Martyr of the Race Course

By Raymond C. Wilson

This is the true story of William Snyder Bressler who was raised on a farm in Warriors Mark, Pennsylvania. During the course of the Civil War, William and three of his brothers joined the Union Army. Private Bressler soon found himself involved in some of the bloodiest battles of the war during the Bristoe Campaign, the Mine Run Campaign, and the Overland Campaign. While his unit was assaulting a Confederate fortification called the Mule Shoe during the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, Private Bressler was wounded and captured. He and his fellow prisoners made their way south to Camp Sumter in Georgia, where they suffered immensely under the horrendous conditions at Andersonville -- the largest and deadliest prisoner of war (POW) camp. When Major General Sherman's forces occupied Atlanta, many of Andersonville's prisoners (including Private Bressler) were moved to POW camps in South Carolina. Private Bressler spent the last four months of his life at the Washington Race Course POW Camp in Charleston. After perishing from disease, Private Bressler was buried in a mass grave along with 256 of his fellow POWs. The moving ceremony that was conducted by newly-freed slaves to honor each 'Martyr of the Race Course' has been officially recognized as America's first Memorial Day celebration. This book was written by the 3rd great grandson of Private William Snyder Bressler.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raymond C. Wilson
• Release date: Apr 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005743666

Raymond C. Wilson

Raymond C. Wilson is a military historian, filmmaker, and amateur genealogist. During his military career as an enlisted soldier, warrant officer, and commissioned officer in the U.S. Army for twenty-one years, Wilson served in a number of interesting assignments both stateside and overseas. He had the honor of serving as Administrative Assistant to Brigadier General George S. Patton (son of famed WWII general) at the Armor School; Administrative Assistant to General of the Army Omar Nelson Bradley at the Pentagon; and Military Assistant to the Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army at the Pentagon. In 1984, Wilson was nominated by the U.S. Army Adjutant General Branch to serve as a White House Fellow in Washington, D.C. While on active duty, Wilson authored numerous Army regulations as well as articles for professional journals including 1775 (Adjutant General Corps Regimental Association magazine), Program Manager (Journal of the Defense Systems Management College), and Army Trainer magazine. He also wrote, directed, and produced three training films for Army-wide distribution. He is an associate member of the Military Writers Society of America. Following his retirement from the U.S. Army in 1992, Wilson made a career change to the education field. He served as Vice President of Admissions and Development at Florida Air Academy; Vice President of Admissions and Community Relations at Oak Ridge Military Academy; Adjunct Professor of Corresponding Studies at U.S. Army Command and General Staff College; and Senior Academic Advisor at Eastern Florida State College. While working at Florida Air Academy, Wilson wrote articles for several popular publications including the Vincent Curtis Educational Register and the South Florida Parenting Magazine. At Oak Ridge Military Academy, Wilson co-wrote and co-directed two teen reality shows that appeared on national television (Nickelodeon & ABC Family Channel). As an Adjunct Professor at U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Wilson taught effective communications and military history for eighteen years. At Eastern Florida State College, Wilson wrote, directed, and produced a documentary entitled "Wounded Warriors - Their Struggle for Independence" for the Chi Nu chapter of Phi Theta Kappa. Since retiring from Eastern Florida State College, Wilson has devoted countless hours working on book manuscripts.

Book preview

MARTYR OF THE RACE COURSE

True story of Private William Snyder Bressler

49th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment

POW at Camp Sumter in Andersonville

POW at Washington Race Course in Charleston

Written by his third great-grandson

RAYMOND C. WILSON

MARTYR OF THE RACE COURSE

Published by Raymond C. Wilson at Smashwords

Copyright 2021 Raymond C. Wilson

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter One: Warriors Mark, Pennsylvania

Chapter Two: Life on a Farm

Chapter Three: Blue versus Gray

Chapter Four: Andersonville Prisoner of War Camp

Chapter Five: Washington Race Course Prisoner of War Camp

Chapter Six: When the Regiment Came Back

Bibliography

About Raymond C. Wilson

Introduction

While researching my family’s history, I came across an interesting tidbit of information posted on one of the genealogical websites that briefly mentioned my third great-grandfather (William Snyder Bressler) serving in the Union Army during the Civil War and dying in a prisoner of war camp. Being a military retiree and amateur historian, this snippet of information about William Snyder Bressler sparked my curiosity and I set out to learn more about my little-known relative.

