Vaccination Schedule for Children’s & Adult’s (बच्चों और वयस्कों के लिए टीकाकरण अनुसूची)
Vaccination Schedule for Children’s & Adult’s (बच्चों और वयस्कों के लिए टीकाकरण अनुसूची):
Vaccination Schedule:-
A vaccination schedule is a series of vaccinations, including the timing of all doses, which may be either recommended or compulsory, depending on the country of residence. This topic can cause much controversy over whether or not it could impact health after dosage at an early age.
Polysaccharide vaccines:-
Polysaccharide vaccines are a unique type of inactivated sub-unit vaccine composed of long chains of sugar molecules that make up the surface capsule of certain bacteria. Pure polysaccharide vaccines are available for three diseases: pneumococcal disease, meningococcal disease, and Salmonella Typhi.
conjugate vaccine:-
A conjugate vaccine is created by covalently attaching a poor antigen to a strong antigen thereby eliciting a stronger immunological response to the poor antigen. Most commonly, the poor antigen is a polysaccharide that is attached to strong protein antigen.
Trivalent Influenza Vaccine:-
trivalent influenza vaccine A synthetic vaccine consisting of three inactivated influenza viruses, two different influenza type A strains and one influenza type B strain. Trivalent influenza vaccine is formulated annually, based on influenza strains projected to be prevalent in the upcoming flu season.
Quadrivalent vaccine:-
Fluzone Quadrivalent vaccine is an inactivated quadrivalent influenza virus vaccine indicated for the prevention of influenza disease caused by influenza A subtype viruses and type B viruses contained in the vaccine. Fluzone Quadrivalent vaccine is approved for use in persons 6 months of age and older.
Pentavalent Vaccine:-
Pentavalent combines five different vaccines in a single vial. It protects against five diseases: diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib). Pentavalent vaccine is a successor to the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccine.
BCG Vaccine:-
The BCG vaccine is the only TB vaccine currently available, although there are other TB vaccines under development. Although far from perfect, the BCG vaccine is a relatively inexpensive, safe, and readily available vaccine that is still the only vaccine available for the prevention of human forms of TB.
Polio Vaccine:-
Polio virus can be transmitted through drinking water or food, acceptance, infected with a virus. It can also be transmitted from person to person. Polio can get sick any person. Virus mainly affects children up to five years of age.
HPV Vaccine:-
HPV infection is very common, and at least 50 percent of people who have sex have to face this infection in their own life. Many people usually do not see any signs of this and HPV also goes by them. But in some cases HPV can cause cervical cancer. With this, it can also lead to anal and gynecological cancers.
Meningococcal Vaccine: -
vaccine that protects against a germ that can cause meningitis and shock. He talks about the benefits and mild side effects of this important vaccine for infants under age one and teens and young adults between 15-21.
Chickenpox:-
Chickenpox is very contagious. However, since most of us are either vaccinated or have had chickenpox when we were younger, most of us are at low risk of catching the virus.
Rabies:-
Anti rabies vaccine is effective in avoiding rabies. Its vaccine is available in many different types and is safe as well as safe. This vaccine, after being cut by a dog, is exposed to rabies virus; it is suitable to save the disease from time to time.
Hepatitis A:-
older, for travelers to certain countries, and for people at high risk for infection with the virus.
Hepatitis B:
Hepatitis B is an Infectious Disease causing Hepatitis B virus (HBV) Due to which the liver develops swelling and burning sensation, which is called hepatitis One-third of the population, more than two billion, have been infected with hepatitis B virus.
Yellow fever:
Yellow fever is an infectious and acute disease, which usually begins. There are symptoms of fever, vomiting, slow nerves, and presence of alveum in urine, bleeding and jaundice.
Rota virus:
The effect of the antirust virus vaccine will affect children up to two years, but its effect will remain only for the prevention of diarrhea.


GDPR May Add Up To $915Μ Marriott's Data Breach Expenses
Yiannis Mouratidis Contributor
Marriott data breach is a developing story that will give more news in the next days: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Marriott data breach is under investigation in several countries, where the hotel and resorts giant has a presence. In the E.U., Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) leads the investigation. It is the UK independent body set up to uphold information rights. Local authorities of each country are interested to participate as 'supervisory authorities' in the cooperative framework of GDPR. According to ICO as the investigation is at an early stage no official attribution has been made. Given that the global annual revenue of the company reached $22.89 billion in 2017 and the strictest fine could amount to 4% of it, the sanctions imposed by the E.U. could be translated to $915 million. This will probably add up to the amount of $3.5 billion, analysts initially estimated some days after the incident went public. In addition, it is possible that some clients may take legal action against the company and claim damages which will elevate the cost of the breach even higher. In the worst case scenario if it is proved that the company was fully aware of the hacker attack well before it was revealed, then the Securities and Exchange Commission of the U.S. will pursue a prosecution against Marriott on the grounds of causing serious losses for its investors.
The exposure is smaller than initially estimated
On January 4, Marriott International issued a new announcement about the incident which determines the height of the damage. According to the latest report the attack involved 383 million guest records instead of 500 million initially estimated. Another clue is that 5.25 million unencrypted passport details were exposed in the breach together with 20.3 million encrypted passport numbers. As passports’ numbers may be used by criminals as an alternative form of identity, a number of affected customers, under certain conditions who will issue a new passport may be eligible for $100 compensation.
In the revised data breach notification there is no change concerning the number of breached payment cards, which amounts to 8.6 million encrypted cards of which some 354.000 were still active as of September 2018 which raises the possibilities for criminal use by unauthorized third party. Given that the data breach started in 2014 it is possible that some of the expired payment cards have been used in the past.
Marriott tries everything in its power to avoid the worst
Trying to help its customers and avoid the full fury of the E.U. privacy regulator plus the heavy financial implications involved, Marriott has taken some generous steps, such as offering compensation to breach victims for passport replacement, moreover, there is a special call center and an informative web page giving answers to all the possible questions of guests affected and lastly what sounds as a sigh relief is the fact that a big part of data was encrypted and therefore more difficult to be hacked.
In the aftermath, we consider there are very few possibilities that Marriott will receive the maximum penalty unless it is proved that there was no instant notification of the issue to the supervisory authority. Marriott data breach was the first that made headlines after GDPR came into effect last May, but it is not the only one reported. There are more than 200 intrusion incidents, being probed into, that call for cross borders cooperation. Some of them concern sensitive personal data breaches.
This post has been updated since it was originally posted: 4% of 22.89 billion is $915m and not $8.8B as originally posted
Yiannis Mouratidis
I like to connect science and technology with everyday life. When something new comes on my horizon, I prefer to stay a little bit still and think what we will benefit f...


Shoemaker (1807 book illustration, U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).
Alternate Spellings of Surname: Lilby, Lilley, Lilly
Born respectively on 8 October 1834, 12 April 1836 and circa 1843 in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Joseph M. Lilly (1834-1876), James T. Lilly (1836-1870) and Harrison Lilly (c. 1843-1865) were sons of Pennsylvania natives Elisabeth (Billheimer) Lilly (1809-1867), and Joseph Lilly (1807-1881), a master shoemaker.
In 1840, at the ages of 6 and 4 respectively, Joseph and James Lilly resided in Moore Township, Northampton County with their parents and siblings, including Charles (1828-1914), Hannah (born 1831), and Stephen (born 1840).
Federal census records also show that, by 1850, seven-year-old Harrison Lilly resided in Moore Township, Northampton County with his parents and siblings: Charles (1828-1914), Hannah (born 1831), Stephen (born 1840), Edward (born 1841), and Theodore (born 1848). Family patriarch Joseph Lilly was described on the federal census of this period as a laborer with an estate valued at $1,500 while son Charles was documented as a stone mason; sons Stephen and Edward were shown as having attended school within the past year.
Meanwhile, sons James and Joseph Lilly may have temporarily departed from the Lilly family home to serve as apprentices to tradesmen elsewhere in Northampton County. Federal census records show that a Joseph Lilly worked as a blacksmith in 1850 while residing in East Allen Township with the family of foundry worker Jeremiah Flick while James Lilly may have learned from and worked as a farmer or shoemaker for the Arner family. Federal census records show that a James Lilly resided in Bethlehem, Northampton County with farmer “N. Arner” whose family was listed on the same census sheet as the listing for shoemaker “R. Arner.”
On 12 June 1851, the Lilly brothers greeted the arrival of another sibling – baby brother August, who survived barely a year. Passing away on 22 October 1862, August was laid to rest at what is now the Salem Union Church Cemetery in Moorestown, Northampton County, Pennsylvania.
But by 1860, James and Harrison Lilly were back home, residing at the ages of 22 and 16 respectively, in Moore Township, Northampton County with their parents and siblings: Hannah (b. 1839), a housemaid, Stephen (b. 1841), “HapyAnn” (b. 1854), and Ellen (b. 1857). Henry Hoch (b. 1855) also resided at the Lilly family home at this time. Family patriarch Joseph Lilly was described on the federal census for this period as a master shoemaker with real and personal estate valued at $2,135 while son James was documented to have been employed as a shoemaker.
Meanwhile, older brother Charles Lilly had become a successful carpenter, and resided at his own home in Moore Township with his wife, Lucinda (Shall) Lilly (1831-1914), and their daughter Ellen (1860-1940), who would later go on to take the married surname of “Lapp.”
The relatively untroubled years of the Lilly family, their friends and neighbors would soon end, however, as the United States wrestled with the secession of multiple southern states, and descended rapidly into the twilight of Civil War. The horizon darkened further during the fateful Spring of 1861 as President Abraham Lincoln readied the nation for war with his Proclamation of 3 May 1861:
Whereas existing exigencies demand immediate and adequate measures for the protection of the National Constitution and the preservation of the National Union by the suppression of the insurrectionary combinations now existing in several States for opposing the laws of the Union and obstructing the execution thereof, to which end a military force in addition to that called forth by my proclamation of the 15th day of April in the present year appears to be indispensably necessary:
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States and Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy thereof and of the militia of the several States when called into actual service, do hereby call into the service of the United States 42,034 volunteers to serve for the period of three years, unless sooner discharged, and to be mustered into service as infantry and cavalry. The proportions of each arm and the details of enrollment and organization will be made known through the Department of War….
