The following men died locally during the war, from injuries or disease sustained while serving.
Peter Arnold
Arnold died in September 1863 of chronic diarrhea caused by typhoid fever. He was at his home in Chpaman Township and was forty-one years old at the time of his death. He was a farmer before the war. Peter was drafted in October 1862 as a nine-month soldier in Company A of the 172nd Pennsylvania (a drafted regiment formed when the state did not meet its quota of volunteers). He entered service in October 1862 as a nine-month draftee. Seven months into his service, he began to show signs of illness. He was discharged in July with the rest of his company. He died soon after his return to Chapman Township.
His unit was part of the garrison at Yorktown in the months after the heat of the Peninsula Campaign had died down. It was while serving at Yorktown that he caught the typhoid fever (or “camp fever”). The Second Lieutenant of Company A attributed it to “diet and exposure.” His last child, John, was born five months before he died. His wife, Mary Shaffer, whom he married in 1842, applied for a pension in 1866 to support their six children. She received $8 per month.
David Getz
Getz died on September 22, 1863 at his home in Beaver Springs. His death was caused by injuries he had suffered at the Battle of Fredericksburg the previous December. He was forty years old at the time of his death and had worked as a shoemaker before the war. Getz was in Company F of the 131st Pennsylvania regiment.
The 131st was heavily involved in the Battle of Fredericksburg, where Company F took part in the doomed charge at the Stone Wall on Marye’s Heights. It was during one of these charges that Getz was injured severely in his left leg. His femur was shattered just below the hip by two bullets. He fell in the chaotic stretch of ground in front of the wall and was later reclaimed by Union troops. Getz was taken to Emory Hospital in Washington, D.C., where surgeons determined that his wound was too extreme to contemplate continued service. He stayed in the hospital for six months. Fellow members of Company F went for him when he was discharged, and they took him by ambulance to the train. They eventually got him home to Beaver Springs in early July 1863.
His wound was infected and his leg was swollen and painful. His wife Mary attested that he spent the last three months of his life confined to his bed, numbed by steady doses of opium. At the time of his death, he and Mary had seven children under the age of sixteen.
Levi Fisher
Fisher died on September 19, 1863 at his home in Beavertown. Like Peter Arnold, he died of chronic diarrhea caused typhoid fever. He was forty-two years old at the time of his death and had worked as a carpenter before the war. Fisher was in Company G of the 172nd Pennsylvania regiment.
According to the Company G commander, Levi fell ill with typhoid fever in mid-July. The commander attributed it to the hard marching “under a scorching sun,” drinking “impure water,” and insufficient diet. His attending physican right up to the end was Benjamin Wagenseller. The doctor described Levi’s state in his last weeks of life as a “very bad condition.”
Levi had been married for twenty years to Elizabeth Higler. The couple had no children. Elizabeth received $8 per month for the next six years as a widow’s pension.