My Genealogy Hound

GEN. JOHN F. HARTRANFT. Among those who were brought into prominence by the war for the Union, forty years ago, there was none who achieved greater distinction, or attained a more brilliant career than John Frederic Hartranft, the typical soldier-statesman of Pennsylvania.

Descended from that German ancestry which transmitted so many of its admirable traits to the people of Montgomery county, he inherited also the steadfastness and simplicity of the Schwenkfelders, that historic band who withstood persecution and oppression in the maintenance of their religious principles. An earnest patriot, unselfishly devoted to the idea of national unity, he might, had he lived longer, have risen to still higher honors and filled a higher niche, if possible, in the temple of fame.

The first of the name in this country was Tobias Hartranft, who came with other followers of Schwenkfeld to Pennsylvania, refugees from intolerance in their native land. Tobias married Barbara Yeakle and had several children, as follows: Maria, second wife of Melchior Schultz, who died in 1799; George, married, but had no son, and died in 1759; Abraham, married Susanna Shubert, who came in the same ship, and died in December, 1766, his widow marrying Michael Seidle in Philadelphia; Melchior, married, and died in 1760, aged thirty-four years, without male offspring; and Rosina. Tobias Hartranft died in 1758, aged seventy-four, and his wife, Barbara, in 1764.

Abraham, the second son, who married Susanna Shubert, had the following children: Christopher, born in Philadelphia, October 5, 1748, married and had five children; Abraham, born in April, 1750, married and lived in Montgomery county, having twelve children; Barbara, born in December, 1751, married, lived in Philadelphia, and had four children; John, born in April, 1753, married three times, and had thirteen children; Leonard, born in 1757, died in infancy; Leonard, second, born November 6, 1759, married Christiana Mayer, lived in Montgomery county, having fifteen children, and died at Tamaqua on August 28, 1841, aged eighty-two years, he being the great-grandfather of Governor John F. Hartranft; Maria, married Conrad Mayer, a brother of the wives of Leonard and William, lived in Philadelphia, and had five children; William, died in infancy; William, second, married Barbara Mayer, a sister of Leonard’s wife, had four children, and resided in Berks county.

The ancestry of General Hartranft is continued through Leonard, the sixth child, who married Christiana Mayer. Their children: Jacob, born in May, 1780, married Maria Geiger, lived in Ohio and died in 1862, Ephraim and John Hartranft, of Pottstown, being his grandsons; Rebecca, married John Beidman, and had three children; Leonard (grandfather) married Elizabeth Engle, had eight children, living in Northumberland county, where he died about 1842; Maria, born in 1784, married John Fox, and resided in Berks and Lebanon counties, having children; Susanna, born in 1786, married Andrew Maurer, and lived at Boyertown, having eight children, and dying in 1861; John, born in 1788, married Miss Bucher; David, born in 1789, married Miss Bickel, and had five children, marrying again and having five other children; Anthony, born in 1791, died in childhood; Margaretta, born in 1793, married Conrad Rhodes; Henry, born in 1795, married Mary Ann Gresh, living in Berks county and Philadelphia, and having twelve children; Catharine, became the wife of James Coates; Amos, born in 1799, married Mary Haberstein, lived in Schuylkill county, and had three children; Sarah, born in 1801, married Jacob Gilbert, and had three children; William, born in 1801; Christiana, born in 1807, was the wife of Jacob Lutz, and had seven children.

The line of descent is continued through Leonard, who married Elizabeth Engle; his children: Henry, born in 1804, who lived in Northumberland county, and had a large family of children; Samuel Engle (father); John, married, and had a family, who lived in Michigan; Susan, the wife of Mr. Weinberg, also lived in Michigan; Eliza, married to Mr. Hiles, lived in Michigan; Abraham, married, had a family, and resided in Lycoming county; William, married, and had children, living in Clinton county; David, married, and lived in Michigan.

John F. Hartranft was married on January 26, 1854, to Miss Sallie D., daughter of William L. and Ann Sebring. Their children: Samuel Sebring, born October 30, 1855; Ada, born March 4, 1857; Wilson, born December 1, 1859; Linn, born June 28, 1862; Marion, born September 19, 1865; Annie, born February 7, 1867. Ada died March 17, 1862, and Wilson on the 22d of the same month.

