Vertebrae of their nation’s backbone in times of crisis, Charles Abraham Hackman and Martin Henry Hackman were among the legions of men who helped save America’s Union as blue-jacketed soldiers before becoming two of the countless blue-collar guys who rebuilt and transformed the United States during its Reconstruction and Second Industrial Revolution eras.

They got their start in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley.

Formative Years

Born in Rittersville, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania on 10 December 1839, Charles Abraham Hackman was a son of Pennsylvania natives, Abraham H. Hackman (1815-1899) and Mary Ann Lovina (Knauss) Hackman (1815-1895).

Note: According to Abraham Hackman’s obituary, Abraham “was born in Bethlehem township, nearly Ilick’s mill, in 1815, on June 23, six months after the treaty of peace in the second War of Independence with England had been concluded,” and was the son of Isaac Hackman and his wife Mary, nee Koehler.

Charles Abraham Hackman’s siblings were: Mary Margaret (1838-1913), who was born on 1 February 1838 and would go on to wed Valentine Cornelius Kleckner (1833-1901); Martin Henry Hackman (1841-1921), who was born on 1 October 1841 and would later serve with Charles during the American Civil War in both the 1st Pennsylvania Volunteers and 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers; Matilda F. (1845-1883), who was born on 20 December 1845, and would later go on to wed Owen H. Ott (1842-1926); John P. Hackman (1846-1935), who was born on 12 August 1846 and would go on to wed Ellen L. Rentzheimer (1847-1917); Ellen Victoria (1851-1921), who was born on 26 February 1851 and went on to wed Owen H. Ott, who had been widowed by Ellen’s older sister, Matilda; and Sarah U. Ellen Hackman (1853-1866), who was born on 18 December 1853 and, sadly, died at the age of twelve on 1 March 1866.

By the time that a federal census enumerator had arrived at the Hackman home in Hanover Township, Lehigh County on 26 August 1850, Charles A. Hackman had already moved out to begin his own life, but Martin H. Hackman still lived with his parents Lovina and Abraham, a laborer, and siblings Mary Ann, Matilda and John. Other records show that, by 1857, and possibly before that, Charles A. Hackman had begun his training as a carpenter.

Sometime during the late 1850s or early 1860s, both Charles Hackman and his younger brother, Martin, joined a local militia unit—the Allen Rifles.

By 1860, Martin H. Hackman had also moved out of his family’s house. Apprenticed to master coach maker Jacob W. Graffin, he resided with Jacob and his wife at their home in Allentown’s 2nd Ward.

But the brothers’ burgeoning careers as talented tradesmen would soon be interrupted as their nation descended into disharmony, disunion, and civil war.

Civil War Military Service—1st Pennsylvania Volunteers

Twenty-one-year-old Charles A. Hackman became one of America’s earliest responders to President Lincoln’s call for volunteers to defend the nation’s capital following the fall of Fort Sumter to Confederate forces in mid-April 1861. A member of the Allen Rifles, he joined his fellow militia men as they enlisted for Three Months’ Service on 20 April 1861, and was enrolled as a Private with Company I of the 1st Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.

That same day, his brother and fellow Allen Rifleman, Martin H. Hackman, also enrolled for Three Months’ Service in Harrisburg as a Private with the same company and regiment. The Hackman brothers then also officially mustered in that day at Camp Curtin, a military training camp on Agricultural Society land in northern Harrisburg.

Note: According to Alfred Mathews and Austin N. Hungerford, authors of History of the Counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the men of the Allen Rifles “wore regulation blue uniforms, carried Minié rifles, and under the instruction of Captain Good, who was noted as one of the ablest tacticians in the State of Pennsylvania, attained a degree of proficiency in Hardee’s tactics and the Zouave drill which won for them a reputation extending beyond the borders of the state….”

“Captain Good” was Tilghman H. Good, the man who would later become a three-time mayor of the city of Allentown, Pennsylvania after serving as an officer with the 1st Pennsylvania Volunteers before founding and commanding the 47th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War.

Transported with their regiment by Northern Central Railway cars to Cockeysville, Maryland, the 1st Pennsylvanians then spent time at Camp Scott near York, Pennsylvania before being ordered to railroad guard duties along the rail lines between Pennsylvania and Druid Park in Baltimore, Maryland from 14-25 May.

From there, the 1st Pennsylvanians were assigned to Catonsville (25 May) and Franklintown (29 May) before being ordered back across the border with their regiment and stationed at Chambersburg (3 June). There, they were attached to the 2nd Brigade (under Brigadier-General George Wynkoop), 2nd Division (under Major-General William High Keim), in the Union Army corps commanded by Major-General Robert Patterson.

Ordered to Hagerstown, Maryland on 18 June and then to Funkstown, Goose Creek and Edward’s Ferry, the regiment remained in that vicinity until 22 June, when it was ordered to Frederick, Maryland.

Assigned with other Union regiments to occupy the town of Martinsburg, Virginia from 8-21 July (following the Battle of Falling Waters earlier that month), the 1st Pennsylvanians were ordered to Harpers Ferry on 21 July. Following the completion of their Three Months’ Service, they honorably mustered out between 23-27 July 1861.

The Hackman brothers were among those men who were honorably discharged on 27 July; they both then returned home to Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley.

Civil War Military Service—47th Pennsylvania Volunteers

Following his honorable discharge, Charles Hackman then re-upped for a three-year tour of duty, enrolling at Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania on 4 September 1861, and mustering in for duty at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg, Dauphin County on 18 September 1861 as a Sergeant with Company G, 47th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Military records at the time described Sergeant Charles Hackman as a 5’5”-tall carpenter from Lehigh County who had light hair, gray eyes and a fair complexion.

Note: Company G was initially led by Charles Mickley, a miller and merchant who was a native of Mickleys near Whitehall Township in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. After recruiting the men who would form the 47th Pennsylvania’s G Company, Charles Mickley had personally mustered in for duty as a Corporal with the 47th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry on 18 September 1861, and was then promptly commissioned as a Captain and given command of Company G that same day. Also on that day, Charles A. Henry was made Company G’s Second Lieutenant, and John J. Goebel was commissioned as G Company’s First Lieutenant. The remainder of Company G—ninety-five men—also enrolled and mustered in that same day; by the next month, the roster numbered ninety-eight—a figure that would hold until 1862. By the time the Civil War ended in 1865, a total of one hundred and ninety-five men would ultimately serve with G Company, including Thomas B. Leisenring, who would go on to become the company’s captain.

Following a brief light infantry training period at Camp Curtin, Captain Mickley and his company 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 Musician 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 an occasional ‘pop’ at the enemy.

On 24 September 1861, the members of Company G and their fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers officially mustered in with the U.S. Army. Three days later, on September 27, 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], 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” for the large chestnut tree located within their lodging’s boundaries. 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 46-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.’”

Based on his review of military records, Schmidt believed that Pvt. Jacob H. Bowman (aged thirty-five), a former Allentown miller who was Company G’s designated wagon master, was likely the driver at the time of Private Wetzel’s accident. 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 home around this 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

Meanwhile, as the New Year began to unfold back home in Pennsylvania, Sergeant Charles Hackman’s younger brother, Martin H. Hackman, re-enlisted for a second tour of duty on 8 January 1862. Opting again to enroll in the exact same company and regiment as his older brother, this time, Martin H. Hackman enrolled in Allentown as a Private with Company G of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Military records described him as a twenty-year-old coach trimmer from Lehigh County. He would later be promoted to the rank of Corporal.

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

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

According to Schmidt and letters home from members of the regiment, those preparations ceased on Monday, 27 January, at 10 a.m. when:

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

Reloading then resumed. By that afternoon, when the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers commenced boarding the Oriental, they were ferried to the big steamship by smaller steamers. The officers boarded last, and, per the directive of Brigadier-General Brannan, the Oriental steamed away for the Deep South at 4 p.m. They were headed for Florida which, despite its secession from the Union, remained strategically important to the Union due to the presence of Forts Taylor and Jefferson in Key West and the Dry Tortugas.

In early February 1862, Company G 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 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers introduced their presence to Key West residents as the regiment paraded through the streets of the city. That Sunday, a number of the men from the regiment attended to their spiritual needs by participating in area church services. While there, they also had the opportunity to meet and mingle with the locals.

