A Life of Service: Mark Gordon of the 85th Pennsylvania

 

Experiences in the Civil War (link below)

      Like all Civil War soldiers, like soldiers of any war, 18-year old Marquis Lafayette “Mark” Gordon of Greene County pondered how he would react to being subjected to  enemy fire for the first time. Would he show bravery or cowardice or something in between? Would he stand and fight to protect his comrades and his cause or would he freeze or “skedaddle”?

        Gordon, a highly thoughtful young man and a member of Company G the 85^th Pennsylvania Volunteers, got his answer in 1862 on a chilly night during a battle in Virginia.

Battle of Williamsburg
85th PA is in Keyes Corps
Map Courtesy of Hal Jespersen  www.cwmaps,com

        On May 5, 1862 at Williamsburg, Virginia, Gordon’s regiment was called forward in reserve after the start of the first pitched battle of the Peninsula Campaign where  Union divisions under Joseph Hooker and Philip Kearny attacked the rearguard of the Confederate army during its escape from Yorktown. (The overall Union goal of the campaign was to make a water landing at Fort Monroe, march up the Virginia peninsula formed by the James and York Rivers and capture Richmond, the Confederate capital).

Colonel Joshua B. Howell
from Dickey's history of the 85th PA

        The 85^th Pennsylvania volunteer regiment had been organized in the fall of 1861 by Joshua Blackwood Howell, a prominent attorney from Uniontown, PA. Howell’s soldiers came from four counties in the southwest corner of Pennsylvania: Greene, Fayette, Washington and Somerset. 

     Gordon hailed from Waynesburg, the county seat of Greene County. Gordon was a young school teacher when the war broke out. He chose to volunteer into the Union army to help suppress the rebellion of eleven southern states and preserve the 85-year old republic.

    The "Pursley Guards" which became a part of Company G were organized by Gordon’s father, John “Adam” Gordon, a prominent Waynesburg citizen. Adam Gordon was serving as the first superintendent of schools for Greene County when hostilities broke out. Also serving in Company G were Mark Gordon, his uncle, John Crawford and two cousins, Reason Strosnider and Owen Pitcock.

John Adam Gordon
Experiences in the Civil War

           When they arrived at training camp in Uniontown, Adam Gordon and his son along with the rest of the Pursley Guards were consolidated with another undermanned company to form Company G. Isaac Abraham of Smithfield in Fayette County was chosen as captain and Adam Gordon became the new company’s first lieutenant.

        Seven months later, at Williamsburg, Mark Gordon was called forward during a cold, misty rain with the rest of his regiment. The 85^th Pennsylvania, stationed on the edge of a wooded area, was advanced 500 yards to relieve another Pennsylvania regiment, the 93rd. Some men in Gordon’s regiment had to step over the dead bodies of fallen soldiers to get to their assigned position, surely a sobering sight for these untested men. The 85^th PA and their brigade remained in reserve for the rest of the battle. The entire brigade stood in formation for eighteen hours during a bone-chilling night until the fighting ahead of them finally ceased. The battle ended in a draw, and Confederates continued their movement up the peninsula towards Richmond.

        The 85^th Pennsylvania was not directly engaged in the battle. They were subjected to cannon fire from a Confederate battery about a half-mile away. Most of these projectiles fell harmlessly in the trees in front of them or in their rear as the regiment fired several blind vollies of musket balls towards the Confederate position at Fort Magruder.  

        Two men in the regiment were nonetheless wounded, one severely. A piece of shrapnel cut the face of Captain John Morris of Company F, who was also from Greene County. More seriously, a shell struck down Sergeant Daniel Miller of Company K. Miller’s lower body was badly mangled. Both of his legs were amputated and he soon died in a Philadelphia hospital.

William Elliott Finley
from his memoir The Private's Life

         The wounds suffered by Morris and Miller were the only two casualties in the 85^th Pennsylvania regiment that night. But Corporal William Elliot Finley of Company I wrote that the experience was terrifying for these green troops. He wrote, “The cries of the wounded and dying, the incessant and doleful patter of the falling rain together with the irregular picket firing in front, all conspired to make it a night of horror and unrest.” [1]

     The briskly cold night also had a harmful effect on scores of troops, including Mark Gordon. Many became ill. One member of Company A, John Neill of Washington, PA, remembered hearing his comrades’ teeth chattering up and down the line during the long night of standing in formation.

         M.L. Gordon later wrote of this first battlefield experience nearly thirty years later in his memoir called “Experiences in the Civil War.”  This account was privately published after M.L. Gordon’s death by his son, Donald.

