Jacob Henry Scheetz, M.D., assistant surgeon, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, circa 1863 (public domain).

A native of Pottstown, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Jacob Henry Scheetz, M.D. was a game changer to whom generations of Pennsylvanians owe their lives and thanks.

Lauded upon his passing in 1891 by newspapers across the great Keystone State, he was described in the headline of his page one obituary in The Times of Philadelphia as “a Montgomery County Physician with a Fine War Record,” and in the body of that article as “one of the best known physicians and surgeons in this section of the State” and “one of the most popular physicians and surgeons in Montgomery county” socially.

The Allentown Times also reported his passing, describing him as “a surgeon of remarkable skill” whose “surgical operations [during the Civil War had been] mentioned in the Medical Reports to the War Department.”

Formative Years

Jacob Henry Scheetz was the great grandson of Revolutionary War Patriot, General Philip Scheetz, of Berks County; the grandson of War of 1812 soldier and Chester county resident, George Scheetz; and son of Montgomery County native, General John Scheetz, and Berks County native, Anna Catherine (Sands) Scheetz. Jacob’s father, George, was employed as a cooper early in his work life, and later became the landlord of the Red Lion Hotel.

Born in Pottstown, Pennsylvania on 15 August 1836, Jacob Scheetz was confirmed at the Lutheran Church in New Hanover, Montgomery County and educated at the Freeland Seminary (now Ursinus College). By the age of nineteen, he had begun his medical studies under the guidance of Dr. William A. Van Buskirk, a Pottstown physician.

In 1856, he enrolled at the Penn Medical College in Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine), and graduated in 1858. He subsequently opened and operated a medical practice in Emmaus, Lehigh County for two years before relocating his practice to Hereford Township, Berks County.

Caring for his fellow Union Army soldiers who had been cut down by cannon or rifle fire during the intense fighting of the Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina (1862) and Red River Campaign across Louisiana (1864), he also treated those who suffered grievously from a range of ailments contracted while serving in the Deep South during the American Civil War.

Civil War Military Service 

Jacob Henry Scheetz, M.D. enrolled for Civil War military service at Camp Brightwood near Washington, D.C. on 19 July 1861. He then mustered into federal service with the U.S. Army at the age of twenty-five, joining the ranks of the 47th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry as assistant surgeon on 24 September 1861.

By that point, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers had already pitched their tents on the Kalorama Heights near Georgetown, were calling “Camp Kalorama” home and were stationed roughly two miles from the White House.

Chain Bridge across the Potomac above Georgetown looking toward Virginia, 1861 (The Illustrated London News, public domain).

On the same day that Dr. Scheetz arrived (24 September), they became part of the U.S. Army when its men were officially mustered into federal service. Three days later, they were 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, they were ordered onward by Brigadier-General Silas Casey. Marching behind their regimental band, they reached Camp Lyon, Maryland on the Potomac River’s eastern shore, where, at roughly 5 p.m., they joined the 46th Pennsylvania in moving double-quick (165 steps per minute using thirty-three-inch steps) across the “Chain Bridge” marked on federal maps, and continued on for roughly another mile before being ordered to make camp.

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

On 29 September, Company C Musician Henry Wharton recapped the regiment’s activities in a letter to his hometown newspaper, the Sunbury American:

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….

The Big Chestnut Tree, Camp Griffin, Langley, Virginia, 1861 (U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).

Sometime during this phase of duty, as part of the 3rd Brigade, the 47th Pennsylvanians were moved to a site they initially christened “Camp Big Chestnut” in reference to the large chestnut tree located within the boundaries of their new home. 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 this 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:

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, much faster than they did at ‘Falling Waters’ when the ‘Bloody 11th’ was after them.

The First Fatalities

The first member of the 47th to die was a child, John Boulton Young. A drummer with the 47th Pennsylvania’s C Company and a favorite among the men, “Boulty” (alternatively “Boltie”) was just thirteen years old when he succumbed to the ravages of Variola (smallpox) at the Kalorama eruptive fever hospital in Georgetown on 17 October 1861.

Sergeant Frank M. Holt was another early casualty. A twenty-three-year-old who had left behind the farming life in Amherst, New Hampshire to enlist, he had been hospitalized at roughly the same time as Boulty, and ultimately succumbed to Variola at the same eruptive fever facility on 28 October.

Pageantry and Hard Work

Meanwhile back at Camp Griffin, the 47th engaged in a Divisional Review. Held on 22 October 1861, the event was described by Schmidt as “about 10,000 infantry, 1000 cavalry, and twenty pieces of artillery all in one big open field.”

In a letter penned on 17 November, Henry Wharton revealed more about the daily lives of his fellow 47th Pennsylvanians:

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

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

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

Since the success of the secret expedition, we have all kinds of rumors in camp. One is that our Brigade will be sent to the relief of Gen. Sherman, in South Carolina. The boys all desire it and the news in the ‘Press’ is correct, that a large force is to be sent there, I think their wish will be gratified. Our boys are all well and I am happy to inform you that the small-pox is completely exterminated from our Regiment.

On 21 November, the 47th participated in a morning divisional headquarters review overseen by the regiment’s founder and first 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, Brannan ordered that new Springfield rifles be obtained and distributed to every member of the 47th Pennsylvania.

1862

Ordered to move from Camp Griffin, Virginia back to Maryland in early January 1862, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers left their encampment at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, 22 January. Marching through deep mud with their equipment for three miles in order to reach the railroad station at Falls Church, Virginia, they were transported by rail to Alexandria and then, via the steamer City of Richmond, to the Washington Arsenal in Washington, D.C. There, they were reequipped, and marched off for dinner and rest at the Soldiers’ Retreat. The next afternoon, the 47th Pennsylvanians hopped aboard cars on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and headed for Annapolis, Maryland. Arriving around 10 p.m., they quartered 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.

By the afternoon of Monday, 27 January, the 47th Pennsylvanians were ready to depart for America’s Deep South, per the directive of Brigadier-General John Milton Brannan. Ferried to the big steamship by smaller steamers, the enlisted men boarded the Oriental first, followed by the officers. At 4 p.m., they departed for Florida which, despite its secession from the Union, remained strategically important to the Union due to its status as a key supplier of food for the Confederacy, as well as the presence of Forts Taylor and Jefferson in Key West and the Dry Tortugas.

Fort Taylor, Key West, Florida (Harper’s Weekly, 1864, public domain).

Arriving at Key West in early February, the men of the 47th were assigned to garrison duties at Fort Taylor. During the weekend of Friday, 14 February, they introduced their presence to Key West residents via a regimental parade through the city’s streets. That Sunday, men from the regiment also mingled with the locals at area church services. When on duty, they felled trees, built roads and strengthened the fortifications at the federal facility.