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.

On 3 March [alternate date: 2 March], Sergeant Charles A. Hackman was promoted to the rank of First Sergeant. The following day, Privates Daniel Ansbach, Joseph Fisher, John Meisenheimer and John Schimpf, Sr. were discharged on Surgeons’ Certificates of Disability. On 1 April 1862, Corporal D. K. Deifenderfer was promoted to the rank of Sergeant.

On 18 May 1862, Private Edmund G. Scholl died at Fort Taylor. As the surviving 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. And that meant that disease would 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. H Company’s Sergeant Reuben Shatto Gardner described their actions later in a letter to family and friends:

So the other day we took a notion to turn the joke on them and we crossed over to this side and drove them off their posts and back several miles, and burnt four houses that were used by them to picket in. Our skirmishers had four shots at the rebels, but with what effect we don’t know as they soon got out of harm’s way. Companies H and B were all that crossed. The boys got so eager to follow up the rebels that they did not want to come back when ordered. Our force was too small to advance far, so we went back after doing all the damage we could to them. They fled in such a hurry as to leave three saddles, one double barrelled shot gun, several overcoats, haversacks, canteens, &c., all of which our boys brought along as relics, that being the first of anything of that kind our regiment had. Now the boys want to cross every day; but the Colonel won’t allow them as it is beyond his orders to cross the river, and probably we would meet with a repulse, as the rebels have been in force on the opposite side since we drove them off. They are like a bee’s nest when stirred up. The day after we were over they fired more than a hundred shots at our boys. They returned some shots and only laughed at them. The distance across the river is from 800 to 1000 yards, and of course there can be but little damage done at that distance.

On Saturday, 12 July, H Company Lieutenant William W. Geety documented the engagement of Union troops with other Confederate soldiers, noting that troops from five Union gunboats had “shelled the shore and crossed over and burned three shanties…. I had command of the right of the skirmish but did not get an opportunity to kill any secessionists. I got a secessionist cap box made in New York and case of a shell.” The next day (a Sunday), Sergeant Reuben Gardner continued working on his letter, noting:

We have been on picket now ten days [near Port Royal Ferry, along the Broad River] and were due to be relieved tomorrow; but for some cause are now to stay five days longer. The general rule is ten days; but always whip the horse that pulls the hardest. We are ten miles from camp, and are picketing around the west end of the island, for 12 miles along the shore. Five companies of our regiment are out at a time. The rebel pickets are right opposite to us, across the river, and dozens of shots are exchanged every day; but without any effect on our side. The rebel’s [sic] guns fail to reach across. Our files will shoot across with a double charge, but we only fire at each other for fun. The 7th New Hampshire were on here before we came out and the rebels made them leave the line. They took advantage of that and crossed over and burnt a ferry house that stood on the end of the causeway on this side….

We have the greatest picket line here entirely. At low tide down along the beach at night you can’t hear thunder, by times, for the snapping of oysters, croaking of frogs, buzzing of mosquitoes, and the noise of a thousand other reptiles and varmints. It beats all I have heard since the commencement of the war. We have had a pretty good time out here on picket and good weather; but 15 days is a little too long to lie in the woods for my fancy.

On 12 September, Colonel Tilghman Good and his adjutant, First Lieutenant Washington H. R. Hangen, issued Regimental Order No. 207 from the 47th Pennsylvania’s Headquarters in Beaufort, South Carolina:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Regiment Victorious — and Bloodied

Sent on a return expedition to Florida, Company G saw its first truly intense moments when it participated with the 47th Pennsylvania and other Union regiments in the capture of Saint John’s Bluff from 1 to 3 October.

Led by Brigadier-General Brannan, a 1,500-plus Union force disembarked at Mayport Mills and Mount Pleasant Creek from troop carriers guarded by Union gunboats.

Taking point, the 47th led the 3rd Brigade through twenty-five miles of dense, pine-forested swamps, dodging deadly snakes and alligators. By the time the expedition ended, the brigade had forced the Confederate Army to abandon its artillery battery atop Saint John’s Bluff, and had paved the way for the Union to occupy the town of Jacksonville, Florida.

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

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

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

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

On 3 October, Good then filed this report from Saint John’s Bluff, Florida, now in Union hands:

At 9 o’clock last night Lieutenant Cannon reported to me that his command, consisting of one section of the First Connecticut Battery, was then coming up the creek on flat-boats with a view of landing. At 4 o’clock this morning a safe landing was effected and the command was ready to move. The order to move to Saint John’s Bluff reached me at 4 p.m. yesterday. In accordance with it I put the column in motion immediately and moved cautiously up the bank of the Saint John’s River, the skirmishing companies occasionally seeing small parties of the enemy’s cavalry retiring in our front as we advanced. When about 2 miles from the bluff the left wing of the skirmishing line came upon another camp of the enemy, which, however, in consequence of the lateness of the hour, I did not take time to examine, it being then already dark.

After my arrival at the bluff, it then being 7:30 o’clock, I dispatched Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander with two companies back to the last-named camp (which I found, from a number of papers left behind, to have been called Camp Hopkins and occupied by the Milton Artillery, of Florida) to reconnoiter and ascertain its condition. Upon his return he reported that from every appearance the skedaddling of the enemy was as sudden as in the other instances already mentioned, leaving their trunks and all the camp equipage behind; also a small store of commissary supplies, sugar, rice, half barrel of flour, one bag of salt, &c., including 60 tents which I have brought in this morning. The commissary stores were used by the troops of my command.

Integration of the Regiment

On 5 and 15 October 1862, respectively, the 47th Pennsylvania then made history as it became an integrated regiment, adding to its muster rolls several young to middle-aged Black men who had endured plantation enslavement in Beaufort, South Carolina. Among the men freed who subsequently opted to enroll as members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were Abraham and Edward Jassum (aged sixteen and twenty-two, respectively), and Bristor Gethers (aged thirty-three), whose name was spelled as “Presto Gettes” on transcriptions of muster rolls made by historian Samuel P. Bates. More men of color would continue to be added to the 47th Pennsylvania’s rosters in the weeks and years to come.

Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina

From 21-23 October, under the brigade and regimental commands of Colonel Tilghman H. Good and Lieutenant-Colonel George W. Alexander, the 47th Pennsylvanians engaged Confederate forces in and around Pocotaligo, South Carolina. Landing at Mackay’s Point, the men of the 47th were placed on point once again, but they and the 3rd Brigade were less fortunate this time.

Harried by snipers en route to the Pocotaligo Bridge, they met resistance from an entrenched, heavily fortified Confederate battery which opened fire on the Union troops as they entered an open cotton field. Those headed toward higher ground at the Frampton Plantation fared no better as they encountered artillery and infantry fire from the surrounding forests.

The Union soldiers grappled with the Confederates where they found them, pursuing the Rebels for four miles as they retreated to the bridge. There, the 47th relieved the 7th Connecticut.

After two hours of intense fighting in an attempt to take the ravine and bridge, depleted ammunition forced the 47th to withdraw to Mackay’s Point.

Losses for the 47th were significant. Two officers and eighteen enlisted men died; two officers and another 114 enlisted were wounded. In his report on the engagement, made from headquarters at Beaufort, South Carolina on 24 October 1862, Colonel Good wrote:

SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by the Forty-seventh Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers in the action of October 22:

Eight companies, comprising 480 men, embarked on the steamship Ben De Ford, and two companies, of 120 men, on the Marblehead, at 2 p.m. October 21. With this force I arrived at Mackays Landing before daylight the following morning. At daylight I was ordered to disembark my regiment and move forward across the first causeway and take a position, and there await the arrival of the other forces. The two companies of my regiment on board of the Marblehead had not yet arrived, consequently I had but eight companies of my regiment with me at this juncture.

