Schuylkill County's African American Civil War Soldiers: A Roster

The ranks of the 48th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry were composed primarily of Schuylkill County men. So, too, were the ranks of the 96th Pennsylvania, as well as several companies of the 50th Pennsylvania, 129th Pennsylvania, and 7th Pennsylvania Cavalry. Indeed, throughout the four years of America's Civil War, many thousands of Schuylkill County's brave sons, hailing from places like Pottsville and Tamaqua, Port Clinton, St. Clair, Middleport, Cressona, and all the many towns, townships, and coal patches in between, served in Union blue. 

From a USCT Recruiting Poster
"Come and Join Us!"

Included among this number were more than three dozen African American men who were prohibited from serving in the county's white volunteer regiments but who still proudly served--and bravely fought--in segregated regiments, commanded by white commissioned officers, regiments such as the hard-fighting 3rd United States Colored Infantry (USCI) and the 8th USCI. Two Black men from Schuylkill County--James Phoenix and William Haines--served within the ranks of the famed and fabled 54th Massachusetts Infantry, seeing action at James Island and during the regiment's storied assault upon Battery Wagner. Others, like those who served in the 43rd USCI, fought with a fierce determination during the attack upon the Crater. It was there were forty-three-year-old John Cole, a shoemaker from Pottsville, suffered a mortal wound, and where young Jonathan Enty, a twenty-year-old laborer from Tamaqua, went listed as Missing In Action. He would never return and was most likely killed in action. 

Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, had a very small Black population on the eve of Civil War. Of the 89,510 men, women, and children counted in Schuylkill County in the Census of 1860, only 357 were identified as either Black or "mulatto." Of this number, only 92 were Black men of fighting age. Still, despite this small number, at least 37 of these men (a remarkable 40%) served in the Civil War, a few of them were drafted or served as substitutes, the majority, however, enlisted as volunteers. 

The names of these soldiers are provided below, along with pertinent biographical information and military data garnered from service records, muster rolls, and other such places. Please note that this list is not exhaustive; there were likely other African American soldiers who called Schuylkill County home. What follows is simply a roster of all the Black Civil War soldiers from Schuylkill County I was able to locate in several sources, including Francis Wallace's Memorial to the Patriotism of Schuylkill County, newspaper accounts, and cemetery records. Some of the information was contradictory; sometimes I could not locate records for a particular soldier, but I tried to gather as much information as I could in an effort to tell their stories, and let their service be known.

Samuel Bartlett
Private
Company B
43rd USCI

Age: 18; Height: 5'6 1/2"; Complexion: Fair; Eye Color: Hazel; Hair Color: Dark
Occupation: Laborer

Enlisted: 4/3/1865 in Pottsville, Pennsylvania
Credited to: Cass Township
Date of Discharge: 5/23/1865 at Camp Cadwalader, Philadelphia
Born: Schuylkill County, PA 
Notes: Mustered Out Of Service by Virtue of War Department General Order 77

Henry Bhular/Buehler

Private
Company B
8th USCI

Age: 45; Height: 5'4 1/2"; Complexion: Black; Eye Color: Black; Hair Color: "Wooly" 
Occupation: Laborer

Enlisted: 3/4/1864 in Pottsville, Pennsylvania
Credited to: North Manheim Township, Schuylkill County
Born: Berks County, PA

Alexander Brown
Private
Company A
24th USCI

Age: 19; Height: 5'4 1/2"; Complexion: Yellow; Eye Color: Grey; Hair Color: Black

Occupation: Teamster

Enlisted: 1/18/1865 in Pottsville, Pennsylvania
Credited to: Tremont, PA
Discharged: 10/1/1865 at Richmond, Virginia
Born: Chambersburg, PA

Charles Calaman
1st Sergeant
Company A
24th USCI

Age: 20; Height: 5'7"; Complexion: Brown; Eye Color: Brown; Hair Color: Black
Occupation: Laborer

Enlisted: 1/12/1865 in Pottsville, PA
Credited to: Port Carbon, PA
Discharged: 10/1/1865 at Richmond, VA
Born: Either in Frederick, MD or Winchester, VA
Notes: Appointed Sergeant: 1/23/1865; Promoted 1st Sergeant per G.O. No. 2: 6/1865

Flag of the 24th USCT
"Let Soldiers in War Be Citizens in Peace"
[www.loc.gov] 

