- Joined
- Jan 16, 2015
On June 29, the 149th New York encamped for the night near Taneytown, Maryland. 1st Lieutenant Willis S. Barnum of Company G was assigned picket duty for the evening, and apparently as he was checking over his pistol (revolver), it discharged a round into his foot. [Memoirs of the 149th Regt. N. Y. Vol. Inft., by Capt. George K. Collins, reprint Edmonston Publishing, Inc., 1995, pp. 131, 396]
On July 1, Private Edward L. Manderback of Company C, 149th Pennsylvania accidentally shot himself in the left hand while on picket duty. Mustering out on June 25, 1865, Manderback died in 1915. [Union Casualties at Gettysburg, by Travis W. Busey and John W. Busey, 2:983]
In the late afternoon of July 1, John Cabell Early, a teenager who was accompanying his father on the staff of Jubal Early, was riding over the battlefield north of town. The first fatality he saw was a Federal soldier who had evidently shot himself while climbing over a rail fence. A rail had fallen on the hammer of his gun; the ball struck him in the chest and came out the back of his head. [A Southern Boy's Experience at Gettysburg, by John Cabell Early, p. 418]
On the morning of July 3, Colonel Frederick H. Collier of the 139th Pennsylvania, accidentally shot himself through the foot with a pistol ball and was compelled to leave the command. He was away from the regiment for the remainder of the year. [Official Report of Lt. Col. William H. Moody, 139 PA; Nathan Divens and the 139th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, by David A. Murdoch, 1993, Library and Archives Division, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh]
On July 3, Corporal James M. Chapman of Company E, 27th Indiana was killed by a musket ball in an accidental shooting. He was initially buried on William McAllister's farm but was subsequently moved to the Indiana Plot (Section E, #5) in Gettysburg's National Cemetery. Chapman had been previously wounded in two battles, Cedar Mountain and Antietam. [Union Casualties at Gettysburg, by Travis W. Busey and John W. Busey, 1:77; Twenty-Seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry, by Edmund Randolph Brown, Monticello, IN: 1899, p. 592]
On the night of July 4, the 55th Ohio regiment was ordered to sleep on their arms. Corporal Moses Pugh of Company H used a piece of bacon rind to grease his new gun, a Richmond rifle that he picked up from a dead Confederate lying in front of Cemetery Hill. His comrades joked that the gun would turn traitor. When Pugh awoke on the morning of July 5, he removed the cap from the tube. Pressing the greasy hammer with his thumb, it slipped and the weapon discharged. The ball passed harmlessly through the blouses of three nearby comrades, but then killed the colonel's beloved horse, which was tied to a stake about 300 feet away. Colonel Charles B. Gambee was understandably incensed. He ordered Pugh's corporal stripes to be removed and demanded pay for the horse. Being short on cash, Pugh handed him an IOU note. However, on May 15, 1864, just prior to the battle of Resaca, Georgia, Gambee came to Pugh, promoted him to sergeant, and burned the note in his presence. Colonel Gambee was killed in that battle. [Military Images, July-August 1996, p. 32]
On July 8, within four miles of Frederick, Maryland, while in pursuit of the enemy after Gettysburg, Sergeant Manley Stacey of the 111th New York recalled that a soldier of Company C, 125th New York "picked up a revolver and commenced fooling with it, and shot one of his own men through the head, killing him instantly. It was an awful sight." The incident was also described by Private Charles W. Belknap of Company C, 125th New York: "About noon a man by the name of Lanshaw [?] of Co. C accidentally shot his comrade Lewis Dellair with an old horse pistol which he had found, but didn't know was loaded. The ball went through his head and he died almost instantly. He was buried on the spot." [Civil War Letters of Manley Stacey; Killed in Action, by Greg Coco]
On July 1, Private Edward L. Manderback of Company C, 149th Pennsylvania accidentally shot himself in the left hand while on picket duty. Mustering out on June 25, 1865, Manderback died in 1915. [Union Casualties at Gettysburg, by Travis W. Busey and John W. Busey, 2:983]
In the late afternoon of July 1, John Cabell Early, a teenager who was accompanying his father on the staff of Jubal Early, was riding over the battlefield north of town. The first fatality he saw was a Federal soldier who had evidently shot himself while climbing over a rail fence. A rail had fallen on the hammer of his gun; the ball struck him in the chest and came out the back of his head. [A Southern Boy's Experience at Gettysburg, by John Cabell Early, p. 418]
On the morning of July 3, Colonel Frederick H. Collier of the 139th Pennsylvania, accidentally shot himself through the foot with a pistol ball and was compelled to leave the command. He was away from the regiment for the remainder of the year. [Official Report of Lt. Col. William H. Moody, 139 PA; Nathan Divens and the 139th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, by David A. Murdoch, 1993, Library and Archives Division, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh]
On July 3, Corporal James M. Chapman of Company E, 27th Indiana was killed by a musket ball in an accidental shooting. He was initially buried on William McAllister's farm but was subsequently moved to the Indiana Plot (Section E, #5) in Gettysburg's National Cemetery. Chapman had been previously wounded in two battles, Cedar Mountain and Antietam. [Union Casualties at Gettysburg, by Travis W. Busey and John W. Busey, 1:77; Twenty-Seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry, by Edmund Randolph Brown, Monticello, IN: 1899, p. 592]
On the night of July 4, the 55th Ohio regiment was ordered to sleep on their arms. Corporal Moses Pugh of Company H used a piece of bacon rind to grease his new gun, a Richmond rifle that he picked up from a dead Confederate lying in front of Cemetery Hill. His comrades joked that the gun would turn traitor. When Pugh awoke on the morning of July 5, he removed the cap from the tube. Pressing the greasy hammer with his thumb, it slipped and the weapon discharged. The ball passed harmlessly through the blouses of three nearby comrades, but then killed the colonel's beloved horse, which was tied to a stake about 300 feet away. Colonel Charles B. Gambee was understandably incensed. He ordered Pugh's corporal stripes to be removed and demanded pay for the horse. Being short on cash, Pugh handed him an IOU note. However, on May 15, 1864, just prior to the battle of Resaca, Georgia, Gambee came to Pugh, promoted him to sergeant, and burned the note in his presence. Colonel Gambee was killed in that battle. [Military Images, July-August 1996, p. 32]
On July 8, within four miles of Frederick, Maryland, while in pursuit of the enemy after Gettysburg, Sergeant Manley Stacey of the 111th New York recalled that a soldier of Company C, 125th New York "picked up a revolver and commenced fooling with it, and shot one of his own men through the head, killing him instantly. It was an awful sight." The incident was also described by Private Charles W. Belknap of Company C, 125th New York: "About noon a man by the name of Lanshaw [?] of Co. C accidentally shot his comrade Lewis Dellair with an old horse pistol which he had found, but didn't know was loaded. The ball went through his head and he died almost instantly. He was buried on the spot." [Civil War Letters of Manley Stacey; Killed in Action, by Greg Coco]
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