Alternate Spellings of Surname: Raeder, Ralder, Reader, Roeder

 

The son of a shoemaker turned carpenter, Reuben Rader was a lifelong resident of Northampton County in northeastern Pennsylvania (a region of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that is often referred today as “NEPA”). He grew to manhood among working-class family members whose hopes and dreams would be radically reshaped during a crisis that would nearly tear their nation apart before its Union would ultimately be preserved. His life and the lives of those he loved would then be further transformed by the Second Industrial Revolution.

Formative Years

Born in Northampton County, Pennsylvania on 22 July 1840, Reuben Edwin Rader (1840-1919) was a son of Pennsylvanian Samuel Rader (1813-1881), a shoemaker who had been born in Northampton County, and Elizabeth Ann (Heller) Rader (1819-1894), who was also a Pennsylvania native.

Reuben Rader was raised and educated in Plainfield Township, Northampton County with his siblings: William F. Rader (1838-1910), who had been born in Plainfield Township on 23 March 1838 and would later wed and begin a family with Lucy Ann Danner (1836-1923), before serving as a sergeant with the 153rd Pennsylvania Volunteers during the American Civil War; Emma Rader (1844-1930), who was born on 24 September 1844 and would later wed Jeremiah Hellick (1839-1931); George Peter Rader (1853-1947), who was born on 3 March 1853 and would later wed Mary Josephine Keller (1856-1940); and Stephen Henry Rader (1856-1936), who was born on 20 July 1856 and would later wed and build a family with Emma Catherine Heaney/Heaning/Heiney (1853-1903), before being widowed by her and marrying Gulielma E. Ackerman (1858-1941).

By 1860, however, Reuben Rader had become a farmhand who lived with and worked for farmer Benjamin Kemmerer in Palmer Township, Northampton County. Also residing with them were Benjamin’s wife, Alaminda, and Benjamin’s daughter, Mary, as well as Leonora Paul, a fourteen-year-old domestic servant. That same year, Reuben’s eighteen-year-old, unmarried sister, Emma Rader, was a domestic servant who lived with and worked for the family of farmer Phaon Hahn in Plainfield Township. Meanwhile, their siblings, William, George and Stephen were still residing with their parents in Bushkill Township, where Reuben’s father and older brother were employed as carpenters.

But Reuben’s life and the lives of his family, friends and neighbors would soon darken with worry as their nation was rocked by a secession crisis that would quickly devolve into a disastrous civil war.

American Civil War

On 15 August 1861, Reuben Rader enrolled for military service in Easton. He then officially mustered in for duty at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg, Dauphin County on 16 September 1861 as a private with Company A of the recently-formed 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Military records at that time described him as a twenty-one-year-old farmer and resident of Bushkill who was five feet, five inches tall with brown hair, gray eyes and a fair complexion.

* Note: According to historian Lewis Schmidt, “The Easton Express reported on August 14 that … 33 year old Capt. Richard Graeffe, a merchant from Easton who would command Company A of the 47th, was recruiting at Glantz’s’ [sic] in Easton.” That saloon was operated by Charles Frederick William Glanz, an 1845 emigrant from Germany who had gone into the brewery business in Easton with W. Kuebler in 1852, and had then also been appointed later that same decade as the captain of the Northampton County militia unit known as the “Easton Jaegers.” Having performed his Three Months’ Service with the 9th Pennsylvania Volunteers during the opening months of the American Civil War, Graeffe was then commissioned as a captain of the newly-formed 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry and placed in charge of that regiment’s Company A on 16 September 1861. The first ninety-three members of Graeffe’s company were then also officially mustered in that same day. Representatives for Graeffe then continued to recruit members for Company A, even after the 47th Pennsylvania was assigned to duties in Virginia.

Following a brief light infantry training period at Camp Curtain, the men of Company A and the 47th Pennsylvania headed for Washington, D.C. where they were stationed at “Camp Kalorama” on the Kalorama Heights near Georgetown, beginning 21 September. Henry D. Wharton, a musician with the regiment’s C Company, wrote to the Sunbury American newspaper the next day with the following update:

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, Private Reuben Rader and his fellow Company A men became members of the U.S. Army when they were officially mustered into federal service with the other members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. They were then assigned to the 3rd Brigade of Brigadier-General Isaac Ingalls Stevens, which also included the 33rd, 49th and 79th New York regiments. By that afternoon, the 47th Pennsylvania was on the move again. Ordered onward by Brigadier-General Silas Casey, the Mississippi rifle-armed 47th Pennsylvania infantrymen marched behind their Regimental Band until reaching Camp Lyon, Maryland on the Potomac River’s eastern shore. At 5 p.m., they joined the 46th Pennsylvania in moving double-quick (one hundred and sixty-five steps per minute using thirty-three-inch steps) across the “Chain Bridge” marked on federal maps, and continued on for roughly another mile before being ordered to make camp.

The next morning, they broke camp and moved again. Marching toward Falls Church, Virginia, they arrived at Camp Advance around dusk. There, about two miles from the bridge they had crossed a day earlier, they re-pitched their tents in a deep ravine near a new federal fort under construction (Fort Ethan Allen). They had completed a roughly eight-mile trek, were situated close to the headquarters of 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 that phase of duty, while attached to the 3rd Brigade, Private Reuben Rader and his fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were moved to a site they called “Camp Big Chestnut” in reference to a large chestnut tree growing nearby. The site would eventually become known to the Keystone Staters as “Camp Griffin,” and was located roughly ten miles from Washington, D.C.

On 11 October, the 47th Pennsylvania marched in the Grand Review at Bailey’s Cross Roads. Also around that time, 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, 22 October, the 47th engaged in a Divisional Review, described by Schmidt as “about 10,000 infantry, 1000 cavalry, and twenty pieces of artillery all in one big open field.” Less than a month later, in his letter of 17 November, Henry Wharton revealed more details about life at Camp Griffin:

This morning our brigade was out for inspection; arms, accoutrements [sic], clothing, knapsacks, etc, all were out through a thorough examination, and if I must say it myself, our company stood best, A No. 1, for cleanliness. We have a new commander to our Brigade, Brigadier General Brannen [sic, Brannan], 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 monitored by their regiment’s founder and most senior commanding officer, Colonel Tilghman H. Good, followed by brigade and division drills all afternoon. According to Schmidt, “each man was supplied with ten blank cartridges.” Afterward, “Gen. Smith requested Gen. Brannan to inform Col. Good that the 47th was the best regiment in the whole division.” As a reward — and in preparation for bigger things to come, Brannan obtained new Springfield rifles for every member of the 47th Pennsylvania.

While at Camp Griffin, the 47th PennsylvaniaVolunteers continued to receive training in light infantry tactics, but thought more and more about friends and family as Christmas Day and the New Year approached. Their days were brightened somewhat with a surprise delivery of sauerkraut by the 47th Pennsylvania’s regimental quartermaster.

1862

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

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

During the afternoon of Monday, 27 January, they began lining up at the wharf for the final time. Ferried to the big steamship by smaller steamers, the enlisted men boarded the Oriental first, followed by the officers. Then, per the directive of Brigadier-General Brannan, they steamed away for the Deep South at 4 p.m. — 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.

Arriving in Key West in early February 1862, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers initially made camp on the beach, re-erecting their Sibley tents. Assigned to garrison Fort Taylor, they introduced their presence to Key West residents by parading through the streets of the city during the weekend of Friday, 14 February.

That Sunday, a number of soldiers from the regiment attended local church services, where they met and mingled with residents from the area as part of the first of many community outreach efforts to build support for the army’s efforts to preserve the nation’s Union. Drilling daily in heavy artillery tactics, they also strengthened the fortifications at that federal installation, felled trees and built new roads.

Sometime during that phase of service, a number of 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantrymen began suffering problems with chronic diarrhea. Diagnosed with typhoid fever, several members of the regiment were confined to the post hospital at the fort.

Next ordered to Hilton Head, South Carolina from mid-June through July, they camped near Fort Walker before relocating to the Beaufort District in the U.S. Army’s Department of the South, roughly thirty-five miles away. Frequently assigned to hazardous picket detail north of their main camp, they were put at increased risk from enemy sniper fire when sent out on those special teams. According to historian Samuel P. Bates, during that 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).

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

Meanwhile, the remainder of the regiment continued to soldier on. From 20-31 August 1862, companies of the 47th Pennsylvania resumed picket duty, including at “Barnwells” (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.

On 12 September, the 47th Pennsylvania’s founder and commanding officer Colonel Tilghman H. Good and his adjutant, First Lieutenant Washington H. R. Hangen, issued Regimental Orders, 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 for each member of the company and there leave his plate & cup, knife and fork placed at each meal with the soldier’s rations on it. Nor will any soldier be permitted to go to the company kitchen and take away food therefrom.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* Note: The capture of Saint John’s Bluff followed a string of U.S. Army and Navy successes that had enabled the Union to gain control over key southern towns and transportation hubs. In November 1861, the Union’s South Atlantic Blockading Squadron had established a base at Port Royal, South Carolina to facilitate Union expeditions in Georgia and Florida, during which 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, had ordered the placement of earthworks-fortified gun batteries atop Saint John’s Bluff and at nearby Yellow Bluff, hoping to disable the Union’s naval and ground force operations at Mayport Mills by deploying eighteen cannon, including three eight-inch siege howitzers and four eight-inch smoothbores and Columbiads (two of each).

