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In 1999,I began to research the 23rd Pennsylvania Volunteers after reading the Regimental History. I read many regimental Histories but none were quite like the 23rd PA. William J. Wray took care in writing it , compiling an amazing amount of information and even keeping track of the Survivors Addresses and their dates of Death. He kept in touch with them and invited them to monument dedications, dinners and yearly get-togethers where they would remember a particular action they were involved in during the civil war. This was only for the men, their families and close friends. The regimental History was out in 1904, Wray died in 1919 and the last veteran of the 23rd Pa died in 1939. From that day until I decided to start the 23rd Pennsylvania Memorial Association in 1999, there simply was no research and data collecting going on. There was...... The Veterans The G.A.R. The S.U. V. and now The 23rd Pennsylvania Memorial Assiciation
I also began to locate the final resting places of the men. Now between the three months volunteers and the three year volunteers, there were over 2,400 men, including over 1,500 in the three years Regiment, so many in fact that they had to Designate four Companies (L,O,P, and R)to be transferred to the 61st PA Volunteers from the Pittsburg area in March of 1862. I soon found that Philadelphia had a poor reputation of Cemeteries and caring for the dead between 1880-1970. Cemeteries were removed, built over and in some cases bodies dumped into streams and the headstones thrown in the Delaware River! I made it a life mission that I would try and find as many of the mens final resting places, research their actions and post war lives and document it.
With the emergance of the internet in the 1990's, I began this website in December of 1999 as a database of all things 23rd Pennsylvania. It's 20 years later and I am still working hard on the project. I have spent thousands of hours of my life, over $12,000 in cash and over 375,000 miles on my cars to bring you all here. There have been others who sent money to assist. I have had a couple of close friends who have helped with the research and many decendants of 23rd PA Soldiers who have gave me any information they have had to add to the database. This is what its about. A Group of people with one common goal to honor and remember this regiment. The VIP section is special because it is a group of people who have simalar passion about the 23rd PA. Since I live in Gettysburg, less than a mile from the Regimental Monument,I also have a great base to hold special events on The Gettysburg National Military Park. On several occasions we have met at the monument for cerimonies and decendants have shared stories about the men. As long as we do this the 23rd Pennsylvania lives on.
Stationed in Washington, he missed Antietam, but Birney's division was back with the army at Fredericksburg. There, he again got in trouble, this time for allegedly balking when being asked to support Meade's division's attack (oddly, he was complimented in corps commander Brig. Gen. George Stoneman's official report for "the handsome manner in which he handled his division" on that same day). Birney led his brigades in extremely heavy fighting at Chancellorsville, where his division lost a horrendous 1,607 casualties, more than any other division in the army. As a result of his distinguished service in that battle, received a promotion to major general on May 20, little more than a month before Gettysburg. Birney, despite being a "political general" with a lack of military training, was a seasoned division commander by the summer of 1863. Having led his division in action in two battles, familiar with it since its inception in early 1862. If he was not dashing, at least he was thorough and capable. However questionable his performance in the most crucial battle of the war, nobody could argue Birney's political connections, and he remained at the head of the decimated Third Corps through the fall campaigns and into 1864. In the spring reorganization of the army, the corps was broken up and Birney was reduced in the army hierarchy, replacing Alexander Hays at the head of the Third Division, Second Corps. General Birney took part in the Overland campaign and on 23 July 1864, was selected by Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant to command the X Corps. However, Birney fell ill with a virulent species of malaria, was ordered home, and died in Philadelphia on October 18th 1864, at age 39. He was buried in Woodlands Cemetery. He is buried there in Section 6.6 Lt 52 Grave 1, Next to his wife and with several other members of his family.
CreditsThe information to put this write-up together was taken from the following sources:
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Illinois State Death Index (Pre 1916) Philadelphia Defunct Cemeteries SUV Graves Database Internment.net Find A Grave Mount Moriah Cemetery (Phila) Searchable Database Laurel Hill Cemetery (Phila) Searchable Database Mt Peace and Lawnview Cemetery (Phila) West Laurel Hill Cemetery (Phila) Searchable Database National Cemetery Grave Locator Regimental History (Type in 428 in search box and click Go) |
