Originally published in the Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society; Vol. 98, No. 4, Winter 1997; pp 162-177
© 1997, Glenn B. Knight. All rights reserved.
By Glenn B. Knight
The infantry support of the artillery charge was insufficient by any measure, but it was a lot more than Gen. Irvin McDowell had ordered. Colonels William F. Barry (the artillery commander) and Sam Heintzelman (from Manheim, Pennsylvania) had scrounged around for infantry to support the ridiculously outdated Napoleanic tactic of lumbering unsupported artillery into a charge on enemy positions.1
The day was July 21, 1861 and the location was Henry Hill, site of a skirmish in a battle that would be called Bull Run in the North and Manassas in the South. McDowell’s order was for Barry’s artillery to advance up the hill at a charge, stop, set their line and fire on the surprised enemy. At a time when mobile artillery was unique and the rifled musket was an unknown weapon the tactic had worked for Napoleon. It would not work that day for McDowell.
Watching all of this unfold was a native of Drumore Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania wearing on the sleeves of his blue wool tunic the three chevrons and tie bar of a quartermaster sergeant--points up, in the fashion of a United States Marine. Smith Maxwell probably thought back to the family farm where Samuel and Jane Maxwell, his parents, had raised at least ten children.2 Quartermaster Sergeant Smith Maxwell, United States Marine Corps (the second highest enlisted rank at the time and the senior Marine non-commissioned officer on the battlefield that day), had been born in 1827, one of the first of the Maxwell brood.3
For at least four generations the Maxwell family had been farmers in Drumore Township, Lancaster County. Records show Robert and Mary Maxwell, who owned the land in the late 1700s, transferred the property to their son John Maxwell who died without a will. The property was then transferred to his only son Robert S. Maxwell. Robert S. married Rachel and they later gave the plantation over to their son Samuel, Smith’s father.4
When Smith was about nine years old, in 1836, his parents donated 80 perches of their land to the Directors of the Common School in Drumore Township.5 The land was along the road "leading from the Unicorn Tavern to Chestnut Level Meeting House." In the 1875 atlas of Lancaster County this is shown as Chestnut Hill School House and the adjacent lands were still owned by members of the Maxwell family. This is more than likely where young Smith gained his early education.
In addition to the battalion of Marines scrounged up by Barry and Heintzelman, the infantry support would consist of the 14th Brooklyn, the 1st Minnesota and the 11th New York, the Fire Zouaves.6 Most of the early fighting units in the war were already formed local militia who had designed their own uniforms. Zouaves were patterned after French Algerian troops outfitted in red baggy breeches and vest. The New York Fire Zouaves were made up of New York City firemen who had decided to take a few weeks off and help win a war.
The adventurous Smith Maxwell had left the farm and, by the time of the 1850 census, was living with Charles B. Forney, manager of an iron works in Northern Lebanon Township, Lebanon County where Maxwell was working as a clerk.7 His service records indicate that seven years later he was a bookkeeper. On Sept. 7, 1857, at the age of 30, he enlisted as a private in the U. S. Marine Corps, for four years.8 He joined at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, where he served until March of 1858 when he was transferred to Marine Barracks, Washington, D. C.9 The following month he was ordered to Marine Barracks, Brooklyn10 but ended up on board the Wabash which was undergoing refitting at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
The U. S. Steam Frigate Wabash was re-commissioned on May 25, 1858 under the command of Capt. Samuel Barron (who later resigned and became a captain in the Confederate navy and was captured at Ft. Hatteras by troops from the assault squadron which contained the Wabash and the Revenue Cutter Harriet Lane)11 and became the flagship of Commodore E. A. F. LaVallette’s Mediterranean Squadron. Standing at the foot of Henry Hill, the black haired, 5’ 7" Marine might have thought of that cruise to the Mediterranean.
