One of the least surprising data points from the history of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry is the fact that the majority of 47th Pennsylvania veterans returned to their respective hometowns after receiving their honorable discharge paperwork from the United States Army. Another is that most of that majority opted to stay in Pennsylvania, where they endeavored to rebuild their lives and the lives of those around them after the American Civil War by marrying, having children and working hard at their respective jobs in ways that helped their respective communities grow and prosper.

A significant number of 47th Pennsylvanians chose to relocate from the Great Keystone State, however, hoping for brighter futures elsewhere after the war. As a result, many settled in communities across the northeastern and mid-Atlantic regions of the United States, including cities and towns in New Jersey–one of several states receiving the largest numbers of 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers and their descendants (see abridged list below).

Connecticut

• Courigan, John (Private, Company E): John Courigan died in Connecticut at the age of forty-eight, on 30 March 1889, and was buried at the Saint Mary Cemetery in Stonington, New London County, Connecticut.
• VanSyckle, Ulysses Grant (a son of Private James Van Syckle, Company I): A native of Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania who subsequently resided in Catasauqua, Ulysses Grant Van Syckle was a son of 47th Pennsylvania veteran James Van Syckle. After migrating north to Connecticut circa 1894, Ulysses Van Syckle settled in Bridgeport, Fairfield County, where he was employed as a painter. He continued to live and work there for forty years, and died there in 1934.

Delaware

• Reeder, Daniel K. (Corporal, Company H): After receiving his honorable discharge from the United States Army, which was issued via a surgeon’s certificate of disability on 24 November 1862, following the amputation of part of his arm due to a wound that he had sustained during the Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina on 22 October 1862, Daniel Reeder initially returned home to Perry County, Pennsylvania. Recovered by the winter of 1863, he subsequently relocated to Poughkeepsie, New York, where he attended and graduated from Eastman College. In 1866, he filed for and obtained a U.S. patent on a corn sheller. By the 1880s, his business activities required him to travel frequently to Washington, D.C. By the 1890s, he and his wife and children were residing in Dover, Kent County, Delaware. Following his death at his home in Dover, Delaware in 1925, his remains were transported to Washington, D.C. and interred at that city’s Glenwood Cemetery.

District of Columbia/Washington, D.C.

