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Memorial stones for Pine Grove Township Civil War soldiers

Sidney, Levi and Reuben Akeley, taken after they enlisted in the Bucktail Regiment during the Civil War but before they were issued uniforms. What appear to be blurs in their caps are deer tails, the hallmark of their regiment.

A semi-circle of gravestones purported to be placed in memory of Civil War soldiers that didn’t come home was bound to eventually catch my eye.

Such was what I found at Pine Grove Cemetery.

A central stone notes that the memorial markers are “Dedicated to the memory of 13 Union soldiers who lost their lives in the Civil War and never came home to Pine Grove Township.”

Now, I’m not going to claim to be the best researcher on the planet, but I’m confident that at least one of the men survived the war. But that’s not the point. Here’s who they are. There may be more in-depth stories on some of these soldiers to follow depending on what information I can find.

JONATHAN AKELEY

Times Observer photos by Josh Cotton Memorial stones at Pine Grove Cemetery to young men from the community that “never came home.”

Akeley is listed as having served in Co. K, 12th Pennsylvania Cavalry, according to a soldier listing by the Warren County Historical Society. He is not listed, however, on that company’s roster.

LEVI, SIDNEY AND REUBEN AKLEY

All three Pine Grove Township men appear to have enlisted in June 1861 with the Cameron County Rifles. Reuben was discharged on a surgeon’s certificate but died of typhoid in Alexandria, Va. in 1862.

Sidney and Levi were transferred to the 190th Pennsylvania Volunteers in May 1864 at the conclusion of their initial three-year enlistment.

Sidney was captured by the Confederates and died of starvation at the Salisbury Prison in North Carolina in November 1864. He was buried in a trench grave at the prison.

Levi survived the war but died just a few years later in 1869.

THOMAS ACKLEY

The various spellings of “Ackley” made these names difficult to track but Thomas was a private in Company D, 111th Pennsylvania Volunteers, serving under fellow county native Capt. William Alexander.

The regimental roster simply indicates that Ackley “died at Brandy Station, Va., September 26, 1863.”

EPHRAIM ENOS

Enos enlisted as a private in June 1861 for a three-year hitch and he would be killed-in-action about a month before that three years was up.

Enos served in Co. H of the 10th Pennsylvania Reserves and was killed at Spotsylvania Courthouse on May 12, 1864. He was one of 32,000 Union casualties in the week’s worth of fighting in the Wilderness and at Spotsylvania.

He’s buried in section 27 of Arlington National Cemetery.

NATHANIEL C. ENOS

Enos was a private in Co. K of the 12th Pennsylvania Cavalry, enlisting in January 1862 for three years.

He was killed at Hamilton, Va. in March 1865. Interestingly, Hamilton, Va. is less than 50 miles northwest of Washington, D.C.

JOHN P. ENOS

Enos served in Co. G of the 211th Pennsylvania Infantry.

Roster records indicate that he entered the service on Sept. 5, 1864. Given the time, it’s possible that he was enlisted or drafted into the service.

He was wounded at Petersburg, Va. on April 2, 1965 — Lee would surrender at Appomattox a week later. The roster says he was “not accounted for” so it seems likely that he died of that wound.

PETROM ENOS

I couldn’t find someone by that name in the national Civil War soldier’s database but the WCHS listing says there was a “Perry” Enos that served in Co. K., 12th Pa. Cavalry.

The roster for that regiment shows a Perry Enos who was drafted in October 1864 and discharged the following October.

Whether that’s the subject individual was not something I could pin down. For what it’s worth, Perry lived until 1909.

MORRIS KELLY

A corporal in Co. L, 62 Pennsylvania Infantry, the roster for that outfit notes that Kelly was mustered out with the rest of his company in August 1864.

JAMES A. LEARN

Learn was a private in the 10th Pennsylvania Reserves when he was killed in the fighting at Gaines’ Mill, part of the Union Peninsula Campaign, in June 1862.

JEFFERSON

WEAVER

According to a New York State record, Weaver, a Pine Grove resident, enlisted at Ellicott, New York in the 7th Company, 1st Battalion, New York Sharpshooters.

That outfit was organized at Jamestown, according to New York in the War of the Rebellion, and recruited from Ellicott, Kiantone, Busti, Ellington, Ellery, Carroll and Jamestown.

Sharpshooter qualifications might make a good future topic but suffice it to say that Weaver was a good shot; one of the best.

He was killed in action on May 10, 1864 at Laurel Hill, Va.

There are stones for two additional names — William Rider and John Bisbee Clark. My research into those two has not turned anything up yet.

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