Gettysburg to remember fallen from Civil War to Vietnam: Pliny White lingered a month after losing arm; Abel G. Peck fell early in battle

Pliny White (top) and Abel G. Peck are buried at the park cemetery

Some of America’s war heroes are famous, their names etched on buildings, remembered in the movies or painted on the transom of a Navy ship.

But the vast majority are lesser-known. This Memorial Day weekend, Gettysburg National Military Park and Eisenhower National Historic Site will share a few of their stories. The program at Gettysburg National Cemetery will discuss the site's creation and highlight several service members, from the Civil War through the Vietnam. They were among 6,000 men and women laid to rest in the hallowed ground between 1863 and 1971.

The free, 90-minute guided program takes place on Saturday, May 27, at 6 pm. Meet at the Taneytown Road entrance of the cemetery.

Park spokesman Jason Martz told the Picket that two Civil War soldiers will be among those featured: Sgt. Abel G. Peck of the 24^th Michigan and Pvt. Pliny Fisk White of the 14^th Vermont. Peck is believed to be buried at the cemetery as unknown.

Here’s more about the two soldiers:

Pvt. Pliny Fisk White, 14^th Vermont, Addison County

When the war brought out in 1861, White was encouraged to stay home to take care of his widowed mother. But he decided to enlist in October 1862 for a nine-month term. After months stationed in the Washington, D.C., area, the regiment was attached to the Army of the Potomac.

While in the army, White frequently wrote home. His correspondence is excerpted from “Among the Things That Were: Letters of a Vermont Farm Family,” by Barbara Freund (2001)

White is buried in Vermont section (Gettysburg National Military Park

He wrote his sister in January 1863:

“After Virginia comes forth from her fiery trial purified it will be a good place to plant northern institutions. In looking at the devastation on every side occasioned by the war, one can but be reminded that the too long unheeded cry of oppressed is being amply avenged. As the tide of oppression commenced here & rolled southward so it may be yes must be with the merited retribution which slavery thus far has met.”

White wrote a letter to Lemira, believed to be his fiancée, on the day before his unit went to the front:

“The chances are very favorable that to-day we shall go into battle. Though it is said that we are to be held in reserve. I do not doubt but before the fight is over we shall be called. I am ready and willing to go into battle and can trust myself in the hands of Him who is our only trust. Though I do not fear, yet it may be if I go into battle this may be the last time I shall write to you. Already the firing has commenced but not briskly. I would like to see you, but as I cannot I thought just a word would be better than nothing. I love you as ever and think of you often, and if we meet no more on earth, I hope I shall be worthy to meet you where there will be no more parting words.”

On July 3, the final day of the Battle of Gettysburg, the 25-year-old was wounded by a shell fragment as his regiment engaged with a Florida brigade that was supporting Pickett's Charge.

“His shattered arm was amputated soon after the battle and Pliny was taken to a field hospital set up in Gettysburg's Lutheran Seminary,” the National Park Service says. “There the doctors and nurses believed Pliny would recover.”

Nearly a month after his wounding, on July 31, White wrote his sister again:

“Through the kindness of a good brother I will tell you how I am. I would not have you mourn on account of my condition for I feel reconciled to my lot, although it is hard. You know that we are taught in God’s Holy Word that ‘all things shall work together for the good of those that love God.’ I have excellent care and good nurses, who are doing all they can for me and take a deep interest in my recovery -- I have good food also. I’ve had some fever and my pulse is quite high yet.”

White did not recover and died on Aug. 5 at a field hospital set up in Gettysburg's Lutheran Seminary. He was later buried in the Vermont section of the national cemetery.

“Had he survived Gettysburg, he would have by that date been back at home with his family in Vermont, for the nine-month term of service of the 14th Vermont expired in late July and the regiment was mustered out of service,” says the NPS. (14th Vermont monument at Gettysburg, Wikipedia)

Sgt. Abel G. Peck, 24^th Michigan

The 24^th Michigan was organized in Detroit in August 1862 and became part of the famed Iron Brigade. The regiment had seen limited action until Gettysburg, but it had a real baptism of blood on those three July days.

At age 42, Abel Peck was an old soldier, by standards of the day. The farmer was a father of two girls and twice a widower. “There must have been something about Peck's bravery and integrity for he was soon after selected to carry the regimental flag of the 24th Michigan, a post of high and great honor in a Civil War regiment,” says the park service.

24th Michigan veterans at Gettysburg in 1889

Peck wrote his daughter Alice in August 1862, “With a heart beating high with emotion I attempt to address you. it becomes my duty to say to you that i have enrolled my self as a volunteer for our Country and its flag. pain full as it is I feel it to be my duty.”

And a letter to a few months later: “… if we have to fight I expect to have to take my part and if I fal you must not morn for I think I cam dooing my duty and you must think that the honor of having a Father die in the defense of his Country will make up for the loss you will sustane ..”

Peck was felled on July 1, early in the battle, as the Iron Brigade clashed with Confederate troops in pitched fighting. His commanding officer, Col. Henry Morrow, would later eulogize Peck, calling him a "brave and faithful soldier," and "a man greatly admired for his almost saintly character."

Shot through by twenty-three bullets and its staff splintered, the flag was reduced to a tatter seen here, according to the Michigan History Center. The regiment fulfilled its vow to protect the banner: the flag was never surrendered. (At left, a small piece of the flag, GNMP)

Peck was buried where he fell, but when the color bearer was reinterred at the national cemetery, his remains were not identified and he is likely marked as unknown.

The 24^th Michigan’s casualties at Gettysburg were staggering: It went into action with 496 officers and men. Some 89 were killed or mortally wounded, 218 wounded and 56 captured, for a total of 363 casualties. Five color bearers were killed. But the regiment helped buy time for Union forces to occupy the vital Cemetery Ridge.