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| Henry A. Purviance Photo taken in Pittsburgh |
At the time the Civil War began in 1861, Purviance was the co-publisher of the Washington (PA) Reporter and Tribune newspaper. Every few months, Purviance would write a detailed summary of the activities of the 85th Pennsylvania which was published back home in his newspaper.
Although born in Butler County, PA, Purviance had deep roots in Washington County. His maternal grandfather, John Hamilton (1754-1837), had been appointed sheriff of Washington County in 1793. This was the time of the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania; the nexus of the uprising was in Washington County. Farmers protested a new excise tax on whiskey, their main source of income and barter, to defray the federal government's debt left over from the Revolutionary War. Sheriff Hamilton was involved in the early peaceful protests of the tax, but unsuccessfully tried to steer the movement away from violence. Incident included the tarring-and-feathering of tax collectors, attempted destruction of tax records and a gun fight at the home of tax collector John Neville.
Hamilton was nevertheless charged with aiding and abetting the insurrection. After President George Washington authorized troops to quell the rebellion, Hamilton was arrested and taken to Philadelphia. However, Hamilton was exonerated and went home. In the ensuing decades, he held a variety of public offices for the next 20 years. These included a position in the Pennsylvania State Senate and in the United States House of Representatives. (Boyd Crumrine, History of Washington County, Pennsylvania, 1882, pp.305-6)
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| Tarring-and-Feathering of a Tax Collector LOC |
Several decades following Hamilton's death, just after the Civil War had begun at Fort Sumter, SC in April of 1861, his grandson, Henry Purviance, enlisted into the 12th Pennsylvania infantry for three months. This regiment did not take part in the Battle of Bull Run in July of 1861 and the regiment was soon disbanded.
But after the Union lost at Bull Run and it became obvious that the war was going to last longer than a battle or two. Eager to fight for the Union cause, Purviance organized his own company of Washington County men and took it to Pittsburgh to train.
After some negotiation, Purviance took his company to Camp Lafayette in Uniontown, PA to join Colonel Joshua B. Howell's new regiment, the 85th Pennsylvania. Purviance would serve as captain of Company E.
The 85th Pennsylvania was stationed for five months in Washington, DC and then was sent via transport ships to the Virginia Peninsula for George B. McClellan's campaign to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond and end the war. During this time in 1862, Purviance was elected as the regiment's lieutenant colonel, replacing Norton McGiffin, who had gone home on a medical discharge.
At this time, Purviance wrote one of his first letters that was published in his newspaper. Aboard the steamship Daniel Webster near Portsmouth, VA when the regiment was on its way to the Virginia Peninsula, Purviance wrote about scanning the waters around Fort Monroe, VA to look for the ironclad Monitor, which had neutralized the Confederate ironclad Virginia (Merrimac) two weeks earlier:
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| Hampton Roads, VA 1862 The Gazette, Cedar Rapids Iowa 3-4-1962 |
The 85th Pennsylvania had about 75 casualties in the battle, including Purviance, who was shot in the leg. He was sent to a Philadelphia hospital to recover.
From his hospital bed, two weeks after the battle, Purviance wrote, "I am shot by a musket ball through the left leg, in the thick part below the knee. The doctors think the ball passed behind the bone and around it without fracturing...Even worse than my wound, though, does it pain me to observe misrepresentations of Casey's division in connection to the battle...Our own regiment...was absolutely the last to retire." (Luther S. Dickey, History of the 85th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, p.171)
Purviance recovered and returned to his regiment. In December, 1862, they were sent to North Carolina for the Goldsboro Expedition, a Union effort to seize a key rail hub and to prevent enemy supplies from reaching Robert E. Lee's army near Fredericksburg, VA. The North Carolina expedition was a success, as the Union force under John G. Foster won four small battles. Unfortunately for the Union, the Goldsboro Expedition did nothing to prevent the Confederate victory at Fredericksburg.
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| Advance of 85th PA toward Kinston (NC) Bridge December 14, 862 Harper's Weekly, January 10, 1863 |
McCoy wrote, "Our Lieut. Colonel, H. A. Purviance, was running from one end of the line to the other encouraging the men. One thing I heard him say, 'Remember, boys, there is no falling back with the 85th.' With such commanders as him and Colonel Howell, we knew we could fight, at least we were willing to try." (Wheeling Intelligencer, January 9, 1863)
A few months later, the 85th Pennsylvania was transferred to South Carolina as part of the Union effort to try to recapture Fort Sumter and subdue the city of Charleston.
