German immigrant. Allentonian. Marble worker. A sculptor of soldiers’ character. Captain George Junker was all of these—and so much more.

Formative Years

Born in the Grand Duchy of Hesse (now Hessen, Germany) sometime during the early to mid-1830s, Johann Georg Junker emigrated to the United States as a young man, most likely arriving in New York City, New York or Baltimore, Maryland during the 1850s. What researchers for 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers: One Civil War Regiment’s Story have been able to determine for certain is that, following his arrival in America, he chose to settle in Pennsylvania’s bucolic Lehigh Valley.

Sometime around this same time in his life, he joined the Allen Infantry, one of the local military organizations that was based in Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. Adept at being a soldier, he would eventually work his way up to the position of Fifth Sergeant (also known as Quartermaster Sergeant within this militia unit).

By 1860, George Junker was documented as being a resident of the city of Allentown, where he was employed as a stone cutter or a marble worker, according to various historical records of this period. More specifically, he was a tombstone carver, and he operated his business at 56 West Hamilton Street in Allentown.

In September of that year, he was among a prominent group of Allentonians who announced their support of Abraham Lincoln in Der Lecha Caunty Patriot, Allentown’s German-language newspaper, believing strongly that Lincoln offered the best hope of preserving America’s democratic principles as multiple southern states began threatening to tear the nation apart by seceding from the Union.

On 20 December 1860, South Carolina initiated that catastrophic process, followed by Mississippi (9 January 1861), Florida (10 January 1861), Alabama (11 January 1861), Georgia (19 January 1861), Louisiana (26 January 1861), and Texas (1 February 1861).

In response, Allentown’s civic leaders began preparing for what they surmised would be the federal government’s likely response.

American Civil War—Three Months’ Service

In mid-April 1861, German immigrant George Junker became one of the first residents of the United States to enroll for military service at the dawn of the American Civil War. This happened because a large contingent of Allentown residents were among the first in the nation to step up and answer the call for help when the nation was in trouble. According to Alfred Berlin, in his Proceedings and Papers Read Before the Lehigh County Historical Society in 1922, President Abraham Lincoln responded to the threat posed by multiple southern states seceding from the Union by issuing a “proclamation calling out the Militia of the several states, to quell the Rebellion.” The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania “was called upon to furnish sixteen regiments, two of which were wanted within three days to defend the National Capital which was unprotected.”

One of the first companies to respond to the call of the President were the Allen Guards, Captain Thomas Yeager of Allentown … offered their services to the Governor, April 17th, and mustered into services April 18th, arriving at the same time at Harrisburg were Ringgold’s Light Artillery, Captain McKnight of Reading; Logan Guards, Captain Selheimer of Lewistown; Washington Guards, Captain Wren and the National Light Infantry, Captain McDonalds, of Pottsville; and Co. H, Fourth Artillery Regulars under Lieut. Pemberton, (afterwards a general of the Confederate army). They all started for the seat of war on the 18th of April. The Regulars for Fort McHenry and the others for Washington.

Mustering in on 18 April 1861, Quartermaster Sergeant George Junker and his fellow members of the Allen Infantry (also referred to as the “Allen Guards”) completed their Three Months’ Service with the Allen Infantry on 23 July 1861. During their brief, but important tenure of service, they were primarily assigned to guard duty in the city of Washington, according to A History of Lehigh County Pennsylvania From the Earliest Settlements to the Present Time including much Valuable Information for the use of Schools Families Libraries. They and the other early defenders from Pennsylvania were later praised by Galisha A. Grow, Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives, who conveyed the gratitude of his fellow members of Congress as follows:

For their promptness in marching to the defence [sic] of Washington, arriving there on the 18th of April, 1861, the thanks of the House of Representatives, which are rarely tendered except for great and signal service to the state were expressed in the following terms; ‘37th Congress, U.S. July 22d, 1861. Resolved, that the thanks of this house are due and are hereby tendered to the 530 soldiers from Pennsylvania who passed through the mob at Baltimore and reached Washington on the 18th of April last for the defence of the National Capital.’

