The Death of Lieut. Fisher-Hundreds and thousands will be called
upon to mourn the loss of relatives and friends by the casualties in the battles
now progressing in Virginia. This was to be expected, and although many had
endeavored to so school their feelings as to be prepared for the worst, still
when the tidings of the death of a beloved father, husband, son or brother
reaches the ears of those who are waiting at home with throbbing hearts, there
are none who are able to receive the sad intelligence of the fall of a loved one
without tears and mourning. Among the deaths of those best known to us is that
of Lieut. John Henry Fisher, Co. I, 138th Regiment, P.V., brother of
Major B. Frank Fisher, of the Signal Corps, and son of the Rev. P.S. Fisher, of
Sellersville, Bucks county.
In the summer of 1862, Lieut. Fisher was active in his exertions to raise a
company for three years or the war, but he did not succeed in raising the entire
number. He therefore took the men raised by him to Harrisburg, and had them
incorporated into a company with a number of men raised by Capt. Feather, of
Montgomery county, and were mustered into the 138th Regiment, P.V.,
as Company I, and have been in service since August of that year.
During the month of March last Lieut. F. obtained a short leave of absence,
and reached Doylestown while his brother Captain B.F.F. was here to deliver a
lecture for the benefit of the Ladies' Aid Society. After his escape from
Libby prison, the brothers met for the first time in nineteen months. The time
spent together was short, as the Captain had to report at Washington the next
day. Lieut. F. returned to his regiment where, as from the first, he performed
all the laborious duties incumbent upon him with cheerfulness. He was a good
soldier, obeying the commands of his superior officers strictly, and performing
all his duties with fidelity. By his suavity and conciliatory manners he won for
himself many warm friends in the regiment, and was endeared to all his
companions by whom he was held in high regard, and we deeply feel and mourn his
loss. Lieut. F. was born on the 23rd day of July 1842, and had not
reached the years of manhood when he entered the military service of his
country. He fell in the discharge of his duty, gallantly leading his men in
action, on the 5th of May 1864, aged 21 years, 9 months and 13 days.
He was a courageous and noble youth. But what is of far more importance, he has
left that testimony behind that warrants his friends in believing that he was a
God-fearing man, and endeavored to lead a Christian life, and that in his death
the country lost not only a true patriot, but a Christian soldier.
The following is an extract from the last letter he wrote his mother. It is
an evidence of his piety.
The army is in motion. In reply to your kind letter, I am thankful that I
have Christian parents to advise me in all things useful to me both in this life
and to that which is to come, and I hope that your prayers as well as mine may
be answered. I commit myself to Him who is the giver of all goodthings, and hope
that he may guard me through this life and when death comes he may receive me in
his heavenly mansions where I shall praise and glorify him through all eternity.
What a consolation!
Your affectionate son. John.
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