Charles E. Phelps

Brigadier General, Congressman, Supreme Bench of Baltimore, City Associate Judge, and Congressional

Images and information courtesy of C. Deidre Phelps.

Last Letters

Submitted by Glenn L. Chrisman

Daniel Mowen
Myersville, Md.

The following is from a manuscript printed in The Globe newspaper, found in the Middletown (MD) Valley Historical Society. Incorrect spelling and sentence structure have been left intact.

             
    
A Field Musician in

the 7^th Maryland

  Jesse W. Hyder
   Johnsville, Md.

  
In the end, good detective work always pays off. For Don Wiles, it meant finding the gravesite of his Great, Great, Grandfather.

Jesse W. Hyder, a painter and carpenter by trade, was born December 19, 1839 in small town of Johnsville, in Frederick County, Md. Rising to the call to defend the Union, 22-year-old Jesse enlisted at Baltimore in the 7th Maryland, Company B, along with his two brothers James, 21, and Daniel Hyder, 30, on August 16, 1862.

                                     THE CIVIL WAR
On 25 August 1862, not long after the outset of the Civil War, the 23-year-old Ephraim Anderson enlisted at Hagerstown as a Federal volunteer and raised a company of largely Western Marylanders which became Company "I" of the 7^th Regiment, Maryland Volunteers (U.S.). The members of the company elected him as its commander with the rank of Captain. Quoting from a contemporary newspaper article of August 20, 1862, "Mr. E. F. Anderson, a young student at law, in Hagerstown, made a spirited war speech in this place on Monday evening. Animated by that love of country which should characterize every patriot at this crisis in our nation’s destiny, he is energetically engaged in recruiting a company for the war. He made a stirring appeal to the young men to come forward to the defense of our country’s flag and we hope that it will not have been made in vain."

Little information is known of Captain Anderson’s military career. We can be sure that he drilled, that he wrote and read orders, reports, requisitions, receipts, vouchers and an overabundance of other documents in duplicate, triplicate and quadruplicate. He conducted and was subjected to inspections, participated in dress parades and reviews, he detailed men for guard, picket, police duties, fatigue and working parties and drilled. He meted out punishment, provided rewards and promotions, granted or denied leave, approved or disapproved applications, and in the midst of it all, he drilled. He drilled his company, he drilled with the battalion, with the regiment, with the brigade and with the division. Skirmish drill, target practice, and "rally on the colors" were standard exercises. He was required to be knowledgeable in tactics and army regulations.

Most of his army time was routine and in many ways tedious. His schedule was dictated by bugle and drum and was much the same every day. Reveille at daybreak, police call 15 minutes later, surgeons’ call, breakfast, guard-mount, drill, recall, dinner, drill again, recall again, first call for parade and company inspection, second call and dress parade with retreat at sunset, tattoo about 9 p.m. and taps some 20 minutes later. However, there must certainly also have been many good and enjoyable times. Time spent socializing with his fellow officers and enjoying the unique comradeship developed while living in the field with a collection of men engaged in a common goal.

As with his official duties, we do not know the specifics of how he passed his off-duty time. We can know that he very likely did participate in some of the variety of pastimes soldiers found for their amusement during those times when the army had exhausted its call on them. Captain Anderson may have played cards, pitched horseshoes, performed readings from the plays of Shakespeare or the poetry of Robert Burns, joined in song with his fellows. He likely read and wrote letters, could have drunk wine or hard liquor, engaged in debates and discussions of the issues of the day, played chess or checkers. He could have enjoyed amateur theatrics put on by enlisted men, whittled, participated in bible readings, played base ball. It is possible that he continued his legal studies, enjoyed band concerts, read the poetry of Wordsworth or the novels of Walter Scott, perhaps wrote poetry himself or made pencil sketches. He may or may not have done them all, but like all soldiers, he most certainly did at least some.