• Battaglia, Daniel (Private, Company A): Suffering from mental health issues, Daniel Battaglia was confined to the Government Hospital for the Insane (later renamed as St. Elizabeths Hospital) in Washington, D.C. after the war. Following his death there in 1909, he was interred at the Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.
• Benkhardt, Julius Fredrich (Musician, Company I:) A native of the Kingdom of Württemberg (now part of Baden-Württemberg, Germany), Julius Benkhardt returned to Pennsylvania following the American Civil War. Shortly thereafter, he relocated north to the State of New York, where he found work as a musician. In 1868, he wed Mary Ann Lavin in Manhattan, Kings County. Two years later, they were documented by the federal census as residents of New York City’s First Ward. After re-enrolling for federal military service in March 1870, he served as a musician with the regimental band of the United States Army’s 4th Infantry and was honorably discharged at Fort Bridger in Wyoming on 26 March 1875, upon expiration of his five-year term of enlistment. Military records also noted that he served as a musician with the United States 3rd Cavalry’s Post Band at some point during his service to the nation. In July 1874, he and his wife welcomed the birth of daughter Amelia Mary Benkhardt at Fort Bridger. Daughter Alvenia C. Benkhardt was then born two years later in Nebraska. Still residing in Omaha, Nebraska as of early April 1888, Julius Benkhardt died on 30 April of that year, and was later laid to rest with full military honors at the U.S. Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
• Coulter, William Henry (Private, Company D): By the turn of the century, William Coulter was residing with his wife and children in Washington, D.C., where he was employed as a day laborer. Still residing in Washington, D.C. by 1910, he was documented on that year’s federal census as a “helper” at the Navy Yard. Sometime later, he relocated to Brentwood in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Following his death there in 1923, he was interred at the Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. His son, Clarence C. Coulter, ultimately settled in Lafayette, Indiana, after becoming a “well-known figure in the American Federation of Labor and the labor movement in general” (according to Clarence Coulter’s 1948 obituary in the Union Labor Record).
• Oyster, Daniel (Captain, Company C): After surviving wounds to both of his shoulders during two separate battles of the American Civil War, Captain Daniel Oyster returned home to the city of Sunbury in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, where he resided with his mother and was employed as a policeman, until he was forced by a lingering, war wound-related disability to change careers. Subsequently hired by a railroad company to serve as a mail agent on its route between Harrisburg and Lock Haven in 1872, he was able to continue in that line of work through at least the 1880s, but was again forced by his disability to alter his career as the twentieth century dawned. Documented by that year’s federal census as a bookkeeper and “tailor’s helper,” he continued to reside in Sunbury, until his age and worsening disability prompted him to relocate to the U.S. National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Hampton, Virginia in 1920. His residence subsequent to discharge that year was listed as the Washington, D.C. home of his brother Edward Oyster, who was employed as a clerk with the United States Treasury Department. Following a long life, Captain Daniel Oyster died at the U.S. National Soldiers’ Home in Hampton, Virginia on 5 August 1922–exactly sixty-one years, to the day, of the founding of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. He was subsequently laid to rest with full military honors at the Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.
• Reeder, Daniel K. (Corporal, Company H): After receiving his honorable discharge from the United States Army, which was issued via a surgeon’s certificate of disability on 24 November 1862, following the amputation of part of his arm due to a wound that he had sustained during the Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina on 22 October 1862, Daniel Reeder initially returned home to Perry County, Pennsylvania. Recovered by the winter of 1863, he subsequently relocated to Poughkeepsie, New York, where he attended and graduated from Eastman College. In 1866, he filed for and obtained a U.S. patent on a corn sheller. By the 1880s, his business activities required him to travel frequently to Washington, D.C. By the 1890s, he and his wife and children were residing in Dover, Kent County, Delaware. Following his death at his home in Dover, Delaware in 1925, his remains were transported to Washington, D.C. and interred at that city’s Glenwood Cemetery.
• Work, Andrew (Private, Company D): After falling ill sometime in late December 1861 or early to mid-January 1862, possibly from dysentery, Private Andrew Work was confined to the Union Army’s Union Hotel General Hospital in Georgetown in the District of Columbia, where he died from disease-related complications on 22 February 1862. He was then interred with military honors at the U.S. Military Asylum Cemetery (now the U.S. Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery).

Maine

• Strauss, Paul (Private, Company K): After relocating from Pennsylvania to Kennebec County, Maine during the 1870s, Paul Strauss found work as a carpenter. On 9 May 1882, he wed Lizzie Norton in Waterville, Kennebec County. He then became a farmer and father. By 1900, he and his family were residing in Albion, Kennebec County. Following his death at the U.S. National Soldiers’ Home in Togus, Maine in 1926, he was laid to rest at the Albion Cemetery No. 4 in Albion, Kennebec County.

