More Graves At Gettysburg, A Battle's Relentless Toll; November 1863

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
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Frank Leslie's eye-witness artist, Becker, did a terrific job conveying the magnitude of the crowd gathered November, 1863 for Gettysburg's National Solider's Cemetery Dedication. We came together in sorrow, in respect, in mourning and to honor our fallen. In that crowd was a bereaved father, Russell Briggs whose son, Corporal George Briggs, 72nd PVI died of wound July 3rd.

If there's already a thread about poor Allen Frazer, Russell and George Briggs and Soloman Powers, please excuse? Ran into several articles but dead-ended on a few things.

Union soldier, Corporal George Briggs, Co. G, 72nd PVI " died of wounds received " July 3rd, 1863. His father, Russell, according to census records a ' moulder ' traveled to Gettysburg in November for the Dedication of The Soldier's National Cemetery. Newspapers report Russell came to claim his son's body and carry it home, I have no idea whether this is true. Whatever the case, Russell also became a casualty of the battle. And yet another civilian joined Mary Virginia Wade in the list of civilian dead.

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That it was in the home of Soloman Powers adds another layer to that family's battle history. The story oddly didn't make many newspapers- a few, and some gave Brigg's name as ' Williams ', no idea why.

I cannot find why Allen was living with the Powers family. In 1850 he was a child, a baby, living with his blacksmith father Thomas and mother Elizabeth, incidentally a few doors down from the Wade family back in the days before James Wade drank himself into a place inside Gettysburg's Almshouse.
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You don't hear a thing about James Wade. At the time of the battle he was not in fact dead- he just wasn't mentioned much. In 1850 this seemed a street where young couples raised family- a blacksmith and a tailor living a few doors away.

I ' think ' Thomas died around 1858 although cannot find what happened- seems to have been a yellow fever outbreak in various areas although there were others, too- cholera seems to have been around without respite. Whatever the case, son Allen is living with the Powers family in November, 1863. He may have been an apprentice, hard to tell. In another census a young man is listed as ' apprentice ' inside the Powers household.

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For what it's worth, Thomas's blacksmith establishment somehow housed a millinery, too- rented space or family member, who knows?

There's simply no follow-up I can find, whether both George and his father Russell were brought home to be buried in Philadelphia or both are buried in Gettysburg, I don't know. That Allen Frazer suffered the loss of both parents, made it through the battle only to fall victim to it months afterwards seems appalling, doesn't it? I know that, as ever, Gettysburg citizens opened doors and welcomed strangers during this momentous time in our history. It sounds typical of Powers that he did so, further imprinting the name over ' Gettysburg '.

And burying yet another casualty. There were others- warnings were posted but the lure of battle tokens was just too strong, boys tended to tempt fate- shells had almost literally rained over a landscape too vast to easily discover those hidden as they burrowed in farmed fields. One of the historians here will know when the last ( so far ) claimed a victim.

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Corporal George Elmer Briggs of Company G, 72nd Pennsylvania, was reportedly shot in the back and died on July 18. He was buried in Jacob Schwartz's cornfield, the farm being a Second Corps hospital. It's interesting that a George C. Briggs, identified as a Confederate of Company C, 22nd Virginia (Battalion), was taken up in 1872 near Jacob Schwartz's barn. However, there was no Confederate casualty by that name at Gettysburg, thus the possibility exists that the grave of George Elmer Briggs was misidentified and he was reinterred in a southern cemetery - presumably Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. (Busey and Busey, Union Casualties at Gettysburg, 2:865; and Confederate Casualties at Gettysburg, 4:2046)
 
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Frank Leslie's eye-witness artist, Becker, did a terrific job conveying the magnitude of the crowd gathered November, 1863 for Gettysburg's National Solider's Cemetery Dedication. We came together in sorrow, in respect, in mourning and to honor our fallen. In that crowd was a bereaved father, Russell Briggs whose son, Corporal George Briggs, 72nd PVI died of wound July 3rd.

If there's already a thread about poor Allen Frazer, Russell and George Briggs and Soloman Powers, please excuse? Ran into several articles but dead-ended on a few things.

Union soldier, Corporal George Briggs, Co. G, 72nd PVI " died of wounds received " July 3rd, 1863. His father, Russell, according to census records a ' moulder ' traveled to Gettysburg in November for the Dedication of The Soldier's National Cemetery. Newspapers report Russell came to claim his son's body and carry it home, I have no idea whether this is true. Whatever the case, Russell also became a casualty of the battle. And yet another civilian joined Mary Virginia Wade in the list of civilian dead.

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That it was in the home of Soloman Powers adds another layer to that family's battle history. The story oddly didn't make many newspapers- a few, and some gave Brigg's name as ' Williams ', no idea why.

I cannot find why Allen was living with the Powers family. In 1850 he was a child, a baby, living with his blacksmith father Thomas and mother Elizabeth, incidentally a few doors down from the Wade family back in the days before James Wade drank himself into a place inside Gettysburg's Almshouse.
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You don't hear a thing about James Wade. At the time of the battle he was not in fact dead- he just wasn't mentioned much. In 1850 this seemed a street where young couples raised family- a blacksmith and a tailor living a few doors away.

I ' think ' Thomas died around 1858 although cannot find what happened- seems to have been a yellow fever outbreak in various areas although there were others, too- cholera seems to have been around without respite. Whatever the case, son Allen is living with the Powers family in November, 1863. He may have been an apprentice, hard to tell. In another census a young man is listed as ' apprentice ' inside the Powers household.

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For what it's worth, Thomas's blacksmith establishment somehow housed a millinery, too- rented space or family member, who knows?

There's simply no follow-up I can find, whether both George and his father Russell were brought home to be buried in Philadelphia or both are buried in Gettysburg, I don't know. That Allen Frazer suffered the loss of both parents, made it through the battle only to fall victim to it months afterwards seems appalling, doesn't it? I know that, as ever, Gettysburg citizens opened doors and welcomed strangers during this momentous time in our history. It sounds typical of Powers that he did so, further imprinting the name over ' Gettysburg '.

And burying yet another casualty. There were others- warnings were posted but the lure of battle tokens was just too strong, boys tended to tempt fate- shells had almost literally rained over a landscape too vast to easily discover those hidden as they burrowed in farmed fields. One of the historians here will know when the last ( so far ) claimed a victim.

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James Wade is kind of an interesting story. It appears that he suffered some sort of mental illness and liked to drink which exacerbated his issues. He was evidently at the Almshouse at the time of the battle and its interesting to think about what he saw and how it would have affected his already fragile mind.

Ryan
 
James Wade is kind of an interesting story. It appears that he suffered some sort of mental illness and liked to drink which exacerbated his issues. He was evidently at the Almshouse at the time of the battle and its interesting to think about what he saw and how it would have affected his already fragile mind.

Ryan

Yes, I'd assumed Mary was a widow until running into more in one of those era ' The REAL Story Of... '. It was actually a not at all salacious version of the Wades, kinda nice. You know how anything attached to someone famous became ( becomes ) overblown- this wasn't.

As you said- one of the reports from ( I forget which day ) has casualties and wounded being taken to the Almshouse- made me think of James, too. It would be nice to see him more included the uber famous Wade story, poor man, along with Georgianna - hadn't known until fairly recently she became a nurse post battle and served through the rest of the war.
 
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