We do know that on April 25, 1863, Lieutenant Colonel Phelps of the 7^th preferred court martial charges against Captain Anderson arising out of an incident that occurred on April 19^th, 1863 while Anderson’s company was stationed at Bolivar Heights on the outskirts of Harpers Ferry. Captain Anderson was charged with a) neglect of duty, b) disobedience of an order, and c) in three separate specifications, insubordinate conduct. The substance of the incident was that Captain Anderson refused an order to furnish a detail of three enlisted men from his company "for police duty". In the presence of Colonel Phelps, Captain Anderson respectfully admitted his disobedience of the order. All other details of this incident seem to have disappeared from the record. According to the regimental history compiled by Colonel Phelps for the History and Roster of Maryland Volunteers, War of 1861-5, "There had not been a single officer court-martialed down to this period of its history [1898]", so it seems that the charges were dismissed as some point. Whatever the disposition and outcome of the accusations, Captain Anderson continued to command his company and was apparently not disciplined.

While in the army, Captain Anderson was taken into the Masonic Lodge. The records of the Office of the Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Maryland Masons show that Captain Anderson was initiated on May 6, 1863 and was a member of Friendship Lodge No. 84 in Hagerstown. He was suspended for non-payment of dues on April 15, 1874.

It is stated in "Seventh Regiment Infantry", contained in the History and Roster of Maryland Volunteers, War of 1861-5 that during the skirmish at Funkstown on July 12, 1863, as Lee was being pursued from Gettysburg, "The Seventh being called on for a company to relieve the skirmishers of the Sixth Corps in its front, it happened to be the turn of Company I to go on that duty. This company (Captain E. F. Anderson) was raised in the neighborhood, and most of the men had harvested or hunted over the ground. Ridges of limestone cropping out here and there furnished accidents of position of which the skirmishers of both sides made it a point to avail themselves quite liberally. . . . the work of our skirmishers went on prosperously and they advanced gradually, pressing back the enemy’s skirmishers. The next morning Company I, with a loss of only one man wounded (Scoffin), was relieved on the skirmish line by Captain Bennett, Company E."

In November, 1863, Colonel Edwin W. Webster, the original commanding officer of the 7^th and a member of the U.S. Congress was re-elected to that body and resigned his commission to fulfill his duties in Washington. Lieutenant Colonel Charles E. Phelps was elected to take his place as Colonel of the 7^th by the officers of the regiment.

The 7^th was heavily engaged in the Battle of the Wilderness on May 5 and 6, 1864. Casualties in the regiment were high with 11 killed, 46 wounded and 17 missing. The specifics of Captain Anderson’s actions during this battle are not known, but he was commended for gallantry for his services on this field of battle.

At the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse on May 8, 1864, the division commander, General Robinson, was shot from his horse and borne from the field with the loss of a leg. At about the same time, the Maryland Brigade commander, Colonel Denison was also shot from his horse and assisted to the rear with the loss of his right arm.

The following two paragraphs are extracted from the "Seventh Regiment Infantry", contained in the History and Roster of Maryland Volunteers, War of 1861-5.

"Upon the fall of these two ranking officers [Robinson and Denison], the command of the division, or what there was of it in sight (the two left brigades having been repulsed or mingled with the Maryland brigade), was promptly assumed by the Colonel of the Seventh Maryland. The situation at that moment, was very plainly that of a forlorn hope, calling for nothing but quick and reckless work. What remained of the movement was no longer a column, but a bunched and ragged line. At points where the enemy’s fire was most concentrated, the drone of bullets blended into a throbbing wail, like that of a sonorous telegraph wire pulsing in a strong wind, punctuated by the pert zip of the closer shots. The din and racket were such that but few could have heard the commands: ‘Hold your fire! Dou-ble quick!’ What was plainly seen the in the front, was the sudden appearance of the new commander, pointing with sabre to the breastworks, and trotting up towards them, until horse and rider came down. Following closely, was Captain Anderson, of the Seventh, and when he fell, or possibly before he fell, all was over.