But as winter turned to spring, life became increasingly difficult for the regiment’s medical staff who saw an increasing number of 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers sickened by dysentery and typhoid fever.  On Saturday, 19 April and Sunday, 27 April, respectively, K Company privates George Leonhard and Lewis Dipple died at the fort’s general hospital while E Company Private John B. Mickley died on 30 April.

Increasingly debilitated by his own illness, Colonel Good finally realized in May 1862 that he would need to distance himself from his men if he were to continue as their leader. In a letter penned to the Assistant Adjutant, Captain Lambert, he asked “permission to leave camp for a few days, to secure comfortable quarters in town, which I have every reason to believe would materially aid in my speedy restoration to health and strength.”

The Doctor tells me this desirable end can be attained, by taking rest in elevated and comfortable quarters for a few days. In consequence I do not deem it essential to remove to the hospital.

Good’s decision proved to be a sound one as more and more members of the regiment were felled by disease, including D Company’s Private George Isett. Suffering from chronic diarrhea, Isett died on Friday, 16 May, and was subsequently laid to rest in grave no. 14 at the post cemetery.

That same day (16 May), The Athens Post in Athens, Tennessee specifically mentioned the 47th Pennsylvania’s problems with illness in a news article entitled, “Yankees Sick and Dying”:

A letter from the flag ship Niagara, published in the Providence Press, fears that the warm weather and imprudence and exposure will cause much sickness among the three Yankee regiments stationed at Key West, Florida. ‘Already the 47 Pennsylvania Regiment has lost a number of its members by the typhoid fever, and I am told they have 70 sick.’ They will have plenty of the same sort before August.

In response to the wave of viral and bacterial infections, H Company Private Daniel Kochenderfer was reassigned to nursing duties at Key West’s general hospital, where he earned $7.75 for the hazardous duty. Two days later, G Company Private Edmund G. Scholl succumbed to typhoid fever.

On 9 June, First Lieutenant William W. Geety was released from the post hospital, having successfully recovered from an attack of bilious fever that had resulted in his confinement beginning 18 May. In a letter penned to his wife while recuperating, he described himself as “jaundiced.” A week later, Henry Wharton penned a letter to his hometown newspaper, the Sunbury American, in which he informed his friends and neighbors that:

The paymaster has come at last and paid us off for four months. The sight of money was new to the boys, and most eagerly accepted by them. The Sunbury boys sent most of their pay home to their friends, very glad to do so, showing that, although far away from home, loved ones are not forgotten.

We have received marching (sailing) orders, and before this reaches you, if winds do not play us false, we will be in South Carolina, and probably before Charleston, helping to reduce the place where this foul rebellion first broke out. I will write to you immediately on our arrival, attempting to give you a description of the voyage, and an account of the manner in which Neptune treated the health and feelings of the boys. All is hurry and bustle in camp, striking tents, &c., so much so that I can scarcely write. We are all well. None of the Sunbury boys left behind….

The next day, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry began a phased departure from Key West.

A Summertime Occupation of South Carolina

Dock, Hilton Head, South Carolina, circa 1862 (Sam Cooley, U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).

On Tuesday, 17 June 1862, the 47th Pennsylvanians who were assigned to Companies A, F and D boarded the schooner Emilene and sailed for Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. Also readying for departure this day were the men from Companies B, C and I, who boarded a brig, the Sea Lark. On 19 June, Companies E and H boarded a different ship, which was not identified by regimental clerks in subsequent reports, but was identified in soldiers’ later correspondence as the Tangire. Setting off at 10:02 p.m. in the same direction as their predecessors, they were followed by the men from Companies G and K, who boarded a sloop, the Ellen Benan [identified in later soldiers’ correspondence as the “Ellen Bernard”], and departed at 2 p.m. on 20 June—barely dodging the yellow fever epidemic which swept Key West, Florida.

On 19 June, just prior to his departure, G Company Sergeant John Gross Helfrich penned a letter to his parents from the Officers’ Hospital in Key West, where he had been assigned as a hospital steward:

We are under marching orders, some of the companies of our regiment have already gone. The reason for our not going together, is owing to not having vessels enough. Those who have left had to embark on small “briggs” & skooners [sic], taking from two to three companies aboard. The place of our destination is ‘Beaufort S. Carolina.’ The two companies of regulars, stationed here, have also left a few days ago; for the same place.

The health of our men is exceedingly good at present, out of our whole regiment there are but nineteen, who are unable on account of sickness to accompany us, which is comparatively, but a very small number, and these as far as my knowledge is concerned, are not dangerously ill; and it is hoped that they may soon be able to follow us.

After we are gone the garrison at this place will only consist of six companies of the 90th Regt. N.Y.V. [90th New York Volunteers]. The other four companies of the above named regt. are stationed at “Fort Jefferson”, Tortugas; some fifty-odd miles from here.

The 91st Regt. N.Y.V. were ordered a few weeks ago, to Pensacola, Fla. So you perceive, that there has been a considerable change made among the military, of late at this place….

According to military reports, the first two units of the regiment to arrive at Hilton Head—Companies E and H—disembarked on Sunday, 22 June. After having spent four days aboard ship, these men quickly realized their initial accommodations would be far from plush. They were expected to sleep out in the open on the dock. The men from Companies A, D and F, and B, Cband I arrived next, respectively disembarking from the “Emilene” and “Sea Lark” on Monday. They, too, all spent a restless night sleeping on the dock.

Bay Street Looking West, Beaufort, South Carolina, circa 1862 (Sam A. Cooley, 10th Army Corps, photographer, public domain).

Finally, on Wednesday, 25 June, at 2 p.m., the regiment was made whole again when the men from Companies G and K arrived on the “Ellen Benan.” The regiment was then marched to the rear of Fort Walker, where the 47th Pennsylvanians were ordered to pitch tents and organize their supplies. But the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry did not remain in the Hilton Head-Port Royal area for long; on 2 July, the regiment departed for its new assignment—provost (military police and judicial) duties in Beaufort, South Carolina, where it remained assigned to the command of Brigadier-General John Milton Brannan.

By the second week of July, Union Army leaders issued orders directing part of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry to participate in an Expedition to Fenwick Island (9 July), followed by a Demonstration Against Pocotaligo (10 July). In response, the members of H Company marched to Port Royal Ferry, crossed the Coosaw River, and drove off Confederate soldiers who had set fire to the ferry house while out on picket duty.