Civil War Military Service
Just over a month later, Joseph M. and Harrison Lilly enrolled for Civil War military service, and officially mustered in at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania on 30 August 1861 with Company F of the 47th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.
* Note: Company F of the 47th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was the first company of this Union regiment to muster in for duty. The initial recruitment for members was conducted in Catasauqua, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, where this company’s commanding officer – Captain Henry Samuel Harte – lived and worked as an innkeeper.
Joseph Lilly, aged 27, joined at the rank of Corporal while his 18-year-old brother entered as a Private. Military records described Harrison Lilly as being a 5′ 7″-tall laborer with brown hair, light eyes and a dark complexion.
Camp Curtin (Harper’s Weekly, 1861, public domain).
Following a brief training period in light infantry tactics at Camp Curtin, the soldiers of Company F and their fellow members of the 47th Pennsylvania were transported south by rail to Washington, D.C. Stationed roughly two miles from the White House, they pitched their tents at “Camp Kalorama” on the Kalorama Heights near Georgetown beginning 21 September. Henry D. Wharton, a musician from the regiment’s C Company, penned an update the next day to the Sunbury American, his hometown newspaper:
After a tedious ride we have, at last, safely arrived at the City of ‘magnificent distances.’ We left Harrisburg on Friday last at 1 o’clock A.M. and reached this camp yesterday (Saturday) at 4 P.M., as tired and worn out a sett [sic] of mortals as can possibly exist. On arriving at Washington we were marched to the ‘Soldiers Retreat,’ a building purposely erected for the benefit of the soldier, where every comfort is extended to him and the wants of the ‘inner man’ supplied.
After partaking of refreshments we were ordered into line and marched, about three miles, to this camp. So tired were the men, that on marching out, some gave out, and had to leave the ranks, but J. Boulton Young, our ‘little Zouave,’ stood it bravely, and acted like a veteran. So small a drummer is scarcely seen in the army, and on the march through Washington he was twice the recipient of three cheers.
We were reviewed by Gen. McClellan yesterday [21 September 1861] without our knowing it. All along the march we noticed a considerable number of officers, both mounted and on foot; the horse of one of the officers was so beautiful that he was noticed by the whole regiment, in fact, so wrapt [sic] up were they in the horse, the rider wasn’t noticed, and the boys were considerably mortified this morning on dis-covering they had missed the sight of, and the neglect of not saluting the soldier next in command to Gen. Scott.
Col. Good, who has command of our regiment, is an excellent man and a splendid soldier. He is a man of very few words, and is continually attending to his duties and the wants of the Regiment.
…. Our Regiment will now be put to hard work; such as drilling and the usual business of camp life, and the boys expect and hope an occasional ‘pop’ at the enemy.
While at Camp Kalorama, Captain Harte issued his first directive (Company Order No. 1), that his company drill four times per day, each time for one hour.
Chain Bridge across the Potomac above Georgetown looking toward Virginia, 1861 (The Illustrated London News, public domain).
On 24 September, the 47th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry finally became part of the U.S. Army when its men were officially mustered into federal service. On 27 September – a rainy day, the 47th Pennsylvania was assigned to Brigadier-General Isaac Stevens’ 3rd Brigade, which also included the 33rd, 49th and 79th New York regiments. By that afternoon, the 47th Pennsylvania was on the move again. Ordered onward by Brigadier-General Silas Casey, the Mississippi rifle-armed 47th Pennsylvania infantrymen marched behind their regimental band until reaching Camp Lyon, Maryland on the Potomac River’s eastern shore. At 5 p.m., they joined the 46th Pennsylvania in moving double-quick (165 steps per minute using 33-inch steps) across the “Chain Bridge” marked on federal maps, and continued on for roughly another mile before being ordered to make camp.
The next morning, they broke camp and moved again. Marching toward Falls Church, Virginia, they arrived at Camp Advance around dusk. There, about two miles from the bridge they had crossed a day earlier, they re-pitched their tents in a deep ravine near a new federal fort under construction (Fort Ethan Allen). They had completed a roughly eight-mile trek, were situated fairly close to General W. F. Smith’s headquarters, and were now part of the massive Army of the Potomac. Under Smith’s leadership, their regiment and brigade would help to defend the nation’s capital from the time of their September arrival through late January when the men of the 47th Pennsylvania would be shipped south.
Once again, Company C Musician Henry Wharton recapped the regiment’s activities, noting, via his 29 September letter home to the Sunbury American, that the 47th had changed camps three times in three days:
On Friday last we left Camp Kalorama, and the same night encamped about one mile from the Chain Bridge on the opposite side of the Potomac from Washington. The next morning, Saturday, we were ordered to this Camp [Camp Advance near Fort Ethan Allen, Virginia], one and a half miles from the one we occupied the night previous. I should have mentioned that we halted on a high hill (on our march here) at the Chain Bridge, called Camp Lyon, but were immediately ordered on this side of the river. On the route from Kalorama we were for two hours exposed to the hardest rain I ever experienced. Whew, it was a whopper; but the fellows stood it well – not a murmur – and they waited in their wet clothes until nine o’clock at night for their supper. Our Camp adjoins that of the N.Y. 79th (Highlanders.)….
We had not been in this Camp more than six hours before our boys were supplied with twenty rounds of ball and cartridge, and ordered to march and meet the enemy; they were out all night and got back to Camp at nine o’clock this morning, without having a fight. They are now in their tents taking a snooze preparatory to another march this morning…. I don’t know how long the boys will be gone, but the orders are to cook two days’ rations and take it with them in their haversacks….
There was a nice little affair came off at Lavensville [sic], a few miles from here on Wednesday last; our troops surprised a party of rebels (much larger than our own.) killing ten, took a Major prisoner, and captured a large number of horses, sheep and cattle, besides a large quantity of corn and potatoes, and about ninety six tons of hay. A very nice day’s work. The boys are well, in fact, there is no sickness of any consequence at all in our Regiment….
Sometime during this phase of duty, as part of the 3rd Brigade, the 47th Pennsylvanians were moved to a site they initially christened “Camp Big Chestnut” for the large chestnut tree located within their lodging’s boundaries. The site would eventually become known to the Keystone Staters as “Camp Griffin,” and was located roughly 10 miles from Washington, D.C.
On October 11, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers marched in the Grand Review at Bailey’s Cross Roads. In a mid-October letter home, Captain John Peter Shindel Gobin (the leader of C Company who would be promoted in 1864 to lead the entire 47th Regiment) reported that companies D, A, C, F and I (the 47th Pennsylvania’s right wing) were ordered to picket duty after the left wing companies (B, G, K, E, and H) had been forced to return to camp by Confederate troops. In his letter of 13 October, Henry Wharton described their duties, as well as their new home:
The location of our camp is fine and the scenery would be splendid if the view was not obstructed by heavy thickets of pine and innumerable chesnut [sic] trees. The country around us is excellent for the Rebel scouts to display their bravery; that is, to lurk in the dense woods and pick off one of our unsuspecting pickets. Last night, however, they (the Rebels) calculated wide of their mark; some of the New York 33d boys were out on picket; some fourteen or fifteen shots were exchanged, when our side succeeded in bringing to the dust, (or rather mud,) an officer and two privates of the enemy’s mounted pickets. The officer was shot by a Lieutenant in Company H [?], of the 33d.
Our own boys have seen hard service since we have been on the ‘sacred soil.’ One day and night on picket, next day working on entrenchments at the Fort, (Ethan Allen.) another on guard, next on march and so on continually, but the hardest was on picket from last Thursday morning ‘till Saturday morning – all the time four miles from camp, and both of the nights the rain poured in torrents, so much so that their clothes were completely saturated with the rain. They stood it nobly – not one complaining; but from the size of their haversacks on their return, it is no wonder that they were satisfied and are so eager to go again tomorrow. I heard one of them say ‘there was such nice cabbage, sweet and Irish potatoes, turnips, &c., out where their duty called them, and then there was a likelihood of a Rebel sheep or young porker advancing over our lines and then he could take them as ‘contraband’ and have them for his own use.’ When they were out they saw about a dozen of the Rebel cavalry and would have had a bout with them, had it not been for…unlucky circumstance – one of the men caught the hammer of his rifle in the strap of his knapsack and caused his gun to fire; the Rebels heard the report and scampered in quick time….
On Friday morning, 22 October 1861, the 47th engaged in a Divisional Review, described by historian Lewis Schmidt as massing “about 10,000 infantry, 1000 cavalry, and twenty pieces of artillery all in one big open field.” Less than a month later, in his letter of 17 November, Henry Wharton revealed more details about life at Camp Griffin:
This morning our brigade was out for inspection; arms, accoutrements [sic], clothing, knapsacks, etc, all were out through a thorough examination, and if I must say it myself, our company stood best, A No. 1, for cleanliness. We have a new commander to our Brigade, Brigadier General Brannen [sic], of the U.S. Army, and if looks are any criterion, I think he is a strict disciplinarian and one who will be as able to get his men out of danger as he is willing to lead them to battle….
The boys have plenty of work to do, such as piquet [sic] duty, standing guard, wood-chopping, police duty and day drill; but then they have the most substantial food; our rations consist of fresh beef (three times a week) pickled pork, pickled beef, smoked pork, fresh bread, daily, which is baked by our own bakers, the Quartermaster having procured portable ovens for that purpose, potatoes, split peas, beans, occasionally molasses and plenty of good coffee, so you see Uncle Sam supplies us plentifully….
