Stories from Company B

       

        The title of this article is from a pamphlet written in 1903 to celebrate Memorial Day in Amity, a small community in Washington County, Pennsylvania. While doing research for my book, "Such Severe and Hard Service: The 85th Pennsylvania in the Civil War," I came across an online reference to this booklet. Margaret Farrabee of Amity generously emailed me a copy, and I was able to use several citations for my book.

      The booklet was written early in the 20th century by 66-year old Manaen Sharp, who had served im Company B of the 85th Pennsylvania regiment. Sharp spent a year with the 85th before receiving a medical discharge. After the war, Sharp became a successful business man who owned furniture stores in Amity, Beallsville, and Little Washington, all in Washington County. He also served for a time as county treasurer. He died in 1920 at the age of 82 and is buried in Little Washington. His 1903 booklet chronicled the Civil War service of residents from the Amity area.

       Sharp wrote a paragraph or two about 40 or so soldiers from Amity and the surrounding area, including several from his own Company B of the 85th. [Sharp also included soldiers from other regiments, including the 140th Pennsylvania, the 22nd Pennsylvania Cavalry, and the 1st West Virginia Cavalry]. In doing so, Sharp recounts a series of interesting stories about many of the soldiers. Undoubtedly, Sharp was present for at least some of the events he described. In other cases, he surely heard the stories as they were passed around the campfire. Some others he learned about after the war, perhaps at regimental reunions. Below, I have quoted Sharp [in italics] concerning several members of his company.

     I have included some of my own comments in red.

LOC

CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON: At the battle of Fair Oaks, while aiming his gun, it was hit between his hands and disabled. He reached for the gun of a dead comrade and used it to good purpose.

Anderson returned home from the war. He died in 1877 and is buried in the Lone Pine Cemetery in Amity. 

Burying the Dead at Seven Pines
Harper's Weekly 7-19-1862

WILLIAM BRADEN: When driven back at Fair Oaks [Seven Pines], Comrade Braden was helping to carry his wounded captain [George H. Hooker] to save him from capture. The comrade, J.F. Speer of Canonsburg who was assisting, heard the sickening thud of a minie ball strike Comrade Braden, who said, 'I am hit.' He staggered to the road side and that is all that is known. He is buried among the unknown, but where? 

This story is confirmed by Captain Hooker, who wrote a letter in the pension file for Braden's widow, Nancy. “I hereby certify that Wm. Braden, a private of Company B 85th Pa. Vols, was shot while assisting me from the field at the Battle of Fair Oaks [Seven Pines] Virginia on the 31st day of May, 1862. He fell severely wounded and is supposed to have died from the effects of his wound.” 

Camp on Morris Island
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper

CYRUS [JOSIAH] BRATTON: His grave is on Morris Island, S.C....The autumn of 1863, he was excused from duty on account of sickness, but stayed in his quarters; his discharge papers were signed and with high hopes he expected to start for home in the morning. His messmate got breakfast and went to awaken him and found him in the sleep that knows no waking.

Bratton died of chronic diarrhea at age 25. 

JOHN CLAYTON: He was mortally wounded at Deep Bottom and taken to the hospital at Fortress Monroe where he died and is buried in the cemetery at the fort. At the Battle of Kingston [Kinston, NC] in loading his piece, he spilled the powder but rammed the bullet. He sat down where he stood in the battle line, unbreeched his gun, took out the ball, put his piece together, reloaded, putting in both balls with the remark, 'I will try and ring two of them this time.'

Clayton died from a gunshot wound to the thigh. He is buried in Hampton National Cemetery.

Attack Route Upon Battery Gregg
Robert Knox Sneden  LOC

LEONARD HAMMERS: In his performance of duty he had many narrow escape[s]. Only once did he lose hope -- that was when with others he was ordered to Morris Island to spike the guns of Battery Gregg. this battery could be swept by every fort in the harbor defences of Charleston. When they tied a strip of white on the left arm of this detail, so as to distinguish them from the Confederates in the darkness, hope left him but courage never. When the rebel guard discovered them and gave the alarm, the marines manning the boats refused to land, so the attack was not made.

Hammers enlisted at age 17. His first child was born while he was away in the army. He and his wife, Charlotte, had five more children after the war. He died in 1904 and is buried in Amity. I wrote about the attempts to take Battery Gregg here.

