Second-tier casemates, lighthouse keeper’s house, sallyport, and lean-to structure, Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas, Florida, late 1860s (U.S. National Park Service and National Archives, public domain).

As March 1863 arrived and progressed, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers who were stationed at Fort Jefferson in Florida’s Dry Tortugas became more and more comfortable with their latest garrison assignment. Members of the regiment continued to drill regularly, undergo inspections, march in dress parades, and receive additional training in the use of the fort’s defensive artillery, much as they had done during their first months at the fort.

Their duties were made more palatable by good food and recreational activities. During the early days of that month, Company C’s Henry Wharton penned another letter to his hometown newspaper, the Sunbury American, in which he noted that the regiment’s normal rations that were supplied by the federal government were supplemented by “‘pot-pie’ three times a week; apple dumplings, with good milk, semi-occasionally, and for something to remind us of days past and gone, Sgt. Peirs [sic, Pyers,] serves us with apple pie and doughnuts made in a style that would do credit to more than one I know of, who is in the baking business.”

For fun and exercise, many members of the regiment spent time strolling the wooded areas and beaches around both Fort Jefferson and Fort Taylor (Key West), exploring and studying the exotic wonders of nature around them while collecting seashells and other treasures. In a letter penned to family and friends on March 1, Private Alfred Pretz of Company I recounted one such expedition, noting that he and Sergeant-Major William Hendricks had woken up “at an early hour and started off for the south beach [in Key West] before sunrise, or just about sunrise.”

We were going to hunt seashells. It was a splendid morning, clear, still, and warm enough to be pleasant. We soon reached the seashore and commenced picking up samples of the numerous varieties that abound in profusion. We found many small reptiles which we examined so that we did not get to the principal shell grounds before it was time to return in order to be with the mess at breakfast hour. On our way back, we passed through the woods, with which the key is covered. These are little more than bushes, being small trees averaging eight feet in height, growing closely together with thick undergrowth of a beautiful shrub, and then on the ground a low, broad leaved plant. I plucked specimens of their foliage for enclosure with this letter. The smooth, stout, narrow leaf is from the tree. The tiny leaf, with thorns on the branch, is the undergrowth, the third variety is the plant I speak of. The single flower and bud is of a deep orange color and grows on trees the size of the largest trees in the Key West woods. These flower trees (I know no other name for them) are planted around the houses of town. The other flower is of a crimson color and grows in chunks like the cactus…. We never have twilight here. As soon as the sun sets darkness sets in. At present however we have bright moonlight evenings. The weather is charming.

That same evening, Private Pretz played backgammon to occupy his remaining hours before lights out.

Lieutenant-Colonel George Warren Alexander, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, circa 1861 (public domain).

Around this same time, an alert was sounded one day at Fort Jefferson, causing members of the 47th Pennsylvania to scramble to positions across the fort in order to bolster the Union troops already standing guard. That action was ordered by the fort’s commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel George Warren Alexander, who had spotted a large number of unidentified ships on the horizon. According to Emily Holder, who had been living in a small house within the fort’s walls since 1860 with her husband, who had been assigned to serve as a medical officer for the fort’s engineers:

One day, early in the spring, Colonel Alexander, who was very watchful and always on the alert, was quite alarmed by seeing some twenty vessels hovering just in sight. Extra guard was mounted, the big guns were loaded and the men slept by them all night; but the vessels passed by without coming nearer.

On another day, she noted that “The Inspector-General, after returning to Beaufort, made rather an overturning in Key West which was under the command of Colonel Morgan of the Ninetieth New York, who had been rather playing the tyrant.”

He had perverted a very good order of General Hunter into one that ordered every person who had friends in the rebel service to leave Key West allowing them only fifty pounds of baggage apiece. They protested, plead with him, even threatened, for it would almost depopulate the town, but in vain.

Justice, however, was nearer than he suspected, for just as the vessel was to start with these people who were being set adrift, a steamer came in bringing Colonel Goode [sic, Good] of the Forty-Seventh Pennsylvania to relieve Colonel Morgan.

The people were almost crazy in their excitement. They took the soldiers’ knapsacks as they marched up the street and would have carried the men on their shoulders in their joy over Morgan’s defeat.

Colonel Goode [sic, Good] came to Tortugas a few days afterwards, and while there said he might send the remainder of the Regiment down to us—something very reassuring for the summer as they were acclimated and would be more likely to withstand any epidemic that might occur.

Meanwhile, disease continued to ravage the ranks of the regiment in March—particularly at Fort Jefferson, where a total of five hundred and sixty-eight Union Army soldiers were stationed. According to H Company Corporal John A. Gardner:

One thing appears a little strange with us here, and that is, there are some five or six in each company that get night blind and some of them can’t see very well through the day. We have a Sgt. by the name of Michael C. Lynch, that can’t see but very little at any time, and a couple more that can’t see at night. I do not know the cause of it, unless it is the white sand. It is very bright and it might be possible that the sand is the cause of it. Our Doctor himself don’t know the cause of it. Otherwise, we get along fat, ragged, and saucy.

