Private Jacob Shade joined the United States Army in February 1864 in his native Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania as the Civil War entered its bloodiest year.

The 30-year-old laborer from Tremont joined Company A, 50th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry at a time when sizable bounties and sign-on bonuses made joining the army into an attractive option for the working class of Pennsylvania’s Coal Region.

Shade shipped off to the front lines and served with the 50th Pennsylvania during the brutal summer of 1864 that saw the unit fight through the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House on their way to join the siege lines of Petersburg by June 1864.

In the fighting on the Pegram Farm west of Petersburg on September 30, 1864, Private Shade fell dead in combat, cut down by Confederate fire. The Battle of Peebles Farm, or Poplar Springs Church, resulted in a Union victory, but of only limited value. The campaign resulted in Confederates being forced to move their trenches, but did nothing to change the strategic situation around Petersburg. The siege would continue until April 1865.

Shade’s body was returned home to Schuylkill County and interred at the Union Cemetery in Sacramento, PA. Shade left behind a widow – Mary Klinger – and four children from a previous marriage that had ended in divorce.

Jacob Shade became one of more than 600 men from Schuylkill County who perished in the fight to save the Union during the Civil War.

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Read more about the Civil War and Schuylkill County

A Bloody Day in the Life of a Civil War Soldier | YouTube Short Documentary

Major Joseph Anthony | Civil War veteran and mining superintendent

Nicholas Biddle | An African-American Civil War hero from Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania

“Revolutionary Disloyalty” – A coal miners’ rebellion in Schuylkill County during the Civil War

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