Wounded Soldiers at Savage Station
1862    LOC

ABRAHAM IAMS: This young man took my place in the center of Co. B when I was taken to the hospital. He was mortally wounded at Fair Oaks, shot through the right breast and lay on the battlefield from Saturday afternoon until Monday afternoon when he was taken back to Savage Station. At 2 a.m. the next morning, in a down pour of rain, Robert Bair [James Robison Bair] put him on a train for White House [Landing, VA] where he died and is buried.

Corporal Iams was killed at the age of 25. He was survived by his parents, William and Delila, and his sister, Rachel.

Unidentified Soldier    LOC

DANIEL MILLER: Was badly wounded at Deep Bottom and was sent to the rear for repairs, [then] turned up in the hospital in New York. An order came to the effect that all soldiers who could walk to the railroad train would get furloughed. A comrade, James F. Speer, made him a pair of crutches. On these he started for the train, but had to rest many times before reaching it; but when seated in a comfortable car, contentment was seen all over his jolly face.

  Miller died in 1914 at age 78 and is buried at Amwell, PA. 

Kinston Swamp
45th Massachusetts Reunion 1887

DAVID MILLER: Was slightly wounded on the first and also on the second day at Fair Oaks. At Kinston, while charging through a swamp [left] , he was badly hurt and was helped to solid ground by a comrade who, examining his wound found the ball had passed through a deck of playing cards and buried itself in his side. He died about 1898.

I wrote an article about Miller on this blog which can be found here. Sharp's observation about Miller being wounded on the second day at Seven Pines [Fair Oaks] is interesting because his regiment had been sent to the rear and had not been actively engaged in the fight that day.

Henry T. Reynolds

HENRY TAYLOR REYNOLDS: Was killed June 14, 1864 near Richmond, Va. His body fell into the hands of the Confederates and was not recovered. He had a presentiment that he would not live out his time. A short time before he was killed, he applied for and obtained leave of absence to visit his old parents, as he believed, for the last time.

This story is confirmed by Oscar Lyons of Company B. I have included Reynolds' story in Volume II of my regimental history. Lyons wrote, "The boys tried to cheer him (Taylor) up, but the thought in his mind that he was soon to be killed could not be removed. On the 17th of June, we were in the rifle pits near Petersburg, on the North side of the Appomattox River... Many times through the day, Comrade Reynolds said he felt that his time had come; that he would never again see home or friends, for something told him that he was going to be killed."

Bridge over Chickahominy River
LOC

JAMES SMITH: At the change of base by McClellan's army on the Peninsula it was necessary to destroy a bridge over the Chickahominy river. The engineers had failed to destroy it because of a hot fire from the rebel side. An appeal was made to men in the line. Comrade Smith was one to respond for this important but dangerous work. They destroyed the bridge, checking Stonewall Jackson's flank movement.

Smith attended the last reunion of the regiment in Brownsville, Fayette County in 1928. He died in 1930 at the age of 88. 

Moses Smith

MOSES SMITH: Served his full term but had the misfortune to serve the latter part of it in Andersonville prison. Comparatively few survived this prison life. He was wounded at Kinston Bridge, the ball first striking his gun glancing into his leg. At Bermuda Hundred, an old tobacco barns stood close to the rebel line and was used by the rebel sharpshooters. Comrade Smith and Dave Miller crawled to this barn and set it on fire, completely destroying it. 

Moses Smith was the cousin of James Smith. He was captured at Ware Bottom Church, Virginia on June 16, 1864 with two other members of the regiment while on picket duty. He survived Andersonville and lived until 1924.

Hewitt's Cemetery
Rices' Landing, PA

SAMUEL WALTON: At Wier's [Ware] Bottom Church, while on picket duty, he was approached by a large grizzly unkempt rebel. Sam supposed he was coming in to surrender, as many of them at that time were doing, and was learning against a tree waiting to receive him. Imagine his surprise when the Johnnie fired, the ball striking the bark of the tree near his head, pieces of the bark stinging his face and neck. Comrade Walton did his duty at once. The rebel tried to reload his gun at once. The rebel tried to reload his gun after he was down and fatally wounded. 

 Walton enlisted as a private before being promoted to commissary sergeant.  He spent most of his postwar life in Greene County. He was involved in the lumber business and was the proprietor of S.M. Walton and Sons. He died in 1914 and is buried in Rices Landing, Greene County.     

