A Stroll Through Reading's Charles Evans Cemetery & Other Places

Gravesite of Charles Evans,

Reading attorney and philanthropist who established the Charles Evans Cemetery in 1846.

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I had the great privilege yesterday of spending the morning with Mark Pflum, an expert on all things First Defenders and Berks County Civil War; it is remarkable how much this guy knows. We spent the morning hours wandering about Reading's famed Charles Evans Cemetery, which is rich in history. We focused mainly on the gravesites of Reading's First Defenders, members of the Ringgold Light Artillery, which was one of the first five companies of Northern volunteers to reach Washington upon the outbreak of hostilities in April 1861.

The Ringgold Light Artillery, an elite militia unit, was founded by Captain James McKnight. In May 1861 and upon the recommendation of US General William H. Keim, McKnight was elevated to the rank of major and given command of Battery M, 5th US Artillery.

Grave of Captain James McKnight

The McKnight family plot

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Another famous member of the Ringgold Light Artillery was George W. Durell, famed gunner of Durell's Battery, which fought with the Ninth Corps throughout the war.

Grave of Captain George W. Durell

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First Defender Howard McIlvain was a private in the Ringgold Light Artillery and then a 1st Lieutenant in Durell's Battery. He died in November 1862 at the age of twenty-three.

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Perhaps the most famous Civil War burial in Charles Evans Cemetery is Major General David McM. Gregg, famed Federal cavalry commander.

Gregg's grave is the far leftUnion Cavalryman David M. Gregg

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Buried near General Gregg is Joseph Hiester, Lieutenant Colonel of the Berks County Militia in the Revolution and Governor of Pennsylvania, 1820-1823.

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Union Brigadier General William H. Keim, who died of typhoid fever in May 1862, also lies buried in the Charles Evans Cemetery.

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Famed Berk County brewermeister Frederick Lauer was interred in Charles Evans. Although too old to serve, Lauer raised, outfitted, and equipped what became Company H, 104th Pennsylvania volunteers.

Freddy Lauer's Grave

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Colonel Charles A. Knederer of the 167th PA Drafted Militia was brave; perhaps too brave for his own good. He was killed in action while battling with Longstreet's Confederate troops in early 1863 near Blackwater River.

Close-up of Knederer's grave.

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Near the grave of Colonel Knederer is that of Union Eleventh Corps Brigadier General Alexander Schimmelfennig, who died in nearby Wernersville in September 1865 from tuberculosis.

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Scores of Union veterans, including many soldiers who fought in various U.S.C.T. and other all-black units, lie buried in the G.A.R. Plot.

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Buried also in Charles Evans is Matilda Edwards Strong, who died at a young age in 1851. The daughter of a US Congressman from Illinois, Matilda was frequently in Washington during the 1840s where she met and befriended another Illinois politician, Abraham Lincoln. The two began a relationship and it is even suggested that Lincoln proposed to Matilda, which she rejected. It is also suggested that when Lincoln broke off his engagement to Mary Todd in 1841, Todd blamed Matilda for it.

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Frederick Yeager was a proud member of the Ringgold Light Artillery and later a captain in the 128th PA. He, too, met Lincoln, on the night of April 18, 1861, when the appreciative president made his way to the Capitol and shook the hands of each First Defender, thanking them for their timely arrival in Washington.

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After spending several hours in the Charles Evans Cemetery, Mark took me to Penn Commons, a park where stands a monument recognizing the contributions of the Ringgold Light Artillery.

A bronze plaque explains the place of the First Defenders in the annals of Civil War history.

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In this same park, there is also a pretty impressive monument to William McKinley, commissary sergeant of the 23rd Ohio Infantry. . .oh, and twenty-fifth president of the United States.

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48th Pennsylvania Burials

While wandering about the cemeteries, Mark & I discovered the final resting places of several 48th Pennsylvania soldiers. Buried in the GAR Plot (for Posts 16 [McLean] and 76 [Keim]) at Charles Evans are:

Corporal David T. Kreiger, Co. F.

A teamster originally from Girardville, Kreiger served throughout the course of the war.

Private Daniel Weldy, Co. D.

Weldy, a chairmaker from Berks County, enlisted in 1861 at the age of forty, reenlisted in 1864, and was mustered out with the regiment in July 1865.

Private Charles Goodman, Co. A.

