The Last Man Killed

   

Frank Leslie's Illustrated

       In last week's post, I  wrote about James C. Davis, who was the last member of the regiment to be wounded in battle. Davis was hurt on April 2, 1865 at Fort Gregg near Petersburg, VA.
       Davis survived his wound and went on to a prominent career in education. He died in 1914 at the age of 63 and is buried in Kansas.
      The next question to answer is: Who was the last member of the 85th Pennsylvania to die in battle? The answer is not as cut-and-dried as one would imagine. My interpretation of the question is: Who was the last to die AS A RESULT of being wounded in battle. Based on this view, several men who were wounded at Second Deep Bottom could be that last victim. And what about those who WERE members of the 85th Pennsylvania but had transferred to another regiment to meet their permanent fate?
  Following the  2nd Battle of Deep Bottom in August of 1864. the 85th Pennsylvania was involved in the fighting at Darbytown Road, VA (October 13, 1864), Fort Gregg (April 2, 1865) and Appomattox Court House (April 9, 1865) before the war finally ended.

New York Daily Herald
August 17, 1864

    In these final three engagements, the regiment suffered several men from the 85th Pennsylvania were wounded but there were no fatalities.
     That means that the last engagement in which men from the regiment were killed was at 2nd Deep

2DP Reenactment  2014

Bottom. In that engagement 21 men were killed and another 73 were wounded.
      In this one-week operation near Richmond, most men died on the day of the most substantial part of the fight on August 18,1864.             The 85th Pennsylvania, as a member of Francis Pond's Brigade, stormed and captured a Confederate earthwork.
       Captain Lewis Watkins of Company E was severely wounded in the arm and  leg while helping to lead the charge at 2nd Deep Bottom. Watkins died six weeks later at Chesapeake Hospital at Fort Monroe (VA).
        Of the men who suffered fatal wounds, Sergeant Myers P. Titus of Company G lingered until November 2, 1864 before dying in a Hampton (VA) hospital. Corporal James Sturgis, also of Company G, hung on from his wound until he expired on November 6, 1864 in a hospital in Beverly, NJ.
        Next is Corporal James C. Bailey of Company C. Bailey was captured on Whitemarsh Island near Savannah, Georgia on February 22, 1864. The exact cause of his demise is unclear. Bailey was eventually released during a large-scale prisoner exchange but died on the voyage home on December 12, 1864. He may have been wounded on Whitemarsh Island. How much this contributed to his death is unknown. On the other hand, his death may have been due to harsh treatment at Andersonville and other Confederate prison camps. If he were wounded on Whitemarsh Island, was this a a contributory factor to his death?
        Next is Private David Baldwin of Company D. Baldwin  who died in Salisbury (NC) POW camp in North Carolina on December 19, 1864. Baldwin was listed as missing-in-action at 2nd Deep Bottom. Like Bailey, it is unknown if Baldwin were wounded causing him to be captured. If he were wounded, it is also not known if this contributed to his death. He may have died of starvation or caught a disease in camp and expired.

Captain Richard Dawson
James Hadden, History of the Old Flag

 


      Captain Richard Dawson of Company I was wounded at the second (and successful) Union assault on Fort Fisher near Wilmington, North Carolina in January of 1865. Dawson was wounded in the arm, which was amputated, but he passed away a few weeks later from the wound on February 1, 1865.
    But Dawson was not a member of the 85th Pennsylvania at the time. Two months earlier, he had been promoted and was an aide to General Adelbert Ames when he was wounded during the storming of Fort Fisher.





 

Corporal Joseph W. Burson
Courtesy of Sharon Zbinovec

      Finally there is my choice for the last fatality in the regiment, Corporal Joseph W. Burson of Company D. Burson was wounded and captured at Second Deep Bottom in August. He was released from prison camp near the end of the war, but died on March 17, 1865, three weeks before the war ended. He died at home in Fredericktown, Washington County, just after being accompanied home by his father, Edward, from a hospital in Annapolis, Maryland.
    Therefore, although it is possible Burson's death was caused by his stay in prison camp, his wound does appear to be a contributing factor in his demise.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/46342950/joseph-w_-burson

Walton Cemetery
Clarksville, GreeneCounty, PA

Ware Bottom Church Preservation Effort

The American Battlefield Trust is working to preserve an additional 53 acres at the Ware Bottom Church battle site in Chesterfield County, VA near Richmond. Please consider a donation towards their efforts. The 85th Pennsylvania was encamped near the site in the spring and summer of 1864. Besides frequent skirmishing with the enemy, the 85th PA fought two battle here. On May 20, the regiment suffered twenty-five casualties including six killed. On June 16, twenty men from the regiment were casualties, including seven killed. My great-grandfather, John Clendaniel, was wounded in this engagement but survived. Four other men on picket duty were captured; two of them died in confinement.

https://www.battlefields.org/give/save-battlefields/save-key-land-four-virginia-battlefields

The Last Wounded Man

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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? 