          

           

The Lucky Card Player

Playing Cards in Camp
LOC

       It was common for Civil War soldiers to toss away certain items just before going into battle. Dice, playing cards and pipes were often flipped away along the road or the brush while marching towards a fray. If a soldier were killed in battle, his personal belongings would be sent home to his family; many soldiers did not want their mothers to know that they had engaged in such habits as gambling or smoking.
       Corporal David Miller of Company B of the 85th Pennsylvania apparently did not hold such assumptions about his deck of cards. Perhaps he did use them to gamble. Maybe he thought he would be spared from injury or death. It could have been that his mother was no longer living. Or perhaps he just did not care. In any event, his decision to keep his cards may have saved his life.
      The 34-year old Miller, at the time a resident of Washington County, had already been wounded once, in the side and in the hand, at the Battle of Seven Pines in Virginia on May 31, 1862 when his deck of cards became a lifesaver. During this battle, about 75 men of his regiment suffered wounds, and about 25 died. Miller recovered and continued his service with his regiment.
     Six months later, in December of 1862, the 85th Pennsylvania was sent to New Bern, North Carolina to become part of the Goldsboro Expedition. This two-week mission, led by General John G. Foster, was tasked with disrupting the Confederate railroad center at Goldsboro sixty miles to the west and to interrupt the supply line for Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.

Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Battle of Kinston
Reunion of the 45th Massachusetts Regiment
December 14, 1887
Post by Jason Tomberlin

     Foster's 10,000-man force was on their way to Goldsboro when they received word of the disastrous Union loss at Fredericksburg, Virginia.
    It is unclear whether or not Foster's goal was to simply stop supplies from reaching Lee (which did not matter now that the Fredericksburg battle had been fought) or whether he was to capture and occupy Goldsboro. With the federal army already badly defeated at Fredericksburg, the threat loomed of Confederate reinforcements being sent from northern Virginia to assist General Nathan "Shanks" Evans and his undermanned troops in North Carolina against Foster's command,
       Foster altered his plan. Staying in Goldsboro, he determined, was now out of the question. He decided he had time to march on to Goldsboro, destroy a railroad bridge and safely return to New Bern before Confederate reinforcements could arrive.
        On their way to Goldsboro, the 85th Pennsylvania was involved in two engagements in and around Kinston, At Southwest Creek, four miles south of the city, Companies B (including Miller) and D of the 85th Pennsylvania were sent, along with the 9th New Jersey, to force an opening through a thin Confederate artillery position. Both Union regiments made it across the creek at separate locations, gaining a pathway for Foster's force to continue on to Kinston.
     The next day, the 85th Pennsylvania as part of Henry Wessells' Brigade, slogged through a thinly  guarded swamp southeast of city towards the Kinston Bridge that spanned the Neuse River. This is where Miller's deck of cards came into play.

From a Kinston, NC Historical Marker
The yellow circle shows the position of  the 85th PA

       While part of Foster's force marched up the road towards the bridge from the south (the left of the picture below), the 85th Pennsylvania advanced towards the bridge from the southwest through the swamp (top left of the picture).

Kinston Bridge across the Neuse River
Harper's Weekly

      In this part of the assault, the 85th Pennsylvania and their brigade were slowed by the chest-deep waters. Confederate sniper fire also made the passage difficult. The Union troops were slowed by trying to advance through the water. On the other hand, as one member of the 85th Pennsylvania later commented, with the lower two-thirds of their bodies in water, the Confederates had less of a target to shoot at.
      During this advance, Sergeant Miller was struck. Nearly four decades later 85th veteran Manaen Sharp wrote a brief tract about veterans in the area around Amity, PA in Washington County.
      Of Miller, Corporal Sharp wrote,  "At Kingston [sic] while charging through a swamp he [MIller] was badly hurt and helped to solid ground by a comrade, who, examining his wound, found the ball had passed through a deck of playing cards and buried itself in his side." [Sharp, Amity in the Great American Conflict, p. 24]

