Cyrus Wilson
Civil War Hero
Crawford County, Pennsylvania

 

 

 

 

First Sergeant

Company H

145th Penn. Volunteer Infantry Regiment

 
This is the story about Sergeant Cyrus Wilson, one of the thousands of Union soldiers who, on December 13, 1862, charged Marye's Heights and fell to the guns the Confederates had amassed along its sunken road. This story is from Sergeant Cyrus Wilson's biography, written by his son from letters and conversations with his father.

Cyrus Wilson was born raised near Espyville, a village of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. He completed his apprenticeship as a wheelwright and carpenter in 1850, a year before he married Catherine Mason. He became well known in his community for the fine carriages and wagons he built. He augmented his income by preparing and selling railroad ties to the railroad, and, after the 1859 discovery of oil in nearby Titusville, by manufacturing oil barrels.

On September 2, 1862, Cyrus then aged 33 joined one hundred of his neighbors to volunteer for service in the Union army. They formed Company H of the 145th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment. This regiment was assigned to and remained under the command of General Winfield Scott Hancock for the duration of the Civil War. 

Cyrus was elected the Company's First Sergeant. Three others were appointed its commissioned officers. When death and illness kept these officers from fulfilling their duties, the First Sergeant became this Company's recognized leader, a role he held for most of the first two years

Cyrus's wife Catherine took an active part by organizing and serving as the president of the local Sanitary Commission. It was her responsibility to be certain that the women met the county's monthly commitment of bandaging and other medical supplies for battlefield hospitals.

Less than a month after his enlistment, Cyrus and his company arrived at Antietam at noon on the day of that battle. They spent the next six days burying the dead where they lay on the battlefield. During the weeks that followed, illness including Typhoid fever became rampant in the Company. As Cyrus explained in a letter to his wife, "…[that] left me with 27 sick men with five men at my command to take care of them and not an officer in the quarters."

In a letter he wrote to his wife from Falmouth on the last day of November, 1862, just days before the battle at Fredericksburg, Cyrus reported the following:

We have just received orders to pack our knapsacks and strike tents at 7 in the morning. There is a rumor that the war is over and that we are going into winter quarters.

I do not give any credit to camp rumors, but I think,that we will be home by spring, and shall pray for it. I hope that you sleep better in your bed than we do on the ground. This is my last sheet of paper and I will have to borrow a stamp from Den to mail it.

Cyrus would not need paper and another stamp until after the battle of Fredericksburg, when he posted his next letter from a hospital bed in Washington, D.C. 

Sixty-three men of his Company crossed the Rappahannock and were present when, on December 13, 1862, his regiment charged the sunken road that protected Marye's Heights. Only fourteen answered roll call the following morning. Among the dead was the Cyrus's Company commander. Cyrus, with a ball through his left shoulder and leg, a third in his right arm, and buckshot in his neck, fell with the rest of them. He remained where he fell on that battlefield overnight. As he later recalled:

When I regained consciousness, I was lying on my head and shoulders with my feet up against a large stone. I immediately rolled over behind it for better protection. Two Confederate soldiers took possession of the opposite side and were firing over the top of my head. I felt in little danger from Confederate bullets. But many [shots] were coming from the slowly retreating Federals, one of which passed through the top of my cap as I lay prone upon the ground. The thought flashed through my mind that if my nose was not so long, I could get my head closer to the ground.

Cyrus spent three months in the hospital, reporting back to his unit while his wounds were still healing. He arrived in time to join the second crossing of the Rappahannock to Chancellorsville. There, most of Cyrus's regiment during were captured Stonewall Jackson's famous flanking action. Unable to carry a weapon, Cyrus, assigned as regimental mail carrier, avoided capture.

Soon afterwards Cyrus joined his regiment in the 100 mile march to Gettysburg. There he was assigned as wardmaster in the Second Corps hospital, where, for the next four months, he ministered to both Union and Confederate casualties. 

The names of the fourteen members of this Company who managed to answer roll call at Gettysburg are inscribed on a bronze table at Gettysburg. Listed as "Commanding" is Sergeant Cyrus Wilson. 

Of this time of Catherine's life, her son would write: "But there came a time when the boys marched away to the strains of martial music. Of the four, grim years of war that followed, my mother would not often talk, and, not talking, I think mercifully she forgot. Only the pleasant memories remained." Cyrus and Catharine lived to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.


research submitted by Pete Wilson
 

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