        Gordon was raised in a religious environment at Waynesburg. He attended church and sat in as his father taught a Bible class to adults on Sunday afternoons. At Williamsburg, Mark Gordon found that he was not overcome with a paralyzing fear of battle, nor sacrificial bravery either. Instead, he was enveloped by a sense of spiritual serenity. “I can remember now the thought came to me, ‘What if I should be killed?’ I think I had been a Christian before, but I can remember how clearly the thought came to me that while my death might be a loss to my friends, it could bring no loss to me.’”

Civil War ambulance   LOC

     Gordon became ill from exposure at Williamsburg and was sent to a nearby camp hospital. He was recovering at a larger hospital in Newport News when many sick men were transferred to New York City to make room for casualties from the battle of Seven Pines [also known as Fair Oaks] that began later that month. Gordon therefore missed this fight in which his regiment suffered close to a hundred men killed and wounded.

       Of his illness, Gordon later remembered, “I began to feel the effects of the night before Williamsburg. A heavy fever set in, and as we had no way of transport for sick men, I fell behind. From the time we left Yorktown, it had been raining much of the time, and the roads were simply awful. Late that night I fell in with an ammunition train, and one of the drivers was kind enough to let me ride on one of his wagons, though he had no right to do so. I suppose he saw how sick a boy I was.” [2]

       After some time at home in Waynesburg following his stay in New York City to recover, Gordon rejoined his regiment after an absence of three months.  Ironically, his father by this time had been transferred to an ambulance corps and the two would spend the rest of the war apart from each other. 

     Mark became ill several more times over the next two years. But unlike 300 men from the 85^th PA who were discharged for medical reasons between 1861 to 1864, Gordon returned to the regiment after each sickness and eventually finished his three-year enlistment.

         Gordon would be shot at and shelled many times during the campaigns in Charleston, South Carolina in 1863 and Bermuda Hundred, Virginia in 1864. The life-or-death realization of combat brought some soldiers closer to their faith. Others saw the horrific destruction around them and questioned a belief in a higher being. For his part, Gordon’s faith in God was strengthened by the war. Half of his postwar years would be spent overseas as a Christian missionary.

      Two years after his return from the war, Gordon finished his degree at Waynesburg College. He went on to achieve advanced degrees in both theology from Andover Theological Seminary in Massachusetts and in medicine from Columbia University. He spent 17 years of his postwar life in Japan and wrote two books about his time there. Prior to leaving for Japan, he married school teacher Agnes Donald in 1872. Together the couple had three children.

      In 1889, while serving in Japan, he was encouraged by his son, Donald, to write about his time in the Civil War. Mark Gordon died in Massachusetts in 1900 at the age of 57.

      Gordon’s Civil War memoir includes a dozen letters written to his uncle, William Gordon. It therefore offers the reader a contrast between Mark Gordon’s thoughts in real time (his letters and diary notes) and his narrative written a quarter-century later.

     Gordon occasionally offered political observations in his war letters. In 1863, referring to the Emancipation Proclamation which went into effect a few weeks earlier, he wrote, as a pro-Union Democrat, “He [Lincoln] has adopted measure which we believe ruinous, yet for his misdeeds shall we desert our country [?]” [3]

      Meanwhile, in the spring of 1863, western Pennsylvania was threatened with invasion as Confederate General William “Grumble” Jones led an expedition through western Virginia as far north as Morgantown, just five miles from the Greene County border. This Confederate raid had three purposes: to discourage western Virginians from carrying through with separation and statehood, to disrupt Union transportation and supplies, and to capture livestock for the Confederate cause.

       It was the latter goal that most alarmed the people of southwestern Pennsylvania, who were afraid that the raid would proceed up through their counties to the federal arsenal in Pittsburgh. Consequently, temporary militias were formed, bank holdings were sent away to safe locations, and farmers tried to hide their horses and cattle among the rolling hills of the area. In the end, the raiders stopped at Morgantown and then veered back into the western counties of West Virginia.

      Stationed on Folly Island near Charleston at the time, Gordon got a big chuckle when he read hometown newspapers of the panic caused by Jones’ marauders. He wrote to his uncle, “Our boys had a great time after the arrival of the last mail, laughing over the scare some of the people in Greene Co. had at the time of the threatened invasion by the Rebels, although I suspect, it was no laughing matter then…I think there were some men who should have shown more pluck than to run off with their horses and cattle & [potentially] leave their wives and children in the hands of a merciless, vagabond band of guerillas.” [4]

Union Camp on Morris Island    LOC

       While stationed on Morris Island, home of the famous Confederate stronghold Battery Wagner, Gordon crossed paths with Clara Barton, the most famous nurse of the Civil War and later the founder of the American Red Cross.