* Note: Sergeant Michael Lynch, who had officially mustered in with the 47th Pennsylvania’s H Company on September 19, 1862, at the same rank that he held at Fort Jefferson in 1863, was confined to the post hospital at Fort Jefferson on March 22, 1863, due to nyctalopia (night blindness), which progressed to a stage that rendered him unfit for continued service with the regiment. His condition was described the next month in a letter penned in April by Captain James Kacy:

Sgt. Lynch, poor fellow, is worn out and nearly blind, and is to be sent home. Many of our men are so affected, and it takes a strong eye to stand the glare of the sun on this white sand.

Corporal Lynch was subsequently discharged on a surgeon’s certificate of disability on June 30 of that same year. Meanwhile, E Company Corporal Peter Lyner was also confined to the hospital that same day. Suffering from chronic diarrhea, he would be hospitalized three more times before the year was out.

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

By mid-to-late March 1863, it was clear that an epidemic of dysentery and chronic diarrhea had broken out at Fort Jefferson. Among those trying to bring comfort to the sick were Assistant Regimental Surgeon Jacob H. Scheetz, M.D., who continued to hold the position of post surgeon, and A Company Private Charles Detweiler, who had been assigned to nursing duties at Fort Jefferson’s hospital. Also readmitted for treatment during this time (on March 18) was G Company Private Joseph Hallmeier, who had developed complications related to the back wound he had sustained during the Battle of Pocotaligo on October 22, 1862. In addition, E Company Private Leonard Frankenfield had become so ill from the chronic diarrhea he had been suffering after contracting dysentery, that he, too, needed to be hospitalized—an admission that occurred on March 23.

On March 25, the schooner Nonpareil arrived at Fort Jefferson, bringing with it Colonel Good and his senior staff, Regimental Surgeon Elisha W. Baily, M.D., the regiment’s medical director, Regimental Quartermaster Francis Z. Heebner, and the 47th Pennsylvania’s Regimental Band for a short series of meetings and special events. They dined on bean soup, mush, pea soup, rice, vegetable soup, pies, coffee, and tea, and then returned to Fort Taylor four days later.

U.S. Army’s Department of the Gulf, 1864 map (U.S. Library of Congress, public domain; click to enlarge).

As the month of April wore on, more Union ships arrived, carrying supplies and more than one hundred men who were added to Fort Jefferson’s roster of prisoners. During this same period, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was transferred from the command of Brigadier-General John Brannan in the U.S. Army’s Department of the South to the command of Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks in the Department of the Gulf—a change that would ultimately place the regiment in a position of making history in 1864 during the Union’s Red River Campaign across Louisiana.

On Sunday, April 12, 1863, the men from Company H carried out Order No. 31, which directed them to appear for inspection “with haversack and canteens” on a day when the temperature was high. The only members of the company who were excused were those who were hospitalized or assigned to hospital or guard duties.

Six days later, Corporal Albert prepared H Company’s kitchen for inspection, most likely with help from Thomas Haywood, a formerly enslaved Black man who had enlisted with the regiment in November 1862 while it was stationed in Beaufort, South Carolina. Haywood had been assigned to Company H, since that time, as an “Under-Cook.”

Ailing with conjunctivitis, E Company Corporal Peter Lyner was hospitalized at Fort Jefferson on April 21, 1863—during a month that saw forty members of the 47th Pennsylvania and twenty-one prisoners admitted to the post’s hospital. Fourteen of those 47th Pennsylvanians were diagnosed with dysentery and/or chronic diarrhea, with single cases of typhoid fever, asthma, bronchitis, catarrh, conjunctivitis, phlegmon, and phthisis also documented.

On April 23, H Company Captain James Kacy issued Order No. 32:

The members of Company H shall each have his rifle taken apart immediately after breakfast tomorrow morning. The sock and barrel from the stock, the sock not to be taken apart, and the Captain will inspect at 8:30 AM on Saturday [April 25].

Unidentified Union Army artillerymen standing next to one of the fifteen-inch Rodman guns, which were installed on the third level of Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas, Florida, beginning in 1862. These smoothbore Rodman weighed twenty-five tons, and was able to fire four hundred and fifty-pound shells more than three miles (U.S. National Park Service, public domain).

Around this same time, records show that the combined total strength of the 47th Pennsylvania (with its forces divided between Forts Taylor and Jefferson) was nine hundred and sixty-eight men—and that none of those men who were classified as enlisted had been paid for their service to the nation for a shocking eight months. The month of April ended with another inspection—and with the members of Companies F and K resuming their practice with the light and heavy artillery equipment at Fort Jefferson.