         How badly was Miller wounded? Records are inconclusive.  Historian Luther Dickey, in his 1915 history of the 85th Pennsylvania, listed the names of the three soldiers from the regiment killed on the expedition but not the names of  five more who were wounded along the way. Miller may or may not have been one of these five. A later biographical sketch noted that Miller was treated for his wound in a field hospital. [Presidents, Soldiers and Statesmen, 1894, p. 1263]
        Miller either marched or rode the sixty miles back to the Union base at New Bern. The regiment stayed there for six weeks through the end of January before being transported to St. Helena Island, South Carolina. Their next military movement was not until April of 1863 when they launched an invasion of Folly Island, South Carolina.  This gave Corporal Miller four months to recover and rejoin his regiment.
        Miller stayed with his regiment for the next 18 months, finishing his three-year enlistment in November of 1864. 
       Later, in the 1890 Veteran Schedule, a special census of Union Civil War veterans which detailed their service and physical conditions, no mention was made of Miller having suffered from a permanent wound at Kinston.
        Miller lived in Jefferson, PA in Greene County at the time of the Veteran Schedule. No record of his burial could be found in either Greene or Washington Counties. Was Miller a gambler and/or did he continue his card-playing habit following the war? Suffice to say, he may have made his best gamble of his by keeping his cards close at hand at Kinston in 1862.

The Peripatetic Life of Lt. Colonel Norton McGiffin

       

Norton McGiffin
Property of Ronn Palm Museum of Civil War Images
Gettysburg, PA

         Shortly after the 85th Pennsylvania regiment was organized in the fall of 1861, 37-year old Norton McGiffin of Washington, PA was elected to be the first lieutenant colonel of the regiment. McGiffin would be second-in-command to Colonel Joshua B. Howell, who organized the unit. McGiffin was elected by the officers and was endorsed by the rank-and-file. He was an obvious choice, having served in the Mexican War before going on to a political career in his home county. 

         But after only seven months of service with the 85th Pennsylvania, McGiffin was forced to resign in the spring of 1862 due to illness. He was replaced as lieutenant colonel by another resident of "Little Washington," Henry A. Purviance.  

          During the months of April and May of 1862, when the regiment had just arrived in Virginia for the Peninsula Campaign, 33 men were dismissed for medical reasons. Twelve men had already died from diseases, mainly typhoid fever. 

        Regimental historian Luther S. Dickey wrote, “Lieut. Col. Norton McGiffin’s resignation was accepted, owing to impaired health. This caused universal regret among both officers and men, as he was highly esteemed by all, not only as an efficient officer, but as a most estimable, chivalrous man. The fact that he had served throughout the Mexican War and in the three months’ service before coming to the 85th Regiment had given him great military prestige, and as he was imperturbable in temperament and never gave way to excitement under the most trying circumstances. His final departure was regarded as a distinct loss to the Regiment.”

        McGiffin's time with the 85th regiment was brief; he and the 85th had peripherally participated in just one battle thus far at Williamsburg on May 5 where two of their men were wounded. Although his Civil War record was abbreviated,  McGiffin's overall life was nonetheless one of the most varied and interesting of any of the thousand men who served in the regiment from southwestern Pennsylvania

Siege of Puebla

         McGiffin was one of the few members of the 85th Pennsylvania who had previously participated in battle.  A graduate of Washington [PA] College (now Washington and Jefferson College), he was 22 when that war broke out. McGiffin was planning for a career as a lawyer as he clerked for Judge Nathan Ewing in Uniontown in the 1840's, Then the Mexican War changed the course of his life. During this conflict, he was a private in Company K of the First Pennsylvania Infantry, known as the "Duquesne Grays." McGiffin participated in engagements at Puebla, Vera Cruz and Mexico City, where he stormed the fortress castle of Chapultapec. He was wounded during street fighting at the Siege  of Puebla (1847).  

    Manaen Sharp of the 85th Pennsylvania wrote this brief account of McGiffin's service in the Mexican War around 1900. 

      "[During the Mexican War] McGiffin saw as hard service as any in the greater war of the Rebellion. At the taking of Puebla, after fighting for six weeks, his company was ordered to drive out some cavalry occupying a cross street. He had just been relieved from a 24-hour's picket service, which excused him for the day, but he volunteered to go with the company of 58 muskets. They succeeded in driving the enemy nearly a mile when they ran into as hot a place as could be imagined. They were overpowered and driven back with a loss of 14 killed and 28 wounded, making 2/3 of the company disabled in a few minutes. Comrade McGiffin was hit on the back of the head by something thrown from the top of a building. He recovered from the shock barely in time to dodge something like a crowbar that barely missed him, and striking a heavy door, buried itself 3 inches and stuck fast there."  [Sharp, Amity in the Great American Conflict, 1903]

        McGiffin went home to Little Washington shortly before the end of the war due to his injury. At a banquet at the end of the war held in nearby Canonsburg, McGiffin was presented with a silver-mounted pistol. 