Even though the change of scenery for the 47th Pennsylvanians appears to have done some good for morale since they were now being given more opportunities to interact with the enemy, they were still being dogged by an old foe—disease. During the month of July, the following members of the 47th were among those seeking medical treatment:

• Private George Nichols, Company E (admitted 14 July 1862 for hernia treatment);
• Private Andrew Burke, Company E (admitted 17 July 1862 for boil treatment);
• Private Peter McLaughlin, Company H (admitted 18 July 1862 for treatment of a sprain);
• Private William Ward, Company E (admitted 18 July 1862 for carbuncle treatment);
• Private Luther Bernheisel, Company H (admitted 23 July 1862 for funiculus treatment);
• Private John Bruch, Company E (admitted 24 July 1862);
• Private John Richards, Company E (admitted 26 July 1862 for treatment of a febrile condition);
• Second Lieutenant William Wyker, Company E (admitted 26 July 1862 for treatment of diarrhea);
• Corporal Joseph Schwab, Company F (admitted 26 July 1862 for bilious remittent fever treatment);
• Sergeant William Hiram Bartholomew, Company F (admitted 26 July 1862); and
• First Lieutenant George W. Fuller, Company F (admitted 26 July 1862 for treatment of piles).

In addition, Earnest Rodman (alternate spelling “Ruttman”) of B Company sustained a severe wound to his lower jaw when his rifle accidentally discharged while he was assigned to picket duty at Beaufort on 15 July. On 29 July, Musician Daniel Fritz and Private Rudolph Fisher, both of Company K, were discharged on surgeons’ certificates of disability. Fritz, who had contracted typhoid fever and was losing his eyesight, survived, but Fisher succumbed to his illness at a Union Army hospital in New York.

As summer wore on, disease and injury continued to take out more members of the regiment. Among those hospitalized were:

• Private Israel Reinhard, Company G (admitted 6 August 1862 for bilious remittent fever treatment);
• Corporal Solomon Wieder, Company G (admitted 6 August 1862 for otitis treatment);
• Sergeant Robert Nelson, Company H (admitted 7 August 1862 for intermittent fever treatment);
• Private Charles Rohrer, Company H (admitted 8 August 1862 for treatment of diarrhea); and
• Sergeant James Hahn, Company H (admitted 10 August 1862 for dysentery).

It was also unbearably hot. In a letter to family and friends, C Company Captain John Peter Shindel Gobin noted that:

“The thermometer to-day has fallen to a respectable number … The weather for the last few weeks has been beyond conception. It was sweltering until Saturday a cool breeze from the North sprung up, and we have enjoyed two comfortable days … Every day last week until Saturday, it ranged from 100 to 110 degrees in our tents, and from 98 to 105 the coolest place you could find…. Our pickets at Seabrook, a few days ago, discovered the rebels throwing up earthworks, and the general impression is that a simultaneous attack will be made by their land forces. News has been received here for some time, of their concentrating large forces of the latter at Grahamsville and Pocotaligo….

Writing to superiors from the 47th Pennsylvania’s headquarters in Beaufort, South Carolina on 31 August 1862, Assistant Regimental Surgeon Jacob H. Scheetz reported that:

Remittent Fever has prevailed to a considerable extent. It was characterized by a daily exacerbation and remission. The greater number of those afflicted with it, presented the following symptoms: A general feeling of lassitude for two or three days, with partial loss of appetite, followed by chills and flashes of heat alternately; cephalgia, felt principally over the orbits, of a sharp lancinating character, sometimes, however, described as a dull, aching, heavy sensation. The eyes were most generally suffused, skin sallow, tongue coated, thirst, anorexia. The bowels in the greater number of cases were torpid, but in others disposed to looseness; there was a tenderness over the right hypochondriac and epigastric regions, frequent nausea, and sometimes vomiting. The pulse ranged from 85 to 115 per minute. The skin was hot and dry during the exacerbations, moist and flacid [sic] during remissions. The urine was generally high colored, and caused frequent complaints of a scalding sensation while voiding it, and there was a continual complaint of pain in the back and extremities, etc. The treatment which was found most beneficial was to administer a mercurial purgative in cases in which the bowels were torpid; when there was nausea, twenty grains of ipecacuanha were combined with it. After the intestinal canal had been acted upon, five grains of quinine were given four to six times daily. When there was diarrhea, half a grain of opium or five of Dover’s powder were given with each alternate dose. When the peculiar effects of the quinia were apparent the disease rapidly yielded. The epigastric tenderness, when severe, was treated with sinapisms and opiates. The diet was light as possible.

Scheetz also noted that, “Diarrhea prevailed considerably,” and added that the “cases were uniformly mild … unaccompanied by any febrile symptoms, and yielded to treatment very readily”—a protocol which “consisted of vegetable astringents and opium, tannic acid, and catechu being the astringents principally used.”

Dysentery also assumed a mild type, very few cases presenting much febrile action. The treatment consisted in administering two grains of tartar emetic with half an ounce of epsom salts, and following it with a combination of acetate of lead and opium or more frequently two drachms of castor oil and forty drops of laudanum three times daily.

The next day, on Monday, 1 September, Wharton penned another letter to the Sunbury American, noting that:

The right wing of our regiment, Company C included, have been on picket for the last ten days, tomorrow they return, being relieved by the 8th Maine Volunteers. Our fellows have had a sorry time of it so far as the elements were concerned for it has done nothing but rain, rain, and to get a sight of the sun, in that time was really reviving … the continual change of apparel, when the wardrobe is not very extensive, made it rather inconvenient for them, and more than one in need for a change of flannel had to make a shift without it….

Picket duty here is different from that in Virginia. There 24 hours did the business for one company for ten days, while here 500 men, besides a battery are the quantity required for that length of time. A river divides our line from the rebels and shots are continually exchanged with them, none, however, doing much damage. Occasionally a secesh horseman has temerity enough to come within shooting distance of our Springfields, when he is accomodated [sic] with their merry barkings, but in an instant he skedaddles, and that in such a hurry that does no credit to Southern chivalry or one who is willing to die in the last ditch.

Then, as summer wound down, two major changes were made to Union Army operations that would dramatically reshape the lives of 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers for the remainder of 1862. The 47th Pennsylvania was attached to the United States Army’s Tenth Corps (X Corps) after it was formed as a new corps on 3 September. On 16 September, the Tenth Army was then placed under the command of Major-General Ormsby M. Mitchel when he took over command of the U.S. Department of the South from Major-General David Hunter.

As a direct result of those changes, before the month was out, disease would no longer be the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry’s primary foe.

First Victory and First Blood Spilled

J.H. Schell’s 1862 illustration showing the earthworks surrounding the Confederate battery atop Saint John’s Bluff along the Saint John’s River in Florida (public domain).