John Cole
Private
Company E
43rd USCI

Age: 42; Height: 5'10"; Complexion: Yellow: Eye Color: Light Brown; Hair Color: "Curly Black"
Occupation: Shoemaker

Enlisted: 3/29/1864 in Pottsville, PA
Credited to: Washington Township, Schuylkill County, PA

Notes: "A good soldier;" Wounded at the Crater, 7/30/1864; "Corps. R. Julius and Jeff Henry who were wounded in same action testified to having seen him dead at City Point, VA. No official notice of his death having been received & the men who knew of his death having been absent for a long time in Hos, his name was not dropped from the Company Rolls until Sept. 12, 1865;" Died of Wounds: 8/4/1864

Mortally Wounded at Battle of the Crater: July 30, 1864; Died of Wounds: August 4, 1864

Casualty Sheet for John Cole, 43rd USCT
[nara.gov] 

Obituary of John Cole
Miners' Journal, August 1864

More on the life and death of Private John Cole can be found here

George Dellaman/Dellamaw
Private
Company B
8th USCT 

Age: 17; Height: 5'4 1/2"; Complexion: Black; Eye Color: Black; Hair Color: "Wooly"
Occupation: Laborer

Enlisted: 3/4/1864 in Pottsville, PA
Credited to: Tamaqua, PA
Born: Newbern, North Carolina

Elijah Enty
1st Sergeant/Private
Company F
43rd USCI

Age: 35; Height: 5'7 1/2"; Complexion: Yellow; Eye Color: Dark; Hair Color: Black
Occupation: Laborer

Enlisted: 3/31/1864
Credited to: Porter Township, Schuylkill County; Resided in: Newcastle
Born: Schuylkill County, PA
Discharged: 6/12/1865 from L'Ouverture Hospital, Alexandria, Virginia, due to Disability

Notes: Wounded in Action at the Crater: 7/30/1864; Sent to Hospital, sick: 9/5/1864; Promoted to 1st Sergeant: 10/1/1864; Reduced in Ranks to Private: 9/1/1865

Gabriel Enty
Corporal
Company D
43rd USCI

Age: 18; Height: 5'7 1/2"; Complexion: Dark; Eye Color: Dark; Hair Color: Dark
Occupation: Blacksmith

Enlisted: 3/22/1864 in Pottsville, PA
Credited to: Blythe Township, Schuylkill County, PA
Born: Northumberland County, PA 
Discharged: 6/8/1864 from L'Ouverture Hospital, Alexandria, Virginia, due to Disability

Notes: Wounded in Action near Petersburg: 7/24/1864

George Enty
Private
Company H
43rd USCI

Age: 33; Height: 5'5"; Complexion: Black; Eye Color: Black; Hair Color: Black
Occupation: Miner

Enlisted: 4/4/1864 in Brookville, PA
Credited to: Eldred Township, PA
Born: Schuylkill County, PA
Discharged: 10/20/1865 at Brownsville, Texas

Notes: Sick in Hospital: 8/1864; Sick in Hospital: 10/1865

Jonathan Enty 

Corporal
Company D
43rd USCI

Age: 20; Height: 5'7"; Complexion: Dark; Eye Color: Dark; Hair Color: Dark
Occupation: Laborer

Enlisted: 3/22/1864 at Pottsville, PA
Credited to: Tamaqua, PA

Notes: Appointed Corporal: 4/18/1864; Wounded and Missing In Action: 7/30/1864 Battle of the Crater

Missing in Action and Likely Killed or Mortally Wounded at the Battle of the Crater: July 30, 1864

James Fisher
Private
Company D
3rd USCI

Age: 19; Height: 5' 1/2"; Complexion: Black; Eye Color: Black; Hair Color: Black

Enlisted: 7/4/1863 in Philadelphia
From Pottsville
Discharged: 10/31/1865 at Jacksonville, Florida
Notes: Sick--Left at Hilton Head, SC, by order of Surgeon: 2/6/1864; returned to regt by March '64

Buried: Bethel A.M.E. Cemetery, Pottsville, PA

The Grave of Private James Fisher
3rd USCT
Bethel A.M.E. Cemetery, Pottsville, PA 

David Fry
Private
Company I
3rd USCI

Age: 29; Height: 5'11"; Complexion: Light; Eye Color: Dark; Hair Color: Black
Occupation: Farmer