A few nights ago our Company was out on piquet [sic]; it was a terrible night, raining very hard the whole night, and what made it worse, the boys had to stand well to their work and dare not leave to look for shelter. Some of them consider they are well paid for their exposure, as they captured two ancient muskets belonging to Secessia. One of them is of English manufacture, and the other has the Virginia militia mark on it. They are both in a dilapidated condition, but the boys hold them in high estimation as they are trophies from the enemy, and besides they were taken from the house of Mrs. Stewart, sister to the rebel Jackson who assassinated the lamented Ellsworth at Alexandria. The honorable lady, Mrs. Stewart, is now a prisoner at Washington and her house is the headquarters of the command of the piquets [sic]….
Since the success of the secret expedition, we have all kinds of rumors in camp. One is that our Brigade will be sent to the relief of Gen. Sherman, in South Carolina. The boys all desire it and the news in the ‘Press’ is correct, that a large force is to be sent there, I think their wish will be gratified….
Springfield rifle, 1861 model (public domain).
On 21 November, the 47th participated in a morning divisional headquarters review by Colonel Tilghman H. Good, followed by brigade and division drills all afternoon. According to Schmidt, “each man was supplied with ten blank cartridges.” Afterward, “Gen. Smith requested Gen. Brannan to inform Col. Good that the 47th was the best regiment in the whole division.”
As a reward for their performance – and in preparation for bigger things to come, Brannan obtained brand new Springfield rifles for every member of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers.
U.S. Naval Academy Barracks and temporary hospital, Annapolis, Maryland, c. 1861-1865 (public domain).
Next ordered to move from their Virginia encampment back to Maryland, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers left Camp Griffin at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, 22 January 1862, marching through deep mud with their equipment for three miles in order to reach the railroad station at Falls Church. Sent by rail to Alexandria, they then sailed the Potomac via the steamship City of Richmond to the Washington Arsenal, where they were reequipped before they were marched off for dinner and rest at the Soldiers’ Retreat in Washington, D.C. The next afternoon, the 47th Pennsylvanians hopped rail cars on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and headed for Annapolis, Maryland. Arriving around 10 p.m., they were assigned quarters in barracks at the Naval Academy. They then spent that Friday through Monday (24-27 January 1862) loading their equipment and other supplies onto the steamship Oriental.
As the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers commenced boarding the Oriental during the afternoon of 27 January, they were ferried to the big steamship by smaller steamers. The officers boarded last and, per the directive of Brigadier-General Brannan, steamed away for the Deep South at 4 p.m. They were headed for Florida which, despite its secession from the Union, remained strategically important to the Union due to the presence of Forts Taylor and Jefferson in Key West and the Dry Tortugas.
Rendering of Fort Taylor, Key West, Florida (Harper’s Weekly, 1864, public domain).
The Lilly brothers and the other members of Company F arrived in Key West with their fellow members of the regiment in early 1862, and were assigned to garrison Fort Taylor. During the weekend of Friday, 14 February, the 47th Pennsylvanians introduced their presence to Key West residents as the regiment paraded through the streets of the city. That Sunday, soldiers from the 47th Pennsylvania also mingled with locals by attending services at churches nearby.
Drilling daily in heavy artillery tactics, they also strengthened the fortifications at the federal installation. During this phase of duty, disease was the most fearsome foe, due largely to poor sanitary conditions and water quality. A significant number of 47th Pennsylvanians fell ill; several were ultimately laid to rest at the post cemetery.
But there were also moments of celebration. According to Schmidt, 4 June 1862 was a festive day for the regiment. As the USS Niagara sailed for Boston after transferring its responsibilities to the USS Potomac, the flagship of the Union Navy squadron in that sector, the guns of 15 warships anchored nearby boomed in salute, as did those manned by the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers’ F Company, which “fired 15 of the heavy casemate guns from Fort Taylor at 4 PM.”
From mid-June through July, the 47th was stationed at Hilton Head, South Carolina where the men made camp before being housed in the Department of the South’s Beaufort District. Picket duties north of the 3rd Brigade’s camp were commonly rotated among the regiments present there at the time, putting soldiers at increased risk from sniper fire. According to historian Samuel P. Bates, during this phase of their service, the men of the 47th “received the highest commendation from Generals Hunter and Brannan” for their “attention to duty, discipline and soldierly bearing.”
Sometime during July according to Schmidt, Major William H. Gausler and Captain Henry S. Harte returned home to the Lehigh Valley to resume their recruiting efforts. Major Gausler was able to persuade an additional 54 men to join the 47th Pennsylvania while Harte rounded up 12 more.
Union Navy base of operations, Mayport Mills, circa 1862 (public domain).
During a return expedition to Florida beginning 30 September, the 47th joined with the 1st Connecticut Battery, 7th Connecticut Infantry, and part of the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry in assaulting Confederate forces at their heavily protected camp at Saint John’s Bluff overlooking the Saint John’s River area. Trekking and skirmishing through roughly 25 miles of dense swampland and forests after disembarking from ships at Mayport Mills on 1 October, the 47th captured artillery and ammunition stores (on 3 October) that had been abandoned by Confederate forces during the bluff’s bombardment by Union gunboats.
* Note: The capture of Saint John’s Bluff followed a string of U.S. Army and Navy successes which enabled the Union to gain control over key southern towns and transportation hubs. In November 1861, the Union’s South Atlantic Blockading Squadron established an operations base at Port Royal, South Carolina, facilitating Union expeditions to Georgia and Florida, during which U.S. troops were able to take possession of Fort Clinch and Fernandina, Florida (3-4 March 1862), secure the surrender of Fort Marion and Saint Augustine (11 March), and establish a Union Navy base at Mayport Mills (mid-March). That summer, Brigadier-General Joseph Finnegan, commanding officer of the Confederate States of America’s Department of Middle and Eastern Florida, ordered the placement of earthen works-fortified gun batteries atop Saint John’s Bluff overlooking the Saint John’s River and at Yellow Bluff nearby. Confederate leaders hoped to disable the Union’s naval and ground force operations at and beyond Mayport Mills with as many as 18 cannon, including three eight-inch siege howitzers and eight-inch smoothbores and Columbiads (two of each).
After the U.S. gunboats Uncas and Patroon exchanged shell-fire with the Confederate battery at Saint John’s Bluff on 11 September 1862, Rebel troops were initially driven away, but then returned to their battery on the bluff. When a second, larger Union gunboat flotilla tried and failed again six days later to shake the Confederates loose, Union military leaders ordered an army operation with naval support.
Backed by U.S. gunboats Cimarron, E.B. Hale, Paul Jones, Uncas and Water Witch armed with 12-pound boat howitzers, the 1,500-strong Union Army force commanded by Brigadier-General John Milton Brannan moved up the Saint John’s River and further inland along the Pablo and Mt. Pleasant Creeks on 1 October 1862 before disembarking and marching for the battery atop Saint John’s Bluff. The next day, Union gunboats exchanged shellfire with the Rebel battery while the Union ground force continued its advance. When the 47th Pennsylvanians reached Saint John’s Bluff with their fellow Union brigade members on 3 October 1862, they found the battery abandoned. (Other Union troops discovered that the Yellow Bluff battery was also Rebel free.)
In the wake of this success, Union leaders ordered the gunboats and army troops to extend the expedition, which they did, capturing assorted watercraft as they advanced further up the river. During this phase, Companies E and K of the 47th were led by Captain Charles Yard (E Company’s captain) in capturing Jacksonville, Florida (5 October) and the Gov. Milton, a Confederate steamer. Docked near Hawkinsville, the Milton had been furnishing troops, ammunition and other supplies not only to the Rebel battery atop Saint John’s Bluff, but to other Confederate Army units scattered throughout the region.
That same day and ten days later, on 5 and 15 October 1862 respectively, a black teen and several young black men left the hardship they had known in Beaufort, South Carolina to become members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, including:
Abraham and Edward Jassum, who were just 16 and 22 years of age, respectively, when they joined; and
Bristor Gethers, a 33-year-old man.
Listed as “Presto Gettes” on his muster roll entry and entry in the Civil War Veterans’ Card File in the Pennsylvania State Archives, but as “Bristor Gethers” on his U.S. Civil War Pension Index entry, the older man was described as being 5’5″ tall with black hair, black eyes and a black complexion, and as having been employed as a fireman. In comparison, military records described Abraham Jassum as being 5’6″ tall with black hair, black eyes and a black complexion, noting that his occupation prior to enlistment was “Cook.” All three were enrolled with the title of “Negro UnderCook.”
Pocotaligo-Coosawhatchie Expedition, 21-23 October 1862 (Union Army map, public domain).
From 21-23 October 1862, under the brigade and regimental commands of Colonel T. H. Good and Lieutenant Colonel George W. Alexander, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers next engaged the heavily protected Confederate forces in and around Pocotaligo, South Carolina – including at Frampton’s Plantation and the Pocotaligo Bridge – a key piece of southern railroad infrastructure.
Harried by snipers en route to the bridge, they met resistance from an entrenched, heavily fortified Confederate battery which opened fire on the Union troops as they entered an open cotton field. Those headed toward higher ground at the Frampton Plantation fared no better as they encountered artillery and infantry fire from the surrounding forests. The Union soldiers grappled with Confederates where they found them, pursuing the Rebels for four miles as they retreated to the bridge. There, the 47th relieved the 7th Connecticut. But the enemy was just too well armed. After two hours of intense fighting in an attempt to take the ravine and the Pocotaligo Bridge, depleted ammunition forced the 47th to withdraw to Mackey’s Point.
Losses for the 47th Pennsylvania were significant, ranging from front-line privates to company commanders. A fair number died where they were felled by rifle or cannon fire while others were discharged later due to the severity of their battle wounds. The graves of several members of the regiment remain unidentified to this day.