"The unordered retreat left these two officers lying within ten paces of the works, Anderson having stopped three bullets while taking a step forward, just after an unsuccessful attempt to extricate Phelps from the weight of his dying horse. Anderson was well in the lead of everything when he fell, and [was commended] for his conspicuous gallantry on this occasion, and in the Wilderness . . . He commanded one of the Washington County companies (Co. I)."

In a November 30, 1866 pension record entry, [Colonel] Charles E. Phelps, late commanding officer of the 7^th [and at least somewhat ironically, the charging officer for Captain Anderson’s court martial offenses] recorded, "I hereby certify and depose that [Captain] Ephraim F. Anderson . . . was wounded while in the line of his duty and in command of Co. I, 7^th Regt. Md. Inf. at the Battle of Spotsylvania C.H. on the 8^th day of May, 1864, under the following circumstances:

After being severely wounded in this instance, Captain Anderson was captured on the field. He was ultimately transported to Richmond’s notorious Libby Prison where he arrived on May 22, 1864. Like other prisoners at this facility, he endured many brutal privations during his imprisonment. Additionally and more importantly for his future, he contracted tuberculosis before finally being exchanged. On September 3, 1864 he was admitted to a Union hospital in or near Annapolis, Maryland.

He sufficiently recovered that on September 23^rd, he was given a thirty-day leave of absence. He tendered his resignation from the army effective October 31, 1864. His honorable discharge "on account of wounds received in action" is dated November 30, 1864 with a pension of $15.00 per month. On March 13, 1865, He was brevetted to Major for "Gallantry at the Battle of the Wilderness" and to Lieutenant Colonel "for conspicuous gallantry" at Spotsylvania. His name was on the Company muster-out roll at Arlington Heights, Virginia on May 31, 1865.

                                   

                                     POST-WAR CAREER
After his release from active duty, Colonel Anderson resumed residence in Hagerstown. He was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates from Washington County as a Unionist-Republican. This brought him to Annapolis where he served until 1865 when he received a Federal Treasury Department appointment as the Customs Appraiser of the Port of Baltimore. He held offices with the U.S. Department of the Treasury in both Baltimore and Washington, D.C. until within a very few years of his death on April 5, 1877.

He was selected as a Delegate from Maryland to the Republican National Convention of 1868 which selected General Ulysses S. Grant to be its nominee for President and who was subsequently elected to that office.

He delivered the memorial address for the annual Decoration Day [now celebrated as Memorial Day] commemoration at the Antietam Battlefield National Cemetery on May 30, 1870. The speech embraces history, honor, poetry, biblical quotations, morality, duty, politics; all of the elements that went into the stirring oratory of the day. He even speaks of the, ". . . dear flag which our fathers bore over Saratoga and Yorktown", a line most certainly inspired by a popular wartime play.

On October 15, 1870, for the price of $4,000, Colonel Anderson purchased 31 acres of land along the main line of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad adjacent to a railroad station in what is today Hanover, Maryland. He laid out a town site, created lots and leased them to various individual for modest yearly rentals, starting at $12 a year or sold them for $200 each. This town was named Anderson and a post office existed under that name between January 15, 1874 and December 5, 1885.

Less than a year later, on August 10, 1871, he was described as being "feeble in health because of his suffering from his wounds, and because of his suffering and cruel treatment while lying with his wounds in Libby Prison as a prisoner of war in and during the summer of 1864, that his wounded limbs . . . have not recovered in strength but still render him wholly incapable of performing manual labor [in addition to suffering from the effects of the tuberculosis he contracted during his imprisonment]; that he is compelled to find a man servant to perform the household and other duties requiring manual exertion."