The Marine Officer Commanding on board the Wabash was Brevet Major Jacob Zeilin12, a Philadelphia native with a distinguished career which included duties aboard the sloop of war Erie, the Columbus and the frigate Congress. Commissioned in 1831 he also saw duty against the insurgent Californians in 1846 and 1847, serving for a time as Military Commandant of San Diego. He would go on to become the seventh Commandant of the Marine Corps on June 10, 1864 and on March 2, 1867 he would become the first Brigadier General Commandant in the history of the Corps.13
In addition, the Wabash’s Marine Detachment consisted of First Lieutenant. James Wiley, three sergeants, three corporals, two musicians and 51 privates--a full compliment designed to meet the various needs of the ship for the nearly two year cruise.14
While anchored off Key West, Florida preparing for the Atlantic crossing, Navy Lieutenant Watson Smith, the Officer of the Deck for the "Meridian to 4" watch on Monday, July 12, 1858 entered this item into the deck log, "Moderate breezes from the Ed. [Easterly] and passing clouds--Midshipmen H. L. Harrison, Geo. Dewey, Joshua Bishop, E. G. Furber, and G. S. Storrs reported for duty on board this ship. Bar 30.16"." Midshipman Dewey would later become famous at Manila Bay as Admiral Dewey--but in 1858 he was a shipmate of Smith Maxwell.
Shipboard routine was exactly that--routine, and even a little boring. The deck log of the Wabash includes a table indicating that the crew was divided into seven divisions of sailors and the Marines. The divisions of sailors each had a day of training in "Rifles", "Great Guns", "Carbines" and "Single Sticks". The Marines had "Company Drill" on Tuesday and Friday and on Wednesday they trained in "Great Guns". On Mondays the entire crew participated in General Quarters (mock combat) and on Thursday it was Fire Quarters for all. Saturday was listed as Mending Day and Sunday was excluded from the table but the deck log generally indicates "Divine Services" followed by few entries of any consequence.
The routine was broken only by entry and departure from ports, visits by various dignitaries, the exchange of salutes among ships and in recognition of heads of state and visiting U. S. government officials--all dutifully recorded in the deck log by the Officer of the Deck. One of those breaks in routine was in the Bay of Naples (Italy) on Wednesday June 1, 1859 when Lieutenant Edmund W. Henry recorded, ". . .Corporal Patrick Callihan (Marine) also left, his term of service having expired." That left the Marine Detachment short a corporal but the vacancy lasted only until June 11 while in the Harbor of Messina when Lieutenant Watson Smith entered, ". . .Promoted Smith Maxwell (private marine) to be a Corporal from the 1st inst. At 6.30 mustered the crew at quarters. Hauling to the Ed. [Easterly] along the Southern Coast of Italy. . .."
On returning from sea duty Corporal Maxwell found a Marine Corps that was much changed from the one in which he had enlisted. After 38 years in the Commandantcy, Colonel Commandant Archibald Henderson had died on Jan. 6, 1859 and the next day, Chester County native Lieutenant Colonel John Harris was promoted, by President James Buchanan, to Colonel Commandant. As vibrant and innovative as Henderson had been, Harris was his perfect staid and complacent opposite. Henderson had, almost single handedly, created a land mission for the former single mission ship’s guards and had personally led them into Florida for the Creek and Seminole Wars. Harris would be a tired and ineffective leader at a time when the Marine Corps needed an entrepreneur.
Corporal Maxwell was shuttled between the Marine Barracks and the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. and on July 4, 1860 he was promoted to sergeant.15 Wearing the three gold chevrons on a red background (again with the points up) on the sleeves of his blue uniform he was mustered as part of a newly designated Headquarters Marine Corps on Sept. 2, 1860. [It is worth noting that the non-commissioned officer insignia of the day was worn on the sleeves with the points down, much as the British do today. The sole exception was that the Marine Corps rank insignia has always been worn points up, just as is specified in current regulations.]
Looking down at his three chevrons and tie bar just eleven months later, Maxwell must have thought it a true miracle, particularly since he had been "reduced to the ranks" (demoted to the rank of private) on Dec. 1, 1860.16 The following letter, from Private Maxwell to the Colonel Commandant of the Marine Corps explains the circumstances.