On 23 October, the 47th Pennsylvania returned to Hilton Head, where it served as the funeral Honor Guard for General Ormsby M. Mitchel, the commander of the U.S. Army’s 10th Corps and Department of the South who had succumbed to yellow fever on 30 October. (Mitchelville, the first Freedmen’s town created after the Civil War, was later named for him.) Men from the 47th Pennsylvania were given the high honor of firing the salute over his grave.
Fort Jefferson, Dry Torguas, Florida (interior, c. 1934, C.E. Peterson, photographer, U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).
Having been ordered back to Key West on 15 November 1862, much of 1863 was spent garrisoning federal installations in Florida as part of the 10th Corps, Department of the South. Companies A, B, C, E, G, and I garrisoned Fort Taylor in Key West while Companies D, F, H, and K garrisoned Fort Jefferson, the Union’s remote outpost in the Dry Tortugas off the coast of Florida.
Once again, the regiment was plagued by disease and harsh living conditions. Felled by dysentery, Private Harrison Lilly was confined to the post hospital at Fort Jefferson from 7-15 May 1863.
But despite these harsh conditions, the majority of 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers chose to re-enlist when their three-year service terms were up, including Private Harrison Lilly, who re-upped at Fort Jefferson on 22 October 1863. His brother, Corporal Joseph M. Lilly, also re-enlisted.
As the New Year of 1864 dawned, another member of the Lilly family prepared to join his brothers in the fight to save America’s union. On 23 January, shoemaker James T. Lilly enrolled for military service at Easton, Northampton County. Officially mustering in for duty at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg as a Private with Company F of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers – the same company and regiment in which Joseph M. and Harrison Lilly had been serving for the past three years, James then connected with his regiment from a recruiting depot.
On 25 February 1864, the 47th set off for a phase of service in which the regiment would make history. Steaming first for New Orleans aboard the Charles Thomas, the men arrived at Algiers, Louisiana on 28 February and were then shipped by train to Brashear City. Following another steamer ride – this time to Franklin via the Bayou Teche – the 47th joined the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division of the Department of the Gulf’s 19th Army Corps. In short order, the 47th would become the only Pennsylvania regiment to serve in the Red River Campaign spearheaded by Union General Nathaniel P. Banks.
From 14-26 March, the 47th passed through New Iberia, Vermillionville, Opelousas, and Washington while en route to Alexandria and Natchitoches. Often short on food and water, the remaining members of the regiment encamped briefly at Pleasant Hill the night of 7 April before continuing on the next day, marching until mid-afternoon.
19th U.S. Army Map, Phase 3, Battle of Sabine Cross Roads/Mansfield (8 April 1864, public domain).
Rushed into battle ahead of other regiments in the 2nd Division, 60 members of the 47th were cut down on 8 April during the back-and-forth volley of fire unleashed during the Battle of Sabine Cross Roads (Mansfield). The fighting waned only when darkness fell. The exhausted, but uninjured collapsed beside the gravely wounded. After midnight, the surviving Union troops withdrew to Pleasant Hill.
The next day, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were ordered into a critically important defensive position at the far right of the Union lines, their right flank spreading up onto a high bluff. By 3 p.m., after enduring a midday charge by the troops of Confederate General Richard Taylor (a plantation owner who was the son of Zachary Taylor, former President of the United States), the brutal fighting still showed no signs of ending. Suddenly, just as the 47th was shifting to the left side of the massed Union forces, the men of the 47th Pennsylvania were forced to bolster the 165th New York’s buckling lines by blocking another Confederate assault.
Casualties were severe. The regiment’s second in command, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander, was nearly killed, and the regiment’s two color-bearers, both from Company C, were also seriously wounded while preventing the American flag from falling into enemy hands.
Still others from the 47th were captured by Confederate troops, marched roughly 125 miles to Camp Ford, a Confederate Army prison camp near Tyler, Texas, and held there as prisoners of war until they were released during prisoner exchanges between July and November. Several members of the regiment never made it out alive.
Following what some historians have called a drubbing by the Confederate Army and others have called a technical Union victory (or at least a draw), the 47th Pennsylvania fell back to Grand Ecore, where the men resupplied and regrouped until 22 April. Retreating toward Alexandria, Louisiana, they then scored another victory against the Confederates, this time on 23 April at Monett’s Ferry in the Battle of Cane Hill.
Christened “Bailey’s Dam” for Lt. Col. Joseph Bailey, the officer overseeing its construction, this timber dam built on the Red River in Alexandria, Louisiana in May 1864 facilitated Union gunboat passage (public domain).
Next, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Bailey, they helped to build a dam near Alexandria from 30 April through 10 May. Christened as “Bailey’s Dam,” this timber structure enabled federal gunboats to successfully traverse the fluctuating waters of the Red River. Beginning 16 May, Captain Henry S. Harte and F Company moved with most of the 47th from Simmsport across the Atchafalaya to Morganza, and then to New Orleans on 20 June.
Sheridan’s 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign
Still able and willing to fight after their time in Bayou country, the soldiers of Company F and their fellow members of the 47th Pennsylvania returned to the Washington, D.C. area aboard the McClellan from 5-12 July 1864 – but they did so without their commanding officer, Captain Henry S. Harte, who was ordered to serve on detached duty as the leader of the 47th Pennsylvanians serving with Companies B, G and K, who were left behind because the McClellan was unable to transport the entire regiment. (Captain Harte sailed later aboard the Blackstone with Companies B, G and K, and arrived in the Washington, D.C. area on 28 July.)
After arriving on the East Coast, the bulk of the 47th Pennsylvania joined up with General David Hunter’s forces at Snicker’s Gap, Virginia, where the men from Companies A, C, D, E, F, H, and I assisted in defending Washington, D.C. while also helping to drive Confederate troops from Maryland. Attached to the Middle Military Division, Army of the Shenandoah beginning in August 1864, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was then assigned to defensive duties in and around Halltown, Virginia during the early part of that month. Over the next several weeks, the regiment then engaged in a series of back-and-forth movements between Halltown, Berryville and other locations within the vicinity (Middletown, Charlestown and Winchester) as part of a “mimic war” being waged by Sheridan’s Union forces with those commanded by Confederate Lieutenant-General Jubal Early.
From 3-4 September, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers then fought in the Battle of Berryville.
With F Company once again under the command of Captain Henry S. Harte by September, the opening days of Fall 1864 also saw the promotion of several men from Company F and the departure of a significant number of others who had served honorably but whose terms of service were expiring, including F Company’s Captain Harte, who mustered out at Berryville, Virginia on 18 September 1864. For the Lilly brothers and other remaining members of the 47th, the fighting was not yet over – and they were about to engage in the regiment’s greatest moments of valor.
Battles of Opequan and Fisher’s Hill, September 1864
Together with other regiments under the command of Union General Philip H. (“Little Phil”) Sheridan and Brigadier-General William H. Emory, commander of the 19th Corps, the members of Company F and their fellow 47th Pennsylvanians helped to inflict heavy casualties on Lieutenant General Jubal Early’s Confederate forces during the Battle of Opequan (also spelled as “Opequon” and referred to as “Third Winchester”). The battle is still considered by many historians to be one of the most important during Sheridan’s 1864 campaign; the Union’s victory here helped to ensure the reelection of President Abraham Lincoln.
Victory of Philip Sheridan’s Union army over Jubal Early’s Confederate forces, Battle of Opequan, 19 September 1864 (Kurz & Allison, c. 1893, U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).
The 47th Pennsylvania’s march toward destiny at Opequan began at 2 a.m. on 19 September 1864 as the regiment left camp and joined up with others in the Union’s 19th Corps. After advancing slowly from Berryville toward Winchester, the 19th Corps bogged down for several hours by the massive movement of Union troops and supply wagons, enabling Early’s men to dig in. After finally reaching and fording the Opequan Creek, Sheridan’s men came face to face with Early’s Confederate Army. The fighting, which began in earnest at noon, was long and brutal. The Union’s left flank (6th Corps) took a beating from Confederate artillery stationed on high ground.
The 47th Pennsylvania and the 19th Corps were directed by General William Emory to attack and pursue Major General John B. Gordon’s Confederate forces. Some success was achieved, but casualties mounted as another Confederate artillery group opened fire on Union troops trying to cross a clearing. When a nearly fatal gap began to open between the 6th and 19th Corps, Sheridan sent in units led by Brigadier-Generals Emory Upton and David A. Russell. Russell, hit twice – once in the chest, was mortally wounded. The 47th Pennsylvania opened its lines long enough to enable the Union cavalry under William Woods Averell and the foot soldiers of General George Crook to charge the Confederates’ left flank.
The 19th Corps, with the 47th in the thick of the fighting, then began pushing the Confederates back. Early’s “grays” retreated in the face of the valor displayed by Sheridan’s “blue jackets.” Leaving 2,500 wounded behind, the Rebels fled to Fisher’s Hill, eight miles south of Winchester (21-22 September), and then to Waynesboro, following a successful early morning flanking attack by Sheridan’s Union men which outnumbered Early’s three to one. Afterward, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were sent out on skirmishing parties before making camp at Cedar Creek.
Moving forward, the surviving members of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers would continue to distinguish themselves in battle, but they would do so without two more of their respected commanders: Colonel Tilghman Good and Good’s second in command, Lieutenant Colonel George Alexander, who mustered out 23-24 September upon the expiration of their respective terms of service. Fortunately, they were replaced by leaders who were equally respected for their front line experience and temperament, including Major John Peter Shindel Gobin, formerly of the 47th’s Company C, who had been promoted up through the regimental staff to the rank of Major (and who would be promoted again on 4 November to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and Commanding Officer of the regiment).
Battle of Cedar Creek, 19 October 1864
Alfred Waud’s 1864 sketch, Surprise at Cedar Creek, which captured the flanking attack on the rear of Union Brigadier-General William Emory’s 19th Corps by Lieutenant General Jubal Early’s Confederate army, and the subsequent resistance by Emory’s troops from their Union rifle-pit positions, 19 October 1864 (public domain).