Maryland

• Baltozer, Jacob (Corporal, Company D): Following his honorable discharge from the Union Army, Jacob Baltozer returned home to Pennsylvania. Sometime around 1870, he settled in Carroll County, Maryland.
• Biger, Alexander (Private, Company H): Alexander Biger (alternate surname spelling: Bigger) relocated to Maryland sometime before 1 December 1890, when he filed for his U.S. Civil War Pension from Maryland. Following his death in Maryland in March 1901, he was interred at the Loudon Park National Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland. His widow, Mary Biger (alternate surname spelling: Bigger), subsequently filed for a U.S. Civil War Widow’s Pension from Maryland on 10 April 1901.
• Coulter, William Henry (Private, Company D): By the turn of the century, he was residing with his wife and children in Washington, D.C., where he was employed as a day laborer. Still residing in Washington, D.C. by 1910, he was documented on that year’s federal census as a “helper” at the Navy Yard. Sometime later, he relocated to Brentwood in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Following his death there in 1923, he was interred at the Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. His son, Clarence C. Coulter, ultimately settled in Lafayette, Indiana, after becoming a “well-known figure in the American Federation of Labor and the labor movement in general” (according to Clarence Coulter’s 1948 obituary in the Union Labor Record).
• Diefenderfer, David Kemmerer (First Sergeant, Company G): Appointed by the president of the United States to serve as the postmaster of the city of Allentown in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, David K. Diefenderfer served in that capacity from 1 April 1869 to 8 January 1877. By 1880, he was a farmer residing with his wife and children in Caroline County, Maryland. In 1890, he resided in Crumpton, Queen Anne’s County, Maryland. By June 1900, he and his wife were residents of Ridgely, Caroline County. He subsequently died there (in 1909).
• Rider, Sr., James Turner (Private, Company H): A freight conductor for a railroad company after the American Civil War, James T. Rider had relocated with his wife and children to Baltimore County, Maryland by 1880. Still employed as a railroad conductor after the turn of the century, he resided with his large family in the city of Baltimore’s third precinct. Retired by 1920, he and his wife were residents of Harford County, Maryland.
• Sloan, David Livingston (Private, Company C): Following his honorable discharge from the U.S. Army, David L. Sloan returned home to Pennsylvania, where he resumed work as a stone cutter and became active with the Veteran Firemen’s Association of Pennsylvana. In 1867, he relocated with his wife and son to Elkton, Maryland, where he founded the Elkton Marble Works, which later became known as “D. L. Sloan & Son.” An active member of the Volunteer Firemen’s Association, David Sloan was a co-founder of Elkton’s Singerly Steam Fire Engine and Hook and Ladder Company.
• Snyder, Lillian Estelle (granddaughter of Corporal Timothy Matthias Snyder of Company C): A graduate of the Reading Hospital School of Nursing in Berks County, Pennsylvania, Lillian Snyder became a head nurse at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts during World War II. During the 1950s, she was appointed to the faculty of the Allentown Hospital School of Nursing in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Subsequently a resident of Baltimore, Maryland, where she lived with her older sister, H. Corrine Snyder, she was employed by Merck Sharpe & Dohme. She then relocated with Corrine to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where they both resided with their widowed sister, Catharine (Snyder) Courtney.

Massachusetts

• Richards, Jenkin J. (Private, Company E): An 1844 emigrant from Wales in the United Kingdom who had settled in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War, Jenkin Richards migrated to Massachusetts after the war and became an ironworker. A resident of Worcester County, he died in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1911.
• Robinson, Melville W. (a son of Private Private H. B. Robinson of Company C): Following in the footsteps of his Civil War-veteran father, H. B. Robinson, Pennsylvania native Melville W. Robinson pursued his own civil engineering career after graduating with his Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York in 1915. During his forty-year-plus career, he worked on a diverse range of construction projects, including the construction of retaining walls along Pennsylvania’s Allegheny River in 1908, the production and inspection of flying boats for the U.S. military during World War I, and the planning and construction of oil and gas pipelines nationwide. According to his 1968 obituary, “During summer vacations while in college he worked on several pipelines for Standard Oil” in Pennsylvania, and “acquired experience in gas line construction, too, with Brocton Gas Light Company, after graduating from Cornell, serving as an engineer on construction of welded gas pipe lines in Massachusetts.” In addition, after World War I, “he worked for International Railways in Buffalo,” New York, before he was hired by the Cumberland Pipe Line Company in Winchester, Kentucky in 1920. Residing in Kentucky with his family for eleven years, he subsequently relocated with them to his place of birth (Oil City in Venango County, Pennsylvania), where he continued to reside for the remainder of his life.
• Snyder, Lillian Estelle (granddaughter of Corporal Timothy Matthias Snyder of Company C): A graduate of the Reading Hospital School of Nursing in Berks County, Pennsylvania, Lillian Snyder became a head nurse at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts during World War II. During the 1950s, she was appointed to the faculty of the Allentown Hospital School of Nursing. Subsequently a resident of Baltimore, Maryland, where she lived with her older sister, H. Corrine Snyder, she was employed by Merck Sharpe & Dohme. She then relocated with Corrine to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where they both resided with their widowed sister, Catharine (Snyder) Courtney.

