Orcutt, David S.

Scott, Kate M., History of Jefferson County, pp. 189-199.

CHAPTER XVI.

JEFFERSON COUNTY MEN IN OTHER ORGANIZATIONS.

QUITE a number of Jefferson County men enlisted and did gallant service in companies and regiments raised in other localities. The names and organizations of all such that we have been able to find we give below:

COMPANY L, ELEVENTH PENNSYLVANIA CAVALRY.

The Eleventh Pennsylvania Cavalry was organized at Washington, D.C., September, 1861, by Colonel Josiah Harlan, as an Independent light horse cavalry regiment, composed of companies from different States; but as Congress had only authorized the raising of regiments by States, the formation of this regiment as an independent organization was irregular, and on the 13th of November it was attached to the Pennsylvania State organizations, and was thereafter known as the Eleventh Pennsylvania Cavalry— the One Hundred and Eighth regiment in line.

Company L, in which were forty-seven men from Jefferson county, was raised by Captain John B. Loomis of Clarion, and was mustered into the service September 12, 1861. This regiment was one of the best cavalry organizations in the army, and performed gallant service. It took part in thirty-two battles and over one hundred and five skirmishes.

A number of this company were captured in the fight at Reams’s Station, Va., June 29, 1864, among whom was David S. Orcutt, of Corsica, and whose experience in rebeldom was, we presume, not excelled for hardship by any other of our soldiers. After being captured he was taken to Richmond, and there kept in Libby prison twenty days, and then sent to Andersonville, Ga., from which place he escaped, but was recaptured by blood-hounds, near Macon; from there he was taken to Savannah, and on his way to the latter place he again managed to escape, and was again, the next day, recaptured by blood-hounds and sent to Savannah, and from there to Millen. When Sherman "came marching through Georgia," the prisoners were sent ahead of the army to Savannah and exchanged, and then sent to Annapolis, Md., where Mr. Orcutt was put in the hospital, and from there transferred to a hospital in Baltimore. From Baltimore he was taken to Washington, D.C., as a witness in the trial of Wirz, on which he was detained for six weeks, when he was so prostrated by illness, that he had to be sent back to the hospital at Baltimore, where on the 12th of April, 1865, he was discharged and returned home, after having served in the army four years and one month. When he was taken prisoner he weighed one hundred and eighty pounds; when he was released he was reduced to one hundred pounds, and he has never recovered from the effects of his imprisonment. David R. McCullough who was taken prisoner at the same time, made his escape from Andersonville, and after traveling fourteen days and nights, reached our lines at Chattanooga about Christmas, 1864. Mr. Orcutt says, "No one will ever know what we suffered at Andersonville. Only those who have been there can tell anything about it. All other prisons were parlors compared with Andersonville."

The following Jefferson county men were in Company L:

First lieutenant, Robert J. Robinson; second lieutenant, Shannon McFadden; first sergeant, William K. Shaffer; sergeants, Enos G. Nolf, Christian D. Fleck, James Baldwin, Aaron Fulmer, William N. George, Thomas McDowell, Edward Meeker, Charles Kline, Amos Weaver; corporals, John H. Shaw, James M. Matthews, David B. Zilafro, Paul Hettrick; farrier, Samuel Moorhead; privates, Samuel Anderson, Henry Allen, Charles Barnard, James Christie, William P. Confer, James F. Cannon, Amos W. Delp, Benjamin Divler, James P. Dillman, Jesse Evans, Frederick Fulmer, W.N. George, Joseph Gates, John C. Hettrick, Jacob Heckathorn, Josiah Klingensmith, Calvin Lucas, Moses W. Mathews, D.R. McCullough, John McCullough, James McCann, John R. McFadden, Daniel R. Noble, Thomas B. Nolf, David S. Orcutt, John C. Platt, Richard Tipton, Jacob Taylor, James R. Vandevort, Amos Weaver.