Clara Barton    LOC

     Barton was in the Charleston theater of the war to tend to the soldiers and also out of concern for her brother, David, a northern entrepreneur who had stayed in North Carolina when the war began to guard his various business ventures. Clara Barton set up a field hospital on Morris Island. While she tended to a wounded comrade from his company, Gordon wrote, “Away in the night Miss Barton came in and went round among the wounded, talking to them in such a nice way, that I could hardly repress the mental ‘God Bless You!’ that came to my lips and if I had followed my heart would have went up and kissed her right there before them all!” [5]

       While stationed on Morris Island, Gordon witnessed two failed infantry assaults on Battery Wagner in July of 1863 that resulted in thousands of Union casualties. In both cases, the 85^th Pennsylvania was slated to participate in secondary attacks on the battery once the battery walls were breached, but in each case, the follow-up assaults were called off due to massive Union losses.

    The second assault was led by the 54^th Massachusetts, a regiment of African Americans that suffered over 250 casualties but earned the respect of a generation of white Union soldiers like Mark Gordon. Shortly after the assault, Gordon wrote, “In regard to…arming the Negroes…I was opposed to many if not all of them but a close observation of the progress of the war has convinced me that in some instances, I was wrong.” [6]

54th storming Battery Wagner    LOC

        A year later, the 85^th Pennsylvania became part of the newly formed Army of the James under General Benjamin Butler and was transferred to the Bermuda Hundred peninsula in Virginia between Richmond and Petersburg.

      On May 20, 1864, the regiment became engaged in a vigorous skirmish with the enemy at Ware Bottom Church. Gordon wrote, “Here we had the hardest direct fighting of my whole experience. They advanced within a hundred yards of us determined to drive us, but we were as determined to hold our ground. I here shot so fast as to make my gun-barrel so hot that it was uncomfortable to hold – the only time I ever had such an experience.” [7]

Marquis Lafayette Gordon
Experiences in the Civil War

Doshisha U. regents
from Thirty Eventful Years

       Gordon's postwar career showed a commitment to his now strengthened religious ideals. In Japan, Gordon lived in Osaka and became a professor of theology at Doshisha University in Kyoto. Gordon’s arrival came just after the Mejia Restoration when Japan became less isolationist and opened its borders to western visitors and ideas. Christianity was allowed after a ban that lasted two centuries.

      In 1889, while the time of his service in Japan was coming to a close, he was encouraged by his son, Donald, to write about his time in the Civil War. Mark Gordon died in Massachusetts in 1900 at the age of 57 shortly after his return from overseas.

        Prior to his death, in 1891, he had began writing “An American Missionary in Japan.” In the preface, he gave two reasons for writing this book. One was to record “the wonderful manner in which the religion of Christ is approaching the minds and hearts and lives of the Japanese people.” The other reason was to “outline the way in which missionaries…carry on to success the work for which they are sent out.”  [8]

       During his time in Japan, the Asian nation was swinging back and forth between opening up to foreigners to acquire more technology and knowledge on one hand, to on the other shutting down its borders to outside influences. As a doctor as well as a religious teacher, foreigners like Gordon had been welcomed more for their medical knowledge than their Christian teachings. By the time he left Japan, Christianity was seen as a threat to a growing Japanese nationalism movement.

      During a trip to Massachusetts in 1892, Gordon delivered a church sermon gave a sermon, comparing his trip to America to a soldier in the field. Gordon “came [home] as a soldier who visits another part of the battlefield and tells his comrades how the battle is going.”

Gordon as a medical missionary
Thirty Eventful Years

       Gordon added, “We are working for a civilized people…The Japanese ideas of etiquette must be respected if we would influence them. Etiquette requires me to remove my hat when I enter an American house; the Japanese remove their shoes. The Japanese are a progressive nation. Railroads and telegraphs have been introduced…Two years ago, it seemed as though the days of the Japanese missions were nearly ended, but the pendulum has swung the other way and there is an earnest demand for American missionaries.” [9]

       The last year of his life, 1900, was an active one. He finished writing his second book on his missionary experiences called “Thirty Eventful Years: The Story of the American Board Mission in Japan, 1869-1899” which was posthumously published in 1901.

        In the preface to this second work, Gordon's son, Donald, wrote: “The toil of these years had unmistakenly left its mark upon him, and many of his friends wished he had spared himself this new labor... Later, he himself clearly recognized the unwisdom of the undertaking but kept himself bravely at his task though with great weariness of the flesh and although there was even then creeping in upon him the fatal disease which ended his life on November 4, 1900.” [10]

      In “Thirty Eventful Years in Japan,” Gordon was overwhelming upbeat about his missionary experience. Gordon nonetheless included one vignette that demonstrated the danger faced by his family and fellow western missionaries towards the end of his mission. The group had received a chilling letter from some Japanese citizens who wished to expel all foreigners from Japanese soil.

