Just a Family History

By Glenn L. Bower

Glenn Bowers ancestors came from England, Germany, and Scotland. They included farmers, sailors, teachers, merchants, ministers, poets and politicians. Many of them fought and died in wars. The varied themes of each chapter are common to previous generations of many American families. The storylines include the following persons:

Wilhelm Bar (William Bower) came to America in 1833 with his five brothers because his parents were concerned about militarism in their native Wrrtemberg. He joined the 29th Ohio in the Civil War, as did 3 brothers, and he died in prison after being captured in their second battle.

Margaret Polk Colburn was the first woman physician in Henry County, Indiana. Her husband had served with her father in Accomac, Virginia, during the Revolutionary War. Her ancestors included members of three notable Scottish clans: Maxwells, Polloks and Sempills; and her distant cousins included Confederate General and Episcopal Bishop Leonidas Polk and President James K. Polk.

Margarets son, John R. Colburn, was born in North Carolina and became an abolitionist preacher in Missouri during the Civil War. His son served as an armed guard at the services. Ten year old Georg Trimmers mother and 159 other passengers on the Davy, as well as the captain and both mates, died during the 1738 voyage from Amsterdam to Philadelphia. Georg and his father Hans were among the 121 surviving passengers brought into port by the ships carpenter who had become the senior officer.

Charles Wright wrote a book about the service of his regiment, the 81st Ohio, during the Civil War; he later served many years as town clerk for Oxford, Ohio, and briefly as mayor.

General Israel Putnam was famous for his leadership and bravery during the French and Indian War as well as the Revolutionary War. In 1767 a pregnant Irish girl named Katie was waiting for Israel with her wedding dress when she heard of his marriage to a wealthy widow; she raised their son John in western Massachusetts.

An older sister and brother of Samuel Jones were taken from their farm by Wyandot Indians in 1777; they survived separately for many years in captivity, and were both ultimately reunited with their family.

Stephen Hopkins survived the 1609 shipwreck of the Sea Venture on its way to Jamestown, and then brought his family to America in 1620 on the Mayflower.

The Royalls were watermen in Norfolk, England. Edmund was crushed to death between a boat and the dock in the late 1800s; several of his children emigrated to Canada and then Washington, D.C.

Amos Bassett was 13 when the Civil War started; 2 of his 3 brothers who were old enough to serve died soon after they enlisted. One of his wife Matildas brothers lost his left leg in the war 8 days before it ended, and 6 days after he turned 21. Amoss first Bassett ancestor in America arrived in 1621 on the Fortune, the second ship to land at the Plymouth Colony.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 11, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462829347

Glenn L. Bower

Glenn L. Bower is a graduate of The Pennsylvania State University and Harvard Law School. He has been published before, but only a few articles addressing legal issues. This is his first attempt at an entire book. If he recovers from this process, he may select an easier topic and try to write another book someday.

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Copyright © 2011 by Glenn L. Bower.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2011911179

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4628-2933-0

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96647

Contents

Dedication

Foreword

Research and Drafting Notes

Chapter One      Baür to Bower: Losing the Umlaut

Chapter Two      Royalls on the Water

Chapter Three      Granville Center, Pennsylvania

Chapter Four      Our Wrights

Chapter Five      Westward Migration to Indiana, Missouri, Nebraska

Chapter Six      Early Frontier Adventures

Chapter Seven      The Mayflower and other Voyages

Chapter Eight      Family Folklore I: The General

Chapter Nine       Family Folklore II: The President

Chapter Ten      This Lifetime

Appendix A—Images

Appendix B—Civil War Letters from Venando and Daniel Bruce

Appendix C—Poetry of Charles A. Wright

Appendix D—A. C.Wright Speech—Memorial Day 1892

Bibliography

Endnotes

Dedication

96647-BOWE-layout.pdf

Gwendolyn Bailey Wright VanOrman

Gwendolyn Bailey was my father’s cousin. She married my mother’s uncle, and introduced my parents to each other. Gwen had no descendants of her own to hear her story. She was a very cool lady, and thanks to her, I have these stories to tell.