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

Backed by U.S. gunboats Cimarron, E. B. Hale, Paul Jones, Uncas, and Water Witch that were armed with twelve-pound boat howitzers, the fifteen-hundred-strong Union Army force of Brigadier-General Brannan moved up the Saint John’s River and further inland along the Pablo and Mt. Pleasant Creeks on 1 October 1862 before disembarking and marching for Saint John’s Bluff. But when the 47th Pennsylvanians reached Saint John’s Bluff with their fellow Union brigade members on 3 October 1862, they found the battery abandoned. (Other Union troops later discovered that the Yellow Bluff battery was also Rebel free.) According to Henry Wharton, “On the day following our occupation of these works the guns were dismounted and removed on board the steamer Neptune, together with the shot and shell, and removed to Hilton Head. The powder was all used in destroying the batteries.”

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

According to Schmidt, the small force steamed upriver roughly one to two hundred miles “to Lake Beresford, where they then assisted in capturing the [68-ton] steamer Governor Milton,” which had been renamed in honor of Florida’s governor after having been “formerly known as the George M. Bird [under its previous owners] a New England family named ‘Swift’, who were timber cutters and used it as a tug boat to tow rafts loaded with live oak to the lumber market.”

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

That return trip did not happen without complications, however; in a letter penned to The New York Times on October 14, Wharton reported that:

Finding that the Cosmopolitan, which had been sent to Hilton Head for provisions, had struck heavily in crossing the bar, on her return to the St. John’s River, and was temporarily disabled for service, the Seventh Connecticut Regiment was sent to Hilton Head on the Boston, with the request that she should return for the remainder of the troops, and she got back on the 11th, when the command was reembarked, reaching this plane yesterday, excepting one company of the Forty-seventh Pennsylvania, which is left for the protection of the Cosmopolitan. The accident to this valuable steamer is severe. A large hole was made in her bottom and she filled, but she will not be a wreck, as was at first feared.

Integration of the Regiment

On 5 and 15 October 1862, respectively, the 47th Pennsylvania made history as it became an integrated regiment, adding to its muster rolls several Black men who had escaped from chattel enslavement on plantations near Beaufort, South Carolina. Among the formerly enslaved men who enlisted were Bristor Gethers, Abraham Jassum and Edward Jassum.

Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina

From 21-23 October 1862, under the brigade and regimental commands of Colonel T. H. Good and Lieutenant-Colonel George W. Alexander, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers next engaged the heavily protected Confederate forces in and around Pocotaligo, South Carolina — including at Frampton’s Plantation and the Pocotaligo Bridge — a key piece of southern railroad infrastructure that Union leaders had ordered to be destroyed in order to disrupt the flow of Confederate troops and supplies in the region.

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 Confederates where they found them, pursuing the Rebels for four miles as they retreated to the bridge. There, the 47th relieved the 7th Connecticut. But the enemy was just too well armed. 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.

The next day — 23 October 1862 — the regiment returned to Hilton Head, South Carolina, where a significant number of men were admitted to the Union Army’s general hospital for treatment of the wounds they had sustained in combat. Shortly thereafter, a group of 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were assigned to serve as the honor guard for the funeral of Union Major-General Ormsby Mitchel, who had succumbed to yellow fever on 30 October.

Having been ordered back to Key West on 15 November 1862, the 47th Pennsylvanians did not know it, yet, but much of 1863 for them would be spent garrisoning federal installations in Florida as part of the 10th Corps, U.S. Army, Department of the South. Companies A, B, C, E, G, and I would once again garrison Fort Taylor in Key West, but this time, the men from Companies D, F, H, and K would garrison Fort Jefferson, the Union’s remote outpost in the Dry Tortugas off the southern coast of Florida.

After packing their belongings at their Beaufort, South Carolina encampment and loading equipment onto the U.S. Steamer Cosmopolitan, the officers and enlisted members of the 47th Pennsylvania sailed for the mouth of the Broad River on 15 December 1862, and anchored briefly at Port Royal Harbor to allow the regiment’s medical director, Elisha W. Baily, M.D., and wounded 47th Pennsylvanians to rejoin the regiment.

At 5 p.m. that same evening, the regiment headed for Florida, during what was later described by several 47th Pennsylvanians as a treacherous, stressful voyage. According to Schmidt, the ship’s captain “steered a course along the coast of Florida for most of the voyage,” which made the voyage precarious “because of all the reefs.” On 16 December, “the ship was jarred as it ran aground … during a storm, but broke free, and finally steered a course further from shore, out in the Gulf Stream.” In a letter penned to the Sunbury American on 21 December, Henry Wharton explained that:

We had heavy sea all the time. I had often heard of ‘waves as big as a house,’ and thought it was a sailor’s yarn, but I have seen ‘em and am perfectly satisfied; so now, not having a nautical turn of mind, I prefer our movements being done on terra firma, and leave old neptune to those who have more desire for his better acquaintance. A nearer chance of a shipwreck never took place than ours, and it was only through Providence that we were saved. The Cosmopolitan is a good river boat, but to send her to sea, loadened [sic, loaded] with U.S. troops is a shame, and looks as though those in authority wish to get clear of soldiers in another way than that of battle. There was some sea sickness on our passage; several of the boys ‘casting up their accounts’ on the wrong side of the ledger.

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

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

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

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

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

1863

Life for members of the 47th Pennsylvania then went on, the hours taken up by training, drilling and inspections that were scheduled regularly to keep them in a perpetual state of readiness for anything that the Confederate Army or Navy could throw at them. In addition, they were also sent out on skirmishes and received training in operating the light and heavy artillery defenses of Forts Taylor and Jefferson. (Companies A, B, C, E, G, and I were based at Fort Taylor, while Companies D, F, H, and K were stationed at Fort Jefferson.)

Garrisoning Federal Forts to Weaken the Confederacy

Prior to intervention by the Union Army and Navy, the owners of plantations, livestock ranches and fisheries, as well as the operators of smaller family farms across Florida, had been able to consistently furnish beef and pork, fish, fruits, and vegetables to Confederate troops stationed throughout the Deep South during the first year of the American Civil War. Large herds of cattle were raised near Fort Myers, for example, while orchard owners in the Saint John’s River area were actively engaged in cultivating sizeable orange groves. Florida was also a major producer of salt, which was used as a preservative for food. Consequently, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers and other Union troops across Florida were ordered to capture or destroy salt manufacturing plants in order to further curtail the enemy’s access to food.

But, the officers and enlisted members of the regiment soon came to realize that disease would be a constant companion and foe — making it all the more remarkable when, during that phase of service, the majority of 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers chose to re-enlist as their three-year service terms began to expire. Among those choosing to re-enlist during that time was Private Reuben E. Rader who was honorably discharged at Fort Taylor in Key West on 16 December 1863 in order to re-enlist. Re-enrolled on 17 December, he then officially re-mustered at the same rank with the same company and regiment — as a private with Company A of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, earning the coveted title of “Veteran Volunteer.”

1864

In early January 1864, Company A underwent a major transformation in response to orders that the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry expand the Union’s reach by reclaiming a federal installation at Fort Myers that had been abandoned in 1858 after the government’s third war with the Seminole Indians. So, Captain Graeffe and a detachment of his men traveled north by boat and foot, retook and refurbished that fort and then used it as a base from which they supported the Union’s Gulf Coast blockade, raided cattle herds to provide food for Union troops across Florida and created a safe haven for pro-Union supporters, Confederate Army deserters and children and adults escaping chattel slavery. 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. Lt. Harris was directed to tow the Matchless if necessary.

Punta Rassa was probably the location where the troops disembarked, and was located on the tip of the southwest delta of the Caloosahatchee River … near what is now the mainland or eastern end of the Sanibel Causeway… Fort Myers was established further up the Caloosahatchee at a location less vulnerable to storms and hurricanes. In 1864, the Army built a long wharf and a barracks 100 feet long and 50 feet wide at Punta Rassa, and used it as an embarkation point for shipping north as many as 4400 Florida cattle….

Capt. Graeffe and company were disembarked on the evening of January 7, and Gen. Woodbury ordered the company to occupy Fort Myers on the south side of the Caloosahatchee, about 12 miles from its mouth and 150 miles from Key West. Shortly after, [a detachment of men from the 47th Pennsylvania’s A Company stationed on Useppa Island] was also ordered to proceed to Fort Myers and join the main body of Company A, the entire command under direct orders of the General who was in the area…. Gen. Woodbury returned to Key West on the Honduras prior to January 19, and the command was left in charge of Capt. Graeffe who dispatched various patrols in search of refugees for enlistment and for activities involving Confederate cattle shipments.

Company A’s muster roll provides the following account of the expedition under command of Capt. Graeffe: ‘The company left Key West Fla Jany 4. 64 enroute to Fort Meyers Coloosahatche River [sic] Fla. were joined by a detachment of the U.S. 2nd Fla Rangers at Punta Rossa Fla took possession of Fort Myers Jan 10. Captured a Rebel Indian Agent and two other men.’