Realizing that his military service would likely last longer than three months, Quartermaster Sergeant George Junker penned a notice on 24 April 1861, for publication in Allentown’s German language newspaper, Der Lecha Caunty Patriot, announcing that his tombstone carving business would continue to operate while he was away on military duty. He would be assisted in keeping his business open by Charles Gundelwein.

Sergeant Junker had also penned a letter two days earlier, which also ran in the same edition of that newspaper, in which he reported that, after arriving with the Allen Infantry in Cockeysville, Maryland and spending the night with his regiment in a fine hotel in Baltimore, he was arrested as a spy the next morning, as his militia unit was attacked by a mob of Confederate sympathizers while it was heading through the city to catch a train to Washington, D.C. Briefly held as a prisoner, he pretended to be a Union Army deserter, and then persuaded his captors to release him so that he could join the Confederate Army. Once free, however, he made his way back to his fellow Allen Infantrymen and continued to serve the Union honorably for the duration of his Three Months’ Service.

Among those he marched beside in the Allen Infantry were First Sergeant John Eyers Webster and Privates Charles William Abbott, Edwin Gross, John Houck, Martin W. Leisenring, Theodore Mink, Charles A. Pfeiffer, Jonathan W. Reber, and Lewis G. Seip—all of whom would also later serve with him in the history-making 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.

American Civil War—Reenlistment for Three Years’ Service

Following his return home to the Lehigh Valley and his adopted hometown of Allentown, Sergeant George Junker promptly began recruiting men to join a new company of soldiers for an additional three-year tour of duty. Making a concerted effort to reach out to German immigrants, naturalized German-Americans and Pennsylvania-born men of German heritage, he quickly recruited nearly a full company of men and was praised for his initiative by Der Lecha Caunty Patriot in its 7 August 1861 edition. Roughly translated, the announcement read:

It’s good to hear, that Sergeant Junker, of this city, is bringing a new German company of the Lehigh Valley along under the terms of recruitment for the duration of the war. It will be particularly sweet to him if such Germans already here or abroad, who have served as soldiers, sign up immediately for him, and join the company. It can be noted that Sergeant Junker, who recently returned from the scene of the war, has done important services for the Union side in this time, and has all capabilities that are necessary for a Captain. We wish him the best luck for his company.

Sergeant Junker conducted most of his outreach within Allentown’s boundaries, but also drew soldiers from Guthsville, Hazleton, Longswamp, and Saegersville, and other neighboring communities. A number of his prospects were also early responders to President Lincoln’s call for volunteers, as he had been. While some had served with the Allen Infantry, others had enlisted with different regiments; after completing their Three Months’ Service,  however, almost all realized that the war was not yet won. So, when Sergeant Junker approached them, they enthusiastically signed up in August and September of 1861 as members of the newly-formed 47th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry—a regiment which had been founded by Allentown’s own Colonel Tilghman H. Good.

On 21 August 1861, George Junker then also re-enrolled himself for Civil War military service, was subsequently commissioned as a captain, and was officially mustered in for duty on 17 September at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg, Dauphin County. Immediately placed in charge of the men he had recruited, he began providing them with the same basic training that all of the other members of his new regiment were receiving—Hardee’s Light Infantry tactics. As his regiment continued to form and define itself, he and his men officially became known as “Company K” of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.

Military records at the time described him as a twenty-six-year-old stone cutter and resident of Allentown.

Its training completed, the newly-minted 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was presented with its First State Color (battle flag) by Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Gregg Curtin on 20 September 1861. The 47th Pennsylvanians were then marched to the Harrisburg train station, where they hopped aboard a train and were transported to Washington, D.C. Stationed roughly two miles from the White House, they pitched tents at “Camp Kalorama” on the Kalorama Heights near Georgetown, beginning 21 September.

* Note: The training and departure process was clearly a hectic one. Private Elias Reidy (alternate spelling: “Ready”) was felled by “friendly fire” from an errant pistol shot; hospitalized, he was discharged on a surgeon’s certificate of disability just over two months later on 26 November. Meanwhile, Private William Schubert was incorrectly labeled a deserter when the clerk in charge of the regiment’s muster rolls failed to update his entry to note that he had been left behind at the camp hospital for disease-related treatment. Spelling variants of the private’s surname (Schubard, Schubert) also likely contributed to this confusion.

On 22 September, Henry D. Wharton, a musician with the regiment’s C Company, penned the following update 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.