At 12 m. I was ordered to take the advance with four companies, one of the Forty-seventh and one of the Fifty-fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers, and two of the Sixth Connecticut, and to deploy two of them as skirmishers and move forward. After moving forward about 2 miles I discerned some 30 or 40 of the enemys [sic] cavalry ahead, but they fled as we advanced. About 2 miles farther on I discovered two pieces of artillery and some cavalry, occupying a position about three-quarters of a mile ahead in the road. I immediately called for a regiment, but seeing that the position was not a strong one I made a charge with the skirmishing line. The enemy, after firing a few rounds of shell, fled. I followed up as rapidly as possible to within about 1 mile of Frampton Creek. In front of this stream is a strip of woods about 500 yards wide, and in front of the woods a marsh of about 200 yards, with a small stream running through it parallel with the woods. A causeway also extends across the swamp, to the right of which the swamp is impassable. Here the enemy opened a terrible fire of shell from the rear, of the woods. I again called for a regiment, and my regiment came forward very promptly. I immediately deployed in line of battle and charged forward to the woods, three companies on the right and the other five on the left of the road. I moved forward in quick-time, and when within about 500 yards of the woods the enemy opened a galling fire of infantry from it. I ordered double-quick and raised a cheer, and with a grand yell the officers and men moved forward in splendid order and glorious determination, driving the enemy from this position.

On reaching the woods I halted and reorganized my line. The three companies on the right of the road (in consequence of not being able to get through the marsh) did not reach the woods, and were moved by Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander by the flank on the causeway. During this time a terrible fire of grape and canister was opened by the enemy through the woods, hence I did not wait for the three companies, but immediately charged with the five at hand directly through the woods; but in consequence of the denseness of the woods, which was a perfect matting of vines and brush, it was almost impossible to get through, but by dint of untiring assiduity the men worked their way through nobly. At this point I was called out of the woods by Lieutenant Bacon, aide-de-camp, who gave the order, ‘The general wants you to charge through the woods.’ I replied that I was then charging, and that the men were working their way through as fast as possible. Just then I saw the two companies of my regiment which embarked on the Marblehead coming up to one of the companies that was unable to get through the swamp on the right. I went out to meet them, hastening them forward, with a view of re-enforcing the five already engaged on the left of the road in the woods; but the latter having worked their way successfully through and driven the enemy from his position, I moved the two companies up the road through the woods until I came up with the advance. The two companies on the right side of the road, under Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander had also worked their way up through the woods and opened fire on the retreating enemy. At this point I halted and reorganized my regiment, by forming close column by companies. I then detailed Lieutenant Minnich, of Company B, and Lieutenant Breneman, of Company H, with a squad of men, to collect the killed and wounded. They promptly and faithfully attended to this important duty, deserving much praise for the efficiency and coolness they displayed during the fight and in the discharge of this humane and worthy trust.

The casualties in this engagement were 96. Captain Junker of Company K; Captain Mickley, of Company I [sic; Company G], and Lieutenant Geety, of Company H, fell mortally wounded while gallantly leading their respective companies on.

I cannot speak too highly of the conduct of both officers and men. They all performed deeds of valor, and rushed forward to duty and danger with a spirit and energy worthy of veterans.

The rear forces coming up passed my regiment and pursued the enemy. When I had my regiment again placed in order, and hearing the boom of cannon, I immediately followed up, and, upon reaching the scene of action, I was ordered to deploy my regiment on the right side of the wood, move forward along the edge of it, and relieve the Seventh Connecticut Regiment. This I promptly obeyed. The position here occupied by the enemy was on the opposite side of the Pocotaligo Creek, with a marsh on either side of it, and about 800 yards distant from the opposite wood, where the enemy had thrown up rifle pits all along its edge.

On my arrival the enemy had ceased firing; but after the lapse of a few minutes they commenced to cheer and hurrah for the Twenty-sixth South Carolina. We distinctly saw this regiment come up in double-quick and the men rapidly jumping into the pits. We immediately opened fire upon them with terrible effect, and saw their men thinning by scores. In return they opened a galling fire upon us. I ordered the men under cover and to keep up the fire. During this time our forces commenced to retire. I kept my position until all our forces were on the march, and then gave one volley and retired by flank in the road at double-quick about 1,000 yards in the rear of the Seventh Connecticut. This regiment was formed about 1,000 yards in the rear of my former position. We jointly formed the rear guard of our forces and alternately retired in the above manner.

My casualties here amounted to 15 men.

We arrived at Frampton (our first battle ground) at 8 p.m. Here my regiment was relieved from further rear-guard duty by the Fourth New Hampshire Regiment. This gave me the desired opportunity to carry my dead and wounded from the field and convey them back to the landing. I arrived at the above place at 3 o’clock the following morning.

 In a second report made from Beaufort on 25 October 1862, Colonel Good added the following details:

SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the part taken by the First Brigade in the battles of October 22:

After meeting the enemy in his first position he was driven back by the skirmishing line, consisting of two companies of the Sixth Connecticut, one of the Forty-seventh Pennsylvania, and one of the Fifty-fifth Pennsylvania, under my command. Here the enemy only fired a few rounds of shot and shell. He then retreated and assumed another position, and immediately opened fire. Colonel Chatfield, then in command of the brigade, ordered the Forty-seventh Pennsylvania forward to me, with orders to charge. I immediately charged and drove the enemy from the second position. The Sixth Connecticut was deployed in my rear and left; the Fifty-fifth Pennsylvania on my right, and the Fourth New Hampshire in the rear of the Fifty-fifth, both in close column by divisions, all under a heavy fire of shell and canister. These regiments then crossed the causeway by the flank and moved close up to the woods. Here they were halted, with orders to support the artillery. After the enemy had ceased firing the Fourth New Hampshire was ordered to move up the road in the rear of the artillery and two companies of the Forty-seventh Pennsylvania to follow this regiment. The Sixth Connecticut followed up, and the Fifty-fifth moved up through the woods. At this juncture Colonel Chatfield fell, seriously wounded, and Lieutenant-Colonel Speidel was also wounded.

The casualties in the Forty-seventh Pennsylvania amounted to 96 men. As yet I am unable to learn the loss of the entire brigade.

The enemy having fled, the Fourth New Hampshire and the Fifty-fifth Pennsylvania followed in close pursuit. During this time the Forty-seventh Pennsylvania and the Sixth Connecticut halted and again organized, after which they followed. On coming up to the engagement I assumed command of the brigade, and found the forces arranged in the following order: The Fourth New Hampshire was deployed as skirmishers along the entire front, and the Fifty-fifth deployed in line of battle on the left side of the road, immediately in the rear of the Fourth New Hampshire. I then ordered the Sixth Connecticut to deploy in the rear of the Fifty-fifth Pennsylvania and the Forty-seventh Pennsylvania to deploy on the right side of the road in line of battle and relieve the Seventh Connecticut. I then ordered the Fourth New Hampshire, which had spent all its ammunition, back under cover on the road in the woods. The enemy meantime kept up a terrific fire of grape and musketry, to which we replied with terrible effect. At this point the orders were given to retire, and the Forty-seventh Pennsylvania and Seventh Connecticut formed the rear guard. I then ordered the Thirty-seventh Pennsylvania to keep its position and the Sixth Connecticut to march by the flank into the road and to the rear, the Fourth New Hampshire and Fifty-fifth Pennsylvania to follow. The troops of the Second Brigade were meanwhile retiring. After the whole column was in motion and a line of battle established by the Seventh Connecticut about 1,000 yards in the rear of the Forty-seventh Pennsylvania I ordered the Forty-seventh to retire by the flank and establish a line of battle 1,000 yards in the rear of the Seventh Connecticut; after which the Seventh Connecticut moved by the flank to the rear and established a line of battle 1,000 yards in the rear of the Forty seventh, and thus retiring, alternately establishing lines, until we reached Frampton Creek, where we were relieved from this duty by the Fourth New Hampshire. We arrived at the landing at 3 o’clock on the morning of the 23d instant.

The casualties of the Sixth Connecticut are 34 in killed and wounded and the Forty-seventh Pennsylvania 112 in killed and wounded. As to the remaining regiments I have as yet received no report.

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

1863

Having been ordered back to Key West on 15 November 1862, much of 1863 for the Hackman brothers and their fellow 47th Pennsylvanians was spent garrisoning federal installations in Florida as part of the U.S. Army’s 10th Corps, Department of the South. Companies A, B, C, E, G, and I remained on duty at Key West’s Fort Taylor while the soldiers from Companies D, F, H, and K garrisoned Fort Jefferson, the Union’s remote outpost in the Dry Tortugas off the coast of Florida. Members of several companies, however, were periodically moved between both forts as regimental responsibilities were refined by the Union Army’s more senior brigade officers.