Colonel Anderson had a church built in this town in 1873 at his own expense and which became a Presbyterian Church known as the Anderson Church or Chapel. An 1874 newspaper item states that, "Last summer Colonel Anderson built a handsome church near the railroad station which has been turned over to the Baltimore Presbytery, and services have been held therein each Sunday afternoon for some months, conducted by the Presbyterian clergymen of Baltimore." Colonel Anderson not only paid for the construction, but also bore the cost of furnishing it, its upkeep and the expenses of maintaining services.

By November 15, 1876, likely due to failing health, Colonel Anderson sold the last of his holdings in Anderson Village and spent part, if not all, of the winter of 1876-77 in Florida for relief from his pains.

Colonel Anderson passed away on April 5, 1877 at the age of 38 at Providence Hospital, Washington, D.C. as a consequence of the tuberculosis he contracted as a prisoner of war in Richmond. His funeral was held in Washington and he was temporarily interred in a public vault in Congressional Cemetery in Washington before being removed for permanent burial in Anderson on April 12. An itemized bill for his funeral expenses dated May 17, 1877 totaling $161.40 includes an "imitation of Rosewood casket with silver molding and satin head lining." He died unmarried and without children.

He was put to rest near the front entrance to the Anderson Presbyterian Church at Anderson which is now a part of Hanover, Howard County, Maryland. The church has since been demolished, but it occupied a vacant tract of land that today sits opposite the residential address of 6413 Ryan Avenue, Hanover, Maryland.

A 2004 visitor to the site of the by then demolished Anderson Presbyterian Church was told that Colonel Anderson’s grave site at Anderson was destroyed when the building was torn down and that his grave marker had been covered over. Mr. Marvin Anderson believes that a reasonable estimate of the time this process occurred would be sometime during the 1960s.

A group of persons and organizations interested in locating and possibly restoring Colonel Anderson’s gravesite received permission from the property developer that owns the former Anderson Church location to search for the grave. They met on the lot on Sunday morning, July 8, 2007. This group performed some preliminary searching and probing of the ground but little was achieved due to the heavy summer woods growth. A more systematic "grid-type" of search with appropriate equipment was planned for the winter of 2007-2008.

During the winter, Anderson family members and volunteers from the Elkridge Community Association spent weeks bagging leaves and clearing the site. This task completed, the family members, local historian Ms. Joetta Cramm, members of the Upper Patuxent Archaeology Club, and other interested parties gathered to renew the search in late March, 2008. A most important member of the team was general manager of nearby Meadowridge Memorial Park, Mr. Mike Bennett who volunteered his services by paying a team of five groundskeepers.

And now, from a description by Mrs. Gretchen Anderson, wife of Bruce Anderson a great-great nephew of Ephraim with extra details from The Howard County Times, the events as the investigation recommenced on Saturday, March 29, 2008. After a couple of hours of probing the area with long metal rods, cemetery employees centered in on what they considered to be a "soft spot", suggesting that there was a lot of dirt with no stones, evidence that this spot had been dug and refilled at some time in the past. This ground on the south side of the remaining church foundation was found to be, even after more than 100 years, not as compact as the surrounding earth. Mike Bennett said, "We felt air seep out of the ground." Probes struck a solid surface 56 inches down that caused the ground to vibrate providing evidence of a large, solid buried object.

The workers dug at the indicated place for three hours straight and began to uncover pieces of plaster that coated the outside of a burial vault or crypt. By the end of the day, they had cleared the dirt outlining the edges of the six-foot deep crypt. It was constructed of stacked mortared brick with four stone slabs on top. The four slabs had split lengthwise to the crypt and collapsed downward. Because of historical records concerning the placement of the grave, the searchers were 99% sure they had located their objective. However further evidence was required if the monument the family wished to have erected was to be accomplished and the area, hopefully, donated to the Howard County Park Service. At this point, the arrival of nightfall halted the work for the day.