     The anonymous letter stated, “You have come from a far county with the evil religion of Christ... With bad teaching you are gradually deceiving the people but we know your hearts, and hence we shall soon with Japanese swords inflict the punishment of Heaven upon you...In ancient times, when Buddhism first came to Japan, those who brought it were killed; in the same way you must be killed. But we do not wish to defile the sacred soil of Japan with your abominable blood. Hence take your families and go quickly.” [11]

        Perhaps due to this admonition or to his failing health (or both), Gordon came home to the United States. Seven months prior to his death, Gordon delivered an address at an evangelical conference entitled, “The Best Method of Dealing Personally with Unconverted and Inquirers.”  One month later, he was invited by the American Board of Missions to lead missionary efforts in the Hawaiian Islands (that had a large population of Japanese field workers) but had to turn down the offer due to his declining physical condition.

      In September of 1900, Gordon conducted the marriage of his son, Donald, to Louise Ayer in Boston. Gordon died a few weeks later from anemia at age 57 and is buried in Andover, Massachusetts.

        Today, M.L. Gordon’s legacy of achievement lives on among numerous descendants. These include his great grandson and namesake, Mark Gordon, who in 2018 was elected governor of Wyoming.

Governor Mark Gordon of Wyoming

   Endnotes

1.     1 The Private’s History, William Elliot Finley, 1867, p. 10

2.     2   Experiences in the Civil War, M.L. Gordon, edited by Donald Gordon, 1922, p.31

3.     3. Experiences in the Civil War, M.L. Gordon, p.7

4.     4. Experiences in the Civil War, p.34

5.     5. Experiences in the Civil War, p.39

6.     6.   Experiences in the Civil War, p.41

7.     7. Experiences in the Civil War, p. 59

8.     8. An American Missionary in Japan, M.L. Gordon, 1892, Cambridge, MA

9.     9. The Fitchburg (Mass.) Sentinel, March 17, 1892, page 6

1      10. Thirty Eventful Years in Japan, M.L. Gordon, 1901, Boston

        11. Thirty Eventful Years, p. 12

  

John E. Michener and the 54th Massachusetts

Colonel Robert Gould Shaw
54th Massachusetts
LOC

      

         In reviewing the brief 1867 biography called "Prison Life" [acquired courtesy of the New York Public Library] about Captain John E. Michener of the 85th Pennsylvania, one of the most interesting incidents recounted was Michener's connection to the charge by the famous 54th Massachusetts regiment upon Battery Wagner near Charleston, SC in 1863. Michener, it turned out, was in command of the barge that took this entire regiment of black troops to Morris Island shortly before they led a fateful and deadly Union charge. This assault was the basis for the 1990 movie called "Glory" starring Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman and Matthew Broderick. 

         This assault was the second failed Union attempt to capture Battery Wagner. In both cases, the 85th Pennsylvania was assigned reserve duty. While two regiments from their brigade were with the 54th Massachusetts in the attack, but the 85th Pennsylvania was assigned to follow up the initial charge once the structure was breached. In both cases, the secondary assault was called off.

         With the Emancipation Proclamation having gone into effect a few months earlier,  African American troops had begun to be used more extensively by the Union to fight the war. The charge by the 54th Massachusetts is generally considered a turning point because it demonstrated the fighting ability and tenacity of the black troops and helped them generally gain acceptance from many, perhaps most, of their white comrades. Despite their inability to hold the Battery Wagner once the walls were breached, the high number of casualties and courage they displayed dispelled many assumptions among Union soldiers that black troops lacked discipline and would not fight with military discipline. 

         Black regiments such as the 54th Massachusetts were commanded by white officers. Colonel Robert Gould Shaw was chosen to lead this regiment, which actually had troops from various states including Pennsylvania. Shaw, age 25, was from an abolitionist family from Boston.

       The 85th Pennsylvania spent a nearly a year, from February of 1863 until January of 1864, in South Carolina in what turned out to be a futile attempt to capture Fort Sumter and the city of Charleston. The campaign is remembered for the two failed assaults on Battery Wagner that cost hundreds of Union lives, followed by a trench digging operation that eventually led to the abandonment of the structure by the Confederates.  It was assumed that Fort Sumter would soon follow, but the fort where the war began in April of 1861 did not return to Union hands until the last months of the war nearly four years later. 

      In the digging operation, which lasted nearly two months, the 85th Pennsylvania lost more men than any other Union regiment. Their entire campaign around Charleston is covered extensively in my book, "Such Hard and Severe Service: The 85th Pennsylvania in the Civil War," published by Monongahela Books.

      In the two assaults, on July 10 and 17, the 85th Pennsylvania was tasked to perform secondary assault duties once the battery was taken. Since the initial assaults both failed, the 85th Pennsylvania was not called upon to attack the fort.