John Frederic Hartranft was the only child of Samuel Engle and Lydia Bucher Hartranft. He was born in New Hanover township, Montgomery county, December 16, 1830. When his parents removed to Norristown in 1844 he was a school boy of fourteen years of age. For several years he attended Treemount Seminary, under the care of Rev. Samuel Aaron, a celebrated teacher. He passed a year at Marshall College, at Mercersburg, where he prepared for entering Union College, at Schenectady, New York, at which institution he graduated in 1853. His first employment after leaving college was assisting to locate a railroad from Mauch Chunk to White Haven, and other work in that line. Sheriff Michael C. Boyer appointed him his deputy, and he served also in the same capacity for three more years under Sheriff Rudy, Boyer’s successor. Having in the meantime studied law, on October 4, 1860, he was admitted to the bar, and immediately opened an office.

Some time previously young Hartranft had joined the Norris City Rifles, being chosen lieutenant, and afterward captain. At the next election held by the county militia he was chosen colonel. There were five companies in the vicinity of Norristown, and these formed the nucleus of the regiment. When the so-called Confederates fired upon Fort Sumter in April, 1861, and President Lincoln issued his call for 75,000 men. Colonel Hartranft went to Harrisburg, leaving his company commanders at home to proceed with recruiting, and offered the services of his regiment to the government through Governor Andrew G. Curtin. The Fourth Regiment was accepted. It consisted of seven companies, and reached Harrisburg on the twentieth of the month. In a day or two the men were on their way to the national capital, by Perryville and Annapolis.

The order to advance on Bull Run did not issue till the day the Fourth Regiment was ordered to the rear to be mustered out. A few, however, were willing to go into the fight as volunteers, among them Colonel Hartranft, who was accepted as a volunteer aide to Colonel Franklin, who spoke of him in his report in words of commendation. He passed through the fray unhurt and returned home to recruit a regiment for three years. He had no difficulty in completing arrangements for the formation of the Fifty-first Regiment. Five of the companies of the regiment consisted of Montgomery men and five from eastern and middle counties of Pennsylvania. The regiment was organized at Harrisburg late in September, and was at once assigned to the command of General Burnside, to undertake a winter campaign in North Carolina. The expedition left Annapolis by sea early in January, 1862, and on the 10th of February Colonel Hartranft led his men into the first battle in the swamps and thickets of Roanoke Island. Foster’s and Reno’s troops, of which the Fifty-first was a part, not only carried the works on the first assault, but captured nearly all the garrison. At the attack on Newbern, a few days later, Hartranft’s forces were held as a reserve at first, but soon participated in the final assault, which carried the works of the enemy.

Colonel Hartranft, learning that two of his children were dying, obtained leave of absence for a few days and returned home to find them already buried. While he was thus absent twenty days from his command, it was sent under Lieutenant-Colonel Bell on the expedition to Camden, South Carolina, on April 16, a movement undertaken as a feint to draw the attention of the enemy from the attack of General Wood. It was entirely successful, though it cost the Fifty-first fearful hardships and some losses, the killed, wounded and missing numbering thirty men. Camden was the only engagement in which Hartranft’s command participated at any time from which he was absent.

Early in August Burnside’s force of eight thousand men was suddenly ordered to come northward to the rescue of McClellan’s disorganized and dispirited army, which had just been repulsed before Richmond. Here Reno’s brigade, including Hartranft’s regiment, did efficient service, covering the retreat of the army on Washington and the north. At Chantilly, on September 1, two days after, they gathered fresh laurels, effectually guarding the capital from attack and compelling Lee to make a long detour in his advance on Maryland and Pennsylvania.

At Antietam the Fifty-first won undying fame, but at a frightful cost. In the charge on the bridge the three principal officers dashed over with their men, but with the loss of Lieutenant-Colonel Bell, killed, and Captain William J. Bolton, desperately wounded, and also the sacrifice of many other valuable lives. The actual casualities were twenty-one killed and fifty-eight wounded, whose names are in the report, although the official account places the number of both at one hundred and twenty-five. In making his report to McClellan, Burnside commended Hartranft’s bravery, skill, and faithful service, and strongly urged that he be promoted to the rank of brigadier-general.

