The
search for my Civil War ancestor began shortly after Ken Burn's award-winning
series on the Civil War finished its run on PBS. I was traveling northwest of
Washington, DC, when I had an odd feeling (similar to that expressed by George
C. Scott in the movie Patton concerning an ancient battlefield in North Africa)
that a great army had passed that way and that one of my close relatives had
been in it. (Earlier research by my brother, Don Bolch, had turned up the fact
that our great grandfather had served under Robert E. Lee in the battle of
Gettysburg.)
Shortly after I experienced this episode near Washington, I read an article on
Prodigy explaining how to contact the National Archives and obtain Civil War
records. Following its directions, I wrote to the Reference Services Branch
(NNIR), National Archives and Records Service, 8th and Pennsylvania Avenue,
Washington, DC 20408 and requested several copies of the "Order for Copies
of Veterans Records" (old NATF Form 80). There is a $10 minimum charge per
search but it can be charged to MC or VISA.
I sent in the name of my great grandfather, Logan Bolch, from Catawba County,
and was pleasantly surprised to receive the following information:
Logan Bolch, volunteer, enlisted as a private in Company C of the 28th North
Carolina Regiment on March 14, 1863. He was 38 years old. His pay record for the first 46 days of
service was for $66.86 (in Confederate money), including a $50 bounty for
joining. The pay record bears his signature, receipting for the money. It is
dated May 25, 1863. Click
here to see bounty document.
The
next record shows Logan, whose oldest son Nathaniel also served in the
Confederate Army in 1864 after his father was reported missing in action in
Gettysburg, who fought under Stonewall Jackson at Chancelorsville, whose
brothers Anthony and Emanuel were killed at Chancellorsville, and who had six
other children at the time he joined the 28th North Carolina, was wounded and
taken prisoner on July 3, 1863, at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He was transferred
from Gettysburg on July 21 to the U.S. Army Hospital in Chester, Pennsylvania,
where he was in Ward A, Bed No. 2. Click here to see some of these documents. Click here to see some
more.
For official history of N.C.
28th at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, click here.
He died on September 30, 1863, of "exhaustion following G.S. wound",
and was buried in Grave No. 214 in Chester Rural Cemetery on October 5, 1863.
It is my belief that GS stood for grapeshot, steel marble-like projectiles
shot from a cannon at close range, because rifles were called "muskets"
or rifles at that time, pistols were called pistols, and cannons were called
guns. However, since the records furnished from the archives were not copies of
the originals (other than the bounty record) but were done by copyists, there
is a possibility that they could have taken a shortcut and substituted G.S. for
gunshot. The historical evidence, however, supports my belief. General
Isaac R. Trimble, who led Pender's troops in the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble
charge on July 3, 1863, wrote that his men were hit by canister fire when they
reached the fence on Emmitsburg Road.
Major General Trimble wrote after the war:
"While
at the fence the exposure was dreadful. The incessant discharge of canister,
shell and musketry was more than any troops could endure."
Description of canister fire that hit NC 28th. Further
description of canister fire. In any event, an affidavit in support of a pension for Logan's widow,
Martha Ann Mauney Bolch, 20 years after the end of the Civil War indicated that
Logan suffered a wound in his upper right arm below the shoulder and that his
right arm was amputated by a Union Army surgeon on the battlefield soon after
the battle. For
affidavit of Elijah Killian in support of pension, click here.
Also among the records was a claim by his widow in 1864 for benefits from the
Confederate government with the notation "mortally wounded and left at
Gettysburg, Pa. July 3, 1863, -- not since heard from; supposed to be
dead." Click
here to see more archive documents. Click here to see some more. Other pension applications were filed in 1885 and
1905, after legislation was passed by the North Carolina General Assembly
renewing pension benefits for Civil War widows.
All of this was quite a revelation for me. I had never heard any family stories
about Logan Bolch. Perhaps it because my grandfather, Jefferson Anthony Bolch,
was only two years old when his father enlisted and was mortally wounded in one
of the greatest battles of the Civil War.
Then began a search through the history books and a visit to Gettysburg and
Chester.
I packed the family into a RV and headed for Gettysburg. We took the guided bus
tour of the battlefield and saw the places where my great grandfather's
Regiment had fought on the three successive days of the battle, culminating in
Pickett's Charge, in which my great grandfather received his disabling wound
and was taken prisoner.
We then headed to Chester and found the cemetery, shortly before closing time
on a Saturday afternoon. The cemetery gatekeeper explained that she herself did
not have any of the records, that the cemetery was closing in 15 minutes and
that we would have to come back Monday when someone with access to the records
would be in the office.