      The second assault on July 17 was led by the famous 54th Massachusetts, a black regiment under the command of Colonel  Shaw. Shaw was killed along nearly a hundred of his men. Another 300 were wounded. 

Union camp on Folly Island    LOC

       The profile of Lieutenant John E. Michener in  "Prison Life," an 1867 brief account of his war service, relates that the young officer from Washington County spoke with Shaw on the barge that transported the 54th Massachusetts across Lighthouse Inlet from Folly Island to Morris Island for their fateful charge. 

        Below is the passage from "Prison Life." It begins with a summary of the 85th Pennsylvania's first few months of the Charleston campaign. It is interspersed with a first-hand account of the passage by a member of the black regiment, Luis F. Emilio.

          From "Prison Life:"  "The Eighty-Fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers and the One-hundredth New York regiments were the first to get possession and establish themselves on Folly Island. Here the Eighty-fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers, the Sixty-second and Sixty-seventh Ohio, the Thirty-ninth Illinois and the One-hundredth New York regiment were assigned to the command of Brigadier General [Israel] Vogdes. Light-house Inlet intervened,

Major Israel Vogdes
National Archives

dividing Folly Island from Morris Island. General Gilmore directed General Vogdes to construct a battery under cover of darkness upon the eastern point on Folly Island, directedly opposite to and within three hundred yards of the rebel works. Here was a natural formation, sand bank, thrown up by the waves of the sea, making a complete fortification, which only required a little rounding up and strengthening.

        "The rebel pickets paced the opposite shore, wholly ignorant of our operations or intentions, and under the impression that but a small force of Yankees was there. Accordingly, the rebel only sent over a mortar shell occasionally, by way of compliment, which did but little damage. Working parties only went to the front after darkness set in, and retired before daylight the next morning.

          "Breastworks, traverses and magazine were soon completed, and the huge guns mounted. Shot, powder and shell were conveyed to the magazine in wagons drawn by horses, mules being considered too noisy for that quiet operation. Even orders and commands were required to be given in a whisper and a cough or sneeze was positively prohibited. Had the presence of a working party or our operations then been known to the enemy they could easily have destroyed the entire Union force with their heavy guns. During the last six nights, Lieutenant Michener, with one hundred men of the Eighty-fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers, had been constantly engaged upon the work, and the last night prior to the opening of the siege performed the very difficult and dangerous task of stowing away the barrels of powder in the rough and hastily constructed magazine.

Folly Island, Light House Inlet Morris Island, and Fort Sumter
National Tribune, Washington, DC, 4-30-1891, p.1

       "On the day of the assault on Fort Wagner, Major Ed. Campbell [of the 85th Pennsylvania]…detailed Lieutenant Michener to take charge of the transportation [across Lighthouse Inlet] and furnish boats to carry troops, stores and artillery. Colonel Robert G. Shaw, with the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts (colored) regiment arrived in the afternoon to take part in the assault. Lieutenant Michener succeeded in getting the entire regiment in a large barge and had them quickly towed over to Morris Island. Colonel Shaw, after kindly proffering Lieutenant Michener a cigar and thanking him for his prompt assistance in getting his regiment across, remarked, 'That if his black boys had any show whatever, the stars and stripes would be floating over Fort Wagner before sunset.'

      From Luis F. Emilio of the 54th Regiment: "After a march of some six miles, we arrived at Light- house Inlet and rested, awaiting transportation. Tuneful voices about the colors started the song, 'When this Cruel War is Over,' and the pathetic words of the chorus were taken up by others. It was the last song of many; but few then thought it a requiem. By ascending the sand-hills, we could see the distant vessels engaging Wagner. When all was prepared, the Fifty -fourth boarded a small steamer, landed on Morris Island, about 5 p. m., and remained near the shore for further orders." [History of the 54th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, p.68]

54th Massachusetts at Fort Wagner   LOC

         From "Prison Life:"  "Colonel Shaw’s regiment was the first colored regiment organized in the free States, and both the Colonel and his brave boys shared in a mutual anxiety to show to their country and the world that it was not in vain that blacks as well as whites had been summoned to battle for its life and the freedom of man. …it went forward…to take its place in the front line of the assaulting column…the distance to be crossed at double-quick was half a mile. Not many, however, of these brave men fell until the pierced but unshaken column had almost reached the ditch and was within short musket range of the fort when a sheet of fire from small arms lighted up the enshrouding darkness while howitzers in the bastions raked the ditch as our men swept across it and hand grenades from the parapet tore through them as they climbed the seamed and ragged face of the fort and planted their colors for a moment on top.

         "Here fell Colonel Shaw, killed instantly. Here also fell General [George] Strong, mortally wounded, with Colonel [John L.] Chatfield and many other brave and gallant officers…."

