diers having the cleanest arms and accoutrements, and showing the most soldierly appearance."*

This, says the historian, was the inauguration of a new impulse in the regiment in that direction.

On the 3d of July the Fifty-first took up its march northward, and being still in the Second Brigade, Reno's Division, was now placed in the famous Ninth Army Corps, and went to the support of General Pope at the second battle of Bull Run. The company, largely by the vigilance of Captain Bolton and his brother, Lieutenant Bolton, saved Graham's Battery from capture during that disastrous fight.

Shortly after this demoralizing battle, wherein Pope was left unsupported by a large portion of the army under Fitz John Porter, and owing to the jealousies of McClellan's partisans, there seemed to be a widespread distrust both in the army and among the people as to the future of the war. Just before the battle of Antietam Captain Bolton wrote a private letter to his mother, without the slightest idea of its ever being published in the papers. This the late editor of the Norristown Republican read at the house of the Captain's mother, and begged the privilege of inserting a short extract as a sample of camp patriotism. The letter says:

"I am well and ready to march. I was surprised to hear it was thought I had resigned. Never, never, never! I am in for the war whether it lasts three years or as long as I live. I never will desert my company, come what may. I hope we may be successful, but we shall have to work. The Burnside boys do not know what a reverse is. I shall do my duty. If I fall the name of Bolton shall not be dishonored. * * I am well, happy, and contented. No duty will be too hard for me. I love my country better than anything on earth, and if needs be I will freely give my life for my flag."

He little thought perhaps that within a few weeks he should almost come to his anticipated offer of his life for his country, for the next dangerous service to which Captain Bolton was put was with his regiment and the Fifty-first New York to take Antietam bridge, which nearly cost him his life. The First Brigade had been thrice repulsed in the assault upon it, when the two regiments above named, of the Second Brigade,

*History of the Fifty-first, page 180.

were ordered to advance, which they did under a storm of shot, led by Captains Bolton and Allebaugh, and Lieutenant Colonel Bell. The latter fell dead, and Captain Bolton was shot in the cheek by a musket ball, which struck the jaw bone, breaking it near the socket or process, carrying away several teeth, and passing out of the other cheek. At first it was thought he was killed, but though desperately wounded was in a few days sent home, where, under gentle nursing in his mother's house, he slowly recovered, and reported for duty again in about three months.

The death of Bell promoted Major Schall to the position of Lieutenant Colonel, and Captain Bolton to that of Major. His commission dates from September 17th, the time of this desperate charge. During the subsequent operations of the Fiftyfirst with Burnside before Fredericksburg, in the fall of 1862, Major Bolton was at home recovering from his ghastly wound, which nearly carried away his jaw, and deformed him for life.

Some time in January, as his regiment lay at Newport News, he rejoined it, and the division lay in winter quarters till near April, when they were ordered West, passing through Cincinnati to Kentucky. Nothing of interest occurred here, and the regiment was sent down the valley of the Mississippi to operate against Vicksburg. After assisting in the investment of this rebel stronghold, and keeping General Johnston from raising the siege, they were, after its fall, sent to operate against Jackson, Mississippi. This place, after some fighting, and the endurance of exhausting heat by the troops, was taken, and the old flag planted on the State Capitol once more. In the beginning of August the regiment returned to Kentucky and Tennessee for a winter campaign. While laying at Lenoir, Kentucky, the Ladies' Loyal League of Norristown sent a congratulatory address to the regiment, and it fell to Major Bolton's duty to reply, which he did in very handsome terms. During the siege of Knoxville and subsequently, as well as previously, the army suffered greatly by the need of stores and provisions. Besides, some of the fighting was of the most desperate character. At this time Lieutenant Colonel Schall was commanding the regiment. During this memorable siege, be

ing ordered by Colonel Schall to take some rifle-pits by a night assault, Major Bolton accomplished it in gallant style. Shortly after this Longstreet abandoned the attempt to take Knoxville, retired from East Tennessee, and the Fifty-first, whose term of enlistment was drawing to a close, were ordered home on a thirty days' furlough to re-enlist and recruit for three years more service. We pass over the joyful reunion of the veterans and their families on their temporary return to Montgomery county.

