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Marching from Halltown during the opening days of September 1864, General Philip Sheridan’s Union troops arrived at Berryville, Virginia on Saturday, September 3. Meanwhile, that same day, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry's Company I also left camp near Charlestown and marched toward Berryville.

Before those Union troops could even put their tents in place, however, they were forced to repel an attack by Major-General Joseph B. Kershaw's division of Confederate troops on a Union force that was led by Brigadier-General George Crook. That attack was led by CSA Major-General Richard H. Anderson. Illustration: General Crook's Battle of Berryville, Virginia, September 3, 1864 (James E. Taylor, public domain).

Learn more about the Battle of Berryville here.

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Wishing everyone a safe and happy Labor Day! (Image: U.S. Postal Service's 1956 postage stamp tribute to Labor Day.)

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The Backbones of a Nation: The Laborers Who Enlisted with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry and Two of the Women Associated with the Regiment Who Made a Difference in Nineteenth-Century America. Celebrate Labor Day by reading our latest article here.

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GoFundMe: Please Help Honor 9 Black Soldiers of the American Civil War:

Average cost to purchase one cup of coffee at your favorite coffee shop: $3 to $5.

Average cost to purchase the U.S. Civil War Pension file for one U.S. Civil War soldier so that it can be digitized and made available free of charge to teachers, students, descendants of that soldier, and members of the public: $80 to $100.

Please donate whatever you can at our GoFundMe page.

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Sheridan's Ride, Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia, 19 October 1864

Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia, 19 October 1864 (Kurz & Allison, c. 1890, U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).

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Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia, 19 October 1864 (Alfred Waud)

Alfred Waud's sketch of the Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia, 19 October 1864 (U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).

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"Winchester" (also known as "Rienzi")

"Winchester," also known as "Rienzi," was the horse ridden by Union Army Major-General Philip H. Sheridan during the Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia on 19 October 1864 (U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).

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Sheridan Rallying His Troops

Image: Sheridan rallying his troops (also known as "Sheridan's ride"), 19 October 1864 (U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).

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"Then Sheridan's time was come." The Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia, 19 October 1864:

19 October 1864: "A cavalry charge was ordered against right and left flank of the enemy, and then a grand advance of the three infantry corps from left to right on the Enemy’s centre [sic]. ‘On through Middletown,’ says the correspondent above quoted, ‘and beyond, the enemy hurried, and the Army of the Shenandoah pursued. The roar of musketry now had a gleeful, dancing sound. The guns fired shafted salutes of victory. Custer and Merritt, charging in on right and left, doubled up the flanks of the foe, taking prisoners, slashing, killing, driving as they went. The march of the infantry was more majestic and more terrible. The lines of the foe swayed and broke before it every where [sic]. Beyond Middletown, on the battle-field fought over in the morning, their columns were completely overthrown and disorganized [sic]. They fled along the pike and over the fields like sheep.’"

Read more about this glorious and terrible day in "Sheridan’s Tide-Turning Shenandoah Valley Campaign: The Battle of Cedar Creek and Its Aftermath."

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To everyone who has contributed so far, you have my heartfelt gratitude.

Help Honor 9 Black American Civil War Soldiers

We're working to purchase the U.S. Civil War military and pension files of nine formerly enslaved Black men who enlisted with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry during the American Civil War. These files still haven't been digitized by the National Archives. We plan to correct that by purchasing and digitizing the files, and then making them available free of charge to history students and teachers, researchers, genealogists, and the general public. But we need your help to do that because the records will cost approximately $110 per soldier. Please donate whatever you can to our GoFundMe campaign. Your support will help us ensure that the lives of these nine brave men will no longer be forgotten.

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Medical Care During the American Civil War

One of the most important areas of study re: the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry is the medical treatment that 47th Pennsylvanians received while in service to the nation. A significant percentage of the men who served with this regiment were wounded in battle, injured in some other way while on the job, or were sickened by a wide range of illnesses. Be sure to check out the Medical section of the 47th Pennsylvania project's website.