Charles Cox and Lt. Robert G. Taylor

 

Charles Cox
from  Percy Hart's History and Directory of the Three Towns, 1904, p.167

        

        An interesting relationship that developed in the 85th Pennsylvania during the war was between Lieutenant Robert Gillis Taylor of Company E and Charles Cox of Virginia. It was a relationship that seemingly lasted nearly 40 years and ended with a strong sense of irony as the two men passed away on the same day in 1899.
        To be frank, this article includes much speculation about Cox because records of his life are extremely sparse. The writer hopes the reader will indulge his speculations and assumptions.
         Two questions about the Taylor-Cox connection remain unanswered. What was their relationship after the Civil War, and how did Charles Cox become a prosperous member of the Brownsville, Pennsylvania community?
         Let us begin with Taylor's war service. Lieutenant Taylor enlisted at the age of 27 into Company E at Washington, PA. He was likely recruited by Captain Henry A. Purviance, the co-publisher of a Washington, PA newspaper. [See last week's post for a profile of Purviance].  Taylor served as a first lieutenant along with Thompson Purviance, a young cousin of Henry Purviance who was killed at Seven Pines.
        Taylor spent 13 months in the 85th Pennsylvania. He is listed as having been wounded at Seven Pines on May 31, 1862. He was medically dismissed for "partial paralysis" almost six months later on November 22, 1862.
        When Taylor returned to Washington County, he was accompanied by an African-American from Virginia named Charles Cox. One source noted that Cox was from the area of Norfolk, Virginia. If so, they two probably met either when the regiment landed at Hampton Roads for the Peninsula Campaign in April of 1862 or while the regiment was stationed at nearby Suffolk, VA between September and December of 1862. Cox may have been a free man, but more likely a displaced slave who became employed by Taylor as a valet or cook during Taylor's time in the army. Cox may soon have tended to Taylor's physical needs in camp as a result of the paralysis.
      At the time of the meeting between Cox and Taylor, the issue of emancipation of slaves was highly controversial. President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862. It was to take effect on January 1, 1863 for slaves in the states of the Confederacy. Many Americans, including Union soldiers, spent the fall of 1862 debating the issue. While abolitionists were pleased, many other northerners were concerned that the primary goal of the war, which so far had been saving the Union, would be superseded by freedom for slaves.
       Cox was around 50 or so years old when the two returned to western Pennsylvania together. Perhaps Taylor, who seems to have come from a well-to-do family (a brother became a college professor) felt he still needed help in his recovery. He may also have valued Cox's companionship and perhaps even friendship while camped at Suffolk.
        By 1880, Taylor was living in the western part of Washington County near the Monongahela River.  Cox had crossed the Monongahela River to live in Luzerne Township, a part of Brownsville, Fayette County. Cox probably did not work for Taylor at this time, but the two appear to have remained on friendly terms. By this time, Cox was married to Catherine (Peyton) and had two sons, Henry and William.
        Catherine was younger than Charles, by about 25 years, according to their shared headstone. The 1880 census lists her as having been born in Virginia, leading to the possibility that she traveled north with Taylor and Cox in 1862. Both sons are recorded as having been born Pennsylvania. Catherine would have been around 20 years of age when Taylor and Cox left the regiment.
     Charles Cox is listed in the 1880 census as being employed as a laborer. Accounts of his age vary wildly. This census lists his age as 65, meaning his birth would have been round 1815. His headstone, however, lists his birth year as 1799, meaning he would have been over 80 years of age in 1880. In Percy Hart's history of Brownsville, Cox is noted as having been 107 years old at his death in 1899, making his birth year around 1792.
     Also perhaps noteworthy in the 1880 census is that Cox and his family lived among white neighbors at this time.
     In his 1904 history of the Brownsville area, local resident and author Percy Hart lists Cox among the three most prominent African American residents of the town. Hart includes a photo of Cox (top of page), who had died a few years earlier, but offers no other biographical information.
     In 1891, the Connellsville Weekly Courier carried this brief paragraph about Cox.