As the month of May arrived, inspections continued to be a regular part of the 47th Pennsylvanians’ Sunday schedules—even as temperatures in the shady spots of Fort Jefferson were reaching ninety-nine degrees by mid-afternoon. For sustenance, the men were fed either pork or beef for breakfast and supper, depending on the day’s menu, followed by bean soup for their evening meal (dinner) with meals often supplemented by eggs that had been collected by members of the regiment from birds’ nests scattered around the island. The total number of Union troops stationed here during this time was six hundred and sixty-six.

But, once again, disease reared its ugly head with forty-eight members of the 47th Pennsylvania and thirty-seven prisoners confined to the Fort Jefferson hospital—twenty-four of whom had dysentery and/or chronic diarrhea, seven who had bilious or intermittent fever, four who were diagnosed with general debility, three who were diagnosed with abscesses, two who were suffering with hernia issues, and one who had contracted cholera.

First Lieutenant Christian Seiler Beard, Company C, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, circa 1863 (public domain).

On May 2, this letter from Sergeant Christian Beard of the 47th Pennsylvania’s C Company, was published in the Sunbury Gazette:

My sentiments are the same as they were when I left home, and let come what will I am ever ready and willing to meet it as a soldier’s fate, and will not grumble, let my lot be ever so hard, for he that can’t suffer something for the good of his country is not worthy of the name of a freeman. Some men say they could not fight as well at present as they could last summer. Such men are traitors and cowards, for we are fighting in the same cause now that we were then, and I should rather suffer death than flinch or say one disrespectful word respecting the government. But at home there is something wrong, and you ought not allow it. Men like Purdy should not be permitted to discourage those men who are willing to do something for the good of the country.

Those papers are continually talking of the troops being so much demoralized, but such things are new to us here, and are really not the case: on the other hand, they are every day becoming better disciplined, and more efficient for the duty they have to perform if only the people at home would not discourage them. I have seen letters written by men not a thousand miles from your town that would make the face of a heathen blush wish shame and indignation. They tell us that we are fighting for nothing but to free n______ [racial epithet deleted], and that our government don’t do as they ought, and the President thinks more of a n_____ [racial epithet deleted] than of a white soldier; all such talk, and some even go as far as to say that a man who would fight for such a man as Lincoln or Hunter was no better than a n_____ [racial epithet deleted]. This talk is put forth with the evident intention of discouraging the men, but such pups don’t discourage me. I am just as willing to fight to-day as ever, and any man who is unwilling to fight for the cause as it now stands is not worth as much powder as would kill him. We don’t fear the rebels, and they can’t whip us; but those rebels at home, lurking in our rear, we have to fear more than the honorable foe in front, who openly stand out with gun in hand to receive us. While such things are permitted at home, we must not look for better success than we have had of late in Virginia. On the other hand, if every man, woman and child would support the Union—stand by her, and not a man give up while there is life, then we would not need to fight half so much. The rebels say that half of the people North are for them, and they expect to get help there ere long. No wonder they keep their heads out of water so long. It is the people at the North—it is their faults that so many of the soldiers have to die on the battle field. They will some day have to account for it in my opinion. There is but two sides, the one is for the Administration and the Union, the other is for the rebellion. He that disagrees with the heads of our government, and everything that us done by them, while they are doing the best they possibly can, is a rebel at heart and dare not deny it. The best thing would be to stop all newspapers, and not allow them to be sent to the army. Letters of a discouraging character should also be forbidden.

Hoping that you are well, I am yours, &c.,
C. S. Beard

May also brought revised duty assignments for a number of 47th Pennsylvanians, including F Company Private John Weiss, who was given additional duties with the post’s Ordnance Department, after having recovered from a February bout of remittent fever, K Company Private Tilghman Boger, who was assigned to kitchen duties in the officers’ mess hall, and G Company Private Cornelius Heist, who was appointed as Company Cook—an assignment that likely brought him into contact with one of the regiment’s Under-Cooks—the group of formerly enslaved Black men who had enlisted with the regiment while it was stationed in Beaufort, South Carolina in October 1862.

Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas, Florida, view from the sea, 1946 (vacation photograph collection of President Harry Truman, November 1946, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, public domain).

Another alert was sounded on May 7 when a Union gunboat chased a blockade runner from Great Britain into the harbor at Fort Jefferson, enabling D Company Captain Henry D. Woodruff and a party of his men to capture the British crew. Their prisoners were subsequently transported to Fort Taylor in Key West for processing.

Three days later, G Company Private William Eberhart died at Fort Jefferson’s hospital while being treated there for consumption (tuberculosis). According to Schmidt, he had been ill since Christmas Day of 1862, when he had first been hospitalized with dysentery. After being discharged on January 10, 1863, he had then been hospitalized again on March 3 tuberculosis-related phthisis. Quickly interred at 4 p.m. on the same day of his death (May 10), he was laid to rest with military honors somewhere on the grounds of the fort or on one of its neighboring islands where soldiers with infectious diseases were quarantined.