Enlisted: 7/21/1863 in Philadelphia
Born: Lancaster County, PA
Resided: Port Clinton, PA
Died: 9/8/1897
Buried: St. John's Cemetery, Auburn, PA

The Grave of Private David Fry
3rd USCT
[findagrave.com] 

Stroud Groves
Private
Company D
3rd USCI

Age: 46; Height: 5'10"; Complexion: Black; Eye Color: Black; Hair Color: Black
Occupation: Farmer

Enlisted: 7/4/1863 in Philadelphia
Born: Lehigh County, PA
Discharged: 10/31/1865 at Jacksonville, Florida

Died: 9/12/1896
Buried: Bethel A.M.E. Cemetery, Pottsville, PA

The Grave of Private Stroud Grove
3rd USCT
Bethel A.M.E. Cemetery, Pottsville, PA 

William Haines

Private
Company G

54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry

Age: 19

Occupation: Boatman

Enlisted: 4/12/1863
Born: 1844 in Schuylkill County, PA 

Discharged: 8/20/1865

Thornton Heath
Private
Company C
24th USCI

Age: 37; Height: 5’2”; Complexion: Black; Eye Color: Black: Hair: “Wool”
Occupation: Blacksmith

Enlisted: 2/2/1865 in Pottsville
Born: Virginia

Notes: Substitute for Gillard Dock, Tremont, PA; Deserted from Camp William Penn: 4/11/1865

George Jackson

Private
32nd USCI

Age: 32; Height: 5'10 1/2"; Complexion: Dark; Eye Color: Dark; Hair Color: "Wooly"
Occupation: Laborer

Enlisted: 6/27/1864 in Pottsville
Credited to: Port Carbon
Born: Columbia, PA

Buried: Perhaps at Lincoln Cemetery, Mechanicsburg, PA

John B. Jones

Musician
Company F
8th USCI

Age: 24; Height: 5'4 1/2"; Complexion: Black; Eye Color: Black; Hair Color: Black
Occupation: Laborer

Enlisted: 9/23/1863 in Pottsville
From: 8/5/1840 in Port Carbon, PA 
Discharged: 11/10/1865 at Brownsville, Texas

Buried: Bethel A.M.E. Cemetery, Pottsville, PA

The Grave of John B. Jones
Musician, 8th USCT
Bethel A.M.E. Cemetery, Pottsville, PA 

Joseph Jones

Private
Company K
8th USCI
24th USCI

Age: 27; Complexion: Black; Eye Color: Black; Hair Color: Black
Occupation: Laborer

Enlisted in 24th USCI: 1/18/1865 at Pottsville
Born: Harper County, Virginia

Notes:  Deserted from 8th USCT under the name Joseph Garner; This Enlistment Void; 1/26/65: "This man is a deserter from Co. G, 8th Regt. USCT under the name Joseph Garner;" "Joseph Jones having been recognized as a Deserter from the 8th USCT is hereby dropped from the Rolls of Company "A" 24th Regt. U.S. Colored," Signed Louis Wagner, Lt. Col. 88th PA; commanding post at Camp William Penn

Charles Lee
Corporal
Company H
22nd USCI

Age: 24; Height: 5'6 1/2"; Complexion: Black; Eye Color: Black; Hair Color: Black
Occupation Waiter

Enlisted: 1/18/1865 in Pottsville
Credited to: Cressona, PA
Born: Harrisburg, PA
Notes: Promoted Corporal: 6/4/1864; Sent to Field Hospital, 3/15/1865; Returned: 3/16/1865

Died: 8/30/1888 in Pottsville
Buried: Bethel A.M.E. Cemetery, Pottsville, PA

Edward Lee
Corporal
Company K
32nd USCI

Age: 19; Height: 5'6 1/2"; Complexion: Black; Eye Color: Black; Hair Color: "Wooly"
Occupation : Laborer

Enlisted: 3/3/1864 in Pottsville
Credited to: Tamaqua, PA 
Born: Charles County, Maryland
Discharged: 8/22/1865 at Hilton Head, South Carolina
Notes: Appointed Corporal 3/18/1865

Died: 3/22/1913 in Schuylkill County
Buried: Bethel A.M.E. Cemetery, Pottsville, PA

John L. Martin 
Sergeant
Company E

3^rd USCI

Age: 33; Height: 5’10; Complexion: Brown; Eye Color: Black; Hair Color: Black
Occupation: Mason