While stationed on Folly Island, Union soldiers would sometimes trade items with Confederate soldiers, usually coffee and sugar in exchange for Confederate tobacco. Many Union officers discouraged such transactions. But as one of his letter demonstrates, Purviance allowed the following exchange to occur between Folly Island and Morris Island across Light House Inlet, perhaps because it was not face-to-face.
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| Light House Inlet between Folly and Morris Islands Henry F. W. Little The Seventh Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteers\1896, p.190 |
"By and by…a nautical machine popularly called a 'dug out,' a miniature craft with a tiny sail, was seen to be freighted (across Lighthouse Inlet) and launched from the other side. The wind filled the little sail, and the clumsy vessel, which was very much like a sugar trough, came tumbling over to our shore where it was at once secured and subjected to my inspection. It contained a huge cake of chewing tobacco…Our boys promptly acknowledged the courtesy. A vessel was gracefully proportioned and elegantly fashioned, conforming in its exterior appearance to the Monitor model, the turret of which was filled with coffee, was set afloat and soon made its way to the hostile shore (on Morris Island)...This sort of intercourse had been going on for weeks. (Washington Reporter and Tribune, May 20, 1863, p.2)
Helping to guard Fort Sumter and Charleston for the Confederates on Morris Island were Batteries Wagner and Gregg. Two Union assaults in July of 1863 upon Battery Wagner resulted in massive Union casualties.The 85th Pennsylvania was to follow up the initial assaults on both occasions, but each time the secondary assault was cancelled due to heavy Union losses.
In late July, a new strategy was instituted. Union forces would dig a series of entrenchments or parallels to close the gap between themselves and Battery Wagner. Once Wagner's rifle pits were taken, another assault would be attempts. However, as the Union diggers closed upon them, the Confederates decided to abandon both Wagner and Gregg. Union forces were able to quietly occupy the structures.
During the digging part of the campaign, the 85th Pennsylvania played a key role. From late July to early September, the 85th Pennsylvania suffered more casualties than any other Union regiment. These included Colonel Howell and Lieutenant Colonel Purviance.
During their twelve-hour shift on August 21, at work on the fourth (of five) trench or parallel, the position of the regiment was under intense firing from Confederate sharpshooters and batteries. Twenty-five men were wounded, five of whom died.
On August 29, Purviance formally protested to his superiors about the mounting losses in his regiment. Nonetheless, he led his men into the forward trench line at sunset. A bright moonlight presented Confederate artillery positions with a clear target. Soon a single shell killed or wounded six men.
After midnight, in the early morning hours of August 30, two more men were killed. They were William Grover of Company D and George Grover of Company I.
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| Morris Island Parallels, Wagner and Gregg LOC |
In the morning hours of August 30, Purviance joined the list of those mortally wounded. He was the highest ranking officer to perish in the overall siege of Battery Wagner.
The most detailed account of Purviance's death came from Lieutenant John E. Michener of Company D.
