In May 1864, the Army of the Potomac smashed into Confederate forces in Virginia, leading to two desperate battles – the Battle of the Wilderness and the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House.
The two battles resulted in nearly 50,000 casualties in less than two weeks of fighting. Tens of thousands of soldiers ripped apart, bloodied, and maimed by bullets, shells, and shrapnel.
On the Pennsylvania home front in Schuylkill County, anxious residents awaited news of the bloody battles and awaited their Miners’ Journal newspaper for the casualty lists. When subscribers opened their newspapers on May 21, 1864, their horror must have been overwhelming.
Over two newspaper columns, the Journal published the list of the dead and wounded from Schuylkill County.
Hundreds of names.
Colonel Henry Pleasants submitted a brief description of his regiment’s role in the fighting: “Our loss has been heavy; but the 48th has behaved well…” His 48th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry had been recruited almost entirely from Schuylkill County.
The costs were heavy, but the United States Army under General Ulysses Grant continued to drive toward the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia. The road toward final victory in the Civil War ran through the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House.
Read more about the Overland Campaign and its impact in the Coal Region
Podcast – Killed at Spotsylvania Court House: A Pennsylvania Family’s Story
A Civil War officer’s grisly amputation at Spotsylvania Court House on May 10, 1864
Mary Severn – The postmistress of Mahanoy City
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