Foreword

When I was a boy…

My kids used to run away, or at least groan quite audibly, when they heard me start a sentence with those words. Nevertheless, and consequently, it seems the proper way to begin. When I was a boy, I enjoyed listening to my grandmothers tell stories about the histories of their respective families. To imagine relatives of mine participating in the Revolutionary War or the Civil War or sailing to America with all their possessions or being captured by Indians, and to consider how I would have fared in such circumstances was nicely thought-provoking.

As I became older and had a family of my own, I undertook my own investigations to supplement the stories and very limited written information provided by my grandmothers. In the process, I confirmed to my own satisfaction that we are related to a U.S. president (albeit remotely) and a Revolutionary War general (as a result of a scandalous relationship), but not the Wright brothers (although my Wright ancestors did have brothers and also lived in southwest Ohio).

I really like my immediate family, and I have greatly enjoyed stumbling through life’s challenges with them. Ancestors are more interesting and more personal when you remember these two facts: (1) at any point in time, they were dealing with the same issues we deal with: growing up, falling in love, earning a living, and raising children, although in the context of a world that was comparably unsophisticated and often in crisis, and (2) at each step of the way, the parent and kid roles slowly shifted one generation at a time until we arrived in the present with our own evolving roles.

I wanted to preserve the stories I have learned, primarily for the enjoyment of any family members who may be interested and also as a tribute to those who might otherwise be forgotten. These stories are unique, and yet very representative for many American families whose particular stories may have been lost through the generations.

At some point in the past, the trail back vanishes for each family line. Hopefully, this book will be helpful to anyone who may want to expand the information or pursue these trails further. For my part, I decided to print when I was reasonably comfortable with my content, knowing that if I waited to more thoroughly complete the task, publication might never occur.

My great-great-grandfather Charles A. Wright wrote a book about his experiences in the Eighty-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War.¹ The introduction to that book notes that it was the author’s hope that his children and their descendants might find the work a valued keepsake. While my efforts are obviously lesser in historic and literary significance, the same can be said for this author.

Research and Drafting Notes

The research part of this project was really fun for me. Over the years, I made occasional trips to locations where ancestors and their families had lived, but the effort became much more concentrated in February 2009 when I significantly reduced my time commitment to legal practice.

My methodology first involved reviewing materials passed down (clippings, family Bibles, etc.) and Internet searches in an attempt to correlate overlapping names, locations, and events with online sources. The trips and book buying then began. Local libraries often have a family history section with surname files. Counties sometimes have historical societies with similar indexed materials. When I identified a relevant cemetery, new information could usually be found there as well. And when I learned that ancestors or their brothers had been present at Civil War battles, well, I had to visit those sites too.

So I visited research facilities, and usually nearby cemeteries, in Bradford County, Pennsylvania; Butler County, Ohio; Henry County, Indiana; Taylor County, West Virginia; Accomack County, Virginia; Hunterdon County, New Jersey; Cass County, Nebraska; Andrew County, Missouri; Berkshire County, Massachusetts; and Rutland County, Vermont. I went to obscure cemeteries in Geauga County, Ohio; Washington, D.C.; and Schuyler County, New York. I also saw the Civil War battlefields of Port Republic, Virginia; Perrysburg, Kentucky; Chancellorsville, Virginia; Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; Bentonville, North Carolina; and Five Forks, Virginia, among others. On a few trips, my wife Sherry came along, and my mom and sister Linda joined me for one trip to the eastern shore of Virginia and Maryland. But on most trips, I packed a light bag, cranked up the tunes in the car, found quiet bars/restaurants with local food and beer for dinners, and met some very nice people along the way.

Experienced researchers may not approve of some of the conventions I use in this book (e.g., I can live with reasonably credible secondary sources), but perhaps none will actually see this book. I believe all protocols used were logical, if not strictly compliant with professional standards. Information I deemed too tenuous, conflicting, or otherwise unreliable was simply omitted. But I occasionally included what I felt was probable, notwithstanding some degree of conflicting data, leaving explanations in the footnotes.