Acclimated somewhat to their new way of life, the soldiers of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers finally became part of the U.S. Army when they were officially mustered into federal service on 24 September. Three days later, they were assigned to the 3rd Brigade of Brigadier-General Isaac Stevens, which also included the 33rd, 49th and 79th New York regiments. By that afternoon, the 47th Pennsylvania was on the move again. Ordered onward by Brigadier-General Silas Casey, the Mississippi rifle-armed 47th Pennsylvania infantrymen marched behind their regimental band until reaching Camp Lyon, Maryland on the Potomac River’s eastern shore. At 5 p.m., they joined the 46th Pennsylvania in moving double-quick (165 steps per minute using 33-inch steps) across the “Chain Bridge” marked on federal maps, and continued on for roughly another mile before being ordered to make camp.

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

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

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

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

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

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 10 miles from Washington, D.C.

On 11 October, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers marched in the Grand Review at Bailey’s Cross Roads. In a mid-October letter home, Captain John Peter Shindel Gobin, the commanding officer of C Company, 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, E, G, H, and K) had been forced to return to camp by Confederate troops.

Captain Gobin had been referring to Brigadier-General James Ewell Brown (“J.E.B.”) Stuart, commanding officer of the Confederate Army of the Potomac (later known as the Army of Northern Virginia), under whose authority the 4th Virginia Cavalry (“Black Horse Cavalry”) fell. Stuart’s Fairfax County, Virginia home had been commandeered by the Union Army and used by the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers and other Union regiments as the base of operations for their picket lines in that area.

In his letter of 13 October, Henry Wharton described the duties of the average 47th Pennsylvanian, as well as the regiment’s 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.” Also around this time, Captain George Junker issued his first Special Order to his K Company subordinates:

I. 15 minutes after breakfast every tent will be cleaned. The commander of each tent will be held responsible for it, and every soldier must obey the orders of the tent commander. If not, said commanders will report such men to the orderly Sgt. who will report them to headquarters.

II. There will be company drills every two hours during the day, including regimental drills with knapsacks. No one will be excused except by order of the regimental surgeon. The hours will be fixed by the commander, and as it is not certain therefore, every man must stay in his quarter, being always ready for duty. The roll will be called each time and anyone in camp found not answering will be punished the first time with extra duty. The second with carrying the 75 lb. weights, increased to 95 lb. The talking in ranks is strictly forbidden. The first offense will be punished with carrying 80 lb. weights increased to 95 lbs. for four hours.

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 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 for the regiment’s impressive performance that day—and in preparation for the even bigger adventures and honors that were yet to come, Brigadier-General John Milton Brannan ordered his staff to ensure that brand new Springfield rifles were obtained and distributed to every member of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers.

Sometime during the month of November or December, Private Joseph Bachman (alternate spelling: “Backman”) suffered a ruptured hernia; he was subsequently discharged on a surgeon’s Ccertificate of disability on 16 December.

1862

As one year waned and another began, Captain George Junker looked forward to a hopeful future. Granted a brief furlough, he had returned home to Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, where, on New Year’s Day of 1862, he wed Anna Catharina Wilhelmina Soldan (alternate spellings: Soltan, Solton) at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hazleton. The Rev. R. S. Wagner performed their ceremony. A fellow native of the Duchy of Hesse who was known to family and friends as Catharina, she was a daughter of Hesse native, Balser Soldan (1811-1870; alternate spelling of given name: Balthasar) and Anna Catharina (Ewald) Soldan (1811-1882). She was just shy of her twentieth birthday (1843-1923) at the time of her marriage to George Junker.

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 sailed 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.

By the afternoon of Monday, 27 January, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers had commenced boarding the Oriental. Ferried to the big steamship by smaller steamers, the enlisted men boarded first, followed by the officers. Then, per the directive of Brigadier-General Brannan, they steamed away for the Deep South at 4 p.m. The 47th Pennsylvanians were headed for Florida which, despite its secession from the United States, remained strategically important to the Union due to the presence of Forts Taylor and Jefferson in Key West and the Dry Tortugas.

