Better Know an Officer: Lieut. Daniel A. Zook

Today's post is an exciting guest post by Joel Rodgers, a Lancaster County native and descendant of Lieut. Daniel A. Zook of Company I, 79th Pennsylvania.  Joel runs a Facebook page for the 79th Pennsylvania, so be sure to connect with him there, as well as his other pages for the 203rd Pennsylvania and the 122nd Pennsylvania.  Welcome, Joel, and thank you for sharing your research!     

Lieut. Daniel A. Zook
Company I, 79th Pennsylvania
(79th PA Officers Oval)

Name: 2nd Lt. Daniel Andrew Zook, Company I, 79th Pennsylvania
Born: May 10, 1834; Lancaster Co, Pennsylvania
Died: May 18 1883; Intercourse, Lancaster Co, Pennsylvania; Buried at Intercourse United Methodist Cemetery, Lancaster PA
Pre-war Life: Laborer and Butcher. Married Susanna Harsh in 1858 in Lancaster County and had four daughters.
Post-war Life: Butcher, painter and hotel employee in Intercourse and Lancaster City from 1865 until his death.

A grandson of one of the oldest living Revolutionary veterans of Lancaster County, Andrew Snyder (1733-1845), Daniel A. Zook and his family had long been patriotic members of the county. Lieut. Zook was born in 1834 to Daniel L. Zook and Catherine Snyder. His great-grandfather, Johannes Zug, was one of the three founding brothers of the Zook/Zug family who arrived from Germany by way of Rotterdam, Holland, in Philadelphia in 1742. He was also a great-grandson of the Bishop Jacob Mast (1738-1808), who was the 2nd Amish Mennonite Bishop in America and also provided public service to the Revolution in Pennsylvania.

His brother, Azariah Mast Zook, was a private in the 2nd Pennsylvania Calvary and died of typhoid fever soon after Antietam at Hairwood Hospital, Washington, D. C., in Oct 1862. His brother Josiah was married to the sister of Lt Cyrus Eckert of Company C 79th PVI. Also, his sister Elmira was married to the brother of Lt Cyrus Eckert. Daniel was a second cousin of Brevet Maj. Gen. Samuel K. Zook, US Volunteers, who was killed on the second day of the Gettysburg Campaign.

Before the war, Daniel lived with his family in the Intercourse area of Lancaster County. His father died two years after his birth, and Daniel was likely raised with the help of his older siblings. By 1850, he was known to be a laborer in the Leacock Township area, and was listed as a Butcher in Newville, Lancaste, prior to the war in 1860. He was wed to Susan (Susanna) Harsh in Sept 1858 by the Rev. J. J. Strine. They had at least three daughters between 1858-1862. What became of Susan is still a mystery; all research indicates she passed away during the war.

Zook enrolled at the age of 27 as a Private with the 79th on the 18th of Sept 1861 in Lancaster County and was assigned to Captain Whiteside's Company, later known as Company I. By March of 1862, Daniel would be a corporal with the regiment, during the time they were moving from Bowling Green, Kentucky, to Nashville, Tennessee. A Lancaster Examiner and Herald news story from the 15 Oct 1862, days after the Battle of Perryville, listed Daniel as a corporal and the Regimental Butcher. Daniel would continue to serve as a corporal until the veteran furlough re-enlistment period in Feb 1864 in Chattanooga TN.

Daniel re-enlisted as a sergeant, and coincidently his Veteran Volunteer Enlistment papers were signed by his brother-in-law, Lt Cyrus Eckert, as recruiter. Daniel served as sergeant for the remainder of the year; presumably he participated in most engagements. On January 21, 1865, he was made a 1st Sgt during the Campaign of the Carolinas. Daniel received one final promotion, that of Second Lieutenant on April 23 1865. The promotion was by the order of Capt. Samuel Nixdorf while in Martha's Vineyard, NC. In a matter of days the 79th would see the surrender of Johnston and his army and soon would be joyful participants in the Grand Review in Washington.