The next day (May 11), D Company Private Jesse D. Reynolds died from disease-related complications and was also quickly interred on the fort’s grounds or on a neighboring island. He, too, had battled a series of illnesses, having been hospitalized with hemeralopia on March 27, discharged on April 5, and readmitted to the fort’s hospital on May 8 with one of the many fever variants that plagued the regiment during the war. (An alternate date of May 30 was listed in the hospital’s death ledger.)

On May 16, D Company Captain Henry D. Woodruff and his men marched to the wharf at Fort Jefferson and climbed aboard yet another ship—this time for their return to Fort Taylor, where they resumed garrison duties under the command of Colonel Tilghman H. Good.

Two days later, G Company Private Irwin Scheirer also succumbed from tuberculosis-related complications at the fort’s hospital, after having previously been admitted and then discharged for asthma treatment on April 14 and 19, respectively. According to Schmidt, Private Scheirer’s “remains were buried at Bird Key at 2 PM by Sgt. Hutcheson, and the key and the site of the grave have been lost to time and the elements.”

The interment record of the Post Cemetery at Fort Jefferson indicated his grave was inventoried in 1873 and 1879, along with the graves of William Eberhart and Edward Frederick of the 47th, but the wooden markers were … unreadable. In 1879 it was noted that one grave contained seven bodies, and another grave contained bodies whose identification was unknown and which had been washed out to sea and returned by the Ordnance Sergeant and Fort Keeper. The following tribute of respect to Privates Scheirer and Eberhart was published in the Allentown Democrat on June 10, 1863:

‘TRIBUTE OF RESPECT—At a meeting of the members of Company G, 47th Regiment P. V., held at Fort Jefferson, Tortugas, Florida, on the evening of May 17 [sic], 1863, a committee was appointed to draft resolutions expressive of said Company G in regard to the death of two of their fellow members, viz.: William Eberhard of Bucks County, Pa., dec’d May 8, 1863, and Irvin Scheirer of Lehigh County, Pa., dec’d May 18 [sic], 1863. The following preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted:

WHEREAS, It has pleased an All-wise Providence to remove from our midst, by the hand of death, within the brief period of a fortnight, two of our fellow members and companions in arms, viz.: William Eberhard and Irvin Scheirer, (who unfortunately became victims of that fell destroyer, consumption) therefore be it

RESOLVED, That by the death of these men we have lost from our ranks characters of true devotion to their country and the government thereof—such as were beloved by each of their fellow members, as well as all who knew them—kind companions and Christians.

RESOLVED, That since the connection of these men with Company G we have found them faithful to the duties they were asked to perform, obedient in all respects to their commanders; and while unfit for duty, either in the company or in the hospital—submissive to the desires of the Almighty God.

RESOLVED, That a copy of these resolutions be sent the families of each deceased, and be published in all the Allentown papers.

COMMITTEE.—Sergt. T. B. Leisenring, Corp. R. M. Fornwalt [sic, Fornwald], John Pratt, and Privates Wm. Hartz and William Steckel.

Bucks County papers please copy.’

On May 20, enlisted members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry were finally given eight months’ worth of their back pay—a significant percentage of which was quickly sent home to family members who had been struggling to make ends meet.

Five days later, G Company Private Joseph Hallmeier was honorably discharged on a surgeon’s certificate of disability when regimental physicians made the determination that his recovery from the back wound he had sustained during the Battle of Pocotaligo was not progressing well enough to enable him to perform any meaningful duties.

On the final day of the month, H Company Captain James Kacy issued Company Order No. 33:

Until further notice, card playing for profit or amusement in company quarters or elsewhere is strictly prohibited. Each Sergeant will visit each room twice a day to see that this order is carried out. Any Private found violating will be immediately put on a barrel in front of the guard house, there to remain for ten consecutive hours. Any non-commissioned officer playing with cards will be reduced to ranks and court martialed for disobedience of orders.

The next day, the “dreaded month of June came again and found us in Key West-to break the terrible monotony of island life,” recalled Emily Holder via an article she penned for a history magazine in the 1890s.

The feeling in Key West between the various political factions became more and more intensified as time went on. The sectional spirit had been so strong that it had almost resulted in the residents keeping entirely aloof from each other, although the greater part of them professed to be Unionists.

Those who owned the greatest number of slaves were at times defiant, although made no attempt to join the other side. Society was anything but pleasant, and we felt that the efforts of General Woodbury, who was now Military Governor, to bring people into more friendly relations were most commendable, and were seemingly successful.

Just as we were about ready to go down to the boat [at Fort Jefferson’s wharf] before starting for Key West, someone came for us to go to the ramparts as there was a fight at sea; one of our gun-boats was firing at a big steamer.