In early October 1862, Union Major-General Mitchel directed his senior staff and leadership of the U.S. Army’s Tenth Corps (X Corps) to intensify actions against the Confederate States Army and Navy in an effort to further disrupt the enemy’s ability to move troops and supplies throughout Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. As part of this directive, he ordered the Tenth Army to collaborate with the U.S. Navy to disable a Confederate artillery battery overlooking the Saint John’s River in Florida.

A Union victory, this engagement was followed by the more difficult Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina on 22 October 1862, during which the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry sustained heavy casualties. Completing just three miles of the anticipated “seven or eight” that the primary group was expected to cover to reach and destroy the railroad bridge in the village of Pocotaligo, the Tenth Army infantrymen had run smack into strongly entrenched Confederate troops.

“The Commencement of the Battle near Pocotaligo River” (Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, October 1862, public domain).

After surviving an exhausting fight here, the Tenth Army troops continued on, re-engaging with the enemy at various points during their advance along narrow, swamp-flanked paths. According to Major-General Mitchel’s subsequent report on the battle:

The march and fight continued from about 1 o’clock until between 5 and 6 o’clock in the afternoon. The officers and troops behaved in the most gallant manner. One bayonet charge was made over causeways with the most determined courage and with veteran firmness. The advance was made with caution, but with persistent steadiness, driving the enemy over a distance of more than 3 miles, and finally compelling him to seek safety by crossing the Pocotaligo River and the destruction of the bridge. The fight was continued on the banks of the Pocotaligo, but the coming on of night and the exhaustion of our ammunition, as well as the impossibility of crossing the river, rendered it necessary for the troops to return to their boats. This was done in perfect order and with great deliberation. It was impossible for the enemy to harass our troops, as they were on the opposite side of the river and the bridge was destroyed.

So far as I know all the dead and wounded were brought off.

Nothing whatever fell into the hands of the enemy, while they were compelled to abandon two of their caissons, with ammunition, which was returned to them (the ammunition) on the banks of the Pocotaligo from our naval howitzers….

 Revising his estimates later in this same report to his superiors, Mitchel wrote:

I regret to say that the main body, under the command of Brigadier-General Brannan, suffered severely in killed and wounded in the three fights, which constituted almost one continuous battle during the afternoon.

I inclose [sic] a list of casualties, which I think is nearly complete, and from which it appears that our loss amounts to about 50 killed and 300 wounded. The loss of the enemy it was of course impossible for us to ascertain.

A few prisoners have fallen into our hands, and we have every reason to believe that the enemy suffered severely.

The greatest activity prevailed on the railroad, and trains of cars with troops appear to have been sent from both Charleston and Savannah.

Highlighted version of the U.S. Army’s map of the Pocotaligo-Coosawhatchie Expedition, South Carolina, October 22, 1862. Blue Arrow: Mackay’s Point, where the U.S. Tenth Army debarked and began its march. Blue Box: Position of Union troops (blue) and Confederate troops (red) in relation to the Pocotaligo bridge and town of Pocotaligo, the Charleston & Savannah Railroad, and the Caston and Frampton plantations (blue highlighting added by Laurie Snyder, 2023; public domain; click to enlarge).

According to Brigadier-General Brannan, the commanding officer of the expedition who was actually on site (as opposed to Mitchel who was back at Hilton Head, ailing with yellow fever), he [Brannan] had “assumed command of the following forces, ordered to destroy the railroad and railroad bridges on the Charleston and Savannah line”:

A portion of the First Brigade (Brannan’s), Col. J. L. Chatfield, Sixth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers, commanding, effective strength 2,000; a portion of Second Brigade, Brig. Gen. A. H. Terry commanding, effective strength 1,410; detachment of Third Rhode Island Volunteers, Colonel Brown commanding, effective strength 300; detachment of Forty-eighth Regiment New York State Volunteers, Colonel Barton commanding, effective strength 300; detachment of First Massachusetts Cavalry, Capt. L. Richmond commanding, effective strength 108;  section of First U.S. Artillery, Lieut. G. V. Henry commanding, effective strength 40; section of Third U.S. Artillery, Lieut. E. Gittings commanding, effective strength 40; detachment of New York Volunteer Engineers, Lieutenant Colonel Hall commanding, effective strength 250. Total effective strength, 4,448 men.

Departing from Hilton Head with the expeditionary force “on the evening of October 21, and proceeding up Broad River,” Brigadier-General Brannan “arrived off Pocotaligo Creek at 4:30 a.m. with the transport Ben De Ford [sic, Ben Deford] and the gunboat Paul Jones.”

Col. William B. Barton, Forty-eighth Regiment New York State Volunteers, 50 men of the Volunteer Engineer Corps, and 50 men of the Third Rhode Island Volunteers, in accordance with my order, delivered early that morning, proceeded direct to the Coosawhatchie River, to destroy the railroad and railroad bridges in that vicinity. The other gunboats and transports did not all arrive until about 8 a.m. on October 22. I immediately effected a landing of my artillery and infantry at Mackay’s Point, at the junction of Pocotaligo and Tulifiny [sic, Tulifinny] Rivers. I advanced without delay in the direction of Pocotaligo Bridge, sending back the transports Flora and Darlington to Port Royal Island for the cavalry, the First Brigade being in advance, with a section from the First U.S. Artillery, followed by the Second Brigade, with Colonel Brown’s command, the section of the Third U.S. Artillery and three boat howitzers, which Captain Steedman, commanding the naval forces, kindly furnished for this occasion, and a detachment of 45 men from the Third Rhode Island Volunteer Artillery, under Captain Comstock, of that regiment.

