Eli Crumrine Makes His Move

       

Eli Crumrine
Photograph Subject Files
American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming
Annals of Wyoming, Vol. 58, p. 13, 1986

      One effect of the Civil War, an unbelievably bloody affair,  is that it gave soldiers the opportunity to experience lands and peoples with whom they would otherwise have been unfamiliar. The men in the 85th Pennsylvania, for example, traveled across the south from Virginia to Georgia and back. If they survived, they came home more worldly (and perhaps haunted) than they otherwise would have been because of this experience.

       This made it easier for many to move soon after the end of the war, often to the West to take advantage of settling on cheap farmland in states like Indiana or Nebraska. Many 85th veterans made the move to these and other states like Iowa, Missouri, Kansas. Some ventured to Oklahoma, Texas, the Dakotas and even farther away to the west coast. They were mainly young men in their 20's or early 30's in search of economic opportunity.

       Only one member of the regiment settled in Wyoming, and he relocated there more than 20 years after the war ended. [Two other 85th soldiers had connections to Wyoming, which will be explored later in this article.]  He was Eli Crumrine, a Civil War musician from East Bethlehem, Washington County, who enlisted at age 18 into Company B. His postwar journey for the far reaches of the United States came later in life when he was 43 years old. Crumrine was an established professional in banking for 20 years in western Pennsylvania with as a wife and three young children. However, his chose to head off for Laramie in Albany County, Wyoming where he spent the last 26 years of his life. 

Boyd Crumrine
Commemorative Biographical Record
of Washington County (Chicago, 1893), p.209

         Eli was one of five Crumrines associated with the 85th PA.   All five  survived the war. The other four were his cousins; only Boyd and Bishop were brothers to each other. [Bishop was turned down trying to enlist into the 85th which was full at the time. He instead joined the 4th PA Artillery] The other cousins in the 85th were Jackson and Daniel Crumrine. Following the war, Boyd Crumrine became one of the most prominent attorneys and historians in Washington County. Bishop [Topeka] and Jackson [Alton] moved to different cities in Kansas. Daniel went home to Washington County and became a farmer. Daniel lived until 1929, one of the longest living men from the regiment.

      Eli enlisted as a fife player in Company B in 1861 and eventually became part of the regimental band. On the last day of 1863, while the 85th PA was stationed on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, some new instruments arrived and the regimental band was reorganized. Historian Luther S. Dickey wrote, " Three silver fifes, eight tenor and one bass drum arrived today for the Regimental band; the re-organized band is as follows : Sergt. Samuel Woods, Company E, and Corp. Henry L. Regar, Company H, principal musicians; Robert B. Thompson, Company A, Eli Crumrine, Company B, and John Stuck, Company I, fifers; John W. Ingles, Company A, Isaiah Jordan, Company D, Daniel Swan and James McCuen, Company F, drummers." [p. 303] 

Civil War Fife Player  LOC

        Music was important in the daily life of most regiments. Any early contribution of the 85th musicians, however, was nearly catastrophic. It almost provoked a confrontation with fellow Union troops at Fort Lincoln near Washington, D.C., in late 1861. As described by Private Milton McJunkin of Company D, "“as we passed Fort Lincoln on our way to camp Casey we came very near being cut to pieces by our own men...right opposite Fort Lincoln was a very pretty place to rest and the officers [of the 85th] told the drummers to give the boys the long roll which is invariably to arms[.] it was not 2 seconds until we had 4 pieces of artillery leveled on us, and our colors was all that saved us from being tore all to smash[.]” [The Bloody 85th by Patrick Schroeder, Ronn Palm and Richard Sauers, 2000, p.9]

      The soldiers in Fort Lincoln, hearing what they thought was an attack cadence, nearly mistook the 85th for Confederates. From then on, the music provided by the musicians of the 85th conformed to military standards. 

         Besides sounding out camp orders, musicians also performed impromptu concerts in camp. [A list of Civil War marching songs can be found here.] The Kennedy Center website states that Civil War musicians could be divided into two general categories: field musicians and members of regimental bands.

