Henry Graham Parker: Twice a Soldier

Posted: January 13th, 2009 | Author: Mark | Filed under: Genealogy, Ohio | Tags: civil war |

A rather humorous anecdote regarding my great grandfather’s participation in the civil war has circulated for years, and I decided to see if any evidence existed that might validate the story. The “family legend” holds that Henry Graham Parker (the father in the Ouija Board story) was discharged after being wounded, only to sign up again. That alone isn’t extraordinary, as many soldiers returned once they recuperated from an injury, but it’s Henry’s motivation that makes this story so much fun. Supposedly his stepmother put the recovering Henry on a therapeutic regimen of wood chopping, and he soon decided that dodging bullets held more appeal! I set out to add credence to this tale by finding records that corroborate his “dual service” to the Union.
While my experience could be the exception, I found that data on Union soldiers could be found with relative ease. I’ve heard that the same cannot be said for Confederates, and I’ll put that to the test when I tackle the war records on mom’s side of the family. With considerable help from ancestry.com, I learned that Henry joined the 30th Ohio Volunteer Infanry on Aug. 21, 1861, and was assigned to Company “F”. The 30th was to see a good deal of action before the war ended, but most of it without my great grandfather, as he was wounded during their second encounter with the enemy. It was on Sept. 14, 1862, during the Battle of South Mountain, Md., that Henry was injured, whether from shrapnel, a bullet, or during hand-to-hand combat is unknown. While little known outside the community of civil war buffs, the Battle of South Mountain was a significant one. Part of Robert E. Lee’s Maryland Campaign, it was a precursor to the Battle of Antietam, considered the bloodiest single-day battle in American history.
I’ve learned that Henry G. Parker was one of the 1807 Union soldiers wounded in the Battle of South Mountain (443 were killed), and was discharged with a surgeon’s certificate of disability on January 6 of 1863. I also discovered that he did indeed reenlist, having joined company “I” of the 176th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry on Sept. 13, 1864. The regiment performed provost-guard duty at Nashville and, with the exception of some companies that participated in the Battle of Nashville, did not engage the enemy. Henry was mustered out with the company on June 14, 1865.
All this points towards the story being true, although I’ve got to believe that Henry Parker’s reenlistment was inspired by more than an aversion to wood chopping. In any case, I’m proud of my great grandfather’s participation in the civil war. The engraving at the top of this page shows the Battle of South Mountain. It can be enlarged with a left-click, or you can see the huge version for additional detail. For still more detail, try the very huge version!
I’ll conclude this post with a poem (author unknown), one that appeared in Harper’s Weekly just over a month following the Battle of South Mountain:

AT SOUTH MOUNTAIN

Like plates of brassy armor

The yellow plowed lands lay

Upon the valley’s bosom

For leagues and leagues away.

Along them shines and shimmers

The lazy moving stream,

As o’er a child’s soft bosom

The idle ribbons gleam.

The mountain’s velvet helmet

Nods darkly on her crest,

As though some untold passion

Was trembling in her breast.

The green leaves chant together

A weird and mystic strain,

And the feathery tenants mingle

Their notes in the wild refrain.

The shadows sweep o’er the valley

Like an evanescent blot,

That seems like a holy feeling

Begrimed with an impure thought.

—’Twas thus lay the quiet valley

And the sentry hills held sway,

Ere the bugle notes scared the song-birds,

Or the reveille woke the day.

And now was the smiling Sabbath,

And the sweet-tongued meeting bells

Rang out like an incense wafted

O’er listening hills and dells.

The soldiers catch the cadence

Borne out on the distant air,

And it comes to their weary spirits

Like the thought of an angel’s prayer.

But vain the holy summons—

The prayer remains unsaid,

The singer’s lips are silent,

The sermon lies unread;

While long and dusty columns

Of sun-browned troops file by,

Nerved by the rigid purpose

To win the day—or die!

Along the paths of the mountain

Moves up the dark-blue line,

The gun-wheels grind o’er the boulders,

The burnished bayonets shine.

Way up in the leafy covert

The curling smoke betrays

Where the foe throw down the gauntlet,

And the answering cannons blaze.

The crack of the Minie rifle,

The shriek of the crashing shell,

The ring of the flashing sabre,

Their tale of the conflict tell.

They tell of the dear lives lying,

War’s food in Nature’s lap,

Ere the Starry Flag in triumph

Waves through the Mountain Gap.

Night drops her pitying mantle

To hide the bloody scene—

Next morn a thousand dead men

Mark where the foe had been.

And where the fight was hottest

Two mangled corpses lay,

One clad in bright blue jacket,

And one in homespun gray.

Their hands are clasped together,

Their bloody bosoms show

Each fought with a dauntless purpose,

And fell ‘neath each other’s blow!

They fell, and the crimson mingled,

And before the paling eye

Back rolled the storm of the conflict

To the peaceful days gone by.

Emit thought of the mystic token—

The talismanic sign;

Each recognized a Brother!

Two firm right hands entwine!

The fire of the noble order

Touched not their hearts in vain.

All hate fades out, uniting

Two hearts with the triple chain!

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