I would note that geographic boundaries change over time. The current state of West Virginia was originally part of Virginia, so everyone living there before 1863 lived in Virginia. Also, counties often engaged in mitosis early on. For example, Accomack shire in Virginia became Northampton shire in 1643 and then split into Accomack (northern) and Northampton (southern) counties in 1663.² I generally used modern-day jurisdictions for ease of geographic reference, although I intended to footnote each such situation the first time it arises.

The spellings of names of people tend to evolve over time as well. Older spellings are often phonetic, and sometimes inconsistent even with respect to a specific individual over the years (e.g., Pollok became Polk, Baür became Bower). I have tried to reflect each such evolution logically and consistently with history, although if a person changed their name at some point, I sometimes used the final version even in the earlier years.

Dates between January 1 and March 24 through the year 1751 are referenced in this book as being in the historical year (that commenced on January 1), rather than in the prior civil, ecclesiastical, and legal year (that continued until the new year of that genre commenced on March 25).³ The convention of listing dates with slashed years (e.g., February 15, 1644/45) seemed more confusing/annoying than helpful to me.

Finally, I have tried to relegate the information consisting solely of names of parents, siblings, children, and other relatives and their dates of birth, marriage, and death to footnotes. That part is important for anyone who may want to use this book as a resource. But the stories were the interesting part of this project for me, so I tried to focus the text on those, leaving enough statistical information to make the connections apparent. Hopefully, that will make this book more readable to anyone who opens it.

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Chapter One

Baür to Bower: Losing the Umlaut

1. From Germany to Ohio

Johann Paul Baür was born on October 5, 1795, in Roigheim, Württemberg (present-day Germany).⁴ Mary Elizabeth Pfeiffer was born in the same town on April 13, 1798. Johann and Mary were married on February 19, 1822, in the Roigheim Lutheran Evangelical Church.⁵ Since I drew my let’s go research in person line at the Atlantic Ocean, I did not find much in the way of stories about their ancestors in Württemberg, although there are many names and dates set forth in the footnotes.⁶

While he was primarily a farmer, Johann Paul Baür also served for a time as a soldier in Württemberg.⁷ At the time of Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion of Russia in 1812, Württemberg was an independent kingdom allied with France.⁸ As a result, Württemberg contributed many troops to Napoleon’s army. Unfortunately, of the sixteen thousand soldiers from Württemberg participating in this campaign, only a few hundred returned.⁹ It has been suggested that Johann Paul’s brother Johann Peter Baür III was an officer in this army killed during the retreat from Moscow, but it was also reported that he was married on July 19, 1814, and did not die until February 13, 1837.¹⁰ On the other hand, Mary Elizabeth’s brother John Balthas Pfeiffer Jr. did seem to have gone off with that army to Russia without returning.¹¹

Because of their increasing and ultimately ironic concerns about increasing militarism in their homeland, Johann and Mary Baür decided to emigrate from Württemberg to America with their six sons: Johann Paul Jr., age thirteen; Simon Jacob, age ten; Wilhelm Johann, age eight; Christian, age five; Lewis, age two; and Charles F., an infant.¹² Our ancestor, Wilhelm, was born on August 2, 1825.¹³

On September 5, 1833, after a voyage of nearly three months from Amsterdam, they arrived in Baltimore with 134 other passengers on the sailing ship Providence.¹⁴ As the ship was coming into port, eight-year-old Wilhelm (William) fell overboard into the water. Fortunately, he was retrieved wet but unharmed, since he figures prominently in facilitating the rest of this book.¹⁵

Johann John Paul Baür Sr. obtained a team of oxen and a wagon and took his family from Baltimore to Thompson in Geauga County, Ohio, where he cleared land and built a log house at what is now the southwest corner of Thompson and Sidley roads.¹⁶ After establishing their new home, John and Mary had four more children: Gottlieb H., Caroline Louise, Daniel John, and Peter A.¹⁷ About 1845, a school was built there on land donated by John Paul Baür Sr.¹⁸