New Jersey

• Brotzman, William Q. (Musician, Regimental Band): A native of Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, who was employed as a photographer after the war, William Brotzman married in August 1866 and then relocated with his wife to the Borough of Washington in Warren County, New Jersey, circa 1869. Subsequently employed as a trader by J. W. Birdseye, a “wholesale dealer in teas, spices, etc.,” according to his obituary, he traveled frequently between New Jersey, Easton and New York City before passing away in Washington, New Jersey in 1872.
• Burtis, Mary Genevieve Robinson and Wilbur, Clara Robinson (sisters of Private H. B. Robinson of Company C): Following their respective marriages to farmer Charles H. Burtis and Emley G. Wilbur, Mary Genevieve (Robinson) Burtis and Clara (Robinson) Wilbur, sisters of 47th Pennsylvania veteran H. B. Robinson, went on to live long, full lives after raising children in Cream Ridge, Monmouth County, New Jersey. Clara Wilbur’s son, John Robinson Wilbur, grew up to be an employee of the Arkansas Fuel Oil Company, and was assigned to work on projects in Shreveport, Louisiana.
• Diaz, John (Private, Company I): A native of Spain’s Canary Islands who had emigrated to the United States sometime between 1862 and late 1864, John Diaz initially settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he became a cigarmaker and successful small business owner. His Pennsylvania-born sons subsequently helped him run the family’s business. After relocating to New Jersey with his wife and several of their children between 1906 and 1910, he made a new home with them there in Berlin, Camden County. By 1915, he and his wife were residing in Ashland, Camden County. Tragically, their son, Private Philip Diaz, was killed in action during World War I, while serving with the U.S. Army’s 312th Regiment in France.
• Force, William A. (Private, Company E): A native of Brooklyn, New York who was employed as a painter after the American Civil War, William A. Force was residing with his wife and children in Greenwich Township, Warren County, New Jersey by 1880. He died there in 1888.
• Gross John (Private, Company I): A resident of Warren County, New Jersey at the time of his enrollment with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers in Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania on 13 February 1864, John Gross was wounded in action during the Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia on 19 October 1864. Honorably discharged with his regiment in Charleston, South Carolina on 25 December 1865, he returned to New Jersey after the war. Following his death in 1900, he was buried at the Mansfield Woodhouse Presbyterian Church Cemetery in the Borough of Washington in Warren County.
• Hagerman, William P. (Private, Company E): A native of Phillipsburg, Warren County, New Jersey, William Hagerman returned home to New Jersey after the American Civil War. A cooper and barrel maker, he died in Hope, Warren County in 1897.
• Haggerty, Peter Jacob (Private, Company E): Captured by Confederate troops during the Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia on 19 October 1864, Peter Haggerty was transported south to North Carolina, where he was held captive as a prisoner of war (POW) at the Confederacy’s notorious Salisbury Prison, until he was released during a prisoner exchange between the Union and Confederate armies on 1 March 1865. Employed as a boatman before and after the war, he died in 1899 in Hoboken, Hudson County, New Jersey.
• Hahn, George Washington (Sergeant, Company E): Wounded in the leg during the Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina on 22 October 1862 and then discharged on a surgeon’s certificate of disability on 25 February 1863, George W. Hahn re-enlisted with the same regiment and company on 2 December 1863. Cited for gallantry during the Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia on 19 October 1864, he was also promoted. By 1870, he was residing with his wife, Margaret, in the Borough of Washington in Warren County, New Jersey, where he was employed as a house and sign painter. On 9 June 1896, he broke his back when he “fell from the top of Cornish’s mammouth [sic, mammoth] piano and organ factory” at noon in the Borough of Washington. He died later that same year.
• Hall, William (Sergeant, Company A): A native of Pennsylvania, William Hall settled in Warren County, New Jersey after the war. He died there on 13 November 1914.
• Hiller, Frederick (a brother of Private Albert Hiller of Company I): A working tailor at the turn of the century, Frederick Hiller, a brother of 47th Pennsylvania veteran Albert Hiller, resided with his wife, Leona (James) Hiller, and their seventeen-year-old son at the Summerville, Georgia home of Leona’s parents, Charles and Pauline James. Still involved in the tailoring business as of 1910, Fred Hiller was residing that year with his ife and son in Neptune Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey.
• Jumper, Amos (Sergeant, Company A): After injuring his knee while serving with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers during the American Civil War and receiving his honorable discharge from the military, Amos Jumper secured a job with a railroad company and settled with his wife and children in Belvidere, Warren County, New Jersey. Shocked by the death of his son in November 1909, he did his best to continue caring for his wife, who had been paralyzed for a lengthy period of time. The grief and stress became too great for him, however, and he subsequently chose to die by suicide in 1910. Following a coroner’s inquest, he was interred at the Belvidere Cemetery in Belvidere, Warren County.
• Koenig, Richard (Private, Company A): A native of the Kingdom of Prussia, Richard Koenig resided with his wife, Catharine, and their son, Richard, in Washington Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania prior to the American Civil War. In 1860, he was documented by the federal census as a farmer. By 1867, he had relocated with his family to Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey, where he operated a saloon. He died in Trenton in 1870.