Court House, Sheriff's Residence and Jail
Boyd Crumine's History of Washington County

        A decade after coming home from Mexico, McGiffin was elected to be treasurer (1849) of Washington County before being voted to be county sheriff in 1858. He was in that office when the Civil War began in 1861. McGiffin immediately resigned to join the 12th Pennsylvania for three months. Following the expiration of that term of service, he joined the 85th Pennsylvania.

        After the Civil War, McGiffin moved with his family across the state border and lived for four years as a farmer in Ohio County, West Virginia. He moved back to Washington County in 1870.

          Upon his return, McGiffin attended the organizational meeting in Uniontown, Fayette County in 1873 for the postwar regimental association. This group of former members of the 85th regiment would conduct reunions for the next 45 years. McGiffin was elected to be the first president of the association.

         McGiffin went on to hold a wide variety of political positions, both elected and appointed. He was voted into the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives in 1880 and served one year.

  

        After his term in the state house, McGiffin lived for four years in Ida Grove, Iowa as a farmer. He then lived for the next four years in Fair Haven, New York near Lake Ontario.

James G. Blaine
LOC

         For the next stage of his life, McGiffin was appointed U.S. Consul at Port Rowan, Ontario, Canada by United States Secretary of State James G. Blaine, a classmate at Washington and Jefferson. This was shortly followed by an appointment to the same position at Port Hope, Canada for two years. In the 1890's, he found his way back home to Little Washington.

        McGiffin died on July 30, 1905 in his home town. He is buried in the city's Washington Cemetery. He was the last survivor of the Mexican War from Washington County. 

           McGiffin had many interesting events and triumphs in his personal life. Several of his children, however, did not fare as well. In 1872, his 17-year old son, Thomas, shot a school principal, Welty J. Wilson, at the Union school in Washington, PA. The story has several versions. All stated that Wilson intercepted a note that young McGiffin had written to a female student. Thomas shot him in the hip when Wilson would not return the note.

          A local version of the incident in a Little Washington newspaper was sympathetic to Thomas. "Young M'Giffin," it said, "has borne the reputation of a quiet and peaceable boy of warm-hearted and generous impulses, and is one of the last who would have been suspected of being involved in a matter of this kind." [Washington Reporter, February 7. 1872, page 1]

         Another Washington County newspaper noted, "there are several sides to the story --one of which accuses the Teacher with reading the note before the whole school and also...making fun of McGiffin's 'love sickness;' also of giving the note to some students  to take to the College and there make it public. If this be so, much of the sympathy will learn toward the boy, as no young man of spirit could quietly brook such a needless insult. Shooting however is not the remedy and must be severely frowned upon. Shooting is getting too terribly common--nearly one half the boys of town and country carry loaded revolvers." [Monongahela Republican, February 8, 1872, page 3]

         On the other hand, the newspaper from Warren, Ohio, the hometown of the teacher, came down hard on the teen. "universal sympathy is extended to Mr. Wilson, as well as to the afflicted parents of the hot-headed young man...we cannot refrain from adding that Mr. Wilson was undoubtedly right in refusing to permit the delivery of the note...the murderous attempt on his life was without just cause or provocation...Young McGiffin should be retired to a state prison or a lunatic asylum for several years until his blood has cooled off and his head become level." [Western Reserve Chronicle, Warren, Ohio, February 14, 1872, page 3]

        Wilson survived and lived until 1925. Thomas eventually moved to Hawaii where he spent the last four decades of his life. He died in 1922 at the age of 68, survived by his wife, Malina, and several children.

         Norton McGiffin's second son, Philo Norton McGiffin, became the most famous member of the family. Philo was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. While at Annapolis, he earned the reputation of an unrepentant prankster. But he also demonstrated personal bravery that would mark his life by rescuing two children from a burning home. Furthermore, during a training session, when it seemed his ship's mast might collapse, he dashed up the rigging to secure the spar and prevent disaster. 

            Unable to gain a commission in the U.S. Navy because of it's small size at the time, Philo became a noted officer in the Chinese navy as an instructor and advisor. Philo McGiffin was the first American to command a modern battleship in wartime at the Battle of the Yalu during the First Sino-Japanese War in the 1890’s. 

Philo McGiffin
Nimitz Library U.S. Naval Academy

         Philo suffered numerous wounds during the battle as he personally put out fires, directed artillery and directed movements of his ship, all while receiving fire from four Japanese gunboats. He was in severe pain for the rest of his life. Returning to the United States, he wrote a review of the battle and delivered a few lectures, but finally succumbed to his painful wounds. He shot himself in 1897 and died at the age of 36.

