Every April 9th, I think of Sergeant Henry Keiser of Wiconisco Township, PA.
Keiser recorded the day in his remarkable war-time diary. It marked entry #1,295:
1295. Sunday, April 9, 1865.
At five this morning we cooked coffee and started forward at six. We hear very heavy cannonading in our front, the cavalry are still driving the Rebs. The cannonading keeps getting farther away. At 9 a.m. we halted and had orders to cook coffee.
At 11 we again started of and marched pretty fast until one this afternoon, when we halted and the talk is that Gen. Lee intends to surrender his army today, which seems too good to be true.
At 2:30 p.m. we were ordered to go into camp, and that the probabilities are that we have fought our last fight. At 4:30 this afternoon an officer on horseback, waving his hat and horse running as if his life depended on his speed, came tearing from the front, yelling the glorious news that Gen. Lee had surrendered the entire Army of Northern Virginia to Gen. Grant.
Such cheering, shouting and rejoicing as there was throughout the whole army of the Potomac was never heard or seen in America. The air was literally filled with knapsacks, haversacks, canteens and everything else the boys could throw into the air.
Most of the batteries fired a salute of thirty guns in honor of the glorious victory. Some cried for joy. The Rebel Army has stacked arms about two miles from here at Appomattox Court House. We marched about ten miles today. The day was fine.
Keiser originally joined the US Army in April 1861 after the bombardment of Fort Sumter. He survived hellish battles at Gaines Mill, South Mountain, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Third Winchester, and suffered a minor wound at Cedar Creek. He lost many friends and comrades during his service. His younger brother died of disease after serving after Gettysburg.
For him, April 9th marked the beginning of his journey home to Pennsylvania where he lived until his death in March 1933 at the age 92.
A local newspaper eulogized him this way:
“The last member of an illustrious generation has gone. His life was a perfect example of industry and idealism, and he will be remembered by both young and old, as this most befitting tribute to his memory genuinely confirms.”
Read more about Henry Keiser and the Civil War
Meet Henry Keiser – A Soldier Who Kept A Diary For Nearly Every Day of the Civil War
A Lykens Civil War soldier’s close brush with death at the Battle of Cedar Creek, October 1864
A Civil War soldier learns of his brother’s death from typhoid fever – 1863
Four Christmases – Holiday excerpts from Henry Keiser’s Civil War diary
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