(New Holland Clarion, 1/19/1878)

Like many men, Daniel returned home to many parades and community dinners. Daniel returned to the profession of butcher in Lancaster after the war. He was working and living in the southern end of the city near the Woodward Cemetery in 1866. In March of 1870 Daniel had an accident while searching for his escaped team of horses in Leahman Place. While walking in the dark in searching for his horses he stepped through the bridge between Gordonville and Leahman Place and badly injured his leg. It was feared at the time that his leg may need to be amputated, it is unknown if it ever was. The 1870 census list him as a painter in Gap living with his brother Josiah and their aging mother. He spent the next decade as a laborer in the Leacock area. He was again the topic of news in January 1878 for chasing off a chicken thief from his employer's hotel and bar in Intercourse, the former Cross Keys Tavern then operated by Jacob Rutter. Daniel was listed as working for Rutter at late as 1880.

Daniel passed away in May 1883 at the young age of 45. His mother would pass 8 years later and be laid to rest next to him at the Intercourse United Methodist Church, which she was a founding member. Daniel passed away before he could apply for his pension, so much of his history is dependent solely on his service records. His three daughters married members of the Beamesderfer, Eckert, and Price families. Any records, correspondences, and stories that his family may have had are not know to exists. Daniel is know to not be an original member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, but his descendants are all eligible. Daniel is known to have at least 15 grandchildren, some of his descendants are members of the Lupinetti, Smaltz, Trautman, Gravatti, Schafebook, Plasterer, and Hauser families. Anyone who descends from Daniel Zook is welcome to contact the author, Joel Rodgers, to provide or receive information.

Gravestones of Lt. Daniel A. Zook and his mother
Intercourse United Methodist Cemetery (Photo by Joel Rodgers)

Sources:

• "Zug/Zuck/Zouck/Zook Genealogy" (Baltimore: Gateway Press, 2009)
• "Mast Family History" C.Z. Mast
• Zook, Daniel A; NARA Service Record

Better Know an Officer: Capt. William G. Kendrick

Capt. William G. Kendrick (WGK)

Name:  Capt. William G. Kendrick, Company A, 79th Pennsylvania (later a 14th Corps staff officer)

Born:  August 26, 1815, Cecil County, Maryland

Died:  February 10, 1897, Fort Wayne, Indiana

Pre-war Life:  Sailor from 1837 to 1847.  Married Anna Louise Stoddart in 1849 in Delaware and had several children.  Supervised bricklaying contract for Lancaster County Courthouse.  Local government connections.  

Post-war Life:  Architect in Lancaster.  Moved to Springfield, Ohio, and Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he died.   

Key Events: Captured with men by Morgan's raiders while on work detail in May 1862.  Battle of Chickamauga.  

On the battlefield, very few men acted like they had less to lose that Capt. William G. Kendrick, but when it came to returning home to their families few men acted like they were missing out on so much by being away in the army.  Kendrick, the senior captain of the 79th Pennsylvania and seemingly Col. Hambright's right-hand man, made a name for himself as a daredevil: first when narrowly escaping cannibals while sailing around the world, then as a captain in the 79th Pennsylvania, and later as a staff officer to Brig. Gen. James Negley of the 14th Corps.       

Fortunately, Kendrick left behind one of the best collections of private letters related to the 79th Pennsylvania, which his descendents have published and made available <here> (warning: file size is very large).  Kendrick writes to his wife with extreme self-confidence regarding his competence as a leader, his favored status among Col. Hambright's line officers, and a bluntness about those he deems poor officers. His letters recounting his close calls in battles and the risks he took on independent expeditions must have terrified his wife.  I'd call him arrogant or narcissistic, but he has some pretty good letters of recommendation in his file to back him up, including one from Gen. George H. Thomas.  Kendrick also writes openly about homesickness and the emotional challenges of leaving his wife and young children and going off to war.