Sherry and I visited the property on March 30, 1995. At the time of our visit, the farm was owned by Catherine Binnig, whose late husband George was a direct descendant of John and Mary Baür.¹⁹ The existing farmhouse is on the site of the original log cabin, and Mrs. Binnig (who was 85 at the time of our visit) was still selling some very fine maple syrup from the sugar maple trees on the farm.²⁰

John Paul Jr. and Simon Baür lived in Pittsburgh for several years, learning blacksmith and carpenter trades. While there, they heard pioneer preachers of the Disciples of Christ denomination and were baptized. They came home and helped organize the Thompson Disciples of Christ church in 1848. The congregation met in the schoolhouse or in homes until 1854, when John Paul Sr. donated a plot of land on his property for a church to be built. By 1874, the church had about 235 members; however, it was abandoned in 1920 because so many members had moved away.²¹ The church building was taken down, but ivy and crocuses still grow on the site. Mrs. Binnig showed us a photograph of the church from the early 1900s.

John Paul Baür Sr. died on January 21, 1867, and Mary died on March 16, 1876.²² Mary Baür never learned to speak English, and since some of her grandchildren did not know how to speak German, Mary was not able to communicate with them very well.²³ John and Mary Baür are buried in Maple Grove Cemetery in Thompson, Ohio.²⁴ At the time of our 1995 visit, John’s gravestone faced west and Mary’s faced east. Mrs. Binnig explained that while it looks like they are not talking, Mary’s marker blew down in a storm and was replaced facing east since the west wind was severely weathering the inscriptions on all of the markers. The intention was to eventually turn all the stones facing east, but no one had gotten to it yet.

The children of John and Mary Baür anglicized the surname for their use to Bower, apparently after the Civil War.²⁵

William Baür married Jane Sloat on September 10, 1848. Jane had been born on November 25, 1824, in Rock Creek, Ashtabula County, Ohio.²⁶ In 1858, William bought approximately 65 areas of land in Trumbull Township, Ashtabula County, at the northeast corner of the present intersection of Barrett Road and Atkins Road, for $293.08.²⁷ His brother Lewis bought thirty-seven acres bordering on the north, and his brother Christian bought one hundred acres just across the road to the south.²⁸ Sherry and I also visited William’s property on March 30, 1995, and met the current owners, Roger and Pauline Anna Moseley. Mrs. Moseley is a descendant of Christian Baür.²⁹ At the time of our visit, Mrs. Moseley’s son owned the property across the street, which had been purchased by Christian Baür in 1858 and on which still grows a rose bush that according to family lore was brought from Germany by Mary Elizabeth Baür in 1833.³⁰

2. Four Baür Brothers Join the Twenty-ninth Ohio

On August 19, 1861, William Baür and two of his brothers, Charles and Daniel, joined Company B of the Twenty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. This regiment was being organized at Camp Giddings near Jefferson, Ohio, about fifteen miles from their homes.³¹ According to their enlistment papers, William and his brother Daniel were farmers, while his brothers Lewis (who joined the following year, as noted below) and Charles were wagon makers.³²

On Christmas Day 1861, the Twenty-ninth Ohio regiment left Camp Giddings for Camp Chase, Ohio, where Daniel was promoted to corporal on December 30, 1861.³³ On January 26, 1862, the regiment took trains to a location just south of Cumberland, Maryland, where they made camp.³⁴ Their brigade, commanded by Colonel E. B. Tyler, included the Fifth, Seventh, and Sixty-sixth Ohio and 110th Pennsylvania regiments.³⁵ On February 5, 1862, the Twenty-ninth Ohio regiment commenced movements within the Shenandoah Valley in a quest to trap Confederate General Thomas Stonewall Jackson. The weather was severe, supplies were short, and the Ohio soldiers’ existence was quite unpleasant for the remainder of that month and through early March.³⁶ The Twenty-ninth Ohio regiment saw its first action at Winchester (really nearby Kernstown), Virginia, on March 23, 1862, which turned out to be the only Union victory of the 1862 Shenandoah campaign.³⁷