           A few years earlier before the Battle of the Yalu, Philo wrote, "I don't want to be wounded and hate to think of being dreadfully mangled and then being patched up with half my limbs and senses gone, yet a triumph of surgical skill. No I prefer to step down or up or out of this world when my time comes." [The Fall River [MA] Daily Herald, October 2, 1894, page 5]

         Seven years later in 1905, Norton McGiffin was honored on his 80th birthday in Little Washington by the city's G.A.R Post. He was presented with "a fine Morris chair." A letter signed by the members of the post included the following tribute:

       "We congratulate you, sir, that at your very birth, you entered at once upon the inheritance of an honored name, for from that early time when your brave grandfather [Nathaniel] marched in the Pennsylvania line and suffered with [George] Washington at Valley Forge, through him and after him your honored father [Thomas], in his turn filling for many years a large and varied place in business and professional life, the name you bear has occupied a bright and prominent place upon the pages of our country's history." [Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette, January 24, 1904, page 13]

More to the Story of William Braden of Company B

        The Battle of Seven Pines near Richmond, VA in the spring of 1862 is one of the most overlooked yet significant fights of the Civil War. It was the closest major battle fought around Richmond, the Confederate capital, as well as the first fight between the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac. Each side suffered at least 5,000 casualties.

       Why has Seven Pines, also known as Fair Oaks, not been given more attention by scholars? One reason is that the three-day fight ended in significant losses but no distinct winner. Another is that Seven Pines was dwarfed when compared to the series of fights called the Seven Days’ Battles  that had 36,000 total casualties the following month and resulted in the end of Union General George McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign.

     Furthermore, little of the Seven Pines battlefield has been preserved other than a few homes used as hospitals and roadside markers. The landmark Twin Houses are long gone. Today, the battle site has been replaced by the town of Sandston and a portion of the Richmond International Airport.

The 85th PA is in Casey's Division in an exposed position when the fight began. Porter,
 Franklin and Sumner are all on the opposite side of the rushing Chickahominy River. 

                                                    Map by Hal Jespersen, www.cwmaps.com

     Seven Pines nonetheless had great significance in the story of the 85th Pennsylvania. It was not only their first taste of  the conflict  (other than standing in formation during the Battle of Williamsburg a month earlier) but also for being the largest battle in which they ever participated. 

    Battle losses coupled with sicknesses that plagued McClellan’s army on their trek up the Virginia peninsula towards Richmond proved the months of May and June of 1862 to be the most devastating for the 85th in terms of combined  deaths.

       One of those in the 85th killed during the first day of the battle was 22-year old William Braden of Company B from Washington County. Braden’s company had just been replaced on the picket line by Company D when the Confederates launched their attack in the early afternoon of May 31. The 85th PA was soon a part of two retreats in the early hours of the battle from the area around the Twin Houses. 

        We have two first-person accounts from this part of the fight that state that Braden was shot and killed while trying to assist his wounded officer, Lieutenant George H. Hooker, from the field. Hooker survived his wound, was promoted to captain, and lived another 45 years.

From the History of the 103rd Regiment PA Volunteers p. 174

         Private Manaen Sharp, himself a member of Company B, recorded that, “Comrade Braden was helping to carry his wounded captain [Hooker, then a lieutenant] to save him from capture. Another comrade who was assisting, J.F. Speer of Canonsburg heard that sickening thud of a minie ball strike Comrade Braden, who said, ‘I am hit.’ He staggered to the road side….”

     Manaen Sharp wrote his version of the incident in a brief tract called “Amity in the Great American Conflict” in commemoration of Memorial Day in 1903 in which he chronicled the Civil War service of local residents. Sharp owned several furniture stores in Washington County and died in 1920 at the age of 82.

       James F. Speer, who completed carrying Hooker to safety following Braden’s death, was later seriously wounded in the shoulder at the Battle of Second Deep Bottom in 1864 and survived. He returned home to Washington County and found work as a bricklayer and stone mason. Around the turn of the century he worked as a furniture salesman, perhaps in the employ of Manaen Sharp. Speer died in 1924 at the age of 82.