     "Field musicians included the fife-and-drum corps with the marching units and the buglers that accompanied both the cavalry and the infantry. These musicians marked the activities of daily wartime life, including wake up, lights-out, roll call, and drills. The music also helped organize the movement of the troops and even conveyed combat orders to soldiers, who were trained to recognize these commands..."

      "Larger [regimental] bands performed as commanding officers inspected and addressed the troops; they would also present regular concerts and entertain soldiers in camp. The bands helped maintain morale and reinforce spirit and resolve. Musicians also did whatever was needed--staffed ambulances, tended wounded, and even fought as the war raged on."

Lemuel Thomas headstone
Hampton (VA) National Cemetery
Contributed by Ron Stewart
findagrave.com

       For one 85th musician, 24-year old Lemuel Thomas of Company C, helping wounded soldiers during the Battle of Second Deep Bottom in Virginia in August of 1864 cost him his young life. Regimental historian Luther S. Dickey wrote, "Musician Lemuel Thomas of Company C, was on duty with Surgeon [Samuel] Kurtz of the Regiment assisting in caring for the wounded. Surgeon Kurtz was standing with an arm resting against a tree when a cannon ball from a battery of the enemy ricocheted, striking the heel of his shoe and then bounded to the head of Musician Thomas, fracturing his skull from which he died the following day. Although painfully wounded by the enemy's missile Surgeon Kurtz remained on duty." [p.355]

       Most aspiring soldiers like Eli from East Bethlehem joined Company D of the 85th PA. Eli, however, joined Company B, perhaps to be with his cousin, Boyd, who hailed from Washington City. Ironically, Boyd's time in the 85th PA was brief. After being promoted to quartermaster of the entire regiment, Boyd transferred to another regiment where he spent most of the remainder of his service posted at Fort Delaware, a prison-of-war camp for Confederates and northern lawbreakers.

       The only wartime primary source we have from Eli is a letter he wrote home near the end of his three-year enlistment to a local newspaper describing camp polling numbers for the presidental election of 1864. It was the first time absentee voting was allowed. Some states like Pennsylvania allowed soldiers to vote in the field. Other states required the soldiers to return home in order to vote. Overall, the vote of soldiers was 4-1 in favor of Abraham Lincoln's re-election bid over George McClellan.

Pennsylvania soldiers voting in camp 1864
Harper's Weekly, 10-29-1864

       Eli wrote, "On yesterday, the 39th Regiment of Illinois volunteers held an election, also the 11th Maine held one and the results are a fair sample of the whole army. The 39th polled 150 votes in all; out of these 135 were for Lincoln...The 11th polled 362 votes in all; out of these 281 were for Lincoln. These results plainly show that Father Abraham will yet reside another four years at the White House. God grant that he may. The 85th will go for Old Abe." [Washington (PA) Observer and Reporter, October 26, 1864, p.2]

       So long after the war ended, why would an established middle-aged man pick up his family and move to a relatively remote part of the county? 

Albany County (Wyoming) National Bank in Laramie
Courtesy of Albany County Historical Society

       First, however, the question arises as to how the new bank in Wyoming even became aware of a cashier in Brownsville, PA. A news story helped answer that question. "His [Eli's] first employment was with the First National Bank of Brownsville, later with the Second National Bank. The capital which organized the Albany County National bank in Wyoming included men behind the Scranton banks of Pennsylvania, and hence Mr. Crumrine was made cashier of the Laramie bank upon its organization...the appointment being the occasion for his coming to [that] state." [Wyoming Semi-Weekly Tribune, February 26, 1909, p.4]

         Eli took a trip to the West in 1885, the year before he made the move permanent, presumably to visit Laramie and get a feel for his future life. He discovered a remote yet growing community with beautiful vistas and plenty of opportunities to make money. Laramie, founded in 1868 as a boisterous railroad town, was undergoing significant growth at the time of Eli's arrival, from a population of 2,600 in 1880 to 6,400 ten years later. [Laramie has grown in every decade since then and today has a population today of over 30,000.]