 

   

85th Pennsylvania Original Company Nicknames & Commissioned Officers

         

                                                     

    
                                                     COLOR KEY 

                                                     Killed in Action

                                                           Died from disease

                                                        Captured, later released

                                                      Resigned for health reasons

                                                     Completed 3-year enlistment

                                                  Transferred to a different regiment

[Company A] “Union Guards” (Washington County)

Captain Harvey J. Vankirk (medically discharged, 1862)

1^st Lieutenant William W. Kerr (captured at 2nd Deep Bottom, 1864)

2^nd Lieutenant John Rowley (medically discharged, 1862)

[Company B] “Ellsworth Cadets” (Washington County)

Captain Morgan W. Zollars (medically discharged, 1862)

1^st Lieutenant Robert P. Hughes (promoted to lieutenant colonel, 199th PA, 1864)

2^nd Lieutenant George H. Hooker (wounded twice in shoulder & foot; completed 3 yrs)

[Company C] “Redstone Blues” (Fayette County)

Captain John C. Wilkinson (medically discharged, 1863)

1^st Lieutenant Isaac R. Beazell (transferred to 168th PA)

2^nd Lieutenant Jefferson. G. Vangilder (transferred to 22nd Ringgold Cavalry)

[Company D] “Lafayette Guards” (Greene/Washington Counties)

Captain William H. Horn (medically discharged for shoulder wound, 1862)

1^st Lieutenant Rolla O. Phillips (promoted to captain, 1862: served 3 years)

2^nd Lieutenant John E. Michener (captured Whitemarsh Island, GA, 1864; exchanged)

[Company E] “Washington Guards” (Washington County)

Captain Henry A. Purviance (killed on Morris Island, 1863, from friendly fire)

1^st Lieutenant Lewis Watkins (died from wounds at 2nd Deep Bottom, 1864)

2^nd Lieutenant Richard W. Dawson (died from wounds at Fort Fisher, NC, 1865)

[Company F] “Tenmile Grays” (Greene County)

Captain John Morris (discharged after facial wound, 1862)

1^st Lieutenant Edward Campbell (promoted to colonel, 1864; completed 3 years)

2^nd Lieutenant John Remley (medically discharged, 1863)

[Company G] “Monongahela Guards” (Fayette/Greene Counties)

Captain Isaac M. Abraham (promoted to major, 1863; completed 3 years)

1^st Lieutenant John A. Gordon (transferred to Ambulance Corps, 1862)

2^nd Lieutenant John M. Crawford (medically discharged, 1864)

[Company H] “Independent Blues” (Somerset County)

 Captain James B. Tredwell (medically discharged for chronic diarrhea, 1862)

1^st Lieutenant James Hamilton (killed at Seven Pines, 1862)

2^nd Lieutenant Milton Black (died from typhoid fever, 1862)

[Company I] “Howell Fencibles” (Fayette County)

Captain John R. Weltner (medically discharged for lung disease, 1862)

1^st Lieutenant E. H. Oliphant (died from typhoid fever, 1862)

2^nd Lieutenant Houston Devan (died from typhoid fever, 1862)

[Company K] “Mountain Rifles” (Fayette County)

Captain Hagan Z. Ludington (resigned 1863, died 1865/disease contracted during war)

1^st Lieutenant Reason Smurr (medically discharged, 1862; later joined 77th PA)

2^nd Lieutenant Stephen K. Brown (medically discharged, 1862, due to typhoid fever)

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.

Captain Ross Rush Sanner

Captain Ross R. Sanner
Company H, 85th Pennsylvania Infantry
U.S. Army Education and Center

              Last week's post was about soldier and industrialist Norman Bruce Ream of Company H of the 85th Pennsylvania. That post mentions that Ream was saved from captivity and possibly death by his cousin, Lt. Ross R. Sanner. Ream was wounded during an assault upon Confederate forces on Whitemarsh Island, Georgia in 1864 and Sanner, also a member of Company H, assisted him back to the Union assault boats at the southwestern part of the island.

