry; and Company G, 47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
26. Geidner, James [sic, “James H. Geidner, Sr.”], in Civil War Veterans’ Card File, 1861-1866 (Company G, 25th Pennsylvania Infantry; and Company G, 47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
27. Geidner, James [sic, “James H. Geidner, Sr.”], in Lant’s Directory of Lancaster City, 1866-67. Lancaster, Pennsylvania: J. M. Westhaeffer, Publisher.
28. Geidner, James [sic, “James H. Geidner, Jr.”] (a son of James H. Geidner, Sr.), Hattie, Willie, Grace, Charles, and James [sic, “James H. Geidner Sr.”], in U.S. Census (Allentown, Seventh Ward, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, 1880). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
29. Geidner, James [sic, “James H. Geidner, Sr.”], in U.S. Census (“Special Schedule. — Surviving Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines, and Widows, etc.”: Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, 1890). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
30. “Geidner” (death notice of a sister-in-law of James H. Geidner, Sr. and the widow of Charles L. Geidner). Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Morning Call, 22 April 1891.
31. Geidner, Samuel (a brother of James H. Geidner, Sr.) and Maria and Timothy, Mary Ann, George Ann [sic, “Georgianna”], Ann, Maria, James, and Janetta (children of Samuel Gardner), in U.S. Census (Como, Hopkins, Whiteside County, Illinois, 1860). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
32. Geidner, Samuel (a brother of James H. Geidner, Sr.), Maria, Annie, Mariah, James, and Janette, in U.S. Census (Rock Falls, Whiteside County, Illinois, 1870). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
33. Geidner, Timothy and Elizabeth (the parents of James H. Geidner, Sr.); Beary [sic, “Biery”], John, Mary Ann (Timothy Geidner’s daughter and a sister of James H. Geidner, Sr.), Eliza, Emma, Jacob, Charles, and Hannah; Geidner/Gildner, Emma (a public school teacher); and Long, Charles (a teamster), in U.S. Census (Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, 1850). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
34. Geidner, Timothy, Elizabeth, Mary Ann, and John (the parents and siblings of James H. Geidner, Sr.), in U.S. Census (Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, 1870). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
35. Gerhart, Alexander W. [sic, “William Alexander Gerhart, M.D.”], Eliza (a sister of James H. Geidner, Sr.) and Paul, in U.S. Census (Franconia, Franconia Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, 1860). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
36. Gerhart, Wm. A. and Eliza (a sister of James H. Geidner, Sr.), in U.S. Census (Hatfield, Hatfield Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, 1870, 1880). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
37. “Glorious History of the First Defenders.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Leader, 8 April 1911.
38. Grace M. Butz (a granddaughter of James H. Geidner, Sr. and a daughter of James H. Geidner, Jr.), in Death Certificates (file no.: 99588, registered no.: 1774, date of death: 27 November 1956). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
39. “Great Attraction at Geidner’s” (advertisement by James H.Geidner, Sr. for his hat shop). Lancaster, Pennsylvania: The Saturday Express, 4 December 1852.
40. Harold W. Geidner (a grandson of James H. Geidner, Sr. and a son of James H. Geidner, Jr.), in Death Certificates (file no.: 40768, local reg. no.: 671, date of death: 12 April 1963). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
41. James H. Geidner, Jr. (a son of James H. Geidner, Sr.), in Death Certificates (file no.: 3892, registered no.: 35, date of death: 9 January 1927). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
42. James H. Geidner, Sr., in “Charles Mickley’s Compagnie.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: Der Lecha Caunty Patriot, 25 September 1861.
43. “Mercantile Assessment for 1893: List of Retailers” (James H. Geidner, Sr.’s hat business, J. H. Geidner & Son). Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Democrat, 31 December 1893.
44. “Medals for the First Defenders.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Democrat, 29 July 1891.
45. “Meeting of the Survivors of the Allen Infantry.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Democrat, 9 March 1892.
46. “Mr. and Mrs. James Geidner Celebrate Their Golden Wedding” (article about the fiftieth wedding anniversary celebration of James H. Geidner, Jr. and his wife, Hattie). Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Morning Call, 27 June 1922.
47. “Mrs. Emma J. Wieand” (obituary of a sister of Evan Geidner). Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Morning Call, 1 November 1935.
48. “New Hat Store.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Democrat, 6 August 1884.
49. “Notice” (advertisement by James H. Geidner, Sr.’s father, Timothy Geidner, regarding the services that Timothy offered to customers as an undertaker). Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Lehigh Register, 27 March and 1 May 1851.
50. Phipps, George and Georgianna; and Geidner, Samuel (Georgianna’s father and a brother of James H. Geidner, Sr.), in U.S. Census (Lake Township, Monona County, Iowa, 1900). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
51. “Reunion of First Defenders.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Critic, 16 April 1890.
52. “Roster of the 47th P. V. Inf.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Morning Call, 26 October 1930.
53. Samuel Geidner, in “Iowa Town Topics: Whiting.” Council Bluffs, Iowa: The Daily Nonpareil, 25 March 1901.
54. Schaadt, James L. “The Allen Infantry in 1861,” in “Heroic Deeds of First Defenders Told in Thrilling Narrative for First Time by Historian.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Morning Call, 15 February 1910.
55. Schmidt, Lewis G. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1986.
56. “Second Annual Re-Union of the First Defenders in Allentown.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Democrat, 12 April 1893.
57. “Survivors’ Banquet: How the Veterans Celebrated a Famous Event.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Critic, 19 April 1884.
58. “The First Defenders: Allentown’s Remaining Band of Loyalists Meet Once More.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Critic, 18 April 1891.
59. “The First Defenders’ Meeting.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Critic, 7 March 1892.
60. “The First Defenders: The Anniversary to Be Appropriately Celebrated.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Critic, 15 April 1884.
61. “The First Defenders: The Gallant Old Soldiers Have a Gala Day in Pottstown [sic, “Pottsville”].” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Critic, 20 April 1894.
62. “The History of the Forty-Seventh Regt. P. V.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Lehigh Register, 20 July 1870.
63. “The Last Roll Call: Answered This Morning by One of Allentown’s Brave Old First Defenders” (obituary of James H. Geidner). Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Leader, 10 July 1895.
64. Wharton, Henry D. “Letters from the Sunbury Guards,” 1861-1866. Sunbury, Pennsylvania: Sunbury American.
65. William D. Geidner (a grandson of James H. Geidner, Sr. and a son of James H. Geidner, Jr.), in Death Certificates (file no.: 108923, registered no.: 1849, date of death: 12 December 1956). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.