In a letter to the Sunbury American on 23 August 1863, Henry Wharton described Thanksgiving celebrations held by the regiment and residents of Key West and a yacht race the following Saturday at which participants had “an opportunity of tripping the ‘light, fantastic toe,’ to the fine music of the 47th Band, led by that excellent musician, Prof. Bush.”

The time spent in Florida was notable also for the men’s commitment to preserving the Union. The climate was harsh and unpleasant and, as before, disease was a constant companion and foe. Many of the 47th who could have returned home, having well and honorably completed their service, chose instead to re-enlist, including Charles A. Hackman who re-enrolled with the 47th Pennsylvania at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas, Florida, and was promoted at the same time to the rank of Second Lieutenant. He was then advanced again in rank a short time later (on 18 June) when he was commissioned as a First Lieutenant with Company G.

1864

In early January 1864, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was ordered to expand the Union’s reach further by sending part of the regiment north to retake possession of Fort Myers, a federal installation that had been abandoned in 1858 following the U.S. government’s third war with the Seminole Indians. Per orders issued earlier in 1864 by General D. P. Woodbury, Commanding Officer, U.S. Department of the Gulf, District of Key West and the Tortugas, that the fort be used to facilitate the Union’s Gulf Coast blockade, Captain Richard Graeffe and a group of men from Company A were charged with expanding the fort and conducting raids on area cattle herds to provide food for the growing Union troop presence. Graeffe and his men subsequently turned the fort into both their base of operations and a shelter for pro-Union supporters, escaped slaves, Confederate Army deserters, and others fleeing Rebel troops. According to Schmidt:

Capt. Richard A. Graeffe, accompanied by Assistant Surgeon William F. Reiber, commanded the main portion of Company A which boarded ship on Monday, January 4 and sailed the following day, Tuesday, for Fort Myers, on the Caloosahatchee River fifteen air miles southeast of Charlotte Harbor. The company was transported on board the Army quartermaster schooner Matchless, after having embarked the day before, and was accompanied by the steamer U.S.S. Honduras commanded by Lt. Harris, and with Gen. Woodbury aboard….

A draft Environmental Impact Statement prepared in 2010 for the Everglades National Park partially documents the time of Richard Graeffe and the men under his Florida command this way:

A Union force so far into Confederate land did not go well with Confederate loyalists. The fact that so many men stationed at the post were black soldiers from the newly created U.S. Colored Troops was particularly aggravating. The raids were so antagonizing that the Confederates created a Cattle Guard Battalion called the “Cow Cavalry” to repulse Union raiders. The unit remained a primary threat to the Union soldiers carrying out raids and reconnaissance missions from Brooksville to as far south as Lake Okeechobee and Fort Myers.

Meanwhile, all of the other companies of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry had begun preparing for the regiment’s history-making journey to Louisiana. Boarding yet another steamer—the Charles Thomas—on 25 February 1864, the men from Companies B, C, D, I, and K of the 47th Pennsylvania headed for Algiers, Louisiana (which was situated across the river from New Orleans and is now a neighborhood in New Orleans), followed on 1 March by the Hackman brothers and the other 47th Pennsylvanians from Companies E, F, G, and H who had been stationed at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas.

Upon the second group’s arrival, the now almost fully reunited regiment moved by train on 28 February to Brashear City (now Morgan City, Louisiana) before heading to Franklin by steamer through the Bayou Teche. There, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry joined the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division of the Department of the Gulf’s 19th Army Corps, and became the only Pennsylvania regiment to serve in the 1864 Red River Campaign of Union Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks. (Unable to reach Louisiana until 23 March, the men from Company A were effectively placed on a different type of detached duty in New Orleans while they awaited transport to enable them to catch up with the main part of their regiment. Charged with guarding and overseeing the transport of 245 Confederate prisoners, they were finally able to board the Ohio Belle on 7 April, and reached Alexandria with those prisoners on 9 April.)

Red River Campaign

The early days on the ground in Louisiana quickly woke the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers up to just how grueling this new phase of duty would be. From 14-26 March, most members of the regiment marched for the top of the “L” in the L-shaped state, by way of New Iberia, Vermilionville (now part of Lafayette), Opelousas, and Washington.

Their primary destinations, during this first on-ground phase of the campaign, were Alexandria and Natchitoches, Louisiana.

While in Natchitoches, the regiment added to its roster of young Black soldiers when Aaron Bullard (later known as Aaron French), James and John Bullard, Samuel Jones, and Hamilton Blanchard (also known as John Hamilton) enrolled for military service with the 47th Pennsylvania from 4-5 April 1864. According to their respective entries in the Civil War Veterans’ Card File at the Pennsylvania State Archives and on regimental muster rolls, the men were then officially mustered in for duty on 22 June at Morganza. Several of their entries noted that they were assigned the rank of “(Colored) Cook” while others were given the rank of “Under Cook.”

Often short on food and water throughout their long hard trek through enemy territory, the men encamped briefly at Pleasant Hill (now the Village of Pleasant Hill) the night of 7 April before continuing on the next day, marching until mid-afternoon.

Rushed into battle ahead of other regiments in the 2nd Division, sixty members of the 47th were cut down on 8 April during the volley of fire unleashed during the Battle of Sabine Cross Roads (also known as the Battle of Mansfield because of its proximity to the community of Mansfield). The fighting waned only when darkness fell. Exhausted, those who were uninjured collapsed beside the gravely wounded. After midnight, the surviving Union troops withdrew to Pleasant Hill.

The next day, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were ordered into a critically important defensive position at the far right of the Union lines, their right flank spreading up onto a high bluff. By 3 p.m., after enduring a midday charge by the troops of Confederate General Richard Taylor (a plantation owner and son of Zachary Taylor, former President of the United States), the brutal fighting still showed no signs of ending. Suddenly, just as the 47th was shifting to the left side of the massed Union forces, the men of the 47th Pennsylvania were forced to bolster the 165th New York’s buckling lines by blocking another Confederate assault.

Casualties were once again severe. Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander, the regiment’s second-in-command, was nearly killed, and the regiment’s two color-bearers, both from Company C, were also wounded while preventing the American flag from falling into enemy hands.

Still others from the 47th were captured, marched 125 miles to Camp Ford, a Confederate Army prison camp near Tyler, Texas (the largest of the Confederate prisons west of the Mississippi), and held there as prisoners of war until released during prisoner exchanges on 22 July or in later months. At least two men from the 47th Pennsylvania would never make it out of that prison alive while Private Joseph Clewell would succumb to disease-related complications on 18 June 1864 while being held as a POW at the Confederate Army’s hospital at Shreveport, Louisiana. (Clewell had initially been part of the 47th Pennsylvania’s roster of Unassigned Men upon muster in on 4 November 1863.)

On 15 April 1864, Private Henry J. Hornbeck was promoted from service with G Company

to service with the 47th Pennsylvania’s central regimental command staff at the rank of Sergeant. The next day, G Company’s Private John Great was discharged on a Surgeon’s Certificate of Disability.

Private Allen P. Kemmerer was discharged by Special Order on 17 April 1864. The next day, Privates Jacob Stangala and Nathan Troxell were discharged on Surgeons’ Certificates. On 21 April, Private Phillip Hower died from Variola (smallpox) at the Union Army’s barracks hospital in New Orleans.

Following what some historians have called a rout by Confederates at Pleasant Hill and others have labeled a technical victory for the Union or a draw for both sides, the 47th Pennsylvanians fell back to Grand Ecore, where they remained for eleven days and engaged in the hard labor of strengthening regimental and brigade fortifications.

The 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers then moved back to Natchitoches Parish. Starting out on 22 April, they arrived in Cloutierville at 10 p.m. that same night after marching forty-five miles. While en route, they were attacked again—this time at the rear of their brigade, but they were able to quickly end the encounter and move forward.

The next morning (23 April 1864), episodic skirmishing quickly roared into the flames of a robust fight. As part of the advance party led by Brigadier-General William Emory, the 47th Pennsylvanians took on Brigadier-General Hamilton P. Bee’s Confederate Cavalry in the Battle of Monett’s Ferry (also known as the “Cane River Crossing”). Responding to a barrage from the Confederate artillery’s 20-pound Parrott guns and raking fire from enemy troops situated near a bayou and on a bluff, Emory directed one of his brigades to keep Bee’s Confederates busy while sending two other brigades to find a safe spot where his Union troops could ford the Cane River. As part of the “beekeepers,” the 47th Pennsylvanians supported Emory’s artillery.