Company K and their fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers arrived in Key West by early February 1862. There, 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 by parading through the streets of the city. That Sunday, a number of soldiers from the regiment attended to their spiritual needs by sitting in on the services at local churches, where they also met and mingled with residents from the area.

Drilling daily in heavy artillery tactics, they strengthened the fortifications at this federal installation, felled trees and built new roads. Sometime during this phase of service, several members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers contracted typhoid fever, and were confined to the post hospital at Fort Taylor. Privates Amandus Long, Augustus Schirer (alternate spelling: “Shirer”), George Leonhard (alternate spelling: “Leonard”), and Lewis Dipple of K Company died from “Febris Typhoides” on 29 March, 5 April, 19 April, and 27 April 1862, respectively.

Thankfully, there were also lighter moments. 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.

Next ordered to Hilton Head, South Carolina from mid-June through July, the 47th Pennsylvanians camped near Fort Walker before relocating to the Beaufort District in the U.S. Army’s Department of the South, roughly 35 miles away. Frequently assigned to hazardous picket detail north of their main camp, as Company K was on 5 July, the members of the 47th Pennsylvania were put at increased risk from enemy sniper fire when sent out on these special teams. According to historian Samuel P. Bates, during this phase of their service, the men of the 47th “received the highest commendation from Generals Hunter and Brannan” for their “attention to duty, discipline and soldierly bearing.”

Detachments from the regiment were also assigned to the Expedition to Fenwick Island (9 July) and the Demonstration against Pocotaligo (10 July). On 29 July 1862, drummer Daniel K. Fritz and Private Rudolph Fisher, K Company’s wagoner, were discharged on surgeons’ certificates of disability. According to Schmidt:

Pvt. Fisher would never make it home, as he died in a New York hospital just three weeks later while enroute to Longswamp. The 21 year old Musician Fritz, a laborer from Allentown who had performed in such a lively manner on board ship while the 47th was enroute to Key West, now had failing eyesight and was sick with typhoid fever….

On Tuesday, August 19 [1862], Pvt. Rudolph W. Fisher, a teamster with Company K, who had been discharged with a surgeon’s certificate on July 29, died in the hospital in New York of chronic diarrhea. Pvt. Fisher was 35 years old and a carpenter from Longswamp, Pa. Along with Cpl. Williamson who was discharged and would die at home on August 29, his was another death not available to statistical analysis, since both died as civilians.

Private Rudolph Fisher was subsequently laid to rest at the Alsace Lutheran Church Cemetery in Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania.

Several weeks later, on 20 August, Private Frederick Neussler (alternate spelling: “Nessler”) lost his battle with typhoid and dysentery. According to Schmidt:

The third of the eight men who had been left behind at Key West, died on Tuesday, July 22. Pvt. Martin Muench [sic] of Company K, a 39 year old miner from Allentown was the victim of chronic diarrhea. Pvt. Muench had originally been buried in grave #40 of the Key West Post Cemetery, but when his body was removed in 1927 for relocation to the Fort Barrancas Cemetery, it was mishandled resulting in the loss of identification, and burial in an unknown grave….

Pvt. Frederick Neussler of Company K died at the Key West Hospital on Wednesday, August 20 [1862], from typhoid fever. The 24 year old miner from Hazelton had been left behind with the other hospitalized members of the regiment when it left for Beaufort. 

Meanwhile, the remainder of the regiment continued to soldier on. From 20-31 August 1862, Company K resumed picket duty, this time stationed at “Barnwells” near Beaufort, South Carolina (so labeled by Company C Captain J. P. S. Gobin) while other companies from the regiment performed picket duty in the areas around Point Royal Ferry.

Capture of Saint John’s Bluff, Florida and a Confederate Steamer

During a return expedition to Florida beginning 30 September, the 47th joined with the 1st Connecticut Battery, 7th Connecticut Infantry, and part of the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry in assaulting Confederate forces at their heavily protected camp at Saint John’s Bluff overlooking the Saint John’s River area. Trekking and skirmishing through roughly 25 miles of dense swampland and forests after disembarking from ships at Mayport Mills on 1 October, the 47th captured artillery and ammunition stores (on 3 October), which had been abandoned by Confederate forces due to the bluff’s bombardment by Union gunboats.

