Library of Congress After Your TripThank you for visiting us! To close out your lesson on Company K please find the fate each individual soldier below. Keep in mind that these are real people. Most of these men were from the Gettysburg Area, and some have descendants in the area today.Fates of the Men in Company K Michael Miller was not hurt at Gettysburg, but he was struck by a bullet later at the Battle of Spotsylvania and suffered from the wound for the rest of his life. He died from the wound in 1877. His wife Eliza Jane died in 1907 and was buried beside her husband in Gettysburg’s Evergreen Cemetery.
HENRY MINNIGH was not hurt at the Battle of Gettysburg, and like several others found the time to slip away to visit his family in town. He was made a Captain in October of 1863 and served with the unit until June 1864. After the war, he returned to his teaching career and became a minister. He authored a book, History of Company K in 1891. He is buried in the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg.
JAMES CULBERTSON was “struck by a bullet, which entered his head above and behind the right ear and emerged at the opposite side” at Gettysburg, according to his 1917 obituary. After the wound, he struggled to maintain the fast pace of his unit, until he fell into the arms of Private Beamer. James recovered and rejoined the company before the end of the year. For the rest of his life, he prized the hat he was wearing when he was shot, with clear holes from the bullet.
CHARLES GILBERT was not hurt during the Battle of Gettysburg, but his older brother, Jacob, was slightly wounded even though he wasn’t a soldier. After the men of Company K were allowed to go home in 1864, Charles was transferred to another Pennsylvania unit. After the war, he became a tour guide, leading others on tours of the Gettysburg Battlefield. He is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Gettysburg.
CALVIN HAMILTON was wounded in the leg on July 2, 1863, and the surgeons wanted to amputate, or remove, his leg to save his life. He wouldn’t let them! Instead he went home to get stronger. For the rest of his time in the army, he was only able to do easy jobs such as guarding forts or helping out at a hospital. After the war, he became a teacher and then was in charge of all the Gettysburg schools. By 1889, Calvin was taking care of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery, the one that President Lincoln visited after the battle. When he died, he was buried in that cemetery that he had helped care for, on the battlefield where he had received his wound, and in the town that he had called home for most of his life.
WILLIAM MCGREW was hurt badly in the battle. He was shot in the arm and the leg on July 2, 1863. He was brought to the family farm to recover, but died from his wounds on July 26th. First buried on the farm, his body was re-buried in the Pennsylvania Plot of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery.
JOHN PITTINGER was a good soldier. He was unhurt at the Battle of Gettysburg and re-joined the army in 1864 before his time was through with Company K. While serving with his new unit, he was captured, and later died in a Confederate prison in North Carolina.
JOHN BRANDON survived the Battle of Gettysburg and the Civil War, and was mustered out with the company on June 13, 1864. Initially he returned home and began farming. Later he traveled west and settled in Salt Springs, Missouri.
PETER HARBAUGH survived the Battle of Gettysburg, but his friend lying beside him behind the stone wall on Little Round Top did not. While home on a break from the war, he became sick and was sent to a hospital in Virginia. He remained there, working light duty in the hospital laundry until he got out of the army. Captain Minnigh reported that he suffered with that disability for the rest of his life. Peter died in 1923.
GEORGE KITZMILLER was not hurt during the Battle of Gettysburg, but died in 1874 at the age of 34. He is buried in Gettysburg’s Evergreen Cemetery, very near the ground where President Lincoln stood (atop a wooden platform) to dedicate the neighboring Soldiers’ National Cemetery with his Gettysburg Address that honored “those who here gave their lives” that the nation might live.
ISAAC DURBORAW survived Gettysburg and even went to visit his farm when the battle was over. There he found the house “filled with wounded soldiers”. In November 1863, likely due to his foot wound, he was transferred to the U.S. Signal Corps, working with a team of men to send and receive messages using the motions of red and white flags to represent letters and words. After the war, he served as a Justice of the Peace, in addition to farming for many years. Thirty years after the Civil War ended, Isaac was killed in a farming accident, and is buried in Gettysburg’s Evergreen Cemetery.
SAMUEL YOUNG survived the Battle of Gettysburg and the Civil War. He was mustered out with the company in 1864, eventually moving west to Iowa. There he worked in the mercantile (store) business, selling goods and services in Guthrie County. No doubt the mercantile books and accounts were neatly kept.
ANDREW SLAGLE survived the Battle of Gettysburg, unhurt, and was back living in nearby Hanover after being mustered out with the company in 1864. He was married before the war was over, and eventually would have three children. He died in 1909 at the age of 77.
GEORGE COX survived the Battle of Gettysburg, serving continuously with the army through every camp, march, and battle until he mustered out on June 13, 1864. Little is known of George after the war, but he likely returned to Gettysburg and continued farming.
SAMUEL DIXON survived the Battle of Gettysburg, and later that July was temporarily detailed with the provost guard, the police force of the Civil War army. They helped clean up battlefields, secured old weapons left behind, and arrested army stragglers, among other duties. Samuel returned to the company shortly after the detail, survived the war and lived until 1926.
GEORGE CARSON survived the Civil War and lived into the 1920's. His captain wrote that he had been “a valiant soldier, and did his work well…” He lived in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania after the war and still enjoyed his coffee and other “good things of life”.
AMOS CHRONISTER survived the Battle of Gettysburg, and later worked as a driver with the ammunition train (the line of wagons that carried the bullets and other weapons of war). Amos mustered out of the company and then transferred to another unit where he served until the end of the war. He and his wife, Mary raised five children together in Ohio. He died at age 84, and is buried there in the town cemetery.