• Meyers, Uriah (Private, Company F): Employed as a laborer for a railroad company after receiving his honorable discharge from the Union Army, Uriah Meyers was residing with his wife and children in Phillipsburg, Warren County, New Jersey by 1870. Still residing in Phillipsburg with his large family as of 1880, he was employed as a railroad conductor by that time.
• Mildenberger, Francis J. (“Frank”) (Sergeant, Company A): A native of Germany who had enlisted with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers in Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania in 1862, Frank Mildenberger was residing with his wife and children in Phillipsburg, Warren County, New Jersey by 1870. He was employed as a laborer for a railroad company.
• Moser, Eli (Private, Company E): In 1870, Eli Moser was residing with his wife in Greenwich Township, Warren County, New Jersey. By 1880, he had relocated with her back to Pennsylvania, and was residing with her in the lower section of Williams Township in Northampton County. Also living with them was their nine-year-old daughter, Emma. By 1900, the trio resided in Phillipsburg, Warren County, New Jersey. Their household also included Emma’s two children (Eli’s grandchildren), John and Edwin Bowers.
• Nicholas, George Reuben (Second Lieutenant, Company E): Employed as an engineer with the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad after the war, George Nicholas worked for that company for thirty-five years. He resided with his wife and daughter in Phillipsburg, Warren County, New Jersey, where he died from pneumonia in 1908.
• Osterstock, Peter (Private, Company H): A farmer in Forks Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania after returning from the war, Peter Osterstock wed Ellen Amanda Hartzell at the Lutheran Church in Easton, Northampton County on 2 December 1865. By 1870, he was residing with his wife and children in Phillipsburg, Warren County, New Jersey, where he was employed as a brick moulder.
• Paxton, John J. (Private, Company A): A laborer who enlisted with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers in Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania on 10 February 1865 as “Paxson, John J.,” John J. Paxton died in 1880, and was buried at the Phillipsburg Cemetery in Phillipsburg, Warren County, New Jersey.
• Rader, Aaron (Private, Company F): By the mid-1880s, Aaron Rader was a laborer who had settled with his wife and children in Hope Township, Warren County, New Jersey. He died in Oxford, Warren County in 1919.
• Rockafellow, George (Private, Company E): A native of Northampton County, Pennsylvania, George Rockafellow was living with his wife in Phillipsburg, Warren County, New Jersey by 1895. Following his death in 1909, he was buried at the Belvidere Cemetery in Belvidere, Warren County.
• Rodrigue, Hugh Bellas (Private, Company C): A railroad company employee in Sunbury, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania prior to the American Civil War, Hugh B. Rodrigue settled in Pittsburgh, Allegeheny County, Pennsylvania after the war and then relocated to Woodbridge, New Jersey. Following his death in Atlantic City, New Jersey on Christmas Eve in 1913, he was laid to rest at the Hazel Wood Cemetery in Colonia, Middlesex County, New Jersey.
• Rodrock, Reverend William Dewitt Clinton (Regimental Chaplain): After ministering to congregations of the Reformed Church’s East Pennsylvania classis from the mid-1860s to 1881, Rev. Rodrock resettled in Blairstown, Warren County, New Jersey. He then began missionary work for the Philadelphia Sabbath Association. By 1883, he was residing in Paterson, Passaic County, New Jersey, and was employed as a representative of the American Bible Society. He continued to reside in Paterson for the remainder of his life.
• Rogers, Thomas S. (Private Company B): Born in Pennsylvania in 1832, Thomas S. Rigers settled in Hammonton, Atlantic County, New Jersey circa 1867. A member of the board of directors of the Fruit Growers’ Union, he was also an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic’s D. A. Russell Post. Described in his obituary as an “earnest Christian, a great-hearted friend, a good neighbor [who] was beloved by all,” he fell ill during the final years of his life, and died in Hammonton on 30 December 1894.
• Schmidt, Matthias (Private, Company F): A native of the Kingdom of Prussia, Matthias Schmidt emigrated to the United States during the mid-nineteenth century. Following his death in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey in 1874, he was laid to rest at the Woodland Cemetery in Newark.
• Schofield, John J. (Private, Company H): A native of Sussex County, New Jersey, John J. Schofield was employed as a boatman prior to the American Civil War. Post-war, he was employed by a railroad company and resided in Phillipsburg, Warren County, New Jersey.
• Searfoss, Barnet (Company E): After relocating with his wife, Addie, to New Jersey sometime after the American Civil War, Barnet Searfoss settled with her and their children in the Borough of Washington in Warren County, New Jersey, where he was employed as a painter.
• Stem, Jefferson (Private, Company A): A native of Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Jefferson Stem relocated to New Jersey sometime after his honorable discharge from the Union Army. By 1890, he was residing in Belvidere, Warren County, New Jersey.
• Thoman, Andrew (Private, Company A): A native of Switzerland who emigrated to the United States circa 1854, Andrew Thoman lived in Warren County, New Jersey prior to the American Civil War. By 1900, he was residing in Phillipsburg, Warren County, New Jersey.
• Van Billiard, Oliver (Private, Company B): A native of Butztown, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Oliver Van Billiard worked as a brickyard laborer prior to the American Civil War. Employed as a teacher from 1872 to 1887, he subsequently became a justice of the peace in Hunterdon County, Pennsylvania. In 1895, he relocated with his family to Phillipsburg, Warren County, New Jersey, where he was also elected as a justice of the peace–a position he held for roughly a quarter of a century.
• Wasserman, Judy Snyder (great-granddaughter of Corporal Timothy Matthias Snyder of Company C): A native of Houston, Texas, she became an advocate for improved public education opportunities in New Jersey and Louisiana.

