Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Pictured is the tomb stone of Lt. Robert Hall, one of over 3,000 Union soldiers killed in the fighting at Gettysburg, and buried at the Stillwater Cemetery near Busti.

Over 3,000 Union soldiers were killed at the Battle of Gettysburg.

Almost nothing is known about some.

Little is known about others.

Looking at the muster rolls, the notation for what happened to Robert Hall is succinct, almost clinical – “killed at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863.”

Hall was born in Russell on Nov. 8, 1838 to Edson Hall, whose brothers – Orris and Chapin – were prominent businessmen in Warren. By the age of five, Robert was orphaned and he was raised by his uncles, according to an article published in the 1970 in the Western Pa. Magazine Article.

A self-described oil speculator and raftsman, Hall enlisted in the Raftsmen’s Guard – one of the first group of men to leave for service in the Union Army. They left Warren County in May 1861 and became Co. D of a regiment that has three names depending on where you look – the 1st Pa. Rifles, 13th Pennsylvania Reserve Regiment or the 42nd Pennsylvania Volunteers.

He rose in the ranks, enlisting as a private. He was promoted to sergeant (on a date that’s not certain) and then to lieutenant on March 1, 1863.

In some sense, that’s a relatively common trajectory. As battles were fought and men died, other men had to be promoted to ensure the continuity of the command structure.

The armies – and the war – had to march on.

But there are elements of his service that make Hall anything but the typical common Yankee soldier.

First, he also carried the banner of “Prisoner of War.”

An article in the Warren Mail details that Hall was taken prisoner on the third day of fighting that make up the Seven Days Battles.

He was sent to Richmond, spending time at two of the more infamous prisoner locations in the Confederacy – Libby Prison and Belle Island for 47 days, according to one account.

Rather than marking the end of his service, he was returned to the ranks as part of a prisoner exchange. Neither side was particularly interested in paying to care for prisoners so, for the first couple years of the war, such exchanges were common.

It was a phenomenon that occurred less often later in the war. The Union high command realized that, given their numerical superiority, trading a Confederate back to the Confederates – and lessening the burden on the South for providing for Union prisoners – was a benefit they no longer wanted to offer.

Hall was exchanged and quickly returned to the regiment.

And just in time to participate in the Second Battle of Bull Run.

“Here he applied for a short furlough, in order to recruit and regain the health he had lost in those rebel hells, called ‘prisons,'” the Mail reported. His request was denied, and his regiment was sent to join Gen. Pope. He was in the bloody and disastrous battle of Bull Run, the second.”

It was here that he was called upon to provide a heart-rending service for a family member.

“Here, his cousin Roscoe Hall was killed. Robert remained alone, after the order was given to retreat, and with the enemy on all sides dug a shallow grave and buried his fallen relative and placed a slab duly marked at his head, and then successfully sought his regiment, and was hurried on under Gen. McClellan into Maryland, and participated in all the battles there, closing up with Antietam.”

He fought in Fredericksburg the following winter and evidently provided an account (that I haven’t yet found) of the battle to family and friends here.

“(H)e was deeply and solemnly impressed that he should never survive another battle,” the Mail article detailed. “Indeed, so strong was this presentiment, that he made some efforts to be transferred to some other arm of the service, but failing in this, went forward like a brave and fearless soldier to his doom.”

That doom would come at Gettysburg.

He was killed in the fighting on July 3, the third day of the battle. I haven’t been able to pin down whether he was killed on the third or wounded on the second (when his regiment was most heavily engaged) and died on the third. In this case, the best we can do is accept the record that he was killed on July 3.

Roscoe Hall, whom he buried the August before, had a brother, Ribero.

Ribero would bury Hall on the battlefield. His body was eventually returned and is buried at the Stillwater Cemetery near Busti, where another of his uncles resided.

He fell “gallantly facing the invaders of his State, on Friday, July 3d, the last day of the Gettysburg battles” a friend wrote in that piece published by the Mail.

“We were much pleased and struck with the appearance and bearing of the young soldier. No one was more scrupulous in obeying all the minutiae of military discipline, and but few could recount what he had seen and passed through, with such a fascination and distinctness of description, as Robert. His letters published in his village papers were read with avidity and were considered among some of the best battle descriptions with which the papers of the day have been favored.”

“In many respects young Hall was possessed of qualifications for business, of a high order. He was always strictly honest, candid, truthful and trustworthy.”

Accounts written in local papers about soldiers that died in the Civil War are often so flowery as to be of questionable accuracy.

But, in this instance, the article was written by a friend, James Parker.

The article was published about two weeks after his death.

“About six weeks ago he came home on a ten days furlough,” it states. “His actions on this occasion all denoted that be fully expected never to return again. He was particular to visit all with whom he was acquainted; and directed in relation to the disposition of his property.

“Five weeks ago, he returned to his post and marched with the army of the Potomac to repel the advance of Gen. Lee into Pennsylvania, and fell as we have said on the third day of the battle, and was in turned buried on the field by his cousin Lieut. Hall, the brother of the soldier Robert buried on the field of Bull Run.”

Parker highlighted how Robert cared for his “bereaved and now broken-hearted sister.”

“He displayed one of the noble traits of his character in the tender solicitude he manifested always for that only sister. His money he saved – so unlike many of the soldiers of his age – and added much to his monthly pay by his tact in traffic and trade, and the proceeds of all were intrusted to his Uncle Chapin Hall for the benefit of his sister.”

Parker also details how Hall was willing to loan money to comrades who were in need.

“He has gone to join the great army of Heroes and Martyrs who have given up their lives on their country’s bleeding altar,” Parker wrote. “He joined the service because he felt it to be the duty of every young (man) but from a deep and abiding sense of duty. Nobly he performed his duty, nobly he has died.”