JOHN CREAMER survived the battle, but was likely wounded, as he was sent to a hospital in Washington, D.C. not long after. This hospital was built over the winter of 1861-62 to accommodate 400 patients at a time. Out of necessity, as the war went on, it added enough beds to accommodate 1,618 patients at a time. Records indicate that John Creamer died there on December 21, 1863, just four days before Christmas.
GEORGE GIBBS survived the Battle of Gettysburg, served his whole term of service, and was mustered out with the company. Little is known of him after the Civil War. Captain Minnigh wrote of the banquet dinner that was prepared to welcome them on their return home to Gettysburg; only a few stayed in town to partake of the feast, “preferring the more humble spread that awaited them, in the homes where loved ones surrounded” them.
WILLIAM JOBE survived the battle and the war, living into the 1920's. Eventually, he held a position in the Revenue Service of the U.S. government. He resided in York Springs, Pennsylvania, not far from the now famous town where he had enlisted and fought in the largest battle of the Civil War.
WILLIAM MEGARY was unhurt at the Battle of Gettysburg. Likely because of his trade skills, he went on detail in August of 1863 with the Pioneer Corps (cutting down trees and clearing pathways for roads), then in January of 1864 with the Provost Guard (handling enemy prisoners and civilians after battles). He was slightly wounded while with the Pioneer Corps. After the war, William lived in Hazleton, Pennsylvania and worked as an engineer on the Lehigh Valley Railroad for many years.
HENRY ELDEN was present at the Battle of Gettysburg. Last seen on July 6, he was reported as a deserter when he didn’t return to the company. On August 30, 1863, he was sent back to the company under arrest, but Captain Minnigh dropped all the charges against him. On June 30, 1864, he was taken prisoner at the Battle of Bethesda Church and sent to three different Confederate prisons. He died at the last one.
CALVIN HARBAUGH was not hurt at the Battle of Gettysburg. He reenlisted in February of 1864 instead of heading home. Calvin was taken prisoner after the Battle of Bethesda Church. When General Robert E. Lee surrendered in 1865, Calvin was at the infamous Andersonville Prison. He returned home to Adams County that June. Two years later, he moved west to Kansas and died soon afterward.
David Johns was said to be “a little unruly sometimes, but withal was a good soldier” according to Captain Minnigh. He stuck with the company through all its battles, including the one near his hometown of Gettysburg, and was ultimately mustered out with the company, free to return home and start his civilian life once more.
WILLIAM MUMPER survived the war and eventually moved west to Nebraska. He was living there as of 1891 when Captain Minnigh researched the post battle lives of his men and published the “History of Company K”.
CHARLES SWISHER may or may not have been at the battle of Gettysburg. He reported himself to the army general hospital in Philadelphia in August, 1863, and eventually returned to Company K, and then in January 1864 was transferred to the Invalid Corps. The Invalid Corps was created in 1863 for partially disabled soldiers to serve out their terms of enlistment doing light duties. This indicated that Swisher was either wounded in the battle, or had initially deserted the army due to an illness from which he never fully recovered.
JACOB STOUFFER was captured in November of 1863, apparently while disobeying orders and remained a prisoner-of-war near Richmond, Virginia, for the rest of his enlistment. Company K officially mustered him out of the army while he was still absent and in a Confederate prison.
WILSON NAILOR was wounded on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg. He was sent to a General Hospital (probably Camp Letterman, a large tented hospital established east of Gettysburg), and remained there until October 23, 1863. After rejoining the army, he was transferred to the 190th Pennsylvania Volunteers. After the war he worked as a dentist in Gettysburg, Bendersville, and Elizabethville until 1914. Dr. Nailor was survived by 5 children. He is buried in the Bendersville Cemetery, Bendersville, Pennsylvania.
DANIEL ROBISON survived the Battle of Gettysburg, and in September was detailed as the official tailor for all 10 companies of the regiment! He must have had a good sense of humor since one of the other men characterized him as “always up to something”. He survived the war and eventually lived in western Pennsylvania.
WILLIAM STEWART led his men well at Gettysburg and it was said that he “had a firm hold upon the hearts and affections” of everyone. He was mustered out with the regiment on June 13, 1864, but continued to rise in command, soon appointed Colonel of the 112th Pennsylvania Infantry. He was even “brevetted” (honorary promotion) as a Brigadier General in 1865 “for gallant conduct at the Battle of North Anna, VA”. Stewart died in 1916, aged 79 years old, and was buried in York Springs, Pennsylvania. His tombstone reads “a good soldier who served his country faithfully”.
JOHN DUEY survived the Battle of Gettysburg, and was “notably brave and daring” during the Wilderness Campaign almost a year later. On May 16, 1864, he was severely wounded near Spotsylvania and sent to the hospital. The men of Company K heard that he died there, but no official word every came. When Minnigh published his book about Company K in 1891, he still had no updates on what happened to Duey.
ANDREW BLOCHER survived the Battle of Gettysburg and made it through his entire term of service. But when he tried to re-enlist in February of 1864, he did not pass the medical examination. After the war, he lived in nearby Bendersville until his death in 1905. Captain Minnigh delivered a speech at his funeral.
HENRY BEAMER was at Gettysburg with Company K fighting on the western slope of Little Round Top. That day there was heavy fighting around his Uncle John Wentz’s house near the Peach Orchard. Beamer survived the battle and war, and returned home for awhile but, like several others in Company K, ultimately moved west after the war.
JOHN SHIPLEY survived the Battle of Gettysburg, but was killed on the skirmish line, May 18, 1864, at the Battle of Spotsylvania. His friends in Company K buried him there “under the wide-spread branches of an evergreen."
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Last updated: September 11, 2025