Taking the glass we were soon with the others on top of the Fort, and, surely enough, about five miles out was an immense steamer emitting a dense black smoke, which announced its character as only the Confederates used soft coal, and when they were running away, as that one evidently was, they put in pine wood or anything they had.

She was running from a little boat that in comparison was like a pigmy. Two larger steamers were trying to head her off, and they passed out of sight in that position. There were between twenty and thirty guns fired, and all in all it was quite an exciting affair.

We saw nothing of them on our way to Key West, but the day after our arrival a steamer brought into port a large Mississippi River boat, a side wheeler, loaded high upon deck with cotton—a prize valued at half a million dollars.

Colonel Alexander met one of the owners of the steamer who said that the people in the south were hopeless; but, he added, ‘we have nothing now to lose and we are going to fight as long as we can.’

I met at the hotel a lady from Mobile who ran the blockade with her husband on a vessel loaded with cotton. She said she stood on deck all the time they were being fired at, and would avow herself a Secessionist at the cannons’ mouth.

Her husband lost a large amount of property in the steamer. He was going to Europe while she returned to Mobile with her three children.

Officers’ quarters and parade grounds, interior of Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas, Florida, 1898 (U.S. National Park Service and National Archives and Records Administration, public domain).

The remainder of the month progressed in much the same manner for the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers as the first five months of the year had—drilling, training with the fort’s light and heavy artillery, standing for long periods during weekly inspections, and marching in dress parades—even in the face of the higher temperatures and humidity so common to Florida summers then and now.

During mid-June, Fort Jefferson’s commanding officer and the 47th Pennsylvania’s second-in-command, Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander, negotiated new pay structures for two of his subordinates with his superior officer, Colonel Tilghman Good. Agreeing to pay Musicians Daniel Dachrodt and William A. Heckman an additional four dollars per month for the past pay period of September to December 9, 1862, the two senior officers also agreed to pay them each thirteen dollars per month for their service from December 9, 1862 through April 30, 1863.

And, once again, the grim reaper reared his ugly head—swinging his scythe through the regiment’s ranks to claim E Company Private Leonard Frankenfield, who was laid to rest somewhere on the grounds of Fort Jefferson after succumbing to complications from dysentery on June 22.

The most significant event of the month, which would prove to be one of the more consequential of the entire war for many Union soldiers, was a directive issued by the Office of the Adjutant General in the U.S. War Department on June 25, 1863:

General Orders, No. 191
War Department, Adjutant General’s Office
June 25, 1863

In order to increase the armies now in the field, volunteer infantry, cavalry, and artillery may be enlisted at any time within ninety days from this date, in the respective states, under the regulations herein later mentioned. The volunteers so enlisted, and such of the three years’ troops now in the field as may enlist in accordance with the provisions of this order, will constitute a force to be designated Veteran Volunteers. The regulations for enlisting this force are as follows:

I. The period of service for the enlistments and re-enlistments above mentioned shall be for three years, or during the war.

II. All able-bodied men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years, who have heretofore been enlisted, and have served for not less than nine months, and can pass the examination required by the mustering regulations of the United States, may be enlisted under this order as Veteran Volunteers, in accordance with the provisions hereafter set forth.

III. Every volunteer enlisted and mustered into service as a Veteran, under this order, shall be entitled to receive from the United States one month’s pay in advance, and a bounty and premium of four hundred and two ($402) dollars, to be paid as follows:

1. Upon being mustered into the service, he shall be paid
   one month’s pay in advance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  $13.00
   First installment of bounty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25.00
   Premium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .     2.00
   Total payment on muster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  $40.00
2. At the first regular pay-day, or two months after
   muster-in, an additional installment of bounty
   will be paid. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   $50.00
3. At the first regular pay-day after six months’
   service, he shall be paid an additional
   installment of bounty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   $50.00
4. At the first regular pay-day after the end of the
   first years’ service, an additional installment of
   bounty will be paid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   $50.00
5. At the first regular pay-day after 18 months’
   service, an additional installment of bounty will
   be paid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   $50.00
6. At the first regular pay-day after two years’
   service, an additional installment of bounty will
   be paid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   $50.00
7. At the first regular pay-day after two and a
   half years’ service, an additional installment of
   bounty will be paid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $50.00
8. At the expiration of three years’ service, the
   remainder of the bounty will be paid . . . . . . . . . . . . $75.00

IV. If the government shall not require these troops for the full period of three years, and they shall be mustered honorably out of the service before the expiration of their term of enlistment, they shall receive upon being mustered out, the whole amount of their bounty remaining unpaid, the same as if their whole term has been served. The legal heirs of volunteers who die in service shall be entitled to receive the whole bounty remaining unpaid at the time of the soldier’s death.

V. Veteran Volunteers enlisted under this order will be permitted at their option to enter old regiments now in the field; but their service will continue for the full term of their own enlistment, notwithstanding the expiration of the term for which the regiment was originally enlisted. New organizations will be officered only by persons who have been in service, and have shown themselves properly qualified for command. As a badge of honorable distinction, “service chevrons” will be furnished by the War Department, to be worn by the Veteran Volunteers.