      Although the article highlights the fact that Cox was given a place of honor at the regimental reunion, the language used is cringe-worthy by modern standards. The article used the term "captured" to describe Cox's attachment to the regiment, which does not appear to be a matter of coercion, and does not mention Taylor's role in his migration to the North.
       Furthermore, City Point, VA was developed into a Union base in 1864, 19 months after Cox left Virginia for Pennsylvania.
     In reality, Cox probably was considered an honorary part of the regiment; his presence at the reunion may have reminded the veterans that the freedom of people like Cox was one of the positive outcomes of the war.
      The article also states Cox was captured by "the Brownsville company." This is incorrect. Company C was the company of the 85th Pennsylvania with men mostly from Brownsville and the immediate area. Taylor was a member of Company E, which were men from Washington and Greene Counties. Taylor did hail from East Bethlehem and Centreville, PA in Washington County, just a few miles from Brownsville. The fact that Cox settled near Brownsville may have led to the assumption in the article that he was first associated with the "Brownsville company."
    Taylor went on to a prominent career in local business and politics. After recovering from the paralysis, he worked as a clerk for a railroad company in Pittsburgh.  In 1886, he was appointed the commissioner of the Cumberland Road (today's Route 40 in Pennsylvania) by Governor Robert E. Pattison, replacing fellow 85th Pennsylvania veteran Moses McKeag, who had passed away. A year later, Taylor was elected as a commissioner for Washington County. (Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania, Volume 1, 1893)

Hart's Directory, p.255

This death registry lists Taylor and Cox as having died on the same day.

Obituary for Robert G.  Taylor
Pittsburgh Daily Post, 11-21-1899, p.1

This article about the Taylor-Cox relationship seems to contain fairly accurate information about Cox, who very likely was a servant for Taylor during the war.
   

Obituary for Charles Cox
Pittsburgh Press, 11-21-1899, p.8

     This article notes Cox's nickname as "Captain Charlie." It is unknown where Cox picked up this moniker. If he were born near Norfolk, he may have worked at the port there. Or he may have worked on the river at Brownsville, where passenger and cargo ships were docked and maintained during the 1800's. The article notes that Cox was financially successful but does not state the kind of work in which he had engaged. 

     Cox was buried in Brownsville and has a rather prominent headstone for himself and his family, perhaps denoting that he did indeed find financial success after he crossed the Mason-Dixon Line into Pennsylvania. 

New Bethlehem (PA) Vindicator
11-24-1899, p.6

     Finally, this article from a newspaper in northeast Pennsylvania focuses on the unusual matter of the two men passing away on the same day: November 20, 1899. It also implies that they maintained some sore of relationship after returning from the war.
    Robert G. Taylor is buried in the Taylor Cemetery in Centreville, Washington County, PA.

Disgruntlement on Folly Island

                            

              The following letter was written from Folly Island, South Carolina in the spring of 1863 by a member of the 85th Pennsylvania. The regiment spent a year in the area around Charleston Harbor in a fruitless Union attempt to re-capture Fort Sumter and subdue the city of Charleston. His anonymous letter, signed only as "A High Private,"  reflects dissatisfaction with the treatment of the men and the lack of support from their officers. With the direction of the war shifting from restoration of the Union to also freeing slaves, the writer, like many Unionists, balks at the concept of fighting the war for the benefit of enslaved blacks.

       

Map of Charleston Harbor
Charleston is to the top middle of the map; Folly Island is circled     LOC

    The soldier is from Company D, which was composed of men from Washington County and Greene County. My two ancestors (John and Stephen Clendaniel) were members of this company. But neither one penned this letter. My family has a few of their Civil War letters and they did not have the level of education to write the following. The author remains a mystery. 

     The article appeared originally in the Washington (PA) Examiner (exact date unknown) and was reprinted in The Democratic Watchman from Bellefonte, PA in the center of the state. Both of these newspapers supported positions of the Democrat Party. The date of publication in the Watchman was June 12, 1863. 
     The letter is italicized below. My comments are interspersed throughout the letter in red.

                              “Soldier Sentiment – A Very Interesting Soldier Letter”

Camp Peck

Folly Island, South Carolina

May 20, 1863

     Perhaps a line from the 85^th Pennsylvania Regiment might interest you, especially as nearly half our number hail from Washington county. The 85^th Pennsylvania consisted of ten companies. Companies A and B, as well as large parts of Companies D and E hailed from Washington County. I would put the percentage from Washington County at around 35-40%, more than the other three counties from which the men came (Fayette, Greene, Somerset).  We have now put in here for four months in this department. The regiment left New Bern, North Carolina in January and landed on the coast of South Carolina for a year-long siege. We came and took possession of this inhospitable island on the 5^th of April, preparatory to making an advance on Charleston. They crossed an inlet from Cole Island and landed on Folly Island with no opposition, as the Confederates withdrew just before Union forces arrived. But since the naval attack on Fort Sumpter on the 7^th [of April] ult., there has been little said in regard to capturing the city. This failed Union naval attack, consisting mostly of ironclads, was bombarded by Confederate shore batteries, as well guns from Fort Sumter, and withdrew. The Union naval blockade of Charleston was still intact, but Charleston didn't fall until February of 1865 when Sherman's Army caused the Confederate army to abandon the city. The most we hear is from the New York papers. They frequently speak of things which should have happened even in our own camps – things that none of us ever heard of before. Apparently "Fake News" existed during the Civil War.