New York

• Benkhardt, Julius Fredrich (Musician, Company I:) A native of the Kingdom of Württemberg (now part of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, Julius Benkhardt returned to Pennsylvania, following the American Civil War. Shortly thereafter, he relocated north to the State of New York, where he found work as a musician. In 1868, he wed Mary Ann Lavin in Manhattan, Kings County. Two years later, they were documented by the federal census as residents of New York City’s First Ward. After re-enrolling for federal military service in March 1870, he served as a musician with the regimental band of the United States Army’s 4th Infantry and was honorably discharged at Fort Bridger in Wyoming on 26 March 1875, upon expiration of his five-year term of enlistment. Military records also noted that he served as a musician with the United States 3rd Cavalry’s Post Band at some point during his service to the nation. In July 1874, he and his wife welcomed the birth of daughter Amelia Mary Benkhardt at Fort Bridger. Daughter Alvenia C. Benkhardt was born two years later in Nebraska. Still residing in Omaha, Nebraska as of early April 1888, he died on 30 April of that year, and was later laid to rest with full military honors at the U.S. Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
• Dachrodt, Elizabeth Julia and Snyder, Emily Dachrodt (daughters of Drum Major Daniel Dachrodt, Regimental Band): Sisters Elizabeth Julia Dachrodt and Emily (Dachrody) Snyder both relocated to the State of New York. Following her death in New York County on 5 January 1948, Eluzabeth J. Dachrodt was buried at the Easton Cemetery in Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania. Emily (Dachrodt) Snyder, who had wed Ray Snyder in December 1899, relocated with him to New York City, New York, sometime after the turn of the century. By 1940, she and her husband were living on 85th Street in the Borough of Manhattan.
• Guptill, William H. (Private, Company G): A native of Scotland who had settled in the State of New York after emigrating to the United States, William Guptill resided in New York City at the time of his enrollment in Norristown, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania on 30 January 1865 as a private with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry’s G Company. Honorably discharged on a surgeon’s certificate of disability on 15 May 1865, he returned to the northeastern United States. By 1880, he was residing with his wife and daughter in Binghamton County, New York, where he was employed by a railroad company. On 6 June 1900, he and his wife were residing in Union Village in Union Township, Broome County, according to that year’s federal census. He died two days later, on 8 June 1900, and was buried at the Riverside Cemetery in Endicott, Broome County, New York.
• Helwick, William (Private, Company E): A native of Pennsylvania, William Helwick settled in Brooklyn, New York after the American Civil War. A member of the Typographical Union, he was also active with the Grand Army of the Republic’s Devin-Gushing Post (No. 148). Following his death at his home in Brooklyn in 1935, he was buried at the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Maspeth, Queens County, New York.
• Herb, Charles K. (Private, Company C): Sometime after his honorable discharge from the Union Army, Charles Herb settled in Rochester, New York, where he supported his family as a farmer. Ailing with heart disease that was directly related to his former military service during the American Civil War, he was admitted to the U.S. National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Bath, Steuben County, New York on 18 February 1918. Following his death there in 1920, he was interred at the Bath National Cemetery in Bath, Steuben County.
• Moser, Philip Lewis (Private, Company E): Employed as a laborer and residing with his parents in Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Philip Moser subsequently married in 1887. By 1900, he was employed with a telegraph company and was residing with his wife in the Borough of Richmond in New York City in the State of New York. Ailing with myocarditis, he died in New York City in 1912, and was buried at the Staten Island Cemetery in West New Brighton, Richmond County, New York.