After that battle, Daniel was detailed to the hospital in Winchester as a nurse on March 27, 1862.³⁸ Charles died in that hospital on April 19, 1862, on account of hard marches according to his military service record.³⁹ It seems likely that Daniel was assigned to the hospital because Charles was a patient there, but the records do not reflect whether Charles was admitted before or after the battle. Daniel stayed with him until his death, and then, I expect, brought the body home to Ohio, since he was absent on furlough from April through August 1862 after which he rejoined the regiment.⁴⁰ Another brother, Lewis, may have accompanied Daniel on his way back to the regiment, since on August 30, 1862, Lewis also enlisted in Company B of the Twenty-ninth Ohio.⁴¹ Lewis was not with the regiment long since he was left with medics in Rockville, Maryland, on September 14 and admitted to Douglas Hospital in Washington, D.C. Lewis was diagnosed with hypertrophy of the heart (an enlarged heart) and chronic rheumatism and was discharged for disability on November 6, 1862.⁴²

While Daniel was on furlough, the Twenty-ninth Ohio regiment continued moving around the Shenandoah Valley in the ongoing pursuit of Stonewall Jackson. They took a break from this campaign on Friday, May 23, 1862, when the Twenty-ninth Ohio traveled to General McDowell’s headquarters in Falmouth, Virginia, where troops under his command, including the Twenty-ninth Ohio, were reviewed by Abraham Lincoln, the president of the United States, with satisfactory results.⁴³ In the following weeks, General John Fremont, commanding about ten thousand Union troops, and General James Shields, commanding his division of about the same size, were attempting to converge upon and defeat the Confederate army led by Stonewall Jackson, in the Shenandoah Valley of western Virginia. General Jackson, commanding less than twelve thousand Confederate soldiers, decided to confront Fremont and Shields sequentially before they could join forces at the south end of Massanutten Mountain.⁴⁴ General Shields showed up earlier than expected, and his advance cavalry almost captured Stonewall Jackson early Sunday morning, June 8, 1862.⁴⁵ But the unsupported Union cavalry was soon chased away by Confederate infantry and artillery. Later that same day, General Jackson sent troops to confront General Fremont’s advance at Cross Keys, four miles northwest of Port Republic in Rockingham County, Virginia.⁴⁶ The resulting Battle of Cross Keys lasted most of the day, but that evening a large part of those Confederate troops returned to Port Republic in anticipation of soon engaging General Shields.⁴⁷

On June 8, 1862, the Twenty-ninth Ohio could hear artillery firing at the Battle of Cross Keys. By 5:00 p.m., they could see Confederate troops moving into Port Republic from the action at Cross Keys.⁴⁸ The next morning, June 9, 1862, the Twenty-ninth Ohio formed in line of battle in the fields just northeast of the town of Port Republic.⁴⁹ The Union line of battle covered about one mile, from its northwest end next to the South Fork of the Shenandoah River, southeast to Cole Mountain, a shoulder of the Blue Ridge. The line was manned in that same direction by the Seventh Indiana, the Twenty-ninth Ohio, the Seventh Ohio, the Fifth Ohio, and the First Virginia (Union) regiments.⁵⁰ The Union forces had well-positioned artillery at the Coaling, a high point just southeast of the fields in which the infantry was forming battle lines. The Union commander on the field, General Erastus Tyler, hoped that his three thousand troops would soon be reinforced by General Shields and his substantially greater forces nearby.⁵¹ With the artillery support from the Coaling, the Union infantry repulsed the initial Confederate attack, and then counterattacked, pushing the Confederates southwest toward the town.⁵² Unfortunately, General Shields did not make a timely appearance on the field of battle. As a result, a concerted flanking effort of Confederates ultimately took the Coaling and some of the Union artillery about 11:00 a.m., after that strategic vantage point location had changed hands several times.⁵³ On the field below, the tide then turned. Significantly more numerous Confederate troops began pushing the Union troops on the battlefield toward the northeast, and the Union retreat commenced.⁵⁴