The army now lay encamped on the Rappahannock through the winter. Early in the spring of 1863, General Burnside, at his own request, was relieved of the command of the Army of the Potomac, and with the Ninth Corps, temporarily under the orders of General Parke, was sent to make a diversion in favor of General Grant, who was then besieging Vicksburg. Accordingly Colonel Hartranft and the Fifty-first started west by railroad early in April, via Cincinnati, and for a short time were posted in detachment at various points in Kentucky to protect Unionists against guerrillas. In June, Hartranft and his regiment were ordered to the Mississippi to operate on the Big Black in the rear of Vicksburg, to keep the Confederate General Johnston from relieving that city. During the subsequent marches of General Sherman against Jackson, Colonel Hartranft, then in command of the brigade, was prostrated by the enervating climate and compelled to go to the hospital.

The regiment was quickly recruited by new men and the re-enlistment of veterans. The regiment assembled at Annapolis, where in the absence of Burnside the corps, to the number of twenty thousand men, was assigned to Colonel Hartranft, to whom all new regiments were ordered to report, and to whose supervision was committed the work of equipment and reorganization. Grant was placed at the head of the whole military force of the Union, and in person assumed the command of the army of the Potomac. Burnside’s Ninth Corps, to which Hartranft’s command was attached, was half composed of raw troops. This independent force, though not recorded as an integral part of that great invading army, was placed between Hancock’s Second and Warren’s Fifth Corps, on the Rapidan, and, advancing down the peninsula, encountered Lee for the first time on May 6, in the battle of the Wilderness.

Commanding a brigade, Hartranft was acting under Wilcox, and, being ordered to attack the unseen enemy, he perceived the impossibility of accomplishing anything to repay the sacrifice of life. He conveyed his views to Burnside, who seeing the reason for it, countermanded the attack. During this battle Hartranft was everywhere in the front. About this time Hartranft became a brigadier-general. At the battle of Spottsylvania, a few days later, it became the duty of Hartranft’s brigade to check large reinforcements which the enemy threw on that part of the line. This involved desperate fighting, always at a disadvantage, and his losses were heavy in killed, wounded, and a few prisoners taken by the enemy. In these two encounters the Fifty-first lost nearly two hundred men in killed, wounded and missing. At Cold Harbor Hartranft’s brigade was ordered to charge and take a line of works, which was accomplished. At this battle Colonel Schall was killed, also Captain Bisbing and many others. On the 16th of June, Grant’s army crossed the James. The extent to which Hartranft’s brigade had been used appears when, by June 18, out of one hundred and five officers, sixty-five were dead, crippled or injured; of eighteen hundred non-commissioned officers and privates, seven hundred and thirty had been killed, wounded, or struck from the rolls for disability. After crossing the river, General Hartranft was wounded in the arm by a bullet. The losses of his brigade in all these operations just described were very severe; but now, having arrived before Petersburg, which was prepared for a siege, his force was placed to cover the engineers and workmen while excavating the celebrated mine which was sprung and exploded on July 30. In order to cover this secret movement his men were kept almost constantly firing at the enemy night and day for nearly six weeks previous, and losing several daily from constant exposure. On August 18 General Warren’s corps captured the track of the Weldon railroad near Petersburg. The next day, or rather in the night, General Mahone, being ordered to retake it, broke through the Union line, and Hartranft’s brigade was ordered to reinforce the point attacked. This he successfully did, repulsing the enemy, while his horse was killed under him and a staff officer beside him wounded, losing his horse also. Hartranft’s brigade participated in the battles of Ream’s Station, Poplar Springs and Hatcher’s Run. By the commencement of winter his brigade, though reinforced with three new regiments, had been reduced from three thousand effective men in May to less than one thousand in November.