VI. Officers of regiments whose term has expired, will be authorized, on proper application, and approval of their respective Governors, to raise companies and regiments within the period of sixty days; and if the companies and regiments authorized to be raised shall be filled up and mustered in the service within the said period of sixty days, the officers may be recommissioned on the date of their original commissions, and for the time engaged in recruiting they will be entitled to receive the pay belonging to their rank.

VII. Volunteers or Militia, now in service, whose term of service will expire within ninety days, and who then shall have been in service at least nine months, shall be entitled to the aforesaid bounty and premium of $402, provided they re-enlist, before the expiration of their present term, for three years or the war; and said bounty and premium shall be paid in the manner herein provided for other troops re-entering the service. The new term will commence from the date of re-enlistment.

VIII. After the expiration of ninety days from this date, volunteers serving in three year organizations, who may re-enlist for three years or the war, shall be entitled to the aforesaid bounty and premium of $402, to be paid in the manner herein provided for other troops entering the service. The new term will commence from date of re-enlistment.

IX. Officers in service, whose regiments or companies may re-enlist, in accordance with the provisions of this order, before the expiration of their present term, shall have their commission continued, so as to preserve their date of rank as fixed by their original muster into the United States service.

X. As soon after the expiration of their original term of enlistment as the exigencies will permit, a furlough of thirty days will be granted to men who may reenlist in accordance with the provisions of this order.

XI. Volunteers enlisted under this order will be credited as three years’ men in the quotas of their respective states. Instructions for the appointment of recruiting officers and for enlisting Veteran Volunteers will be immediately issued to the Governors of States.

By Order of the Secretary of War:
E. D. Townsend, Assistant Adjutant General

As questions were raised by Union Army officers, who were being asked by their own subordinates for details about this potentially important change for their immediate finances and the financial futures of their families, the War Department’s Veteran Volunteers directive was followed by a clarification, in July 1863, via General Orders, No. 216:

General Orders, No. 216,
War Department, Adjutant General’s Office
Washington, July 1863

I. All able-bodied men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years, who have heretofore been enlisted and have served for not less than nine months, have been honorably discharged, and can pass the examination required by the Mustering Regulations of the United States, may be enlisted in any Regiment they choose, new or old; and when mustered into the United States service, will be entitled to all the benefits provided by General Orders No. 191, for Recruiting “Veteran Volunteers.”

A Regiment, Battalion, or Company shall bear the title of “Veteran” only in case at least one-half its numbers, at the time of muster into the United States service, are “Veteran Volunteers.”

II. The benefits provided by General Orders, No. 191, for Veteran Volunteers, will be extended to men who re-enlisted prior to the promulgation of that order, provided they have fulfilled the conditions therein set forth.

By Order of the Secretary of War
E. D. Townsend, Assistant Adjutant General

As word continued to spread regarding the federal government’s new plan to provide improved compensation for soldiers choosing to reenlist with the Union Army, the Office of the Adjutant General at the U.S. War Department issued a series of additional general orders to refine its new policy and procedures with respect to the designation of men as “Veteran Volunteers.”

General Orders, No. 305,
War Department, Adjutant General’s Office
Washington, September 11, 1863

Par. VIII, of General Orders, No. 191, from this office, relative to recruiting Veteran Volunteers, is hereby amended to read as follows:

After the expiration of ninety days from this date, (June 25,) Volunteers serving in three years’ organizations, who may re-enlist for three years or the war, in Companies or Regiments to which they now belong, and who may have, at the date of re-enlistment, less than one year to serve, shall be entitled to the aforesaid bounty and premium of $402, to be paid in the manner herein provided for other troops re-entering the service. The new term will commence from the date of re-enlistment.

By Order of the Secretary of War:
E. D. Townsend, Assistant Adjutant General

On November 6, 1863, this further clarification was issued:

General Orders, No. 359
War Department, Adjutant General’s Office
Washington, November 6, 1863

I. To carry out the provisions of paragraphs 8 and 9, General Orders, No. 191, current series, from this office, in reference to volunteers who may come within the limit for re-enlistment as Veteran Volunteers, as fixed by General Orders, No. 305, current series, the following regulations are established:

MUSTERS-OUT OF SERVICE.