It was during the Fall of 1864 that General Philip Sheridan began the first of the Union’s true “scorched earth” campaigns, starving the enemy into submission by destroying Virginia’s farming infrastructure. Viewed through today’s lens of history as inhumane, the strategy claimed many innocents – civilians whose lives were cut short by their inability to find food. This same strategy, however, almost certainly contributed to the further turning of the war’s tide in the Union’s favor during the Battle of Cedar Creek on 19 October 1864. Successful throughout most of their engagement with Union forces at Cedar Creek, Early’s Confederate troops began peeling off in ever growing numbers to forage for food, thus enabling the 47th Pennsylvania and others under Sheridan’s command to rally and win the day.
From a military standpoint, it was an impressive, but heartrending day. During the morning of 19 October, Early launched a surprise attack directly on Sheridan’s Cedar Creek-encamped forces. Early’s men were able to capture Union weapons while freeing a number of Confederates who had been taken prisoner during previous battles – all while pushing seven Union divisions back. According to Bates:
When the Army of West Virginia, under Crook, was surprised and driven from its works, the Second Brigade, with the Forty-seventh on the right, was thrown into the breach to arrest the retreat…. Scarcely was it in position before the enemy came suddenly upon it, under the cover of fog. The right of the regiment was thrown back until it was almost a semi-circle. The brigade, only fifteen hundred strong, was contending against Gordon’s entire division, and was forced to retire, but, in comparative good order, exposed, as it was, to raking fire. Repeatedly forming, as it was pushed back, and making a stand at every available point, it finally succeeded in checking the enemy’s onset, when General Sheridan suddenly appeared upon the field, who ‘met his crest-fallen, shattered battalions, without a word of reproach, but joyously swinging his cap, shouted to the stragglers, as he rode rapidly past them – “Face the other way, boys! We are going back to our camp! We are going to lick them out of their boots!’”
Sheridan Rallying His Troops, Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia, 19 October 1864 (U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).
The Union’s counterattack punched Early’s forces into submission, and the men of the 47th were commended for their heroism by General Stephen Thomas who, in 1892, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his own “distinguished conduct in a desperate hand-to-hand encounter, in which the advance of the enemy was checked” that day. Bates described the 47th’s actions:
When the final grand charge was made, the regiment moved at nearly right angles with the rebel front. The brigade charged gallantly, and the entire line, making a left wheel, came down on his flank, while engaging the Sixth Corps, when he went “whirling up the valley” in confusion. In the pursuit to Fisher’s Hill, the regiment led, and upon its arrival was placed on the skirmish line, where it remained until twelve o’clock noon of the following day. The army was attacked at early dawn…no respite was given to take food until the pursuit was ended.
Once again, the casualties for the 47th were high with more than 170 members of the regiment killed, wounded, or captured and carted off to Confederate prison camps. Sergeant William Pyers, the C Company man who had so gallantly rescued the flag at Pleasant Hill was cut down in view of his drummer boy son and later buried on the battlefield. Perry County resident and Regimental Chaplain William Rodrock suffered a near miss as a bullet pierced his cap. Privates Addison R. Geho and Rainey Grader of Company F were killed in action while Privates Josiah H. Walk and William H. Moll were wounded in action, but recovered and ultimately returned to continued service with the regiment.
Following these engagements, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were ordered to Camp Russell near Winchester, where they remained from November through most of December. Rested and somewhat healed, they were then ordered to outpost and railroad guard duty at Camp Fairview in Charlestown, West Virginia. Five days before Christmas, they trudged through a snowstorm in order to reach their new home.
Assigned in February to the Provisional Division of the 2nd Brigade of the Army of the Shenandoah, the men of the 47th moved back to Washington, D.C., via Winchester and Kernstown. Despite the relative strength of the Union Army, this was still a dangerous time for 47th Pennsylvanians. Tragically, Private Harrison Lilly was shot in the abdomen by Confederate guerillas at Summit Point, Virginia on 25 March; Corporal Franklin Arnold was then wounded there three days later. Corporal Arnold would ultimately be discharged on a Surgeon’s Certificate less than four months later on 15 July 1865, but Private Lilly was less fortunate. He succumbed to “Vulnus Sclopet” (the Latin term for gunshot wounds) at the 47th Pennsylvania’s regimental hospital on 29 March 1864, according to Union Army death records.
Private Harrison Lilly, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers (fatal gunshot wound to abdomen documented in Registers of Deaths of U.S. Volunteers, 29 March 1865, U.S. National Archives, public domain).
Initially laid to rest near the hospital, Private Lilly’s remains were later exhumed as part of the federal government’s program to respectfully rebury Union soldiers at national cemeteries. He now rests in Section 26, Grave No. 1043 at the Winchester National Cemetery in Winchester, Virginia.
Spectators massing for the Grand Review of the Armies, 23-24 May 1865, at the side of the crepe-draped U.S. Capitol, flag at half mast following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln (Matthew Brady, U.S. Library of Congress, public domain).
By 19 April, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were once again responsible for helping to defend the nation’s capital – this time following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Encamped near Fort Stevens, they received new uniforms and were resupplied. During this time, Corporal Joseph Lilly was promoted to the rank of Sergeant (on 21 April 1865).
Letters home and later newspaper interviews with survivors of the 47th Pennsylvania indicate that at least one 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer was given the high honor of guarding President Lincoln’s funeral train while others may have guarded the Lincoln assassination conspirators during their imprisonment and trial.
Then, as part of Dwight’s Division of the 2nd Brigade of the Department of Washington’s 22nd Corps, the surviving Lilly brothers and their fellow 47th Pennsylvanians participated in the Union’s Grand Review on 23-24 May. A week later, on 31 May, Private James T. Lilly was honorably discharged, and sent home to Pennsylvania.
On their final southern tour, Sergeant Joseph M. Lilly and his fellow members of the 47th Pennsylvania served in Savannah, Georgia from 31 May to 4 June. Attached again to Dwight’s Division, this time they were assigned to the 3rd Brigade, Department of the South. Relieving the 165th New York Volunteers in July, the soldiers of the 47th Pennsylvania next quartered in Charleston at the former mansion of the Confederate Secretary of the Treasury.
Finally, beginning on Christmas day of that year, the majority of the men of Company F, 47th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers – including Sergeant Joseph M. Lilly – began to honorably muster out at Charleston, South Carolina, a process which continued through early January. Following a stormy voyage home, the 47th Pennsylvania disembarked in New York City. The weary men were then shipped to Philadelphia by train where, at Camp Cadwalader on 9 January 1866, the 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers were officially given their discharge papers.
Return to Civilian Life
James T. Lilly’s Gravestone (Salem Union Church Cemetery, Moorestown, Pennsylvania, public domain).
Following the death of his brother and his own subsequent honorable discharge from the military at the end of May 1865, James T. Lilly returned home to Northampton County, Pennsylvania, where he began to make a life and home with Emma Kelchner. Their daughter, Clara Jane Lilly, was born on 6 March 1867, just a few weeks after the passing of James’ mother, Elisabeth (Billheimer) Lilly (who had died on 16 February, and was laid to rest at the same cemetery where their younger brother August had been interred more than a decade earlier – the Salem Union Church Cemetery in Moorestown, Northampton County, Pennsylvania).
Tragically, the year would bring more darkness to the Lilly family when James and Emma Lilly’s daughter passed away on 23 November. Clara Jane Lilly’s tiny body was then buried in the same graveyard as her paternal grandmother – the Salem Union Church Cemetery.
And then just a few short years later, on Christmas Eve of 1870, James T. Lilly also died. He, too, was laid to rest at the Salem Union Church Cemetery. At the time of his passing, he was described on his gravestone as the “Consort of Emma C. Kelchner.”
That same year (1870), carpenter Charles Lilly, the eldest of the Lilly brothers, resided in Moore Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania with his wife, Lucinda (Shall) Lilly (1831-1914), and their children Ellen (1860-1940) and Thomas (born c. 1865). His real and personal estate holdings were value at $2,400. By 1880, Charles, now a farmer, and his wife, Lucinda, were still residents of Moore Township. Also residing at his home by this time was his father, Joseph, a 73-year-old shoemaker.
Meanwhile, Charles’ younger brother and former 47th Pennsylvanian, Joseph M. Lilly, resided in Whitehall Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania with his wife, Mary (1836-1897), and their Pennsylvania-born son Charles (aged 1). Employed as a brick mason, his real and personal estate holdings were valued by the census taker at $800.
Per late 19th and early 20th century federal census records, it is clear that both James and Harrison Lilly were outlived by their older brothers, Charles Lilly and Joseph M. Lilly, as well as by their father. Joseph M. Lilly, the son of master shoemaker Joseph Lilly, passed away on 16 August 1876, and was laid to rest at Saint Johns Union Cemetery in Mickleys, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.
Family patriarch Joseph Lilly then died in Northampton County, Pennsylvania on 21 November 1881. He was laid to rest at the same cemetery where his wife, Elisabeth (Billheimer) Lilly, and granddaughter, Clara Jane Lilly, were buried in 1867, and where son James was also interred in 1870 – the Salem Union Cemetery in Moorestown.
Charles, the oldest of the Lilly brothers, then died in Northampton County on 12 July 1914, and was laid to rest at the Fairview Cemetery in Moorestown, Northampton County.
1. Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.
2. Lilly, Harrison and James, in Civil War Muster Rolls, in Records of the Department of Military and Veterans’ Affairs (Record Group 19, Series 19.11). Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
3. Lilly, Harrison and James, in Civil War Veterans’ Card File, 1861-1866. Harrisburg: Pennsylvania State Archives.
4. Lilly, Harrison, in Registers of Deaths of Volunteers, in Records of the U.S. Adjutant General’s Office. Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, 1865.