Old Main,  U. of Wyoming      Built in 1886    LOC

       Laramie's growth in the mid-1880's was due mainly to the completion of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1868. Prior to the railroad, Benjamin Holladay's Overland Trail for stage coaches and wagons passed through the Laramie Plains. In the late 1860's and early 1870's, Laramie was a raucous town, vexed by Native American raids, unpunished thievery and rowdy behavior. But by the time of Crumrine's arrival in Laramie in 1886,

      Jane Nelson, the president of the Albany County Historical Society, said, "Laramie was trying very hard to become a viable city. It had an opera house, three or four hotels, The Albany County Bank was its third bank and the first to have full electricity." She added that the University of Wyoming opened in 1886, further enhancing the reputation of the city.  Ms. Nelson also noted that Wyoming was forward-thinking in the area of womens' rights. Women were already allowed to serve on juries, and women's suffrage was enacted in 1869, fifty years before the passage of the 19th amendment on a national level.

        Prior to the arrival of the railroad, a former member of Company B of the 85th Pennsylvania, 28-year old Robert P. Hughes, (at that time a captain in the 18th U.S. Infantry) wrote a letter from Fort Laramie (located a hundred miles northest of the city of Laramie) in 1867 to a friend in his hometown of Canonsburg, PA. Firt Laramie was 188 miles northest of Laramie City and was founded in 1834 as a trading post. It soon became a well-known military post. Hughes enlisted in the Civil War as a private and retired in 1903 as a major general.

Robert P. Hughes
Wyoming State Archives

      "The Indians have not been able to operate much thus far since Spring, for the snow thawing in the Mountains has kept the streams so high that they have been unable to cross them without great difficulty. They have succeeded in catching a few [stage] coaches on the Overland Mail Route and also a few small parties of soldiers."

       "I am almost ashamed to be one of the actors in the scene. But our greatest battles now are with the mosquitoes and Buffalo Gnats. They come down on us at all hours and they do not use either Modern Tactics or maneuver or logistics but seem to me to move in the old Roman Style by Phalanxes and they make us scratch our heads quite seriously to determine how to flank them."

       "We have some peculiarities here. We have beautiful lightning every night, but we suffer for it in heat the next day. We have the most beautiful Sunsets I ever saw. The Sun will hide behind one of the Buttes and leave the whole western horizon a blace of fire." ["Loneliness, Sand and Sunsets: News from Ft. Laramie, August 13, 1867," Wyoming State Archives]

          After the railroad arrived, a letter from a Laramie visitor to a friend in Pennsylvania in 1878 was typical in spreading word on this up-and-coming city.

1882 Traveler's Railroad Guide

            "To my surprise, I found thousands of acres of land [in Wyoming] that are irrigated and good crops of wheat, oats and barley have been raised along this line of railroad. Left Cheyenne and soon looked down upon that vast grassy amphitheatre, the Laramie Plains...the hundreds of square miles of pasture lands and arable valleys lie in full view. 

         "In the midst of these plains and on the south side of the Laramie river is the city of the same name. It is distant from Omaha 572 miles, altitude 7,123 feet. It contains a population of 2,500 souls. The only rolling mills in operation between the Missouri River and the Pacific Coast are located here...the Union Pacific Company has also extensive machine shops and round houses here...A public school house is nearly completed...There are some very handsome buildings, blocks and private residences built of brick and some large wholesale and retail business houses. Water is conveyed to the town through iron pipes from a spring 3 miles north of town."

       "The Laramie Plains contain nearly 3,000,000 acres of winter and summer grazing lands....Over 40,000 head of stock are grazing this region...Most of the Ranchmen have from 640 to a couple thousand acres fenced...The ranch house that I am now writing from is genteel, nice and clean, three rooms carpeted and contains some nice walnut furniture. I merely state these facts for the reason that nearly all  Eastern persons that have not visited the Stock Ranches of the Laramie Plains naturally suppose that they all sleep with loaded seven-shooters under their heads, a double-barreled shotgun in each corner of the house, and are regular devils and cuthroats." [Valley Spirit, Chambersburg, PA, October 23, 1878, p.2]

        The writer of the above paragraph, Charles C. Clugston, moved to Wyoming within two years and with his business partner established a settlement near Laramie.