1. The muster-out or discharge of all men who may re-enlist, and their re-enlistments and consequent re-musters, will be under the immediate supervision and direction of the Commissaries and Assistant Commissaries of Musters for the respective Armies and Departments. The said officers will make all musters-out of and re-musters into the service.
2. All men who desire to take advantage of the benefits of the Veteran Volunteer order, by re-enlistment under it, will be regularly mustered out of service on the prescribed muster-out rolls. The discharges prescribed by paragraph 79, Mustering Regulations, will be furnished in all cases. A remark will be made on the muster-out rolls, over the signature of the Commissary or Assistant Commissary of Musters, as follows: ‘Discharged by virtue of re-enlistment as a Veteran Volunteer, under the provisions of General Orders, No. 191, series of 1863, from the War Department.”RE-ENLISTMENTS AND RE-MUSTERS.
3. Simultaneously with the muster-out and discharge, but of the date next following it, the Veteran Volunteers will be formally re-mustered into the United States service ‘for three years or during the war.” This will be done on the prescribed muster-in rolls (muster and descriptive rolls of recruits). These rolls will be made out from the re-enlistments and descriptive lists of the men. (See section 4 of this paragraph.) The following remark will be made on the muster-in rolls, over the signature of the Commissary or Assistant Commissary of Musters: ‘Re-mustered as Veteran Volunteers, under G. O., 191, War Department, series of 1863.’
4. Regimental Commanders, under the direction of Commanders of Brigades, will select and appoint a recruiting officer for their respective commands, and charge him with the re-enlistment of the Veterans thereof. The re-enlistments will be made in duplicate, and on the blank for “Volunteer Enlistment.” A descriptive roll of the men will be made out at the same time. The duplicate re-enlistments and descriptive rolls will be forwarded, or taken, by the recruiting officer, to the Commissary or Assistant Commissary of Musters who may be in charge of the musters for the organization to which the men belong. The mustering officer will countersign the re-enlistment papers, and file the descriptive roll with the records of his office. One copy of the re-enlistment will be delivered by the mustering officer to the Paymaster, to assist him in the examination and verification of the accounts; this copy will be forwarded with the said accounts to the proper accounting officer of the Treasury. The second copy of the re-enlistments will be returned by the mustering officer to the Regimental Commander, and by him forwarded to the Adjutant General of the Army with the Monthly Recruiting Return required by par. 919 Army Regulations, from Superintendents of Regimental Recruiting Service.PAYMENTS.
5. The Pay Department of the Army is hereby charged with all payments (final due under original enlistments, advanced pay, bounties, and premiums) of the volunteers discharged and re-mustered as directed in this order. The final payments under the original enlistments will be made on the muster-out rolls.The amount of the ‘total payment on Muster,’ (re-muster,) par. II, G. O. 324, A. G. O., current series, will be made under the rules set forth in General Orders, No. 163. The consolidated receipt rolls, referred to in the said order, will be certified to by the Commissary or Assistant Commissary of Musters charged with the re-muster of the Veteran Volunteers into service. The payments on discharge, and those due on re-muster, will be made at the same time, and in full, immediately after the men are re-mustered into the service.

II. Commanders of Armies and Departments are hereby charged with the faithful execution of this order, and will issue such instructions under it as in their opinion will best secure the object in view. Troops to be discharged and re-mustered as Veterans will be reported to the proper commanders, through Army or Department Headquarters, to the Paymaster General. The reports will be made at a date such as will avoid delay in the payments being made.

By Order of the Secretary of War:
E. D. Townsend, Assistant Adjutant General

The U.S. War Department then issued yet another order related to Veteran Volunteers on November 21, 1863:

General Orders, No. 376
War Department, Adjutant General’s Office
Washington, November 21, 1863

I. It is hereby ordered that volunteers now in the service, re-enlisting as Veteran Volunteers under General Orders 191 from this office, shall have a furlough of at least thirty days previous to the expiration of their original enlistment. This privilege will be secured to the volunteers either by ordering all so-re-enlisting with their officers, to report in their respective States, through the Governors, to the Superintendent of the recruiting service, for furlough and reorganization, or by granting furloughs to the men individually.

II. Mustering officers shall make the following stipulation on the muster-in rolls of Veteran Volunteers now in the service re-enlisting as above: “To have a furlough of at least thirty days in their States before expiration of original term.

III. Commanding Generals of Departments and Armies are hereby authorized to grant the aforesaid furloughs, within the limit of time fixed in compliance with this order, as the demands of the service will best permit, reporting their action to the Adjutant General of the Army.

IV. In going to and from their respective States and homes, the Veteran Volunteers furloughed as herein provided will be furnished with transportation by the Quartermaster’s Department.

V. When three-fourths of a regiment or company re-enlist, the volunteers so enlisted may be furloughed in a body, for at least thirty days as aforesaid, to go home with their officers to their respective States and districts to reorganize and recruit; and the individuals of the companies and regiments who do not re-enlist shall be assigned to duty in other companies and regiments until the expiration of their terms of service.

