Notes on the Missing

Pennsylvania State Archives card for David Carter,
72nd Pennsylvania (see below)

In an earlier post I listed six members of the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment who went missing in the West Woods on September 17. I reported on William Butler and made another report on Charles C. Cooper at a later post. On Friday I visited the National Archives to  continue the search for the missing from the 72nd Pennsylvania. I was able to retrieve the records of each of the six but found nothing more than what had been previously known--that on September 17 all went missing in the West Woods. While searching, however, the records revealed the fate on a seventh member of the 72nd who went missing that day and shed light on the whereabouts of another who went missing at a later engagement. Here is the report.

William H. Butler was 20 years old when he enlisted as a Private in Company B on August 10, 1861 in Philadelphia. The Company Muster Roll for September and October 1862 shows him “Missing since battle of Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862. Due Sutler $4.00.” U.S. National Archives, Washington (Hereafter: NARA) Record Group 94 (Adjutant General’s Office), Civil War (Union) Compiled Military Service Records, Box 35022 (Bonefon to Byrnes).

Charles C. Cooper was 22 years old when he enlisted as a Private in Company E on August 10, 1861 in Philadelphia. The Company Muster Roll for September and October 1862 shows him “Wounded at the Battle of Antietam, Md. September 17, 1862.” He was carried in subsequent Company Muster Rolls as “absent, wounded” until January and February 1864 when the clerk entered “Supposed dead. Nothing heard from since battle of Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862.” NARA Record Group 94 (Adjutant General’s Office), Civil War (Union) Compiled Military Service Records, Box 35024 (Coady to Crossin). As reported on an earlier post, both Butler and Cooper disappear from their family census records after the 1860 enumeration.

Listed but not reported in earlier posts are the following missing.

John H. Cornwall was 21 years old when he enlisted as a Private in Company C on August 10, 1861 in Philadelphia. The Company Muster Roll for September and October 1862 shows him “Missing since battle of Antietam, Sept. 17/62” and he is “dropped” from the roll on the March and April 1863 report. NARA Record Group 94 (Adjutant General’s Office), Civil War (Union) Compiled Military Service Records, Box 35024 (Coady to Crossin).

Joseph Henry was 25 years old when he enlisted as a Private in Company F on August 10, 1861 in Philadelphia. The Company Muster Roll for September and October 1862 shows him “Missing since battle of Antietam, Sept. 17.” He is carried on the rolls until the Company Muster Out Roll of August 24, 1864 and there is listed as “Wounded & Missing in Action since Sept. 17, 1862.” NARA Record Group 94 (Adjutant General’s Office), Civil War (Union) Compiled Military Service Records, Box 35030 (Harringan to Himes).”

John J. McCanna was 21 years old when he enlisted as a Private in Company D on August 10, 1861 in Philadelphia. The Company Muster Roll for September and October 1862 shows him “Missing since battle of Antietam, Sept. 17 1862.” The Company Muster Roll for November and December 1862 shows him as “Wounded at Antietam…” but no other mention is made of his condition other than “missing” until he is “Dropped” from the roll in March & April reports. NARA Record Group 94 (Adjutant General’s Office), Civil War (Union) Compiled Military Service Records, Box 35035 (Martin to McGrittigan).

Theodore Pike was 22 years old when he enlisted as a Private in Company D on August 10, 1861 in Philadelphia. The Company Muster Roll for September and October 1862 shows him “Missing since battle of Antietam, Sept. 17/62.” The roll for March / April 1863 shows that he owed the Sutler $6.00. NNARA Record Group 94 (Adjutant General’s Office), Civil War (Union) Compiled Military Service Records, Box 35038 (O’Brien to Potts).


David Baxter was 31 years old when he mustered in a Camp Lyon, Philadelphia, Pa on August 10, 1861. Although the muster-out roll dated August 24, 1864 and filed in Philadelphia states that he was “Wounded and Missing in Action since Sept. 17, 1862” a “Record of Death and Internment” in his papers at NARA show that he died on September 30, 1862 of tetanus at the U.S. Army General Hospital Number 5 in Frederick Maryland. He was buried there at grave number 101, Area M. A clerk, Thomas W. Dalton, noted on his “Casualty Sheet” that upon death he had “No effects.” NARA Record Group 94 (Adjutant General’s Office), Civil War (Union) Compiled Military Service Records, Box 35021 (Baldwin to Boland).

