Soldiers of the 48th: Private Samuel Fryberger, Co. H

One of the greatest things I've discovered after launching this blog in 2006 is how much I have learned about the 48th Pennsylvania. Over the past two-and-a-half years, I have received countless messages from descendants of soldiers who served in the regiment, and each have been more than generous in sending along information about their ancestors; in several cases, they have also sent along photographs that have never before been released or published, and have spent the spent the past century and a half (almost) in family collections.

Several months ago, I received a great deal of information about Private Samuel Fryberger, of Company H, 48th P.V.V.I., from one of his descendants, Ms. Heather Makal, and since it has been a long, long time since I last wrote a Profiles piece, I decided to focus this post on the life of Private Fryberger, one of youngest soldiers who fought in the 48th Pennsylvania.

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Private Samuel Fryberger

Samuel Fryberger was born on October 28, 1846, in Fountain Springs, but spent much of his childhood in the town of Gordon Plains, where he attended school and where his parents opened a general store. He went to work in the coal mines at a young age, but with the outbreak of civil war in the spring of 1861, young Samuel, at just fourteen years of age, volunteered his services. He enlisted as a private in Company H, organized under the direction of Captain Joseph Gilmour, on August 2, and was formally mustered into service on September 19. Since the age given on the muster roll is 18, it is quite obvious that young Samuel lied about his age in order to enter service. He stood 5'5 1/2" in height, had a Light Complexion, Gray Eyes, and Brown Hair.

Private Fryberger survived the action along the North Carolina coastline in the spring of 1862 as well as the bloodletting at 2nd Bull Run in late August. However, at Antietam, he fell with a grievous gunshot wound to the hip. After recovering from this wound, Fryberger was discharged from the regiment. He returned home in February 1863, and for the next year found work as a shoemaker. By the early spring of 1864, Fryberger returned to the regiment, only to be wounded again at the Wilderness on May 5, 1864. There, a bullet tore into his chest and lodged in his lung. This bullet would remain in his body until his untimely death thirty years later.

Following a lengthy recovery from his Wilderness wound, Fryberger one more volunteered his services, being mustered in as a private in the Veterans' Reserve Corps on January 10, 1865. Seven months later, and with the end of hostilities, he was mustered out of service for the final time. After the war, Samuel Fryberger, not yet twenty years old, but carrying with him two painful wounds, went to work as a conductor on the Mine Hill and Schuylkill Haven Railroad. He worked his way up to the position of engineer before being transferred to the Shamokin Division of the Reading Railroad. He married in 1868 and soon began a family.

In 1893, Fryberger's health took a turn for the worse. He fell ill with ailments associated with his May 1864 gunshot wound to the lung. He died on June 6, 1896, at the age of 49, leaving behind his wife Margaret and several young children. As Fryberger was, perhaps, the youngest member of the 48th Pennsylvania, he also may very well have been the last in the regiment to die of a war-related injury.

(findagrave.com)

Private Fryberger was laid to rest in the "Soldier's Circle" in the Shamokin Cemetery. Buried nearby is Lieutenant Henry "Snapper" Reese, hero of the Petersburg Mine.

Some Grave Images From Baltimore's Green Mount Cemetery

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Baltimore's Green Mount Cemetery has long been on my list of must-see places. So when, about a month and a half ago, I discovered that my wife was to have a basket show on the outskirts of the Charm City, I saw it as the perfect opportunity to do some cemetery tramping, and cross one more thing off my life's to-do list. As if I needed further convincing, the March 2009 issue of America's Civil War arrived in the mail a few days later, in which Kim O'Connell has a great little piece on Green Mount. 

Armed with the magazine, as well as a cemetery map and tour book kindly provided to me by Justin McIntyre, a generous intern at Antietam, I set out to see some history.

My wife's basket show did not begin until late in the afternoon yesterday, which meant I did not arrive at Green Mount until 2:30. The day was cloudy and overcast, threatening rain, and the cemetery closes its gates at 4:00. I had but 90 minutes to navigate my way around this massive city of the dead. Truly, the cemetery is enormous, with over 65,000 burials on more than sixty acres. But what an incredible and fascinating place. Green Mount, dedicated in 1839, was one of nation's first rural, or garden cemeteries, a vast park with incredible statuary and monuments. It is the final resting place of hundreds of notable and some infamous Americans, and I regret that I had so short a time to do some exploring. It would take more than a full day to do this place any justice, which means I will no doubt have to return, when I have more time. With only an hour and a half yesterday, I quickly made my way around, following the map, and trying to locate some of the cemetery's most famous residents.