         Financially, the move to Wyoming in 1886 was a wise decision for Eli Crumrine. He was the Albany County Bank's cashier for eight years and was then promoted to vice-president. He was able to acquire a ranch on the outskirts of town and had other holdings. His estate was worth well over $50,000 when he passed away 24 years later.

        Crumine also played an active role in the growth of his new community. He helped arrange a donation from Andrew Carnegie 1902 to build a free county library in Albany (becoming a member of its board of trustees), was active the local Grand Army of the Republic of Union veterans and served for several terms in the Wyoming state senate. 

        Considering the 1,500 mile distance and arduous travel involved, it is noteworthy that Crumrine returned home to western Pennsylvania at least three times to attend regimental reunions, in 1890 and 1909, both in  Uniontown, and in 1910 at Rogersville, Greene County. 

1910 Reunion of the 85th PA
Rogersville, PA  Courtesy of Greene Connections

          Unfortunately, Crumrine became ill with pneumonia on his way home from the 1910 reunion and died one day after returning to Laramie. His wife, Mary, traveled to Denver and accompanied him home on the last leg of his journey. Eli was a long-time asthma sufferer, but his health had improved in the summer months, allowing him to return to Pennsylvania for the reunion. He was 67 years of age when he died. He was succeeded at the Albany County Bank by his son-in-law, Charles Spalding.

Crumrine Home
Courtesy of Albany County Historical Society

         Just a few months before his death in 1910, Crumrine received the endorsement of a newspaper back home in Washington County in case he decided to run for governor of his adopted state. "For a long time, we have heard the rumor that Hon. Eli Crumrine of this city might be one of the candidates for the nomination for governor of Wyoming before the next Republican state convention...Of course this newspaper wants the next governor of Wyoming to be a Democrat...but if there is to be a Republican, we are for the Laramie candidate first, last and all the time." [Washington (PA) Reporter, April 23, 1910, p.6]

Eli Crumrine Death Certificate

             The third member of the 85th PA regiment with a connection to Wyoming is Sergeant Marquis Lafayette "Mark" Gordon of Company G who hailed from Waynesburg in Greene County. The current governor of Wyoming is also named Mark Gordon. He is the great grandson of Marquis Lafayette Gordon.

    

George S. Fulmer and the Reunion Gavel

Pittsburgh Press
12-23-1894   P.16

          Several members of the 85th Pennsylvania regiment had highly successful careers following the war. Captain Robert P. Hughes of Little Washington, who enlisted as a private, rose the rank of major general in the army. Entrepreneur Norman Bruce Ream from Somerset County became one of the wealthiest men in the country. Edward Campbell became a judge in Uniontown, Fayette County.

         Another member of the regiment who prospered was Sergeant George Sisson Fulmer of Company D, who moved to Pittsburgh after the war and became a highly successful building contractor. 

         In addition to his business, Fulmer became a driving force in the 85th Pennsylvania Regimental Association and as its president, organizing reunions from 1882 to 1905.

 

LOC

         At the 1887 reunion in Uniontown, Fulmer displayed a gavel which was used during the formal meeting at the start of the session prior to the dinner, campfire and parade which ensued.

          

        A local newspaper reported that, "President Fulmer read an interesting history and statistical report of the old regiment, comprising the number of men at date of muster in and discharge; number of killed, wounded and discharged in each company, and other statistical information which he himself had complied. At the conclusion of the reading he gave an interesting description of a trip which he took during the past summer to Fair Oaks and adjacent places over which the regiment had tramped in the war of the ‘60’s. On the battlefield of Fair Oaks, he cut a limb from a hickory tree and on his return home made a gavel from it on one end of which is the inscription “85^th Regiment Penna. Volunteers” and on the other “Fair Oaks.” He presented it to the Association to be used at their meetings. On motion of Secretary [James T.] Wells, the relic was received with a vote of thanks. [Washington (PA) Weekly Reporter, 9-1-1887]