Enlisted: 7/6/1863 in Philadelphia
Born: 1827 in Lancaster County, PA
Notes: Sergeant from Enlistment
Died: 10/30/1907 in North Manheim Township, Schuylkill County, PA
Buried: Bethel A.M.E. Cemetery, Pottsville, PA

The Grave of Sergeant John L. Martin
3rd USCT
Bethel A.M.E. Cemetery, Pottsville, PA

Daniel Molson
Corporal
Company B
24^th USCI

Age: 34; Height: 5’6 ¼”; Complexion: Black; Eye Color: Black; Hair Color: Black
Occupation: Boatman

Enlisted: 1/27/1865 in Pottsville
Credited to: Port Clinton, PA

Born: Schuylkill County, PA
Discharged: 10/1/1865 at Richmond, Virginia
Notes: Promoted to Corporal: 2/8/1865

David Molson

Sergeant
Company B
24^th USCI

Age: 38; Height: 5’2 ½”; Complexion: Black; Eye Color: Black; Hair Color: Black
Occupation: Boatman

Enlisted: 1/27/1865 in Pottsville
Credited to: Port Clinton, PA
Born: Berks County, PA
Discharged: 10/1/1865 at Richmond, Virginia

Notes: Promoted to Corporal: 2/8/1865; Promoted to Sergeant: 4/22/1865, to date from: 4/2/1865

Henry Morgan
Wagoneer
Company H
6^th USCI

Age: 33; Height: 5’8”; Complexion: Black; Eye Color: Black; Hair Color: Black
Occupation: Boatman

Enlisted: 8/29/1863 in Philadelphia
Discharged: 9/20/1865 at Wilmington, North Carolina

James Phoenix

Private
Company K

54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry

Age: 24; Height: 5'9"; Complexion: Dark; Eye Color: Brown; Hair Color: Black
Occupation: Laborer

Enlisted: 5/5/1863
Notes: Wounded at the Battle of James Island, 7/16/1864; in Hospital at Beaufort, South Carolina; Died of Disease: 7/8/1865 in Charleston, South Carolina. 

Kurz and Allison's Famed Print of the 54th Massachusetts' Attack at Fort Wagner

Daniel Proctor
Private
Company F
25^th USCI

Age: 31; Height: 5’5”; Complexion: Dark; Eye Color: Grey; Hair Color: Black
Occupation: Laborer

Enlisted: 1/21/1864 at Reading, PA

Discharged: 9/19/1865
Notes: Identified on one Enlistment Form as Mulatto; Sent to Hospital on 4/7/1865; Dicharged per Certificate of Disability at David's Island Hospital, New YorkDied: 10/8/1903
Buried: Port Clinton Cemetery, Port Clinton, PA

Obituary of Daniel Proctor
Harrisburg Telegraph October 10, 1903

The Grave of Daniel Proctor
25th USCT
Port Clinton Cemetery, Port Clinton, PA 

George Richardson
Corporal
Company I
6^th USCI

Age: 25; Height: 5’4”; Complexion: Black; Eye Color: Black; Hair Color: Black
Occupation: Tailor

Enlisted: 9/8/1863
Born: Bucks County, PA
Discharged: 9/20/1865
Notes: Substitute for Tillman Seidle, 3rd Ward, Reading, PA; Wounded while on picket duty and sent to General Hospital: 6/25/1864; Sent to D.C. General Hospital: 11/15/1864; June-August 1865: On Detached Service as Brigade Headquarters' Guard
Buried: Bethel A.M.E. Cemetery, Pottsville, PA 

Hosea Rigbee
Corporal
Company C
127th USCI

Age: 30; Height: 5'6 1/4"; Complexion: Black; Eye Color: Black; Hair Color: Black
Occupation: Barber

Enlisted: 8/24/1864 in Pottsville
Credited to: Port Carbon, PA
Born: Harford County, Maryland

Buried: Bethel A.M.E. Cemetery, Pottsville PA

Benjamin Robinson
Private
Company C
127th USCI

Age: 35; Height: 5'9 1/2"; Complexion: Black; Eye Color: Black; Hair Color: Black
Occupation: Laborer

Enlisted: 8/24/1864 in Pottsville
Credited to: Port Carbon, PA 
Born: Fredericksburg, Virginia
Discharged: 9/8/1865 at Brazos Santiago, Texas
Notes: Absent, sick in hospital at Point of Rocks, 3/26/1865