Washington Decr 2/60
Please allow me to acknowledge my guilt and also to assure you that Should [sic] you be pleased to reinstate me that a similar occurrance [sic] will never again happen.
I drank a little too much the night before I went on guard and having been afflicted for about a week with a severe jaw ache. I took a drink thinking it would relieve the pain and it flew to my head. Would you be kind enough to look over my present misfortune I will pledge myself to avoid in future conduct so disgraceful.
Your Obd Servant
To Col Harris
An excellent plea--but it didn’t work. The commandant might have been too involved in the build up and expansion of the Marine Corps in preparation for war to pay attention to the plight of a Scotsman with a drinking problem. New recruits were arriving daily and the seasoned troops were being sent to places like Fort Washington, across the Potomac River from Mount Vernon where 40 Marines were ordered to occupy the ancient fortification. Another 30 were sent to Fort McHenry in Baltimore.17 The nation was going to war and the commandant had to be concerned with its implications on his Marine Corps.
That winter bad luck seemed to dog the Lancaster Countian as, on January 24, 1861, his father, Samuel Maxwell, died.18 Muster records show Private Maxwell "On leave of absence from 30th [of January]". In the family tradition Samuel died without leaving a will and he left three minor children. The administrative accounts show that, some time after February, Smith Maxwell paid $40 to the estate.19
Now a private, he toiled at various duties at Headquarters Marine Corps through June when he was listed on the muster roll as "Present--On Daily Duty as Cmdg Officer’s Clerk". Marine Major John George Reynolds had apparently recognized the numerous skills of the former sergeant and put him to work as his personal clerk.
Major Reynolds (who appears to bear no relationship to the Reynolds family of Lancaster County) was a New Jerseyite who left West Point in his third year. Six years later he was appointed a Marine second lieutenant and served with distinction during the Indian Wars in Georgia and Florida. He cruised around the world with Commodore Lawrence Kearney on the Constellation from 1840 to 1843. As a captain he commanded a battalion of Marines under General Winfield Scott during the Mexican War and was breveted major on Sept. 13, 1847 "for gallant and meritorious conduct in the storming of Chapultepec and the capture of the City of Mexico."20
The Marine Corps was a small organization, numbering only 1,892 officers and men worldwide at the time of the outbreak of war. It existed mainly to provide security aboard the Navy’s ships, engage in what we would today call small police actions and occasionally provide a battalion in support of the Army. With the war came authority to recruit additional men but those enlisted were all untrained recruits totally without experience. Second Lieutenant Robert Hitchcock, in a letter to his mother dated July 5, 1861 states:
. . .I do not and cannot write oftener. 1st, I am acting Adjutant and take my regular duty as Officer of the Day with the rest of the Corps; 2nd, we have 377 raw recruits and they have to be drilled four hours a day and I have part of them to drill. We are short of drill Sergts., having only four at the post at present.
Lieutenant Hitchcock was acting Adjutant because Maj. Henry B. Tyler, the Corps’ Adjutant had resigned to join the forces of the Confederacy along with Lieutenant Israel Greene, the officer who had captured John Brown at Harper’s Ferry and who became a major in the Confederate States Marines.21
On July 12, 1861 the Commandant of the Marine Corps received the following order from Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy:
You will be pleased to detach from the Barracks four companies of eighty men each, the whole under the command of Major Reynolds, with the necessary officers, non-commissioned officers and musicians, for service under Brig. General McDowell to whom Major Reynolds will report. General McDowell will furnish the Battalion with camp equipage, etc.