By Order of the Secretary of War:
E. D. Townsend, Assistant Adjutant General

As those subsequent updates continued to be released, newspapers across the nation began carrying word to the families of soldiers about the War Department’s stepped-up efforts to retain the nation’s most experienced soldiers, including the November 29, 1863 edition of The New York Times, which reprinted the text of General Orders, No. 376 and then added the following analysis:

The above order consists substantially of the series of propositions made to the War Department, three months ago, by Gov. MORTON, of Indiana, and was the suggestion of his comprehensive care for the interests of the country as well as the soldier. We have recently had occasion—indeed, ever since the war began we have had occasion—to notice the extraordinary energy and sagacity displayed by the Executive of Indiana in the conduct of the military affairs of that heroic State; and the success that has attended his efforts, and the appreciation of those efforts by the people of his own State and of the whole country, is the fit reward which his patriotic services have received….

Another proposal of Gov. MORTON, looking to the benefit of the soldier, we find referred to in the Indianapolis Journal, and we learn that it is now under discussion, with strong influences in its favor. It is that Paymasters of the army shall be authorized to take with them “five-twenty bonds,” from $50 to any larger amount, and allow the soldiers to take them in the place of any back pay, back bounty, or advance bounty (if he should reenlist) to which he may be entitled, or invest any pay in possession or due to him, which he may choose, in them. The proposal is urged for all the troops, but has as yet been acceded to only in the case of those from Indiana. The advantages of this arrangement are obvious, and we wish we could say that they were as generally bestowed as they are manifest. The soldier has the opportunity to turn every dollar due him, if he should not need it for immediate use, into an investment which has the double advantage of being just as good as “greenbacks” for currency, if they should be needed as money, and six per cent. better if they should be preferred as an investment.

At the present price of gold, on which the interest on these bonds is paid, the income they will yield the soldier will be about 9 per cent., fully equal to the first average investments of money in loans or real estate. On the other hand, the advantage to the country in giving the soldier a pecuniary interest in the permanence of the Government is obvious. The bonds are a little better than greenbacks, and of course can be used in their stead. If the bonds should not happen to be ready for delivery when the Paymasters go round, they are to take certificates, which shall be to the soldier the same as a bond. Now, a great many soldiers will leave the service with his last installment of bounty due, $75, with his advance bounty, (if he reenlists,) in his hands, $75, with his advance pay, $13, and whatever back pay may be due, not unlikely to amount to $50 or more, and can in nine cases out of ten invest $200 to $300, a very pretty sum to lay up against a rainy day.

Lieutenant-Colonel George Warren Alexander, second-in-command, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, with officers from the 47th, Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas, Florida, circa 1863 (public domain).

When news of the federal government’s new inducements reached the far-flung 47th Pennsylvanians in Key West and the Dry Tortugas, Florida, hundreds of weary men who had been battered by brutal combat and the ever-present spectre of disease realized they were being given a much-needed “shot in the arm” of recognition from their elected officials and took renewed comfort in knowing that their service had, in fact, actually been valued.

In response, more than half of the men serving with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry opted to reenlist in 1863—a collective action that resulted in another historic achievement for the regiment—the permanent change of the organization’s name  to the 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers.

Sources:

1. “A Word from Captain Gobin’s Company” (May 1863 letter from C Company Sergeant Christian S. Beard). Sunbury, Pennsylvania: The Sunbury Gazette, May 2, 1873.
2. Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, vol. 1. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.
3. “Florida’s Role in the Civil War: ‘Supplier of the Confederacy.’” Tampa, Florida: Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida, retrieved online January 15, 2020.
4. General Orders of the War Department, Embracing the Years, 1861, 1862 & 1863, vol. II, pp. 217-219 (General Orders No. 191), p. 245 (General Orders No. 216), 412 (General Orders No. 305), 602-603 (General Orders No. 359), and 644 (General Orders No. 376). New York, New York: Derby & Miller and Boston, Massachusetts: Little, Brown, & Co., et al., 1864.
5. Holder, Emily. “At the Dry Tortugas During the War.” San Francisco, California: Californian Illustrated Magazine, 1892 (part four, retrieved online, March 28, 2024, courtesy of Lit2Go, the website of the Educational Technology Clearinghouse at the Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida).
6. “History: Crops (Historic Florida Barge Canal Trail).” Historical Marker Database, retrieved online December 30, 2023.
7. Owsley, Frank Lawrence, and Harriet Fason Chappell. King Cotton Diplomacy: Foreign Relations of the Confederate States of America. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1959.
8. “Preventing Diplomatic Recognition of the Confederacy, 1861–1865,” and “The Alabama Claims, 1862–1872,” in “Milestones: 1861–1865.” Washington, D.C.: Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute, United States Department of State, retrieved online December 30, 2023.
9. “Re-enlistment of Veterans.; General Order. War Department, Adjutant-General’s Office.” New York, New York: The New York Times, November 29, 1863.
10. Reports of Committees of the Senate of the United States for the First Session of the Fifty-First Congress, 1889-90. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1890.
11. Schmidt, Lewis G. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1986.
12. Wharton, Henry. Letters from the Sunbury Guards. Sunbury, Pennsylvania: Sunbury American, 1861-1868.