On advancing about 5½ miles and debouching upon an open rolling country the rebels opened upon us with a field battery from a position on the plantation known as Caston’s. I immediately caused the First Brigade to deploy, and, bringing my artillery to the front, drove the rebels from this position. They, however, destroyed all small bridges in the vicinity, causing much delay in my advance. These, with the aid of the Engineer Corps, were reconstructed as we advanced, and I followed up the retreat of the rebels with all the haste practicable. I had advanced about 1¼ miles farther, when a battery again opened on us from a position on the plantation called Frampton. The rebels here had every advantage of ground, being ensconced in a wood, with a deep swamp in front, passable only by a narrow causeway, on which the bridge had been destroyed, while, on our side of the swamp and along the entire front and flanks of the enemy (extending to the swamps), was an impervious thicket, intersected by a deep water ditch, and passable only by a narrow road. Into this road the rebels threw a most terrific fire of grape shot, shell, canister, and musket balls, killing and wounding great numbers of my command. Here the ammunition for the field pieces fell short, and, though the infantry acted with great courage and determination, they were twice driven out of the woods with great slaughter by the overwhelming fire of the enemy, whose missiles tore through the woods like hail. I had warmly responded to this fire with the sections of First and Third U.S. Artillery and the boat howitzers until, finding my ammunition about to fail, and seeing that any flank movement was impossible, I pressed the First Brigade forward through the thicket to the verge of a swamp, and sent the section of First U.S. Artillery, well supported, to the causeway of the wood on the farther side, leaving the Second Brigade, with Colonel Brown’s command, the section of Third U.S. Artillery, and the boat howitzers as a line of defense in my rear. The effect of this bold movement was immediately evident in the precipitate retreat of the rebels, who disappeared in the woods with amazing rapidity. The infantry of the First Brigade immediately plunged through the swamp, (parts of which were nearly up to their arm-pits) and started in pursuit. Some delay was caused by the bridge having been destroyed, impeding the passage of the artillery. This difficulty was overcome and with my full force I pressed forward on the retreating rebels. At this point (apprehending, from the facility which the rebels possessed of heading [to] Pocotaligo Creek, that they would attempt to turn my left flank) I sent an infantry regiment, with a boat howitzer, to my left, to strike the Coosawhatchie road.

The position which I had found proved, as I had supposed, to be one of great natural advantage to the rebels, the ground behind higher on that side of the swamp, and having a firm, open field for the working of their artillery, which later they formed in a half circle, throwing a concentrated fire on the entrance to the wood we had first passed.

The rebels left in their retreat a caisson full of ammunition, which later, fortunately, fitting the boat howitzers, enabled us, at a later period of the day, to keep up our fire when all other ammunition had failed.

Still pursuing the flying rebels, I arrived at that point where the Coosawhatchie road (joining that from Mackay’s Landing) runs through a swamp to Pocotaligo Bridge. Here the rebels opened a murderous fire upon us from batteries of siege guns and field pieces on the farther side of the creek. Our skirmishers, however, advanced boldly to the edge of the swamp, and, from what cover they could obtain, did considerable execution among the enemy. The rebels, as I had anticipated, attempted a flank movement on our left, but for some reason abandoned it. The ammunition of the artillery here entirely failed, owing to the caissons not having been brought on, for the want of transportation from Port Royal, and the pieces had to be sent back to Mackay’s Point, a distance of 10 miles, to renew it.

The bridge across the Pocotaligo was destroyed, and the rebels from behind their earthworks continued on the only approach to it, through the swamp. Night was now closing fast, and seeing the utter hopelessness of attempting anything further against the force which the enemy had concentrated at this point from Savannah and Charleston, with an army of much inferior force, unprovided with ammunition, and not having even sufficient transportation to remove the wounded, who were lying writhing along our entire route, I deemed it expedient to retire to Mackay’s Point, which I did in successive lines of defenses, burying my dead and carrying our wounded with us on such stretchers as we could manufacture from branches of trees, blankets, &.c., and receiving no molestation from the rebels, embarked and returned to Hilton Head on the 23d instant.

With respect to the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry’s performance, Brannan singled out officers as well as enlisted men for praise, including the regiment’s medical staff:

Col. T. H. Good, Forty-seventh Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers (Colonel Chatfield being wounded early in the day), commanded the First Brigade during the latter part of the engagement with much ability. Nothing could be more satisfactory than the promptness and skill with which the wounded were attended to by Surg. E. W. Bailey [sic, Baily], Forty-seventh Pennsylvania Volunteers, medical director, and the entire medical staff of the command.

Brannan closed his reports by attaching “a complete and accurate list of the killed, wounded, and missing during the entire expedition, giving their names, rank, companies, and regiments, with a description of the nature of their wounds.” The New York Times initially estimated that the 47th Pennsylvania, alone, had suffered 140 casualties (killed and wounded), the equivalent of roughly one-and-a-half companies of men, and described the regiment as “terribly shattered.”

Following the battle, the regiment returned to Hilton Head, where its men began to recuperate from the battering they had just received. By early December 1862, they were learning that they were being ordered back to Florida to garrison Forts Taylor and Jefferson. Far from being a punishment for the regiment’s performance at Pocotaligo, though, as several historians have claimed over the years, this assignment was viewed by senior Union military officers as critically important because these federal installations were increasingly at risk of attack by Confederate troops as well as the foreign powers that were supporting them.

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

At 5 p.m. that same evening, the 47th Pennsylvanians sailed again for Florida, during what was later described by several members of the regiment as a treacherous and nerve-wracking voyage. According to historian Lewis Schmidt, the ship’s captain “steered a course along the coast of Florida for most of the voyage,” which made the voyage more precarious “because of all the reefs.” On 16 December, “the second night, the ship was jarred as it ran aground on one during a storm, but broke free, and finally steered a course further from shore, out in the Gulf Stream.”

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

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

1863 – Post Surgeon Duties at Fort Jefferson

Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas, Florida (interior, circa 1934, C.E. Peterson, U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).

During this new phase of duty, Dr. Scheetz spent fourteen months as the post surgeon at Fort Jefferson, where half of the 47th Pennsylvania regiment had been stationed from late December 1862 through early February 1864.

One of the things he quickly realized was that the water quality was so poor here that the regiment’s health was at risk. According to Schmidt:

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

Fort Jefferson’s moat and wall, circa 1934, Dry Tortugas, Florida (C.E. Peterson, U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).

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

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

As for housing and feeding the soldiers stationed here, as well as daily operations, there was a fort post office and the “interior parade grounds, with numerous trees and shrubs in evidence, contained … officers quarters, [a] magazine, kitchens and out houses,” according to Schmidt.

Most quarters for the garrison … were established in wooden sheds and tents inside the parade [grounds] or inside the walls of the fort in second-tier gun rooms of ‘East’ front #2, and adjacent bastions … with prisoners housed in isolated sections of the first and second tiers of the southeast, or #3 front, and bastions C and D, located in the general area of the sallyport. The bakery was located in the lower tier of the northwest bastion ‘F’, located near the central kitchen….

Late Winter and Spring 1864 – Red River Campaign

The diagnostic and surgical talents of Assistant Regimental Surgeon Jacob Scheetz were particularly tested from March to May 1864 when the 47th Pennsylvania became the only Pennsylvania regiment to fight in the Red River Campaign across Louisiana. Mounted by Major-General Nathaniel Banks, the campaign took its toll on the 47th and other Union regiments, as soldiers battled the elements as well as the Confederates they met along the way.