My quest to discover specific details about William Snyder Bressler’s life began with researching his hometown of Warriors Mark, a small farming community located in central Pennsylvania. Since I was also raised on a farm in central Pennsylvania about one hundred miles east of Warriors Mark, I found it fairly easy to relate to the agrarian life that my third great-grandfather experienced one century earlier.

The next chapter in my literary journey took me to the Civil War battlefields in Virginia where Private William Snyder Bressler and the 49th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment saw action during the ‘war between the states’. During my military career in the U.S. Army, I visited some of those same battlefields while stationed in Virginia so I was quite familiar with the layout of the land.

My literary journey continued farther south while tracing Private William Snyder Bressler’s movement from Spotsylvania Court House in Virginia to Camp Sumter (Andersonville) in Georgia. While I was stationed at Fort Stewart in Georgia, I had the opportunity to visit the Andersonville National Historic Site operated by the National Park Service. There I learned about the horrors associated with the largest and deadliest prisoner of war camp run by the Confederates during the Civil War. During my visitation, I gained tremendous respect for the Union soldiers (including my third great-grandfather) who suffered under the unbelievably horrible conditions that they encountered in Andersonville.

Finally, my literary journey took me to Charleston, South Carolina where the first shots of the Civil War were fired. It was here at the Washington Race Course that my third great-grandfather spent the last four months of his life as a prisoner of war in 1864. The untimely death of Private William Snyder Bressler made him a ‘Martyr of the Race Course’ along with 256 other Union prisoners of war hastily buried in a mass grave behind the grandstand. The special grave decoration ceremony conducted mainly by newly-emancipated African-American men, women, and children on 1 May 1865 to honor these fallen Union soldiers marked the earliest celebration of what eventually became known as ‘Memorial Day’.

I hope you enjoy reading my literary journey about the life of my third great-grandfather (William Snyder Bressler) as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Raymond C. Wilson (author)

Chapter One: Warriors Mark, Pennsylvania

On 9 January 1830, my third great-grandfather was born in Warriors Mark, Pennsylvania. Johannes Daniel Bressler and Emma Margaret Ganoe named their newborn son William Snyder Bressler. William’s middle name, Snyder, was given to him as a tribute to his maternal grandmother Barbary Snyder. Barbary’s husband, William’s grandfather, was James Ganoe.

The Bressler and Ganoe families lived in Warriors Mark Township, which is a farming community nestled in a pastoral valley between two ridges in Huntingdon County in Central Pennsylvania. Warriors Mark began as a community to support an agrarian, or agricultural, society in 1768. It is a place of great natural beauty. It is also a place with a wild past.

Warriors Mark Township 1856 (www.shop.old-maps.com)

It has been said that no state in the entire nation is richer in Indian names, or in fact in Indian history than is Pennsylvania. According to local legend, Warriors Mark Village and Warriors Mark Township derive their names from Indian warriors of the Iroquois Federation (composed of six tribes consisting of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora peoples) ceremoniously marking trees in the forest midway between the current villages of Warriors Mark and Spring Mount on the ‘Great Indian Warpath’.

Perhaps you have heard the expression 'on the warpath' referring to someone who was angry and looking for an argument or a fight. But did you know there was an actual path, or series of paths, used by Native Americans for both trade and to move war parties and prisoners? Called the ‘Great Indian Warpath’, the ‘Great Indian War and Trading Path’, or the ‘Seneca Trail’, this series of paths ran through the Great Appalachian Valley and the Appalachian Mountains through several states (New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, and Alabama).

Great Indian Warpath (www.legendsofamerica.com)

How did the ‘Great Indian Warpath’ acquire its name? As the story goes, British traders mixed the Algonquian words for 'Great Path' with the Shawnee and Delaware terms for 'Path Where They Go Armed'. Some of these trails were made following animal tracks through the dense forest, especially toward watering holes. Over time, these animal trails became well-worn footpaths along which Native Americans connected with allied tribes, traded, and maneuvered during times of war.

Since the horse wasn't introduced to the Indians until Spanish explorers Coronado and DeSoto arrived in 1540, travel on these paths was normally by foot. On a well-maintained trail, Native American warriors and traders could travel up to 25 miles per day. In order to mark various trails, Native Americans used carvings in trails, landmarks, and trees. As stated earlier,