Lt. George H. Hooker

   Since Braden’s  body and those of hundreds of others on both sides were never recovered for individual  burials, Nancy Braden, William’s widow, needed the written testimony of Captain Hooker as proof of her husband’s death in order to qualify for a widow’s pension. In 1865, Hooker wrote, “I hereby certify that Wm. Braden, a private of Company B 85th Pa. Vols., was shot while assisting me from the field at the Battle of Fair Oaks, Virginia on the 31st of May, 1862. He fell severely wounded and is supposed to have died from the effects of his wound.” 

      

               Hooker a native of the section of Virginia that became West Virginia during the war, was later  promoted to captain and served as an adjutant on the staff of Colonel Joshua B. Howell. Hooker returned home to West Virginia following the war and farmed in Wayne County. He died in 1907 at the age of 66. 

       Besides his young wife, William Braden was survived by a one-year old son, George W. Braden. William Braden also served in Company B with his Nancy’s brother, brother-in-law, George Bigler.

       Compared to the other hundred or so battlefield deaths in the 85th PA regiment during the war, the story of Braden’s battlefield demise is one with many details due to the accounts of Sharp and Hooker.

      Now, because of the diligent work of Doug Carter, a former investigator with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and a Civil war enthusiast, we can add to  Braden’s story.

       Carter has always had a fascination with the actions during the Civil War in his home state. His great grandfather,  Jesse Taliaferro Carter, enlisted into the 3rd Georgia Reserves at age 17. He served as a guard at the Andersonville and Camp Lawton Prison Camps and later was wounded in the neck in December of 1864 in South Carolina 

          How did Doug Carter become involved in the story of the 85th PA? In his research, Carter, who is also a relative of former President Jimmy Carter, has identified the Georgia  soldier who felled Braden at Seven Pines.

       When I wrote my book about the 85th Pennsylvania regiment, called “Such Hard and Severe Service,” I relied heavily on primary sources; mainly the letters, diaries and memoirs of the men in the that regiment. In the early stages of the war, like for the Battle of Seven Pines, sources were relatively  abundant for review. As the war dragged on however, more soldiers were killed, sent home with illnesses, or simply completed their three-year enlistments, which reduced the number of potential  sources from about a thousand to 150 by the time of Lee’s surrender at Appomattox.

       One recent Confederate source that  came of light through the work of Mr. Carter was a letter written by Private Thomas Inglett of the 28th Georgia regiment. 

First page and cover of Thomas Inglett letter, June 10, 1862
Courtesy of Doug Carter

         It was Inglett who fired the shot that struck down Braden, a fact that Carter  discovered 150 years later. It is a rare circumstance to be able to identify a dead soldier’s shooter so long after the event, if ever.

        Ten days after the battle began, Inglett wrote a letter to his wife.  “I killed one [Yankee] and got a letter out of his pocket that was wrote to him by his wife and I will send it to you and you can read it.”

      The letter that Inglett lifted from Braden’s lifeless body was in fact not written by the Union soldier’s wife. Part of it was written by Israel Bigler and another portion was written by  his13-year old Mary Bigler, whom Inglett thought was the dead soldier's wife.  The letter never actually mentioned Braden’s surname. 

Researcher Doug Carter

    Carter purchased the Inglett letter in 2007, knowing that the Union letter in the envelope was an added bonus. 

    “I like researching,” said Carter. “I was a special agent with the G.B.I. investigating crimes and I like digging. I was determined to find out who this guy [Braden] was.”

         Carter first realized the Union letter was four pages in length. He determined that most of the letter was written by Israel Bigler, a middle-aged farmer from Washington County to “Will” and “George.” The last page was written by “Mary Bigler” to  “Will.” He next had transcribed the Bigler letter, a task not made easy by its  blood-stained nature.  Carter initially thought Will and George were both sons of Israel. Carter’s next step was to  investigate the war services and  lives of both Inglett and Braden to gain a wider knowledge of both men. 

     Inglett’s letter described his role at Seven Pines before he took the fatal shot against Braden. “I got my cap shot off of my head in the fight but I did not get hurt. Our poor boys fell all around me. James Price was killed with a canister shot before we got [with]in six hundred yards of the yankees. Sam Cawley was my file leader and he got shot down and the ball through [threw] blood all over my face and in my mouth, but they did not stop me for I was mad. Our regiment charged them twice and we made them run like dogs from their batteries.”

Portion of letter that Inglett took from Braden's body.
Courtesy of Doug Carter

      But Carter’s investigation of census records of the Israel Bigler household prior to the Civil War indicated that Bigler had no son named William. Braden, however, is listed in the 1860 federal census as a member of the Bigler household who was working as a farm laborer. Other family members were daughters Mary and Nancy who would soon marry William. From the 1850 census, Carter discovered that Israel Bigler did have a son named George Bigler, who was also a member of Company B. The census revealed that  Israel Bigler also had a daughter named Nancy, who married William Braden in 1860. 

