Oliver Bosbyshell Oliver Christian Bosbyshell ( January 3 , 1839 – August 1 , 1921 ) served as Superintendent of the United States Mint at Philadelphia from 1889 to 1894 . He also claimed to have been the first Union soldier wounded by enemy action in the Civil War , stating that he received a bruise on the forehead from an object thrown by a Confederate sympathizer while Bosbyshell ' s unit was marching through Baltimore in April 1861 . Bosbyshell was born in Mississippi ; his parents were of old Philadelphia stock and had moved to Vicksburg on a temporary basis . His father died before Oliver ' s birth , and his mother returned after he was born to live with her father in Schuylkill County , Pennsylvania , where the boy grew up . After briefly working on the railroad and then studying law , Bosbyshell enlisted in the Union cause on the outbreak of war . Bosbyshell initially enlisted in the 25th Pennsylvania Volunteers ; when his brief period of service expired , he was offered a commission in the regular Army , but chose to remain in a volunteer regiment , joining the 48th Pennsylvania . He remained in that regiment for three years , fighting in such battles as Second Bull Run and Antietam . He rose to the rank of major , and led his regiment , but having been refused a leave of absence , was mustered out upon the expiration of his term of service in October 1864 . After leaving the army , Bosbyshell returned to Pennsylvania and worked in two unsuccessful businesses ; he also involved himself in Republican politics and in the activities of the Grand Army of the Republic , a veteran ' s group . He was appointed to a post at the Philadelphia Mint in 1869 , and became its superintendent in 1889 , serving for four years . One of Bosbyshell ' s underlings at the mint had stolen gold bars ; as they were not all recovered when the culprit was arrested , Bosbyshell was held responsible for the loss by virtue of his office . He was absolved of this liability by act of Congress in 1899 . Early life ; Civil War . Oliver Christian Bosbyshell was born in Vicksburg , Mississippi , on January 3 , 1839 , the son of Oliver Christian and Mary Ann ( Whitney ) Bosbyshell . Both of his parents were from old Philadelphia families ; the couple had taken up temporary residence in Vicksburg . The senior Oliver Bosbyshell was engaged in the commission business ; he contracted bronchitis while fighting the fire which destroyed his warehouse , then died shortly after a sea voyage he had taken in hopes of improving his health . The elder Bosbyshell died in Philadelphia eight weeks before his son ' s birth , and Mary Bosbyshell returned from Mississippi by land with her infant son to her father ' s house in Schuylkill County , Pennsylvania . Young Oliver grew up there , and attended the local public schools . At age 15 , he left school to become a telegraph messenger and for the next three years took various jobs in that field before deciding to pursue a career in the law . He first studied with attorney Francis W . Hugbee , then with his uncle , William Whitney ; both were in Pottsville . He was still engaged as a student in 1861 , when the Civil War broke out . On April 15 , 1861 , President Abraham Lincoln called for 50 , 000 men to volunteer to fight to preserve the Union . The following day , Bosbyshell joined the Washington Artillerists , a local militia company , which quickly set out for Washington . On the way there , the company had to march through the streets of Baltimore on April 17 . A hostile crowd of Confederate sympathizers gathered ; according to accounts in Bosbyshell ' s lifetime , he was struck by a missile variously described as a stone or a brick . Although it gave him a large bruise and momentarily stunned him , the object drew no blood ; Private Bosbyshell was purportedly the first man wounded in the Union cause , while an African - American servant , hit a few minutes later by a missile which broke the skin , was deemed the first man to have shed his blood for the Union . However , official records do not list Bosbyshell among the casualties of the Baltimore riots . In Washington , the company was quartered in the Ladies ' Gallery of the Senate Chamber , in the Capitol . The 350 Pennsylvania troops who first reached Washington on April 18 became known as the First Defenders , and after the war , the survivors formed an association with that name . The Washington Artillerists were redesignated as Company H of the 25th Pennsylvania Volunteers , and was sent down the Potomac River to Fort Washington , where the company spent three months strengthening the fortifications . Bosbyshell was offered a first lieutenancy in the regular Army , which he declined , stating that he preferred volunteer service . When the company ' s term of enlistment expired , Bosbyshell rejoined Union forces as a second lieutenant in Company G , 48th Pennsylvania Volunteers . He joined the company for a three - year term from October 1 , 1861 . For about a month after his re - enlistment , Bosbyshell served as regimental recruiting officer in Harrisburg , but on November 11 , sailed with his regiment from Fortress Monroe , Virginia , to Hatteras , North Carolina . There he served as acting adjutant of his regiment , and as judge advocate for courts - martial . When General Ambrose Burnside launched an attack on New Bern , he took six companies of the 48th with him , as well as Bosbyshell , though Company G was not included among the Union forces . In April and May 1862 , Bosbyshell received successive promotions to first lieutenant and captain and was assigned to command his company , which he did at such battles as Second Bull Run , Antietam , and Fredericksburg . After Fredericksburg , he was again assigned to serve in courts - martial ; when the regiment was moved west in early 1863 , Bosbyshell was assigned as provost marshal of Louisville , Kentucky . While stationed at Louisville , he returned home to Pennsylvania on leave of absence to marry Martha Stem , daughter of a minister . When the regiment was ordered to Tennessee in September 1863 to take part in Union actions there , Bosbyshell was made Acting Assistant Adjutant - General for the First Brigade of the Ninth Corps , of which the 48th was part . He fought at Blue Springs and Campbell ' s Station , and took part in the siege of Knoxville . In 1864 , he returned to Pennsylvania again to help bring the regiment up to strength . Returning to his brigade post , he commanded African - American troops in the Wilderness Campaign . On July 10 , 1864 , Bosbyshell was promoted to major and ordered to command of the 48th , though he remained at his brigade post temporarily . At this time , Union forces were besieging Petersburg , south of the Confederate capital , Richmond , Virginia . The acting commander of the 48th , Lieutenant Colonel Henry Pleasants , in civilian life a mining engineer , conceived the idea of digging under the Confederate lines and exploding a giant bomb . After weeks of preparation , the bomb was exploded on July 30 , creating a huge pit in the ground and a hole in the Confederate lines . After initial shock , the Confederates rallied and repulsed the attempt to break the lines , aided by Union bungling . Bosbyshell led African - American troops into action in the Battle of the Crater ; they suffered over 400 casualties . With Pleasants now on General Robert B . Potter ' s staff , Bosbyshell took command of the 48th on August 2 , 1864 . Bosbyshell led his command at Globe Tavern and at Peebles ' s Farm . In September 1864 , he sought leave of absence to return to Pennsylvania on personal business . When this was refused , and with his three - year term of service having expired , he was mustered out on October 1 , 1864 . Return to Pennsylvania . Having returned to Pottsville , Bosbyshell entered first the banking business , and then the book and stationary trade , each time with " disastrous " results . A Republican , in 1866 , he ran for prothonotary of Schuylkill County , but was defeated . Shortly after the war , the Union veteran ' s group , the Grand Army of the Republic ( GAR ) was founded . During Bosbyshell ' s campaign to become prothonotary , he was asked to organize the Schuylkill County branch , but declined because of his status as a candidate . The following year , however , he joined the GAR , organizing Post 24 in Pottsville . He became Schuylkill County district commander of the GAR soon after , and in 1869 was elected Pennsylvania ' s GAR department commander . In 1869 , Bosbyshell was hired as Register of Deposits of the Philadelphia Mint , and moved to that city . The Chief Coiner , A . Loudon Snowden , was impressed by Bosbyshell , and promoted him to Assistant Coiner in 1872 . When Snowden left Mint service to accept a position as postmaster in 1876 , President Ulysses Grant appointed Bosbyshell in his place . Bosbyshell served until early 1885 ; with the approaching advent of the first Cleveland administration , Democrats would be appointed as Mint officials , and Bosbyshell secured a position as chief clerk in the Philadelphia City Controller ' s office . Bosbyshell was hired despite the fact that he was a Republican in a Democratic - run municipal administration as Controller Robert Dechert was a friend of his In Philadelphia , Bosbyshell maintained his involvement in the GAR , and was in charge of the committee on arrangements for the Tenth National Encampment of the GAR , at Philadelphia in 1876 . In 1879 , he was elected as commander of Post 2 in Philadelphia . He also joined the Second Regiment of the Pennsylvania National Guard , and was elected major in 1878 and lieutenant colonel in 1880 . Mint superintendent ( 1889 – 1894 ) . Oliver Bosbyshell filed his oath as Philadelphia Mint superintendent on November 1 , 1889 . On his first day on the job , he was greeted with a bouquet of flowers and a large pile of mail from office - seekers . He gave receipts for the Mint property he was now responsible for , and found no