Emory’s troops subsequently worked their way across the Cane River, attacked Bee’s flank, forced a Rebel retreat, and then erected a series of pontoon bridges to enable the 47th and other remaining Union troops to make the Cane River Crossing by the next day. As the Confederates retreated, they torched their own food stores, as well as the cotton supplies of their fellow southerners.

In a letter penned from Morganza, Louisiana on 29 May, Henry Wharton described what had happened to the 47th Pennsylvanians during and immediately after making camp at Grand Ecore:

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

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

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

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

Having finally reached Alexandria on 26 April, they learned they would remain at their latest new camp for at least two weeks. The same day of their arrival, Private Henry T. Dennis was promoted to the rank of Corporal, and Corporal Martin H. Hackman became Sergeant Hackman. Placed temporarily under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Bailey, the 47th Pennsylvanians were assigned yet again to the hard labor of fortification work, helping to erect “Bailey’s Dam,” a timber structure that enabled Union gunboats to more easily make their way back down the Red River. According to Wharton:

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

Marching onward, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers headed for Avoyelles Parish. On 14 May, Private Constant Losch became Corporal Losch. That same day, Private Jeremiah Strahley was discharged on a Surgeon’s Certificate of Disability. Wharton noted in his letter that:

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

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

Early next morning we marched through Marksville into a prairie nine miles long and six wide where every preparation was made for a fight. The whole of our force was formed in line, in support of artillery in front, who commenced operations on the enemy driving him gradually from the prairie into the woods. As the enemy retreated before the heavy fire of our artillery, the infantry advanced in line until they reached Mousoula [sic], where they formed in column, taking the whole field in an attempt to flank the enemy, but their running qualities were so good that we were foiled. The maneuvring [sic] of the troops was handsomely done, and the movements was [sic] one of the finest things of the war. The fight of artillery was a steady one of five miles. The enemy merely stood that they might cover the retreat of their infantry and train under cover of their artillery. Our loss was slight. Of the rebels we could not ascertain correctly, but learned from citizens who had secreted themselves during the fight, that they had many killed and wounded, who threw them into wagons, promiscuously, and drove them off so that we could not learn their casualties. The next day we moved to Simmsport on the Achafalaya [sic] river, where a bridge was made by putting the transports side by side, which enabled the troops and train to pass safely over. – The day before we crossed the rebels attacked Smith, thinking it was but the rear guard, in which they, the graybacks, were awfully cut up, and four hundred prisoners fell into our hands. Our loss in killed and wounded was ninety. This fight was the last one of the expedition. The whole of the force is safe on the Mississippi, gunboats, transports and trains. The 16th and 17th have gone to their old commands.

It is amusing to read the statements of correspondents to papers North, concerning our movements and the losses of our army. I have it from the best source that the Federal loss from Franklin to Mansfield, and from their [sic] to this point does not exceed thirty-five hundred in killed, wounded and missing, while that of the rebels is over eight thousand.*

* Note: Disease continued to be a truly formidable foe, claiming yet more members of the 47th Pennsylvania. Privates Henry Smith, Christian Schlu (alternate spelling: Schlea) and Alpheus Dech (alternate spellings: Alfred Dech or Deck) would succumb to disease-related complications, respectively, on 30 May, and 2 and 3 June at the Union’s Marine Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana, followed by Private Jonathan Heller, who would die at the Charity General Hospital in New Orleans on 7 June.

Continuing on, the surviving members of the 47th marched for Simmesport and then Morganza, where they made camp again. According to Wharton, the members of Company C were sent on a special mission which took them on an intense 120-mile journey:

Company C, on last Saturday was detailed by the General in command of the Division to take one hundred and eighty-seven prisoners (rebs) to New Orleans. This they done [sic] satisfactorily and returned yesterday to their regiment, ready for duty. While in the City some of the boys made Captain Gobin quite a handsome present, to show their appreciation of him as an officer gentleman.

While encamped at Morganza, the nine formerly enslaved Black men who had enlisted with the 47th Pennsylvania in Beaufort, South Carolina (1862) and Natchitoches, Louisiana (April 1864) were officially mustered into the regiment between 20-24 June 1864.

The regiment then moved on once again, finally arriving in New Orleans in late June. On 3 July 1864, Private Jacob Beidleman died from disease-related complications at the Union Army’s hospital at Natchez, Mississippi.

The next day (the 4th of July), the Hackman brothers and their G Company comrades learned that their fight was not yet over as they received new orders to return to the East Coast for further duty.

* Note: As the bulk of the regiment was preparing to depart for the East Coast, regimental physicians were making the difficult decision to keep multiple members of the 47th Pennsylvania in hospitals in New Orleans to continue recuperating from diseases or war wounds—or to die. Many of the bodies of these deceased 47th Pennsylvanians still rest in graves across Louisiana. 

As they did during their tour through the Carolinas and Florida, the men of the 47th had battled the elements and disease, as well as the Confederate Army, in order to survive and continue to defend their nation. But the Red River Campaign’s most senior leader, Union Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks, would not. Removed from command amid the controversy regarding the Union Army’s perceived performance during this campaign, he was placed on leave by President Abraham Lincoln. Banks later redeemed himself by spending much of his time in Washington, D.C. as a Reconstruction advocate for the people of Louisiana.

Sheridan’s 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign

After receiving orders on the 4th of July to return to the East Coast, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers left Louisiana in two stages. Companies A, C, D, E, F, H, and I steamed for the Washington, D.C. area beginning 7 July while the men from Companies B, G and K remained behind on detached duty and to await transportation. Led by F Company Captain Henry S. Harte, they finally sailed away at the end of the month, arrived in Virginia on 28 July, and reconnected with the bulk of the regiment at Monocacy, Virginia on 2 August.

Due to the delay, the Hackman brothers and the other boys from G Company missed out on a memorable encounter with President Abraham Lincoln, and also missed the fighting at Snicker’s Gap, Virginia.

Attached to the Middle Military Division, Army of the Shenandoah beginning in August, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was assigned to defensive duties in and around Halltown, Virginia during the opening days of that month, and then engaged in a series of back-and-forth movements over the next several weeks between Halltown, Berryville and other locations within the vicinity (Middletown, Charlestown and Winchester) as part of a “mimic war” being waged by Sheridan’s Union forces with those commanded by Confederate Lieutenant-General Jubal Early.

Note: During this phase of duty, First Lieutenant Charles A. Hackman would reportedly be placed “in command of Co. E from August to October, 1864,” according to his obituary in The Allentown Democrat (although this statement may have been an error on the part of the newspaper).

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

The opening days of September also saw the departure of several 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers who had served honorably, including Company G’s Private Franklin T. Good on 13 August, discharged by General Order of the U.S. War Department, and First Sergeant D. K. Deifenderfer, Musician William Smith, and Corporals Solomon Becker, Nelson Coffin, Lewis Dennis, Timothy Donahue, Ferdinand Fisher, Reily M. Fornwald, William Hausler and Allen Wolf, and Privates Jacob Bowman, Preston B. Good, Cornelius Heist, John T. Henry, Franklin Hoffert, Frederick L. Jacobs, William F. Keck, Lewis Keiper, George Knauss, James H. Knerr, Orlando Miller, Barney Montague, Francis Smetzer, Frederick Weisbach, George Xander and Engelbert Zanger, who all mustered out at Berryville, Virginia on 18 September 1864 upon expiration of their respective three-years term of service.

Battles of Opequan and Fisher’s Hill, September 1864

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

The 47th Pennsylvania’s march toward destiny at Opequan began at 2 a.m. on 19 September 1864 as the regiment left camp and joined up with others in the Union’s 19th Corps. After advancing slowly from Berryville toward Winchester, the 19th Corps became bogged down for several hours by the massive movement of Union troops and supply wagons, enabling Early’s men to dig in. After finally reaching the Opequan Creek, Sheridan’s men came face to face with the Confederate Army commanded by Early. The fighting, which began in earnest at noon, was long and brutal. The Union’s left flank (6th Corps) took a beating from Confederate artillery stationed on high ground.