Diagnosing soldiers suffering from a range of injuries and illnesses, Dr. Scheetz treated men felled by disease, sunstroke, and other non-combat ailments, and also fought to stay the grim reaper’s scythe when 47th Pennsylvanians fell in small skirmishes and intense, major engagements, including the Battles of Sabine Cross Roads and Pleasant Hill (8-9 April 1864). He also tried valiantly to help those who returned less than whole from shattering POW experiences at Camp Ford, the Confederate Army’s largest prison camp west of the Mississippi River.

Many men who would have perished those terrible days went on to live long, full lives, largely thanks to his skill as a surgeon. Descendants of those soldiers also owe their lives to him because, had Scheetz not succeeded, those 47th Pennsylvanians would never have returned home to start families.

On 7 July 1864, while stationed in New Orleans, the 47th Pennsylvania Infantry was temporarily separated into two detachments when the soldiers assigned to the regiment’s Companies B, G and K were ordered to remain behind in Louisiana to await transportation north following the end of the Union’s Red River Campaign while the men from Companies A, C, D, F, H, and I steamed aboard the McClellan for the Washington, D.C. area. That group of 47th infantrymen then had a memorable encounter with President Abraham Lincoln at Fort Stevens (situated just outside of the nation’s capital) on 12 July, and joined in fighting in and around Snicker’s Gap, Virginia (also known as the Battle of Cool Spring) in mid-July under the command of Union Major-General David Hunter and Brigadier-General William Emory. Both detachments from the 47th Pennsylvania were ultimately reunited on 2 August at Monocacy, Virginia, and were then ordered on to Harper’s Ferry.

Halltown Ridge, looking west with “old ruin of 123 on left,” where Union troops entrenched after Major-General Philip Sheridan took command of the Middle Military Division, 7 August 1864 (Thomas Dwight Biscoe, 2 August 1884, courtesy of Southern Methodist University).

Directed to march next for Halltown, the 47th Pennsylvanians were assigned, upon arrival, to defensive duties. Union Major-General David Hunter “took up his position covering Halltown and proceeded to strengthen its entrenchments,” according to historian Richard Irwin, while “Crook’s left rested on the Shenandoah, Emory [including the 47th Pennsylvania] extended the line to the turnpike road, and Wright carried it to the Potomac.”

But change was once again in the wind. On 7 August 1862, Major-General Philip H. Sheridan was placed in charge of the U.S. Army’s Middle Military Division and the U.S. Army of the Shenandoah; shortly thereafter, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were reassigned to Sheridan’s command.

Sheridan’s 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign

According to the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, as Sheridan was bolstering Union positions in Virginia, Lieutenant-General Jubal Early was reinforcing his Confederate positions with the Confederate States of America troops under his command:

Early deployed his forces to defend the approaches to Winchester, while Sheridan moved his army, now 50,000 strong, south via Berryville with the goal of cutting the Valley Turnpike. On August 11, Confederate cavalry and infantry turned back Union cavalry at Double Toll Gate in sporadic, day-long fighting, preventing this maneuver.

Robert E. Lee sent reinforcements under the overall command of Gen. Richard Anderson to join Early. On August 16, Union cavalry encountered this force advancing through Front Royal, and in a sharp engagement at Guard Hill, Gen. George A. Custer’s brigade captured more than 300 Confederates.

Sheridan had been ordered to move cautiously and avoid a defeat, particularly if Early were reinforced. Uncertain of Early’s and Anderson’s combined strength, Sheridan withdrew to a defensive line near Charles Town to cover the Potomac River crossings and Harpers Ferry. Early’s forces routed the Union rear guard at Abrams Creek at Winchester on August 17 and pressed north on the Valley Turnpike to Bunker Hill. Judging Sheridan’s performance thus far, General Early considered him a timid commander.

On August 21, Early and Anderson launched a converging attack against Sheridan. As Early struck the main body of Union infantry at Cameron’s Depot, Anderson moved north from Berryville against Sheridan’s cavalry at Summit Point. Results of the fighting were inconclusive, but Sheridan continued to withdraw. The next day, Early advanced boldly on Charles Town, panicking a portion of the retreating Union army, but by late afternoon, Sheridan had retreated into formidable entrenchments at Halltown, south of Harpers Ferry, where he was beyond attack.

Early then attempted another incursion into Maryland, hoping by this maneuver to maintain the initiative. On August 25, two divisions of Sheridan’s cavalry intercepted Early’s advance, but the Confederate infantry drove them back to the Potomac. Early’s intentions were revealed, however, and on August 26, Sheridan’s infantry attacked and overran a portion of the Confederate entrenchments at Halltown, forcing Anderson and Kershaw to withdraw to Stephenson’s Depot. Early abandoned his raid and returned south, establishing a defensive line on the west bank of Opequon Creek^* from Bunker Hill to Stephenson’s Depot.

On August 29, Union cavalry forded the Opequon at Smithfield Crossing but were swiftly driven back across the creek by Confederate infantry. Union infantry of the VI Corps then advanced and regained the line of the Opequon. This was one more in a series of thrusts and parries that characterized this phase of the campaign, known to the soldiers as the “mimic war.”

Regimental records confirm back-and-forth movements by the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, causing confusion regarding dates of departure and arrival at various camp sites. According to Schmidt, “On Wednesday [10 August], the regiment marched from Halltown, as Company K recorded it ‘left Halltown and marched to Middletown and back to Halltown and skirmished.’” On the 11th, “the 47th left its bivouac near Berryville and marched to Middletown where it arrived the next day,” and remained there for several weeks before returning to Halltown where, according to Schmidt, “it arrived on August 20.”

Summer 1864 and Final Weeks of Military Service

Marching from Halltown during the opening days of September 1864, Sheridan’s troops arrived at Berryville on Saturday, 3 September. Meanwhile, that same day according to Schmidt, the 47th Pennsylvania’s “Company I reported that it [also had] left camp near Charlestown and marched to Berryville.”

Before they could even put their tents in place, however, a portion of Sheridan’s troops were forced to repel an attack by Major-General Joseph B. Kershaw’s division of Confederate troops on a Union grouping led by Brigadier-General George Crook. Motivated by CSA Lieutenant-General Early’s orders to move additional Confederate troops into the area, the attack was led by CSA Major-General Richard H. Anderson. According to the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation:

On September 2-3, Averell’s cavalry division rode south from Martinsburg and struck the Confederate left flank at Bunker Hill, defeating the Confederate cavalry but being driven back by infantry. Meanwhile, Sheridan concentrated his infantry near Berryville. On the afternoon of September 3, Anderson’s command encountered and attacked elements of Crook’s corps (Army of West Virginia) at Berryville but was repulsed. Early brought his entire army up on the 4th, but found Sheridan’s position at Berryville too strongly entrenched to attack. Early again withdrew to the Opequon line.

