On a cold weekend morning in March 2026, I made a visit to the Civil War grave of Captain John Dougherty at Saint Patrick’s Cemetery #2 on the steep hillside above the Church of Saint Patrick and the Yuengling Brewery in Pottsville, PA.

On September 14, 1862, John Dougherty lead Company F of the 96th Pennsylvania into combat at the Battle of South Mountain near the village of Burkittsville, Maryland.

In the swirl of combat as the Pennsylvanians tried to capture a mountainside road from Confederate defenders, a Confederate bullet struck Dougherty in the chest. He died in a matter of moments.

Colonel Henry Cake, commanding the 96th Pennsylvania, described Dougherty’s death in his report on the battle:

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First Lieutenant John Dougherty, commanding Company F, was shot through the breast, at my side, while bravely leading his company to the final struggle at the road.

Sergeant Casey, seizing his sword as he fell, valiantly raised it over his head and dashed forward at the head of his company, which never faltered. There was no better or braver soldier than Lieutenant John Dougherty.

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John Dougherty was a native of County Donegal in Ireland. He had emigrated to the United States and at the outbreak of the Civil War was working on the Reading Railroad at Palo Alto near Pottsville. He joined the 96th Pennsylvania in September 1861 at Pottsville.

The Miners’ Journal of Pottsville described the scenes when the bodies of Dougherty and another officer killed at South Mountain arrived in Pottsville along with news of the casualties of the 96th Pennsylvania (more than 100 men killed or wounded). These events brought intense mourning to this Coal Region community.

They also described Dougherty’s funeral and burial in Pottsville on September 19, 1862:

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THE HONORED DEAD.

The bitter fruits of this unholy rebellion was brought forcibly home to our very hearthstones, on Wednesday last. The noon train from Philadelphia brought the dead bodies of Major Lewis J. Martin and Lieut. John Dougherty, of the 96th Reg., Penna. Vol., killed in the battle at the Pass of the Blue Ridge, on Sunday last.

The news of their fall had not reached us before, and no words can describe the feeling of universal gloom throughout our Borough, as the word passed from mouth to mouth, that the mortal remains of these two brave soldiers, had reached our depot, on the way to their bereaved families and friends…

Of Capt. Dougherty, we are sorry we have but little knowledge, or the means of information (at the time we write,) prior to his engagement in the service of his country.

He had served, we are told, a term of enlistment in the regular army of the United States, and on his volunteering at the breaking out of the rebellion, in the spring of 1861, being recognized as a good soldier and an efficient drill master, he was chosen to the position of 2d Lieutenant of Capt. Anthony’s company of the [16th] Reg. of the three months’ men.

Having discharged the duties of this post with great credit to himself, and entire satisfaction to his superior officers, he was made 1st Lieutenant of a company under the same Captain, upon the organization of the 96th Reg.; and since the promotion of Capt. Anthony, after the ever memorable seven days’ battles in front of Richmond — in which the 96th took a conspicuous and honorable part — Lieut. Dougherty has been acting Captain of his company, and would have received his commission as such as soon as the War Department could have had leisure to make it out.

He was an active and energetic officer, highly beloved and respected by his men, and died, where he had always been found, at his post!

Capt. Dougherty was a single man. He had been employed for some years and up to the time of his entering the military service, as a conductor of the coal trains on the Reading Railroad, residing at Palo Alto.

He was buried in the Catholic Cemetery in Pottsville, yesterday. The funeral cortège was immense. The stores &c. were closed, and the flags lowered, as on the day previous.

Thus two more of Schuylkill’s brave sons have laid their lives upon the altar of our country’s liberties — noble martyrs in a glorious cause! — Peace to their ashes!

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Read more about the Battle of South Mountain and the Coal Region

“We gave them hell” – Company G, 96th Pennsylvania in the Battle of South Mountain

Private James Kaercher – Mortally wounded at the Battle of South Mountain

Newly digitized photograph of Captain Jacob Haas | 96th Pennsylvania

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