Goodman was a native of Berks County who enlisted in Port Clinton in 1861. A twenty-six-year-old boatman, Goodman served through the end of his term, being mustered out in October 1864.

Private Albert Fisher, Co. F.

Fisher, a twenty-five-year-old native of Germany entered the 48th in January 1865 as a substitute. He was discharged on a surgeon's certificate in June.

Private Thomas Elliot, Co. C.

A native of Schuylkill County, Elliot enlisted in Pottsville in January 1865 at the age of twenty. The blonde-haired, blue-eyed boatman was discharged with the regiment in July 1865.

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At the Aulenbach Cemetery, Mark and I discovered two more 48th PA burials:

Sergeant Daniel Moser, Co. H.

Moser was a nineteen-year-old blacksmith from Pottsville when he enlisted in the summer of 1861. He served throughout the war, rising to the rank of sergeant, and was mustered out a "veteran" in 1865.

Private Peter Trump, Co. D.

Trump was a native of Reading who enlisted at the age of twenty in March 1865. He served four months, mustered out in July.

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Blog Turns Three

The 48th Pennsylvania's Record Banner

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It is a little hard to believe, but The 48th Pennsylvania Infantry blog turned three years old yesterday. I have had the greatest time keeping this site updated, and I look forward, hopefully, to many more years to come. In the months ahead, I plan on continuing to keep you all updated about my various projects, written or otherwise, which there are quite a few; to present the completion of the Nagle Sword and restoration of the 48th PA monument at Antietam as well as report on the rededication ceremony; and to get back on track, focusing more heavily on the boys of the 48th! I've received so many great new documents, letters, and especially photographs pertaining to the regiment that I can't wait to share.

Thanks to all my readers out there. . .you have made this an incredibly rewarding experience, and I do hope you'll keep coming back.

Our Boys Did Nobly Interview With Mike Noirot

Mike Noirot, host of the excellent website www.thismightyscourge.com was kind enough to review my latest book, Our Boys Did Nobly. He has also just posted the interview he conducted with me last week.

Click here to listen to the interview in its entirety.

Thanks, Mike.

Pottsville's Robert Hampton Ramsey: Brevet Colonel & Assistant Adjutant General to George H. Thomas

Robert Hampton Ramsey was one of Schuylkill County’s leading Civil War soldiers, yet he remains a rather overlooked and unknown figure. Throughout the course of the war, Ramsey rose to the rank of colonel, by brevet, and served capably as an officer on the staff of Major General George Henry Thomas, the “Rock of Chickamauga,” or “Old Slow Trot,” depending on one’s estimation of this famous Union officer.

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Ramsey was born in Pottsville on May 29, 1838. He was educated at the Pottsville Academy and taught school at the Presbyterian Church before entering upon a career as a printer and newspaperman. After working for six years in the officer of the Pottsville Miners’ Journal, Ramsey moved to Philadelphia where he found work first as a printer in the office of Stein & Jones and then as a clerk in the Corn Exchange Bank. He was so employed when civil war erupted in the spring of 1861. Ramsey’s military service began in the summer of 1863, when Robert E. Lee led his Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania. Scores of militia units were organized throughout the Commonwealth in response to this threat, including the 45th PA Militia, which the twenty-five-year-old Ramsey entered as the second lieutenant of Company H. Although these Pennsylvania militia units witnessed little, if any action during the Gettysburg Campaign, Ramsey and the 45th PA Militia were sent to Schuylkill County to maintain order during the Draft Riots that defined the anthracite coal-rich county in the summer of ’63. While back at this home town of Pottsville, Ramsey was chosen by Brigadier General Amiel Whipple, commander of the district, to serve as his assistant adjutant general. When the rioting subsided and a sense of order returned to Schuylkill County, General Whipple was ordered to report to General George H. Thomas and the Army of the Cumberland. Whipple insisted that Ramsey follow him and succeeded in getting the young officer a captain’s commission, to date from December 5, 1863. After much persuasion, Ramsey was ordered west where he ultimately joined Thomas’s headquarters staff. During the 1864 Atlanta Campaign, Ramsey served as Thomas’s acting aide-de-camp and assistant adjutant general. “Though almost constantly exposed to the fire of the enemy, and several times narrowly escaping capture, he passed through the entire campaign uninjured. . . .Captain Ramsey’s bravery, faithfulness, and devotion to duty, during the Atlanta Campaign, so impressed General Thomas that he lodged with the Secretary of War a strong recommendation for his promotion to the rank of major and assistant adjutant-general, which was done, his commission bearing date January 27, 1865. He was afterward commissioned, by brevet, lieutenant-colonel and colonel. He was urged to take a position in the regular army, but always refused, preferring the life of a private citizen.” (1)