Israel Smith
Private

Company B
24th USCI

Age: 17; Height: 5'7"; Complexion: Black; Eye Color: Black; Hair Color: Black
Occupation: Boatman

Enlisted: 1/27/1865 in Pottsville, PA
Credited to: Port Clinton, PA
Born: Schuylkill County, PA
Discharged: 10/1/1865 at Richmond, Virginia

At age 17, Israel Smith Needed the Consent of His Grandfather in Order to Serve
nara.gov

Enlistment Form of Israel Smith

James H. Snowden

Private
Company A
24th USCI

Age: 22; Height: 5'7 1/4"; Complexion: Dark; Eye Color: Hazel; Hair Color: Dark
Occupation: Forgeman

Enlisted: 1/3/1865 in Pottsville, PA
Credited to: Pine Grove, PA
Born: 10/6/1838 in Huntingdon, PA
Discharged: 11/10/1865 at Brownsville, Texas
Notes: Wounded at Olustee, FL, 2/20/1864; in Hospital at Beaufort, SC; returned from hospital by 5/1864; Engaged at Chapin's Farm, VA; Petersburg, VA; Detached as Brigade Teamster as of 10/1864; Appomattox, VA

Died: 10/21/1889 at age 50; "Death came when he lost control of the wagon he was driving down a steep hill, and the team ran away. He was thrown to the ground and fatally injured when a wagon wheel rolled over him."
Buried: Big Spring Presbyterian Cemetery, Newville, PA

Martin Snowell/Snowden
Private
Company I
8th USCI

Age: 20; Height: 5'6"; Complexion: Black; Eye Color: Black; Hair Color: Black
Occupation: Boatman

Enlisted: 9/24/1863 in Port Clinton, PA
Born: 1842 in Spotswood, New Jersey
Discharged: 11/10/1865 at Brownsville, Texas
Notes: Drafted; Wounded at Olustee, FL, 2/20/1864; in Hospital at Beaufort, SC; returned from hospital by 5/1864; Engaged at Chapin's Farm, VA; Petersburg, VA; Detached as Brigade Teamster as of 10/1864;  Appomattox, VA

Died: 1917
Buried: Bethel A.M.E. Cemetery, Pottsville, PA

Nelson Searls
Corporal
Company K
8th USCI

Age: 38; Height: 6'2"; Complexion: Dark; Eye Color: Dark; Hair Color: Dark
Occupation: Boatman

Enlisted: 9/24/1863 in Port Clinton, PA
Discharged: 11/10/1865 in Brownsville, Texas

Notes: Drafted; Resigned as Corporal to enter Band: 1/11/1864

John Surls
Sergeant
Company B
24th USCI

Age: 22; Height: 5'7"; Complexion: Light; Eye Color: Hazel; Hair Color: Black
Occupation: Boatman

Enlisted: 1/27/1865 in Pottsville
Credited to: Port Clinton, PA
Discharged: 10/1/1865 at Richmond, Virginia
Notes: Promoted to Corporal: 2/8/1865; Promoted to Sergeant: 7/10/1865

William Tarr
Sergeant
21st USCI

Age: 20; Height: 5'; Complexion: Black; Eye Color: Black; Hair Color: Black
Occupation: Servant

Enlisted: 9/1/1864 in Jacksonville, Florida
Mustered into Service: 9/6/1864 at Hilton Head, South Carolina
Credited to: Vermont
Born: September 1844 in Pottsville, PA
Notes: Appointed Sergeant on 9/15/1864; Police Sergeant per Special Order 83 Headquarters U.S. Forces, Hilton Head, SC: 8/11/1865

Died: 9/26/1925
Buried: Bethel A.M.E. Cemetery, Pottsville, PA

The Grave of Sergeant William Tarr
21st USCT
Bethel A.M.E. Cemetery, Pottsville, PA 

Charles Thomas
Company B
8th USCI

Age: 40; Height: 5'8 1/2"; Complexion: Black; Eye Color: Black; Hair Color: "Wooly"
Occupation: Laborer

Enlisted: 3/4/1864 in Pottsville, PA
Credited to: Tamaqua, PA
Born: Middlesex, New Jersey

Buried: Perhaps in Odd Fellows' Cemetery, Tamaqua, PA

Charles Titus
Private
Company D
3rd USCI

Age: 30; Height: 5'8 1/2"; Complexion: Black; Eye Color: Black; Hair Color: "Wooly"
Occupation: Laborer