On 5 September 1864, Captain Daniel Oyster of the 47th Pennsylvania was wounded in action in the left shoulder in a post-battle skirmish. Two days later, C Company scribe Wharton provided the following details about the Battle of Berryville and its aftermath:

7 September 1864
Letter from the Sunbury Guards.
NEAR BERRYVILLE, VA.,    }
September 7, 1864.

DEAR WILVERT:

For several days after the army had advanced up this valley, the men were busily engaged in building intrenchments [sic] and fortifying their position, two miles west of Charlestown. During the entire night and the whole next day were the boys at work with the shovel and pick, carrying rails, &c., building breastworks for the protection of the regiment, and scarcely was the job finished, the bright spade put aside, when ‘fall in’ was heard, and the 47th was moved to another place to build other earthworks. – This they done [sic] cheerfully, knowing the work was necessary; and that it was for their own protection. The position held by our army, at that point, was excellent, and so well arranged was [sic] our defences, that an attack made on us by the enemy would have been disastrous to him, and added another list to the name of Union victories. The enemy knew this, and after finding out Sheridan’s strength fell back towards Winchester, keeping his head quarters [sic] at Bunker Hill. Our forces on last Saturday morning [3 September], then broke up camp, following them to within one mile of this place, where we found signs of the Johnnies. The 8th corps, Gen. Crooks [sic], commanding, was, in the advance who rested in line of battle, with arms stacked, for a couple of hours, while pickets were being posted. After the pickets had been established this command went into camp, and had just finished pitching their tents, which was about four o’clock P.M., when heavy skirmishing was heard on the picket line. The whole command was rapidly turned out and formed, and moved to the support of the pickets, who had been driven from behind some intrenchments [sic], which they had occupied.

From the correspondent of the Baltimore American, I learn the following facts of the fight:

The 36th Ohio and 9th Virginia were formed, and charged the enemy, driving then out of the entrenchments. A desperate struggle now ensued, the rebels being determined, if possible, to regain possession of these entrenchments. With this object in view they massed full two divisions of their command and hurled them with their accustomed ferocity against our gallant little band, who were supported by both Thoburn’s and Duvall’s division. They were handsomely repulsed every time they changed, the conflict lasting long after the sun had sent, and artillery firing being kept up until 9 o’clock.

Our loss was about three hundred killed and wounded that of the enemy, from good information, was at least one-third greater, besides fifty prisoners and a stand of colors.

While the fight was going on, the 6th and 19th corps were pushed forward and took up several lines, but not being needed, did not share in the punishment given the rebels. On the next day, Sabbata [sic], the pickets had hard work and done a great deal of firing with the enemy. A member of Company C., to which I belong, told me he fired fifty-three rounds at them. What punishment was inflicted I cannot tell you, on the part of the Johnies sic], but to our men, I know it was small; two men of the 47th wounded by the same ball, and they slightly.

On Monday [5 September] the 47th was out on a reconnoisance [sic]. Four companies were in advance as skirmishers, who soon were received by a shower of bullets from the graybacks. This did not, in the least deter them, for they gave as good as they got, and with the regiment pushed on driving the enemy before them. The main portion of the regiment dare not fire, for if they did, the shooting of our own men who have been the consequence, so they stood the whizzing of bullets about their ears, as well as could be expected, under the circumstances. In this work two members of Co., C., were wounded. David Sloan, flesh wound in right arm from a minnie ball, and Benjamin McKillips in right hand. These wounds are slight, but at the present time somewhat painful, not so much so, however, as to prevent them enjoying that great luxury of a soldier – sleep. Capt. Oyster was struck by a ball, staggering him, but otherwise doing no injury. In his being hit there is a circumstance connected, that I cannot help but giving you, even you may put it down as a fish story, though for the truth the whole company will vouch. The ball struck him on the back of his shoulder, made a hole in his vest and shirt and none in the coat. Two members of Co. K., were wounded – one of them has since died.

The whole army have [sic] been busily engaged in digging intrenchments [sic], and throwing up breastworks, and now occupy a very strong position. Whether there will be an engagement here, or what the movements are to be, I can form no opinion, for if there was a General ever kept his thoughts, Sheridan is the one, and it is an impossibility to find out anything until it is completed. For material to write on, one is continued to his own Brigade, and there is so much sameness in that, that it would be but a repetition to send it to you. If I were to take down the ‘thousand and one’ rumors that daily come into camp, I could fill columns of the American, weekly, but as I prefer facts, I hope you will be satisfied if I send you news semi-occasionally.

I wrote to you a few days ago of the promotions in Company C, but for fear they did not reach you, I send them again: Daniel Oyster, Captain; William M. Hendricks, 1st Lieutenant; and Christian S. Beard, 2nd Lieutenant. They are well liked, and in their new positions give satisfaction. With the exception of the wounded, the boys are well, perfectly contented with their lot, only that they have a great hankering for the greenbacks that is [sic] due to them. Those, it is said, will be forthcoming in a few days. With respects to yourself, family and old friends, I remain,

Yours, Fraternally,
H. D. W.

* Note: According to reports by the regiment, as well as members of the 29th Maine Volunteers, the 47th Pennsylvania incurred a total of eight casualties—seven who were wounded (including Private David Sloan of C Company), and one—Private George Kilmore, of K Company, who died the same day of the battle (5 September) from the gunshot wound to his abdomen.

Philip Sheridan’s Union army defeating Jubal Early’s Confederate force (Kurz & Allison, circa 1893, U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).

As rifles and cannon cooled following the Battle of Berryville, troops on both sides of the conflict cared for their wounded while their respective commanding officers resumed their strategic planning. According to Union Major-General Sheridan:

Word to the effect that some of [Confederate Lieutenant-General] Early’s troops were under orders to return to Petersburg, and would start back at the first favorable opportunity, had been communicated to me already from many sources, but we had not been able to ascertain the date for their departure. Now that they had actually started, I decided to wait before offering battle until Kershaw had gone so far as to preclude his return, feeling confident that my prudence would be justified by the improved chances of victory; and then, besides, Mr. Stanton kept reminding me that positive success was necessary to counteract the political dissatisfaction existing in some of the Northern States. This course was advised and approved by General Grant, but even with his powerful backing it was difficult to resist the persistent pressure of those whose judgment, warped by their interests in the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, was often confused and misled by stories of scouts (sent out from Washington), averring that Kershaw and Fitzhugh Lee had returned to Petersburg, Breckenridge to southwestern Virginia, and at one time even maintaining that Early’s whole army was east of the Blue Ridge, and its commander himself at Gordonsville.