Schmidt also noted that Graeffe’s hand drawings included depictions of roughly twelve buildings “primarily situated along the river, with a log palisade protecting those portions not bounded by the Caloosahatchee; the whole in a densely wooded area and entered through an opening on the southeast protected by the river on the west near the area of the wharf, and a log blockhouse on the east.”

An 1856 survey of the fort contained in the Federal Register “suggest[ed] that the fort’s wooden stockade ran from just east of Broadway to just east of Royal Palm, and from Main Street on the south to the river bank, which meandered along what is Bay Street today,” according to Tom Hall, creator of a website about the arts in Southwest Florida:

It consisted of as many as three dozen hewn pine buildings which included officers’ quarters … barracks, administration offices, a 2½-story hospital with plastered rooms, warehouses for the storage of munitions and general supplies, a guard house … blacksmith’s and carpenter’s shops, a kitchen, bakery, laundry, a sutler’s store, stables for horses and mules, a gardener’s shack, and even a bowling alley and bathing pier and pavilion.

It also boasted a pier nearly 700 feet long that had wide dock and rails that enabled the soldiers to bring in supplies by tram without having to lighter them ashore. The buildings were sided and topped by cedar shingles shipped in from Pensacola and Apalachicola, together with doors, windows and flooring. The interior featured parade grounds, a carefully-tended velvety lawn, two immense vegetable gardens, rock-rimmed river banks, shell walks, lush palms and even citrus trees.

Also according to Hall:

By the time Captain Richard A. Graeffe and his soldiers arrived at the fort, most of the wood stockade had disappeared, so he ordered his men to construct an earthen wall 15 feet wide by 7 feet tall. Three guard towers were also constructed: one where the hospital had been; a second by the garden and bowling alley; and the third between the stables and riverside warehouse. Then Captain Graeffe sent his troops across the river to begin rounding up the herds of scrub cows being raised by ranchers between Punta Gorda and Tampa. As they did, resistance began to grow. Captain Graeffe realized he needed reinforcements and Companies D and I of the [U.S. Colored Troop’s] 2nd Regiment were brought up from Fort Zachary Taylor in Key West.

A draft Environmental Impact Statement prepared in 2010 for the Everglades National Park also documented that period of Company A’s service:

A small contingent of 20 men and two officers from the Pennsylvania 47th Regiment, led by Captain Henry Crain of the 2nd Regiment of Florida, arrived at the fort on January 7, 1864. A short time later, the party was joined by another small detachment of the 47th under the command of Captain Richard A. Graeffe. Over a short period, increasing reinforcements of the fort led to increasing cattle raids throughout the region. 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.

According to Schmidt, Captain Graeffe sent the following report to Major-General Daniel Woodbury:

‘At my arrival hier [sic] I divided my forces in three detachment, viz one at the Hospital one into the old guardhouse and one into the Comissary [sic] building, the Florida Rangers I quartered into one of the old Company quarters, I set all parties to work after placing the proper pickets and guards at the Hospital i have build [sic] and now nearly finished a two story loghouse of hewn and square logs 12 inches through seventeen by twenty-two fifteen feet high with a cupola onto the roof of six feet high and at right angle with two lines of picket fences seven feet high. i shall throw up a half a bastion around it as soon as completed. around the old guardhouse i have thrown up a bastion seven feet through at the foot and three feet on the top nine feet high from the bottom of the ditch and five on the inside. I also build [sic] a loghouse sixteen by eighteen of two storys [sic] Southeast of the Commissary building with a bastion around it at right angles with a picket fence each bastion has the distance you recomandet [sic] from the loghouses 20 feet on the sides and 20 to the salient angle, i caused to be dug a well close to bl. houses and inside of the bastions at each Station inside they are all comfortable fitted up with stationary bunks for the men without interfering with the defence [sic] of the work outside of the Bastions and inside the picket fense i have erected small kitchens and messrooms for each station, i am building now a guardhouse build [sic] of square hewn logs sixteen by sixteen two storys high the lower room to be used for the guard and the upper one as a prison, the building to be used for defence [sic] (in case of attack) by the Rangers each work is within view and supporting distance from the other; Capt. Crane with a detachment of his men repaired the wharf, which is in good condition now and fit for use, the bakehouse i got repaired, and the fourth day hier [sic] we had already very good fresh bread; the parade ground is in a good condition had all the weeds mowed off being to [sic] green to burn. i intend to fit up a schoolroom and church as soon as possible.’

Muster rolls for Company A from that period noted that “a detachment of 25 men crossed over to the north west side of the river” on 16 January and “scoured the country till up to Fort Thompson a distance of 50 miles,” where they “encountered a Rebel Picket who retreated after exchanging shots.” Making their way back, they swam across the river, and reached the fort on 23 January. Meanwhile, while that group was still away, Captain Graeffe ordered a smaller detachment of eight men to head out on 17 January in search of cattle. Finding only a few, they instead took possession of four barrels of Confederate turpentine, which were later disposed of by other Union troops.

Graeffe’s men also captured three Confederate sympathizers at the fort, including a blockade runner and spy named Griffin and an Indian interpreter and agent named Lewis. Charged with multiple offenses against the United States, they were transported to Key West, where they were kept under guard by Major William Gausler, the officer who was third-in-command of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry who was serving as the provost marshal of Key West at that time. That phase of duty lasted until sometime in February of 1864.

* Note: Captain Richard Graeffe’s detachment at Fort Myers became known as the “Florida Rangers,” according to The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, prepared by Lieutenant Colonel Robert N. Scott, et. al. (1891). His hand-drawn sketches of Fort Myers were later published in Images of America: Fort Myers by Gregg Turner and Stan Mulford. Researchers for 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers: One Civil War Regiment’s Story have not yet determined if Private Reuben Rader was one of the soldiers from Company A to be chosen by Captain Richard Graeffe for the Fort Myers assignment or not. If he was not selected by Graeffe for that mission, he most likely remained behind at Fort Taylor, where he continued to perform his duties as part of his regiment’s garrison function.

Red River Campaign

Meanwhile, all of the other companies of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry had begun preparing for the regiment’s history-making journey to Louisiana. Boarding yet another steamer — the Charles Thomas — on 25 February 1864, the men from Companies B, C, D, I, and K of the 47th Pennsylvania headed for Algiers, Louisiana (across the river from New Orleans), followed on 1 March by other members of the regiment from Companies E, F, G, and H who had been stationed at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas. Upon the second group’s arrival, the now almost-fully-reunited regiment moved by train on 28 February to Brashear City (now Morgan City, Louisiana) before heading to Franklin by steamer through the Bayou Teche. There, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry joined the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division of the Department of the Gulf’s 19th Army Corps (XIX Corps), and became the only Pennsylvania regiment to serve in the Red River Campaign of Union Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks.

Unable to reach Louisiana until 23 March, the men from Company A were assigned to 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 two hundred and forty-five Confederate prisoners, they were finally able to board the Ohio Belle on 7 April, and reached Alexandria, Louisiana with those prisoners on 9 April.

* Note: Due to that delay, Private Reuben Rader and his fellow A Company soldiers missed the two bloodiest combat engagements that their regiment would endure during the Red River Campaign — the Battle of Sabine Cross Roads (Mansfield) on 8 April and the Battle of Pleasant Hill on 9 April. According to Schmidt, Company A was so far away from the scene of those battles because its men had been ordered to return their Confederate prisoners to New Orleans, which kept them from rejoining their regiment until they reached Alexandria on 27 April. That timing meant that those A Company men also missed the Battle of Cane River (also known as “the Affair at Monett’s Ferry”), which took place on 23 April.

From late April through mid-May, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers helped to erect Bailey’s Dam on the Red River near Alexandria. In a letter penned from Morganza, Louisiana on 29 May, Henry Wharton described their mission and the weeks that followed:

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.

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

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

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

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

Afterward, Private Reuben Rader and his fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers made their way through Simmesport and into the Atchafalaya Basin, and then moved on to Morganza, where they made camp again. While there, the nine formerly enslaved Black men who had enlisted with the 47th Pennsylvania in Beaufort, South Carolina (October-November 1862) and Natchitoches, Louisiana (5 April 1864) were officially mustered into the regiment between 20-24 June 1864. But once again, disease was proving to be a formidable foe, sickening a significant number of 47th Pennsylvanians who had been weakened by the long, grueling marches across challenging terrain in difficult weather.

The regiment was then ordered to head for New Orleans — which it did. Given new orders on the Fourth of July to return to the Eastern Theater of the war, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers  packed up their gear and then departed in two stages, with the first group boarding the U.S. Steamer McClellan three days later. Joining the men from the 47th Pennsylvania’s A Company on that voyage were the men from Companies C, D, E, F, H, and I. (The remaining companies then followed later that month, transported by the Blackstone.)

Following their arrival in Virginia and a memorable encounter with President Abraham Lincoln on 12 July, Private Reuben Rader and his fellow 47th Pennsylvanians joined up with Major-General David Hunter’s forces at Snicker’s Gap in mid-July 1864. Once there, they fought in the Battle of Cool Spring and assisted in defending Washington, D.C. while also helping to drive Confederate troops from Maryland.