I am respct’y
Your obed. svt.,
It is interesting to note that the order specified 60 year old Major Reynolds be named commander. There appeared to be some conflict between the Colonel Commandant and his subordinate who was in the favor of not only the Secretary of the Navy but also his former commander in Mexico, the General in Chief of the Army, Winfield Scott. Part of the reason that the Marine Corps was not more active in the Civil War is that its senior officers, including Lieutenant Colonel Reynolds and the Commandant spent much of the war leveling charge and counter charge in a constant barrage of courts martial.22
Second in command of the battalion was Brevet Major Jacob Zeilin, Smith Maxwell’s former commander from the Wabash, who was detached from Philadelphia for the battle.23
At the time of the order, Headquarters Marine Corps, at Marine Barracks in the Washington Navy Yard had no quartermaster sergeant. The only senior sergeant was Orderly Sergeant Samuel F. Reynolds, who would not be assigned to the battalion in support of the Army. The next most senior sergeant was Patrick Reynolds, who is listed as the Company Orderly, and who also would not join the battalion in combat. (That so many people in senior positions were named Reynolds appears to be pure coincidence and no relationship has been established among them or the Lancaster family of the same name).
Ten of the sergeants at Headquarters Marine Corps were assigned to the battalion (some of them recently arrived from Philadelphia or from one of the ships of the fleet), but the position of quartermaster sergeant (the senior rank of enlisted men in the fighting unit) would be filled not from their ranks nor from the ranks of the 20 corporals. Rather, those in charge would tap a private who, despite his problems with strong drink, apparently had solid skills in organization and the control of resources, and who also had a good deal of soldierly experience--a resource in short supply in the Marine Corps on that day.
Consequently, on July 16, 1861, former Sergeant, now Private Smith Maxwell would be "promoted to Qr Mr Sgt for duty with the Army".24 Exactly what his duties were remain unclear as the Quartermaster of the Marine Corps would go along with the battalion (as would the Corps’ Inspector) and Gen. McDowell was charged with much of the quartermaster’s duties. Generally the quartermaster sergeant would remain in support providing ammunition and supplies to the companies engaged in the battle.
Lieutenant Hitchcock--who would become the first Marine officer to die in the Civil War--vented his concerns in another letter, this one to his parents, dated July 14:
So tomorrow morning will see me and five other Lieuts. with 300 Marines, raw recruits in every sense of the term, on our way to Fairfax Court House to take part in a bloody battle which is to take place, it is thought, about Wednesday. This is unexpected to us, and the Marines are not fit to go into the field, for every man of them is raw as you please, not more than a hundred of them have been here over three weeks. We have no camp equipage of any kind, not even tents, and after all this, we are expected to take the brunt of the battle.
The Marines marched to battle on the 16th as part of Col. Andrew Porter’s Corps of the Second Division of Col. David Hunter. The battalion arrived at the Long Bridge in Washington at about 3:30 p.m. and fell into line behind Battery D of the 5th U. S. Artillery--Griffin’s West Point Battery--for which they would become supporting infantry.25
Porter, himself a native Lancastrian, was born on July 10, 1819, a grandson of Revolutionary War General Andrew Porter. He was a son of George B. Porter, a prominent lawyer in Lancaster and later Governor of the Michigan Territory. Colonel Porter would be given eventual command of the 21st Division, when Gen. Hunter was wounded. Porter would become a general, serve as Provost Marshal General of Washington and then in a similar post for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. At Chickahominy he contracted a malady which would end his career and eventually make him an invalid. He died on Jan. 5, 1872 in Paris.26
By the time the Marines and the West Point Battery reached the edge of the battlefield it was 2 p.m. and the enemy forces had abandoned Henry Hill. Despite the concerns at having his horse-drawn cannon outrun his supporting, foot-sore, infantry, Griffin charged to take the advantage.27
The batteries of Griffin and Rickets had already started down the slope of Dogan Ridge toward Henry Hill, while 18,000 assembled Union infantrymen stood as spectators--without orders. After gaining a position and fighting off sharpshooters with cannon shot the commandeered units of infantry, led by the Fire Zouaves, hurried into position. Next in line was the 14th Brooklyn heading along Sudley Road until they were stopped just before Young’s Branch allowing the Marines and the 1st Minnesota to come in ahead of them. They staggered up the slope and formed behind a two-gun section of Griffin’s battery.28
"The batteries of Ricketts and Griffin, by their fine discipline, wonderful daring and matchless skill, were the prime features of the fight. The battle was not lost till they were lost. When in their advanced and perilous position, and just after their infantry supports had been driven over the slopes, a fatal mistake occurred."29
To the right of the marines, Confederate cavalry smashed into the 11th New York Fire Zouaves, driving them back into disorder. To the front of the Union guns, a blue-coated regiment emerged from the woods and made its way forward. Confederates, concluded battery commander Charles Griffin. He requested permission from Chief of Artillery, Major William F. Barry, to fire on them. Confused by their uniforms, Major Barry thought the troops were friendly forces moving to support Union guns. Permission to fire was denied. Griffin protested; Barry remained firm. As their debate continued, the newcomers halted, dressed their ranks and lowered their muskets.30
Griffin had been right and the weapons of the 33d Virginia opened on the silent Union troops only 70 yards away. The surge drove back both the Marines and the Zouaves, allowing the capture of the guns. "Three times Reynolds’ men were on the verge of panic, but on each occasion he brought them back into line."31 For two hours the forces attacked and counter attacked until the Confederates were reinforced by fresh troops, breaking the back of the Union assault and starting the now infamous rout.