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

The 19th Corps, with the 47th in the thick of the fighting, then began pushing the Confederates back. Early’s “grays” retreated in the face of the valor displayed by Sheridan’s “blue jackets.” Leaving 2,500 wounded behind, the Rebels retreated to Fisher’s Hill (21-22 September), eight miles south of Winchester, and then to Waynesboro, following a successful early morning flanking attack by Sheridan’s Union men which outnumbered Early’s three to one.

Afterward, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were sent out on skirmishing parties before making camp at Cedar Creek. Moving forward, they and other members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers would continue to distinguish themselves in battle, but they would do so without two more of their respected commanders: Colonel Tilghman Good and Good’s second in command, Lieutenant-Colonel George Alexander, who mustered out 23-24 September upon expiration of their respective terms of service. Fortunately, they were replaced by others equally admired both for temperament and their front line experience: John Peter Shindel Gobin, Charles W. Abbott and Levi Stuber.

On 18 October 1864, G Company’s Captain John Goebel was commissioned, but not mustered, as a Major.

Battle of Cedar Creek, 19 October 1864

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

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

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

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

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

Regimental Chaplain William Rodrock suffered a frightening near miss as a bullet pierced his cap during the day’s intense fight, but a significant number of men from the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry were far less fortunate. The casualty rate sustained by the 47th Pennsylvania at Cedar Creek was so high, in fact, that when the final numbers were tallied, regimental leaders realized that the 47th had lost the equivalent of nearly two full companies of men.

Sergeant William Pyers, the C Company man who had so gallantly rescued the flag at Pleasant Hill, was cut down and later buried on the battlefield, as were G Company Privates John Becher and Julius Lasker. Brevet-Major John Goebel, who had suffered a grievous gunshot wound, died three weeks later, on 5 November 1864, of wound-related complications while receiving care at the Union Army’s post hospital at Winchester, Virginia. (Captain Goebel’s body, like that of his predecessor Captain Mickley, was brought home to the Lehigh Valley; he was also laid to rest at the Union-West End Cemetery in Allentown.)

Still others reportedly succumbed to starvation or disease after being captured and transported from the Cedar Creek battlefield area to the Confederate Army’s notorious Salisbury, North Carolina prison camp.

Within weeks of the battle’s end, the surviving 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were ordered to Camp Russell near Winchester, where they remained from November through most of December. On 1 November 1864, Corporal Henry T. Dennis and Private William H. Steckel were promoted to the rank of Sergeant, and Privates Daniel V. Mertz and Benjamin F. Swartz both were promoted to the rank of Corporal. Three days later, on 4 November, Private William G. Frame was transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps (also known as the “invalid corps”).

On 5 November, First Lieutenant Charles A. Hackman mustered out from the 47th Pennsylvania, as did First Lieutenant G. W. Huntzberger, on 30 November, upon the expiration of his three-year term of service. That same day (30 November 1864), Charles A. Hackman received a promotion to Brevet-Captain.

Rested and somewhat healed, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were then ordered to take up outpost and railroad guard duties at Camp Fairview in Charlestown, West Virginia. Five days before Christmas, they marched through a driving snowstorm to reach their new home.

1865

On New Year’s Day 1865 at Stevenson, Virginia, First Sergeant Thomas Leisenring, one of the men who had stepped in to fill the void when the second of G Company’s captains was killed in battle, was promoted to the rank of Captain. Sergeant William H. Steckel was also promoted to the rank of First Lieutenant, Corporal Jacob Warman became Sergeant Warman, and Private George Hepler became Corporal Hepler.

A week later (on 8 January 1865), Sergeant Martin H. Hackman was honorably discharged from the military upon expiration of his second term of enlistment.

Return to Civilian Life—Charles A. Hackman

Following his honorable discharge from the 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers, Brevet-Captain Charles A. Hackman returned home to Pennsylvania. After working as a carpenter “in the Reading car shops,” according to his obituary, “he was transferred to the company’s shops at Philadelphia as a car inspector” in December 1866. He would continue on as an employee with the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad’s Philadelphia facility for twenty years.

Sometime during this phase of his life, he married Amelia L. Weaver (1836-1904), who was a daughter of George Weaver. They resided on 18th Street in Philadelphia in 1880, but never had children according to federal census records, which also documented his employment as a car inspector for the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad.

Actively involved with the International Order of Odd Fellows’ Excelsior Lodge, No. 46; the Encampment, No. 51, at Philadelphia, and the Relief association of the Reading Railroad, Charles Hackman was also an elder in Trinity Reformed Church for many years before becoming a member of St. John’s Reformed in late life.

On 5 August 1891, Charles A. Hackman filed for, and was later awarded, his U.S. Civil War Pension. Nearly eight years later, in mid-May 1899, he and his other siblings lost their family patriarch when their father, Abraham H. Hackman, passed away at the family home in Rittersville. In poor health since the mid-1870s, according to his obituary in The Allentown Democrat, Abraham Hackman “had been an invalid, suffering from a complication of diseases, making him almost helpless at times,” and had finally succumbed “to heart trouble and old age.” Four years later, the Hackmans also lost their family matriarch.

By early June of 1900, Charles A. Hackman and his wife, Amelia had relocated to a home at 2325 North Seventeenth Street in Philadelphia. That year’s federal census documented Charles’ continued employment as a car inspector with the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad and the couple’s thirty-five-year marriage, and also noted that they had had no children.

Note: Although Charles Hackman’s obituary stated that he left Philadelphia in 1891 to return to the Lehigh Valley, federal census records confirm that he did not make this move until after he married his second wife, Charlotte.

Widowed by Amelia when she died in Allentown on 2 November 1904, Charles A. Hackman remarried less than a year later, taking as his second wife, Charlotte L. Reinhard (1846-1930), on 7 September 1905. A native of Philadelphia, she was a daughter of William and Carolina Psotta, had been widowed by her first husband 22 March 1894, and was employed as a milliner at the time of her second marriage to Charles Hackman. According to their wedding announcement in The Morning Call:

Yesterday forenoon [7 September 1905] at 9 o’clock at the parsonage, Rev. Scott R. Wagner, of this city [Allentown], united in marriage Mr. Charles Hackman and Mrs. Lottie Reinhard, both of this city. On the noon train the couple left for New York, Poughkeepsie, Ocean Grove, Philadelphia and other points. Upon their return they will reside on the corner of Eleventh and Chew.

Having relocated to the Lehigh Valley sometime during the early 1900s, Charles A. Hackman became a well-known Allentonian through his active veterans’ advocacy and volunteer work via the Grand Army of the Republic’s E.B. Young Post, No. 87. In 1910, he and his second wife, Charlotte, resided in their home at 246 North Eleventh Street in Allentown’s 7th Ward. The federal census enumerator confirmed that year that no children had been born to the couple and that Charles was a carpenter by trade.

Return to Civilian Life—Martin H. Hackman

Meanwhile, following his own honorable discharge, Martin H. Hackman also returned home to Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley where, on 20 January 1867, he wed Juliann Cope (1842-1874), a daughter of War of 1812 veteran Henry D. Cope (1813-1878) and Susanna (Fulmer) Cope (1810-1888).

Martin and Juliann then welcomed the arrival of daughter Lillian S. Hackman (1867-1953), who was born on 20 August 1867, was known to family and friends as “Lilly” and would later go on to marry Warren Croft. Daughter Cora (1868-1946) was then born the following year—on 13 December 1868. She would later wed Eugene F. Krause and reside with him in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Less than two years later, the federal census enumerator who arrived on the doorstep of Martin and Juliann Hackman’s house in Hanover Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania on 11 August 1870 documented that their household, which was located in the U.S. Post Office district of Catasauqua, did indeed include daughters Lilly and Cora, and that Martin was supporting his family on the wages of a bricklayer.

Daughters Flora (1871-1944) and Stella (1873-1947) then followed on 18 May 1871 and 17 September 1873, respectively. [Flora would later wed Joseph H. Boehler (1869-1945) while Stella would marry Richard S. Cunningham (1869-1955). Both women also would build their own new family lives in Bethlehem.]

But the lives together of Martin Hackman’s fledgling family would be cut short when his wife Juliann died on 5 September 1874 [alternate date 5 August 1873, according to her husband’s obituary in The Morning Call].

