. . . I am sending you the Civil War Synopsis of Lewis Jenkins the husband of Cordelia Peacher ( b.1837, d.1917 ). My wife and I recently found the unmarked grave sites of these two people in Mt. Rose Cemetery, York, PA. We had a Bronze marker placed on Lewis' grave because he was a private in the Confederate Army ; there will be a military service on April 30, 2000, at 12 : 00 noon.

Allen

CIVIL WAR HISTORY OF LEWIS D. JENKINS

Lewis Jenkins was a farmer from Madison Co. VA. There is little known about Lewis prior to his enlistment in the Confederate Army; according to his service records he enlisted at 16 years of age but reported himself as 18. It is shown on his enlistment papers, both he and his older brother, Fountain joined the Army at Culpeper Court House, April 30, 1861.

On June 1, 1861 Lewis and his brother were assigned to Co. C of the 7th. Virginia Infantry and placed under the command of Colonel Jason Lawson Kemper, regimental commander of Co.C - which was named "The Hazelwood Guards" . They were attired in blue flannel shirts and gray pants, and were issued old flintlocks that were converted to Percussion muskets.

Like so many of the new recruits, they were youthful farmers whose equipage was as meager as their military savvy, but they were full of patriotism. Prepared or not, Lewis' training ended on July 17, and the company departed Camp Wigfall for McLean's Ford on Bull Run.

The first action was when an excited sentry fired at a wandering cow; the regiment responded to the alarm in confusion, as men turned out minus their boots, trousers, and even their guns. But Bull Run was their first victory, the federal forces finally fleeing in panic.

In the winter of 1861, the 7th Virginia set up winter camp in Centerville VA. It was cold, dreary, and damp - disease was plentiful. With the 12 - month enlistments expiring soon, many soldiers were ready to leave. But some were heartened by news of a fifty-dollar bounty and a thirty-day furlough, and many re-enlisted, including Lewis Jenkins.

The next campaign Lewis was involved in was the Peninsula Campaign, an attack by the Federal General George B. McClellan, whose advance was to capture Richmond. The 7th Virginia was transported by steamboat up the James River to King's Landing. They marched about 10 miles to trenches near Yorktown VA, where the men endured two weeks of shelling. The Confederates withdrew to stronger positions and eventually McClellan had to withdraw from the peninsula.

The other campaigns Lewis participated in were as follows:

Seven Pines, VA; Gains Mill, VA; Malvern Hill, VA; Second Bull Run, VA; Turners Gap, VA; Fredericksburg, VA; Antietam, MD; South Mountain, VA;.

In June 1863 General Robert E. Lee led an invasion into Pennsylvania that resulted in the largest disaster of the War for the Confederate Army - Gettysburg. It was near this time that the 7th Virginia was placed under the command of the famous General George Pickett.

On June 26, General Kemper's brigade crossed the Pennsylvania state line and bivouacked near Greencastle, Pennsylvania. They followed the Cumberland Valley Railroad to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where they found in the residents an attitude of defiance. There, a group of ladies assembled to deliver a verbal lashing to the audacious invaders, but the spirited Confederates would not stand for it. The 7th Virginia's regimental band drowned the ladies' protest amidst the chords of " Dixie ". Then, having duly frustrated their antagonists, they raised a cheer, and marched two miles beyond town, where they halted for the day.

Soon, General Pickett's division was undermanned due to heavy losses from previous battles, and was placed in the rear of Lee's army as the rear guard. His division remained at Chambersburg.

On July 1 the battle of Gettysburg opened. The 7th Virginia was aroused at 2 A.M. on July 2 to join the Army of Northern Virginia at Gettysburg. As Pickett's men neared they could hear the battle raging, and knew they were just a few miles from Gettysburg.

The heat and humidity worsened the suspense, as they arrived on Seminary Ridge at 11 A.M. Concealed in a swale on the ridge's eastern side, within a field of rye, the 7th Virginia was positioned in the left of center. The 3rd Virginia was furthest to the left, the 1st Virginia was in the center, then came the 11th Virginia, and on the extreme right was the 24th Virginia. Kemper's regiment lost 15 percent of its men in the cannonade and those who escaped injury from the shelling suffered from the exposure to the hot sun. On May 21, 1864 it was apparent to all that the outnumbered Confederates had to contest the bridge which crossed the Mattaponi River at Milford Station - and so approached the outcome. General A.T.A. Torbert's Federal cavalry pressed the outnumbered 7th Virginia, and after an hour of battle the Confederate forces withdrew from their rifle pits and started to retreat across the river.

The Confederates tore planks from the center of the bridge and hurled them into the water as their comrades continued to fight a delaying action. But the Federal cavalrymen won the day, capturing many of the Confederates who were cut off from the bridge. The Federals claimed they had obtained 74 prisoners from this brisk action, while the Confederates grudgingly acknowledged only 61 lost by capture. *

This is where the career of our subject, Lewis Jenkins, ended as a combatant for the Confederate Army. His military records show he was sent first to Port Royal, Virginia and then later imprisoned in Point Lookout, Maryland. The prison quarters can best be described as inhumane: tents were designed for five occupants but housed eight to ten men instead. The water was brackish, and the daily rations consisted of eight ounces of loaf bread, one thin piece of bacon or salt pork, and a pint of bean soup in which they occasionally found a bean. As was usually the case during the War, disease flourished and caused numerous deaths.

Lewis Jenkins' imprisonment ended when he was exchanged on March 14, 1865 and paroled May 5,1865 at Charlestown, West Virginia, where he swore an Oath of Allegiance to the United States, and signed the parole document with his " X ".

After his release from the Army in Charlestown, West Virginia he made his way to Harpers Ferry, only five miles south. There he met and married Cordelia Gertrude Peacher (about 1866 or 1867) in the town of Harpers Ferry. From this union there were seven children, all of whom were born in Harpers Ferry. Sometime after 1883 the Jenkins family moved to Oella, Maryland where at that time there was a large woolen mill, which could have been what attracted the family to that area.

The Keith family bible shows his daughter Minnie married Hugh Eugene Keith, January 9, 1896 in Oella, Maryland and then moved across the Patapsco River to Ellicot City. In 1897 their first son was born, with four more children to follow.

The 1905 York City Directory shows Lewis and Cordelia living at 340 E. Cottage Place, and that Lewis was employed as a fireman at York Street Railway Company. After Cordelia's death in 1917 Lewis moved in with his daughter Minnie at 117 W. King St. in York, Pennsylvania. Lewis died October 15, 1918 and was buried in an unmarked grave at Mt. Rose Cemetery in York, PA.

Through the efforts of his great-granddaughter, Elaine L. ( nee Keith ) Ziegler and his great- grandson Lewis E. Keith, action was taken through the Veterans Administration in Washington D.C. for the installation of a bronze marker to be placed on Lewis's grave in honor of his service. The marker was placed on December 28, 1999.

* According to " The 7th Virginia Infantry " by David R. Riggs