On the night of October 31, 1865, a young man was shot on the streets of Tamaqua in eastern Schuylkill County, PA. He died 12 days later.

John Gillespie was 20-years-old, the son of an Irish immigrant miner who had come to Schuylkill County in the late 1840s. He had enlisted in the 8th Pennsylvania Cavalry in August 1864, drawn like many young Coal Region men by the bounties – large signing bonuses the army was offering to fill its depleted ranks. He served out his enlistment and came home in June 1865, just months after the war ended.

He did not make it to Christmas.

A post-mortem examination determined that a Minié ball had entered his left breast, perforated a rib, passed through his left lung, broken his shoulder blade, and lodged below his left shoulder. A number of boys were arrested and held to bail. The one believed to have fired the shot fled Tamaqua the following day and was never heard from again.

Gillespie’s death was not an isolated tragedy. It came amid a wave of violence and crime sweeping through Civil War-era Schuylkill County, a period marked by murders and violent attacks across the southern Coal Region as communities fractured under the intense political pressures of the war years and their aftermath.

The following is a transcript of the original newspaper account of John Gillespie’s death in the Miners’ Journal of Pottsville:

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In Tamaqua on ‘hallow-eve’ night, a man named John Gillespie, was shot, and died last week from the effects of the wound.

The Journal says:

‘A post-mortem examination of the body was made by Drs. Schirner, Boyle and Hunter; and death was found to have been caused by a Minié rifle ball, which had entered the left breast, perforated a rib, passed through the left lung, broken the shoulder-blade, and lodged in the back, below the left shoulder.

A number of boys have been arrested and held to bail, charged with having been concerned in the shooting; but the one who is supposed to have committed the deed fled the day following, and has not since been heard of.”

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In December 1865, five boys were brought up on charges for the murder of John Gillespie. The Miners’ Journal gave a brief report on their trial. The boys were accused of “sky-larking” around Tamaqua on Halloween – that’s roughhousing or playing tricks – by firing pistols in the air.

From the Miners’ Journal, December 16, 1865:

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Jones Moyer, Wm. Cann, Aaron Lane, Thomas Cann, and George Johnson – For murder of John Gillespie…

The [defendants] were a set of boys sky-larking around Tamaqua, firing pistols, etc. last Hallow Even.

Young Gillespie was shot the same evening from which he died; but there was no proof to connect the [defendants] with the fatal deed.

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The boys were acquitted and justice apparently never arrived for the family of John Gillespie.

He was interred at Old St. Jerome’s Catholic Cemetery in Tamaqua in the days after his passing.

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