ORWIGSBURG NATIVE LT. COL. LUCIEN LOESER, WEST POINT GRADUATE, MAKES HISTORY.

ORWIGSBURG NATIVE
LIEUT. LUCIEN LOESER
BROUGHT THE FIRST PIECES OF GOLD DISCOVERED IN CALIFORNIA IN 1848
TO WASHINGTON. HIS ACTIONS GAVE RISE TO
THE CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH OF
“1849”





Photo Courtesy of Mystic Seaport Library.

LT.COL. LUCIEN LOESER

Colonel Richard B. Mason took his time filling out a carefully detailed report of his observations in the gold fields. He completing the report on August 17, 1848, and dispatched a courier, Lieutenant Lucien Loeser, on a roundabout route back to Washington with Mason's official report, along with a tea-caddy crammed with over 230 ounces of gold. On August 30, 1848, Loeser sailed from Monterey by schooner to Payta, Peru, where he caught a British steamer to Panama. After crossing the Isthmus, Loeser booked passage to Jamaica, and from there to New Orleans where news of the official confirmation of the gold discovery created much excitement. Loeser telegraphed his report to the War Department and resumed his journey to the capital.

It is interesting what you can find while doing historical research. Recently while looking at The Memorial To Patriotism for Schuylkill County 1861-1865, while on a quest of looking for all the U.S. Regulars who served from Schuylkill County during the Civil War I came across a soldier listed as a Lt. Col. Lucien Loeser, of the 8th Virginia! Ok, was this a Rebel from the local area? This certainly got my interest. But it wasn’t to be. Actually, his regiment should have read the 8th West Virginia Cavalry. Ok, well that is still pretty interesting, Now, who is Lt. Col. Lucien Loeser of the 8th West Virginia Cavalry?
I found this very interesting bio of Loeser in the West Point Military academy Reunion book of 1896. How great was this, he is from my town of Orwigsburg. Here is his story.

Lt. Col. LUCIEN LOESER.
No. 26. CLASS OF 1842.
Died, March 6th, 1897, at Brooklyn, N. Y., aged 79.
The name of LUCIEN LOESER will suggest pleasurable reminiscences of their cadet or subaltern days to a large proportion of the older of the remaining officers of the "Old Army." Of his cotemporaries at West Point not many are left, and of his class of 56 members, I believe only four, Generals James Longstreet, N. J. T. Dana, and Chas. L. Kilburn, and Colonel Joseph Stewart.
Colonel Loeser was born July 10th, 1818, in Orwigsburg, Pa., and died in Brooklyn, N. Y., March 6th, 1897, in his 79th year. He was of "Pennsylvania Dutch" ancestry, and possessed many of the characteristics of that race, among them that of pride in belonging to it. His father was a prominent lawyer in Schuylkill County, in the days when the coal lands began to be developed. His youthful education was obtained principally at the famous old Moravian school at Lititz. He entered the .Military Academy in 1838, and graduated in 1842, and was assigned as Brevet Second Lieutenant to the Second Artillery.
He served. With this regiment at Forts Adams, Hamilton, and Trumbull in succession until his promotion to Second Lieutenant. Third Artillery, in 1845, which carried him to Fort McHenry. In July, 1846, his company, "F," Captain C. O. Tompkins and First Lieutenants E. O. C. Ord and W. T. Sherman, with Lieutenant W. F. Halleck, Engineers, accompanying, sailed for California via Cape Horn in the U. S. Store ship Lexington. The voyage was long and tedious, and it was more than six months after sailing when they entered-the Bay of Monterey and took station at the old Spanish settlement of that name.. Those were unsettled times in California, and though the country had already been wrested from Mexican control, there was plenty of police duty for the troops of occupation.
In 1848 came the discovery of gold, and as soon as its importance was recognized it became necessary to inform the government at Washington. Lieutenant Loeser, who had been promoted the previous year, was selected to bear the dispatches, and set out with them, and a quart or so of specimens, about the end of August in a chartered sailing vessel. He reached Payta, Peru, in time to take the October steamer for Panama and connected at Aspinwall with the steamer for Jamaica. There he secured passage on a small sailing vessel to New Orleans, and finally arrived in Washington in December with the big news, which was immediately announced to the country by a Presidential message to Congress, and gave rise to the great immigration of'"49."
Editors Note:
John Marshall was superintending the construction of a sawmill for Col. John Sutter on the morning of January 25, 1848, on the South Fork of the American River at Coloma, California, when he saw something glittering in the water of the mill's tailrace. According to Sutter's diary, Marshall stooped down to pick it up and "found that it was a thin scale of what appeared to be pure gold." Marshall bit the metal as a test for gold.