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Green Mount is the final resting place of hundreds, nay, thousands, of Civil War soldiers, including a host of high ranking officers. Perhaps most notable among these is Confederate general Joseph Eggelston Johnston.

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General Isaac Ridgeway Trimble is also buried in Green Mount, just a hundred or so yards from Johnston.

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Other Confederate generals buried in Green Mount include, George Hume "Maryland" Steuart, one-time cavalry commander under Stonewall Jackson and later infantry commander in the Army of Northern Virginia's Second Corps, captured at the Mule Shoe during the battle of Spotsylvania.

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The remains of General Arnold Elzey, a career army officer with a distinguished combat record in the Mexican-American War, also rest in Green Mount. Elzey served under Jackson in the Shenandoah, was wounded at Port Republic and shot through the head and seriously wounded at the battle of Gaines's Mill. He survived this terrible wound, and was later named as Chief of Artillery for the Army of Tennessee.

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Just north of Elzey's grave is the final resting place of Confederate Brigadier General Lewis Henry Little. Little served in Mexico as a lieutenant in the 5th U.S. Infantry and was brevetted a captain for gallantry at Monterrey. Promoted to captain shortly after the war, Little resigned from the U.S. army on May 7, 1861, and rose to the rank of brigadier general in the Confederate army. He served under General Sterling Price in the war's Western Theatre. At the battle of Iuka, during which Little served as a divisional commander, he was shot in the head and instantly killed while sitting on his horse, conversing with Price.

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In addition to the scores of Confederates buried in Green Mount, there are also many Union officers. Among these are General Erastus Bernard Tyler, the fur merchant from Ohio, who was seriously wounded leading his Fifth Corps brigade at Fredericksburg. The cemetery map had his grave nearby Johnston's, but I was unable to locate it. I did, however, find the grave of Union brevet brigadier general Henry C. Bankhead. Bankhead served as an officer on the staff of Major General Don Carlos Buell.

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While it was a thrill for me to see the graves of so many notable Civil War figures, what I found most incredible was the grave almost immediately behind General Johnston's. There, a tall, ornate stone marks the final resting place of Colonel Thomas Marcus Hulings. Hulings is by no means as famous nor as recognizable as a Johnston, Trimble, or Steuart, but what made the discovery of this grave so incredible to me was that Hulings was a First Defender. As a member of the Logan Rifles from Lewistown, PA, Hulings's company along with the Allen Infantry from Allentown, Ringgold Light Artillery from Reading, and the Washington Artillerists and National Light Infantry from Pottsville, were the first Northern volunteers to arrive in Washington following the outbreak of civil war. In my book on the First Defenders, I made special note of Hulings, who, after his three-month term of service with the Logan Rifles, went on to serve as an officer in the 49th Pennsylvania. As colonel of the 49th, Hulings was killed in action at the battle of the Wilderness.

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I would venture to guess that the most visited graves in Green Mount are those of the Lincoln Assassination conspirators. I was unable to locate Michael O'Laughlen's grave, but did find that of Samuel Arnold, buried near Generals Elzey and Little. Arnold was not directly involved in the conspiracy to kill Lincoln, but he, along with Booth and his other cohorts, did plan the kidnapping of the president. After that failed, he and O'Laughlen broke off their connection with Booth. However, after the president was killed, Arnold was arrested as being complicit in the larger conspiracy. Sentenced to life along with O'Laughlen, Dr. Samuel Mudd, and Edmund Spangler at Fort Jefferson, Arnold was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson in 1869. He died in September 1906.

Arnold's grave is in the foreground, a simple granite stone on top of which someone placed. . .

. . .a Lincoln penny.

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And, finally, buried within the impressive stone walls of Green Mount is the body of famed actor Junius Booth. Booth was famous for his portrayals of Shakespearean characters in England before he settled in America, the founder of a legendary acting family which included his sons Junius, Jr., Edwin, and, yes, John Wilkes.

Junius Booth

The Booth family obelisk. . .

It is believed by most, and denied by some, that the remains of John Wilkes Booth lie buried in the Booth family plot, his grave identified by a small unmarked stone.

Three Lincoln pennies decorate the supposed headstone of John Wilkes Booth.

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Well, at five minutes to 4:00, I left Green Mount after an incredible (though short) visit to this, a most remarkable place. I will return, hopefully someday soon, when I will have more to time to wander the silent grounds. . .

For more information on Green Mount Cemetery, click here.