Sheridan’s 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign

Attached to the Middle Military Division, U.S. Army of the Shenandoah from August through November of 1864, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were assigned to defensive duties in and around Halltown, Virginia in early August 1864, and engaged in a series of back-and-forth movements between Halltown, Berryville, Middletown, Charlestown, and Winchester as part of a “mimic war” being waged by the Union forces commanded by Major-General Philip Sheridan with those commanded by Confederate Lieutenant-General Jubal Early.

From 3-4 September, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers fought in the Battle of Berryville and engaged in related post-battle skirmishes with the enemy over subsequent days.

Two weeks later, multiple members of the 47th Pennsylvania opted to leave, content that they had fulfilled their obligations to the nation by completing their original three-year terms of enlistment, including Company A’s three most senior officers — Captain Richard Graeffe, First Lieutenant James F. Meyers and Second Lieutenant Adolph Dennig, who were each honorably mustered out at Berryville, Virginia on 18 September 1864, making First Sergeant John H. Stein the highest ranking member of Company A — just one day before the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry would head into another significant battle.

Battles of Opequan and Fisher’s Hill, September 1864 

On 19 September 1864, Private Reuben Rader and his fellow 47th Pennsylvanians helped to inflict heavy casualties on Lieutenant-General Jubal Early’s Confederate forces during the Battle of Opequan (also spelled as “Opequon” and referred to as “Third Winchester”) as part of a large Union force led by Union Major-General Philip H. (“Little Phil”) Sheridan and Brigadier-General William H. Emory, commander of the 19th Corps. Still considered by many historians to be one of the most important battles of Sheridan’s 1864 campaign, that Union victory on 19 September 1864 helped to ensure the reelection of President Abraham Lincoln.

The 47th Pennsylvania’s march toward destiny began at 2 a.m. as the regiment left camp and joined up with others in the Union’s 19th Corps. Advancing slowly from Berryville toward Winchester, their march quickly bogged down in the face of the Union’s massive movement of troops and supply wagons, enabling Early’s Confederates to dig in. When they finally reached the Opequan Creek, Sheridan’s men came face to face with Early’s army. The fighting, which began in earnest at noon, was long and brutal as the Union’s left flank (6th Corps) took a beating from Early’s artillery, which was positioned on higher ground.

Meanwhile, the 47th Pennsylvanians and their fellow 19th Corps members were directed by Brigadier-General Emory to attack and pursue Major-General John B. Gordon’s Confederate forces. Casualties mounted as Confederate cannon opened fire on Union troops as they tried to cross a clearing. When a nearly fatal gap began to open between the 6th and 19th Corps, Sheridan responded by ordering the units of Brigadier-Generals Emory Upton and David A. Russell to plug the hole. Russell, hit twice — once in the chest — was mortally wounded.

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 twenty-five hundred wounded behind, the Rebels retreated to Fisher’s Hill, eight miles south of Winchester (21-22 September), 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.

The 47th Pennsylvania then lost its two most senior leaders when Colonel Tilghman H. Good and Good’s second-in-command, Lieutenant-Colonel George Alexander, mustered out upon expiration of their respective terms of service.

Battle of Cedar Creek, 19 October 1864

It was during that phase of the American Civil War that Major-General Sheridan initiated the first use of the Union’s “scorched earth” campaigns — starving the enemy into submission by destroying Virginia’s farming infrastructure. Viewed through today’s lens of history as inhumane, the strategy claimed many innocents, but certainly helped to facilitate the war’s significant shift in the Union’s favor — especially during the Battle of Cedar Creek on 19 October 1864 as Early’s troops began peeling off, one by one and group by group to forage for food, thus enabling the 47th Pennsylvania and others under Sheridan’s command to rally and win the day.

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 fought so bravely that they would later be 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.

But, once again, casualties for the 47th were high. The 47th Pennsylvania lost the equivalent of nearly two full companies of soldiers alone — men who were killed, wounded, missing in action, or captured by Confederate troops. Among those killed in action were Company A Privates Thomas J. Bower, Samuel E. Breidinger, Lawrence Gatence, Ambrose Koch, Daniel McCalla, and Lewis Werkheiser. Listed among the names on the rosters of wounded Union men were those of Company A’s Corporal Amandus Sandt, who had sustained a gunshot wound to his hip but survived; Corporal John Savits, who had sustained a gunshot wound to his left thigh but later died from wound-related complications; Private Daniel S. Crawford, whose right leg was later amputated due to the severe leg wound he had sustained; Private John M. Cohler, who had sustained a gunshot wound to his left thigh but survived and was eventually able to return to active duty with the 47th Pennsylvania; Private Charles Detweiler, who sustained a musket ball wound to his thigh but later died from wound-related complications; and Private John Price, whose left arm was later amputated below the elbow due to severe wound he had sustained. Still others were captured by Confederate troops and held as prisoners of war (POWs), including Company A Privates Levi Fraunfelder, Lewis Bauer/Bower, Joseph Miller, Edwin C. Sandt, John Schweitzer, and Reuben Rader.

Force marched to the Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia, Private Reuben Rader would spend the remainder of 1864 as a POW there, according to the federal government’s special veterans’ census of 1890.

* Note: Located at the southeast corner of 20th and Cary streets in the city of Richmond, Virginia, the Confederacy’s Libby Prison was actually a group of three industrial buildings that had been part of a tobacco factory prior to the American Civil War. Brick structures that had been erected between 1845 and 1852, they had been leased to Luther Libby in 1854 for use in his grocery and shipping company, according to historian Angela Zombek.

“The complex was converted to a prison in March 1862 in response to problems at a prisoner depot in central Richmond…. [T]he number of Union prisoners increased after the Seven Days’ Battles in June 1862….

“Connected by inner doors, the three Libby buildings came to be known as East, Middle, and West. Prisoners were confined to the upper two floors, which contained six sparsely furnished rooms — there were no bunks and few benches — each measuring approximately 105 by 45 feet. Wooden bars covered small windows that were otherwise open to the elements. They contributed to overheating in the summer and frigid drafts in the winter and admitted little light, even during the daytime. The kitchen was located in the first floor Middle and was the only room to which Confederate officials granted inmates free access. The hospital was on the first floor East, with offices and guardrooms on first floor West. The cellar was reserved for a carpenter shop and for housing slaves. The center cellar had four cells reserved for particularly dangerous inmates.”

In addition to its role in the confinement of commissioned Union military officers, Libby Prison also served as a receiving depot for Union privates and non-commissioned officers, who were typically processed into the Confederacy’s POW system and then force marched or transported by ship or train to one of its other prisons throughout the south.

1865 — 1866

Still held in captivity as a POW at the Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia as the New Year of 1865 dawned, Private Reuben Leader would languish there for a total of six months, according to the federal government’s special veterans’ census of 1890. Eventually released sometime that spring, he was given medical treatment by Union Army physicians and was ultimately allowed to return to duty with Company A. Around that same time, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers received word that General Robert E. Lee had surrendered the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox on 9 April 1865. The long war appeared to be over.

In a letter penned to the Sunbury American on 12 April, 47th Pennsylvanian Henry Wharton described the celebration that took place following Lee’s surrender, adding that Union Army operations in Virginia were still continuing in order to ensure that the Confederate surrender would hold:

Letter from the Sunbury Guards.
CAMP NEAR SUMMIT POINT, Va.,

April 12, 1865

Since yesterday a week we have been on the move, going as far as three miles beyond Winchester. There we halted for three days, waiting for the return or news from Torbett’s cavalry who had gone on a reconnoisance [sic] up to the valley. They returned, reporting they were as far up as Mt. Jackson, some sixty miles, and found nary an armed reb. The reason of our move was to be ready in case Lee moved against us, or to march on Lynchburg, if Lee reached that point, so that we could aid in surrounding him and [his] army, and with Sheridan and Mead capture the whole party. Grant’s gallant boys saved us that march and bagged the whole crowd. Last Sunday night our camp was aroused by the loud road of artillery. Hearing so much good news of late, I stuck to my blanket, not caring to get up, for I suspected a salute, which it really was for the ‘unconditional surrender of Lee.’ The boys got wild over the news, shouting till they were hoarse, the loud huzzas [sic, huzzahs] echoing through the Valley, songs of ‘rally round the flag,’ &c., were sung, and above the noise of the ‘cannons opening roar,’ and confusion of camp, could be heard ‘Hail Columbia’ and Yankee Doodle played by our band. Other bands took it up and soon the whole army let loose, making ‘confusion worse confounded.’

The next morning we packed up, struck tents, marched away, and now we are within a short distance of our old quarters. – The war is about played out, and peace is clearly seen through the bright cloud that has taken the place of those that darkened the sky for the last four years. The question now with us is whether the veterans after Old Abe has matters fixed to his satisfaction, will have to stay ‘till the expiration of the three years, or be discharged as per agreement, at the ‘end of the war.’ If we are not discharged when hostilities cease, great injustice will be done.

The members of Co. ‘C,’ wishing to do honor to Lieut. C. S. Beard, and show their appreciation of him as an officer and gentleman, presented him with a splendid sword, sash and belt. Lieut. Beard rose from the ranks, and as one of their number, the boys gave him this token of esteem.