           

         

Weekly Courier, Connellsville, PA, 11-     17-1905      p.9

           The Battle of Fair Oaks, also known as Seven Pines, in May/June of 1862, was the first battle in which the regiment participated. It was also the costliest in terms of killed and wounded. About 25 men were killed and another 50 or so were wounded. Fulmer's Company D was on picket duty when the Confederates under General Joseph Johnston launched an attack. Against at least 2-to-1 odds, the 85th Pennsylvania and their division held their ground long enough for reinforcements to arrive. The three day battle ended in a draw with over 10,000 combined casualties.

        Following Fulmer's death, the regimental gavel presumably continued to be used until 1928 at the 56th and final reunion. In 1905, failing in health, Fulmer was for the first time unable to attend a regimental get-together, which in that year was held at Connellsville, Fayette County. A resolution was read in his honor. 

       Shortly after the 1905 reunion, Fulmer died on February 21, 1906 and was buried in the Homewood Cemetery in Pittsburgh. At the 1905 reunion,  Fulmer was paid the following tribute by his fellow veterans, who stated, "He has been untiring in promoting the welfare of the regiment and in arranging for the annual reunions…He has always been generous of his means in helping to defray the expenses of the reunions and in meeting all obligations incurred by the association." [Daily Notes, Canonsburg, PA, 11-22-1905]

          The current home of the gavel, if it still exists, is unknown. Fulmer became president of the association in 1882, held at the Pittsburgh Grain Exchange Building, and held the position for nearly a quarter of a century until his death at the age of 66. 

          He also served as commander of the Grand Army of the Republic McPherson Post Number 117 in Pittsburgh and attended several national encampments of the G.A.R. during his lifetime. As such, he travelled around the northeast to various G.A.R. encampments. In 1886, he was among a train car load of Pennsylvanians who attended a gathering of 11,000 Union veterans in Topeka, Kansas in 1886. (The Daily Commonwealth, Topeka, 7-25-1886, p.4)

    Fulmer was born in Mifflin Township in Allegheny County. His family moved to Beallsville, Washington County, and from this township, Fulmer enlisted into Company D of the 85th Pennsylvania along with his brother, Harry. [Pittsburgh Daily Post, 2-22-1906, p.1]

        

    

Schmidt Building

          After the war, during a career as a building contractor, Fulmer was credited with constructing the first skyscraper in Pittsburgh. (This interpretation may depend on one's definition of a high-rise structure by 19th century standards). The building was the eight-story Schmidt Building on Fifth Avenue. Fulmer also won a reputation as the premier church builder in Pittsburgh, one whose work included the Park Avenue Presbyterian Church (above, which Fulmer attended), the Point Breeze Presbyterian Church and the Sixth Avenue United Presbyterian Church [The Daily Notes, Canonsburg, PA, 2-16-1906, p.7]

 

        Fulmer worked diligently for the regimental association for over 30 years. When the association was created in Uniontown in 1873, Fulmer was voted to the position of secretary. 

     Due to his failing health, Fulmer was replaced as president of the regimental association by Sergeant James Swearer in 1906. In the early 1920's, the aged Swearer handed the presidency over to Captain Charles E. Eckels, the last president of the association. Efforts by the writer to find a descendant of Eckels on the remote chance that the gavel is in his family's possession , have so far proven to be unsuccessful. 

            Below is a letter that Fulmer wrote to a friend, Mollie [last name unknown], probably from Beallsville or the immediate area. The regiment had just moved from Folly Island to Hilton Head, South Carolina in early 1864.

                                                                                                                Camp 85^th Pa Vols

                                                                                                                Hilton Head S.C.

                                                                                                                Jan. 11, 1864

Friend Mollie,

I received your kind letter a few days since and was pleased to think that you must not have forgotten her dear friend and school mate in the 85^th though far from home and among strangers. My mind still wanders back to the pleasant days. That old school house on yonder side hill is still within my view where we spent much happiness friends in the days. Little did I think which was to happen.