Like his older brother, Martin Hackman then also remarried, taking Lucy Ann Warg (1847-1931) as his second wife on 31 October 1880, according to his obituary in The Morning Call. Their first two children, Lotta C. (1880-1881) and Charles A. Hackman (1880-1962) were twins who were reportedly born on 17 June 1880.

When the federal census enumerator arrived at Martin and Lucy’s home in Hanover Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania on 19 June 1880, however, Lotta and Charles were not documented on that year’s census page. Instead, the enumerator noted that Martin’s household included: Martin, who was employed as a “boss at rolling mill”; his wife, Lucy; and Martin’s children: Lilly, who was in school, and Flora. At this juncture, researchers are not yet sure whether infants Lotta and Charles arrived on a different date(s) or not; what is known for certain, though, is that Lotta died on 8 March 1881 and was laid to rest at the Nisky Hill Cemetery in Bethlehem, Northampton County.

Three more children then arrived at the Hackman home: Martha M. (1882-1963), who was born on 20 May 1882 and went on to marry Charles E. Dietz (1880-1959); Merit Martin Hackman, who was born on 5 January 1886, but then also tragically died within months—on 8 June 1886—and was also interred at Bethlehem’s Nisky Hill Cemetery; Mary E. (1884-1970), who was born on 30 March 1884 and would later wed Ludwig C. Neuffer (1881-1964); and Warren H. Hackman (1888-1958), who was born on 25 February 1888.

And, like his older brother, Martin H. Hackman was also active in veterans’ advocacy and volunteer work, serving as a post commander, and frequent chair of, various other posts within the Grand Army of the Republic’s J.K. Taylor Post, No. 182. An officer with the International Order of the Odd Fellows’ Keystone Lodge, No. 78, he was also a member of the West Side Moravian Church.

On 28 September 1898, Martin Hackman filed for, and was later awarded, his U.S. Civil War Pension.

During the first week of the first June in the new century, a 1900 federal census enumerator arrived at the home of Martin H. Hackman and his family at 235 Broad Street in West Bethlehem, Lehigh County. In addition to documenting that Martin Hackman was still employed as a bricklayer, the census taker noted that Martin and his wife, Lucy, had been married for twenty years and that four of the six children they had had together were still living—and that all of those children were unmarried and still living at home: Charles A., who was employed as a machinist’s apprentice; Martha, who was employed as a dressmaker; and Mary and Warren, who were both still in school.

By 1910, Martin Hackman’s household at 235 Broad Street (which had been redistricted into the 5th Ward of Bethlehem in Lehigh County) was documented as a smaller one by that year’s federal census enumerator, who noted that only Charles and Warren were still residing at home with their parents—signaling that daughters Martha and Mary had married sometime during the intervening decade. That year, the census taker also described Martin, Charles and Warren as steel workers.

By 1920, the home had shrunk even more—and had also either been redistricted again or renumbered as the Borough of Bethlehem grew into a full-blown city. (Or Martin H. Hackman and his wife had relocated.) That year, the federal census taker noted that Martin was living with wife Lucy and son Warren at 326 West Broad Street in the City of Bethlehem’s 10th Ward, that Martin had finally retired, and that Warren was now employed as a draftsman for an area still mill.

Illness, Death and Interment—Charles A. Hackman

In early January 1917, Charles A. Hackman fell ill. Within two weeks, the eighty-six-year-old, retired carpenter succumbed to complications from pneumonia at his home at 246 North Eleventh Street in Allentown on 17 January 1917.

Funeral services held at his home at 2:30 p.m. on Monday afternoon were officiated by the Rev. F. C. Seitz with assistance from the Rev. Scott Wagner, Trinity Reformed’s former pastor. Charles A. Hackman was then laid to rest at Allentown’s Union-West End Cemetery on 22 January 1917.

The Allentown Democrat paid tribute to him in its 18 January 1917 edition, noting:

Capt. Charles A. Hackman, one of the city’s most prominent retired residents, and one who served his country with distinction during the Civil war, died at 6 o’clock last evening at his home, 246 North Eleventh St., from pneumonia, aged 86 years. Capt. Hackman had been ill during the last two weeks, and despite the best medical attention succumbed.

He was a prominent member of E.B. Young Post, No. 87, and was the second to be lost from its ranks during the last two days, his comrade being Allen D. Wolfe.

Capt. Hackman was a carpenter by trade, and after coming to this city in 1891 from Philadelphia has lived retired.

He was a son of the late Abraham and Mary Hackman, and was born in Rittersville on December 10, 1839. When but eighteen years old he learned the carpenter’s trade, and on April 20, 1861, entered the Union army as a member of Company I, First Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, known as the “Allen Rifles,” and on July 27 of the same year was mustered out. During this time he saw considerable service at various points.

He then re-enlisted as a private in Company G, Forty-seventh Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, on September 18, 1861. From the ranks he soon was promoted to sergeant; to second lieutenant on March 2, 1863; first lieutenant, June 18, 1863 to rank from Oct. 22, 1863, and to a captaincy on Nov. 30, 1864. He was in command of Co. E from August to October, 1864. On Nov. 5, 1864, he was honorably discharged as a brevet captain. His brother, Martin H. Hackman, served in the same company with him during the whole service.

At the close of the war Capt. Hackman followed his trade in the Reading car shops, and in December, 1866, he was transferred to the company’s shops at Philadelphia as a car inspector, serving the company for a period of twenty years. Then he settled in this city [Allentown].

He married Amelia Weaver, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Weaver. His wife died on Nov. 4, 1904, aged 69 years. On Sept. 7, 1905, he was married to Miss Charlotte L. Reinhard, who survives.

There are no sons or daughters.

Besides the widow there are two brothers, John and Martin Hackman, of Bethlehem, and a sister, Mrs. Ellen Ott, of New York City.

Capt. Hackman was for many years an elder in Trinity Reformed church, but at the time of his death he was a member of St. John’s Reformed.

He was a member of Excelsior Lodge No. 46, I.O.O.F, and the Encampment, No. 51, at Philadelphia, and the Relief association of the Reading railroad.

Funeral services will be held from his late home on Monday afternoon at 2:30 o’clock, with Rev. F. C. Seitz in charge, assisted by Rev. Scott Wagner, a former pastor of Trinity Reformed church, this city [Allentown], and now located at Reading.

Interment will be made in the West End cemetery.

The Morning Call paid tribute to Charles Hackman in much the same way in its own newspaper edition on 18 January 1917 while The Reading Times ran an abridged version of his obituary in its 19 January edition.

His second wife survived him and, in 1922, applied for a Civil War Widow’s Pension related to his military service. In 1930, she too passed away, and was also laid to rest at the Union-West End Cemetery.

Death and Interment—Martin H. Hackman

Nearly five years later, Martin H. Hackman also answered his own final roll call when he suffered a sudden cerebral hemorrhage roughly three months shy of his eighty-first birthday. Following his death at his home at 336 West Broad Street in Bethlehem, Northampton County on 14 December 1921, funeral services were held at his home, beginning at 2 p.m. on Saturday, 17 December. He was then also laid to rest at Bethlehem’s Nisky Hill Cemetery.

The Morning Call paid tribute to him in its 16 December 1914 edition as follows:

Martin Henry Hackman, a well-known Civil War veteran and a fore man [sic] of the Bethlehem Steel Company for many years, passed away Wednesday night at his late residence, 336 West Broad street, Bethlehem, aged 80 years, 9 months and 13 days. The deceased was born in Lehigh County on October 1, 1841, a son of Abraham H. and Lovina, nee Knauss, Hackman. He was a bricklayer by trade and for many years was employed at the Bethlehem Steel Works as foreman.

Mr. Hackman enlisted in the Civil War on April 17, 1861 as a private of Captain Tilghman Good’s  Company I, First Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, re-enlisted in 1862, to serve three more years with Captain Charles Mickley’s 47th Regiment Recruit Volunteers.

Mr. Hackman was united in marriage on January 20, 1867, to Julia N. Cope, from which union were born four children, Lilly, Cora, Flora and Stella. His first wife died August 5, 1873. He was married to Lucy A. Warg on October 31, 1880, and to them were born six children, Lotta, Martha, Mary Merritt, Warren and Charles.