5. Peters, Gerhard and John T. Wooley. Abraham Lincoln: Proclamation 83—Increasing the Size of the Army and Navy, May 3, 1861, in The American Presidency Project. Santa Barbara, California: University of California, Santa Barbara, retrieved online 1 October 2017.
6. Schmidt, Lewis. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown: Self-published, 1986.
7. U.S. Census. Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania: 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910.


Fantasia Coverage Dramas Hollywood Interviews All Features Documentaries How ScreenAnarchy Works
July 10 2018, 8:00 AM
Interview: Aislinn Clarke on the Evils of the Catholic Church and THE DEVIL'S DOORWAY
It's insane to type this, but Aislinn Clarke is Northern Ireland's very first female horror director. Her debut feature, The Devil’s Doorway, is being released by IFC Midnight. The trailer is currently terrifying the Internet with its spook-tacular scares. I was able to see the film at Cinepocalypse in Chicago, and fortunate to have interviewed Clarke after the fact.
I learned about a host of horrific things done and the evil that good men do — in the name of greed in Northern Ireland/Ireland. Here, the dastardly deeds refer to the infamous "Magdalane Laundries," where girls and women were forced into slave labor. If reading Clarke's answers to my questions doesn't give you a shiver, you might not be human.
The official synopsis:
What unholy terrors lurk behind the walls of a secretive Irish convent? Northern Ireland, 1960: Father Thomas Riley (Lalor Roddy) and Father John Thornton (Ciaran Flynn) are dispatched by the Vatican to investigate reports of a miracle — a statue of the Virgin Mary weeping blood — at a remote Catholic asylum for “immoral” women. Armed with 16mm film cameras to record their findings, the priests instead discover a depraved horror show of sadistic nuns, satanism, and demonic possession. Supernatural forces are at work here — but they are not the doing of God. Inspired by the infamous true histories of Magdalene Laundries — in which “fallen women” were held captive by the Irish Catholic Church — this found footage occult shocker is a chilling encounter with unspeakable evil.
The Devil’s Doorway opens in select theaters and on all VOD platforms this Friday, July 13, from IFC Midnight. Check out the trailer below the interview. If you're in New York, check the film out! Clarke will also be appearing in person at this weekend's screenings at the IFC Center in NYC on Friday and Saturday night. Q&As with insightful directors like Clarke are always a real treat for any filmgoer. If you like horror, thrillers, history, found footage, or any of the above, definitely watch The Devil’s Doorway!
The Devil’s Doorway was based off real events; can you tell us more about what actually happened and how this horrific, hidden history influenced the script?
The Magdalene Laundries were church-run workshops for girls and women, where the inmates were detained indefinitely and mostly for life. The girls there were forced to launder clothes, sheets, etc. and all of the money went to the church. They were essentially a slave labor force. There were laundries all across the Catholic world, but because of the close partnership between the church and government in Ireland during the Twentieth Century, it was especially awful here — it was part of the system that kept the country running. Women and girls could be taken from their homes and families simply on the say-so of a man: because the man wanted them out of the way to access property, to hush up an affair, anything. The majority of the girls, though, were pregnant out of wedlock, and the church would hide them away and the babies put up for adoption. This was the case in theory, but recent revelations have shown multiple instances of babies being sold or, in former Magdalene sites, left to die, perhaps even murdered. It was recent cases in Tuam, Co. Galway and Newry, Co. Down that provided the basis for the event in the film.
Has the Catholic Church (to your knowledge) gone on record in admitting its role in these “Magdalene Laundries?”
They never hid it. What went on in the laundries was never overt — it was known vaguely by the public — but there was no doubt that they were awful, vicious places. My father was a breadman who delivered to one of the local laundries and he used to tell us how hot and bright and terrible it was — his vision of Hell. He hardly knew what was going on. It was the apparatus of church and state in Ireland that allowed it to go on, even in the North — doctors, teachers, police were all complicit in it, for fear of losing power, status, or simply taking the brunt of the government and church’s power themselves. Since the worst of the revelations, though, there has been no formal or meaningful apology. The women whose lives were lost or wasted in these places are still seeking some form of justice, but it hasn't been forthcoming from the church and it hasn't been forthcoming from the state.
Were there any real occurrences that didn’t make it into the script?
There are hundreds of true-life stories from the laundries that never made it into the film overtly. One of the most visceral memories my mother has is of her best friend being taking away, in a car, by a priest, to one of these places — they never saw each other again. She was literally dragged away screaming. The nuns used to give the girls new names to take away their old identities. Some of the cruel procedural elements didn't make it into the film. And, at the gross and absurd end, Hasbro, the multinational games company, had Buckaroo and Mousetrap assembled by girls in laundries during the 80s, with the girls seeing none of the money. I can ask the audience to suspend their disbelief around possession and the Devil, but not exploitation like that.
The 8th Amendment of the Irish Constitution was just repealed, meaning that the abortion ban there has ended. I’m curious to know if these politics had any influence on The Devil’s Doorway.
It was a very special moment to have the film’s world premiere on May 25th. I went into the screening with no idea of how the vote was going to go and came out to the relief that the exit polls were conclusive that the amendment would be repealed. There is no doubt that the anger and frustration expressed in the repeal campaign was also funneled into the film. The 8th amendment and the laundries are certainly linked — the mistreatment of women in Ireland is historic in the sense that it has existed through all of Irish history. I had my son when I was 17, a year after the last laundry was closed; in a slightly different time line, I could have been one of those girls. And while I was always going to keep my son, who has grown into an extremely intelligent and kind young man, the climate for an unwed mother then — in the church, in hospitals, in schools — was still very hostile.
However, while the repeal is a great move forward, we have to keep focus on the fact that there is still no abortion access in Northern Ireland. That part of the island — where I moved when I was 15 — is not covered by the constitution; it's part of the U.K., but is allowed to maintain its own laws on abortion, gay marriage, and other social issues. It will take a lot of pressure to align it socially with the rest of Ireland the UK.
What made you decide to create The Devil’s Doorway using found footage techniques?
The producers came to me with the idea for a found footage film set in an abandoned laundry, in a contemporary setting. I was able to convince them that, if they wanted to make a found footage film, we could do something new by setting it in the ‘60s heyday of the laundries and restricting ourselves as much as possible, to the equipment available then. Producers never want to hear that you intend to shoot on film, but I was able to talk them into it. It allowed us to make something more like a Maysles Brothers documentary than Paranormal Activity or Grave Encounters. Those documentaries were an important reference for me. Also, because I wanted to make a proper Gothic horror film, full of dark corners, hidden secrets, and phantasmagorical turns, found footage was a sort of way to replicate the 19th Century epistolary sensational novels, like "Maria Monk: The Hidden Secrets of a Nun's Life."
Your Mother Superior is fantastic; illuminate us on how you found Helena Bereen and the rest of the cast. How long did casting take, and was it tricky to cast those roles?
Helena is fantastic. She had just come to us from having played the personification of Belfast in Mark Cousins’ brilliant fantasy documentary I Am Belfast and my husband had worked with her in the theatre. Northern Ireland is small like that, so, while we came to most of the cast through the usual audition process, everybody was pretty familiar with everybody before we even began. Lalor, who plays the lead Father Thomas, is the only one who didn't come through the process. We had been looking to cast a little younger, but, somehow, the script had fallen into his hands and he just got in touch and asked to read for it, having seen the script somewhere. I invited him to my office, he auditioned there and then and he was Father Thomas. Lalor had lived through all the social upheaval in Ireland through the sixties and seventies and was full of the righteous anger that the project needed. Like Helena, he was just perfect off the bat.
You’re the very first female horror director in Northern Ireland. In 2018, does that feel odd? What’s the industry like in Northern Ireland?
Yes and no. I'd rather I wasn't. I would love to see what horror films would have come out of NI, by women or men, in the ‘60s,’ 70s, ‘80s; those were fascinating and terrifying times, but the film industry here was stultified and stymied by the Troubles and economic effects of that. However, in the past ten years or so, with Game of Thrones and other big international projects, the industry has transformed and we have so much opportunity and access to world-class, professional crews that there is a lot of great work coming out. And it will continue. If I am the first female horror director to make a feature here, I certainly won't be the last.
I understand that the U.K. premiere is at FrightFest. If there have been test screenings, I’d love to hear about those audience reactions.
Yes, the U.K. premiere is on August 25th at FrightFest. The European premiere is at the Galway Film Fleadh on July 11th — it's important to have it there, so close to the mass grave in Tuam. There have been no test screenings; we simply didn’t have the budget for that. The festival screenings that we've had in the US have all been really positive and the ones that I had the luck to have attend had great atmosphere and the questions and interest shown by audiences, about the film, about the subject matter, about Ireland, about me, has all been enthusiastic and intelligent and engaged. It's really gratifying.
What was the most challenging part(s) of production, and what did you learn?
The whole experience was different. I'd made shorts before and I've worked in theatre a lot, but making a feature is different. We had about 16 days to shoot, on a tiny budget, very little lead-in or development time — we just had to do it. The sort of all-encompassing focus that helps you work through so many consecutive hours, with little-to-no sleep, and leading a team of a dozens of people is an intense feeling. But I learned that this is where I thrive. In fact, I learned that the set is my favorite place to be and I can't wait to get on to the next one.
Is there anything else you’d like us to know about The Devil’s Doorway?
A lot of people ask me if, working on a film like this, there was any sense of demonic forces at work, Satanic presences. Perhaps we'd upset something or set something free. I know some people intimated that we might have a curse on our hands. I’m not a big believer in that sort of thing. But, in the end, I think someone — I don't know who — was watching over us. The day after filming, the roof completely caved in on the room we'd been using as the church. Who knows  if we hadn't kept to schedule, then we might been cursed after all.
Aislinn ClarkeIFC MidnightThe Devil's Doorway
More about The Devil's Doorway
Mayhem 2018: MANDY, ONE CUT OF THE DEAD And More Added to Festival


Dr. William J. Fecht Jr.