errors in the accounts of his predecessor . In 1890 , Bosbyshell deposited $ 4 , 200 of federal funds in the Keystone National Bank , which then went bankrupt . Bosbyshell was responsible for the debt , which was only $ 300 less than his annual salary , and paid it off by stages , completing the payments in 1894 . Before Congress abolished the practice in 1873 , the government made silver legal tender alongside gold . This led to one of the great political controversies of the late 1800s , as many called for the return to pre - 1873 laws , which would require the government to take all the silver offered it and return it , struck into silver dollars . On January 3 , 1891 , two " free silver " advocates called at the Philadelphia Mint with a large ingot of silver , and asked for it to be coined . When the weighing clerk declined , they asked to see Bosbyshell , who received them , but refused their demand . He did , however , write at their request a letter stating that the laws forbade coinage of silver provided by the public . In August 1890 , Bosbyshell had been elected colonel of his National Guard regiment . He had been lieutenant colonel ; the vote was unexpectedly close , as he was disliked by some of his fellow officers . Following the Homestead Riots in July 1892 , Pennsylvania Governor Robert E . Pattison ordered militia to the strike - torn town to restore order . Bosbyshell led his guard regiment to Homestead , where they met no resistance by the strikers . In August 1893 , he resigned from the regiment . Cleveland was elected for a second non - consecutive term in November 1892 . With the Democrats in power again , new Mint Director Robert Preston in late March 1894 ordered Bosbyshell to turn over the Philadelphia Mint to his successor , Dr . Eugene Townsend . This required the counting of every coin in the facility , including cents and nickels . After consulting with the sureties on his bond as superintendent , Bosbyshell objected to resigning until the count ( expected to take three months ) was complete , but nevertheless left office as directed on March 31 , 1894 . Later years , interests , and death . Bosbyshell had been elected vice - president of the Fidelity National Life Insurance Company in February 1893 ; in December of that year he was elected treasurer instead , a post he still held as of 1908 . President McKinley appointed him as a member of the 1898 Assay Commission . Bosbyshell possessed a collection of pattern coins from his Mint service ; those were later sold and formed a part of the collection of prominent numismatist John Work Garrett . In September 1893 , a major theft at the Philadelphia Mint had been discovered . Henry Cochran , weighing clerk , had been surreptitiously extracting gold bars from a vault which had been sealed in 1887 , not with a solid door , but with a latticed one which was somewhat loose . Bosbyshell , in taking custody of the Philadelphia Mint ' s assets from his predecessor , Daniel Fox , had not asked for the gold to be weighed . When the gold was taken out to be converted into coin in 1893 , the shortage was discovered . Although some of the gold was recovered , there was still a shortage of $ 12 , 810 . 82 , and the government brought suit against Bosbyshell after he left office in 1894 , securing judgment against him and the sureties on his bond . Bosbyshell appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit , which ruled against him . The district court had ruled for Bosbyshell on the matter of 733 silver dollars said to be missing , leaving only the question of the gold . Bosbyshell asked for review by the Supreme Court , but also sought legislative relief , and on February 2 , 1899 , Congress absolved him of the debt , making the court case moot . With the outbreak of the Spanish - American War in 1898 , Bosbyshell organized and served as colonel of the Nineteenth Pennsylvania National Guard Regiment , which was used for homeland defense . He remained in that capacity from August 1898 until November , 1899 . In addition to the GAR , Bosbyshell had many interests and activities . An Episcopalian , he was a vestryman of the Church of the Savior in Philadelphia ; for many years he conducted the choir and involved himself in Sunday School work , often as superintendent . He also memorialized his regiment ' s wartime experiences with the book , " The 48th in the War " , published in 1895 and was a member of several other veterans societies . He was also chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University Lodge of Masons . He took an interest in genealogy ; in 1910 he published " Descendants of Christian and Elizabeth ( Oliver ) Bosbyshell 1782 – 1910 " . He had four sons with his wife Martha , who died in 1914 ; their eldest son Nathan died in Los Angeles in 1888 at age 23 . Oliver Bosbyshell died on August 1 , 1921 , after suffering a stroke . He was survived by one of his children , Oliver , and by several grandchildren . References . Bibliography . Books Other sources