|
a.
|
Note: February 22, 2014 Times News (Summit Hill, PA) JOHN C. MACLAUGHLIN was born about 1832 in Ireland. He worked as a blacksmith and as a railroad laborer. McLaughlin Jane T. Tanner, sister of Nathan Tanner, on November 6, 1854, in the First Presbyterian Church, Summit Hill, and fathered six known children. He enlisted in the 81st Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, Company H, on September 18, 1861, and served his Company as a 1st Lieutenant. He was severely wounded at the Battle of Fredericksburg, Va., on Dec. 13, 1862. He was promoted to Captain of Company A on May 1, 1863, but resigned his commission because of his wounds. McLaughlin was discharged on June 12, 1863. He was killed in a railroading accident in 1867. From The 81st at Fredericksburg: The regiment went into winter quarters, and remained until the 11th of December, when it moved out to engage in the battle of Fredericksburg. It was held in support of artillery, until the morning of the 12th, when it crossed the river and was posted along the wharf, where it remained twenty-four hours. While here, thirty boxes of tobacco, which the enemy had sought to destroy by throwing them into the stream, were rescued. On the morning of the 13th, it moved up Front street to the railroad bridge, the right resting near the grist mill. At ten o'clock it went into action. Moving down Sophia Street, under a heavy artillery fire directed upon its flank, it gained the position, close up to the enemy's rifle-pits, which has been appropriately termed the slaughter pen, but from which it was quickly forced back to the line, which it held, under a terrific artillery fire, until ordered from the field. Of the five thousand men comprised in the division, two thousand fell in the charge. According to Fox's Regimental Losses in the Civil War, the 81st Regiment is ranked 12th out of the entire army for the most severe loss at that battle. Of the 261 men of the regiment engaged, 176 were casualties. This is a staggering loss of 67.4 percent.
|