In June of 1848, Colonel Sutter presented Marshall's first-find scale of gold to Capt. Joseph L. Folsom, U.S. Army Assistant Quartermaster at Monterey. Folsom had journeyed to Northern California to verify the gold claim for the U.S. Government.

In August of that year, as evidence of the find, this piece and other samples of California gold to Washington, D.C., for delivery to President James K. Polk and for preservation at the National Institute. Within weeks, President Polk formally declared to Congress that gold had been discovered in California.

The gold samples then traveled with U.S. Army Lt. Lucien Loeser by ship to Panama, across the isthmus by horseback, by ship to New Orleans, and overland to Washington. A letter of transmittal from Folsom that accompanied the packet lists Specimen #1 as "the first piece of gold ever discovered in this Northern part of Upper California found by J. W. Marshall at the Saw Mill of John A. Sutter."

In 1861, the National Institute and its geological specimens, including this gold and the letter, entered the collections of the Smithsonian Institution. The Marshall Nugget remains in the collections as evidence of the discovery of gold in California.



Lieutenant Loeser then served in garrison at Fort Sullivan, Me., and from 1850 to 1852 at Jefferson Barracks with Light Battery "C," Ringold's famous battery, when it resumed its guns after its tour of service as cavalry after the Mexican war. Then back to Fort Sullivan and thence to Fort Constitution, N. H., and Fort Wood, N. Y., till the main body of the regiment sailed for California in December, 1853.
It was on this voyage that the memorable and tragic shipwreck of the San Francisco occurred. Headquarters, band and six companies, about 500 men in all, had embarked on this steamer for San Francisco, via Cape Horn, but off the Delaware Capes they met a severe storm which soon reduced the vessel to an unmanageable wreck and washed overboard the deck houses with four officers and 150 men. They drifted thus for four days, keeping the vessel afloat only by the greatest exertions, during which a number of the men died from exposure and fatigue. Finally the bark Kilby hove in sight, and running a hawser to the wreck, took off about 100 of the survivors, including Lieutenant Loeser and his family, which were subsequently transferred to the packet Lucy Thompson and landed in New York. The remainder were taken off later by other vessels and carried to Liverpool.
Lieutenant Loeser served as Adjutant of the regiment while it was being gotten into shape again, and in April a second start was made. Part of them went in the steamer Illinois, and the remainder in a chartered steamer, the Falcon. There was much suspicion and controversy respecting the seaworthiness of this
vessel, and as a result Lieutenant Loeser found himself the senior
Officer present when they went aboard, and sailed in command of
the band and four companies. Before they had been long out the suspicions were fully realized. The machinery gave out, but, fortunately, they were able to make Hampton Roads without being caught in a storm, and there they awaited the Illinois which took them off in May and they finally reached Benicia in safety.
He then served at Fort Miller, Cal., for three years, being promoted to Captain in 1856, and then at San Diego, San Barnardino, and Fort Yuma, where he resigned from the service in 1858 and returned to the East.
He served in Virginia early in the war as Lieutenant-Colonel Seventh West Virginia Cavalry, but being unable to remain in the field, he returned to New York, and from 1862 served as Chief Clerk in the Quartermaster's office in that city through the remained of the war and until 1873. He was then appointed a clerk in the Custom House at New York and served there 24 years, the greater part of the time as Chief of the Record Division, which position he held at the time of his death.