              Some of my school mates are ? more others are scattered throughout the country never to meet
again in the pleasant schoolroom.

                But enough of this and now I will give you a short history of what has happened? Since I last wrote to you. We have been on Folly Island within the reach of the sound of [Fort] Moultrie’s cannon, not knowing what minute we might be placed within the reach of their destructive contents. We received orders to leave there on the 5^th of Dec. and started on the 6^th for this place where we landed on the 7^th but we did not expect to stay here any time as there was some talk of an expedition. Out here for to go to Savannah but I believe it has fell through for the present. I do not think there will be anything more done

Here until spring as we have not enough force to do much at present. There are a great many soldiers reenlisting in this department but there is not many from the 85^th. I have not much notion of it for my part. I think I will try it at home a short time before I go soldiering again especially under some of the officers that we have in this Regt. I am not tired of soldiering but I am tired of some of our officers. Eight months and eight days will get me out.

              I heard a few days since that ? Bane was married. Good God I think some of the ladies are getting hard up for a man when such men as [Bane] can find a wife.

             Well Mollie, I suppose you will wait for some brave soldier boy who has fought, bled and died for his county, will you not?

              [Thomas] Harford sends his compliments to you in return. Harry [Fulmer, George’s brother was had earlier received a medical discharge] was well when I heard from him which was only a few days since. It is now time to call the roll and I must close. Hoping to hear from you soon.

            I remain your friend as ever.

                                                                              Geo. S. Fulmer

                                                                               Give my love to all inquiring friends.

                                                                               Direct to Co D 85^th PA Vols

                                                                               Hilton Head S.C.

Fulmer Death Cerrtificate

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.

The Last Wounded Man

f

The Daily Courier
Connellsville, PA
September 18, 1911, p.1

    Next week I am going to speculate about which soldier from the 85th Pennsylvania was the last to die in battle or due to a battlefield wound. This week I will focus on the last man to be wounded who survived the war. That man appears to be Private James C. Davis of Company E. 

    The article at the right from 1911 mentions four veterans of the 85th Pennsylvania and has a revealing mention about Davis as the war was closing.

   The four soldiers from the 85th Pennsylvania in the article are, Davis, Eli F. Huston, (Company E), Henry J. Molleston (I) and Joshua Torrance (B). Huston, Molleston and Torrance were all living in Dawson, Fayette County at the time.

   The story is about a dinner party for Davis, who lived in Oklahoma. Davis had come back home for a regimental reunion that year that was held at Brownsville, Fayette County in mid-September. About 75 elderly members of the regiment were in attendance. 

   Eli F. Huston was 76 years old at this time. He was born in Fayette County. He enlisted as a wagoner but spent the war in the ranks as a private. Huston was wounded in the thigh on Morris Island, SC in 1863 when his regiment was digging a series of trenches that resulted in the capture of Fort Wagner. He was a coal miner following the war, working his was up to superintendent of one of the mines near Connellsville.

    Six years later in 1917, Huston attended the regimental reunion in Uniontown and died the next day of pneumonia at age 82.

   Henry J. Molleston, age 74, was given a medical discharge after 30 months of service. After the war, he attended California Normal School (now California University of Pennsylvania, the school from which the author graduated). Besides finding work as a farmer and blacksmith, Molleston worked as an engineer for a coal company . He also became a preacher in the Methodist Church.

          Joshua Torrance. age 67, was captured at Ware

Andersonville Prison   LOC

Bottom Church (VA) on June 16, 1864 while on picket duty. He spent two months at Libby Prison in Richmond and then another 11 months at Andersonville Prison in Georgia. He was released on April 1, 1865, just eight days before the end of the war. He later served as school director, tax collector and auditor for Lower Tyrone Township in Fayette County following the war. 

       James C. Davis, 65 years of age, had enlisted as a 15-year old in 1861. After the war, he served as a school principal in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. He moved to Kansas in 1880 where he served three terms as school superintendent for Chase County. He later purchased land in Oklahoma and became an oil prospector. 