The following entry is for Ferdinand Beideman who was at Antietam with the 72nd Pennsylvania but did not go missing until nearly two years later. I am including him in this list because most published sources still carry him as missing.

Pennsylvania State Archives card for
Ferdinand Beideman, 72nd Pennsylvania

Ferdinand Beideman was 21 years old when he enlisted with the 72nd Pennsylvania, Company F, in Philadelphia. He stood 5 foot 8 and 3/4 inches, was dark complexioned with black eyes and black hair. He listed his occupation as a lumberman. He was with Company F as it fought near the Dunkard Church. He continued with the regiment until he went missing on May 8, 1864 at the Potomac River, Virginia. Most records, including the Pennsylvania State Archives card catalog show him as missing after that date. In fact, he was taken prisoner of war at Spottsylvania Courthouse on May 10, 1864 and confined at Andersonville, Ga. to an unknown date. On December, 11, 1864 he is paroled at Charleston, S.C. and sent to Camp Parole, Maryland on December 17, 1864. By 1878 he has moved to Maryland, where on October 17, 1878 he applied for invalid pension benefits. On December 28, 1894 his wife Susan E. Beideman applied for widow's benefits.  NARA Record Group 94 (Adjutant General’s Office), Civil War (Union) Compiled Military Service Records, Memorandum from Prisoner of War Records, Army of the U.S. Certificate of Disability for Discharge, Box 35021 (Baldwin to Boland); Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934 Record for Ferdinand Beideman (retrieved from ancestry.com).
 

The West Woods Missing, Part 3: Charles C. Cooper, 72nd Pennsylvania

In an earlier entry I listed six members of the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment who went missing in the West Woods on September 17. At that time, I posted a report on William Butler, whose story is still unknown. Today's report, also unresolved, is that of Charles C. Cooper.

Private Cooper, 21 years old, enlisted in Company E of the 72nd Pennsylvania on October 8, 1861. At the time of his enlistment, he lived in the Kensington section of Philadelphia north of city center and situated along the Delaware River north of the Franklin Bridge. The 72nd recruited heavily in the Philadelphia neighborhoods of Kensington, Fishtown, and the Northern Liberties all of which lay in the 16th, 17th, and 18th Census Wards of Philadelphia. Many of those in the 72nd grew up together, went to the same schools, played on the same streets, went to the same church, and joined the same neighborhood social clubs such as the local volunteer fire association.

The wards were, for the most part, populated by second or third generation Philadelphians and first generation, German, Irish and English immigrants. Most were employed as skilled tradesmen, journeymen, artisans, and laborers. Charles Cooper listed his occupation at time of enlistment as a shoemaker apprentice.

Charles Cooper's mother, Julia Cooper, was 55 years old at the time of his enlistment. She headed the household that included Charles' sisters Rachel (24), who was a sewing machine operator, Elizabeth (12), and Ida Ruth (1). Charles' brother Thomas (18) also lived in the household and worked as an apprentice caner. There is no mention of the whereabouts of his father in the 1860s census.

Company E of the 72nd Pennsylvania (also known as the Philadelphia Fire Zouaves) was a veteran outfit that had been involved in numerous engagements including Balls' Bluff and the actions that were part of the Peninsula Campaign. The company was led by Charles H. Banes, also from Philadelphia. During the battle in the West Woods, the 72nd was positioned on the left of Howard's Brigade which was the third brigade in Sedgwick's Division. There is some dispute as to where exactly the 72nd was positioned (Carmen has them split into left and right "wings" closed up behind the 34th New York at the Dunkard Church; others put them farther north into what has become the Philadelphia Brigade Park. One thing is certain--the 72nd, and Charles Cooper's Company E took the brunt of Anderson's and Barksdale's Brigades counterattack that morning. Somewhere in the melee, Charles C. Cooper went missing; lost to his company, his family, and to history.

In the years following Antietam, the Cooper family stayed together. By 1870 the family had moved to a different dwelling but stayed in the same Kensington neighborhood. Julia Cooper, told the census taker that she "keeps house" and held real estate valued at $2,000 with a personal estate of $200. Her children lived with her. Rachel followed Charles' avocation and became a shoe binder along with her sister Elizabeth (or Lizzie). His brother, Thomas, listed himself as a brick layer. Charles was not listed in the family census.

