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.)