Nick Biddle's Grave & An Update On The 48th PA Monument Restoration

This past Saturday saw me in old Schuylkill County, so while there I, as usual, did some cemetery stomping. I decided to go to the Bethel A.M.E. African-American Cemetery, where First Defender Nicholas Biddle is buried. I was most pleasantly surprised to discover that a new headstone has been placed in tribute to Biddle, to replace the original that was destroyed  many decades ago. I am embarrassed to say that I do not know who led this effort or when the new headstone went up, but to whomever it was, I extend my most heartfelt thanks and gratitude.

Nicholas Biddle's new headstone

Inscription:

"Nicholas Biddle

Captain Wren's Orderly

Aug 2 1876

First to Shed Blood in Civil War"

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I would like also to take this opportunity to thank two donors, both descendants of General James Nagle, who this past week contributed very generously to the effort to replace the missing sword from the general's statue at the Antietam National Battlefield. Their donations, matched on a one-to-one basis by the Western Maryland Interpretative Association, has brought us over the $5,000.00 mark and has taken us that much closer to getting the general's sword back on his side.

48th Pennsylvania Soldiers Buried at Arlington National Cemetery

Mr. Thomas Grund, Senior Vice Commander of the Colonel James D. Brady Camp 63, Sons of Union Veterans, very kindly and very generously sent me a complete listing of 48th Pennsylvania Soldiers buried in National Cemeteries throughout the United States.

The following is a list of those interred at the Arlington National Cemetery:

ARMSTRONG, John: Private, Company G; Wounded 5/12/1864 at Spotsylvania; Died of Wounds on July 1, 1864; Buried in Section 13, Grave #6611.
BETZ, George: Private, Company A; Died June 17, 1864; Buried in Section 13, Grave 6304.
BONER, James: Private, Company I; Wounded in Action, 5/30/1864; Died of Wounds on June 22, 1864; Buried in Section 13, Grave 5828.
CLARK, John: Private, Company I; Died of Wounds Received in Action, 6/8/1864; Buried in Section 27, Grave #978.
DAVIS, Thomas: Private, Company H; Killed at Petersburg, 6/17/1864; Buried in Section 22, Grave #15388.
DAVIS, William: Private, Company H; Wounded at Cold Harbor; Died of Wounds, 9/5/1864; Buried in Section 13, Grave #8702.
EISENHUTH, George T.: Private, Company H; Died, 2/17/1865; Buried in Section 13, Grave #8237.
HECKMAN, Samuel: Private, Company B; Died of Wounds Received in Action, 6/12/1864; Buried in Section 27, Grave #711.
KOPP, Lewis W.: Private, Company H; Died, 10/1/1864; Buried in Section 13, Grave #5552.
MOHAN, Michael: Private, Company C; Wounded at Spotsylvania, 5/12/1864; Died of Wounds, 5/20/1864; Buried in Section 27, Grave #199.
RABER, Jonas Z.: Private, Company D; Died in Washington, 7/1/1864; Buried in Section 13, Grave #6825.
SCHNEIDER, William: Private, Company H; Died of Wounds Received in Action, 9/12/1864; Buried in Section 13, Grave #7750.
SNYDER, Simon: Private, Company A; Wounded at Cold Harbor; Died of Wounds, 6/16/1864; Buried in Section 13, Grave #6292.
WAGNER, Aaron P.: Private, Company D; Wounded at Petersburg, 4/2/1865; Died of Wounds, 4/5/1865; Buried in Section 13, Grave #10485.

WESSLEY, Andrew: Private, Company F; Killed in Action at Petersburg, 6/17/1864; Buried in Section 13, Grave #6275.
WILLONER, Jeremiah: Private, Company I; Wounded at Cold Harbor, 6/3/1864; Died of Wounds, 6/22/1864; Buried in Section 13, Grave #5825.

Mr. Grund also included a list of soldiers from the 48th killed in action at the Second Battle of Bull Run, 8/29/1862. Confederate soldiers buried the dead of this fight on the field, but most were later reinterred, many of them underneath Mrs. Robert E. Lee's one-time Rose Garden. The monument pictured above was placed over the grave of these unknown soldiers; in all some 2,111 remains gathered from the Bull Run battlefield and on the route to the Rappahannock. It is likely that some, if not most, of the 48th's Killed in Action at 2nd Bull Run here rest. Those soldiers are:

BRENNAN, Michael: Private, Company E

FILBERT, Henry A. M.: Captain, Company K

FILBERT, Roland D.: Sergeant, Company K

HATCH, Oliver C.: Sergeant, Company C
KILRAIN, Michael: Private, Company F

LEISER, Charles F.: Private, Company I
LEISER, John H.: Private, Company A

MACKEY, William: Corporal, Company E
MCFEELEY, Hugh: Private, Company E

MILLER, Charles: Private, Company D

MOYER, Samuel: Private, Company E

NAGLE, William: Private, Company H

PETIT, Samuel: Private, Company H

REESE, Lewis M.: Private, Company B

WISER, John: Private, Company C
KELLY, Thomas: Private, Company H

LINK, Hesgian: Private, Company I

One More For The Blog Roll. . .