* Note: The capture of Saint John’s Bluff followed a string of U.S. Army and Navy successes which enabled the Union to gain control over key southern towns and transportation hubs. In November 1861, the Union’s South Atlantic Blockading Squadron established a base at Port Royal, South Carolina, enabling the Union to mount expeditions to Georgia and Florida. During these forays, U.S. troops took possession of Fort Clinch and Fernandina, Florida (3-4 March 1862), secured the surrender of Fort Marion and Saint Augustine (11 March), and established a Union Navy base at Mayport Mills (mid-March). That summer, Brigadier-General Joseph Finnegan, commanding officer of the Confederate States of America’s Department of Middle and Eastern Florida, placed gun batteries atop Saint John’s Bluff overlooking the Saint John’s River and at Yellow Bluff nearby. Fortified with earthen works, the batteries were created to disable the Union’s naval and ground force operations at and beyond Mayport Mills, and were designed to house up to eighteen cannon, including three eight-inch siege howitzers and eight-inch smoothbores and Columbiads (two of each). After an exchange of fire between U.S. gunboats Uncas and Patroon and the Rebel battery at Saint John’s Bluff on 11 September, Rebel troops returned after initially being driven away. When a second, larger Union gunboat flotilla also failed to shake the Rebels loose again six days later, Union military leaders ordered a more aggressive operation combining ground troops with naval support.

Backed by the U.S. gunboats Cimarron, E.B. Hale, Paul Jones, Uncas and Water Witch and their twelve-pound boat howitzers, the 1,500-strong Union Army force commanded by Brigadier-General John M. Brannan advanced up the Saint John’s River and inland along the Pablo and Mt. Pleasant Creeks on 1 October 1862 before disembarking and marching for the battery atop Saint John’s Bluff. The next day, Union gunboats exchanged shellfire with the Rebel battery while the Union ground force continued on. When the 47th Pennsylvanians reached Saint John’s Bluff with their fellow brigade members on 3 October 1862, they found an abandoned battery. (Other Union troops discovered that the Yellow Bluff battery was also Rebel-free.)

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

A day later, sailing up river on board the Union gunboat Darlington (formerly a Confederate steamer)—with protection from the Union gunboat Hale, men from the 47th Pennsylvania’s Companies E and K traveled 200 miles along the Saint John’s River. Another Confederate steamer, the Gov. Milton, was reported to be docked near Hawkinsville, and had been engaged in furnishing troops, ammunition and other supplies to Confederate Army units scattered throughout the region, including the batteries at Saint John’s Bluff and Yellow Bluff.

Identified as a thorn that needed to be plucked from the Union’s side, the Gov. Milton was seized by the soldiers from the 47th Pennsylvania’s Companies E and K with support from other Union troops. Having ventured deep into Confederate territory, Union Army expedition leaders determined that their troops had achieved enough success for the risks taken, and ordered the combined Union Army-Navy team to sail the Gov. Milton back down the Saint John’s River before moving the steamer and other captured ships behind Union lines.

Integration of the Regiment

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

Battle of Pocotaligo

From 21-23 October, under the brigade and regimental commands of Colonel Tilghman Good and Lieutenant-Colonel George Warren (“G. W.”) Alexander, the 47th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry joined with other Union regiments to engage the heavily protected Confederate forces in and around Pocotaligo, South Carolina—including at Frampton’s Plantation and the Pocotaligo Bridge—a key piece of the South’s railroad infrastructure which Union leaders felt should be destroyed.

Harried by snipers en route to the Pocotaligo Bridge, they met resistance from yet another entrenched, heavily fortified Confederate battery which opened fire on the Union troops as they entered an open cotton field.

Those headed toward higher ground at the Frampton Plantation fared no better as they encountered artillery and infantry fire from the surrounding forests. But the Union soldiers would not give in; grappling with the Confederates where they found them, they pursued the Rebels for four miles as the Confederate Army retreated to the bridge. There, the 47th relieved the 7th Connecticut.

Unfortunately, the enemy was just too well armed. After two hours of intense fighting in an attempt to take the ravine and bridge, the 47th was forced by depleted ammunition supplies to withdraw to Mackay’s Point.