• Reeder, Daniel K. (Corporal, Company H): After receiving his honorable discharge from the United States Army, which was issued via a surgeon’s certificate of disability on 24 November 1862, following the amputation of part of his arm due to a wound that he had sustained during the Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina on 22 October 1862, Daniel Reeder initially returned home to Perry County, Pennsylvania. Recovered by the winter of 1863, he subsequently relocated to Poughkeepsie, New York, where he attended and graduated from Eastman College. In 1866, he filed for and obtained a U.S. patent on a corn sheller. By the 1880s, his business activities required him to travel frequently to Washington, D.C. By the 1890s, he and his wife and children were residing in Dover, Kent County, Delaware. Following his death at his home in Dover, Delaware in 1925, his remains were transported to Washington, D.C. and interred at that city’s Glenwood Cemetery.
• Robinson, H. B. (Private, Company C): Following his honorable discharge from the military, H. B. Robinson returned home to Juniata County, Pennsylvania. Still a teenager, he resided with his parents on the Robinson family farm near Port Royal. By 1870, he was employed as a teacher with one of the county’s public schools. The next year (1871), he enrolled in the civil engineering program at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.  Following his graduation with a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering, he was hired as an assistant engineer by the Cincinnati and Eastern Railroad–a position he held from 1876-1877. He was then hired as the city engineer for Oil City in Venango County, Pennsylvania, and held that position from 1878 to 1881. Hired for his civil engineering expertise by various companies in Ohio and Pennsylvania throughout the remainder of his career, he ultimately chose to  settle with his wife and children in Oil City. His siblings, children and other descendants subsequently settled in Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, and Texas.
• Robinson, Melville W. (a son of Private Private H. B. Robinson of Company C): Following in the footsteps of his Civil War-veteran father, H. B. Robinson, Pennsylvania native Melville W. Robinson pursued his own civil engineering career after graduating with his Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York in 1915. During his forty-year-plus career, he worked on a diverse range of construction projects, including the construction of retaining walls along Pennsylvania’s Allegheny River in 1908, the production and inspection of flying boats for the U.S. military during World War I, and the planning and construction of oil and gas pipelines nationwide. According to his 1968 obituary, “During summer vacations while in college he worked on several pipelines for Standard Oil” in Pennsylvania, and “acquired experience in gas line construction, too, with Brocton Gas Light Company, after graduating from Cornell, serving as an engineer on construction of welded gas pipe lines in Massachusetts.” In addition, after World War I, “he worked for International Railways in Buffalo,” New York, before he was hired by the Cumberland Pipe Line Company in Winchester, Kentucky in 1920. Residing in Kentucky with his family for eleven years, he subsequently relocated with them to his place of birth (Oil City in Venango County, Pennsylvania), where he continued to reside for the remainder of his life.
• Snyder, Mathias (Private, Company F): Mathias Snyder settled in Albany, New York during the 1880s. He was successfully employed as a piano maker there, while his son worked as a piano tuner.
• Woodruff, Charles and Woodruff, Simeon (brothers of Captain Henry Durant Woodruff of Company D): Charles Woodruff, an older brother of 47th Pennsylvanian Henry D. Woodruff, settled in Windsor, Broome County, New York. Following his death there on 17 May 1894, he was buried at the Windsor Cemetery in Windsor, Broome County. Simeon Woodruff, another older brother of Henry Woodruff’s, was buried at the same cemetery (Windsor)–nearly thirty years before Charles Woodruff. He had died on 25 January 1865.