We split up and searched the cemetery ourselves, locating the Civil War section
shortly before closing. Unhappily, however, the graves we found were only of
Pennsylvania soldiers -- no Confederates at all.
We had to be back at work Monday, so a letter would have to do. I wrote to the
Chester Rural Cemetery, explaining that I was searching for the grave of my
great-grandfather, Logan Bolch, who had been buried there on October 5, 1863,
in Grave No. 214. Two days later I received a phone call from the cemetery
office.
The Chester Rural Cemetery records revealed that Logan, as well as some 160
other Civil War casualties, had been disinterred in 1891 and moved to the
Philadelphia National Cemetery, located on Haines Street and Limekiln Pike, in
Philadelphia.
I wrote letters to the Philadelphia National Cemetery but received neither an
answer nor return of the letters for more than three weeks. Then I tried the
Information Operator in Philadelphia. No telephone under that listing.
Since Prodigy had helped me begin the search, I decided to enlist similar
services in completing it. I had left Prodigy in the interim and had joined
America-On-Line (AOL) and CompuServe. I sent electronic messages to three
members of AOL and three members of CompuServe (all of them living in or near
Philadelphia) asking them to help me to locate my relative's grave in
Philadelphia National Cemetery. AOL members responded within a matter of hours.
Joseph Conway, a retired Navy Chief Petty Officer, messaged "I got your
mail Friday night. Too late to do more than say it is located on an old street
map of mine at the intersection of Limekiln Pike and Haines St. It is the 2000
block of Haines St. I do not see a listing in the phone book. I checked with
the operator. No luck. If it is still there a company of unknown name may be
managing it. I will try to find out more information for you."
It took a lawyer to find Logan.
Not the lawyer who found Logan. Not Logan.
Confederate Major General William Dorsey Pender, 29, who led the N.C. 28th at Chancellorsville and on the first and second days of battle at Gettysburg, when he was mortally wounded by an artillery shell fragment. He was one of Lee's favorites and was considered a worthy successor to Stonewall Jackson.
Vital Statistics for Dorsey Pender.
It
took a lawyer to find Logan. A
friendly, helpful Philadelphia lawyer. I know that's an oxymoron. His name was
and is Walter D. Meeley, Esquire. His quote on AOL was "Relax! I'll handle
it!!!" Walter also responded to my plea for help. He provided
the information I needed, promptly and sympathetically. And the reason I got no response from my letter addressed to
Philadelphia National Cemetery was that the cemetery is managed by the Veterans
Administration office in Beverly, New Jersey! (of all places) I received a
sad e-mail concerning Walter on October 8, 2002, some 10 years after Walter's
helpful e-mail responding to my plea for help. Click here for the e-mail
about Walter.
The Cemetery Director, Dolores T. Blake, was likewise very friendly and
helpful. Not only did she give me good traveling directions, including a map of
the cemetery, but also sent two photographs of the Confederate Monument at
Philadelphia National Cemetery. One showing the monument itself and the other
showing the inscriptions on one side of the monument, including 'BOLCH, LOGAN,
C NC 28 ". I have included copies of these pictures below.
I could not help but think that it was highly appropriate for Logan Bolch to be
buried in Philadelphia even though he lived all of his life in Hickory, North
Carolina. This is because the first of the Bolch (or Bolick, Boliek, Bolich,
etc.) family to arrive in the new world arrived in Philadelphia on 24 September
1753 on board the Ship Neptune, which brought a large group of Palatines from
along the Rhine to Cowes on the Isle of Wight, where they were required to
swear allegiance to King George II of England before migrating to Pennsylvania.
But that's another
story.
Major General Isaac R. Trimble's description of the Gettysburg battle.
Short biography of Major General Isaac Ridgeway Trimble.
Confederate Memorial at Philadelphia National Cemetery.
BOLCH, LOGAN C 28 NC
Dedication of the Philadelphia Memorial in 1911,
picture and story.
For Bolch/Bolick/Boliek
family history, click here.
As a Commissioner on the N.C. Industrial Commission,
the Workers Compensation agency for North Carolina, I have been instrumental in
the development of the NCIC web site.
For a view of the Commissioners, click here.
Here is a short bio.
High Tide at Gettysburg, Copyright 1993 Mort Kùnstler
Ben Bolch's anthology of NWU Wildcats on their way to Rose Bowl.
Wedding of Ben Bolch and Bianca Chern