The Washington herald., 1907-12-22

I
who was TO become the youngest South
ern brigadier general began his active
! fighting career n full-hedged military
graduate. the boy who was to play the
| same part in the Northern army never
entered a military school at all But in
April. soon after the firing of the first
gun on Sumter when he was less than
nineteen, he enlisted as a private in the
Ninth Pennsylvania volunteers as a
''three-months" recruit. He became. st,
corporal. then sergeant and. when his
term Of enlistment was finished. in Au-
gust had risen to be a noncommisioned
staff officer. Then he re-enlisted without
reserve ''for the war"
With his regiment he was then in the
Virginia valley OF the Shenandoah. and
ne was made captain Of Company A in
the Ninety seventh Pennsylvania Volun-
teers. He had now been in the service
three months, while young Harrison, who
helped in the seizure Of Fort Pulaski
some time before Sumter's first gun, had
been practically in the service more than
six months
Three Bloody. Difficult Years.
Both the young soldiers, one nineteen
and the other twenty fought as hard and
as bravely as they knew how from that
time on, but. although both were destined
by reason Of faithfulness and intrepidity
TO reach the same rank ultimately, the
ISoutherner rose faster 1T first than the
INOrtherner. Pennypacker's first promo
tion above the captains rank did not
10
colonel of the fifth Georgia regiment in
the winter Of lS6l-62 Pennypacker's men,
ory of the almost three years before he
reached approximately the same rank is
that they were about the most difficult
of his entire life
Gen. PennyDacker is a modest man. He
never has been and declares he never will
be interviewed for the printed page. but
sometimes he allows himself 10 talk 10
a friend Of those years in about this
strain:
II never could quite understand why
a boy should have been chosen in the
first place to lead such men as those who
went out from Chester County; who
didn't have TO be recruited. but just came
in and volunteered on their own account
You know. men from Quaker com
b
they do fight there is something doing
That was the sort of men 1 was privileged
TO lead-men who doubly volunteered
who Joined the army 10 start with and
b meant il. and then reconsecrated them
} selves and their best faculties just before
some great test or trial. and as we un.
questionably had at Fort Wagner, al
Green Plain. and at Fort Fisher Thost
, We're the occasions when even the meI
with sore toes wers invited not TO gC
, along. There were no cold feet among
them. you may be sure.
1T was an honor. wasn't Il. for q
. yuuugster like me 10 lead such men al
] such times as thosc2 But 1 had TO study
- all the while in those early years Of the
war. Every spare moment that l cOulC
| spend was spent that way. ! knew II
was 20 lead that there must be some sOr
S of merit basis, that to be a superior o.
z my own supcriors in age and experience
j I must keep acquiring something NOR,
2 than 1 possessed. That necessarily shu
( me in all 70 myself a great deal YoJ
2 can hardly imagine how lonesome I was
p lonesome in the very midst Of the busy
Z campaigns of 81 and C. and '63.
No Letters from EOme.
For while the other men got letter
from their friends at home and could re
o. lieve their lonesomeness reading then
S and talking them over with one another
e there were no letters for me. The malls
{ came and went, but I wasn't in them
Nobody had much occasion to write TO ;
: rather taciturn orphan, away off in tn
= army down South, you see. And wa
awfully lonesome"
Perhaps it was partly this very lack o
T1AW i
n young Pennypacker study so hard to Fl
himself 10 deserve promotion If he shoul
4 have a chance TO win il, and so increase,
his natural reserve. Anyway, he becam
2 known as one Of the Quietest men in IN
+ regiment. though in a way that added L
o rather than detracted from his popularit
among both officers and men. When tn
= time came he won his promotion. an
J then showed himself capable of living n
! TO il all right. But. with fine loyalty Z
IS the men who didn't win promotion. h
d says his la1er successes We're due to hi
N comrades.
= 1T wasn't the leader" is the way h
= puts il; lit was those brave Cheste
y County men that did the things Of thos
q closing years of the war in which I wa
4. concerned. You'n find me recorded JUS
a in among them. in the army reports, an
IS that's the only record ! want
Winning n COIOneIcy.
:. Not to reproduce the tedious formalitie
a of the official records, this brief sun
N mary Of them, IN the two years an
IA eleven months previous to his winnin
IS his first promotion above the captain
r rank. is necessary just here:
J. in 1925 he served in the Tenth Corp
: Department of the South, participatin
"a in the engagements Of Forts Wagnt
and Gregg, at James Island. the siege
Charleston, the capture of Fort Pulask
- which young Harrison had helped TO seii
i in 1861, and the taking of Fernandir
and Jacksonville, Fla. In April. 1864 I
>, Joined the Army of the James, IN vi
:. Ginia, and on April 3, by rare heroisr
: earned the rank of Lieutenant colonel c
! May he was in command at Swift Creel
on May lG took part in the attack {
Drurys Bluff. He was thrice woundC
on May %. in an action known as the el
'u gagement Of Green Plain. Here is Il
d. story thereof:
d, "Pennypacker and his handful of le
TX than 800 intrepid Quaker warriors push'
lg forward in a desperate and seeming
hopeless charge upon the Confederate
- with Pickett's grape. canister, and mu
ket balls whiZZing all around them.
~ They had gone but short distan
- across the open fields. giving tit for I
- and more. when Pennypacker was sh
= down, and those Of his men closest 10 hin
e- all mighty busy on their own accour
=. feared 1t was all up with him. But tn,
~ had hardly rallied their faculties to 4
"a desperate situation that confronted {
ds survivors before they saw him wriggle u