HISTORICAL SKETCH OF COMPANY D,ONE HUNDRED AND FORTIETH PENNSYLVANIA
VOLUNTEER INFANTRY. JOHN A. WRIGHT.

There is a village in the southern part of Washington County, Pennsylvania, bearing the beautiful name of Amity. When, in the fall of 1862, Abraham Lincoln called for 300,000 more men to reinforce the army which for more than a year had been fighting to suppress the most gigantic rebellion of all history, and there came such a prompt and hearty response from the loyal part of the country as cheered the heart of the Nation’s great leader, and encouraged the men who had been facing the enemy on the field of battle, the quiet and peaceful village of Amity and the surrounding country caught the spirit. Silas Parker, of Amity, called for men to go with him to war in response to the call of the imperiled Nation. Men flocked to his standard from the village and the country about it.

Matthias Minton, of Prosperity, a few miles distant, recruited eighteen men and with them joined the Company; and with two from Franklin township, and four from West Bethlehem township, two from Washington and five from Greene County, the Company reached the number ninety-eight.

Silas Parker was elected Captain, James Mannon, First Lieutenant and Matthias Minton, Second Lieutenant.

Silas Parker was one of the most highly esteemed men of the township, in which, for many years, he had taught school, and of which he had for four years, been Justice of the Peace. He was fifty-one years of age, a man of fine physique, martial bearing and a commanding voice.

When almost enough men had been enrolled to make a company, they went to the county seat, Washington, where, on the twenty-second of August, 1862, the Company was mustered into the United States service for three years.

The Company encamped on the Fair grounds, sleeping in one of the large halls there. Two other Companies, Acheson’s and Stockton ’s were also encamped on the Fair grounds. These afterwards became Companies C and K respectively of the One Hundred and Fortieth. Silas Parker’s Company, as they came in from Amity, and marched along Main Street to the Fair grounds, made an impression on the people of Washington as a fine-looking body of men.

It may be said truthfully, that the “cream of the community” was taken when the Amity Company, as it was called, went to war; the Justice of the Peace of the township, the Captain of the Company; the expert cabinet maker and village undertaker, James A. Bebout ; the tanner, Isaac Sharp, who left a yard full of hides; the miller, C. D. Sharp ; men prominent in the community and in the church, business men, farmers and young men were enrolled in the Company. There were about half a dozen boys under eighteen, and one of them, Joe Meeks, not yet sixteen, was so youthful in appearance that, as we marched up Main Street on the day we left for Pittsburgh, people were heard to say, “Oh, see that poor little boy.”

Lieutenant Minton brought with him into the Company, some of the best men of the village of Prosperity and Morris township. The Company was largely composed of moral and Christian men, only the few indulged in profanity or were ever the worse for liquor. Perhaps one-half were church members. Every commissioned officer, each one of the five sergeants and all but one or two of the eight corporals were members of church.

Few Companies of the vast army that saved the Union made greater sacrifices than did the Amity Company. Captain Parker laid his all upon his country’s altar, taking with him his two eldest sons, one of whom was under eighteen, and leaving a wife and several small children. Philo Paul left his farm, wife and nine children. James A. Bebout, H. C. Swart, Amos Swart, John Black, L. W. Day, Leicester Bebout, John Siber and others left families. We had some men who were unsurpassed in their soldierly appearance. Captain Parker, James A. Bebout and Philo Paul were among them. One day at Brandy Station, Va., when an officer was inspecting the Regiment, as he came to Philo Paul and saw how erect he stood and noticed his determined look, his clean gun, polished gun barrel and brass pieces, he stopped in front of him and said: “There is a model soldier.”

It is worthy of record that there were thirteen sets of brothers: four Swarts, H. C., Amos, John and A.J. ; three Bebouts, James A., Beden and William; two Bakers, Enoch and Zachariah; two Currys, Andrew and Levi ; two Cunninghams, Charles and Alpheus ; two Dotys, Wilson and Thomas ; two Sharps, C. D. and Isaac; two Evans, Samuel and Nathan ; two Bells, Sample and Hays; two Siberts, John and James; two Parkers, Hamilton and Albert; two Millers, James and Lyman; two Teegardens, George and William.

After a few days of encampment, drilling and completing the enrollment, marching orders came and the three companies were transported by wagons to Pittsburgh . Before leaving Washington, the Amity Company was lined up in front of the Fulton House and H. J. Van Kirk, Esq., in a neat speech presented to Captain Parker a handsome sword, which had been purchased by the ladies of Washington, under the leadership of Mrs. Judge McKennon. This sword is now in the rooms of the Washington Historical Society, having been presented to it by W. S. Parker, Esq., a son of Captain Parker .

Arriving at Pittsburgh we were taken to Camp Wilkins . Here we were uniformed and equipped and the last twelve recruits were sworn into the service, making an aggregate of 98 in the Company. In a day or two with other companies we were taken on the cars to Harrisburg, Pa., and quartered in Camp Curtin, where, on the eighth of September, the One Hundred and Fortieth Regiment was organized. The Amity Company, which called itself “The Ten-Mile Infantry,” after the name of a creek flowing near the village, became Company D of the Regiment.