Dr. Paul K. Frederick
Office Visit Request
Contact Physician
Will J. Fecht, Jr.
Will J. Fecht, Jr.DevMaster2019-06-02T07:51:37-04:00
Dr. Fecht grew up in Carmel, Indiana after moving from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1983. He graduated cum laude from Wabash College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology.
He received his medical degree in 1998 from the Indiana University School of Medicine. He performed his internal medicine residency at Butterworth Hospital affiliated with Michigan State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. During his final year he received the John R. Horn, M.D. Award for Best Clinical Research and Founders Trust Community Impact award for his work in evaluating preventive care. He also served as chief medicine resident.
He joined Indiana Gastroenterology in July 2005 after completing his three year gastroenterology and hepatology fellowship at St. Louis University School of Medicine. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and its subspecialty Gastroenterology and Hepatology. He is a member of American Gastroenterological Association, American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and American College of Physicians. His special interests include non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, viral hepatitis, cirrhosis, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, preventive medicine, and electronic health information. He performs diagnostic and therapeutic upper endoscopy, colonoscopy, ERCP and capsule endoscopy.
Dr. Fecht and his wife Julie, a part-time pediatrician and full-time mother, have three children. His outside interests and hobbies include roller-blading, ice hockey and Lego.
Indianapolis (primary) office
9002 N Meridian St, Suite 200
Noblesville (satellite) office
325 Westfield Road, Suite D
© 2019 Indiana Gastroenterology, Inc. All Rights Reserved.


Home / Sector News / Energy / Biofuels← Back
Building|Design|Efficiency|Electrical|Energy|Engineering|Engines|Paper|Petrochemicals|Shell|Technology|Solutions
Student competition fosters innovative energy solutions
ECO-MARATHON Fostering an energy efficient-conscious mind-set among students is the first step towards embracing energy efficiency
By: Nica Schreuder
In a bid to allow South African engineering students to explore and understand energy efficiency and solutions, Gauteng-based tertiary institution the University of Johannesburg (UJ) has partnered with international energy and petrochemicals group Shell Global for the fourth time to host the annual Shell Eco-Marathon competition.
The Eco-Marathon, which took place on October 21 and 22 at the Zwartkops raceway, in Pretoria, challenged students from around the world to design, build and drive energy efficient cars. The competition focuses on distance rather than speed, with the team whose car can go the furthest distance on the least amount of energy deemed the winner, explains UJ School of Electrical Engineering head Professor Johan Meyer.
He explains that the marathon comprises different energy categories, namely internal combustion engines, battery electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell-supplied energy.
Internal combustion engines, made up of petrol and diesel-powered cars, required teams to fill a small glass with diesel or petrol to an accurate level before the race. When the laps were completed, the car was filled up with fuel again to measure how much fuel was used in those 10 km.
In the case of the fuel cell category, there is a special device that combines hydrogen and oxygen, which produces electricity. Cars are equipped with a small cylinder of hydrogen. Energy used on the track is expressed in kilometres per cubic metre of hydrogen.
Battery-powered cars have on-board batteries, which supply an energy meter called a joule meter, which is able to measure the amount of energy consumed.
Each of the 17 participating teams was required to do a minimum of 10 km, or four laps around the Zwartkops track at a minimum speed of 25 km/h.
“Last year, South Africa’s fuel cell car ranked eighth globally, enthuses Meyer. The fuel cell-supplied vehicle travelled 317 km on one cubic metre of hydrogen. Being able to travel a significant distance on less than 100 g of hydrogen is what makes this competition so exciting,” Meyer motivates.
Benefiting South African Students
Meyer says UJ’s passion in participating in the marathon comes from wanting to motivate and stimulate its students with a real-life challenge. “It’s different than writing something on a piece of paper. If your car doesn’t run, that’s it – 50% is not good enough.”
He adds that students compete against themselves and other international teams, which allows them to form partnerships, network and pursue research and development opportunities. “The Eco-Marathon gives us an opportunity to engage with industry and other teams with different industry partners and sponsors. It helps our students to get plugged into the industry.”
The marathon is not just about building cars, but also about stimulating practical and creative engineering thought, while simultaneously building an awareness of energy efficient thinking and getting hands-on experience, says Meyer.
He points to competitions such as the Eco-Marathon playing a role in bridging South Africa’s current skills gap. He says, with engineering being one of the scarcest skills in the country, the more industry can attempt to stimulate and develop interests in engineering, the more tertiary institutions can educate students to become engineers that will ultimately make a difference to the country’s energy needs.
A number of high schools are also eligible to participate, which fosters an emphasis on building science, technology, economics and mathematical skills at a high school level.
“Initiatives such as these demonstrate commitment to harbouring young and dynamic talent displayed by learners and students who are dedicated to tackling the energy challenge. The event also serves as an ideal ground to attract and capture young people’s interest in the fields of science, technology and engineering,” Meyer says.
The Shell Eco-Marathon does emphasise technical aspects, but also allows for students to explore other skill sets, such as how to pitch an idea to raise funds and get sponsorships, and how to speak to people and teammates. Meyer believes this is integral to grooming students to graduate with practical experience of different skills in the engineering industry, both soft and technical.
Students, in turn, have an opportunity to broaden their mindsets regarding energy efficiency awareness. “They get a view outside the fence of UJ, and engage with industry to learn skill sets, which I believe makes them more well-rounded engineers. They also get to understand that there is an energy crisis, and can gear their solutions towards addressing it, once thinking differently about it,” he concludes.
Edited by: Zandile Mavuso
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor: Features
Monitoring energy consumption fosters efficiency →
SCG Paper Energy Co waste-to-energy plant, Thailand →
Northam backs Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association’s awareness campaign →
US to strengthen energy partnerships in Africa, says US Energy Secretary
By: Kim Cloete
US Energy Secretary Rick Perry says his government is committed to strengthening its energy partnerships with African countries, but has called for a clear and transparent regulatory environment. “There is no more important message that governing bodies can send to both the US government and the private sector than to be very open, very transparent and to adhere to the rule of law.” →


Rewriting Life
Remote Monitoring of the Heart
Wearable, wireless technology detects early signs of heart failure.
by David Talbot
A 15-centimeter wireless sensor, recently approved by the FDA, holds the promise of reducing hospitalizations by allowing automated early detection of heart failure. The noninvasive device, which costs a few hundred dollars and adheres to a patient’s chest, monitors indicators of heart health–including heart and respiration rates, levels of patient activity, and even the accumulation of body fluid–as patients go about their daily lives.
Sensor patch: This 15-centimeter wearable patch measures temperature, heart and respiration rates, levels of physical activity, body position, and body-fluid levels using sensors that include an accelerometer and an impedance monitor.
Part of a technology platform now being marketed by Corventis, a startup in San Jose, CA, the waterproof sensor beams data to a special cell-phone-like gadget in the patient’s pocket or home. From there, the data is wirelessly transmitted to the company’s servers. Algorithms detect anomalies and transmit data to physicians via the Web or a mobile device, drawing attention to patients who need immediate care.
“We can transmit data from a patient to servers that can process the data–all without the patient knowing about it–24-7,” says Ed Manicka, the company’s president. “Your patient could be in Singapore, could be in Brussels, or could be across the room from you. And you can look at data from a website, or from an iPhone. Our system allows the computer to watch a patient all the time, not requiring the physician to continually look at data and act on it.”
While some technologies exist that can do much of the same job, they are bulky and impractical or must be surgically implanted. “This is much more unobtrusive in people’s daily lives,” says Eric Topol, a cardiologist who directs the Scripps Translational Science Institute, a medical research center in La Jolla, CA.
In patients with heart disease, fluid buildup in the lungs leads to shortness of breath, places pressure on pulmonary arteries, and threatens to cause heart failure, requiring hospitalization to remove fluid. However, if the disease is caught early, before the patient feels symptoms, hospitalization can be avoided by giving the patient diuretics. Topol says that the Corventis device is unique in including an impedance detector, which measures the buildup of body fluid through an indirect electrical measurement. The buildup of body fluid serves as a proxy for the buildup of fluid in the lungs.
“We’ve never had that before for remote monitoring,” Topol says. Beyond warning of heart failure through fluid detection, the device includes an accelerometer that tells if a person is generally less active–a sign that he is in distress–or not lying flat at night, which is another proxy measurement for fluid buildup in the lungs. (Lying flat makes the resulting shortness of breath worse, and sufferers will often sleep propped up on pillows.)
A clinical trial evaluating whether the device can predict heart failure–the technical term is “decompensated heart failure”–is under way and nearly complete, Corventis says. Heart-failure decompensation is the leading cause of hospitalization in Medicare patients, with more than a million U.S. hospitalizations a year costing tens of billions of dollars. “The projections are that if you can do remote monitoring for heart failure, it would save $20 billion in hospitalizations each year,” says Topol.
While scientists know that the device measures fluid accurately, it’s not yet clear whether having access to this information will ultimately reduce the incidence of hospitalization. This issue has plagued other cardiac monitoring devices, which accurately detected cardiac abnormalities but in the end failed to significantly improve clinical outcomes. “Intuitively, it’s really very exciting, but we still have to prove it,” says Topol. “But at least now there is a technology where you could see that the possibility is emerging.”
The company is also conducting a clinical trial to see if the sensor can diagnose sleep apnea through changes in respiration and blood oxygen levels. (Corventis plans to integrate a blood oxygen sensor in a future version of the device.) A third trial–to determine whether the device can predict imminent heart attacks by detecting subtle changes in heart rate and rhythm–is set to begin later this year, Manicka says.
A second Corventis sensor under review by the FDA will do more fine-grained capture of heart-rhythm disturbances. This device could detect subtle changes in heart patterns suggestive of arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation, which is associated with increased stroke risk and is diagnosed in 835,000 Americans each year.