Enlisted: 7/4/1863 in Philadelphia
Born: Chester County, PA
Discharged: 10/31/1865 at Jacksonville, Florida
Buried: Bethel A.M.E. Cemetery, Pottsville, PA

The Flag of the 3rd USCT
"Rather Die Freemen Than Live To Be A Slave"

Daniel Wright 

Sergeant
Company A
24th USCI

Age: 20; Height: 5’3”; Complexion: Yellow; Eye Color: Dark; Hair Color: Brown
Occupation: Laborer

Enlisted: 1/12/1865 in Pottsville, PA

Credited to Port Carbon, PA

Discharged: 10/1/1865 at Richmond, VA
Notes: Appointed Sergeant: 1/23/1865

Nicholas Biddle
Wounded While Marching With The Washington Artillery
Through Baltimore on April 18, 1861
"First to Shed Blood in Civil War" 

Schuylkill County's best-known black Civil War veteran, Nicholas Biddle, was not, officially, a soldier, but his was the proud distinction of shedding the first blood in the conflict. His story can be found here, in an article I wrote years ago for Pennsylvania Heritage magazine. 

A Sad End to the Life of Private William Fitzpatrick, Company C, 48th Pennsylvania

By mid-January 1871, newspapers across Pennsylvania were running Mary Fitzpatrick's desperate plea.

She needed help finding her son, William, who, on December 5, 1870, vanished from her home in Greenbury, in Schuylkill County's Heckscherville Valley. William Fitzpatrick was a veteran of the 48th Pennsylvania who suffered from mental illness and his mother now feared greatly for his safety. 

In her call for help, printed in newspapers in Pottsville, Harrisburg, Lancaster, and Pittsburgh, we can feel her pain and her desperation: 

From the Pittsburgh Daily Commercial, January 21, 1871: 

"Four weeks since Wm. Fitzpatrick left his mother's residence, while suffering from mental illness, and has not since been heard from. It is feared that he may have encountered some mishap, and information in regard to him can be sent either to Mary Fitzpatrick, New Castle, P.O., Schuylkill County, or to the Miners' Journal. He is about forty years of age, slender, light hair, and is about five feet six inches high. He was a member of the Forty-eighth Pennsylvania Regiment in the late war." 

Fitzpatrick, a coal miner, served throughout the entirety of the Civil War, enlisting on September 11, 1861, as a private in Company C, 48th Pennsylvania Infantry, and being mustered out of service when the regiment was disbanded in July 1865, as a reenlisted veteran volunteer. Remarkably, it appears that Fitzpatrick emerged unscathed, at least physically, from the conflict, suffering no wound or bodily injury during his four years in uniform and the many battles in which he was engaged. There are no pension records for a William Fitzpatrick of Company C, 48th Pennsylvania. But perhaps the war left upon him an indelible mental scar. 

Sadly, by the time the newspapers in Harrisburg and Lancaster and Pittsburgh picked up on Mary Fitzpatrick's desperate plea in mid-to-late January 1871, it was already too late. As it turned out, William Fitzpatrick did not wander too far from home. Instead, he had made his way to an abandoned coal drift in the Wolf Creek Colliery, near his mother's home in the Heckscherville Valley. He walked some two hundred yards into the drift where he must have decided to get some sleep. He removed one boot and one sock, and also his coat, which he folded and placed behind his head as a pillow. 

His body was discovered on Monday, January 8, 1871, by several men who explored the drift that morning; to them, at least initially, it must have appeared that Fitzpatrick was merely asleep, as he was discovered in a reclining position, his head laying upon his folded coat. It was soon revealed that he was, in fact, dead. The coroner determined that William Fitzpatrick, just forty years of age, froze to death. 

From the Harrisburg Telegraph, January 11, 1871

William Fitzpatrick's remains lay at rest in Minersville, in what is now Saint Vincent de Paul Cemetery #1 along Sunbury Street, nearby those of his mother, Mary, who outlived her son by more than thirty years, passing away in October 1901.