The muster roll of Headquarters Marine Corps for July 1861 tells a tale of many men being assigned "duty with the Army from the 16th to the 23rd". Other entries note, "Missing since battle", while still others have more ominous and painful entries. The name of Smith Maxwell was struck out under the listing of privates and appears on the first page as Sergeant. The notation next to his name reads, "Attached to Army from  till 23 inst since then a sergeant" and "Sick".
Nine Marines were killed, 19 wounded and 16 were listed as missing. Major Reynolds in his report to the Commandant indicated that only 16 men in the whole battalion had any length of service and added:
The remainder were, of course, raw recruits, which being considered, I am happy to report the good conduct of officers and men. The officers, although but little experienced, were zealous in their effort to carry out my orders. . .. The abrupt hasty retreat from the field of battle represents a deplorable deficiency in both arms and equipment.32
Colonel Commandant Harris took a much less charitable approach in a letter to Secretary Welles in which he wrote: "It is the first instance recorded in its history where any portion of its [the Corps’] members turned their backs to the enemy."
Again serving as a sergeant, Maxwell seemingly fell into the routine of Headquarters until November 30 when he was once again "reduced to the ranks".33 We have no indication of the reason this time but seven days later Private Smith Maxwell was honorably discharged from the U. S. Marine Corps for completion of term of service.
What he did and where he went for the next year and a half are unknown, but it is certain that clerking and bookkeeping would not meet his emotional needs as the fervor of war intensified. He was no longer a rural farmer or a provincial clerk, he had "seen the elephant"34 and had adventures at sea. He had also felt the binding forces of battle.
Younger brother Robert, then 30 years old, went to Lancaster on Oct. 22, 1862 and enlisted, as a sergeant, in Capt. Hawthorn’s Company, 156th Regiment of Pennsylvania Infantry which mustered the following day in Philadelphia.35 The regiment was never completely recruited and remained at Fort Delaware until March 6, 1863 when it was merged with the 157th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. He was mustered in to Company M of that regiment as a private and the regiment was placed on duty in the defenses of Washington.36
Nineteen year old Sanders Maxwell responded to the call of the muster drums on June 28 when the recruiter for Company G of the 1st Battalion Pennsylvania Infantry-Provost Guards visited Chestnut Level.37 His unit mustered in at Harrisburg and during July and August he was listed as "Sick in Hospital Camp Curtin".
On August 1, 1863 Smith Maxwell again enlisted for war--this time it was a company of the 19th Cavalry, then being formed in Philadelphia.
According to his muster out record, he joined Company G as a veteran soldier and was immediately promoted to sergeant. His muster in record says he enlisted as commissary sergeant in Company D, and Bates38 supports this scenario.