     About five thousand troops are left here, and the Island is well fortified. Union forces first fortified the

Union camp on Folly Island  LOC

southern end of the island. We have been building forts and breastworks ever since we came. When Union General Quincy Gillmore arrived in June to take command of the Department of the South, he was puzzled as to why the southern end of Folly Island was fortified instead of the northern end closer to Morris Island. He asked if Union forces planned to swing the island around in order to attack Fort Wagner, Fort Sumter and Charleston.. He soon began fortifying the northern end of Folly Island as a platform to eventually invade Morris Island. We are in view of Sumpter and a portion of the city, and the rebel camps on James Island can be seen, but not reached without a heavy force from all appearances. The rebel pickets come up to within talking distance of us every night, but keep their distance through the day.  Soldiers from the two sides soon began trading with each other (newspapers, coffee, tobacco, sugar, etc.) when the officers were not around. Sometimes they even swam together. The weather is extremely warm – equal to the month of August in Pennsylvania. We get provisions plenty, such as the army rations. All does well enough, except the hard tacks we would willing exchange for bread of some other kind. "Hardtacks" were rather tasteless biscuits made of flour and water. They were rock-hard (until softened in water or coffee) but remained edible for months, even years. The paymaster has visited us twice since we came south, though his presence the

Payday
A Soldier in the Civil War, 1886

last time failed to render satisfaction as on former occasions. Our lost clothing had to be paid for. I shall not attempt to give the causes from which our clothing was lost, as it has already been published; but during our campaign last summer and fall all who were not in hospital lost their suits of clothing and had to draw others on requisition. The run up our clothing bill far above our allowance. The government allows us forty-two dollars a year for clothing and our bills overrun our allowance from twenty to fifth dollars to each man. The 85th PA first left their supplies behind at Seven Pines when they were overrun by Confederates. Their next set of supplies were on a transport that sank while they were on their way to South Carolina. While in North Carolina during December, 1862, the were mocked by Union troops stationed there for the ragged appearance of their often ill-fitting replacement uniforms.

     Our officers admit that they had attended in [illegible] time this money could have been saved us. Yes, had they devoted the time they spent in drafting their resolutions March last, to our affairs, our money would not have been extracted from us. The implementation of the Emancipation Proclamation at the beginning of 1863 caused controversy in the North, as many supported the war to preserve the Union, not for the freedom of slaves. The 85^th PA made national news for holding meetings in support of Lincoln’s policies and administration, with some holdouts, such as the writer of this letter. Had they [our officers] devoted the time they spent in drafting their resolutions in March last to our affairs, our money would not have been extracted from us. I see in the papers from the North many patriotic letters and most of resolutions adopted they the officers of the different regiments in this department. Their main object seems to be to denounce the whole Democratic party in general – threatening every loyal heart with the rope and bayonet who mentions conciliation and peace. Western Pennsylvania was strong Democrat Party territory. But unlike the Copperheads who favored a peace settlement to stop the fighting, most Democrats in the regiment wanted to continue the war until victory. They say the soldiers don’t want peace but are eager to fight. Allow me to say this eagerness rests wholly among those who live better than they ever did at home we are willing to fight to the bitter end for the Constitution and the old flag, but we have thus far seen the fruitless efforts to overwhelm the millions arrayed in battle. Still the encrimsoned waters of this civil war is not subsiding. Now the truth of the matter is there is not a man amongst us but would rejoice at the end of this struggle and an honorable peace. A peace satisfactory to the whole American nation is the ardent desire of every soldier in this army. Please say to those noble peace men of our country that the soldiers of the 85^th will vote for any man who will bring it about.

                                                                        Truly yours, 

                                                                        A HIGH PRIVATE

                                                                        Co. D   85^th P.V.

New York Times
March 21, 1863

      Interestingly, the writer kept his identity secret. Soon afterwards, Lieutenant John E. Michener of Company D sent a pro-war letter to a Republican Party newspaper in Washington (PA) signed by every man in Company D. This implies that the writer of the above letter also signed the pro-war Michener letter. This suggests that the author of the pro-peace letter was either pressured into signing Michener's pro-war resolution, he had changed his mind (unlikely), or decided to join the majority while keeping his pro-peace sentiments to himself.

     

Shore of Folly Island
The Union blockading fleet is to the right.   LOC

      The 85th Pennsylvania was soon to observe the bravery of the 54th Massachusetts who led an assault on Fort Wagner (Morris Island) with heavy losses. My book, "Such Hard and Severe Service: The 85th Pennsylvania in the Civil War," published by Monongahela Books, has several first-person accounts  of how this event changed the minds of many white troops about the bravery and discipline of black troops.