Three Bullets at McPherson's Farm

 First combat tested the mettle of all regiments, no matter how small or large the engagement. The 150^th Pennsylvania Infantry confronted the reality at Gettysburg just west of the McPherson Farm in the afternoon of the first day’s fight. James Monroe “Roe” Reisinger, 20, served as one of his regiment’s color corporals. He followed the flag with musket in hand, prepared to lay down his life in its defense.

He came close to making the ultimate sacrifice at Gettysburg. In a short period of time, he suffered three wounds. Years later, he detailed them in an affidavit.

“I was wounded at the first or second fire from enemy, being struck in the right foot by an ounce ball which shattered the bones of the instep leading to the base of the second toe and lodged in the ball of the foot.” The color sergeant and other members of the color guard urged him to go to the rear for treatment. “As were very hotly engaged, I refused. I tried my wounded food and finding I could stand on my heel, I kept my place in the ranks.”

Reisinger continued, “We fought for some time at the fence, then charged over it for some distance, but running into a strong force we fell back to the fence and made a stand there. Some troops came in on our left flank and we had orders to fall back, which we did in good order till past the McPherson house, where we again made a stand. We again pushed back to the fence and again made a fight there. The enemy came on in such heavy force that we again had to fall back to the house.”

BY this time, most of the guardians of the regiment’s flags had been wounded and left the battlefield. Color Sgt. Samuel Peiffer still stood, though he had been hit with a bullet in the arm. As Reisinger advanced with Peiffer from the McPherson House, “I was shot with a ball weighing over an ounce, in the back of the right leg, above the knee. It went deep into the flesh, back of the knee. The ball was battered against the bone. The second shot knocked me to the ground.”

Down but not out, Reisinger rose with the assistance of a comrade and followed as best he could when he felt the sting of a third bullet. “I was again wounded with a round ounce ball in the right hip, the bullet passing through the lower part of the hip and lodging in the flesh of the thigh, near the surface and close to the scrotum. I fell and was unable to rise. At the time I received this last wound I was so weak that I could hardly bring my gun to my face to fire.”

Reisinger finally fell back. His fellow Pennsylvanians continued the fight that afternoon and the two subsequent days. When it was all over, 260 of the 397 men present at the start of battle had been killed, wounded, or gone missing.

Reisinger spent a full year in recovery, first in a field hospital, facilities in Pittsburgh, Pa. and in Washington, D.C.

Some soldiers might have left the army after such an ordeal, but not Reisinger. His wounds healed and medical officials approved him for service in the Veteran Reserve Corps, established for soldiers capable of light duty but not for the rigors of campaign. Reisinger left the Corps to accept a First Lieutenant’s commission in the 114^th U.S. Colored infantry and remained with the regiment until it mustered out in Texas in April 1867, almost six full years of military service.

Four decades later, in 1907, Reisinger received the Medal of Honor for courage in the face of the enemy at Gettysburg. He died in 1925 at the age of 82. His remains rest at Greendale Cemetery in Meadville, Pa. Reisinger outlived two wives, and two children survived him. His son, James W.H. Reisinger (1883 – 1936), graduated from West Point and served as a Lieutenant Colonel in World War I.

 

From:   Anonymous contributor to 150th PA Vol. Inf. re-enactor group

Sources:   J. Monroe Reisinger - Wikipedia   
                 James Monroe Reisinger (1842–1925)    
                      [ https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/MZM5-MZ3/james-monroe-reisinger-1842-1925 ]

 

Letter from the Front: New Year's Day, 1863

[This article is from Dan Brown of Waterford and commander of the 111th PA Volunteer Inf. Regiment re-enactor group from Waterford, PA.]  

Hi Guys, 

  This is a letter that our old member Pat Knierman posted on the CW roundtable site in Erie.

Somber thoughts to begin the new year.

Dan

Aftermath of the Battle of Fredericksburg. Sgt. Samuel V. Dean of Company K, 145th Pennsylvania Infantry, writes to Mrs. Priscilla Harris concerning the fate of her grandson, Pvt. George Harris of Company A of the 145th. The letter is part of the Harris/Silverthorn collection in the PA State Archives.

=====================

Camp one mile from

Falmoth Jan 1st 1863

GrandMother Harris

As it is your request that I inform you about your

Grandson George Harris remains. Wheather you can ever

recover them. I am very sorry to say that ther is no

posible chance to hope. he was kild on the frount line

at his post as a brave and noble young soldier. he

remaned ther four days before we went with a flag of

Truse to bury our dead. Then a detale of Twenty men was

caled for out of our Regt. I wanted to go so I

volinteerd to go over to the Battle fied to see if I

could find some of our Boys. Wehn we go ther they was

all Burried but 76 men. I look at them over and over

again but could not find anyone that I could make out

to be George Harris. Franklin Sweett was along with us.

I caled to him to see if I had not found George. he

said the close was different and it was not George.

I gave it up. Those 76 men was burried in a trench and

ther was no one burried ther that I coud make out to be

George Harris. They were very much changed in ther

countanances. So much so that it would have been very

difficult to have found him amoung so many.

Then we went into the City and found 16 men in a garden

that had been taken out of a Hospitle that had died by

lose of leg or an arm. Those were not so much changed.