The cemetery director, his children Lauren, 14 and Brian, 12 with four of his cemetery employees volunteered to stay the night to keep curiosity seekers away. It was rumored that Colonel Anderson was buried in his uniform with a sword and so souvenir hunters were a possibility. The Anderson family returned to their home, but the volunteers camped out in the chilly night air.

The family arrived back at the gravesite at 9:30 the next morning, Sunday the 30^th, to learn that a group of teens had come at 12:00 midnight armed with shovels and another similarly equipped group at 2 a.m. Both groups were chased off by the volunteer watchers. The excavation recommenced with the removal of the stone slabs from the top of the crypt. Digging in the area of where the chest would be revealed pieces of wood thought to be from the coffin. At that point all digging stopped. The memorial park manager said that going further without the State’s Attorney’s approval would be considered desecration of the grave. So, late Sunday afternoon, four 850-pound concrete slabs and a 400-pound metal sheet were brought in to cover the grave.

Mike Bennett was on the phone first thing Monday morning to seek approval for further excavation. This was duly obtained and permission to proceed on Wednesday morning was approved.

On April 2, 2008, the entire grave was exposed. Human remains consisted of two thigh bones, one damaged as noted in Colonel Anderson’s war records, a piece of cheek bone, a piece of skull, and a piece of jaw. Also excavated were three silver coffin handles, the hinges of which still worked, together with several pieces of decorative metal, two white buttons, much cloth, pieces of a Rosewood-stained coffin, and a quantity of glass, apparently from a viewing pane at the head of the coffin.

Although no scientific tests were conducted, the evidence of the damaged thigh bone, the original funeral home records describing the coffin and the location of the grave satisfied the historians and forensics experts at the site that they had positive evidence that the gravesite of Colonel Ephraim F. Anderson has been located. After viewing the artifacts, 22-year-old Eric Anderson, son of Gretchen and Bruce, climbed down into the grave and replaced the items. Finally, he and several cemetery employees filled the grave back in.

Corporal St Clair Abraham Lancaster

7^th Maryland Regiment, Volunteer Infantry, Company “I”

Born November 19, 1833 in Chesapeake city (old Bohemia Manor), Cecil County, Maryland.

 The son of William and Harriet T. Lucas Lancaster, and brother to Malinda Ann Lancaster Snyder Jackson, Benjamin Franklin Lancaster, Jacob Henry Lancaster and William Henry Lancaster.  The parents, daughter and two sons, Benjamin and St Clair, moved from Cecil County in the latter part of 1830s to Washington County when word was received that William’s father, Abraham, was sick and dying. Two other sons, Jacob and William were born in 1851.  

St Clair Lancaster married Margaret Ann Miller and soon after started his family of five children. Mary Ellen Lancaster Franks born in 1852, Elizabeth Lancaster Ardinger in 1858, Josephine Catherine Lancaster Breidinger in 1859, Isabella Elizabeth Lancaster born 1861 (died 1864), and William Henry Lancaster, in 1868. All were born in Williamsport, Washington County, Maryland.   St Clair labored as a canal boatman very early in life, then as a farmer, even working as a toll gate keeper on the Greencastle turnpike. In December, 1861, he was elected as Washington County Road supervisor with a salary of $1800.00 for two years beginning in January,1862.

With war and civil unrest in the air, he and brothers Jacob and Benjamin volunteered in the Federal  army.  Jacob and St Clair would muster in on August 28^th 1862 in the 7^th Regiment of Maryland Volunteers, Company “I”, with a promise of a Government Bounty.  E. F. Anderson was elected Captain of this company.

After two months and nearly a week, on November 4^th, the paymaster missed St Clair and Jacob along with several others of Washington County.  The missed wages stirred up trouble for the brothers, as St Clair walked five miles from his picket post near McCoy’s Ferry, making his way to Captain Anderson, to ask about the money that was owed him.  Upon being ordered back to his post, St Clair remarked to his Captain that he “…would DO NO more service unless the Government bounty was paid, or he and the others would do time on the works at Harpers Ferry”.  When Captain Anderson told him he could not pay them their bounty, St Clair told him that “He was Cheated and Defrauded into the belief of this bounty and with such conditions, the government could not hold ME !”  That was the last Captain E. F. Anderson saw of St Clair Lancaster.