Photo Courtesy of Mystic Seaport Library.

Mrs. Sara Loeser

He married, in 1849, Miss Sarah Eaton, daughter of Dr. Joseph Eaton, U. S. A. They had no children and Mrs. Loeser died in 1882. During his long service in public position in New York he formed a wide circle of acquaintance, by whom he was respected for his honorable demeanor and strict performance of duty and liked for the courtesy and genial good heartedness which he brought into all his relations. During these 35 years he, particularly after the death of his wife, whom he keenly mourned, lived a very retired life and his intimacy was shared by few outside of his family. He found the simple pleasures he desired in a home life of the most exemplary and devoted character. He was a good raconteur and had a large fund of anecdotes and reminiscences of the "Old Army."
Colonel Lucien Loeser had an able mind, a generous and engaging disposition, an honorable character and a true heart. In his death our Alma Mater loses from the ranks of her sons a
"good man and true."



Loeser’s famous class mates at West Point Military Academy. He graduated Number 26 in the class.
Class of 1842 - 56 graduated
EUSTIS, Henry Lawrence 1
NEWTON, John 2
ROSECRANS, William Starke 5
SMITH, Gustavus Woodson 8
LOVELL, Mansfield 9
STEWART, Alexander Peter 12
SMITH, Martin Luther 16
POPE, John 17
WILLIAMS, Seth 23
DOUBLEDAY, Abner 24
HILL, Daniel Harvey 28
DANA, Napoleon Jackson Tecumseh 29
SYKES, George 39
ANDERSON, Richard Heron 40
MCLAWS, Lafayette 48
VAN DORN, Earl 52
LONGSTREET, James 54

The obituary of Col. Lucien Loeser, From the New York Times March 8th, 1897.
Lucien Loeser, who was for many years in the Government service died at his home, 401 Pacific Street, Brooklyn, Saturday morning, in the seventy ninth year of age. His death was caused by acute nephritis. He had been confined to hi home for two weeks.
Mr. Loeser was born in Orwigsburg, Penn. And was graduated from West Point Military Academy in 1842. Many distinguished men were his class mates, including Gen. Simon B. Buckner, General Longstreet, General Hill, and And General Dana. Mr. L:oeser’s service was with the artillery.
He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, New York.

Veterans Day November 11, 2009

Below are scenes from Veterans Day programs at Orwigsburg, Penn State Schuylkill, And the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Schuylkill Haven.

Just a note to thank the people who came out for the programs. You know, I sometimes wonder how many people really care, when you see so little support for the Veterans of America. But I thamk all the veterans and the people who took the time to honor our veterans today. THANK YOU!









Center Square Orwigsburg Presented by my VFW POST 2198


Vietnam Veterans Memorial Schuylkill Haven


Lieut. Richard Baker Speaker at the Penn State Schuylkill Ceremony


Many Thanks Go out to the students at Penn State Schuylkill For presenting this ceremony.


A hardy THANK YOU goes out to Rep. Tim Seip. Since he has been in office I have seen him at all our Veteran Day programs .. Keep supporting the Veteran Rep. Seip, it is very much appreciated!


Ceremony by the Vietnam Veterans of Schuylkill County at the Vietnam Memorial


Guy Weiderhold Vietnam Veteran Speaks on behalf of the Veterans of all wars. Guy gave a great speech on the needs of the veterans of this country. Well done Guy!












A wonderful ceremony put on by the Schuylkill County Vietnam Veterans! Well Done my brothers!

“YES, BOYS WE DID RALLY ROUND THE FLAG” LIEUT. ISAAC A. DUNSTEN, MIDDLEPORT

The 105th Pennsylvania Monument Gettysburg

“YES, BOYS WE DID RALLY ROUND THE FLAG” LIEUT. ISAAC A. DUNSTEN, MIDDLEPORT.

