"A good and faithful soldier:" Joseph Henry and the West Woods Missing

The May 21, 2009 post titled "West Woods Missing: Some Preliminary Research" listed members of the 72nd Pennsylvania that went missing in the West Woods on September 17. 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

Charles C. Cooper and William H. Butler were subjects of subsequent posts. This post provides information on Private Joseph Henry, Company F.

Third Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia

At the time of his enlistment, Joseph, 32, lived with his wife Elizabeth McGregor, 31, at 1722 Burton Street, Philadelphia. Both were Irish. He was a stable man and she a laundress. Thomas Brainerd, DD, pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church married them on September 17, 1851. Ten years later, the family included four children: Sarah Jane, 9, Mary Ann, 7, Elizabeth, 3, and Joseph, 6 months.[1]

On August 10, 1861, Joseph enrolled for three years service and mustered into Company F led by Captain Isaac McBride. The morning of September 17, 1862 found Joseph and his company crossing the Hagerstown Pike near the Dunkard Church and entering the eastern fringe of the West Woods. 

Captain McBride later stated that "although I did not see him fall, it was proven to my satisfaction that he did fall in that battle with one half half of his head carried away[.] [O]ne of his comrades Private John Cunningham same Company same Regiment took the things from his pockets along with a testament with Henry's name on the fly leaf. That the said soldier was in good health at the time he entered the service and was killed as above described having been a good and faithful soldier, to the date of his death."

Three days after the battle "his body was taken from the field and buried by his Comrades."[2]

Elizabeth Henry's "mark."

On November 24, 1862, Elizabeth applied for and received a widow's pension of $8 per month commencing on September 17, 1862. This was later increased to an additional $2 per month per child (under the age of 16) on July 25, 1866. Elizabeth never remarried and lived until November 21, 1908.

Private Joseph Henry is not listed in the National Cemetery roll. If recovered, he is likely one of the over 1,700 unknowns there. 

Sources

Unless otherwise stated, all sources come from Widow's Certificate File Number WC 3807. Case Files of Approved Pension Applications of Widows and Other Dependents of Civil War Veterans, Ca. 1861-ca. 1910. NARA, RG 15. 

[1] The 1860 U.S. Census for Philadelphia, shows Joseph, 31, and Elizabeth, 30, living in Philadelphia's Seventh Ward. Their children included Rufus, 10, Sarah, 7, Martha 4, and Joseph 1 month. There is no explanation for the discrepancy between children listed in the Census and children recorded in the Widow's Certificate File documents.

[2] Nevertheless, the company muster roll for the months of September and October reported him "missing since the Battle of Antietam."

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: 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/.