       The article about the dinner party states that Davis was "the last member of the 85th wounded, the date being April 2, 1865."

         This happened during an assault upon Fort Gregg on the last line of inner line of defenses around Petersburg, VA. Earlier in the day, after a ten month siege, Union forces had pierced the Confederates' outer defensive line, forcing Lee out of his trenches. Lee headed west in a futile attempt to link with Joseph E. Johnston's army in North Carolina. Lee surrendered at Appomattox one week later to end the war. 

 

Storming Fort Gregg    LOC

        Fort Gregg was extremely bloody. Every Confederate  in the fort, numbering about 330 men, was killed, wounded or taken prisoner as the rebels fought to the end to give Lee time to evacuate the Richmond-Petersburg front.

   

Colonel Thomas O. Osborn
Yates Phalanx

        The 85th Pennsylvania was in the first of four waves to rush the fort. They were commanded by Colonel Thomas O. Osborn of the 39th Illinois. Osborn's Brigade made it into the moat surrounded the earthen fort, which saved many lives until several more waves of Union troops breached the parapet and  forced the fort to surrender. The Union suffered over 700 casualties in the assault. *

        Davis was one of 163 remaining members of the 85th Pennsylvania  after 1864  (these remaining men had reenlisted or had joined the regiment after 1861 and were yet to complete their three years). The majority of the regiment had gone home four months earlier.
        The last battle in which the full regiment was engaged was at Darbytown Road near Richmond on October 13, 1864. Seven men were wounded in this affair, none fatally.
       The seven men wounded at Darbytown Road were: Sgt. Charles Eckels (Company E), Corp. Nicholas Derbins (F), Pvts. David Baker (B), Milton F. Bradley (I), Jacob Huffman (F), Samuel E. Johnson (I), and George Rodeback (C). 

         The reduced 85th Pennsylvania was involved in two more fights during the last week of the war, at Rice's Station and Appomattox (see map below), but the author could find no documentation that any member of the regiment was killed or wounded in either fight. So Davis does indeed appear to be the last man in the regiment to suffer a wound or death on the battlefield.

Last 3 Days of Lee's Retreat to Appomattox, VA
85th PA was part of  the Army of the James [ORD] 
Map by Hal Jespersen
www.cwmaps.com

            *NOTE: It has always puzzled the author why the 85th Pennsylvania did not suffer more casualties at Fort Gregg. The 199th Pennsylvania from Philadelphia, engaging in their first battle since joining Osborn's Brigade, suffered ten deaths. The 39th Illinois, also in the brigade, suffered 12 men killed and 31 wounded. Davis was the only soldier in the 85th PA to be killed or wounded while being in the thick of the fight.
           Granted, these regiment were larger that the 85th Pennsylvania at the time. Nonetheless, considering that all of these regiments (along with the 62nd Ohio and 67th Ohio) made the first charge upon Fort Gregg simultaneously, wouldn't one expect to find more losses in the 85th Pennsylvania? 

 

   

Lieutenant Norman Bruce Ream

 

Norman Bruce Ream
From Dickey's History of the 85th Pennsylvania Infantry

       Undoubtedly, in the decades following the Civil War, the two most prominent former members of the 85th Pennsylvania were Robert P. Hughes and Norman B. Ream. Hughes, who stayed in the army and rose to the rank of general,  was featured in an earlier post on this site. The current post will focus on the remarkable war and postwar careers of Ream.
       Ream was 17 years old when he enlisted into Company H in 1861 from Harnedsville, Somerset County. Prior to enlisting, he worked as a teacher and photographer. While serving as a young sergeant, Ream rallied his troops during an assault on Kinston, North Carolina in December of 1862, earning a promotion to lieutenant. The 19-year old Ream may have been the youngest private-to-first-lieutenant promotion in the Union army during the war.
       Ream was severely wounded by a bullet through his thigh during an assault on Whitemarsh Island near Savannah, GA in February of 1864. Ream's avoided capture when he was dragged to safety by his cousin, Lt. Ross Sanner of Company H.