"About daylight on the morning of the 30th of August Lieutenant Colonel Purviance was instantly killed by the premature explosion of a shell from one of [Union General Quincy] Gillmore’s guns, which was being fired rapidly at Fort Wagner over the heads of the Union troops. The previous night had been one of extreme trial and excitement; the enemy desperately employing all the guns and mortars that could be brought to bear upon the persistent and determined besiegers. This noble officer, soldier, and patriot had entered the trenches that night with one hundred and seventy-five men of his regiment. Discovering indications of an assault by the enemy, he sent Lieutenant Michener, acting temporarily as adjutant, back to headquarters for additional troops. Colonel [Louis] Bell of the Fourth New Hampshire sent up, with Lieutenant Michener, two companies of the Ninth Maine, which were all that could be used to advantage. Morning dawned, however, without any attack by the enemy, yet the continued fire of the rebels upon this little devoted band, during the night, had told fearfully upon their ranks. The brave Colonel Purviance, weary and almost exhausted sat down by a small bomb-proof and generously inviting Captains R.P. Hughes and Lieutenant Michener to his side, divided some rations of boiled ham and biscuit among them. The repast being ended, Lieutenant Michener handed the colonel an overcoat and requested him to lie down and take some rest, at the same time remarking that if anything of importance occurred, he would quickly report to him. Lieutenant Michener had just turned to leave him when he [Purviance] was struck by the fatal shell and killed instantly. Thus fell one of the bravest and noblest spirits of the war, lamented by all who knew him, and mourned as a father by the brave men whom he had so often led to battle." (Washington Reporter and Tribune, October 9, 1867, page 3)
Another tribute to Purviance appeared several months after his death, written by an anonymous member of the regiment. This soldier lamented the loss of Purviance, whom he gave full credit for the regiment's cohesiveness up to that time. "When the command of the
85th was entrusted to Col. Purviance, it was destitute of
discipline, without prestige from former victories – in fact, a raw, untrained
body of men, but containing the finest material in the world for soldiers. To
mould these men into soldiers, invincible in action and distinguished for their
courage and fidelity, was his constant aim and the object of his ceaseless and
untiring exertions. For whatever services the 85th has rendered the
nation in its struggle for self preservation and for whatever success it has
achieved during the last two years of its existence, let the glory be
attributed to him to whom along it is justly due – Lt. C. Purviance." (Washington Reporter and Tribune, February 17, 1864, p.2)
About a month after his death, his own newspaper published a lengthy obituary.
"The Reporter and Tribune contains the sad announcement that Col. H. A. Purviance, one of the editors and proprietors, had fallen at his post on Morris Island while operating at the head of his regiment against the rebel stronghold, Fort Wagner.
"The Reporter and Tribune contains the sad announcement that Col. H. A. Purviance, one of the editors and proprietors, had fallen at his post on Morris Island while operating at the head of his regiment against the rebel stronghold, Fort Wagner.
The
circumstances attending his death are, in brief, about these: On the 30th
of August, while our forces were operating against the rebel fortress which may
fairly be denominated the Sebastopol of America, it was the fortune of Colonel
Purviance to occupy the extreme advance, and as our batteries were at the time
engaged in what is no uncommon mode of operation – firing at the enemy
over the
heads of our own men – he was killed by a shell from one of our own guns. He
was in the extreme front, watching the movements of the enemy, when a shell
from our own batteries exploded immediately above him, carrying away the whole
back part of his head, sending one of the fragments through the body in the
immediate region of the heart, and lacerating the right arm in the most
horrible manner. Of course he was killed instantly. The melancholy mishap is
ascribed to the fact that the powder with which the shell was filled was
somewhat damp, on account of which the fuse was cut short, and, as might
naturally be effected, a wrong calculation seems to have been made either in
respect to the length of the fuse or the state of the powder with the untoward
result we have indicated.
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| Exterior of Batteries Wagner and Gregg LOC |
Colonel
Purviance was the son of Parker C. Purviance, Esq., now of Kittanning, Pa, a
native of our town, and a namesake of the celebrated Parker Campbell, one of
the most distinguished lawyers of Western Pennsylvania in the early part of the
present century. The subject of our brief sketch was born in Butler , Pa.
In the midst of these pursuits, he still found some time
to devote to public affairs. Having taken up his residence in the Allegheny
city, he took a prominent part in the political contests of the day, and was
actively engaged on the stump in Allegheny
County Sumter Pa.
This
simple and imperfect sketch of his somewhat eventful career, has spun out to
such a length that we have little space left in which to dwell on those traits
of character that endeared him to so large a circle of friends. As a write and
speaker, Col. Purviance’s style, though somewhat diffuse, was vigorous and elegant,
the readers always being captivated by the brilliancy of his thought as well as
the mellifluous flow of his words. His intellect being strong imbued with the
poetic elements, his copious imagery imparting a freshness and luster even to
the most commonplace ideas, while the more grave and stately conceptions of his
mind were made to appear like 'apples of gold in the pictures of silver.'
Purviance was a widower; his wife, Mary Jane Parker Purviance, had died in 1859. He was the father of three young daughters -- Margaretta, Belle and Ada. They were raised by Purviance's brother, William, and his wife. His body was shipped home. He is buried in the Washington Cemetery in Washington, PA.
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