Mr. Hackman was a past commander of the J.K. Taylor Post, No. 182, G.A.R., in which he filled all the chairs and a past grand [sic] of Keystone Lodge, No. 78, I.O.O.F. He was a member of the West Side Moravian Church.

There survive the following children: Lillian, widow of W. W. Croft, of New York [sic]; Cora, wife of Eugene F. Krause, of Bethlehem; Flora, wife of Joseph H. Boehler; and Stella, wife of R. S. Cunningham, all of Bethlehem; second marriage, Martha, wife of Charles Dietz, of Allentown; Charles A., Mary, wife of L. C. Neuffen [sic] and Warren H., at home; 8 grandchildren, one great-grandchild and one brother, John P. Hackman of Bethlehem. The funeral will take place from his late residence on Saturday afternoon at 2 o’clock. Interment in Nisky Hill cemetery.

His second wife survived him and, in 1922, applied for a Civil War Widow’s Pension related to his military service. In 1931, she too passed away, and was also laid to rest at the Nisky Hill Cemetery in Bethlehem.

Although life was good for many of Martin Hackman’s children, tragically, life was not particularly kind to two of them.

Mary (Hackman) Neuffer, who, following her marriage to Hazleton, Pennsylvania native Ludwig C. Neuffer sometime in late 1909 or early 1910, had begun making her home with him in the Borough of Bethlehem in Lehigh County, experienced the joy many parents do when hearing that she could expect the arrival of a new baby. That hope was dashed on 12 November 1916, however, when her infant was stillborn due to hydrocephalus-related strangulation. The little one was laid to rest the next day at Bethlehem’s Nisky Hill Cemetery. The couple remained childless, thereafter, according to federal census records. Married for roughly half a century, she was widowed by her husband on 18 March 1964 when he succumbed to complications from heart disease. He had been a longtime employee of Bethlehem Steel.

Warren Hackman, Martin Hackman’s youngest child, spent his final years in declining health due to diabetes and pulmonary emphysema. He then developed a duodenal ulcer with obstruction within the final five years of his life, which ultimately caused a fatal dilation of his stomach three days prior to his death in the Borough of Fountain Hill in Lehigh County on 18 September 1958. He, too, was then laid to rest at Bethlehem’s Nisky Hill Cemetery.

Legacy

The legacy of the Hackman brothers lives on—in the Union of America that they fought so valiantly to save and in the many communities across the nation that they helped to build and connect.

Sources:

1. “Baby Neuffer Stillborn,” in Death Certificates (file no.: 112639, registered no.: 274, 12 November 1916). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
2. Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, vol. 1. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.
3. “Charles A. Hackman,” in “Deaths.” Reading, Pennsylvania: The Reading Times, 19 January 1917.
4. “Charles A. Hackman to Charlotte L. Reinhard,” in Marriage License Applications (no. 15604, 5 September 1905). Allentown, Pennsylvania: Clerk of the Orphans’ Court, Lehigh County.
5. “Charles Abraham Hackman,” in Death Certificates (file no. 5086, registered no. 80, 17 January 1917). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
6. “Cunnigham-Hackman” (sic; wedding notice of Stella Hackman and Richard Cunningham). Hazleton, Pennsylvania: The Plain Speaker, 27 April 1904.
7. “Death of Abraham H. Hackman of Rittersville.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Democrat, 17 May 1899.
8. “Dietz, Mrs. Martha M” (death notice). Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Morning Call, 1 October 1963.
9. Hackman, Abraham H., Levina [sic], Mary Ann M., Matilda F., Martin H., and John P., in U.S. Census (1850: Hanover Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania). Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
10. Hackman, Charles A., in “Records of Burial Places of Veterans (Lehigh County, 1917). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Military Affairs.
11. Hackman, Charles and Hackman, Charles A., in Civil War Veterans’ Card File, 1861-1866 (I-11 3 Mo and G-47 I). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
12. Hackman, Charles and Amelia, in U.S. Census (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: 1880, 1900). Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
13. Hackman, Charles and Charlotte, in U.S. Census (Allentown, Pennsylvania: 1910). Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
14. Hackman, Charles A. and Hackman, Charlotte, in U.S. Civil War Pension General Index File (veteran’s pension application no.: 1046906, certificate no.: 777020, filed from Pennsylvania, 5 August 1891; widow’s pension application no.: 1195517, filed from Pennsylvania on 18 October 1922). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
15. Hackman, Charles A. and Hackman, Martin H., in Muster Rolls: 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, Company G, 1861-1865. Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
16. Hackman, Charles A. and Hackman, Martin H., in “Registers of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-1865” (47th Regiment: Company G), in Records of the Department of Military and Veterans’ Affairs (Record Group 19). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
17. Hackman, Martin H., in “Records of Burial Places of Veterans (Northampton County, 1921). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Military Affairs.
18. Hackman, Martin and Hackman, Martin H., in Civil War Veterans’ Card File (I-11 3 Mo and G-47 I). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
19. Hackman, Martin H. and Graffin, Jacob W., Maria, et. al., in U.S. Census (1860: Borough of Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania). Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
20. Hackman, Martin H. and Lucy A., in U.S. Civil War Pension General Index File (veteran’s pension application no.: 1210185, certificate no.: 1010239, filed from Pennsylvania, 28 September 1898; widow’s pension application no.: 1183560, certificate no.: 917107, filed from Pennsylvania on 11 January 1922). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
21. Hackman, Martin, “Juliet” [sic], Lilly, and Cora, in U.S. Census (1870: Catasauqua, Hanover Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania). Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
22. Hackman, Martin, Lucy, Lilly, and Flora, in U.S. Census (1880: Hanover Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania). Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
23. Hackman, Martin H., in U.S. Census (1890: Bethlehem, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania). Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
24. Hackman, Martin, Lucy, and/or Charles A., Martha C., Mary I. [sic], Warren H., in U.S. Census (1910: Borough of West Bethlehem, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania; 1910: Borough of Bethlehem, 5th Ward, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania; 1920: City of Bethlehem, 10th Ward, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania). Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
25. “Hackman-Reinhardt” (wedding announcement of Charles A. Hackman and Charlotte Reinhard). Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Morning Call, 8 September 1905.
26. “Last Roll Call for Captain Hackman: Civil War Veteran Entered the Union Army as Member of the Allen Rifles.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Democrat, 18 January 1917.
27. Lewis, James M. Toward a Redefinition of Philadelphia’s Historical Perspective: Identification and Analysis of Civil War Sites and Related Programs. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: City of Philadelphia: July 2006.
28. “Ludwig C. Neuffer,” in Death Certificates (file no.: 026840-64, 18 March 1964). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
29. “Martin H. Hackman & Julia Ann Cope,” in Marriage Records (Salem United Church of Christ, 20 January 1867). Allentown, Pennsylvania: Salem United Church of Christ.
30. “Martin Henry Hackman,” in Death Certificates (file no.: 113592, registered no.: 237, 14 December 1921. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
31. “Mrs. Flora L. Boehler” (obituary). Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Morning Call, 12 May 1944.
32. “Mrs. Lillian S. Croft” (obituary). Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Morning Call, 5 September 1953.
33. Neuffer, Ludwig, C. E., Mary E., and/or Lucy A. Hackman, Warren Hackman, in U.S. Census (1910: Borough of Bethlehem, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania; 1920, 1930, 1940, 1950: City of Bethlehem, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania). Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
34. “Obituary: Martin H. Hackman.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Morning Call, 16 December 1921.
35. “Prominent Veteran Dies of Pneumonia: Capt. Charles Hackman, of Fighting 47th Expires.” Allentown Pennsylvania: The Morning Call, 18 January 1917.
36. Schmidt, Lewis. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1986.
37. Stegall, Joel T. “Salisbury Prison: North Carolina’s Andersonville.” Fayetteville, North Carolina: North Carolina Civil War & Reconstruction History Center, 13 September 2018.
38. “Tamiami Trail Modifications: Next Steps,” in “Draft Environmental Impact Statement.” Washington, D.C. and Everglades National Park, Florida: U.S. National Park Service, 2010.
39. Taylor, Frank H. Philadelphia in the Civil War, 1861-1865: “Camp Cadwalader.” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: City of Philadelphia, 1913.
40. “Warren H. Hackman,” in Death Certificates (file no.: 83731, registered no.: 399, 18 September 1958. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.