Rhode Island

• Johanos, Corinne Snyder (great-granddaughter of Corporal Timothy Matthias Snyder of Company C): A classically-trained pianist, Corinne (Snyder) Johanos resided in Rhode Island and later lived, and became active as, an arts and education advocate in Virginia, California, Kansas, Hawaii, and Florida.

Vermont:

• Snyder, Lieutenant-Colonel John Albert Snyder (great-grandson of Corporal Timothy Matthias Snyder, Company C): Rising through the ranks to become a major in the United States Air Force, Jack Snyder served in Förch, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, at the age of twenty-two; in Greenville, Mississippi, United States in 1956; in Burlington, Vermont in 1958; at the Yokota Air Force Base in Tokyo, Japan in 1963; in Southeast Asia (Korea and Vietnam) during the 1960s); in Germany during the early 1970s; and then in Texas during the 1980s and 1990s. He retired at the rank of lieutenant-colonel and made his home in Killeen and Harker Heights, Texas.
• Snyder, First Lieutenant and Navigator, F-4, John David Snyder (great-great-grandson of Corporal Timothy Matthias Snyder, Company C): Born in Greenville, Mississippi in the United States, J. D. Snyder was a son of United States Air Force pilot John Albert “Jack” Snyder. He grew up traveling with his family as his father was stationed at U.S. military bases in the United States (Burlington, Vermont and Killeen, Texas), as well as overseas (Tokyo, Japan; and Germany). A graduate with honors of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1978, J. D. Snyder was commissioned as a first lieutenant with the United States Air Force and assigned as an F-4 pilot and navigator at the Clark Air Force Base near Manila in the Republic of the Philippines, where he was killed during a fire that broke out in his apartment on 26 December 1981, while he was still in service to the nation.

 

Sources:

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