They had lost all thier blood. We found one man

Lutannat Brown of Erie. He was brought acrost the river

and burried. George was not among them. That encludes

all I saw.

Mrs. Harris we of the 145th Regt are all caled to mourn

the lose of your GrandSon George. He was a soldier

brother and we feal his lose very much. Our ranks are

thined and we all feal to sympethise with you in your

afflictions. It pains me to say to you that his boddy

can never be found among so many at this time to ever

be known by his friends. I have wrote to you very

plain. I do so because if you had the least hope you

would try to obtain his boddy and I know it would be in

vain even to try. I must close and I can only say to

you I morne the lose of George with you, and hope to

meet him at Gods right hand.

Respecfully you obedient servant Widow Harris

Saml. V. Dean

PS Mrs. Dean you take this letter up to Widdow Harris

and read it to her. She may not be able to read my

writing. If ther is any thing that would wound her

fealings, you had better not read it to her. You can

tell her about it. See some one about it. Mrs. Thomas

and see what they think about it or Mrs. Luke Harris.

=======================

The letter was sent to Sgt. Dean's wife back in Springfield, PA for her to take to the widowed 80 year old Mrs. Harris, their neighbor. The body of 17 year old George Harris was never identified and most likely he rests among the unknown in Fredericksburg National Cemetery.

The Lieutenant Brown mentioned was 2nd Lt. Robert Mavor Brown from Company K of the 145th. The 20 year old was the son of John and Nancy Brown of Erie. Lt. Colonel David McCreary of the 145th recalled that as the regiment marched onto the battlefield, a shell exploded in the ranks of Company K in front of him. The shell tore off the leg of Lt. Brown, the head of another man, and wounded several others. Lt. Brown was carried to a nearby house belonging to Lt. Maury of the confederate army, where he died unattended by anyone of the 145th. After his body was found, it was brought across the river and buried in the yard of Chatham Manor. Lt. Brown's father arrived a few days later and had the body moved back to Erie, where he was laid to rest in Erie Cemetery. His long lost tombstone was finally uncovered a few years back when I was unable to find it and asked the cemetery to probe for it.
__________________________
For information on the 145th PA Volunteers, see the appropriate pull-down tab on the home page of this Blog. A Microsoft Powerpoint history of the Regiment is available both on that page or by clicking this hyperlink: Powerpoint on the 145th PA Volunteer Infantry Regiment. 

Capt. Charles M Lynch of the 145th PA Vols.

Capt, Lynch is perhaps symbolic of the thousands of Erie men who marched off to preserve our nation and free a race from slavery. He served from the age of 19--recruiting a company which elected him their captain--and then through meritorious service he was promoted Major, then Lt. Colonel and finally Colonel of the Regiment. He survived countless battles, being wounded. and captured. Following his capture, he made a successful escape from a Confederate prison camp returning to the Union army and eventually to Erie a tremendous hero. Here is his obituary below dated January 3, 1907 from the Erie Daily-News. Click "HERE" for the full PDF 2 page article. 

     We post this in the hope Erie area students and faculty will become more familiar with this local patriot!

Veterans of the 83rd, 111th & 145th PVI Regiments Confined in Andersonville Prison

            

      (Above: From the SUVCW Poster set on Andersonville; Available for school checkout)

Attached below is a list of the men from Erie County's three main Civil War Regiments that were confined for some time to Andersonville Prison in Georgia. In the XCEL file, those whose names have highlighted information were the men who survived or were moved out of Andersonville. Those unhighlighted names are the men who are known to have been buried in the national cemetery at Andersonville. By researching the local men who are highlighted and conducting a name search for them in the NEWSBANK files within the older newspapers from Erie County, qw can hopefully discover some of their stories from the past.  

One on the six men who was condemned by his peers to be a murderous "Raider"--and who was hanged for his predatory activities upon the weak--was a former deserter from the 83rd PA VOL REGIMENT (the "Strong Vincent Regiment"). Patrick Delaney was convicted along with five other principal leaders of the Raiders, and is buried apart from the thousands of Union soldiers who lost their lives at the prison. 

A few of the surviving veterans were asked to share their stories by local newspapers in the decades following the Civil War. We hope to share their names and stories in future posts to this website. Those interested in accessing the XCEL list of Andersonville inmates from the 83rd, 111th and 145th Regiments can do so "HERE."  We'll be adding the names of those from the "Bucktail Regiments" a bit to the south of Erie County at a future date.

Silent Sentinel Program--Erie Cemetery, May 30, 2022

Members of the Isaac Eaton Camp, Sons of Union Volunteers of the Civil War participated in a "Silent Sentinel" program at the Erie Cemetery this past Memorial Day. This program honors past Civil War heroes through the cleaning and beautification of selected Union veteran gravesites and by posting a temporary honor guard vigil in full uniform to pay homage to their sacrifice. The sentinels remain 'silent' while accompanying Camp members make available to interested members of the public brief biographies of some of the interned men at the cemetery who fought to preserve our Union. Click HERE to download a copy of three such local heroes' stories. (Our thanks to local historian Verel Salmon's exhaustive research in his book on the 145th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment entitled "Common Men in the War for Common Man" for helping us to memorialize the contributions of this year's featured soldiers.)