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Robert Ramsey was mustered out of the service in July 1866 and he returned to his native Pottsville. He once again entered the newspaper business, becoming a partner in the Miners’ Journal. Later that year, in December, he married Maggie Lindsley of Nashville, Tennessee, whom he no doubt met with serving under Thomas. In February, 1873, Benjamin Bannan, the long-time editor of the Miners’ Journal sold all his interest in the paper to Ramsey and turned the editorial helm over to him. In describing Ramsey, Bannan wrote, “He has been found faithful in every position he has heretofore occupied, and has met the approbation and friendship of all whom he has served. He is fully imbued with the leading principles which have characterized the conduct of the Journal—he is affable, capable, and pushing in business, and is also a fluent writer; but, above all, he is HONEST, and is governed in all his actions by upright principles; and in these degenerate days, when so much corruption abound among public men, and there is so much plundering by office-holders and office-seekers, an honest editor and proprietor of a newspaper is a jewel. . . .” (2)

Ramsey proved an influential editor and won the esteem of his readership. Sadly, however, he began to suffer from a terrible and painful disease, laryngeal phthsis. “It began with a slight affection of the throat, which grew worse, until it affected his voice, and made speaking more and more difficult.” Within several months, Ramsey died of the disease. He sought treatment in Philadelphia to no avail and later traveled to Nashville, “hoping to find relief under milder skies and balmier air.” Ramsey described his life as tortuous and his sufferings as constant and intolerable. “It was only by the greatest effort that he could force himself to swallow enough food to sustain life, and sleep came to him but for two or three hours at night.” By the time he arrived in Nashville in early May 1876, he was very weak and soon became confined to bed. “He expected death, and was fully prepared to meet it. For a week or two before it came, his pain grew easier, and, freed from suffering, but very weak, he lay and waited for the destroyer—to him, the welcome herald of release from a life too full of agony to be endured.”

Finally, on May 31, 1876, Robert Hampton Ramsey died, just two days after turning thirty-eight years of age. His body was returned to Pottsville, where he was laid to rest in the Presbyterian Cemetery on Tenth and Howard Streets. (3)

Eulogies poured in for the deceased, including the following testimonials from those who knew him best:
“Colonel Robert Hampton Ramsey is no more. . . .That warm and genial heart that was wont to greet us, to sympathize with us, and to encourage us in the battle of life, is stilled in death. . . .He was a man of rare business capacity, indomitable energy, with a heart mellowed by Christian kindness, though bold in conception, courageous in carrying out his plans, yet never infringing on the rights of others, never exalting himself above his less successful competitors, always cheerfully forgiving and even willing to aid those who wronged him, he put the mildest construction upon the action of others, and deported himself in such a kindly and Christian-like manner as to deserve the esteem of all. His line of duty was marked out, and he went forward in it, never swerving to the right or to the left, with the courage and fidelity of a true hero; and whether in the public school, Sabbath school, the church, the army, or in the field of journalism, his talents, his urbanity, his industry, and sterling integrity won for him the highest meed of praise, and, in death, progressive journalism has received a staggering blow. . . .”

Another wrote, “Colonel Ramsey was so young, so full of life, so endowed with energy, that it seemed as if he had many years of work and progress before him. There is left to us, as a consolation, the knowledge that he died content; that his intolerable pain left him some days before he died; that consciousness did not leave him; that the hard-drawn lines of repressed and well-night conquered physical agony were replaced, on his worn face, by a radiance born of his near approach to that God of Love whom he saw by faith, and into whose hands he entrusted his soul with an unfaltering trust. . . .” (4)

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Ramsey's Grave in Pottsville's Presbyterian Cemetery

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Notes:
(1) Society of the Army of the Cumberland, Tenth Reunion, (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Company, 1876), 202-203.
(2) Ibid., 204.
(3) Ibid., 205-206.
(4) Ibid., 206-207.

Thanks, Harry. . .

Harry Smeltzer of Bull Runnings and Six-Pack Review fame posted a review of Our Boys Did Nobly.

Thanks for your kind words, Harry; I am glad you enjoyed!

Read Harry's thoughts here.

The 48th PA at Fort Mahone. . .

