The 199th Pennsylvania Joins the Brigade

          

Regimental Colors of the 199th PA
PA Capitol Preservation Committee
Room 630 Main Capitol Building
Harrisburg, PA

             In October of 1864, about three-quarters of the men in the 85th Pennsylvania completed their three-year enlistment and prepared to return home to western Pennsylvania. They were removed from the front lines near the James River in Virginia and sent to Portsmouth, Virginia  for a month of relaxed duty before leaving the service.

            About 150 of their comrades from their regiment remained on the front lines, either because they had re-enlisted or because they had joined the regiment after 1861 and still owed the government a year or so of service. These remaining men would play prominent roles in the Battle of Fort Gregg and the Appomattox Campaign in April of 1865.

      

The Evening Telegraph, Philadelphia, PA, September 3, 1864

          The other three regiments in the brigade of the 85th PA had a more substantial number of men in remain in the service. In early 1864, many of these men from the 39th Illinois, 62nd Ohio and 67th Ohio had reenlisted. This brigade was designated as the First Brigade, First Division of the Army of the James.

Wetherill House, Samson St.
Philadelphia where the 
199th PA was organized

     

        Because of the departure of the men from the 85th PA, the brigade, temporarily led by Colonel Francis B. Pond of the 62nd Ohio,  was low in numbers. Therefore a new regiment, the 199th Pennsylvania, joined their ranks in Virginia. The 199th PA was composed of nearly 1,500 troops from around the state, including the counties of Philadelphia, Montgomery, Lancaster, Crawford, Allegheny, Lycoming, Wilkes-Barre, Dauphin and Lackawanna. They had enlisted for one year of military service in the fall of 1864.

Camp Cadwalader
Philadelphia
Where the 199th PA Trained

            The 199th PA was led by Colonel James (later Joseph) C. Briscoe, He born in Ireland and had served as a staff officer for Generals Phillip Kearney and David Birney.  Meanwhile, several  members of the 85th PA became officers in the 199th PA: Robert P. Hughes (Lieutenant Colonel), Oliver Sproul (First Lieutenant, Company H), Charles Eckels (Captain, Company K) and Walter Cravin (Captain, Company E).

        On April 2, 1865, Union forces made a breakthrough against Confederate lines near Petersburg. In their first battle at Fort Gregg later that day, the 199th PA suffered 18 killed and 91 wounded. Colonel Briscoe was shot in the leg during the charge but continued towards Fort Gregg. 

          

        Briscoe's official report of the charge at Fort Gregg stated,  "About noon we received orders to attack and

James C. Briscoe
Am. Civil War Research Database

carry the fort, and the whole line advanced, in good style. The ground in front of the southeast salient of the work forms a perfect natural glaces for about 300 yards; passing over this space my regiment suffered its severest loss-canister, shot, and minie bullets tore through the ranks, yet not a man faltered. I was struck down by a flanking ball about seventy-five yards from the work, and although I lost but a moment in recovering myself, the men were already in the moat and clambering up the exterior slope; were fighting hand to hand across the parapet, the enemy refusing to surrender, though surrounded on all sides. This sort of thing lasted nearly twenty minutes, when we finally burst over the parapet and the fort was ours."

         Lieutenant Oliver Sproul, the former 85th Pennsylvanian, planted the colors of the 39th Illinois on the wall of the fort. William Chick of the 85th PA claimed that this was the first of many Union flags planted on the parapet as the fort fell to the Union. Wrote Chick, "The first flag to reach the fort was the flag of the 39th Ill. The Color Bearer fell as he reached the ditch and First Lieut Oliver Sproul of the 199th Pa. grabbed the colors, mounted the parapet, and planted the flag." [National Tribune, Washington, DC, June 12, 1902]

       Another account of Fort Gregg came from Private Jacob Etter of Company H. Etter wrote this tribute to his captain, John G. Bippus of Butler County, who like Briscoe was wounded in the charge upon the fort. "[You were] leading your command into action – that terrible charge on Fort Gregg, the key to the stronghold, Petersburg. I shall never forget it, nor my feelings as I picked you up and placed you in the ambulance [after a gunshot wound to the head], with the impression that you were mortally wounded…How any of us escaped to tell the tale of that day may only be attributed to Him who governs the universe and rules the stars, and who also directed the flying missiles. " (Butler Citizen,  August 7, 1878)

Charge of Fort Gregg    LOC

            After Fort Gregg fell, General Robert E. Lee abandoned Richmond and Petersburg and headed west to escape pursuing Union armies. At Rice's Station, on the way to Appomattox, a brief fight left four men dead and eight wounded from the new regiment. In total during their brief service, the 199th PA lost 32 men to the battlefield and 52 to diseases.

