behind AotW

A 34 year old clerk from Philadelphia, Morrison Woodward was Sergeant Major of the 2nd Pennsylvania Reserves when they fought in the Maryland Campaign of September 1862.

He wrote of his experiences there in his 1865 regimental history, describing the scene at Turner’s Gap on the 14th and the terrible fighting on the evening of the 16th and morning of the 17th at Antietam. He also included this almost comic incident:

When we broke and were driven across the field, a chicken was scared up, which displayed equal alacrity with the men in its flight to the rear, and a most animated race for life or death took place between them, but the Sergeant-major seizing a favorable opportunity threw himself upon the ground and captured the prize, which furnished a most sumptuous repast.

He was appointed First Lieutenant and Regimental Adjutant after the battle and (much) later was award the Medal of Honor for his work in capturing enemy troops and their flag at Fredericksburg that December.

Morrison’s father James Searles Woodward (November 1790-October 1862) was a prosperous merchant in Philadelphia. Just for fun, here’s his c.1820 portrait as a young man, now in the Naomi Wood Collection, hanging in the dining room of the Woodford Mansion, Philadelphia.

Evan Morrison Woodward’s photograph, which looks to have been hand-retouched, was sold by the Union Drummer Boy in Gettysburg.

Woodward’s history of the 2nd Reserves – Our Campaigns or, The Marches, Bivouacs, Battles, Incidents of Camp Life and History of our Regiment during its Three Years Term of Service – is online from the Internet Archive.

Colonel H.L. Cake of the 96th Pennsylvania Infantry, in reporting his regiment’s part in the combat at Crampton’s Gap on 14 September 1862, included this detail:

It was a most exhausting charge. By the time we had ascended half way the cannon had ceased firing on our left, and the enemy seldom replied to our fire with their muskets. We made captures at every step. After passing the crest of the mountain a lieutenant [which?] of the Fifteenth North Carolina delivered himself up, I sent during the charge, 42 prisoners to the rear, including the captain of Company G, Sixteenth Georgia, wounded, and other officers and men most of them unhurt.

That Georgia Captain was Augustus C Thompson, of Jackson County, who had been shot in the left thigh before he was captured. He survived, but was disabled for further service and went home.

This superb photograph of him was donated to the Library of Congress by Tom Liljenquist in 2012. I’d guess it was taken as he first entered service in July 1861.

While looking further into Captain Thompson today I found that picture of his wife, Mary Arline Randolph, shared to the Mormon genealogical database by Julie Kinkaid in 2022. I do not know when it was taken, but she looks very young – in her twenties, perhaps? She was 17 when she married 22 year old Augustus in 1850.

They had a daughter, Nancy, and both lived into their 70s, for the last 20 years in Lakeland, FL, where Augustus ran the county poor house. Mary Arline only outlived him by about 8 months.

This lovely image was probably taken at the home of the 96th Pennsylvania Volunteers, Camp Northumberland, near Alexandria, VA between December 1861 and March 1862. These, then, are the officers of the regiment at that time and place.

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Particularly interesting are the two wheeled weapons at the front of the group.

On the right is a Union Repeating Gun (also known as an Ager Gun or the coffee mill gun). A few of these hand-cranked repeating guns were produced in 1861; apparently President Lincoln was intrigued by their potential and had 10 built. As many as 50 others where produced later. They saw very limited use during the war, and I’ve seen no mention of this one’s actual use by the 96th.

Gathered around that gun are the field and some of the staff officers of the regiment.

In the foreground to our right, left hand on hip, wearing a plumed Hardee hat, is Colonel Henry Lutz Cake, organizer and commander of the regiment. He was an excellent combat leader, which was particularly apparent in action at Crampton’s Gap on 14 September 1862.

Next to him is Lieutenant Colonel Jacob Gellert Frick, a Mexican War veteran. By Antietam in September 1862 he was Colonel of his own regiment, the 129th Pennsylvania. He was later awarded the Medal of Honor for his work at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville.

To Frick’s right is the Chaplain, the Reverend Samuel Fisher Colt (1817-1893), pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Pottsville. He was discharged in July 1862 and was not on the Maryland Campaign.

Next along to our left is Major Lewis J Martin, a coal mining engineer from Pottsville. He was mortally wounded by a gunshot to his head at Crampton’s Gap and died soon after.

I have not positively identified the next 4 men, but the man with his hand on the wheel may be Dr. Daniel Webster Bland, who was the regiment’s Surgeon from organization to muster out, in October 1864, and later Sixth Army Corps Medical Inspector. I have not confirmed his presence in Maryland in 1862.

The tall man second from left with the luxuriant mustache is probably Assistant Surgeon Washington George Nugent. He had prior service in the 3-month 14th Pennsylvania. He resigned from the 96th on 12 September 1862 to accept appointment as the Surgeon of the 9-month 126th Pennsylvania Infantry, afterward as Surgeon of the 20th Regiment, Emergency Militia of 1863, and then was a contract surgeon at the Fort Delaware post & prison hospital to the end of the war.

The artillery piece in that picture is part of a fascinating story dating to the early organization of the 96th Pennsylvania in September 1861.

A group of Pottsville First Defender veterans, members of the Good Intent Fire Company, formed the Good Intent Light Artillery under Captain Lessig.

The battery … was to be short lived, that is as far as the name was concerned. The members were unable to secure any ordnance to drill with and finally the “boys” decided to swipe brass and make a cannon themselves. Piece by piece they scraped together the brass while some poor, unsuspecting victim scratched his head and wondered at the mysterious disappearance of some article of brass from his shop or household. When enough had been secured the brass was melted and molded into a fine cannon by Geo. W. Snyder …

The Good Intent Battery would undoubtedly have become famous, as the members did, but for an unlooked for occurrence. The 96th regiment had been recruited and lacked but one company. The Good Intent Battery was mustered into this regiment and the members then became infantrymen and “shouldered the cannon” as they remarked for ever afterward. The precious cannon was taken along with the 96th Regt., but was finally turned over to a New England Battery [June 1862], and that was the last seen or heard of it.

Those would-be artillerists became Company C of the 96th, and their officers are seen here around “their” cannon. From left to right, in the foreground, they are:

First Lieutenant Isaac E Severn. He’d served as a Private and Corporal in the Washington Artillery, which became Company H of the 25th Pennsylvania Infantry, from April to July 1861. I can’t specifically place Severn on the Maryland Campaign of 1862, though he may well have been present. He was promoted to Captain of his Company in November 1862 and mustered out with them in October 1864.

Captain William Henry Lessig, later Major, Lieutenant Colonel, and finally Colonel of the 96th Pennsylvania Infantry.

And, I think, 2nd Lieutenant Samuel Rex Russel, with his hand on the breech. He was promoted to Captain of Company H in May 1863, and served out his term to October 1864.

The photograph of the officers of the 96th is in the collection of the Library of Congress.

The quote above about the Good Intent Light Artillery is from a veteran of the unit in the Pottsville Daily Republican of 18 April 1900, found in a fantastic blog post by Stu Richards.