      Carter researched military records and found George Bigler and William Braden were in the same company of the 85th PA. By combing through the original 1913 history of the regiment, he determined that Bigler and Braden were both in Company B. He also discovered George had survived the war but that William was killed at Seven Pines. This was the key discovery that indicated that Braden was the owner of the letter confiscated by Inglett.

     

Wikipedia Commons

 Thomas Inglett, meanwhile, grew up near Augusta, Georgia. He spent over three years in the Confederate army. He lost two fingers on his left hand due to a war wound during the Seven Days Battles a month after Seven Pines but recovered and continued to in his regiment

      Inglett later suffered a leg wound at the First Battle of Darbytown Road on October 7, 1864 and was sent to a Richmond hospital. Ironically, the whole of the 85th PA fought in another battle at Darbytown Road just six days after Inglett was wounded. Most of the regiment went home the next day, having completed their three-year enlistments.

     Tragically, three of Inglett’s infant daughters died while he was in the Confederate service. Inglett died in 1910 at the age of 71 and is buried in the Fort Eisenhower Cemetery in Richmond, Georgia. 

    Nearly a hundred of Inglett’s other Civil War letters can be found at the “Private Voices” website.

       Combining the accounts of Inglett, Sharp and Hooker, several questions arise from the combination of the three stories.

        The Israel Bigler letter had been written at least four months prior to Seven Pines. Why was Braden carrying it in on his person? It seems that he might have possessed a more recent letter at the time of his death.

     Next, was Braden moving  when he was shot? Inglett makes no mention in his letter that Braden was helping to carry away the wounded Hooker with another soldier. If Braden and Speer were on either side of Hooker helping to carry him away, did Inglett aim for the mass of the three men and happened to strike Braden or did he aim for Braden?

Letter from Lt. Hooker in Nancy Braden's Pension File

        Or perhaps were the three Yankees stopped to rest when Braden fell? Sharp’s letter, which may have been directly related to him by Speer,  seems to indicate that Braden was struck fatally but did not die instantly. Hooker wrote that he “presumed” that Braden died quickly from his wound. Did Speer decide that Braden was dead or mortally wounded  when he staggered to the side of the road or was not going to survive, and thus carried on alone to help Hooker? 

      Inglett at  first struck me as a bit cold-blooded in his rather casual mention to his wife that he lifted the letter from Braden’s lifeless body and chose to send it home to her as a souvenir.

         However, when one reviews Inglett’s account of the fight prior to his targeting of Braden, the context makes his action a bit more understandable. Inglett mentioned the wounding of two of his comrades, one of whom splattered blood on his [Inglett’s] face and in his mouth. Inglett notes his own hat was shot from his head. He mentions that these events enraged him and encouraged him to press forward in the fight. This strikes me an a not uncommon reaction to being in a battle in which one’s friends have fallen around you.

        Why was Braden’s body not recovered for burial? The only soldier of the approximately 25 men in the 85th PA who died from the battle who is buried in the Seven Pines National Cemetery, which was later situated in the approximate location on the 85th PA regiment’s camp, is Corporal Joseph Wilgus of Company B. That is only because Wilgus was wounded in the battle and died later. The field on which the 85th fought was soon overrun by Confederates. There was no chance at the end of the battle to return and recover bodies for burial. Another 85th PA soldier who died in the fight, Lieutenant James Reynolds of Company H. His body was left behind near the huge pile of firewood hear the Twin Houses, but his body was also not recovered for burial.

    These questions will likely never be answered. However, due to Carter’s investigative diligence, we have a more complete story of the death of one soldier, William Braden of Washington County, who was one of thousands who died at Seven Pines.

     Below are several depictions of the burial of soldiers after the Battle of Seven Pines

Post-battle photo of the Twin Houses with the seven pine trees in the background.
The foreground was said to have been used to bury 400 soldiers, perhaps including Braden. LOC

View of Seven Pines prior to the battle with the Twin Houses and 7 pine trees to the left.
 The camp of several regiments including the 85th PA can be seen in the background. LOC

Sketch of mass burials being conducted after the battle of Seven Pines.
This view is from the direction of the first Confederate attack with the
pine trees in front of the Twin Houses. LOC