Image: “The Civil War Surgeon at Work in the Field, Winslow Homer,” 12 July 1862 (National Library of Medicine, public domain).

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18 October 1861: The front page of "The Philadelphia Inquirer" carries the news that the first member of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry has died (13-year-old drummer boy, John Boulton Young of Sunbury, Pennsylvania).

John Boulton Young was a strong-minded, strong-willed, 19th-century boy whose curiosity and energy knew no bounds. Compelled by an indomitable spirit to leave his secure life in a small Pennsylvania city and rush head-long into adulthood, his star rose quickly, brightened the lives of those around him, and flamed out—all before he had turned fourteen. Learn more about his life and untimely death by reading, "The First 'Man' to Die — Drummer Boy John Boulton Young."

Photo: Obelisk and military headstone on the grave of John Boulton Young, a drummer boy with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry who died from smallpox at the age of 13 at the Kalorama Eruptive Fever Hospital in Georgetown, District of Columbia in October 1861. (Photographer: Crissie Musselman; used with permission.)

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Help Honor 9 Black American Civil War Soldiers

We're working to purchase the U.S. Civil War military and pension files of nine formerly enslaved Black men who enlisted with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry during the American Civil War. These files still haven't been digitized by the National Archives. We plan to correct that by purchasing and digitizing the files, and then making them available free of charge to history students and teachers, researchers, genealogists, and the general public. But we need your help to do that because the records will cost approximately $110 per soldier. Please donate whatever you can to our GoFundMe campaign. Your support will help us ensure that the lives of these nine brave men will no longer be forgotten.

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Union Army Capture of the Confederate Steamer, Gov. Milton

According to historian Lewis Schmidt, the small force of the Saint Johns Bluff expedition steamed upriver roughly 100 to 200 miles “to Lake Beresford, where they then assisted in capturing the [68-ton] steamer Governor Milton,” which had been renamed in honor of Florida’s governor after having been “formerly known as the George M. Bird [under its previous owners] a New England family named ‘Swift’, who were timber cutters and used it as a tug boat to tow rafts loaded with live oak to the lumber market.”

Corporal Nichols of E Company went on to describe the capture as follows:

“At 9 PM … October 7, discovered the steamer Gov. Milton in a small creek, 2 miles above Hawkinsville; boarded her in a small boat, and found that she had been run in there but a short time before, as her fires were not yet out. Her engineer and mate, then in charge, were asleep on board at the time of her capture. They informed us that owing to the weakness of the steamer’s boiler we found her where we did. We returned our prize the next day....”

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Union Army Steamer "Darlington" (c. 1862)

Receiving word soon after his arrival at Jacksonville, Florida that “Rebel steamers were secreted in the creeks up the river,” Brigadier-General John M. Brannan ordered Captain Charles Yard of the 47th Pennsylvania’s Company E to take a detachment of 100 men from his own company and those of the 47th’s Company K, and board the steamer Darlington, a former Confederate vessel that had been captured by the Union Army, “with two 24-pounder light howitzers and a crew of 25 men.” Learn more about Captain Yard and the men from E Company by reading this profile of Company E.

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Major-General Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel, commander of the U.S. Army’s 10th Corps and Department of the South, c. 1862

"Men of the 47th, of the Old Keystone, I trust you. It is impossible for a General, commanding, to know all in his command, nor the men him, but having confidence in you, I know you will act in such a manner that will reflect credit on the glorious state from which you hail. To gain a victory is your aim. There are two kinds of victories: one to meet the enemy and fall in death’s track, and the other to see the backs of the foe, as they try to escape the vengeance of those who are fighting for the most glorious cause and country a soldier can lay down his life for. It is not to be supposed you are to remain inactive. It is not quite time for an advance, but rest assured, you may soon hear the command, 'Onward!'" – Major-General Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel, commander of the U.S. Army’s 10th Corps and Department of the South

Learn more about Mitchel's connection to the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry by reading, "First Victory."