The day after our arrival at Camp Curtin, the members of the Company were afforded some amusement at the expense of two of the Company. An order had come to each company of the Regiment for a small detail of men, perhaps five or six, for police duty . Our orderly sergeant told us of the order and said he would make no detail but would ask for volunteers. One of our Company said to one of his tent mates, “Let’s volunteer. It will be a snap. It is duty in the city, standing on the street corners and hailing all passing soldiers to show their passes.” He and his friend volunteered and also others. Instead of being taken into the city they were given picks and shovels and put to work cleaning up the camp. This experience of raw recruits (as we all then were) became a standing joke on them and it ended volunteering for police duty, for we all learned then the military use of the term.

After a few days sojourn at Camp Curtin . the Regiment was ordered to Parkton Station, Maryland, on the Northern Central Railroad, to guard that thoroughfare from the New England and the Middle States to Washington . Five or six companies were distributed at various points along the route. Company D was ordered to Bee Tree Station, two or three miles north of Parkton Station. Our company was in a small meadow on the farm of “Watty” Walker, as we called him; and we guarded the bridges on a meandering stream from Bee Tree Station to Walker ’s Switch. In addition to the guard duty we drilled daily in company formations and the manual of arms; and once in awhile went to Parkton for Regimental drill or inspection.

After about three months on the railroad, and when we had almost completed our cabins for winter quarters, we were suddenly ordered to join the Regiment at Parkton, and then the Regiment took cars for Washington City . Thence we marched to Fredericksburg, Va., and joined the Army of the Potomac .

As the History of the Regiment involves that of each company, and as Company D was in all the marches, campaigns, battles and skirmishes of the Regiment, we shall now give facts and incidents that relate especially to the Company.

While we were in winter quarters near Falmouth, Va., our Captain broke down in health. The experience of a three days’ picket trip was too much for one of his years, fifty-one. No fire was allowed on the outposts; it rained most of these three days and his wet clothes froze on his person. A very severe cold resulted; his lungs became hopelessly affected; he went home, resigned his command April 16, 1863, and died in June.

Our Company, at this time, was unfortunate in regard to commissioned officers. Our Captain, broken down in health, had gone home to die; Lieutenant Mannon had been dismissed, unjustly, most of us regarded it; and Lieutenant Minton, a true gentleman, held in high esteem by all the Company, had been disabled through sickness and in August, 1863, resigned his place. Lieutenant Charles L. Linton, of Company C, was appointed to take command of the Company and on May 1, 1863, was commissioned Captain. We were displeased because one from another Company was taken to command us, as we thought we had men in the Company able to fill the position. However, the prejudice, for this reason against Captain Linton, gradually wore away, as he proved himself to be a very affable gentleman and a brave and skillful officer, and he became one of the most popular officers of the Regiment.

During the winter of 1862 and 1863, while in winter quarters near Falmouth, the Company shared with the other companies of the Regiment in the frequent battalion and brigade drills and in picket duty along the Rappahannock River . Several of the Company were out on picket on that severe cold night, the twenty-second of February, 1863, (the coldest night of the war) and some of these pickets almost froze to death. Abner Enox froze his feet so badly that he was disabled for service, was discharged and suffered more or less throughout the rest of his life.

On the first, second and third of May, 1863, was fought the battle of Chancellorsville . This was the Regiment’s first battle. It tested the mettle of the men. Not a company flinched under the fire of the enemy. Company D distinguished itself in the rescue of the guns of the Fifth Maine Battery at the Chancellor House on the morning of May 3, near the close of the fight. After this battery, which the Regiment and other troops of Hancock’s command had been supporting, had been silenced by the fierce and accurate firing of the Confederate batteries, Company D took a prominent part in the rescue of the guns. This rescue of the guns and caissons from the charging, cheering and exultant Confederates was one of the most heroic acts of the war. When the call was made for volunteers to save the guns, Captain Linton and thirty-two men of Company D rushed into the storm of shot and shell and hauled off four guns and caissons, taking them back (according to Captain Linton’s written statement in the National Tribune a few years ago) about 500 yards, when the Irish Brigade took them. There were others from other companies, and likely from other regiments, who joined in the work of the rescue of the battery, but we claim that there were more of Company D than of any other company or command.

As there has been much discussion through the columns of the National Tribune as to “who saved the guns at Chancellorsville,” I give the names of those of Company D who helped do it: Captain Linton, Corporals John A. Black, L. W. Day, Beden Bebout, James A. Bebout, Isaac Sharp and James M. Hughes, and Privates Philo Paul, Peter Phillips, Amos Swart, Charles Guttery, Isaac Lacock, William Watson, Joseph Evans, Jacob Yoders, James Hathaway, John L. Hathaway, James Birch, Jacob McAfee, Zachariah Baker, George S. Moore, Simon Sanders, James Miles, Enoch Baker, Joseph Meeks, Wilson Doty, Thomas Doty, Abner Birch, John Sanders and three more whose names we have been unable to obtain. John Sanders was wounded while saving the battery and soon died from the wound.