I have had the great pleasure to become acquainted with Jared Frederick over the past week. Jared is a history student at Penn State and, like me, is an avid student of the Civil War. Jared is also an illustrator who has had a number of small books published. This summer, Jared will be interning at the Gettysburg National Military Park. He has also just launched a new Civil War blog , and he wrote to me asking if I would link to his site. I agreed. . .but, rather jokingly, only if he did an illustration of General James Nagle. Much to my surprise, about two hours later, he sent one to me. . .I was impressed. (He even included Nagle's Mexican-American War sword).

Anyway, let's all welcome Jared to the Civil War blogosphere. His site is listed as "Gettysburg Intern" in my links' list.

How cool is this?

Getting To Know. . .General George Lucas Hartsuff

The illnesses and injuries that plagued George Lucas Hartsuff throughout his years in the United States Army cut short a promising career and led to his untimely death at the age of 43 in 1874. Solid and dependable, Hartsuff was a courageous officer who entered the war a lieutenant serving as the assistant adjutant general for the Department of the Ohio and then as the Chief of Staff to General William Rosecrans in western Virginia. By war’s end, Hartsuff was a major general, commanding all the Union forces on Bermuda Hundred. But Hartsuff’s true potential as a general was never realized due to the sicknesses he developed, and the wounds he suffered fighting the Seminole in Florida and his fellow Americans at the battle of Antietam.

George Hartsuff spent the first twelve years of his life in the small western New York village of Tyre, in Seneca County. Moving with his family to Livingston County, Michigan, in 1842, Hartsuff received an appointment to West Point six years later, graduating in 1852 ranked nineteenth in a class of forty-three. Upon graduation, Hartsuff was commissioned a second lieutenant by brevet in the 4th U.S. Artillery and assigned to frontier duty in Texas where the young officer fell seriously ill with yellow fever. In 1855, after recovering from his sickness, Hartsuff was sent to Fort Myers, Florida. Given command of a surveying expedition in December of that year, Hartsuff led ten soldiers into Seminole Territory near the Big Cypress Swamp. Having resolved not to tolerate any more incursions into their land, the Seminoles, under Chief Billy Bowlegs, decided to strike the American troops. On the morning of December 20, some forty Seminole warriors surrounded and then attacked Hartsuff’s men. During the short but bloody encounter, four U.S. soldiers were killed and three were wounded, while only three escaped unscathed. Hartsuff was among the wounded. Hit in the left arm, Lieutenant Hartsuff nevertheless continued to fire back at the Seminoles using muskets loaded and passed forward by two of his men. When a second shot struck Hartsuff in the chest, he told the surviving members of his party to save themselves and then sought shelter. Stumbling through the forest, Hartsuff fell into a pond. Neck-deep in water and suffering from his two wounds, Hartsuff had a difficult time getting out but was eventually able to do so. Without food or fresh water, Hartsuff lay on his back for three days before being rescued by American troops sent out from Fort Myers. Doctors cared for Hartsuff but were unable to remove the bullet that entered his left breast and struck his lung; indeed, it would remain in Hartsuff for the rest of his life. The attack on Hartsuff’s invading men is recognized today as the beginning of the Third Seminole War, which lasted for another two and a half years.

Having sufficiently recovered from his wounds, George Hartsuff, by this time a first lieutenant, was appointed as an instructor of artillery and infantry tactics at West Point in 1856, and held this position for three years. Hartsuff’s next assignment was to the frontier post of Fort Mackinac, Michigan. With misfortune seemingly his lot, Hartsuff was on board the Lady Elgin on the storm-tossed night of September 8, 1860, as the steamer made its way across Lake Michigan traveling between Chicago and Milwaukee. With visibility poor and the waters rough and restless, the Lady Elgin was struck by the schooner Augusta. 373 passengers of the Lady Elgin were lost as the boat sank. Lieutenant Hartsuff was one of the 155 survivors.

In early 1861, George Hartsuff was sent to Florida, where in the tense days preceding the outbreak of civil war, he served as assistant adjutant general for the Department of Florida. Stationed in Fort Pickens until July 21, 1861, Hartsuff was next assigned to the Department of Ohio where he served as assistant adjutant general. Throughout the first summer of the war, Hartsuff served in the mountains of [West] Virginia, and on August 3 became General William Rosecrans’s Chief of Staff. Promoted to the rank of captain in October 1861, Hartsuff got his first field command of the war in April 1862 after advancing in rank to brigadier general of volunteers. Commanding a brigade in Irvin McDowell’s Corps in the Shenandoah Valley in the spring and summer of 1862, Hartsuff led his men at the battle of Cedar Mountain but was on sick leave during the Second Bull Run Campaign.