With these kinds of small, unobtrusive wireless health sensing and analytic technologies emerging, “we’ve never had more exciting innovation in wireless medicine. It’s extraordinary,” Topol said at a recent conference. In a later interview, he added that wireless sensing could transform how many diseases are treated. “Someday, this will give the ability to transform one’s home into an [intensive-care unit], with continuous vital-sign measurements. There is a lot going on here, and there is the potential that it will transform health care.”


Africa, Aid, Featured, Gender, Headlines, Health, Human Rights, Poverty & SDGs, TerraViva United Nations, Women's Health
Accelerating Universal Health Coverage in Kenya-How do we get there?
By Werner Schultink and Rudi Eggers & Siddharth Chatterjee	Reprint | | Print |
Dr. Schultink is the UNICEF Representative to Kenya, Dr. Eggers is the WHO Representative to Kenya, Mr. Chatterjee is the UN Resident Coordinator to Kenya.
President Uhuru Kenyatta greets a one-day-old baby when he commissioned medical equipment at the Mwingi Level 4 Hospital in Kitui. Kenya. Credit: State House
NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 27 2018 (IPS) - The Government of Kenya has prioritized universal health coverage (UHC) in its Big 4 agenda over the next 5 years.
This is a significant and perhaps the most important strategic priority. Why? Every year over a million Kenyans get trapped into poverty because of a catastrophic out of pocket payments due to health reasons.
In 1978, health campaigners worldwide achieved a major breakthrough at the UN Alma-Ata Conference on Primary Health Care. This conference statement signaled a new approach to health care, often described as the ‘primary health care approach’ or the ‘Alma-Ata principles’ – deeply rooted in the social and structural determinants of health (such as poverty eradication), and emphasising the importance of health care being accountable and accessible to the people it serves. A global target of achieving “Health for All” by the year 2000 was established.
How do we ensure that Universal Health Coverage is possible in Kenya by 2022?
The answer is simple. The focus has to be on preventable and primary health care as emphasized in the Alma-Ata principles. The centrality of reproductive, maternal, neonatal, child and adolescent health will be critical to achieving UHC.
Kenya has made considerable but slow progress in reducing maternal, newborn and child mortality, but missing its 2015 Millennium Development Goal targets implies there is still a lot of pending work to give women and children the most basic of rights – the right to life and well being. As the First Lady of Kenya Ms Margaret Kenyatta has often said, “No woman should die giving life” which led to the launch of her signature Beyond Zero campaign and the Government declared a free maternal health care policy in 2013.
There are two reasons for seeing maternal and child health as a forerunner for UHC. First, it is clear that the mother’s overall state of health has a lifetime impact on an individual child’s health. Second, there is now evidence that households with maternal health complications spend considerably more of their savings to cover medical expenses. This is particularly key in rural settings where women play major economic roles.
The loss of women’s contributions combined with the spending shock they face can force households, particularly those already vulnerable, into deeply-entrenched poverty.
Reduction of out-of-pocket expenditure is central to achievement of UHC. One approach towards this reduction must be promotive and prevention-based intervention. We already have several proven, low cost-high impact interventions for significantly reducing the number of women dying during childbirth and shrinking new-born and childhood mortality.
About 74,000 Kenyan children under the age of five died in 2016, including 33,000 aged below the age of one month. At the same time, about Kenyan 6,000 women die every year from giving life, many from treatable infections. Many of these deaths could have been averted with relatively simple interventions.
Kenya has done very well in developing relevant national guidelines and policies creating a framework that can efficiently deliver these high-impact maternal, newborn and child health interventions. Devolution of health services must now include cascading the policies to local health services, but more importantly, ensuring the guidelines are fully implemented.
Another concern is the variations in mortality, with differences between rural and urban communities, rich and poor and between developed and under-developed counties.
Even though Nairobi is the most developed county, it has the highest annual absolute number of maternal, newborn and child deaths compared to all other counties. This will only increase as the city population rapidly expands. Conversely, maternal and newborn mortality rates are highest in counties such as Marsabit, Turkana, Kitui, and Kilifi.
The recently-released UNICEF report on the power of investing in the poor indicate that for every US$ 1,000 invested in health for the poorest children, nearly twice as many lives are saved compared to investing in areas where richer people live.
The attainment of UHC must not be seen as a purely technical objective, but must be accompanied by purposeful redistribution of resources for equitable gains.
The following low cost high-impact interventions will leapfrog UHC. These interventions should be included in the essential health service package that should be available to all Kenyans at no further cost: 1. 100% immunization coverage. 2. Scaling up maternal and child health by ensuring exclusive breastfeeding, hand-washing to prevent transfer of infectious diseases, chlorhexidine as an antiseptic for umbilical cord, newborn resuscitation, ‘Kangaroo’ mother care, family planning, antenatal and postnatal care and skilled delivery. 3. Prevention of water borne, vector borne, TB and HIV and sexually transmitted diseases. 4. Prevention of non-communicable diseases, particularly diabetes and hypertension. 5. Improving nutrition of women who conceive and follow this through to the first 5 years of a child’s life.
These 5 actions will not only help achieve universal primary health coverage within 5 years, but reduce the number of patients going into the referral systems. It will reinforce the famous adage, “prevention is better than cure.”
Innovative approaches are needed to address weaknesses and shortages of human resources and focus more on improving performance of the existing workforce. Already, the government is emphasizing the role of community health volunteers in implementing some of these interventions.
With over 70% of Kenya’s population under 30 years of age, the government of Kenya’s focus on UHC is critical for Kenya to reap a demographic dividend.
It is crucial that we further strengthen our partnership between county governments, UN agencies, international development partners, civil society and private sector to seek the quickest pathways towards realization of universal health coverage.
Kenya can lead the way in achieving universal health coverage.


Frances Smith-Dean
A Native of New Orleans, Louisiana currently residing in Richardson Texas is the Executive Director of The Zan W. Holmes, Jr. Community Outreach Center in Dallas, Texas and Adjunct Professor of Mathematics at Richland College. Frances is the wife of Darryl Charles Dean and mother of Charles, Derrick, Frances and Darrylynn Dean. Frances has been actively involved in community, economic and political activism most of her life. Her motto in life is “ordinary people have the power to do extraordinary things.” Developer and creator of the Zan W. Holmes, Jr. Community Outreach Juneteenth Economic Forum.
Because of her leadership, internationally Frances was instrumental with establishing a foreign exchange trade business trip between the US-China Business Council, Southern University A & M of Baton Rouge and The City of Baker Louisiana in 2012. The City of Baker signed a Friendship City Agreement with China and Southern University Agricultural Center signed a partnership agreement with Dr. Walter Chen, who is one of the most influential Chinese American Economist for the top 100 businesses in China.
In 2010 Frances visited United Arab Emirates Cities: Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah with Leadership America exploring how the UAE manages Economic, Education and Healthcare systems. During this visit,the UAE Chief Economist explains the role of the Sovereign Wealth Funds and the impact of Sharia Law in business. The American University Chancellor provides an in-depth view on the role education and health systems.
In 2007 and 08 Frances was invited to speak at Freedom Fest Libertarian Think Tank Conference by Columbia University Professor and Former Chief Economist of the CIA, Mark Skousen where she discussed Reforming Urban Education and Creating Fair Markets within a Free Market Enterprise System. Frances noted the seven stages of an Empire and how she developed and implemented the New Orleans Public Schools Money Matter$ curriculum and program throughout many of the lowest-performingschools. Frances also served as Kaufman Business Advisor to the University of New Orleans Small Business Development Center where she trained and advised over 200 small business owners inthe City of New Orleans. The New Orleans Federal Reserve in1997 credited the Money Matter$ Program with the 2 percent growthin the savings rate in New Orleans while the national rate was declining.
BeforeHurricane,Katrina Frances worked in the healthcareindustry as a financial consultant whichled to the implementation and expansion of healthcarefacilities throughout Louisiana and California. She was the lead consultant to Good Will Hospice, Louisiana Wellness and Rehabilitation Centers, and Metropolitan Hospital. Frances assisted with financing projects for these companies more than25 million dollars. During this time Frances also was a registered investment advisor for Nation-wide insurance where she managed over 1000 employees with theCity of New Orleans, Regional Transit Authority, and seven other municipalities within the New Orleans River Region’s PublicEmployee Deferred Compensation plans.
Today, Frances still services as a business advisor to many faith-based organizations in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. The owner of The Financial Educator, LLCFrances maintains her clients through coaching and training sessions in Arkansas, California, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas. She has developed coaching curriculum entitled: How to Maneuver in Any Economy, Accumulation, Acceleration, and the Six-figure Sister.
Frances is currently working on her Educational Doctorate in Higher Education in Leadership from Trident University. She holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science from Xavier University in New Orleans and a Master of Science in Teaching Mathematics from the LoyolaUniversity of Louisiana. Frances has served on many state boardsand faith-based organization boards. A member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Politically, Frances served as an At-large delegate in 2004 at the National Republican Convention for Former President George W. Bush and State Central Committee Member District 100 and District E Members in Louisiana for District 100 for the Republican Party and Louisiana Exploratory Committee for Mitt Romney Presidential Campaign.
Zan Wesley Holmes, Jr. Community Outreach Center
Administrative Offices Only | 2606 Martin Luther King Blvd., Suite 202 | Dallas, TX 75215 | 214.324.4443/Main
Frazier House
Programs and Training Offices | 4600 Spring Ave. | Dallas, TX 75210 | 214.324.4443/Main
©2019 ZAN WESLEY HOLMES, JR. COMMUNITY OUTREACH CENTER.
Privacy note: Some photographic images on this site have been replaced with stock photography to protect our clients' identities. It is the policy and commitment of the Zan Wesley Holmes, Jr. Community Outreach Center that it does not discriminate on the basis of race, age, color, sex, national origin, physical or mental disability, religion, marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Full nondiscrimination policy