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Notes: 1860 and 1870 U.S. Census, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; American Civil War Records Database; Penn State University Records, Company E, from Philadelphia County; Image: Library of Congress, Philadelphia Fire Zouave, retrieved from American Memory Project.

The West Woods Missing: Some Preliminary Research

On September 20, 1862 Brig. Gen. Oliver O. Howard filed his official report "of the part taken by General Sedgwick's division" in the West Woods on September 17.

At the conclusion of the report, Howard gives the totals for that day's fighting: 355 killed, 1,577 wounded, and 321 missing. Of those wounded between 15 and 20% would die.

What of the missing?

We know that some who were listed as missing eventually returned to their regiments. But many did not. Of these, a certain percentage deserted. "During the war deserters could either remain at large or return to fight again, either willingly or under duress. Roughly a quarter of 'returned' deserters surrendered voluntarily, including those under presidential amnesty proclamation. The rest had been arrested and sent back to the service."[1]

Some deserters returned to their villages and city neighborhoods. If the the community was anti-war, they might be able to settle back into civilian life; if, however, the community was pro-war, they often faced ostracism. This community pressure eventually prompted many deserters to leave the community--often for less populated areas. "After 1863, deserters fled their home communities... [and] were likely to be found in Canada, the Territory of Wyoming, and the mountainous, wooded, and sparsely settled regions of Pennsylvania." [2].

Others who went missing were captured. Early in the war, most who were captured were paroled or exchanged. Lists of captured soldiers were created by both sides and those on the list were revised from "missing" to "captured."

The likely fate of most of the missing is that they are among the ranks of the unknown who lie buried at the National Cemetery, or in Shepherdstown, Frederick, or Hagerstown.

In honor of Memorial Day, I wanted to see what I could learn more about some of those who went missing in the West Woods.

The 72nd Pennsylvania was an outfit recruited in Philadelphia in the summer of 1861. Also called Baxter's Fire Zouaves, the 72nd was a veteran regiment. On September 17, they stood on the far left of Sedgwick's Division, in Howard's Philadelphia Brigade and as such bore the brunt of the flanking assault by Confederate brigades coming from the south. Casualties in the regiment were high and of those, five soldiers from the 72nd were reported missing. [3]

They were:

William H. Butler, sergeant, Company B.
Charles C. Cooper, private, Company E
John Cornwall, private, Company D
Joseph Henry, private, Company F
John J. McCanna, private, Company D
Theodore Pike, private, Company A

William H. Butler enlisted on October 8, 1861 in Philadelphia. At the time of his enlistment he lived with his family in Philadelphia's center city 13th Ward which was bounded by Poplar Street on the north, Vine on the south, 10th on the west, and 6th on the east. Most of the 72nd were recruited from adjacent wards. The 1860 census lists William's age as 18 and shows that his father was a city alderman and that he was the oldest of eight brothers and one sister. No mother is listed.

The family shows up in the 1870 census (as "Butter"). This time William is not listed but five of his siblings are. William's brother, Lyell, joined the 119th Pennsylvania on August 28, 1862 at age 18 and died in Washington, D.C. on November 18, 1862. [4] William's other brother, Zachary Taylor Butler is neither listed in the household nor enumerated in the 1870 census.

The 1880 census still has the family living in Philadelphia (his father is now the Secretary of Building Inspectors). Five of William's siblings are still living together but William, Zachary and, of course, Lyell are again not listed.

In the 1900 Pennsylvania census, Zachary Taylor Butler shows up. He is now married, living in Philadelphia and has one son, Lyell, named after his deceased brother.

There is more that needs to be done to find William H. Butler. For now, all that can be said is that he went missing in the West Woods on September 17, 1862.

Next post: Finding Charles C. Cooper.


[1] Dora L. Costa, Matthew E. Kahn, Heroes & Cowards: The Social Face of War (Princeton University Press, 2008), p. 171.
[2] Ibid, pp. 170-73.
[3] Civil War Research Database, retrieved May 1, 2009.
[4] The Pennsylvania Civil War Project / Pennsylvanians in the Civil War (Penn State University), by Steve Maczuga, Population Research Institute. Retrieved May 21, 2009 at http://cairo.pop.psu.edu/cw/.