Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Eben Ford’s portrait hangs in the Warren County Courthouse. Ford was mortally wounded in early 1863 after attempting to arrest an accused deserter.

“It is with the deepest pain that I announce to you….”

A portrait of Eben N. Ford hangs in the hallway at the Warren County Courthouse.

Most of the portraits throughout the building are of people we would describe as community leaders – each president judge, business leaders, at least one early settler.

Along with one marked “Unknown Young Man,” Ford’s image almost doesn’t fit in those halls.

Ford was one of over 2,000 county men to serve in the Union Army during the Civil War. Many never came home. It goes without saying that the two most common causes were disease and battle wounds.

Ford’s case? Murder.

Ford was born in 1838, which put him in his mid-20s when he signed up as a Lieutenant in the Warren County Rifles in Sept. 1862.

“This company was recruited in Warren county, in the summer of 1862, for the One Hundred and Forty-fifth regiment, but before reaching the camp of this regiment at Erie, the requisite number of companies had been accepted,” Bates’ History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers notes. “It was accordingly mustered into service as an Independent company, under Captain DeWitt C. James, on the 4th of September, and immediately proceeded to Harrisburg. It was promptly armed, and sent forward into the Cumberland Valley with a provisional battalion, the rebel army being at this time in Maryland, and threatening an invasion of the State.”

The company performed picket duty along the state line during the Battle of Antietam, picking up 150 Confederate stragglers.

“Towards the close of the month, it returned to Harrisburg, where Captain James was made provost marshal of the city, and the company was employed in provost duty, under the direction of Captain W. B. Lane, chief mustering and recruiting officer, being chiefly engaged in arresting deserters in the counties of Dauphin, Lebanon, Lancaster, Cumberland, Franklin, and Fulton.”

Provost duty was the Civil War equivalent to what we now call military police.

The news on Ford first appears in the Warren Mail on Jan. 31, 1863.

“On Saturday last intelligence was received by letter that Lieut. E.N. Ford of Capt. James’ company from this place, and now attached to the Provost Battalion at Harrisburg, had been mortally wounded in attempting to arrest a deserter named John Forney.”

The paper published a letter from Captain James to Ford’s father:

“Harrisburg

Jan. 24, 1863

N. Ford, Esq. – Dear Sir: It is with the deepest pain that I announce to you that your son, Lieut. E.N. Ford, has been dangerously wounded by a man whom he was endeavoring to arrest. This sad occurrence took place on Wednesday evening last. Yesterday it was reported that Eben was dead; but at 8 o’clock last evening he was alive, and as long as there is life there is hope. The wretch who shot him was arrested this morning. Even must be doing as well as we could reasonably hope, else I should have received a dispatch this morning from Mr. Struthers who was with him. Twenty of our boys are with Eben now, and he receives every necessary care.

Yours truly,

D.W.C. James”

A private in the company, J.W. Lytle, sent the Mail a copy of the Fulton Democrat, which provided additional details on the incident.

“On last Tuesday, the Provost Guard received orders while at Chambersburg, to arrest John Forney and on Wednesday morning Lieut . Ford, and two of the Guard, went to his house, about six miles from this place, to execute the orders given them. The Lieutenant says that after proceeding to the house, he entered, and hearing some persons walking up stairs he ascended the stairway and when about half way up saw John Forney approaching the head of the stairs. The ball entered the top of the shoulder, through the shoulder-strap. He was taken to the Fulton House as speedily as possible, where his wound was dressed by Doctors Dunffield and Trout, who, on probing the wound, ascertained that the ball had passed down thro the shoulder, shattering the collar bone, as far as the ribs, whee it glanced off, and they are unable to say what course it then took.”

In the following days, the Mail reported that several people were arrested as accessories to the shooting “among them… are H.G. Smith, Esq., editor of the Fulton Democrat; District Attorney Geo. A. Smith; John A. Robinson, Deputy Prothonotary, and David Fore, Sheriff. Each of the above named persons have been held to bail in the sum of 5,000 to answer the above charge, and also the charge of collusion and complicity in resisting the authority of the United States Government.”

Similar to Schenck’s History of Warren County, a similar text was prepared in 1884 for Bedford, Somerset and Fulton counties.

“An unfortunate occurrence of the war times gave rise to the most noted case ever tried in the courts of Fulton county,” that text states. “The sad affair resulted from civil and military law being in conflict, and imperfectly understood. The main facts in the case were these: John Forney, of Tod township, having been drafted, claimed exemption on the ground that he was over forty-five years of age; and, on the day of appeals, appearing before the commissioner for draft and, submitting his evidence, was declared exempt.”

More from that history: “When the provost guard came into Fulton county to look up deserters and delinquents, Forney’s name was reported on the list of delinquent drafted men. He was accordingly arrested. A writ of habeas corpus was then taken out on his behalf, and after a hearing before one of the associate judges of the county, Forney was discharged. Afterward, Lieut. E. N. Ford, of the provost guard, went to Forney’s house to re-arrest him. As he was leaving the house he was shot by Forney, and as it proved, mortally wounded. This was on Wednesday, January 21, 1863.

“Forney gave himself up to the civil authorities and was lodged in jail; butthe provost guard forcibly removed him from the jail a day or two later. He was taken to Chambersburg, and then to Washington, where he was lodged in the Old Capitol prison. On application of the district attorney of Fulton county (Henry G. Smith) to Gov. Curtin, arrangements were made whereby Forney was delivered by the military authorities to the courts of Fulton county for trial. At the August term of court the grand jury found a true bill against Forney for murder in the first degree. But in the meantime, the rebels, during their invasion of McConnellsburg in June, had broken open the jail and carried Forney away with them. Being released, he returned to jail in September. Tried at the January session of court, 1864, before Judge Nill, he was acquitted, the jury returning a verdict of not guilty.”

Ford is buried at Oakland Cemetery in Pleasant Township.