Whitemarsh Island (showing defenses) near Savannah, Georgia
LOC

        This week's post will focus on Sanner. Like Ream, Sanner taught school prior to the war as a teenager. Unlike Ream, Sanner continued his career as an educator following the war. In fact, his remarkable career as a principal and instructor spanned about 60 years. He began teaching as a teenager and  "Professor" Sanner was still teaching school at the age of 76.
    A news article five decades after the Civil War contrasted the postwar careers of the two cousins."[Ream] recovered from his wounds and became one of the greatest and richest money magnates of the United States, while Capt. Sanner elected to follow the humble though nonetheless honorable vocation of a pedagogue and in worldly goods and chattels is accounted a poor man in his old age, though rich in honor and respect shown him by the many pupils who have been under his guidance. The multi-millionaire, Norman B. Ream, remained his steadfast friends until his death, but did not remember him in his will...The writer (editor of the Republican) [William S. Livengood] had the privilege of being one of his primary pupils in 1868 and among the readers of the Republican are many who received their first instruction from this grand old pedagogue and who have ever since held him in grateful memory and high esteem." [Meyersdale Republican, February 17, 1916]
        Sanner enlisted into Company H as a 19-year old sergeant. On August 23, 1863, while stationed on Morris Island near Charleston, South Carolina, Sanner was shot in the neck by a Confederate sharpshooter. He recovered, rejoined his company and six months later saved Ream's life on Whitemarsh Island.

Sharpshooters near Fort Wagner on Morris Island, SC

         Four months after that, Sanner was wounded for the second time at Ware Bottom Church during the Bermuda Hundred Campaign and was sent to Chesapeake Hospital at Fortress Monroe. [Ream, his cousin, had also been wounded at Ware Bottom Church one day earlier]. Sanner returned to his regiment on the last day of July six weeks later, but was subsequently granted a medical discharge in September of 1864 after nearly three years of service.

Arrival of Wounded Soldiers at Fort Monroe
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper

        Sanner returned home to Somerset County but was plagued by paralysis in his arm and stiffness in his neck. He was nonetheless able to resume his teaching career, beginning in Grantsville, Maryland, just 17 miles from his birthplace.

.
        Among the various places at which he taught school were the Maryland cities of Cumberland, Frostburg, Oakland, Grantsville, Selbysport and Friendsville, as well as the Pennsylvania towns of Uniontown, Somerset and Confluence. For four years he was an instructor at the soldiers' orphan school in Jumonville, PA. He was still teaching until three weeks prior to his death.
        Sanner died in  1918. At his funeral, Dr. Walter S. Mountain, a life-long friend and fellow veteran of Company H, delivered the eulogy. Mountain said, "Capt. R.R. Sanner and I were schoolboys together and in the same company during the Civil War, hence I know something of his bravery and how well he did his duty as a soldiers...Our first fight was at Williamsburg, Va, and the captain [Sanner] was not found in the rear. He showed the same bravery at Yorktown, Fair Oaks and Malvern Hill. The next battle was at Newbern, NC, [Goldsboro Expedition] where Capt. Jackson was hiding behind a bank along a stream for fear he might be shot, and for which he was dismissed from the service for cowardice, and Capt. Sanner showed his bravery by staying on the bank where he was exposed and won his captaincy...[On Morris island]..the captain exposed his head above the ramparts and a confederate caught him in the neck with a bullet, and he was sent to the hospital. He was offered his discharge, but he said, 'No I am going back to my company to help lick the enemy.' A Confederate [at Ware Bottom Church] caught him in the arm and maimed him till the job was completed." [Meyeresdale (PA) Republican, April 11, 1918]
        Sanner is buried at Confluence, Somerset County in the Methodist Cemetery.

Sanner, age 74
Meyersdale Republican, 2-17-16

Uniontown Newspaper Profiles "Such Hard and Severe Service"

Here is a link to an article in the the Unontown Herald Standard, January 2, 2020, about my history of the 85th Pennsylvania regiment.

https://www.heraldstandard.com/entertainment/books/california-native-pens-book-about-the-civil-war-s-th/article_97ebb3fb-b216-5781-ab33-e35e00440c1b.html

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