Captain George Junker was one of several officers of the 47th Pennsylvania who were mortally wounded during the fighting at Frampton Plantation in the Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina. Felled by a minié ball fired from a Confederate rifle, he was initially stabilized in the field before being transported back to Hilton Head, where he was hospitalized at the Union Army’s post hospital. Despite receiving advanced medical care for his wounds, he died there on 23 October 1862.

His death ledger entry in the U.S. Army’s Registers of Deaths of Volunteer Soldiers noted simply that he died from “Vulnus Sclopet” (a gunshot wound).

Although a Find a Grave memorial for Captain Junker currently indicates that he was laid to rest at the Beaufort National Cemetery in Beaufort, South Carolina, the 3 December 1862 edition of Der Lecha Caunty Patriot reported that his remains were returned to his family in Hazleton, Luzerne County for reburial at the Vine Street Cemetery. Roughly translated, the article also noted that Allentown undertaker, Paul Balliet, and several others from the area, had spent fourteen days traveling to and from Beaufort to exhume and return the bodies (Körper) of Junker and several other members of the regiment.

Sadly, Captain George Junker likely never knew that he had become the father of a little girl. His twenty-year-old wife, Catharina, would not have had time to transmit the happy news to him that their daughter, also named Catharina, but known to family and friends as “Kate,” had been born in Allentown earlier in October 1862—just days before he had been mortally wounded in combat. His last thoughts, though, were likely of his pregnant wife and a child he would never see.

 

What happened to the two Catharinas? Learn more by reading part two of this biography, “What Happened to the Family of Captain George Junker?“

 

Sources:

1. Berlin, Alfred, et. al. Proceedings and Papers Read Before the Lehigh County Historical Society. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Lehigh County Historical Society, 1922.
2. “Col. Good’s Regiment.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: Der Lecha Caunty Patriot, 25 September 1861.
3. “Die Grabsteinhauerei” (“The Gravestone Carving”). Allentown, Pennsylvania: Der Lecha Caunty Patriot, 1 May 1861.
4. “Ein Brief von Baltimore” (“A Letter from Baltimore”). Allentown, Pennsylvania: Der Lecha Caunty Patriot, 1 May 1861.
5. “Ein Gesecht in Süd-Carolina, am 22sten October (“A Fight in South Carolina on 22 October”). Allentown, Pennsylvania: Der Lecha Caunty Patriot, 5 November 1862.
6. “Eine Deutsche Compagnie” (“A German Company”). Allentown, Pennsylvania: Der Lecha Caunty Patriot, 7 August 1861.
7. Hauser, James J. A History of Lehigh County Pennsylvania from the Earliest Settlements to the Present Time Including Much Valuable Information for the Use of Schools Families Libraries. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Jacks, the Printer, 1902.
8. Junker, George, in Boyd’s Pennsylvania State Business Directory (Allentown, Pennsylvania, 1861). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: William H. Boyd, Directory Publisher, 1861.
9. Junker, George, in Civil War Veterans’ Card File, 1861-1866. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
10. Junker, George, in Civil War Muster Rolls, in Records of the Department of Military and Veterans’ Affairs (Record Group 19, Series 19.11). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
11. Junker, George and Catharina, in Claims for Widow and Minor Pensions, in U.S. Civil War Widows’ Pension Files. Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
12. Junker, George, in Passenger and Crew Lists, in Immigration Records of the United States, 1840-1860. Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
13. Junker, George, in Registers of Deaths of Volunteer Soldiers (1862). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
14. Letter and Report from Captain Thomas Yeager, commanding officer of the Allen Infantry (mentions Quartermaster Sergeant George Junker). Allentown, Pennsylvania: Der Lecha Caunty Patriot, 15 May 1861.
15. Schaadt, James L. The Allen Infantry in 1861. Lititz, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania-German: A Popular Magazine of Biography, History, Genealogy, Folklore, Literature, Etc., vol. 12, 1911.
16. Schmidt, Lewis. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1986.
17. “Younker, George [sic],” in United States Records of Headstones of Deceased Union Veterans, 1879-1903.” Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
18. “Zurückgefehrt“ (announcement of the return to Pennsylvania for reburial of the remains of Captain George Junker, Henry A. Blumer, Aaron Fink and Henry Zeppenfeld). Allentown, Pennsylvania: Der Lecha Caunty Patriot, 3 December 1862.