Ross Sanner, Company H
U.S. Army Education and Heritage Center

          Ream returned to the regiment and was wounded in the right leg in the Battle of Ware Bottom Church during the Bermuda Hundred Campaign south of Richmond, VA in June of 1864. Due to his wounds, he received a discharge on the last day of August, 1864.
     [At the bottom of this page is a 1914 article in which Ream discusses a horrific night on Morris Island, near Charleston, South Carolina, 50 years earlier when his company was devastated by a single shell during trench operations].
      Following the war, Ream began a remarkable career in business that enabled him to become one of the leading industrialists in the nation, sometimes mentioned in the same class of mega-business leaders  as J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie and George Pullman.  Ream first moved to Illinois and began an mercantile business. He soon relocated to Iowa and operated a grain and livestock business. By 1875, he continued in the livestock business in Chicago and became a member of the city's Board of Trade. His career in business skyrocketed in the next few decades.
      One of his largest ventures was to help form the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco). He was also involved in the Pullman Railroad Company, U.S. Steel, and the B&O Railroad.
      One newspaper article credited him with the concept of the modern skyscraper.  He was apparently riding on a train over a steel bridge on his way to Denver for a vacation. The article continued, "Sitting there alone he figured it out thus: Here is this heavy train supported over a raging river by

Ream in 1912
       LOC

this structure laid on its side. Stood on end the structure would be the safest kind of construction for a building. The idea was so refreshing he mulled it over all the way to Denver and the first thing he did on arrival there was to write to a leading architect of Chicago, directing him to draw plans for such a building and he prepared to discuss them on his return.
        “‘The Rookery’ was the result, and the result of the Rookery has made a profound change in the architecture of the great cities of the world." Even with Mr. Ream’s backing, trouble was encountered getting people to occupy the higher floors. The first eight floors rented quickly but for weeks nobody would venture above that. Mr. Ream took offices on the top floor and everybody wanting to see him was compelled to go to the top of the building. Finally the nervousness wore off and –well, there’s the Woolworth building."

        Ream made a publicized (in western Pennsylvania) visit to a reunion of the 85th PA in 1909 in Uniontown. It was the first time he had attended a regimental reunion since 1875 at Brownsville, Fayette County. He arrived on a private train car of the B & O Railroad. He spent several days in the area, and was feted at a dinner in Confluence, not far from his hometown of Harnedsville. While there, he discovered  that the town was raising funds to build a new church. Ream pledged money towards the entire construction effort of  the church, some $25,000.    
         Soon thereafter, he organized a meeting of several prominent veterans of his former regiment for the writing and publication of an extensive history of the unit. After a meeting as his Connecticut mansion, historian Luther S. Dickey was hired to write the book. This official history of the 85th Pennsylvania was published in 1915, with Ream providing a free copy to every living veteran.

        Ream did not live to see the regiment's  history in print. He died several months before it was published. One of the pallbearers for his funeral was Robert Lincoln, son of the president. Ream was buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in New York City. He was reported as one of the 25 wealthiest men in the country at the time of his death, having amassed a fortune of around 50 million dollars. 
        This Missouri news article shortly after his death related this story about his first venture into business: “In Harnedsville, Pa., where Norman B. Ream was born and where he passed his boyhood, a neighbor of the Ream family had a flock of ducks. One of the ducks had ventured too far from the water, had become entangled in a crack in the floor of the corn crib and had broken his leg. Under ordinary circumstances, this would have meant that the duck was started on the way to the dinner table, but Norman Ream, eight years old, bargained with the owner for the duck, bought the injured fowl with the pennies he had saved, splintered the broken leg, fattened the fowl, and sold him at a profit.” [Springfield Republican, February 21, 1915, p.8]

          A recent biography of Ream was published in 2012 by Paul Ryscavage. It is entitled, "Norman B. Ream: Forgotten Master of Markets."
    Several web pages offer more information  and pictures on the life of Norman Bruce Ream. They can be found here and here.

Kansas City Journal
October 20, 1898

Pittsburgh Post Gazette
August 3, 1914
Ream describes a terrifying night on Morris Island, SC