The Story of Chaplain Howell

PeterT

1st Lieutenant
Joined
Mar 29, 2015
Location
Melbourne Australia
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The story of Chaplain Howell is one of the many smaller, but no less interesting, tales of the battle.

On the first day of the battle, the Union forces were retreating through the town. Captain Hubert Dilger, Battery 1, 1st Ohio Light Artillery, set up his guns on the town diamond, the position where the following 3 photos were taken. The Battery departed when the Confederate numbers were just too many. The 1st South Carolina Infantry planted their colours on the town diamond.

Chaplain Howell was tending the Union wounded in the Christ Lutheran Church (the steeple is visible in all 3 photos). He stepped outside to see what the fuss was all about. The fuss was the Confederates storming through the town. As he emerged from the church he was shot down. He was unarmed, but was wearing a blue uniform.

The first two photos appear in William Frassanito's book "Gettysburg- A Journey in Time". The first was one Tyson took in August 1863. The second photo is a "modern view" from the 1970s. The third is my photo I took in September at the CWT get together.


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You just solved a mystery for me, @PeterT: Where, what, and why is there a 4th 90th Pennsylvania Infantry monument?

There are three on the battlefield:

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...the fourth 90th Pennsylvania Infantry monument is at the foot of the College Lutheran church steps and was dedicated in 1889 to mark the spot where the chaplain Howell was killed -- he was with the 90th Pennsylvania Infantry.



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You just solved a mystery for me, @PeterT: Where, what, and why is there a 4th 90th Pennsylvania Infantry monument?

There are three on the battlefield:

85c8b6d20782eea945061915a99b5791.jpg
2f1df63c58fc0aba0c876ec3b7f740f0.jpg
90Pa-eagle-4c-451-048.jpg



...the fourth 90th Pennsylvania Infantry monument is at the foot of the College Lutheran church steps and was dedicated in 1889 to mark the spot where the chaplain Howell was killed -- he was with the 90th Pennsylvania Infantry.



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Glad to have been of service Your Queenship Ma'am!
 

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Howell was born near Trenton, NJ, the fifth of seven children. He graduated from Lafayette College (Easton, PA) in 1838, and from Union Theological Seminary (New York City) in 1845. In 1846, he was ordained and also married Isabella Grant. In 1853 he was called to serve the Presbyterian Church in the hamlet of Delaware Water Gap in northeastern Pennsylvania, where he also ran a private school for boys. He became a devout Unionist and staunch abolitionist. Enlisting as regimental chaplain of the 90 PA on March 13, 1862, he had a penchant for wearing the military uniform of a captain instead of the regulation black chaplain's uniform.

Sgt. Archibald B. Snow of the 97 NY followed Howell out the door of the church and observed his last moments. At the foot of the steps a Confederate soldier called out for Howell to surrender. Instead of throwing up his hands immediately, he attempted to explain his non-combatant status despite his uniform. He never finished his explanation.

(main source: http://boards.rootsweb.com/topics.obits2/51126/mb.ashx)

(The soldier may have come from Perrin's South Carolina brigade, which had just suffered a brutal fire while storming the Union position at the Seminary, and would have put him in the mood for swift revenge.)
 
Dilger is a Medal of Honor recipient.

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Place of Birth: , Germany
Birth Date: March 5, 1836
Date of Passing: May 14, 1911
Rank: Captain
Service Branch: U.S. Army
Division: 1st Ohio Light Artillery
Company: Battery 1
Conflict: Civil War
Date of Action: May 2, 1863
Location and Event Details: At Chancellorsville, Va.
Date of issue: August 17, 1893
Accredited to: New York
Fought his guns until the enemy were upon him, then with one gun hauled in the road by hand he formed the rear guard and kept the enemy at bay by the rapidity of his fire and was the last man in the retreat.
 
When Dilger's battery was still north of town, his and Wheeler's battery were dueling with the Confederate artillery on Oak Hill. Dilger had Napoleons and Wheeler's 13th New York battery had 3 inch rifles. Since the rifles had the range, they would pop away at the Rebel artillery and allow Dilger to move his guns forward and so on. It was a very effective way to get his Napoleons into good gun range.
 
Thank you @PeterT for reminding us that fighting took place not only in the battlefield, but also right in the town center, where we strolled down the streets, had an icecream, shopped for souvenirs and/or antiques. When we did @cash 's tour, I found that most interesting, to see the town under an aspect of finding sniper positions, where to place guns for effective range and how far the cannons could reach. There was no place for the civilians could safely hide in town, I think.
The street you are showing has an amazing gallery @War Horse had pointed out to us. Well worth a visit for all who plan a "next time" visit.
 
The tablet erected at the Lutheran Church in memory of Chaplain Howell states that he was cruelly shot, a phrase liable to create a wrong impression as to the facts. An eye witness of the affair Capt Arch B Snow of Boonville NY gives in a recent letter the following version of the shooting. Snow was then a sergeant in the Ninety seventh New York and knew Chaplain Howell by sight as both belonged to the same brigade Snow was shot through the jaw and went to the Lutheran Church Hospital where his wound was dressed. He then started to leave the hospital and passed through the front door of the church just behind Chaplain Howell at the time when the advance skirmishers of the Confederates were coming up the street on a run. Howell in addition to his shoulder straps and uniform wore the straight dress sword prescribed in Army Regulations for chaplains but which was very seldom worn by them. The first skirmisher arrived at the foot of the church steps just as the chaplain and Snow came out Placing one foot on the first step the soldier called on the chaplain to surrender but Howell instead of throwing up his hands promptly and uttering the usual I surrender attempted some dignified explanation to the effect that he was a non combatant and as such was exempt from capture when a shot from the skirmisher's rifle ended the controversy. A Confederate lieutenant who came up at this time placed a guard at the church door and to the protests of the surgeons against shooting a chaplain replied that the dead oflicer was armed in proof of which he pointed to the chaplain's sash and light rapier like sword belted around the chaplain's body The man who fired the shot stood on the exact spot where the memorial tablet has since been erected and Chaplain Howell fell upon the landing at the top of the steps.

New York Monuments Commission for the Battlefields of Gettysburg and Chattanooga
Final Report of the Battle of Gettysburg Volume 1
1902
 
Well, bad as it is to shoot a chaplain, one must say that there are times for discussions and times where one should better just do what is required, especially at gunpoint! The chaplain, knowing that he is in uniform and wearing a sword, should better have raised his hands first and then start to explain why he, in spite of his uniform and sword, is a non combatant. The French have a word "A la guerre comme a la guerre", meaning that in times of war there are different rules. Sadly so, but true.
 
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