At this point, Colonel Samuel Carroll assigned rear guard duty to the Fifth, Seventh, and Twenty-ninth Ohio regiments so the remainder of the Union troops could safely retreat. These three Ohio regiments loaded muskets as they withdrew, periodically stopping to fire a volley into the advancing Confederates, but they were ultimately overtaken and overwhelmed.⁵⁵

As later recalled by John SeCheverell, the drummer boy of Company B of the Twenty-ninth Ohio Infantry:

The Twenty-ninth regiment moved to the rear, perhaps an eighth of a mile, and came to a halt, holding the rebel forces in check until the entire Union forces had passed to the rear. In the meantime the rebels had opened fire upon us with a battery at close range, which did fearful execution in our rapidly decimating ranks.⁵⁶

One soldier in the Twenty-ninth Ohio regiment characterized this conclusion of the action somewhat more chaotically, noting that Confederate cavalry rode through the ranks of the regiment, taking many prisoners, as others in the regiment took to the nearby woods.⁵⁷ General Fremont eventually brought his troops from Cross Keys to assist, arriving about 12:00 noon, but could not cross the river. General Jackson had burned the bridge across the Shenandoah River, and the river was very high due to recent heavy rains, so General Fremont helplessly watched the conclusion from the heights to the northwest of the river and battlefield.⁵⁸ When the Battle of Port Republic ended, the Twenty-ninth Ohio had lost: 17 killed, 41 wounded, and 114 captured or missing.⁵⁹ Private William Baür was among the captured.⁶⁰ It is not known whether he was wounded or not. He was marched to prison in Richmond, Virginia, and he died there more than three months later on September 17, 1862.⁶¹

In March 2009, Sherry and I visited the quiet town of Port Republic, which seems to be no larger or more populous than it was in 1862.⁶² Most of the battlefield is still privately owned by a few landowners and planted with crops, but eight acres including the Coaling is owned by the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites and open to the public.

During 1862, Charles died, William was captured and died, and Lewis was admitted to the hospital and discharged for disability. After September 1862, only Daniel of the four brothers remained involved in the action, and he served until the end of the war. The Twenty-ninth Ohio was tangentially involved in various engagements in Maryland and Virginia during the remainder of 1862 and early 1863, but the next major action in which it played a primary role was the Battle of Chancellorsville.⁶³

General Joseph Fighting Joe Hooker, then in command of the Union Army of the Potomac, commenced an engagement with General Robert E. Lee’s Confederates in the vicinity of Chancellorsville, Virginia, on the afternoon of May 1, 1863.⁶⁴ The Union army, with more than one hundred thousand troops, outnumbered the Confederates by about two to one.⁶⁵ In view of this, General Stonewall Jackson suggested a bold plan to General Lee, while strategizing over a campfire that evening. General Jackson suggested using a local guide to take his troops twelve miles on trails around the Union army early the next morning and position for an attack in the rear (from the west) where it would be least expected.⁶⁶ The strategy was a huge success, and late in the afternoon of May 2, the Union Eleventh Corps was routed. Union troops then pushed back on themselves until twilight faded and elements of several other Union Corps established a strong line of resistance just west of Chancellorsville.⁶⁷ Unfortunately for the Confederates, Stonewall Jackson was accidentally shot by his own troops that evening, while inspecting forward positions, and died eight days later.⁶⁸

On May 3, before the Union command could implement a strategy to counteract Jackson’s bold initiative, a Confederate artillery shell hit a pillar at the Chancellor house (Union headquarters) next to which General Hooker was standing, and he was temporarily incapacitated with a concussion. Soon thereafter, without even engaging several yet uninvolved Union Corps, the Union forces withdrew northward away from Chancellorsville and the much smaller Confederate Army.⁶⁹ The Twenty-ninth Ohio regiment was positioned on the south salient of the Union line and exchanged heavy musket fire with the Confederates before withdrawal.⁷⁰ Casualties for the regiment in this action were two killed, forty-two wounded, and twenty-eight missing.⁷¹ Among the wounded was Daniel J. Baür, although the wound was not incapacitating since he was again present with the regiment at the next muster roll call.⁷²