The Grave of William Fitzpatrick,
Company C, 48th Pennsylvania
[www.findagrave.com] 

Faithful to Every Duty: The Life and Death of Lieutenant Henry Clay Jackson, Company G, 48th Pennsylvania

Lieutenant Henry Clay Jackson
(Courtesy of Ronn Palm; Museum of Civil War Images) 

In the Spring of 1861, twenty-four-year-old Henry Clay Jackson, from St. Clair, in the heart of Schuylkill County's coal country, was looking forward to a career in the classroom. He was enrolled at the Millersville Normal School, studying to become a teacher. But then civil war came and Jackson--"From a sense of duty and not impulse"--decided to answer his country's call. He left his studies behind and entered the ranks of the Lafayette Rifles, a company recruited largely from St. Clair which soon became Company B, 14th Pennsylvania. Attached to General Robert Patterson's command in the Shenandoah Valley, the 14th saw no action during its three-month term of service. But when his term of service with the 14th expired in late July, 1861, Jackson enlisted once more, this time to a three-year term in the ranks of Company G, 48th Pennsylvania. 

It was not long before Jackson proved himself a brave soldier and a natural leader. Upon his enlistment with the 48th, he was appointed as Company G's Orderly Sergeant and in June 1862, was promoted once more, this time to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. On August 29, 1862, at Second Bull Run, Jackson was among the scores of soldiers of the 48th to fall into enemy hands, having been cut off in an unfinished railroad embankment and caught up in a devastating Confederate counterattack. As a prisoner of war, Jackson was sent south and soon found himself confined in Richmond's Libby Prison where he remained but a short time before being exchanged. Returning to the regiment, Jackson narrowly survived the struggle at Fredericksburg when a shell burst directly in front of him, so close that it covered his face and neck with powder. He was more badly wounded in combat the following year, at Knoxville, Tennessee, in late November 1863, when a shell fragment tore into his thigh while he was in command of the regimental picket line. 

The Officers Of Company G in 1863
Captain Bobsyshell (seated),
 Lt. Curtis Pollock (standing, left),
and Jackson (Hoptak Collection) 

Having been captured and briefly confined in Libby, having survived a close call at Fredericksburg and a more serious wound at Knoxville, Jackson's luck ultimately ran out during the slaughter that was Spotsylvania on May 12, 1864. While lying prone in the line of battle, Jackson was struck with a ball through the neck, just above the collar bone, with the bullet coming to a stop in his chest. A number of his fellow soldiers carried the stricken lieutenant from the field, among them Sgt. William Auman--who would one day ride alongside Teddy Roosevelt during the Spanish-American War." Auman remembered that Jackson was lying next to him when he was hit. "When he was struck he fell against me," related Auman, "I asked him where he was hit; he whispered 'I don't know,' and then his head fell to one side and I saw that he was dying." Indeed, Jackson took his last breath while being carried to the rear. Auman wrote that Private William Atkinson of Company G buried Jackson's remains near where he had fallen, and that he hoped that they would be able to send his remains back home to Schuylkill County for reburial, but this never came about. Instead, the remains of Lieutenant Henry Clay Jackson were reinterred after the war and laid to rest at the National Cemetery in Fredericksburg, Virginia. 

The loss of Jackson was deeply felt in the regiment. In his regimental history, Joseph Gould wrote that Jackson was "a noble fellow," who was "idolized by his men."  Oliver Bosbyshell, who had commanded Company G for much of the war, related that Lieutenant Jackson was "an able and fearless officer," while after the war, Francis Wallace bestowed further praise upon on Jackson in his work, Memorial to the Patriotism of Schuylkill County:

"Thus fell Lieutenant Jackson, faithful to every duty, and though sensible to danger and peril, yet braving them with heroic disregard of self. He had determined if his life was spared to remain in the army till the last organized force of rebellion was overthrown. Gifted with a vigorous physical organization, considerable energy, a clear and active mind, ready utterance, strict integrity, and withal modest and affectionate, his friends had high hopes of his success in a civil profession, but he was reserved by Providence to be one of the numerous martyrs in behalf of the Union, and the honor and free institutions of our country."

[Notes: Auman letter printed in Miners' Journal, May 21, 1864; Francis Wallace. Memorial to the Patriotism of Schuylkill County (Pottsville, Pennsylvania: Benjamin Bannan Publisher, 1865): pg. 529; Joseph Gould. The Story of the Forty Eighth (Philadelphia: Alfred M. Slocum, Publisher, 1908), pg. 180; Oliver Bosbyshell. The 48th in the War (Philadelphia: Avil Printing Company, 1895), pgs. 97, 150.