About the 1st of December, therefore, General Hartranft was assigned to the command of six new Pennsylvania regiments of one year men. These new troops he at once set about organizing into a division, which was designated the Third Division, Ninth Corps. Before day on March 25, the enemy made an assault on Fort Steadman, and such was the suddenness and impetuosity of their charge that our men were captured and driven out, the enemy advancing their front beyond our line and taking possession of some rifle-pits abandoned by our soldiers. This was the status at four o’clock in the morning, when Hartranft, who was lodging about a mile away, hearing an unusual noise, arose and learned that Steadman, situated near the Appomattox, was taken. General Hartranft determined to advance immediately to the assault which he did, leading the attack himself. The enemy, not expecting the tables to be so soon turned upon them, were driven back after a stout resistance, with the loss of many killed, about three thousand prisoners, and the fort retaken. The victory was complete, and the rebels set about arranging for their final evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond. This famous assault, partly with new recruits, if we except the sweeping charge of Hancock at Spottsylvania, was perhaps the most brilliant achievement of this celebrated siege. The action was the crisis of Hartranft’s military career, as also of the War of the Rebellion.

Just a week after this achievement, April 2, General Grant ordered an assault all along the line. In this attack General Hartranft commanded the Third Division of the Ninth Corps, and all of his old brigade except the Fifty-first Regiment, which covered the ground previously occupied by the entire brigade. Colonel Bolton, of Wilcox’s command, ordered his skirmishers to advance towards the city, when it was found that the enemy were evacuating the town. Thus the commands of Wilcox and Hartranft were in Petersburg by early dawn. The General, with his division, pursued the retreating enemy as far as Nottaway Court House.

General Hartranft was detailed under the order of President Johnson to guard the assassins of President Lincoln during their trial and execution. He was shortly after mustered out of the volunteer force with his troops, but the government, desiring to retain his valuable services as a military man, conferred upon him unasked the rank and appointment of colonel of the Thirty-fourth Regiment, Regular Infantry, then stationed in Kentucky, which position the General declined.

Republicans of Montgomery county urged his claim for auditor-general at the convention that assembled at Harrisburg on September 17, 1865, which was recognized, and on the second ballot he was unanimously nominated, being elected by 22,660 majority at the ensuing election. In 1871 Hartranft had then filled the post of auditor-general so fully to the acceptance of his party that he was nominated almost by acclamation. On the 9th of April, 1872, he obtained the gubernatorial nomination on the first ballot. He was elected over Buckalew by the plurality of 35,627. He was inaugurated governor on January 22, 1873, with much ceremony. In 1874 he was re-elected by the largest majority ever cast for the Republican ticket in Pennsylvania.

As Governor, John F. Hartranft performed his responsible duties with that sincere regard for the public welfare which characterized him in every situation in which he was placed. He selected wise counselors who represented the different sections of the state. Eighty-two vetoes of private bills were returned in one day to the legislature. It was during his administration that the present pardon board system originated. He was a warm friend of the public school system, and of the plan for separate confinement for insane convicts. It was owing to his recommendation that new safeguards were provided against fraudulent insurance companies and the like. He also suggested the forestry legislation which was enacted later. His urgent appeals in behalf of the insane resulted in the erection of the Norristown and other hospitals, in which these unfortunates receive rational and effective treatment. He was the father of the National Guard of Pennsylvania, the riots which occurred in the great railway strike of 1877, in which fifty civilians and five soldiers were killed and a hundred more wounded, and millions of dollars worth of property destroyed, suggesting the necessity of some safeguard of this kind. He favored the arbitration of differences between employers and employed. On January 21, 1879, he was succeeded by Governor Hoyt, who nominated him at once for the vacant post of major-general. He afterwards filled other public positions, including that of postmaster of Philadelphia, and collector of the port of Philadelphia for four years. In the autumn of 1889 he became ill, his ailment refusing to yield to treatment. He passed away on October 17, and his remains were interred in the south corner of Montgomery cemetery, on an eminence overlooking the river for a long distance, a handsome monument being erected on the spot a few years later by contributions from the National Guard of the State.

Hartranft’s successful career was due largely to his ability to grasp the opportunities presented to him. He inherited from a virtuous ancestry qualities which fitted him for the various emergencies in which he was placed. In war and in peace he made a reputation that is enduring, and he stands high among the sons of Montgomery county, whom its people delight to honor.