There were some very narrow escapes in battle. Some of the incidents I give in the language of Manaen Sharp, in a pamphlet prepared by him for a Memorial Day at Amity.

At Chancellorsville, while rescuing the Fifth Maine Battery, “Captain Linton and Isaac Sharp took hold of a limber and while lifting it a shell passed under it, just missing their feet. Woods Day was trying to lift a wheel of another gun when a shell exploded right under the gun.”

“James Miles had some very close calls. At Gettysburg, a ball struck his cap box and another passed through his whiskers and wounded Jacob Yoders on the left arm. At Petersburg a ball struck the ground with such force as to throw gravel into his face, drawing blood freely from his mouth. His Captain, J. F. Bell, thought he was badly hurt. In the battle of Cold Harbor, a bullet lodged in the canteen of J. Walton Hughes .”

“At the presidential election in 1864, the soldiers were about to vote. Company D was in front of Petersburg where everything had to be done under cover. Captain J. F. Bell was President of the Election Board. John Closser and John Kelly were the Inspectors. While examining the ballots, a large shell from Goose Neck struck and exploded right in their midst, covering them with dust and earth, but not a man was hurt.”

There were individual acts of coolness and bravery in battle that are worthy of record.

At Chancellorsville, Joseph Evans, who was one of the volunteers to save the guns of the Fifth Maine Battery, saw two horses hitched to a caisson in that terrific storm of shrieking and bursting shells, and mounting one of the horses, rode off the field and saved the caisson.

“At Gettysburg, where bullets were flying thick and fast and doing their deadly work, Sergeant H. C. Swart stopped right in the midst of this hail of bullets and cut the accoutrement straps from James Hughes, who had been wounded, gave him a drink and helped him to a stone fence. John Swart, while in battle, got a bullet fastened in his gun. He deliberately sat down on the battle line, cut it out with his knife and went on with the fight. Harvey Swart, John Kelly and George Redd were detailed to guard an important bridge over the North Anna River . There should have been twenty instead of three. They held the bridge by keeping up a hot fire all night. When they would run short of ammunition one of the three would go back and bring up a supply and they would continue the fire, making the Confederates believe that a large force as holding the bridge.”

I close this sketch with the narration of some individual acts of kindness, showing the devotion of the men of Company D to each other and their sacrifices for the welfare of others.

When the pickets returned to camp on that cold February morning of 1863 and reported that Harvey Swart was unable to get in, Captain Parker at once got an ambulance and went out and brought him in, nearly frozen.

At the battle of Gettysburg, on the second of July, when the Union troops on the left of the line, at the wheatfield and the peach orchard, were falling back, A. J. Swart, at the risk of his life, tried to take with him his wounded friend and comrade, James A. Bebout, and had taken him some distance when the enemy came so close that his wounded friend requested him to lay him down and save himself from capture.

After the repulse on the third day at Gettysburg, Enoch French found the dead body of James A. Bebout, where it had been placed between two rocks by A. J. Swart . He pinned a paper on his coat with his name on it and a request to the burial party to mark his grave. He sent home what he found in his pockets.

“At Cold Harbor, Samuel Evans was wounded and lay between the lines. It was not known whether he was alive or dead. His friend, John L. Hathaway, who had been watching, saw his blanket move, and against the advice of his comrades, deliberately arose in full view of the enemy, and walked to his friend and made him as comfortable as he could. In admiration of his bravery, the Confederates did not fire a gun until he had started back to the Union lines, when a hail of bullets was fired at him. He was hit and knocked down. He grabbed a rebel haversack from the ground to make them think they had not hit him and finally got back to his comrades, but in a fainting condition.”

At Chancellorsville, John Black and James Miles risked their lives to take off the field, John A. Wright, who was lying on the ground wounded and helpless. On the night following the battle of Chancellorsville, Corporal W. C. Ramsey went to the receiving hospital of the First Division of the Second Corps in the woods and found Sergeant Moses McCollum and private John A. Wright, who were lying side by side, made them coffee, put his own blanket over them for the night, returned the next morning and made them more coffee.

On the night of the withdrawal from Deep Bottom, John A. Wright, who had been suffering with the scourge of the soldier, diarrhoea, became dizzy while marching and began to stagger. Captain Bell took hold of his hand and led him, but soon seeing that he could not do this and keep up with the Company, ordered William Williams to fall out of ranks and take care of him.

Two of the Company (whose names we regret are not remembered) then took his gun and knapsack, and suspending the knapsack on the gun, carried it between them. Williams stayed by the sick man all the night, all the next day, a very hot one in July, the next night and part of the following day, when they reached the camp of the Regiment near Petersburg.

These and other acts of self-sacrifice show the mettle of the men who marched forth to war from Amity and Prosperity and their vicinities. Is it any wonder that the writer feels a very tender attachment to the men of this Company, and is it any wonder that he has often said in private conversation and public addresses that there is no body of men to whom he is so tenderly and strongly attached as to the men of Company D, One Hundred and Fortieth Pennsylvania Volunteers?

John W. Swart