Letters of Lt. Philo
P. Rayen, Co. G,
Provided
by Bill Balint, great great great nephew of Lt. Philo P. Rayen , original
letters soon-to-be (by the end of 2014) part of the
Indiana University of Pennsylvania Library Civil War Soldiers Manuscript Special
Collection
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Thanks to
Bill Balint for contributing these letters from his Roundhead ancestor.
Lt. Rayen was killed at 2nd Bull Run, August 29, 1862 and is presumably
buried at Arlington National Cemetery as an Unknown Soldier.
A memorial gravestone for Lt. Rayen was unveiled in a ceremony on August
22, 2004 in the Old Cool Spring Church Cemetery in Mercer, Pennsylvania,
his home.
Photos: (L)
Dedication of Memorial Headstone and (R) War time image of Lt. Philo P.
Rayen from Balint Family Collection |
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Websmith's Note:
Company G's commissioned command was decimated at 2nd Battle of Bull Run, as
Captain Simeon Brown was also killed and 1st Lt. Thomas Curt was wounded.
Col. Leasure wrote in his "Glimpses of a Nation's Struggle", 1887 article for
the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS), that the
battle aftermath left no line officers in Company G. Curt became Captain
of the Company a month later after his wound healed. Sgt. Samuel R. Grace
commanded the company for a few days until he was wounded at Chantilly,
September 1, 1862. Grace was promoted to Captain Dec 2, 1864 and was the
last commander of Co. G. --David L. Welch
Below is an excerpt from a short biographical profile
written by Bill Balint on Lt. Philo P. Rayen that gives background to the man
and soldier that was part of the 2004 Memorial Re-dedication Ceremony.
Philo P. Rayen was a second lieutenant in the Union Army who was killed in
action during the U.S. Civil War at the Second Battle of Bull Run near Manassas,
Va. on Aug. 29, 1862. A chalk drawing, four of his surviving letters home,
a pension application filed by his mother, some census records, a brief service
record and a single mention of his death in a battle report contain all that is
known about his life.
Lt. Rayen was a member of the 100th Pennsylvania Regiment--commonly referred to
as the Roundheads. A resident of Worth Township in Mercer County,
Philo enlisted as a private in Company G early on Aug. 31, 1861 at Pine
Grove (modern day Grove City). He was twice promoted prior to his death at
age 30.
Lt. Rayen was single and operated a small farm with his mother, Clarissa.
His father died shortly before the war. Philo's parents were natives of
Boardman, Ohio. His sister, also named Clarissa, married William Penn
McCullough. Their grand daughters --Mary, Margartet, Hazel and Mildred
--are represented here today by various grand children, great-grand children and
great-great grandchildren.
The long-dormant search for Lt. Rayen's burial location was revived thanks to
two events. The first was the publishing of the book, "Campaigning with
the Roundheads" in 1989 and the second was the emergence of the Internet.
Although a definitive location was never found despite nearly 15 years of
research, Lt. Rayen is thought to be buried in an unmarked grave at Arlington
National Cemetery along with some 2,000 other soldiers whose bodies were moved
from Virginia battlefields there in 1866. A monument to those dead is
located near the Lee-Custis Mansion.
(Websmith Note: See Arlington National Cemetery Website writeup on the
Civil War Unknowns Monument)
The stone monument is inscribed with the following:
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"BENEATH
THIS STONE REPOSE THE BONES OF TWO THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN
UNKNOWN SOLDIERS GATHERED AFTER THE WAR FROM THE FIELDS OF BULL RUN, AND
THE ROUTE TO THE RAPPAHANNOCK. THEIR REMAINS COULD NOT BE
IDENTIFIED, BUT THEIR NAMES AND DEATHS ARE RECORDED IN THE ARCHIVES OF
THEIR COUNTRY, AND IT'S GRATEFUL CITIZENS HONOR THEM AS OF THEIR NOBLE
ARMY OF MARTYRS. MAY THEY REST IN PEACE. SEPTEMBER 1866 A.D.
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The Roundeads monument is located at the
Antietam National Battliefield Park near Sharpsburg, Md. The
remaining pages offer transcriptions of Philo's letters to his sister, a
sample of an original letter,
photos of the original Battle Flag
and
Roundhead Monument,
a list of their movements during Philo's tenure, a copy of his mother's
signature from 1863 when she filed a pension claim in Mercer County and
a certificate of Philo's Union service created by the Naitional Parks
Service. These pages represent only a small portion of the
family's collection of documents related to Lt. Rayen's life.
Access to other research materials can be obtained by contacting the
Mercer
County Historical Society. |
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THE LETTERS:
The letters below are transcribed by descendant Bill Balint.
All of the letters are provided in thumbnail image format based on scans
from a hardcopy that Bill sent to the me in July 2014. I have
added commentary to each letter as presented to the left of the
scanned/transcribed letter images. --David L. Welch
Partial transcribed letter of January 15, 1862 to his sister from
Camp Stevens, S.C. Also shown are copies of the original letter to
show his original handwriting. Camp Stevens (Philo spells it as
'Stephens'), is named after their commanding general at that time,
General Isaac Ingalls Steven. The content of the letter primarily
focuses on describing the action at the Battle of Port Royal Ferry,
January 1, 1862. He also discusses the health of his company, the
weather and the negro shanties they were quartered in during the push to
drive the Confederates out of the area. |
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May 13, 1862 letter to his sister. This
letter discusses his letter writing/correspondence with his sister and
others in mathmatical terms using fractions. You can tell he feels
like he has not received as many letters from home as he has sent and so
a little sarcasm comes through. He also discusses the year round
plentifulness of fruit in the South Carolina campaigns and feels spoiled
compared to availability of fresh fruit back home--especially "berries"
("..."from the bottom of my heart I do pity you poor devils at the
north who have to wait until July or August for berries and then run all
over the country and tear half your clothes off for a quart or two of
berries") He also mentions the martial law imposed by Major
General David Hunter throughout the Department of the South that frees
all slaves that come within the Union lines--this prior to Lincoln's
Emancipation Proclamation.
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This June 21, 1862 letter to his sister
primarily describes the June 16, 1862 Battle of Secessionville and the
anguish he feels from this and from missing family, with special concern
about his ill mother back home. He describes how the 8th Michigan
attacked the Tower Fort (Lamar) too soon and was unsupported.
Other regiments like the 100th PA had to double quick to support the 8th
Michigan but to make matters worse, they were marching by the right
flank such that right was on solid ground and the left was on swampy
ground. The battle lines thus did not meet as the left (where
Rayen and his Co. G were) got bogged down into swampy ground and had
trouble catching up to the line on the right and were also exhausted by
the time they caught up because of slogging through swampy conditions.
Of the four letters, this letter seems to to be the most deteriorated,
much of the upper half of the first page difficult to decipher. As
such, illegible sections are indicated by "underlines".
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WIDOW PENSION FILE:
When Lt.
Philo P. Rayen was killed at 2nd Battle of Bull Run, August 29, 1862,
hardship affected the family. His father had already died years earlier
and so his mother had lost both her husband and her son. Her son's
commission was a primary source of income for the Rayen Family farm back
home and so his mother Clarissa needed income to support the family. The
thumbnail image to the right is a Widow Pension application. Below that
is some narrative by Lt. Rayen's great great great nephew, Bill Balint about content of the Widow
Pension application. -- David L. Welch
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