Lieutenant Isaac A. Dunsten, Middleport, Schuylkill County was seriously wounded while fighting with Company C of the 105th Pennsylvania at Gettysburg on July 2nd, 1863. For 55 days he suffered fearfully in the hospital at Camp Letterman.

In the book “Killed in Action “ By Gregory A. Coco is a story about Lieut. Dunsten. During his stay in the hospital ward he was administered by a Mrs. Holstein who wrote this little article.
“In the officer’s row lay, for some weeks, a young Lieut., from Schuylkill County, Penn., with both thighs shattered, suffering fearfully. A few hours before his death, at his request the Holy Communion was administered to him; after joining in the solemn services, he remained perfectly still, unconsciously “Passing away, “as those present thought, until a glee club from Gettysburg, going through the hospital, singing as they walked, paused at his tent and sung-without knowing anything of what was passing within “Rally round the Flag.” The words and the music seemed to call back the spirit to earth, and forgetting his crushed limbs and intense suffering, sprang up, exclaiming: “Yes boys, we did “Rally round the Flag.” “And you will rally oft again.!” Then sank back exhausted, and soon was at rest.
Lieut. Dunsten was buried the next day at Letterman Hospital. On August 31st, 1863 family members brought Lieut. Dunsten home to Middleport. He was only 23 years old and single at the time of his death.
The remains were brought to Middleport his late residence, from which the funeral took place. His body was brought to Pottsville and interred with military and civil honors, in Odd Fellows Cemetery. Major Oliphant of the Invalid Corps stationed in Pottsville sent a company of soldiers to the railroad depot to receive the body where he was conveyed to the cemetery, the soldiers marching with arms reversed, and the music playing a dirge. After the military and body came the Middleport, Lodge No. 474, I.O. of O.F., and a large concourse of citizens. At the grave the last sad honors were paid by the Corps, in three volleys of musketry.
Lieut. Dunsten was in the service for two years. He entered his company as a private, but through merit and bravery, had at the time of his death reached the position of Lieut. He was in fourteen engagements, in all which he escaped injury, except the last, At the Battle of Gettysburg, in which he received his death wound. He was highly esteemed in Middleport, and in fact by all who knew him for his moral excellence and worth.

Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth and Schuylkill County A little Piece of History

From the Pottsville Republican

June 14, 1913

Soldier’s Letter Arrives Fifty Years after Mailing

A soldier’s letter mailed 52 years ago, May 30, 1861, on the very date selected after the war as a Soldier’s Memorial Day arrived in Pottsville, today Saturday June 14, 1913 which by coincidence is Flag Day and another notable feature of the letter is that the envelope also contained a piece of the shirt worn by Col. E. E. Ellsworth when he was shot down while lowering a confederate flag at the Marshall House in Alexandria, Virginia, across the river from Fort Washington, where Henry Russell, the soldier who wrote the letter and a comrade of the First Defenders was stationed with his command at the time of the shooting and when he wrote the letter to his father the late Andrew Russell, Esq. Pottsville Penn. Per the directions on the envelope.
This soldier’s letter mailed more than half a century ago was in the U.S. mail that arrived on Saturday morning and was directed to Mrs. Priscilla K. Russel, widow of the dead soldier, the late Henry C. Russell, prominent resident of Pottsville. In his day, at their home “The Pines” Howard Ave. and Ninth St. and Mrs. Russell after submitting the letter to a sister of her husband Mrs. Anna R. Little, kindly gave her consent to the publication of the letter. Mrs. Little also has no objection, and to these good ladies the readers of the “Republican” are indebted for the pleasure of pursuing this interesting missive.
To fully understand the situation the explanatory letter contained in the accompanying soldier’s letter should be first read as follows.
“Pottstown, Penna. June 14, 1913
My Dear Mrs. Russell:
Enclosed please find a letter written by your husband to his father during the Civil War. I found it among my brother, M.E. Richards papers who also was a veteran of the Civil War. The letter still was sealed I suppose, it was given him to mail and was forgotten.
It affords ,me much pleasure to send this letter to you; it contains a small piece of Col. Ellsworth shirt secured after he was killed at Alexandria, Va., defending the flag. Just think! Written 50 years ago.
I know you will value it, as I would do under the same circumstances. I procured your address from Mrs. Hunt, who is a friend and life long resident of Pottsville. I thought she would know the old families.