During the activity prevailing in my army … the infantry was quiet, with the exception of Getty’s division, which made a reconnaissance to the Opequon, and developed a heavy force of the enemy at Edwards’s Corners. The cavalry, however, was employed a good deal … skirmishing – heavily at times – to maintain a space about six miles in width between the hostile lines, for I wished to control this ground so that when I was released from the instructions of August 12 I could move my men into position for attack without the knowledge of Early….

It was the evening of the 16th of September that I received from Miss Wright^* positive information that Kershaw was in march toward Front Royal on his way by Chester Gap to Richmond. Concluding that this was my opportunity, I at once resolved to throw my whole force into Newtown the next day, but a despatch [sic] from General Grant directing me to meet him at Charlestown … caused me to defer action until I should see him. In our resulting interview … I went over the situation very thoroughly, and pointed out with so much confidence the chances of a complete victory should I throw my army across the Valley pike near Newtown that he fell in with the plan at once, authorized me to renew the offensive, and to attack Early as soon as I deemed it most propitious to do so; and although before leaving City Point he had outlined certain operations for my army, yet he neither discussed nor disclosed his plans, my knowledge of the situation striking him as being so much more accurate than his own.

* Note: The Battle of Opequan is also often referred to as “Third Winchester” or the “Battle of Winchester.” Spelling variants of “Opequan” and “Opequon” are used throughout this article and the website for 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers: One Civil War Regiment’s Story because battle reports penned by Union and Confederate commanders frequently presented the creek and battle name as “Opequan” while the spelling employed by the publishers of the various memoirs penned by Union Army leaders following the war was “Opequon.” (The spelling used by present-day Virginians is also “Opequon.”)

During the Battle of Opequan, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was led by Colonel Tilghman H. Good, and was attached to the U.S. Army’s 19th Corps (XIX Corps), which was commanded by Brigadier-General William H. Emory and was part of that corps’ 2nd Brigade, which was led by Brigadier-General James W. McMillan. This brigade also included the 12th Connecticut, 160th New York and 8th Vermont volunteer armies.

Per his Personal Memoirs penned in 1888, former U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant recalled that, as General-in-Chief of the U.S. Army in 1864, he set off for Virginia on 15 September to offer guidance to Major-General Sheridan:

My purpose was to have him attack Early, or drive him out of the valley and destroy that source of supplies for Lee’s army. I knew it was impossible for me to get orders through Washington to Sheridan to make a move, because they would be stopped there and such orders as Halleck’s caution (and that of the Secretary of War) … would be given instead, and would, no doubt, be contradictory to mine. I therefore, without stopping at Washington, went directly through to Charlestown, some ten miles above Harpers Ferry, and waited there to see General Sheridan, having sent a courier in advance to inform him where to meet me.

When Sheridan arrived I asked him if he had a map showing the positions of his army and that of the enemy. He at once drew one out of his side pocket, showing all roads and streams, and the camps of the two armies. He said that if he had permission he would move so and so (pointing out how) against the Confederates, and that he could ‘whip them.’ Before starting I had drawn up a plan of campaign for Sheridan, which I had brought with me; but, seeing that he was so clear and so positive in his views and so confident of success, I said nothing about this and did not take it out of my pocket.

Sheridan’s wagon trains were kept at Harper’s Ferry, where all of his stores were. By keeping the teams at that place, their forage did not have to be hauled to them. As supplies of ammunition, provisions and rations for the men were wanted, trains would be made up to deliver the stores to the commissaries and quartermasters encamped at Winchester. Knowing that he, in making preparations to move at a given day, would have to bring up wagon trains from Harpers’ Ferry, I asked him if he could be ready to get off by the following Tuesday. This was on Friday. ‘O yes,’ he said, he ‘could be off before daylight on Monday.’ I told him then to make the attack at that time and according to his own plan; and I immediately started to return to the army about Richmond. After visiting Baltimore and Burlington, New Jersey, I arrived at City Point on the 19th.

Following his meeting with Grant, Sheridan returned to his headquarters in order to begin moving his troops “toward Newtown,” but halted those preparations upon notification that members of Early’s infantry were marching on Martinsburg:

This considerably altered the states of affairs, and I now decided to change my plan and attack at once the two divisions remaining about Winchester and Stephenson’s depot, and later, the two sent to Martinsburg; the disjointed state of the enemy giving me the opportunity to take him in detail, unless the Martinsburg column should be returned by forced marches.

While General Early was in the telegraph office at Martinsburg on the morning of the 18th, he learned of Grant’s visit to me; and anticipating activity by reason of this circumstance, he promptly proceeded to withdraw so as to get the two divisions within supporting distance of Ramseur’s, which lay across the Berryville pike about two miles east of Winchester, between Abraham’s Creek and Red Bud Run, so by the night of the 18th Wharton’s division, under Breckenridge, was at Stephenson’s depot, Rodes near there, and Gordon’s at Bunker Hill. At daylight of the 19th these positions of the Confederate infantry still obtained, with the cavalry of Lomax, Jackson, and Johnson on the right of Ramseur, while to the left and rear of the enemy’s general line was Fitzhugh Lee, covering from Stephenson’s depot west across the Valley pike to Apple-pie Ridge.

Return to Civilian Life

Jacob Henry Scheetz, M.D., circa 1800s (public domain).

Following his honorable discharge from the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, Jacob H. Scheetz, M.D. returned home to Pennsylvania to resume his medical practice, which was described as an “extensive” one in his obituary. He became renowned regionally for his diagnostic expertise.

He also began an active family life, marrying Sarah Jane Robinson of Mercer County, Kentucky on 1 December 1864. Together, they had five children: Alma Davis Scheetz, Barclay Biddle Scheetz, Claude Melnotte Scheetz, Ella Dunne Scheetz (Mrs. George Hartman), and Guerney Scheetz.

In addition, he became involved in social circles and civic affairs, serving as a Democrat on Pottstown’s city council for three years and also, from 1880-1881, as chief burgess. The 16 November 1882 edition of the New York Times reported that, in 1866, “when Hiester Clymer was defeated as the Democratic candidate for Governor,” Dr. Scheetz “made a vow that he would not chew any more tobacco until the Democrats succeeded in electing their candidate.”

On 18 April 1891, after a long life filled with encounters with the best and worst of of humanity, Jacob Henry Scheetz, M.D. died in Pottstown from the kidney and liver diseases he had endured for more than four years. He was interred in the eastern section of the Pottstown Cemetery.

Sources:

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