In late June, the Twenty-ninth Ohio regiment moved through Harpers Ferry, camping near Frederick, Maryland, on the twenty-eighth and between Littlestown and Gettysburg in Adams County, Pennsylvania, on June 30, 1863.⁷³ On July 1, 1863, the regiment was moving toward Gettysburg when they heard artillery fire from the battle that was commencing.⁷⁴ They passed ambulances returning with wounded soldiers and, about 5:00 p.m., arrived at Cemetery Ridge where they spent the evening.⁷⁵ Before 6:00 a.m. on July 2, the Twenty-ninth Ohio moved out to take position on Culp’s Hill where their brigade (known as Candy’s Brigade since it was commanded by Colonel Charles Candy) promptly engaged in constructing defensive log breastworks.⁷⁶ About 6:00 p.m., as the Confederates were preparing to attack Culp’s Hill, Candy’s Brigade was ordered to leave and reinforce the Union left on Cemetery Ridge (just north of Little Round Top). The Confederates commenced an attack on the remaining Union troops on Culp’s Hill about 7:00 p.m.⁷⁷ Candy’s Brigade apparently moved south rather than southwest and did not reach Cemetery Ridge, but was found and ordered back to reinforce Culp’s Hill late that evening.⁷⁸ After a confusing journey constantly changing direction and often retracing their steps in the dark, they arrived back at Culp’s Hill about 1:30 a.m. on July 3.⁷⁹

When the Confederate attack resumed about 4:45 a.m., the Twenty-ninth Ohio (with the Seventh Ohio and Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania) gathered in a low area slightly to the rear of the entrenchments on Culp’s Hill.⁸⁰ At about 5:30 a.m., when the 137th New York regiment had been on the front line several hours and was running low on ammunition, the three hundred men of the Twenty-ninth Ohio ran over the crest to the defensive works, without pausing to fire until they were in position. At about 5:45 a.m., as they were covered by the fire of the Twenty-ninth Ohio, the 137th New York ran back to the low area behind the lines.⁸¹ The Twenty-ninth Ohio then maintained that portion of the line on Culp’s Hill opposing the attacking Confederate troops until similarly relieved by the Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania regiment about 8:00 a.m.⁸² Back in the low area behind the hill, the Twenty-ninth Ohio rested and cleaned their weapons before returning to the entrenchments and resuming firing about 9:55 a.m.⁸³ It was estimated that each man in the regiment fired about 250 rounds on July 3.⁸⁴ In the course of the morning, three waves of Confederate attacks occurred, but the well-constructed and now adequately manned Union defensive position could not be taken.⁸⁵ The Confederate assault concluded about 11:00 a.m., and the Twenty-ninth Ohio took several prisoners from the First Louisiana regiment.⁸⁶ General Geary reported that his division, which included Candy’s Brigade, buried nine hundred Confederates in front of its lines and captured five hundred prisoners by the conclusion of the fight.⁸⁷ Total casualties for the Twenty-ninth Ohio at Gettysburg were seven killed and thirty-one wounded.⁸⁸

The action at Culp’s Hill at Gettysburg has been generally overlooked by historians, with the most famous tales after the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg relating to the defense of Little Round Top on the Union left on July 2 and Pickett’s failed charge against the Union center on July 3. But the greatest number of Confederate casualties on the Gettysburg battlefield was in front of Culp’s Hill. Like Little Round Top on the Union left, if this defense of the Union right had failed, General Lee would have had another victory. However, Culp’s Hill had neither a charismatic general (like Joshua Chamberlain or George Pickett) nor a dramatic vista (like the more famous venues), and so it goes.⁸⁹

