Marker Honors 69th Pa. Charge At Glendale
By Scott C. Boyd
(August 2010 Civil War News)

GLENDALE, Va. — The 148th anniversary of the Battle of Glendale was commemorated by the dedication of a historical marker which tells the story of the 69th Pennsylvania “Irish Volunteers’” bayonet charge to retake a captured artillery battery during the June 30, 1862, battle.

Before the June 26 dedication at the site some 30 men of the modern 69th Pennsylvania reenactment group traced their historical counterparts’ trail through over half a mile of dense woods on their way to the clearing where the ceremony was held. Mosquitoes, ticks and a very hot, humid Virginia day were impediments to be coped with.

As they approached the clearing where some 40 spectators awaited, the unit fired a rifle volley to announce its presence and begin the ceremony.

Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT) Chief Operating Officer Ron Cogswell congratulated members of the 69th for their perseverance in getting the Civil War Trails marker, which they financed, and for their “impressive, memorable way of carrying out the dedication ceremony.”

The CWPT purchased the land where the marker was erected in 2007 from Dr. Len Morrow, Cogswell said. Added to other pieces purchased nearby, 577 acres of the Glendale, also known as Frayser’s Farm, have been “permanently protected, with more to come.”

Additionally, Cogswell noted that more than 1,000 acres at Malvern Hill, “linked forever in geography and history to Glendale,” have been saved by the CWPT and National Park Service (NPS).

Someday all of these acres will become part of Richmond National Battlefield Park, Cogswell said. “With 1,500 acres, probably closer to 2,000, with trails and signage and markers like this one we dedicate today, you have the critical mass for world-class battlefield preservation and interpretation.”

Richmond Battlefield historian Robert E.L. Krick said, “All you need to do, if you’re trying to put this into perspective, is think just locally about the Civil War battlefields we cannot visit today or ever again, because they’re gone.”

He listed Yellow Tavern, Seven Pines, “and most of the battlefields in Chesterfield County.”

“Most of the people who ever saw them in their original condition are dead and gone,” he observed.

“Those places are lost to us forever, and that’s not going to happen here at the Glendale, or Frayser’s Farm, Battlefield,” Krick said. He praised Dr. Morrow, the CWPT and other landowners who helped preserve the land.

The 69th Pennsylvania marker sits by the site of the Whitlock House, now just a small depression in the ground nearby. Krick said the Whitlocks “found themselves in just the most unimaginable predicament with the larger part of the two largest armies in the world trying to destroy each other on their farm here.”

They survived, he said. “Their cabin, much the worse for the wear, became the point of reference that soldiers mentioned in their letters, diaries and memoirs because this was the only landmark on this side of the road.”

Krick read from a letter he recently acquired which mentions a South Carolina soldier being buried 50 paces from the Whitlock House. He said there is no doubt many unmarked Confederate, and maybe some Union, graves are on the site.

“This is one vast cemetery as well as being an unaltered, pristine battlefield landscape.”

Krick told audience members that when they congratulate themselves, as they should, for their individual and collective roles in helping preserve the battlefield, “think of it as a battlefield, as a monument to what happened here, but also think of it as a unmarked cemetery of pretty significant proportions.”

The musicians and singers of the 69th, who have issued two music CDs, performed several songs before unit commander, John Kopich, spoke. He said the 69th Pennsylvania “Irish Volunteers” Civil War Reenactors organization started its project to honor the original regiment about 16 years ago. He thanked the CWPT for its support.

Kopich has been president of the unit for eight years and, wearing his captain’s uniform, was their leader at the ceremony.

Before the march each man received a slip of paper with the name of a regiment member who was a casualty at the Battle of Glendale.

At the ceremony as Kopich called each soldier’s name, the reenactor with that name on his paper answered the roll call and told the kind of wound the soldier suffered.

“We’re not the forgotten Irish anymore,” Kopich said as they prepared to uncover the plaque. Kopich, Pvt. Don Ernsberger, unit historian and author of several books on the 69th, and Sgt. Bill Meehan helped Cogswell with the unveiling.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, the reenactors passed by the marker — many left a sprig of green or a pinch of Irish soil on the plaque.

The former property owner, Dr. Morrow, told this reporter after the ceremony that his grandparents bought the land in 1918, “so I almost made it 100 years.”

Dr. Morrow said, “I’ve always been mindful that this was hallowed ground. That’s one reason I wanted to see it come to preservation and the Park Service. You don’t want a Wal-mart here on top of this.”