Late in March, 1864, the regiment left Harrisburg for the coming campaign of the Army of the Potomac, of which the Ninth Army Corps was to form a part. Then commenced those sanguinary battles down the peninsula that stained with blood nearly every rod of ground between Washington and Richmond. At Cold Harbor the lamented Colonel Schall was killed, which placed Major Bolton at the head of the regiment, Hartranft having already been commanding the brigade. His sixth commission, that of Colonel, was received about this time. The fighting was desperate, and the losses on both sides very heavy. Finally they arrived before Petersburg, where Colonel Bolton was entrusted by General Wilcox with the very difficult duty of bringing two flanks of the broken line into communication with each other by a night operation, which he accomplished very efficiently while under the steady fire of the enemy. The Fifty-first was put to this especial service on General Hartranft's assurance that it could be relied upon, and the event justified his confidence. To properly understand this feat it is necessary to state that one part of the picket line or rifle-pits was not straight, but bent inward towards our line as a horse-shoe, subjecting our men to an enfilading fire. How to straighten it in the face of the rebel storm of musketry was the question. Colonel Bolton assured the officer in command that he could secure the object under cover of darkness. This he did unseen by digging a trench at right angles with the line of advance, in the middle of the horse-shoe, and afterwards in a lateral direction to meet the perpendicular line, all the time maintaining a constant fire to conceal the noise of the pick and shovel. In the morning the Confederates saw our picket line

straight and our men under cover. Colonel Bolton reported to General Wilcox each hour till he had finished the movement. Other regiments had attempted the service and failed.

Shortly after this and the blowing up of the fort on the 3d of July, as Colonel Bolton stood with his men, there exploded some distance overhead a shell loaded with bullets and other missiles, one of which struck him on the cheek, almost on the spot of the old wound, passed downward, and lodged in the shoulder, where it yet remains. This wound of course relieved him of active duty, and he was brought home. In two months, however, he was again at the head of his command.

On the 3d of April, 1865, Colonel Bolton, suspecting that Petersburg was being evacuated by the enemy, sent a spy into the city, whose return fully confirmed the conjecture, and soon after he marched his regiment over the rebel works into the city. This was virtually the end of the war, the Fifty-first shortly after moving up to Alexandria, where Colonel Bolton had the honor to be appointed military Governor for a brief time. Here Lieutenant Colonel Allebaugh, who had been a year before captured by the rebels, was restored to and joined his command. On the 27th of July the regiment was mustered out, and Colonel Bolton, now brevet Brigadier General, returned to private life, his last commission being dated March 13th, 1865, and signed by President Johnson.

Shortly after his return from the army, General Bolton was married to Miss Emma Rupert, of Bloomsburg, Columbia county. They have had several children, but all are deceased except one. About the same time as his marriage, in connection with his brother John, he established a store for paper hangings, which he still continues. On the death of Sheriff Philip S. Gerhard he was appointed to that office by Governor Geary, and filled it till the next election. He also served a term as a member of the borough council. At the spring election in 1877 he was chosen Burgess, and filled the office in a very efficient manner. Before this he had been commissioned by the Adjutant General of the State as Major General of the Second Division, National Guards of Pennsylvania, consisting of the Sixteenth and Fourth Regiments. During 1877,

while holding this command, it was his duty to order out and direct the movements of his division in suppressing the great railroad riots. This was a service involving much responsibility with little possibility of winning glory thereby. In addition to the seven military commissions already recorded, he has one dated September 28th, 1869, from Governor Geary, as Captain of the Bolton Guards, and another dated July 8th, 1861, as Colonel of the Sixteenth Regiment, and finally one as Major General of the Second Division, National Guards of Pennsylvania.

ABRAHAM H. CASSEL.

[Contributed by Samuel W. Pennypacker.]

Thou, in our wonder and astonishment,

Hast built thyself a life-long monument.-Milton's Lines on Shakspeare.

This remarkable man, whose memory will be cherished as long as the German race exists in Pennsylvania, is a descendant in the fifth generation of Hupert Kassel, who came to this country about 1715. Johannes Kassel, who settled at Germantown in 1686, was probably an uncle of old Hupert. Among the earlier Kassels living at Krieshiem on the Rhine were some who became noted as zealous preachers of the Mennonite faith, and authors doing good service in the controversial literature of their day. Confessions of faith and poems in the handwriting of these worthy forefathers, who lived and died over two hundred years ago, are still preserved by their descendants.

On the maternal side Abraham H. Cassel is the great-grandson of Christopher Saur, the celebrated printer of Germantown, whose glory it is, not so much that he stood at the head of the men of his race, and wielded a potent influence in all the affairs of the province, as that he printed the Bible in German in Pennsylvania forty years before it was issued in English anywhere in America. Those who believe in the permanence of inherited characteristics may see in these facts a cause for the growth