My good friend and Schuylkill County Civil War Historian Stu Richards has posted an excellent account of the 48th's last battle at Fort Mahone, Petersburg, on April 2, 1865.

Click here.

When Next In Gettysburg. . .

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. . ..you must take the time to visit the new Gettysburg Museum of History, located at 219 Baltimore Street in the heart of town. Be prepared to spend several hours, for the collections and artificats on display are simply incredible. Owner/Curator Eric Dorr, with whom I have had the great pleasure to become acquainted, has a real passion for history and for preserving it through his exhibitions. There is no charge for admittance, but please be sure to donate generously. Eric's grandparents once owned the home and he had ancestors living in town during the battle. A large collection of items, never before displayed, and which were gathered from the fields of Pickett's Charge by Dorr's ancestors are on display. Eric is fond of remembering spending hours in his grandparents' basement as a kid going through and cataloging the collection. From an early age, then, Dorr became interesting in relic collecting, a passion that continues to this day. A remarkable collection of Civil War relics and artificats are, of course, featured prominently, and not just from the battle of Gettysburg.

Uniforms, rifles, buckles, flags. . .everything you can imagine. . .are exhibited. Be sure to check out the "Antietam Obelisk," a painted shingle from off the Dunker Church, and even this monogramed doorknob from Robert E. Lee's home in Arlington.

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Next to the Civil War Room is a room devoted to American Presidents from Washington to Obama, including a large collection of Abraham Lincoln and Lincoln assassination relics.

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The president's room is amazing. Dorr has locks of hair from George Washington, Harry Truman's Fedora, and even Truman's hospital wristband, which was on his wrist when he died.

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While the Civil War and presidents' collections are worth the visit in of themselves, perhaps the most amazing collection is that which is featured in the museum's two back rooms. . .all on President John Kennedy.

Dorr has an actual suit worn by Kennedy while he was a senator, a box of unsmoked cigars which were on his White House desk when he took that fateful trip to Dallas, and just too many other amazing artifacts to do any justice to in a short blog post. You must see this for yourself.

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Eric Dorr's new Museum of History is one of Gettysburg's must-see spots, and when you're planning a trip down here, be sure to schedule several hours to spend in this remarkable place. In the meantime, watch this video of a local newscast, which features several live broadcasts from the museum. . . .

Eleven & Twelve. . .

. . .that's how old two vandals, recently charged with toppling and destroying dozens of tombstones in Pottsville's Charles Baber Cemetery, are.

Unreal.

Let's hope they get just punishment.

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Charges Filed In Cemetery Vandalism Case
By FRANK ANDRUSCAVAGE

Published: August 26, 2009

From the Pottsville Republican & Evening Herald

Two Pottsville boys will be charged through the juvenile justice system in connection with three separate acts of vandalism in the Charles Baber Cemetery in the city.
Capt. Ronald Moser said the boys, one age 11, the other 12, face felony charges of institutional vandalism and desecration of venerated objects as well as a misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief.
He explained that after receiving estimates of damage from cemetery officials, police will file a juvenile allegation formally outlining the charges and reasons for filing them.
Moser said the estimates the police expect include the damage to tombstones, benches and other items that were vandalized and the materials and man hours needed for repairs.
Moser said newspaper articles about the three acts of vandalism put the word out that police were looking for those involved and information received from a Pottsville family led to identifying the boys responsible.
The two were interviewed and admitted to the vandalism, Moser said.
On June 30 or July 1, Patrolman Joseph Murton Jr. said 33 tombstones were damaged, some dating back to the 1800s.
Two weeks later, on July 14, another 10 tombstones were found damaged.
Finally, on Aug. 2, the two boys allegedly toppled a tombstone and destroyed other items at the gravesite of a 14-year-old boy who had been hit by a car and killed while riding his bicycle in 2002.
The Rev. James A. Rinehart, pastor of Trinity Episcopal Church, Pottsville, said he was surprised of learning the young ages of the boys responsible.
"It's a shock to me that young people would do that," he said. "I guess I don't understand that."
Despite their ages, he said the two must take responsibility for their actions.
"They are responsible for the thousands of dollars of damage that they did," Rinehart said. "I'm concerned for them. I'm concerned for their families."
He said cemetery trustees are compiling the list of the damages they expect to turn over to police soon.
Moser credited the residents who came forward with the information that led to the case being solved.
"It was good help from the public," he said.