When George McClellan took command of the Union forces in Washington following the debacle at Second Bull Run, he relieved McDowell and designated his command the First Corps, Army of the Potomac. On the afternoon of September 16, McClellan ordered the First Corps, now under Joe Hooker, across the Antietam Creek and into position opposite the left flank of the Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Hartsuff’s Brigade—consisting of the 11th Pennsylvania, 83rd New York, and 12th and 13th Massachusetts—formed in advance of General James Ricketts’s Division early the next morning and advanced southward along the Smoketown Road toward Lee’s lines. Ricketts’s First Brigade, under the dashing New Yorker Abram Duryea, formed on Hartsuff’s right. As the sun was rising to the east, Duryea’s men became engaged with Confederate troops under Alexander Lawton in farmer Miller’s Cornfield. The fighting was savage, and Duryea found his brigade alone and unsupported by Hartsuff’s men to his left. Early in the advance, as his men cleared the North Woods, Hartsuff fell seriously wounded, and his brigade came to a halt in the resulting confusion of handing over command to Colonel Richard Coulter of the 11th Pennsylvania. Coulter was ultimately able to move the brigade toward the front, where they suffered terrible loss in and around the Cornfield and East Woods. By day’s end, Hartsuff’s Brigade had been reduced by half, losing some 600 men killed, wounded, and missing, out of the 1,200 that entered the battle.

Reports vary as to whether Hartsuff was felled by a sniper’s bullet or shell fragment. Regardless of its origin, however, the wound was to Hartsuff’s left hip. He tried to remain in the saddle, but he soon grew faint and had to be helped off his mount. Carried off the field, Hartsuff was taken to a nearby home where a doctor examined his wound. All efforts by him and other doctors later in the day to locate a bullet were unsuccessful; they surmised that the bullet had come to a stop deep within the pelvic cavity.

Hartsuff’s Antietam wound took eight months to heal. Indeed, he was unable to even walk until February 1863, and only then with the support of a cane. For his gallantry during the battle, however, Hartsuff was brevetted colonel in the Regular Army and on November 29, 1862, was promoted to the rank of major general of volunteers. Having sufficiently recovered to return again to the field in May 1863, Hartsuff was placed in command of the 23rd Corps in the Army of the Ohio. He served with his new command under General Ambrose Burnside in Kentucky and eastern Tennessee, but by the late summer of 1863, his health was failing him once more. His hip wound reopened, and he suffered from severe pain and numbness in his left leg and hip. Unable to ride any further, Hartsuff relinquished his command in November 1863 and sought out medical treatment.

Suffering not only from his wounds but from rheumatism as well, Hartsuff nonetheless returned to duty in July 1864, but was physically unable at this point to take active field command. He thus served on court-martial duty and behind a desk in the adjutant general’s office until March 1865, when he reported to General Ulysses Grant for assignment. Grant first gave Hartsuff divisional command in the 18th Corps, Army of the James, and then named him commander of all the Union troops then stationed on Bermuda Hundred. Following the surrender of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia the next month, Hartsuff, having previously been brevetted a brigadier and major general in the Regular Army, went on to head the District of Nottoway, in the Department of Virginia, a post he held until August 1865.

George Hartsuff remained in the army following the Civil War. At the rank of lieutenant-colonel, he served first in the adjutant general’s office in Washington and then held a number of offices in the Fifth Military District and in the Department of the Gulf. In poor health and in terrible pain, Hartsuff tendered his resignation from the army on June 29, 1871. Although still holding the rank of lieutenant-colonel, the army allowed Hartsuff to retire at the rank of major general because of the wounds he had suffered while in service.

The ailing General Hartsuff moved to New York City after his retirement, and there spent the final few years of his life. Early in May 1874, he developed a cold that quickly developed into pneumonia. He was dead just one week later, passing away on May 16, two weeks shy of his forty-fourth birthday. His remains were taken to West Point for burial. An autopsy revealed that Hartsuff’s pneumonia was caused by the infection on a scar on his left lung. The scar was itself caused by the wound he received nineteen years earlier battling Seminoles in the swamps of Florida. Remarkably, neither this bullet nor the one that entered his hip at Antietam were ever located.

General Hartsuff's Final Resting Place. . .

(www.findagrave.com)