In late 2001, I received a solicitation from the Gettysburg Remembrance Trust, a project of Friends of the National Parks at Gettysburg. For $500, a plaque honoring those who have gone before could be placed on the Remembrance Wall on display at the Park Visitor Center. So I sent a check and received a nice thank-you letter, enclosing a photograph of the requested plaque, obviously attached to a wall with other similar plaques.⁹⁰ When I stopped by the new Park Visitor Center in 2009 and asked to see the Remembrance Wall, the first several park rangers I spoke with were clueless. Finally one ranger of more tenure suggested that he may have seen something like that in a closet at the old (closed) visitor center building (the new center opened in April 2008), unavailable to the public. The Remembrance Wall had been forgotten by its stewards in less than eight years, but at least the money was for a good cause.

After Gettysburg, the Twenty-ninth Ohio regiment moved around the upper Potomac River area from Frederick to Harpers Ferry, occasionally skirmishing with the enemy.⁹¹ On August 16, 1863, Corporal Daniel J. Baür fell down on the march and was admitted to the hospital in Alexandria, Virginia, for sunstroke. He was released from the hospital and returned to the regiment on August 20, 1863.⁹² Three days later, the regiment boarded the Baltic in Alexandria and, after encountering rough seas along the way, disembarked in New York City on September 1.⁹³ The draft riots they had been sent to deal with had subsided, so on September 8, they got back on the ship and arrived back in Alexandria on September 11, after which they rejoined their brigade in northern Virginia.⁹⁴ At the end of September, the entire Twelfth Corps was transferred to the western theater of operations, so they took trains west, arriving in Tennessee on October 5.⁹⁵ For the next several months, the Twenty-ninth Ohio was close to the action in the Atlanta campaign, but was not heavily involved in any major conflict.⁹⁶

Daniel reenlisted in the regiment on December 10, 1863, for up to three additional years as a veteran volunteer, as did most of the remaining three hundred effective men in the Twenty-ninth Ohio; they were then given a thirty-day furlough home.⁹⁷ The regiment remained based at Cleveland, Ohio, with new recruits coming in until February 8, 1864, when they traveled by train to Alabama winter quarters to await the spring campaign.⁹⁸ Corporal Daniel J. Baür was present with the regiment through June 1864.⁹⁹ On May 8, 1864, the Twenty-ninth Ohio was involved in an attack uphill against well-entrenched Confederates at the Battle of Dug Gap, near Mill Creek, Georgia.¹⁰⁰ Just prior to the advance, the brass bands in our rear indiscreetly commenced playing National airs, which attracted the attention of the rebel commander, who rapidly concentrated reinforcements in our front.¹⁰¹ The Twenty-ninth Ohio had more casualties than any other regiment in this engagement, losing twenty-six killed and sixty-seven wounded.¹⁰² It was noted that General Geary highly complimented the regiment for its gallantry, remarking that he never saw men advance under such murderous fire, especially when unsupported and where the chances of success were so desperate.¹⁰³

Corporal Daniel J. Baür was also with the Twenty-ninth Ohio during the Battles of New Hope Church (May 25, 1864), Dallas, Georgia (May 28, 1864), and Pine Knob, Georgia (June 15, 1864), during which the regiment was engaged in the thick of the action and took many casualties.¹⁰⁴ He spent the period from July 5 to September 22, 1864, in the hospital; was reduced in the ranks to private on August 1, 1864, while in the hospital; and then rejoined the regiment for the remainder of the Atlanta and Carolina campaigns.¹⁰⁵ The Twenty-ninth Ohio Infantry mustered out on July 13, 1865.¹⁰⁶ During the course of the war, more than one-third (five hundred and forty) of the one thousand five hundred and thirty-two members of the regiment, were either killed, wounded or missing in action, and one hundred and fifty-seven died of disease.¹⁰⁷

The youngest Baür brother, Peter, enlisted in Company C of the 177th Ohio Volunteer Infantry on August 6, 1864, at age nineteen.¹⁰⁸ This regiment saw some action, but was mostly engaged in guard duty in Tennessee