A few nights ago, an aid [sic] on Gen. Torbett’s staff, with two more officers, attempted to pass a safe guard stationed at a house near Winchester. The guard halted the party, they rushed on, paying no attention to the challenge, when the sentinel charged bayonet, running the sharp steel through the abdomen of the aid [sic], wounding him so severely that he died in an hour. The guard did his duty as he was there for the protection of the inmates and their property, with instruction to let no one enter.

The boys are all well, and jubilant over the victories of Grant, and their own little Sheridan, and feel as though they would soon return to meet the loved ones at home, and receive a kind greeting from old friends, and do you believe me to be

Yours Fraternally,
H. D. W.

Two days later, that fragile peace was shattered when a Confederate loyalist fired the bullet that ended the life of President Abraham Lincoln.

By 19 April 1865, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were responsible, once again, for helping to ensure that the nation’s capital was safe — but this time, they were doing so in the wake of a presidential assassination that threatened to reignite the civil war they had just helped to end. Making camp near Fort Stevens, they were issued new uniforms and additional ammunition.

Letters sent to friends and family back home during that period and newspaper interviews that were conducted, post-war, with survivors of the 47th Pennsylvania confirm that at least one 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer was given the high honor of guarding President Lincoln’s funeral train while others may have guarded the Lincoln assassination conspirators during the early days of their imprisonment and trial, which began on 9 May 1865. Five days later, on 14 May 1865, Private Reuben Rader was promoted to the rank of corporal.

Attached to Dwight’s Division of the 2nd Brigade, Department of Washington’s 22nd Corps, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry also participated in the Union’s Grand Review of the National Armies on 23 May. During that phase of duty, the regiment was head quartered at Camp Brightwood.

Reconstruction

On their final swing through the South, Corporal Reuben Rader and his fellow 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers served in Savannah, Georgia in early June. Attached again to Dwight’s Division, this time, they were assigned to the 3rd Brigade, U.S. Department of the South. Relieving the 165th New York in July, they were housed in a mansion formerly owned by the Confederate Secretary of the Treasury. During this Reconstruction Era-phase of service, they were frequently engaged in provost-related duties (keeping the peace and ensuring the smooth operation of court systems and other government bodies), or duties that involved the repair or rebuilding of city and regional infrastructure.

Finally, on Christmas Day, 1865, Corporal Reuben Edwin Rader joined the majority of his fellow 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers in mustering out for the final time in Charleston, South Carolina — a process that continued through early January 1866. Following a stormy voyage north, they disembarked in New York City, and were then transported to Philadelphia by train, where the regiment was officially honorably discharged at Camp Cadwalader between 9-11 January 1866.

Return to Civilian Life

Following his honorable discharge from the military, Reuben Rader returned home to Northampton County, where he tried to regain some sense of a normal life. A resident of Bushkill Township in that county, he married Sally Ann Fogel (1839-1876) of Plainfield Township, Northampton County on 8 November 1868 in that county’s community of Hecktown. By 1870, he and Sally were residing in Plainfield Township. Tragedy struck roughly six years later, however, when Sally died at the age of thirty-six on 3 June 1876, and was buried at the Belfast Union Cemetery in Belfast, Northampton County.

Subsequently remarried to the widow Annie Spohneimer (1853-1905) during the mid to late 1870s, Reuben Rader was employed at a gun factory and living with her in Bushkill Township, according to the 1880 federal census. Also living with them were: their one-month-old son, John F. Rader (1880-1943), who was mistakenly listed on that year’s census as “Henry,” had been born on 8 May 1880 and would later wed Stella Rader (1882-1938); and Anna’s two daughters (shown as Reuben’s “step-daughters” on that same census): Elizabeth and Laura Jones (aged ten and six, respectively).

Sadly, their joy was soon tempered by the death of Reuben Rader’s father, Samuel Rader, who passed away at the age of sixty-eight in Northampton County on 6 August 1881. Following funeral services, Samuel was buried at the Belfast Union Cemetery in Belfast, Northampton County. But their days brightened again as more children followed for Reuben and Annie Rader: Elsie May Rader (1885-1953), who was born in Belfast, Northampton County on 10 July 1885 and would later wed Thomas Peter Wilson (1885-1947); Floyd Elwood Rader (1892-1958), who was born on 29 November 1892 and would later wed Rosa S. Berger (1892-1972); and Helen B. Rader (1894-1895), who was born on 17 August 1894.

Once again, though, grief would return with the deaths of two beloved family members within a six-month period. The first to pass was the family’s matriarch (Reuben Rader’s mother), Elizabeth Ann (Heller) Rader, who died at the age of seventy-five in Northampton County on 16 December 1894, and was buried beside her husband at the Belfast Union Cemetery in Belfast. The second was Reuben Rader’s eight-month-old daughter, Helen, who died in Belfast, Northampton County on 12 May 1895 and was also buried at the Belfast Union Cemetery.

By 1900, Reuben Rader was working as a farmer and living in Bushkill Township with Annie and their children: John F. (aged twenty), Elsie (aged fourteen), Floyd (aged seven), and Helen (aged five). Roughly five years later, Annie was also gone. Following her death at the age of fifty-one in Northampton County on 20 June 1905, Annie (Spohneimer) Rader (1853-1905) was buried at the Belfast Union Cemetery in Belfast.

But Reuben Rader continued to “soldier on” for the sake of his children. By 1910, he was residing at the Plainfield Township home of his married son, John F. Rader, who was employed as a laborer at a foundry. Also living with them were: Reuben’s unmarried son, Floyd Rader, who was employed as a cooper at a cement mill; and John Rader’s wife, Stella, and six-year-old son, Raymond.

Illness, Death and Interment

Ailing with prostatitis and acute interstitial nephritis during his final years, Reuben Edwin Rader died at the age of seventy-nine in Northampton County on 19 December 1919. Following funeral services, he was also buried at the Belfast Union Cemetery in Belfast.

What Happened to the Surviving Children of Reuben Rader?

Following his marriage to Stella Amanda Rader (1882-1938) in Northampton County circa 1903, Reuben Rader’s son, John F. Rader (1880-1943), settled with his wife, in that county, where they then became the parents of Raymond John Rader (1904-1960), who was born on 20 April 1904 and would later wed Grace Evelyn Ehrig (1908-1996). By 1910, John Rader was a laborer at a foundry who was the head of his own household in Plainfield Township that included wife, Stella, and six-year-old son, Raymond, as well as John’s widowed father, Reuben Rader, and John’s seventeen-year-old brother, Floyd Rader, who was employed as a cooper at a cement mill. John F. Rader and his wife, Stella, then welcomed the arrival of another son, Donald E. Rader (1916-1921), who was born in Wind Gap on 25 August 1916. Employed as a millman at a slate quarry in 1920, John F. Rader resided on Broadway Street in Wind Gap with his wife, Stella, and their sons, Raymond and Donald. Another tragedy would then strike the family less than a year later, however, when Donald contracted meningitis on 4 February 1921 and died three days later at St. Luke’s Hospital in Fountain Hill, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania (on 7 February). Following funeral services, Donald was buried at the Belfast Cemetery in Belfast, Northampton County.

* Note: Although the Find A Grave Memorial for John F. Rader (1880-1943) currently indicates that he was also the father of a daughter, Helen May Rader (1905-1906), who had been born in the Borough of Tatamy in Northampton County on 24 August 1905, but had then died in infancy in Bushkill Township, Northampton County on 6 September 1906, that data may be incorrect. The John F. Rader who was a son of 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry veteran Reuben Edwin Rader resided in the Borough of Wind Gap, not Tatamy or Bushkill Township. (There was, however, a “John D. Rader,” who resided in Tatamy and has been confused with John F. Rader by various Rader family historians on popular genealogy websites.)

By 1930, John F. Rader was employed as a millman at a slate quarry, and he and his wife were “empty nesters” residing in the Borough of Wind Gap in Northampton County. Widowed by Stella when she died from heart disease in her mid-fifties in 1938, John Rader, Sr. continued to reside in Wind Gap by himself. No longer able to work by 1940, due to a disabling health condition, John F. Rader continued to reside in Wind Gap. Ailing with colon cancer during the final year of his life, he died at the age of sixty-three at Brumbaugh’s Hospital in Pen Argyl, Northampton County on his birthday, 8 May, in 1943. Following funeral services, he was also laid to rest at the Belfast Union Cemetery in Belfast.

