Permission
to Organize a Regiment
This letter is
the War Department’s notice to Schimmelfennig that they
will accept his three year regiment. The
letter is from August of 1861 and Rick Sayre found it within the materials at NARA for the
regiment. A great document.

An example
of a DRAFT NOTICE
This is Samuel
Irwin’s draft notice that was issued on the 9th of July 1863 –
probably as the accounts of Gettysburg were
being published within Pittsburgh. Samuel Irwin entered into service on the 9th
of July 1863 as a private in Company K and mustered out with the regiment on
the 29th of August 1865. He
died in 1920 in Pittsburgh. Milton
Irwin can be contacted for more information.

Authorization for Passage
Pvt Charles Manitius
Here is a scanned copy of an Ebay find – a document authorizing the passage by railroad of
Pvt Charles Manitius of the 74th, a bookseller before the war, and
Pvt Charles Getter/Tater of the 41st PA Volunteers

Private Commemoration of Service
Daniel Levin, a professional photographer (www.levinphoto.com), provided these
images of his ancestor’s commemoration of service. These types of things were paid for by the
service member sometime after being discharged.
Note that Bernard Pichel’s rank is listed here as a corporal. On the Soldier’s and Sailor’s Monument in Pittsburgh it is listed as
a Sergeant. Daniel is awaiting for the
papers from NARA
to help solve this mystery – a part of it may be that this was prepared for the
family after his death by a Veteran’s organization. Let’s see what Daniel finds. Here are the
pictures – be patient each is about 100kb in size.

Extract of Discharge Papers for Pvt. Carl Werneburg
This was a Christmas gift from Cheri that I
got and it doesn’t scan well. So, I
typed out the document as written and printed.
$13 a month in 1862 – about the same as $227.57 according to the Economic History
Service’s How Much is That Worth Today website. A brief bio is provided courtesy of his descendant
Sharon Atkins.

Death of John Sweitzer of Company C
This material comes from Mindy
Eckler via a friend of hers. It is an
extract from a diary in the possession of the Frederick (Md.) County Historical Society.
Diary of Jacob Englebert. Jacob was more or less an ordinary
citizen that just happened to keep a diray of everything that happened during
his life. The Diary comes in two volumes.
I want to share a simple excerpt dated July14, 1862. It comes
from Volume II page 941:
Yesterday afternoon I went to my son Phillip's about 3:00
o'clock. A soldier funeral passed on it's way to Mt. Olivet Cemetery. At the head of the procession
was Reverend George Diehl and Mr. John Straffer. Then came a Sergeant and 7
privates with guns reversed, the a drummer beating all the time, then came the
spring wagon with the corpse and over the coffin was spread the flag of the
United States on the side of the wagon were four soldiers w/o arms as carriers.
On the pavement a few citizens and soldiers not more than 6 or 8 myself among
the rest (of course). I inquired from one of the carriers and also from
some of the soldiers who the man was they were going to bury and from where or
whence he came. Poor fellow!! I inquired afterwards from Mr. William
Dovall the keeper of the cemetery (he keeps a list of the deaths), who told me
his name was JOHN
SWEITZTER OF THE 74TH Pennsylvania Volunteers Company C and he leaves a wife
and 4 children. Poor fellow so many a soldier dies and is
buried unnoticed and unknown. All this owing to the Southern Rebellion. He died
July 12, 1862.