Yours, Miss Annie E. Richards

Following the letter written by Henry C. Russell, First Defender:

Fort Washington, Maryland
May 30, 1861

My Dear Pa, I received your letter on the 25th inst., a few days ago and was very glad to know some one still “lives” in Pottsville. Letters are beginning to be few and far between. Two large mails came down today, but no letter for me. Matt Richards came down on the boat bringing those books that Mrs. Little sent to me and a large quantity of provisions for the “boys” we had collected at Washington during the past two weeks. He will return this by him.
Tomorrow is general inspection day and the men are all cleaning up guns, belts, quarters etc. Although we have not the best clothing and accoutrement's in the world our men make a first rate display. As evidence of their neatness and soldiery appearance, the orderly to the officer of the day has been, in every ……………. since our arrival, here, selected from our company. We have not yet been divided or commissioned.
During the past week we have been attending drill schools under Lieutenant Reynolds, U.S.A. At times when we drill he has said, “Sergeant, let me see you do that again”, and he likes our style of stacking arms.
Sam, (the writers brother) will be the Orderly Sergeant of our company after the Division is completed.

STAINED WITH COLONELS BLOOD

“Enclosed is a piece of Col. Ellsworth’s shirt stained with his own hearts blood. Sergeant W. McQuade who was on the boat when his body was carried aboard, got a large piece of it and gave me this. His clothing and that secession flag were torn into shreds by the men, as souvenirs. Keep it safely for me. We are all well.
Next week we got to work erecting a battery behind the fort. Work, work , and work is the order of the day.
Give my love to all the family, and Sam sends his love to you also. Capt. Smith has not yet replied to my communication.

God Bless you all.
Your Aff. Son
Henry C. Russell

I wonder what ever happened to the letter and the bloody shirt piece. Would have made a nice piece of history for the Historical Society.



Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth (April 11, 1837 – May 24, 1861) was a lawyer and soldier, best known as the first conspicuous casualty of the American Civil War.


Ellsworth died shortly after arriving in Washington. On May 24, 1861, the day after Virginia seceded, Ellsworth led his men uncontested down the streets of Alexandria, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington. He ordered some of his men to take the railroad station, while he and a few other soldiers went to secure the telegraph office. While doing this, Ellsworth noticed a Confederate flag flying above the Marshall House Inn. He and four others quickly went up the stairs. Ellsworth cut down the flag and was on the way down the stairs, when the owner, James W. Jackson, killed him with a shotgun blast to the chest. Cpl. Francis Brownell, of Troy, New York, immediately killed the innkeeper. Brownell was later awarded a Medal of Honor for his actions.

Lincoln was deeply saddened by his friend's death and ordered an honor guard to bring his friend's body to the White House, where it lay in state in the East Room, on May 24, 1861. Ellsworth was then taken to the City Hall in New York City, where thousands of Union supporters came to see the first man to fall for the Union cause. Ellsworth was then buried in his hometown of Mechanicville, New York, in the Hudson View Cemetery.

Thousands of Union supporters rallied around Ellsworth's cause and enlisted. "Remember Ellsworth" was a patriotic slogan and a New York regiment of volunteers (the 44th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment) called itself the "Ellsworth Avengers", as well as "The People's Ellsworth Regiment."

Relics associated with Ellsworth's death became prized souvenirs. The Smithsonian and Bates College's Special Collections Library have pieces of the Confederate flag that Ellsworth was removing when he was shot—in 1894, Brownell's widow was offering to sell small pieces of the flag for $10 and $15 each. The New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center in Saratoga Springs has most of the flag itself and Ellsworth's uniform, showing the hole from the fatal shot.