On November 5, 1862, while St Clair was passing time with Sergeant William Welch, the paymaster arrived and issued St Clair Lancaster the $100.00 Washington County bounty. He did not receive the government bounty and upon learning that it had expired, and with several others within ear-shot, he exclaimed to Sgt. Welch “…all that’s going to Harpers Ferry let’s go, ‘cause I’m going home!”  He smiled at Welch and took off for home, which was then the toll house on the Greencastle turnpike.  On November 14^th, when a detachment of guards arrived for him, he strolled out onto the toll-house porch and asked how all was doing back at camp. The reply was “just fine”. The detail then asked St Clair, and his brother Jacob, if they knew why they were there.  St Clair said yes, but asked who had sent for him, [and] if it was [Captain E.F.] Anderson.  The reply was that no, Colonel [Edwin H.] Webster had sent for him.  St Clair exclaimed with a very loud and excited voice, “Good! [because] if E. F. Anderson had sent for him, he would not have gone, as E. F. Anderson was a DRUNKEN Captain!”.  St Clair and Jacob were arrested on the spot, taken back and held for court-martial.  St Clair was charged with “Exciting a Mutiny”, and “Desertion”.  He was found guilty by two-thirds of the court and was ordered to be shot to death. By the grace of God, he was pardoned by President Abraham Lincoln on April 16, 1863, and the sentence was commuted to imprisonment for one month.  Finally, on May 11^th 1863 St Clair received his land bounty and finished his time with the 7^th Maryland, mustering out in May 1865.  Questioned about Lancaster’s conduct as a soldier, Captain E. F. Anderson’s reply was “…that he was a very good soldier up to the last months before the court martial, where he became very headstrong and disobedient.”      

I do not believe St Clair ever meant any disrespect to the government but, a man’s word was his only bond even if it meant standing his ground to the death.  

St Clair’s family service in the military was important to him. His grandfather, Abraham Lancaster, fought to protect Baltimore in the War of 1812, and his first great-grandfather, Samuel Sinclair Lancaster, was the Captain of the 18^th Battalion for Cecil County during the Revolutionary War along with other family names such as Ford and Hyland.

St Clair moved to Ohio after the war and had three more sons. One was Benjamin Franklin Lancaster, my great-grandfather, who passed of this life at the age of 91 at a military hospital in Ohio. He is buried at the Dayton National Cemetery. Jacob Lancaster moved to Kansas and passed away in 1907. He is buried at the McPherson City Cemetery. Their oldest brother, Benjamin Franklin Lancaster, fought with the 1^st Maryland Calvary, Company “M”. Benjamin also moved to Ohio with his brother St Clair, and died while felling a tree in December 1885.

Submitted by Don Lancaster of Mountain View, Missouri.

My father's mother died when he was a baby and he was sent to live with
his grandmother Mary Caroline Simms McCann, the widow of Thomas J. McCann,
at her home near Rayville, Md. I think it's especially interesting that
her husband Thomas J. McCann served during the Civil War, and that her
father Andrew Simms served in the Battle of Baltimore during the War of
1812.

                          
                          Pvt. John Henry Linton
                                Company “E”


At the gravesite of my great grandfather, John Henry Linton (1844 - 1920) who enlisted 
with the 7th Maryland Volunteer Infantry Regiment Co. E August 20, 1962 at Frederick, Maryland; 
wounded in action May 11, 1864 at Laurel Hill, Virginia; discharged May 31, 1865 
at Arlington Heights, Virginia. 
 
Submitted by Al Linton,  at Old Hogan Cemetery, Botetourt County, Virginia.