        Following the surrender at Appomattox, the 199th PA was encamped near Richmond and the men were mustered out two months later. [Frank H. Taylor, Philadelphia in the Civil War, 1913]

        Because they were from counties from throughout the state, the 199th PA often held company reunions rather than trying to bring the entire regiment together. One such reunion was held in 1912 by Company K. For this get-together, Captain Charles E. Eckels, formerly of the 85th PA, traveled from West Brownsville in Washington County to meet his former soldiers in Lancaster County.

       In his remarks to the company, Eckels said that, after the surrender at Appomattox, Company K was given the honor of guarding Union headquarters by General John Gibbon (Commander of the 24th Corps in the Army of the James) because of the company's strong appearance, discipline and training. [Williamsport [PA] Sun-Gazette, September 12, 1912]

      The last surviving member of the 199th PA was Paul Albaugh from Meadville, Crawford County. He died in 1935.

The Mercury, Pottstown, PA, July 15, 1935

Profile of Robert Patterson Hughes

        One of the most prominent postwar members of the 85th Pennsylvania regiment was Robert Patterson "Pat" Hughes of Washington, PA. [I have no photo of Hughes to share, but this link to the Wyoming State Archives had a picture of Private Hughes] Hughes enlisted as a private in the 12th Pennsylvania infantry for three months before joining Company B of the 85th Pennsylvania as a lieutenant. By the end of the war, Hughes was the lieutenant colonel of the 199th Pennsylvania regiment. And by the time he retired from the army in the early 1900's, he was a major general. He is the only member of the regiment who served in both the Civil War and the Spanish American War.

Removing Confederate Torpedoes on James River, 1864  
  LOC

         Hughes was born in 1839 in Washington County. During the war, he became one of the most reliable field commanders in the regiment. He led a small unit to destroy a torpedo station on the James River in Virginia. He later led charges during the Second Battle of Deep Bottom in 1864 in Virginia, and then at Fort Gregg near Petersburg, Virginia (as a member of the 199th PA) in the closing week of the war.

Hughes' map of Little Big Horn 
   LOC

        He married Clara Terry, who was the sister of General Alfred Terry, and was a member of Terry's staff during the campaign against the Sioux Indians in 1876. Terry and Hughes came upon the Little Bighorn Battlefield shortly after George Custer's command was wiped out. Hughes drew a map of the field which is now housed in the Library of Congress. Hughes also wrote a brief but spirited tract on the battle in which he placed blame on Custer and absolved Terry, his brother-in-law.
    He continued to advance his army career, becoming Inspector General. In this position, he helped Francis Morrison of the 85th Pennsylvania earn a Medal of Honor for trying to save a comrade's life at Ware Bottom Church (VA) in 1864 during the Civil War. 
    Hughes was sent to the Philippines during the Spanish American War as an aide to General Elwell Stephen Otis. Hughes spent four years in the Philippines, serving at one point as Provost Marshal of the Manila.
    In 1901, after the killing of nearly 50 American soldiers of the U.S. 9th Infantry on the island of Balangiga, Hughes instituted a severe search-and-destroy policy against insurrectionists that resulted in the deaths of thousands of Filipinos. He told a congressional committee that burning villages was not civilized warfare, but that the Filipinos were not a civilized people.

From the Inter Ocean
 Chicago
 February 26, 1902

      Hughes retired from the army in 1904 at age 64 and a 43-year military career. He died in 1909.

1910 Regimental Reunion

1910 Reunion of the 85th PA
Rogersville, Greene County, PA

     Here is a link to a group photograph taken at the 1910 reunion of the 85th Pennsylvania regiment held at Rogersville, Greene County, PA. The link includes the names of all the veterans in attendance. I identified the names of many of the veterans, based on previous photographs taken during the Civil War and afterwards.

Charles Eckels c. 1862
US Army Heritage and Information Ctr.

       To the right are two photos of Charles Eckels of Company E taken nearly 50 years apart. Using his Civil War photo and knowing that he attended the 1910 reunion, It was established that he attended the reunion; then all the faces in this photo were checked  to find a match for the youthful Eckels.
       Eckels was just a 16-year old from West Brownsville, Washington County, PA when he enlisted in 1861. He re-enlisted in 1864. In October of 1864, he was wounded at Darbytown Road near Richmond. In November of 1864, most of the regiment went home following their three-year hitch. Eckels was one of about 125 members of the regiment who stayed in the army. He became a captain of Company K in the 199th PA, but was still brigaded with his old mates in the 85th PA.
     Besides attending the reunions of the 85th PA, Eckels would also travel across the state to meet with his old troops in the 199th (see article below). After the war, he served as Justice of the Peace and School Director in West Brownsville. He was the last president of the regimental veterans association.  He died at the age

Charles Eckels from the 1910 reunion photo

of 90 in 1935 and is buried in the Bridgeport Cemetery in Brownsville, PA.
    Below is an article from the Harrisburg Daily 
Independent (September 12, 1912) about a reunion
of his company in the 199th PA in Lancaster County.
     Eckels led this company at Fort Gregg (VA) and Appomattox Court House in the last week of the war.