Louisa Stoddart Kendrick (WGK)

Kendrick appears to have had talents in the building trades which he employed during the building boom of the 1850s in Lancaster.  Searching the Lancaster Intelligencer for his name during the 1850s gives some of the details of work he supervised, including a contract for $8,800 to do the brick masonry work for the Lancaster County Courthouse.  Before the war, it also appears Kendrick was active in Lancaster City's Know Nothing Party during the 1850s before getting in trouble for some breaching some secret related to the order.  The economic downtown appears to have hit Kendrick hard though, as he repeatedly states that we would resign as soon as he had enough money to stabilize his family's situation.

Lancaster County Courthouse, built 1852-5.  (Source and info)

Highlights of Kendrick's tenure as officer included dining with Confederate cavalryman John Hunt Morgan after a telegraph detail Kendrick led was captured by him in 1862, working hard as a staff officer during the Battle of Chickamauga, and then supposedly giving up a cot he found to Gen. Thomas the night after the 14th Corps made its famous stand at Chickamauga.  Earlier in the war, Kendrick led a detachment of the 79th Pennsylvania on a daylong expedition into the countryside, and the next post will focus on the excitement that resulted from the excursion.

A Complaint from Col. Hambright

Union Army Officers in Camp, identified as part of 44th New York (Mathew Brady via fold3.com)

Today's letter affords us our first opportunity to hear from Col. Henry A. Hambright, leader of the Lancaster County Regiment.  Over the course of the war, we get the sense that his duties running the regiment and filling brigade-level roles assigned by Gen. Negley kept him extremely busy, so don't expect the same level of introspection that has characterizes Corp. Witmer's and Lieut. Nevin's letters.  In fact, the letter Col. Hambright wrote on November 19, 1861, aimed to deny and crack down on rumors coming out of his regiment that caused a little stir in Lancaster.  

The rumors that so infuriated the commander of the 79th Pennsylvania essentially were communicated by certain soldiers in the regiment and said that certain officers in the regiment were worthless and frequently drunk, and about to be kicked out of the regiment.  I actually haven't been able to find any corroborating sources--private or public--from November 1861 so it must have flown under the radar and stayed out of the newspapers (although I could have missed something).  I don't know who the "recruit" or "schoolmaster" was that Col. Hambright mentions, although it's possible it involved J. P. McCaskey the Lancaster Boys High School who we know was pretty deeply involved in 79th Pennsylvania controversies later in the war.  But that's just speculation, as there were a large number of education-related temperance-sympathizing soldiers, including just about all of Company E.

The letter also reminds me that I don't really know much about disciplinary actions within the regiment and the negative side of army life--drunkenness, desertions, and incompetence--which for the most part stayed out of Lancaster's newspapers.  Perhaps some of the more official documents in Harrisburg or Washington can illuminate.

Anyway, here's Col. Hambright's letter, published in the November 27, 1861, Examiner and Herald: (alternate link)

Better Know an Officer: Lieut. William Wilberforce Nevin

Lt. W. Wilberforce Nevin (taken 7/14/1862)
Don Wisnoski Collection, USAMHI

Name: William Wilberforce Nevin, 1st Lieut., Company G
Born: March 1, 1836, Allegheny, PA
Education: Franklin and Marshall College: Valedictorian, Class of 1853
Occupation: Lawyer since 1859. Before that, teacher in Sewickley, PA. 
Political Beliefs: Republican
Term of Service: Enlisted September 23, 1861. Promoted to Captain, August 23, 1862. Assistant Adjutant General on May 26, 1863.
Post-war: Lawyer, newspaper editor, railroad man. 
Death: September 27, 1899.  Buried in Woodward Hill Cemetery. 

Continuing the trend of 79th Pennsylvania line officers having immediate family members at the forefront of education in Lancaster (i.e., McCaskey and Wickersham), this post introduces Lieut. William Wilberforce Nevin (bio) of Company G, 79th Pennsylvania, hailed as "a patriot, a scholar, a gentleman."  The son of a distinguished German Reformed theologian and future president of Franklin and Marshall College, Wilberforce Nevin graduated at the top of his class at F&M in 1853.  His occasional letters as an officer in the 79th Pennsylvania to the Daily Evening Express exhibit enviable eloquence and reflect a distinguished career that spanned education, law, newspapers, and railroads.

Service Card of W. W. Nevin, PA Card File

Nevin joined the 79th Pennsylvania in September 1861 as one of three lawyers who recruited and led what became Company G.  After the war, Nevin continued his work as a lawyer in Lancaster, and his name appears regularly between 1865 and 1867+ as an active participant in Republican politics and veterans organizations, as well as working pro bono as a lawyer for veterans.  He became a journalist for the Lancaster Daily Evening Express and later for the well-respected Philadelphia Press.  Nevin spent the years 1879 and 1880 traveling in Europe and published his travel memoirs, Vignettes of Travel.  You can view a particularly interesting chapter, Chapter 5 beginning on p. 36, comparing Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as he knew it with Lancashire, England.  Later, Nevin moved to New York to work on behalf of railroads until shortly before his death in 1899.

Although I don't know much about Nevin's religious beliefs, his father is very interesting for having played a central role in one of the major conflicts of religion in America: the mid-nineteenth century clash between confessionalists and pietists that would help determine the character of Protestant denominations.  Loosely speaking, confessionalists advocated a more conservative understanding of the key theological formulations of the Reformation, while pietists favored a more "American" approach that emphasized revivals, conversion stories, and modern ways of expressing faith typical of the Second Great Awakening.  While this may sound dull, it's actually a very fascinating topic to watch unfold, especially for anyone trying to understand Christianity in all of its forms today.  I'll have more about this debate--especially as it relates to addressing the issue of slavery--when the Lutherans' national body convenes in Lancaster in May 1862.

Dr. John Williamson Nevin
Father of W. W. Nevin

Anyway, Wilberforce's father, John Williamson Nevin, made a name for himself as a "High Church Calvinist" while a seminary professor in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania.  During the 1840s, Nevin and a colleague attracted attention as proponents of what became known as the "Mercersburg Theology."  A bitter adversary at this time was a man named John Winebrenner, who essentially seceded from the German Reformed Church to create the Church of God, a more evangelistic, Baptist-like organization.  Winebrenner operated mostly out of Harrisburg with many churches in Lancaster, as well as the Church Advocate newspaper.  Wrapping up this tangent, this is the newspaper to which many soldiers wrote, including F. J. Bender regularly and E. H. Witmer on two occasions.  So, when trying to understand the religious world in which Civil War soldiers lived, it's important to recognize them as the children of the generation that faced many high-level choices and conflicts about the direction of Christianity in America.  

Grave of W. W. Nevin
Woodward Hill Cemetery

Back to W. Wilberforce Nevin, I hope you enjoy reading his letters as the secondary correspondent (to E. H. Witmer) to the Daily Evening Express, and are impressed by the authority with which he yielded his pen.  It looks like there will be two more over the next two months.  Apparently, a collection of W. W. Nevin's private letters to family members are housed in the Library of Congress, but I have yet to view them despite a deep desire to do so.  By the way, you might also be familiar with the sculptures of Wilberforce's sister, Blanche, including the Reservoir Park lion in Lancaster and the horse drinking fountain at the corner of W. Orange and King Streets. 

Further Reading:

• W. W. Nevin's October 28, 1861, Daily Evening Express Letter
• W. W. Nevin's Vignettes of Travel 
• Dies irae: nine original English versions translated by W. W. Nevin
• Passionate pilgrims: the American traveler in Great Britain, 1800-1914 by Allison Lockwood
• History of Franklin and Marshall College, 1903
• See my Google Books library for books written by John Williamson Nevin.
• John Winebrenner and the Church of God by Richard Kern
• John Williamson Nevin: American theologian by Richard E. Wentz
• "John Winebrenner: From German Reformed Roots to the Churches of God" by J. Harvey Gossard