Following her marriage to Thomas Peter Wilson (1885-1947) in Northampton County on 24 June 1904, Reuben Rader’s daughter, Elsie May (Rader) Wilson (1885-1953), settled with him in that county, where they became the parents of Nellie M. Wilson (1905-1974), who was born in Wind Gap on 6 February 1905 and would later wed Roy L. Shoemaker (1901-1991); Evelyn Ruth Wilson (1906-1985), who was born on 4 February 1906 and would later wed Ralph E. Werkheiser (1906-1989); and Elwood Peter Wilson (1907-1971), who was born in Wind Gap on 19 September 1907 and would later wed Evelyn Emma Jones (1909-1968) before marrying Carmel L. Parenti (1916-1999). In 1910, Elsie (Rader) Wilson resided in Wind Gap with her husband, who was employed as a sawyer at a slate quarry, and their children, Nellie, Evelyn and Elwood. Another son, Clair M. Wilson (1924-1968), was then born in Wind Gap on 12 May 1924; he would later wed Charlotte M. Steiner (1926-2016). Still residing in Wind Gap in 1930, Elsie (Rader) Wilson’s household included her husband, who was still employed at a slate quarry, and their five-year-old son, Clair. Widowed by her husband, Thomas P. Wilson, when he died at the age of sixty-two in Wind Gap on 17 August 1947, Elsie (Rader) Wilson continued to reside in that borough for the remainder of her life. By 1950, she was a member of the household of her married daughter, Nellie M. (Wilson) Shoemaker. Also residing with them in Wind Gap were Nellie’s husband, Roy Shoemaker, who was employed as a school bus driver. Three years later, Elsie May (Rader) Wilson was also gone. Following her death at the age of sixty-eight in Wind Gap on Christmas Eve, she was also interred at the Belfast Union Cemetery in Belfast.

Reuben Rader’s son, Floyd Elwood Rader (1892-1958), grew up to become a laborer at a still to be identified slate quarry in Northampton County. Following his marriage to Rosa/Rose S. Berger (1892-1972) in Northampton County circa 1913, he had settled with Rosa in that county, where they became the parents of: Mae C. Rader (1914-1972), who was born in Ross Township, Monroe County, Pennsylvania on Christmas Day in 1914 and would later wed Allen E. Hahn (1915-1983); and Elsie Irene Rader (1916-2005), who was born on 24 February 1916 and would later wed Homer W. Buskirk (1913-1975). In January 1920, however, Floyd E. Rader was apparently separated from his wife for a time because he was documented on that year’s federal census as a boarder residing at the Plainfield Township home of William S. Williamson (1871-1929), a candy and cigar store operator who was a son of William Williamson (1840-1901), the former drummer of Company A of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry (the same company and regiment that Floyd’s father, Reuben Rader, had served in during the American Civil War). Also residing at that home that year were William S. Williamson’s wife, Clara, and their children: May Williamson and Lottie (Williamson) Walker, who were employed as dry goods store clerks; and William J. Williamson, a slate quarry worker, as well as Gladys Walker, Lottie’s seven-year-old daughter; and Charles G. Colver and Francis Rader, boarders who were also slate quarry workers. But Floyd subsequently reunited with his wife, Rosa, after which they became the parents of: Emmett Franklin Rader (1920-1977), who was born in Belfast, Northampton County on 26 May 1920 and would later wed Irene Matilda Kessler (1921-1990); Albert J. Rader (1924-1987), who was born on 24 November 1924 and would later serve with the 429th Bomber Squadron during World War II before marrying Mary E. Hawk (1925-2012) in 1946; and Anna Mary Rader (1926-2017), who was born on 6 October 1926 and would later wed Lawrence Elwood Pysher (1926-2016). By 1930, Floyd Rader was a laborer who worked at odd jobs when he could find them, and resided in Plainfield Township with his wife and their children: Mae and Elsie, who were employed as hemmers at a clothing factory; and Emmett, Albert and Anna. Later that same year, another son, Floyd S. Rader (1930-1963), was then born in Wind Gap on 26 May. Still working at a slate quarry in 1940, Floyd E. Rader resided in Bushkill Township with his wife and their children, Albert, Anna and Floyd. A “holeman” at a slate quarry in 1950, he resided in Plainfield Township with his wife, Rosa, who was employed as a trimmer at a hosiery mill, and their sons, Floyd and Albert Rader, who were both employed as “holemen.” Albert’s wife, Mary, and their two-year-old daughter, Linda, were also members of their household. Retired from the slate quarry in 1953, due to health issues, Floyd E. Rader suffered a heart attack in early April 1958. Admitted to St. Luke’s Hospital in Bethlehem, he died there at the age of sixty-five on 19 April, and was subsequently buried at the Belfast Union Cemetery in Belfast.

What Happened to the Siblings of Reuben Rader?

Following his marriage to Lucy Ann Danner (1836-1923) in Northampton County in mid to late 1860, Reuben Rader’s older brother, William F. Rader (1838-1910), had settled with his wife in that county, and had welcomed the birth with her of a son, Edgar A. Rader (1861-1903), who had been born on New Year’s Day in 1861 and would later wed Mary Jane Bellesfield (1865-1920). William F. Rader had then left his family behind to defend his nation’s Union by enrolling as a corporal with Company A of the 153rd Pennsylvania Volunteers in the American Civil War, serving from 15 September 1862 to 23 July 1863, during which time he had been promoted to the rank of sergeant and had participated with his regiment in: the defense of Washington, D. C.: reconnoissance from Chantilly to Snicker’s Ferry and Berryville, Virginia (28-30 November 1862); the march to Fredericksburg, Virginia (9-16 December); duties at Stafford Court House (to 19 January 1863); the “Mud March” of Union General Ambrose Burnside (20-24 January); duties at Stafford Court House (to 27 April); the Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia (1-5 May); the Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (1-3 July); and the pursuit of the Confederate Army commanded by General Robert E. Lee (5-12 July). Following his honorable discharge from the military on 24 July 1863, William F. Rader had then returned home to his wife and son in Northampton County. More children soon followed: Harrison W. Rader (1864-1899), who had been born in Nazareth, Northampton County on 2 October 1864, would become known to family and friends as “Harry,” secure employment as a butcher, and would later wed and begin a family with Eliza A. Young (1865-1956), before passing away in his mid-thirties during a drowning accident; and Robert S. Rader (1867-1936), who was born on 2 January 1867 and would later wed Anna C. Weisheit (1870-1945). Employed as a carpenter in 1870, William F. Rader resided in the Borough of Nazareth with his wife and their sons, Edgar, Harry and Robert. Still more children followed: Oliver Franklin Rader (1871-1936), who was born in Tatamy, Northampton County on 14 March 1871 and would grow up to become a carpenter like his father but would never marry; Anna E. Rader (1873-1967), who was born in Nazareth on 2 November 1873 and would later wed Harry H. L. Bartholomew (1870-1959); and Ellen Lucretia Rader (1877-1969), who was born on 7 June 1877 and would later wed and begin a family with Charles Troxell (1875-1909) before being widowed by him and marrying John Laube (1868-1947; alternate surname spelling: “Lobb”). Still employed as a carpenter in 1880, William Rader resided in Palmer Township, Northampton County with his wife and their children, Oliver, Anna and Ellen. When the federal government’s special veterans’ census of 1890 was enumerated in Northampton County during June 1890, William F. Rader was documented as a resident of Tatamy who had developed “piles” (hemorrhoids) during his Civil War service. Still residing in Tatamy after the turn of the century with his wife and carpenter-son, Oliver, William Rader was also still working as a carpenter. Ailing with heart disease during the final months of his life, William F. Rader died in Tatamy, just weeks shy of his seventy-second birthday, and was laid to rest at the Forks Cemetery in Stockertown, Northampton County.

Following her marriage to Jeremiah Hellick (1839-1931) in Northampton County during the early 1860s, Reuben Rader’s younger sister, Emma (Rader) Hellick (1844-1930), became the mother of Harold E. Hellick (1864-1889), who was born circa 1864 and became known to family and friends as “Harry,” but would later die in his mid-twenties in October 1889; Robert F. Hellick (1868-1940), who was born in Nazareth, Northampton County on 19 February 1868 and would later wed Mary Emma (Snyder) Sandt (1880-1928); Franklin Elwood Hellick (1875-1904), who was born in Easton on 18 June 1875, became known to family and friends as “Frank,” and would later wed Laura Belle McKenney (1877-1949); and Sarah Elizabeth Hellick (1877-1972), who was born on 4 August 1877, became known to family and friends as “Sallie,” and would later wed Doekle Terpstra (1880-1976). In 1880, Emma (Rader) Hellick resided at 755 Washington Street in Easton’s Sixth Ward with her husband, Jeremiah, who was employed as a letter carrier, and their children, Harry, Robert, Frank, and Sarah. Another child, Florence Hellick (1885-1961), was then born to Jeremiah and Emma (Rader) Hellick on 13 March 1885; Florence would later wed Will Lentz in Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania on 4 August 1906 and be divorced from him before marrying John E. Beatty in 1912 and being widowed or divorced by him before marrying Joseph Oswald Brunnel (1893-1957). In 1900, Emma (Rader) Hellick was residing at 209 South Union Street with her letter carrier-husband, and their children: Robert, who was employed as a bricklayer; Frank, who was employed as a day laborer; and Sallie and Florence, who were both employed as clerks. By 1910, their Sixth Ward household on Noble Street included just the parents and two daughters, who were both employed as saleswomen at a dry goods store. No longer physically able to make the rounds as a letter carrier by 1920, Emma’s husband, Jeremiah, was still employed by the U.S. Post Office — but as a night watchman. Still residing with them in their Butler Street home in Easton’s Sixth Ward that year was their unemployed daughter, Florence (Rader) Beatty. Residents of Washington Street in Easton’s Sixth Ward in April 1930, the aged couple, Jeremiah and Emma (Rader) Hellick, were supported by their son, Robert, who was employed as a bricklayer. Also residing with them were Robert’s sister, Florence, and her future husband, Joseph Brunnell. Three months later, Emma was gone. Following her death at the age of eighty-five in Easton in July 1930, Emma (Rader) Hellick was buried at the Easton Cemetery.