The regiment, identified as the 180th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry (mounted as the 19th Cavalry), was trained at Camp Stanton near Girard College until being ordered to Washington on November 5. On November 13 they were ordered to Eastport, Mississippi and arrived at Columbus, Kentucky on December 3, their orders having been changed en-route. Ending up in Union City Tenn. three days later they were assigned to the First Brigade of the cavalry division under Gen. B. H. Grierson. The command also included the 4th Missouri, 2nd Illinois, 7th Indiana and 2nd New Jersey--all cavalry units.
Brother Sanders, having completed his six-month enlistment, was mustered out of the 1st Battalion on Jan. 9, 1864 at Harrisburg and returned home to Chestnut Level. His most far-ranging assignment had been to Chambersburg in September and October of 1863.40
When General U. S. Grant took command of the combined Armies he found reinforcements for the Army of the Potomac among the defenders of Washington, most of whom had never seen a shot fired in anger. He ordered many of the regiments to join the Army of the Potomac--then on the march from North Anna to Cold Harbor. Corporal Robert Maxwell and the 157th PVI left Washington toward the end of June 1864 and met up with the Army in time for the battle of Bethesda Church. It was here on June 18, near Petersburg, Virginia, that Robert Maxwell was shot in the head and killed.41 His body was ultimately returned to Lancaster County and the family erected a monument to him in the Little Britain Presbyterian Church Cemetery, in what has become an extension of the family plot.
While the regiment was engaged in Louisiana battles, Company D’s commissary sergeant was transferred to Regimental Headquarters and promoted to quartermaster sergeant--the same rank he held in the Marines for a week during the Battle of Bull Run. The date was July 12, 1865, four days short of four years from when he first wore the three chevrons and tie bar of the rank--this time they were worn points down, in the Army fashion.42
On August 12 headquarters was established at Alexandria, Louisiana while the companies were dispersed over three states. Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant Smith Maxwell apparently took a leave from the command to handle personal business in Lancaster.
The nine living heirs of Samuel Maxwell had gathered in Lancaster to receive their share of the inheritance from their father’s death nearly five years earlier. The settlement had been delayed by the size of the estate and the facts that their father died without a will and left minor children. This was further complicated when their brother Robert, one of the heirs, also died without a will. A 193 acre plantation and a 106 acre tract of land, both in Drumore Township, as well as a lot in Quarryville all had to be disposed of to settle the estate. The plantation was estimated to be worth $12,546.62½ and the 106 acres were valued at $5,850.62½. According to the assessors, you could buy the lot in Quarryville for $50.43
Brother Hugh M. Maxwell accepted the assessments and paid the estate for all three properties, amounting to $18,447.35. Smith’s share was $1,844.72 and his share of Robert’s portion was $335.89 giving him a total inheritance of $2,180.61.44
By March of 1865 the 19th Cavalry was forming again at New Orleans where, on May 14 the following year, it was mustered out of service. Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant Smith Maxwell’s muster-out record notes: "Discharge given at N[ew] O[rleans] with a view of final payment without returning to state."45
And with that final, odd note the name Smith Maxwell is lost to the mist of history. At the age of 38 he had experienced life’s best and worst offerings. From war to relative affluence, from the wealth of a large prosperous family to the poverty of loneliness and deprivation of battle, from the soils of farm life to the sea foam of sailing ships and the shared canteen of warriors. The events of a lifetime were his in less than a decade.
About the Author
Glenn B. Knight is a native of Lititz who served as a sergeant in the U. S. Marine Corps before enlisting in the Air Force, from which he retired as a master sergeant in 1984. Returning home he was a fund raiser for the American Lung Association of Lancaster County before becoming the first director of development for the Ephrata Community Hospital Foundation. He purchased the financially crippled Parkesburg Post and in two years made it a profitable community newspaper serving as its publisher and editor. In 1991 he was named executive director of the Lancaster County Historical Society, where he found the discharge certificate of Private Smith Maxwell. Now again retired he is active with the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War and he and his wife, Beverly, do a first person portrayal of Navy Commander and Mrs. William Reynolds, older brother of General John Fulton Reynolds, all Lancaster natives.
