|
|
Civil War Pension
Name: WILLIAM F. HARLEY
Enlistment #1:
Age: 17
Status: Enlisted
Date: 20 September 1861
Place: Scott Twp, Sandusky, Ohio
Company: F
Regiment: 55th Regiment
Term: 3 years
Branch: OH Infantry Volunteers; under Captain Charles D. Robbins
Rank In: Private
Rank Out: Sergeant
Disposition: Expiration of term of service. Discharged at Lookout Valley, TN on 31 Dec 1863
Enlistment #2:
Age: 19
Status: Enlisted
Date: 1 January 1864
Place: Lookout Valley, TN
Company: F
Regiment: 55th Regiment
Term: 3 years
Branch: OH Veteran Infantry, under Captain Jesse Bowsher
Rank In: Sergeant
Rank Out: Corporal
Disposition: End of War. Discharged at Louisville, Kentucky on 11 July 1865
Notes: William was taken prisoner three times, The first time was in March of 1862 from Middletown, Virginia. He was paroled on 8 Jul 1862. Again in Bull Run, where he was exchanged. He was in Atlanta, Georgia on 20 Oct 1864. [Pension Application #179,738].
|
William F. Harley was born on 22 May 1843 in Sandusky County, Ohio to Jacob F. and Mary Powell Harley. William lived on the family farm in Sandusky, Ohio until the rebellion, when he enlisted as a Private in Company F, 55th Regiment of Ohio Infantry Volunteers under Captain Charles D. Robbins. He initially enlisted on 20 Sep 1861 as a fifer and served until 31 Dec 1863, where he was discharged at Lookout Valley, Tennessee. At the time of the Veteran Enlistment [1 Jan 1864] he re-enlisted.
His 2nd enlistment was 1 Jan 1864, under Captain Jessee Bowsher. He served as a Corporal and as a Sergeant until 11 Jul 1865 where he was discharged at Louisville, Kentucky. Both sets of discharge papers were signed 19 Dec 1872 & sealed by the Dept of Interior, Pension Office, Cleveland, OH.
Physical description at time of 2nd enlistment at age 19 is given as five feet eleven and one-half inches, with light complexion, blue eyes, with light colored hair.
55th Regiment Ohio Volunteers - Company F
Sandusky volunteers, fought at Gettysburg, Shiloh, Bull Run, Winchester, Antietam, Atlanta, Chancellorsville, Stone's River, Fredericksburg, Nashville, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Franklin, Kennesaw Mountain, Resaca, and Brice's Cross Roads. They took part in the Siege of Vicksburg and the March to the Sea. Many suffered and died in Confederate prisons at Andersonville, Libby, Cahaba, Millen, and Macon. There were two Medal of Honor winners: John Miller of the 8th Ohio Volunteer Infantry at Gettysburg and Charles McCleary of the 72nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry at the Battle of Nashville. Major General James Birdseye McPherson of Clyde, Ohio, commander of the Army of the Tennessee, was the highest ranking Union officer killed in the Civil War.
The 55th was organized from September to December of 1861. They went into camp at Norwalk, Ohio on the 17th of October. The men were mustered in on 25 January 1862. The unit was then ordered to Grafton, Virginia. After a short stay in Grafton it was moved to New Creek, VA.
After taking part in two difficult marches, one to Romney and another to Moore, the regiment returned to Grafton on the 19th of February. Here it suffered greatly from measles and other diseases that cost the lives of more than 20 of the men. Many more were rendered unfit for field-service. At one point during the stay more than 400 men in the regiment were unfit for duty. By the 31st of March the unit was ready for service again. It moved by rail to Green Spring River, advancing from there on foot to Romney on April 10th where it joined Schenck's Brigade.
National advance and the Rebel rear were frequently skirmishing, and many prisoners were captured. William was taken prisoner while on this march. About the 20th of June the army arrived in Middletown, where it was allowed a short rest. Here the Army of Virginia was organized. On the 17th of July the regiment left Middletown and marched by way of Front Royal and Luray, [where William was released on the 8th of July and returned to his unit].
For several days the regiment was engaged in guarding the various fords of the Rappahannock River to prevent Rebels from crossing. On the night of the 25th the regiment moved to Warrenton, then northward to intercept Jackson in his efforts to join Lee's Army. Shortly before sunset on the 28th the regiment pushed forward in an attempt to discover Jackson's position, finding themselves at the site of the battle-ground of Bull Run.
Prior to this Lincoln shuffled his commanders appointing Henry Halleck as General-in-Chief and making John Pope head of the new Army of Virginia. These two were no match for Lee and Jackson, as was made painfully clear in the second Battle of Bull Run.
Second Battle of Bull Run
To prevent the Union troops from gathering strength, Lee planned  a surprise for Pope. His first move sent Jeb Stuart to tear things up in the Federal rear. He raided Pope's headquarters (the general was out), seized $350,000.00 in cash, Pope's dress coat, and his dispatch book which gave the disposition of the Federal forces. Armed with this information, Lee took the offensive.
Jackson swung far to the left, his foot cavalry marching 62 miles in 48 hours, and hit the Union supply depot at Manassas Junction. After cutting off Pope's lifeline, the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, Jackson's men took the depot apart.
Pope spun about to find his tormentor crowing, "We shall bag the whole crowd," but Jackson's 25,000 troops were digging in on the old Bull Run battlefield, and Lee and James Longstreet were moving to close the door on Pope.
Stonewall Jackson selected his position with great care - an unfinished railroad embankment north to the Warrenton Turnpike, through which Longstreet was expected. He had been there five hours when an unsuspecting Union column headed by Rufus King appeared. Jackson decided it was time to let Pope sniff the bait, so he attacked the column. It was a vicious stand-up battle into the deepening twilight, ending in a draw. One-third of the column was lost.
The next day, August 29th, Pope had 62,000 troops at Groveton, but wasted this strength in a series of un-coordinated assualts which Jackson fought off. Kearny led the attack on the Confederate left; however, when Rebel reinforcements arrived, Kearny pulled back.
Undetected, Longstreet's 30,000 men took position on the Union left flank. Fitz-john Porter had been ordered to attack Jackson's right, but held back when he discovered that to accomplish this he would have to take his men directly across the front of a very large number of Rebel troops, the first hint that Longstreet had arrived. Pope refused to believe him, and Porter was later made the scapegoat of defeat and was cashiered from the army.
Although the Rebels had not budged, Pope was convinced that the enemy was in retreat, ignoring all reports of Longstreet's presence. It wasn't until 2 p.m. on the 30th that Pope was ready to launch his "pursuit". The long wait was patiently endured by the Confederate command, which was ready for the attack. When it finally came it extended along a two-mile front. Jackson's line was stretched to the breaking point with his troops hurling stones at their attackers when ammunition ran out. Longstreet waited until Pope committed his reserves, then went into action. A terrific artilly barrage halted the Union soldiers; then, screaming the Rebel yell "like demons emerging from the earth," Longstreet's five divisions rolled forward to crush the Federal left flank.
A thin line of Union soldiers resisted Longstreet's onslaught, fighting desperately to give Pope time to bring up reinforcements. They succeeded, but at a terrible cost: the highest percentage of deaths in a Federal regiment in any Civil War Battle. A Virginian private described a wild melee around a Union battery: "There was a frenzied struggle in the semi-darkness around the guns, so violent and tempestuous, so mad and brain-reeling that to recall it is like fixing the memory of a horrible, blood-curdling dream. Everyone was wild with uncontrollable delirium."
As Pope tried to stem the tide on the left Jackson hit him on the right, bending the Union line into a horseshoe. A handful of Yankees under John Gibbon managed a gallant stand on the Henry House Hill, allowing the rest of the army to escape across Bull Run to Centreville, and as dusk fell Phil Kearny rode up to Gibbon, furious at the retreat.
Lee kept up the pressure, attacking the next day at Chantilly and killing the brilliant Kearny, whom Winfield Scott had once called "the bravest man I ever saw...a perfect soldier."
The Union suffered about 15,000 casualties, the Rebels, 9,000, and a Northern historian summed it up: John Pope "had been kicked down, run over, and trodden upon as rarely happens in the history of war." Pope pulled back to Washington and was fired, giving McClellan his badly used army back.
A Picture History of the Civil War
by Bruce Catton [1899-?]
American Heritage Publishing Company, Inc.; NY, 1960 Edition; pp. 216-23
Noteworthy campaigns William took part in included:
- March to Shenandoah Valley, Virginia May 26-29, 1862
- Battle of Bull Run August 28-30, 1862
- Chancellorsville Campaign April 27-May 6, 1863
- Battle of Chancellorsville May 1-5, 1863
- Gettysburg Campaign June 11-July 24, 1863
- Battle of Gettysburg July 1-3, 1863
- Pursuit of General Robert E. Lee July 5-24, 1863
- Duty in Lookout Valley, Tennessee until May, 1864
- Siege of Atlanta July 22-August 25, 1864
- March to Washington, D.C., via Richmond, Virginia April 29-May 19, 1865
William was taken prisoner three times, The first time was in March of 1862 from Middletown, Virginia. He was paroled on 8 Jul 1862. Again in Bull Run, where he was exchanged. He was in Atlanta, Georgia on 20 Oct 1864. [Pension Application #179,738].
William was a member of the S.D. Haight Post No. 348, G.A.R. [Grand Army of the Republic] in Scottville, Michigan. He was also a member of the MI House of Representatives, Seat #78 from 1891-92; and a Senator from 1897-1900, when he retired due to failing health. He died on 20 Oct 1900. His G.A.R. Post had a notice in the Scottville Enterprise with a Resolution to have the charter draped in morning for a period of 69 days.
In 1866 Union veterans of the Civil War organized into
the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) and became a social and political force that would control the destiny of the nation for more than six decades. Membership in the veterans' organization was restricted to individuals who had served in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps or Revenue Cutter Service during the Civil War, thereby limiting the life span of the GAR.
In 1881 the GAR formed the Sons of Veterans [SV] of the United States of America to carry on its traditions and memory long after the GAR had ceased to exist. Membership was open to any man who could prove ancestry to a member of the GAR or to a veteran eligible for membership in the GAR.
Many GAR Posts sponsored Camps of the SV. In 1925 the SV name was changed to Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War [SUVCW], under which its federal charter was issued in 1954. The SUVCW is legally recognized as the heir to and representative of the GAR.
For additional reading about the Civil War, or the 55th Ohio Volunteer Infantry see:
History of the 55th Ohio Volunteer Infantry
55th Ohio Infantry
History of the 55th Ohio Infantry Volunteers
The Civil War Home Page
The Grand Army of the Republic
The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library
Civil War Battle Summaries by Campaign
|