Following his marriage to Emma Catherine Heaney/Heaning/Heiney (1853-1903) in Northampton County sometime during the early 1870s, Reuben Rader’s younger brother, Stephen Henry Rader (1856-1936), settled with her in Plainfield Township, where he worked the land as a farmer and where they became the parents of: Oscar Alfred Rader (1874-1950), who was born on 4 November 1874 and would later wed Alberta Williamson (1875-1943); Calvin Frederic Rader (1883-1949), who was born on 28 May 1883 and would grow up to become a laborer at a slate quarry but would never marry; and Nora A. Rader (1888-1952), who was born on 14 March 1888 and would later wed and build a family with Thomas F. Hildenbrandt (1881-1930), before being widowed by him and marrying Fred Donald Meyer (1886-1964). By 1900, however, Stephen Rader was clearly struggling financially because he and his wife and their two youngest children were boarders who lived at the farmhouse of another farmer in Plainfield Township. That year, Stephen was also employed as a farmhand by that other farmer. Widowed by his wife, Emma Catherine (Heaney/Heaning/Heiney) Rader, when she died at the age of fifty from “nervous prostration” in Plainfield Township on 16 September 1903, according to Allentown’s Morning Call newspaper, he subsequently arranged for her burial at the Plainfield Cemetery, and then continued to raise his youngest children in that township. On 20 May 1905, he married for the second time — to dressmaker Gulielma E. Ackerman (1858-1941; nickname: “Guli”) — in Plainfield Township, and began to make a new life with her there. By 1910, he was employed by a local store as a teamster and had become the head of his own household in the Borough of Wind Gap in Northampton County. Residing with him were his second wife, Guli, and his son from his first marriage, Calvin Rader, as well as his four-year-old granddaughter, Ruth E. Freeman, and his second wife’s father, Reuben Ackerman. By 1920, Stephen Rader was employed as a butcher and his Wind Gap household included just Guli and Calvin, the latter of whom was working at a slate quarry. That living arrangement then continued into the 1930s. Ailing with metastatic cancer during his final months, Stephen Henry Rader died at the age of eighty in Wind Gap on 20 December 1936, and was laid to rest beside his first wife at the Plainfield Cemetery in Plainfield Township.

Sometime after the 1870 federal census was enumerated in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Reuben Rader’s younger brother, George Peter Rader (1853-1947), migrated west to Ohio, where he became a carpenter. By the summer of 1880, he was still unmarried. A boarder residing at the farm of Horatio Markley in Liberty Township, Crawford County, Ohio, he was also still working as a carpenter. Later that same year, he married Ohio native Mary Josephine Keller (1856-1940) in Crawford County on 15 September. In 1893, they became the parents of Florence E. Rader (1893-1956), who was born in October 1893 and would later wed Marion James Creeger (1896-1992). Employed as a hardware salesman by 1900, George P. Rader still lived in Liberty Township with his wife and daughter — an arrangement that continued into 1910. By 1920, however, his daughter had married and moved out, prompting George and Mary Rader to rent a room to Cyrus Terrell, a teacher in their local high school, which was part of the Sulphur Springs School District. Retired by 1930, George and Mary were still residing in Liberty Township, but were empty nesters that year. Sometime after that federal census was enumerated, however, his life would change radically as he and his wife, Mary Josephine (Keller) Rader, relocated to the State of New York to be closer to their daughter, Florence (Rader) Creeger, and her family. By early 1940, they were residing with Florence at her home in Amityville, Suffolk County, New York, where Florence’s husband was serving as pastor of the First Methodist Church of Amityville. Widowed by his wife, Mary, when she died at the age of eighty-three at Florence’s home on 26 February 1940, George Rader supervised funeral arrangements that ultimately returned Mary’s body to Ohio for burial at the Union Cemetery in Sulphur Springs, Crawford County. He then continued to reside with his daughter in Amityville. After a long, full life, George P. Rader died at the age of ninety-four at his home in New Haven, Connecticut on 2 January 1947, and was subsequently laid to rest beside his wife at the Union Cemetery in Sulphur Springs, Crawford County, Ohio.

 

Sources:

1. Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, vol. 1. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.
2. Creeger, Marion, Florence (a niece of Reuben Rader and a daughter of George P. Rader), Helen, and George; and Rader, George, in U.S. Census (Amityville, Suffolk County, New York, 1940). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
3. Condit A.M., Rev. Uzal. The History of Easton, Penn’a from the Earliest Times to the Present, 1739-1885. Washington, D.C.: West & Condit, 1885.
4. Donald Rader (a grandson of Reuben Rader and a son of John F. Rader), in Death Certificates (file no.: 17272, registered no.: 38, date of death: 7 February 1921). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
5. Elsie May Rader (the bride, who was a daughter of Reuben Rader); and Thomas P. Wilson (the groom), in “Marriage Licenses Orphans’ Court of Northampton County” (Northampton County, Pennsylvania, date of marriage: 25 June 1904). Easton, Pennsylvania: Clerk of the Orphans’ Court of Northampton County, Pennsylvania.
6. “Emma C. Rader” (obituary of a sister-in-law of Reuben Rader and the first wife of Stephen H. Rader). Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Morning Call, 18 September 1903.
7. Emma E. Hellick (a younger sister of Reuben Rader), in Death Certificates (file no.: 70382, registered no.: 390, date of death: 18 July 1930). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
8. Flavion, Gary. “Civil War Prison Camps: Suffering and Survival,” in “Learn.” Washington, D.C.: American Battlefield Trust, 10 August 2026.
9. “Florida’s Role in the Civil War: ‘Supplier of the Confederacy.” Tampa, Florida: Florida Center for Instructional Technology, University of South Florida (College of Education), retrieved online 15 January 2020.
10. “Floyd E. Rader” (obituary of a son of Reuben Rader). Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Morning Call, 21 April 1958.
11. Floyd S. Rader (a grandson of Reuben Rader and a son of Floyd E. Rader), in Death Certificates (file no.: 029524-63, local reg. no.: 145, date of death: 22 March 1963). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
12. George P. Rader (the groom, who was a younger brother of Reuben Rader); and Mary J. Keller (the bride), in Marriage Records (Crawford County, Ohio, date of marriage: 15 September 1880). Columbus, Ohio: Ohio History Connection.
13. “George P. Rader Dies; Body Being Brought Here” (obituary of a younger brother of Reuben Rader). Bucyrus, Ohio: The Bucyrus (Ohio) Telegraph-Forum, 3 January 1947.
14. Germantown [sp?], Reuben and Susana (farmers); and Roader [sic, “Rader”], Stephen (a farmhand who was a younger brother of Reuben Rader and employee of Reuben Germantown [sp?]), Annie C. [sic, “Emma”] (Stephen Rader’s wife), Calvin, and Nora A., in U.S. Census (Plainfield Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1900). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
15. Gobin, John Peter Shindel. Personal Letters, 1861-1865. Northumberland, Pennsylvania: Personal Collection of John Deppen.
16. Grodzins, Dean and David Moss. “The U.S. Secession Crisis as a Breakdown of Democracy,” in When Democracy Breaks: Studies in Democratic Erosion and Collapse, from Ancient Athens to the Present Day (chapter 3). New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 2024.
17. Hahn, Phaon, Mary A., Alfred H., Araminta, and William H.; and Rader, Emma (a domestic servant who was a younger sister of Reuben Rader), in U.S. Census (Plainfield Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1860). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
18. Hellick, Jeremiah, Emma E. (a younger sister of Reuben Rader), Harry E., Robert F., Frank E., and Sarah E., in U.S. Census (Easton, Sixth Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1880). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
19. Hellick, Jeremiah, Emma (a younger sister of Reuben Rader), Robert F., Frank E., Sallie E., and Florence, in U.S. Census (Easton, Sixth Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1900). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
20. Hellick, Jeremiah, Emma (a younger sister of Reuben Rader), Sallie, and Florence, in U.S. Census (Easton, Sixth Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1910). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
21. Hellick, Jeremiah, Emma (a younger sister of Reuben Rader), Robert, and Florence; and Brunell, Joseph (boarder), in U.S. Census (Easton, Sixth Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1920). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
22. Hellick, Jeremiah, Emma (a younger sister of Reuben Rader); and Beatty, Florence (Emma’s daughter), in U.S. Census (Easton, Sixth Ward, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1930). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
23. Irwin, Richard Bache. History of the Nineteenth Army Corps. New York, New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1893.
24. John F. Rader (a son of Reuben Rader), in Death Certificates (file no.: 49428, registered no.: 73, date of death: 8 May 1943). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
25. Kemmerer, Benjamin, Alaminda and Mary; Rader, Reuben (farm laborer); and Paul, Leonora (domestic servant), in U.S. Census (Easton, Palmer Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1860). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
26. Mae C. Hahn (a granddaughter of Reuben Rader and a daughter of Floyd E. Rader), in Death Certificates (file no.: 71580-72, date of death: 27 July 1972). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
27. Markley, Horatio, Mariah, Franklin, and Hattie E.; Stow, Aloa J. (farm laborer); and Rader, Geo. P. (a carpenter who was a younger brother of Reuben Rader), in U.S. Census (Liberty Township, Crawford County, Ohio, 1880). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
28. “Miss Florence Hellick and John E. Beatty” (marriage notice of a niece of Reuben Rader and a daughter of Emma (Rader) Hellick), in “Weddings.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Leader, 19 December 1912.
29. “Mrs. Rader, 83, L. I. Pastor’s Kin” (obituary of Mary Josephine (Keller) Rader, who was a sister-in-law of Reuben Rader and the wife of George P. Rader). Brooklyn, New York: Brooklyn Eagle, 27 February 1940.
30. “Oliver Rader” (obituary of a nephew of Reuben Rader and a son of William F. Rader). Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Morning Call, 25 January 1936.
31. “Oscar A. Rader” (obituary of a nephew of Reuben Rader and a son of Stephen H. Rader). Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Morning Call, 25 November 1950.
32. Rader, George (a younger brother of Reuben Rader), Mary J. and Florence E., in U.S. Census (Liberty Township, Crawford County, Ohio, 1900, 1910). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
33. Rader, George (a younger brother of Reuben Rader) and Mary J.; and Terrell, Cyrus (boarder), in U.S. Census (Liberty Township, Crawford County, Ohio, 1920). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
34. Rader, Floyd E. (a son of Reuben Rader), Rose S., Mae C., Elsie I., Emmet F., Albert J., and Anna M., in U.S. Census (Plainfield Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1930). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
35. Rader, Floyd (a son of Reuben Rader), Rose, Albert, Anna, and Floyd (son), in U.S. Census (Bushkill Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1940). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
36. Rader, Floyd E. (a son of Reuben Rader), Rosa, Floyd (son), Albert (son), Mary (Albert’s wife) and Linda (Albert’s daughter), in U.S. Census (Plainfield Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1950). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
37. Rader, John F. (a son of Reuben Rader), Stella A., Raymond J., Reuben E. [sic, “Reuben Edwin Rader”] (the subject of this biography and John F. Rader’s father), and Floyd E. (a son of Reuben E. Rader and a brother of John F. Rader), in U.S. Census (Plainfield Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1910). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
38. Rader, John F. (a son of Reuben Rader), Stella A., Raymond J., and Donald E., in U.S. Census (Wind Gap, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1920). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
39. Rader, John F. (a son of Reuben Rader) and Stella, in Wind Gap, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1930). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
40. Rader, John F. (a son of Reuben Rader), in Wind Gap, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1940). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
41. Rader, Reuben, in Civil War Muster Rolls (Company A, 47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
42. Rader, Reuben [sic, “Reuben Rader”], in Death Certificates (file no.: 120205, registered no.: 621, date of death: 19 December 1919). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
43. Rader, Reuben, in Records of Burial Places of Veterans (Belfast Union Cemetery, Belfast, Northampton County, Pennsylvania). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Military Affairs.
44. Rader, Reuben and Sallie Ann (Reuben’s second wife), in U.S. Census (Plainfield Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1870). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
45. Rader, Reuben, Anna (Reuben’s second wife) and Henry [sic, “John F. Rader”]; and Jones, Elizabeth and Laura (Anna’s daughters from her first marriage), in U.S. Census (Bushkill Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1880). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
46. Rader, Reuben, Annie (Reuben’s second wife), John F., Elsie M., Floyd E., and Helen B., in U.S. Census (Bushkill Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1900). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
47. Rader, Reuben, in U.S. Civil War Pension General Index Cards (application no.: 438902, certificate no.: 529739, filed from Pennsylvania by the veteran on 2 February 1882). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
48. Rader, Samuel (Reuben Rader’s father), Susanna [sic, “Elizabeth Ann (Heller) Rader”] (Reuben Rader’s mother), William, George, and Stephen, in U.S. Census (Bushkill Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1860). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
49. Rader, Samuel and Eliza (Reuben Rader’s parents) and Rader, George and Stephen (Reuben Rader’s brothers), in U.S. Census (Belfast, Bushkill Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1870). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
50. Rader, Samuel and Eliza (Reuben Rader’s parents), in U.S. Census (Bushkill Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1880). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
51. Rader, Stephen H. (a younger brother of Reuben Rader), Emma C. and Oscar A., in U.S. Census (Plainfield Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1880). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
52. Rader, Stephen H. (a younger brother of Reuben Rader), Cula E. [sic, “Guli”] (Stephen Rader’s second wife) and Calvin; Ackerman, Reuben (Guli’s father); and Freeman, Ruth E. (Stephen Rader’s granddaughter), in U.S. Census (Wind Gap, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1910). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
53. Rader, Stephen H. (a younger brother of Reuben Rader), Guli (Stephen Rader’s second wife) and Calvin, in U.S. Census (Wind Gap, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1920, 1930). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
54. Rader, William (the oldest brother of Reuben Rader), Lucy Ann, Edgar A., Harrison W., and Robert S., in U.S. Census (Nazareth, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1870). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
55. Rader, William (the oldest brother of Reuben Rader), Lucy Ann, Edgar A., Oliver F., Anna E., and Ellen L., in U.S. Census (Palmer Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1880). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
56. Rader, William F. (the oldest brother of Reuben Rader), Lucy A. and Oliver F., in U.S. Census (Tatamy, Palmer Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1900). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
57. Ralder [sic, “Rader”], Reuben, in Civil War Veterans’ Card File (Company A, 47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
58. Reuben E. Rader, in U.S. Census (“Special Schedule. — Surviving Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines, and Widows, etc.”: Belfast, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1890). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
59. Roeder [sic, “Rader”], Samuel, Elizabeth, William, Reuben, and Emma, in U.S. Census (Plainfield Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1850). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
60. “Roster of the 47th P. V. Inf.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Morning Call, 26 October 1930.
61. “Sad Drowning Accident” (report on the death of Harry Rader, who was a nephew of Reuben Rader and a son of William F. Rader). Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Leader, 10 July 1899).
62. Schmidt, Lewis. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1986.
63. Scott, Robert N. The War of War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, series I, vol. XXXIV, part II: “Correspondence, etc.-Union,” Chapter XLVI: “Louisiana and the Trans-Mississippi,” p. 199. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1891.
64. Sheridan, Philip Henry. Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan, General, United States Army in Two Volumes. New York, New York: Charles L. Webster & Company, 1888.
65. Shoemaker, Roy L., Nellie M. (a granddaughter of Reuben Rader and a daughter of Elsie (Rader) Wilson); and Wilson, Elsie M. (a daughter of Reuben Rader and Nellie’s mother), in U.S. Census (Wind Gap, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1950). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
66. Staubach, Lieutenant Colonel James C. “Miami During the Civil War: 1861-65,” in Tequesta: The Journal of the Historical Association of Southern Florida, vol. LIII, pp. 31-62. Miami: Historical Museum of Southern Florida, 1993.
67. Stephen H. Rader (the groom, who was a younger brother of Reuben Rader); and Guli E. Ackerman (the bride), in “Marriage Licenses Orphans’ Court of Northampton County” (Northampton County, Pennsylvania, date of marriage: 20 May 1905). Easton, Pennsylvania: Clerk of the Orphans’ Court of Northampton County, Pennsylvania.
68. Stephen H. Rader (a younger brother of Reuben Rader), in Death Certificates (file no.: 115970, registered no.: 194, date of death: 20 December 1936). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
69. “Tamiami Trail Modifications: Next Steps,” in Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Washington, D.C. and Everglades National Park, Florida: U.S. National Park Service, 2010.
70. “The Exchange of Prisoners; The Cartel Agreed Upon by Gen. Dix for the United States, and Gen. Hill for the Rebels,” in “Supplementary Articles.” New York, New York: The New York Times, 6 October 1862.
71. “The History of the Forty-Seventh Regt. P. V.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Lehigh Register, 20 July 1870.
72. Wharton, Henry D. Letters from the Sunbury Guards. Sunbury, Pennsylvania: Sunbury American, 1861-1868.
73. William F. Rader (the oldest brother of Reuben Rader), in Death Certificates (file no.: 29648, registered no.: 1, date of death: 4 March 1910). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
74. William F. Rader (the oldest brother of Reuben Rader), in U.S. Census (“Special Schedule. — Surviving Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines, and Widows, etc.”: Palmer Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1890). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
75. Williamson, William S., Clara. L., May, and William J.; Walker, Lottie and Gladys W.; Colver, Charles G., Rader, Francis and Floyd E. (boarders; Floyd was a son of Reuben Rader, Francis may have been his cousin), in U.S. Census (Plainfield Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1920). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
76. Wilson, Thomas P., Elsie M. (a daughter of Reuben Rader), Nellie M., Evelyn R., and Ellwood P., in U.S. Census (Wind Gap, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1910, 1920). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
77. Wilson, Thomas P., Elsie M. (a daughter of Reuben Rader) and Clair L., in U.S. Census (Wind Gap, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, 1930, 1940). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.