1. Hennessy, John; The First Battle of Manassas, An End to Innocence July 18-21, 1861: H. E. Howard Inc., Lynchburg, Va., 1989; pp. 74-86.
2. Deed, Lancaster County, Pa., Book O, Vol. 9, Page 58.
3. Discharge Certificate, U. S. Corps of Marines; Private Smith Maxwell; Dec. 7, 1862; Lancaster County Historical Society, Manuscript Group 18.
4. Deed, Lancaster County, Pa., Book D, Vol. 7, Page 253.
5. Deed, Lancaster County, Pa., Book P, Vol. 6, Page 255.
6. Hennesy, loc. Cit.
7. U. S. Census, 1850; Northern Lebanon Township, Lebanon County, Pa.; 1030/1104.
8. Enlistment Contract, U. S. Marine Corps; Smith Maxwell, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
9. Muster Roll, Marine Barracks, Philadelphia Navy Yard, March 1858; National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
10. Muster Roll, Marine Barracks, Washington Navy Yard, April 1858; National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
11. Mooney, James L. ed.; Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol. VIII; Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy, Washington, D.C., 1981; p. 7.
12. Deck Log, Wabash, Brooklyn Navy Yard, May 25, 1858; National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
13. Schuon, Karl; U. S. Marine Corps Biographical Dictionary, Franklin Watts Inc., New York; pp. 249-250.
14. Deck Log, Wabash, loc cit.
15. Muster Roll, Marine Barracks, Washington Navy Yard, July 1860; National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
16. Ibid; Dec. 1860.
17. Aldrich, History of the United States Marine Corps.
18. Lancaster Examiner & Herald; Feb. 6, 1861.
19. Administrative Accounts, Lancaster County, Pa.; Samuel Maxwell dec’d, 1862; Lancaster County Historical Society.
20. Biography; Headquarters U. S. Marine Corps, History and Museums Division, Washington, D. C.; Reynolds, John George.
21. Simmons, Brig. Gen. Edwin H.; The United States Marines 1775-1975; Viking Press; New York; p 57.
22. Aldrich, loc. cit.
23 Muster Roll, Head Quarters Marine Corps; Washington Navy Yard, July 1861.
25. Hitchcock, Lieutenant Robert; Sullivan, David M. ed.; "One Marine’s Brief Battle", Civil War Times Illustrated; Vol. XXXI, No. 1, April 1992.
27. Hennessy, loc.cit., p. 77.
28. Ibid, p. 78.
29. Fry, Bvt. Maj. Gen. James B.; "McDowell’s Advance to Bull Run"; Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. I; Castle, Seacaucus, N.J.; Ca. 1884; p. 187.
30. Hitchcock, loc.cit.
31. Nalty, Bernard C.; United States Marines at Harper’s Ferry and in the Civil War; History and Museums Division, Headquarters U. S. Marine Corps, Washington, DC; 1983; p 10.
32. Aldrich, loc.cit; p. 134.
33. Muster Roll, Head Quarters, Washington Navy Yard, November 1862; National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC.
34. A term used by veteran soldiers to indicate that they had been in battle.
35. Muster Record, Co. M., 156 PVI, Philadelphia, January 1863; National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC.
36. Bates, Samuel P.; History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5; Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg; 1869.
37. Muster Record, Co. G, 1st Battalion, Harrisburg, July 1863; National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC.
38. Samuel P. Bates who was contracted by the state legislature to gather and edit the definitive record of volunteer service in the Civil War.
39. Bates, loc.cit.
41. "Final Statement of Coprl. Robert Maxwell, D Co., 157th Regt of Pennsylvania Volunteers" by Capt. A. F. Hawthorn, near Petersburg, Va., July 20, 1864; National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC.
42. Bates, loc.cit.
43. Deed, Lancaster County, Pa; Book O, Vol. 9, Page 58.; Lancaster County Historical Society.
45. Field and Staff Muster Out Roll, 19th Cav. Pa., New Orleans, La., May 14, 1866; National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC.