Alternate Spellings of Surname: Koser, Kosier, Kozier, Krosier

Born in Perry County, Pennsylvania sometime around 1842, Jesse Kosier was a 19-year-old tanner residing in Bloomfield County, Pennsylvania when South Carolina and other southern states began seceding from the Union. His older brothers, George W. Kosier (born on 15 June 1836) and William S. Kosier (born sometime around 1838), were a carpenter and laborer, respectively, at this time. All were sons of John and Mary (Rice) Kosier, and all would enlist for Civil War military service in the same company of the same regiment.

Civil War Military Service

The eldest of the Kosier brothers, George W. Kosier, was an early responder to President Abraham Lincoln’s 15 April 1861 call for volunteers to help defend the nation’s capital following the fall of Fort Sumter to Confederate forces. He enrolled and officially mustered in for military service on 20 April 1861 at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg, Dauphin County. Awarded the rank of Corporal, he served with Company D of the 2nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and mustered out on 26 July 1861, following the honorable completion of his Three Months’ Service.

Corporal George W. Kosier then promptly re-upped for a three-year term of service, re-enrolling at Bloomfield in Perry County, Pennsylvania on 20 August 1861. Joining him were his younger brothers, Jesse and William S. Kosier.

The brothers then all officially mustered in at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg on 31 August 1861. George entered as a 25-year-old 1st Sergeant while Jesse and William entered as 19 and 23-year-old privates. All three were now part of the newly formed 47th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, founded by Colonel Tilghman H. Good.

Following a brief training period in light infantry tactics, the Kosiers – now under the command of Captain Henry D. Woodruff – were sent by train with D Company and the rest of the 47th Pennsylvania to Washington, D.C. There, beginning 21 September, they were stationed about two miles from the White House – at “Camp Kalorama” on Kalorama Heights near Georgetown. On 24 September the 47th Pennsylvanians officially became part of the federal service, mustering in with the U.S. Army. On September 27, they were assigned to the 3rd Brigade of W.F. Smith’s Army of the Potomac. That afternoon, the 47th marched to the Potomac River’s eastern side and, after arriving at Camp Lyon, Maryland, moved double-quick over a chain bridge before moving on toward Falls Church, Virginia.

Arriving at Camp Advance at dusk, the men pitched their tents in a deep ravine about two miles from the bridge they had just crossed, near a new federal military facility under construction (Fort Ethan Allen). Armed with Mississippi rifles supplied by the Keystone State, they joined with the 3rd Brigade and Smith’s Army of the Potomac in defending the nation’s capital until January when the 47th Pennsylvania was ordered to duty in the Deep South.

Later that fall, they were ordered to Camp Griffin, Virginia. While there, they marched in the Grand Review at Bailey’s Cross Roads (11 October); a Divisional Review (22 October), involving roughly 10,000 infantry, 1000 cavalry and 20 pieces of artillery; a divisional headquarters review, followed by brigade and division drills (21 November); and picket duties and other assignments.

1862

On 22 January 1862, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers left Camp Griffin, and marched through deep mud for three miles in order to reach the railroad station at Falls Church. Sent by rail to Alexandria, they then sailed the Potomac via the steamship City of Richmond to the Washington Arsenal, and were reequipped before marching off for dinner and rest at the Soldiers’ Retreat in Washington, D.C. The next afternoon, the 47th Pennsylvanians hopped railcars on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and headed for Annapolis, Maryland. Arriving around 10 p.m., they were assigned quarters in barracks at the Naval Academy. They then spent that Friday through Monday (24-27 January 1862) loading their equipment and other supplies onto the steamship Oriental. They had been ordered to the Deep South by Brigadier General John Brannan.

On 27 January, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers boarded the Oriental, steamed away for Florida at 4 p.m., and arrived in Key West in early February 1862. Assigned to garrison Fort Taylor, they also strengthened the installation’s fortifications, felled trees and built roads. From mid-June through July, the 47th was ordered to Hilton Head, South Carolina where the men made camp before being housed in the Department of the South’s Beaufort District. Picket duties north of the 3rd Brigade’s camp put soldiers at risk from sniper fire.

Sent on a return expedition to Florida in late September, the Kosier brothers saw their first truly intense moments of the war when they participated with the 47th Pennsylvania and other Union regiments in the capture of Saint John’s Bluff from 1 to 3 October. Led by Brigadier General Brannan, a 1,500-plus Union force disembarked at Mayport Mills and Mount Pleasant Creek from troop carriers guarded by Union gunboats. Taking point, the 47th led the 3rd Brigade through 25 miles of dense, pine forested swamps populated with deadly snakes and alligators. By the time the expedition ended, the brigade had forced the Confederate Army to abandon its artillery battery atop Saint John’s Bluff, and had paved the way for the Union to occupy the town of Jacksonville, Florida.

From 21-23 October, under the brigade and regimental commands of Colonel Tilghman H. Good and Lieutenant Colonel George W. Alexander, the 47th engaged Confederate forces in and around Pocotaligo, South Carolina. Landing at Mackey’s Point, the men of the 47th were placed on point once again, but they and the 3rd Brigade were less fortunate this time. Harried by snipers en route to the Pocotaligo Bridge, they met resistance from an entrenched, heavily fortified Confederate battery which opened fire on the Union troops as they entered an open cotton field. Those headed toward higher ground at the Frampton Plantation fared no better as they encountered artillery and infantry fire from the surrounding forests. The Union soldiers grappled with the Confederates where they found them, pursuing the Rebels for four miles as they retreated to the bridge. There, the 47th relieved the 7th Connecticut. After two hours of intense fighting in an attempt to take the ravine and bridge, depleted ammunition forced the 47th to withdraw to Mackey’s Point.

Losses for the 47th were significant. Two officers and 18 enlisted men died; two officers and another 114 enlisted were wounded.

1863

By 1863, the Kosier brothers and their fellow D Company men were once again based in Florida with the 47th Pennsylvania. Having been ordered back to Key West on 15 November, they spent the whole of 1863 at Fort Taylor with their comrades from Companies A and C while the other half of the regiment was sent to garrison Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas. The climate was harsh and unpleasant, and disease was a constant companion and foe.

Sergeant George W. Kosier re-upped for a third term on 10 October 1863, re-enlisting at Fort Taylor, Key West, Florida. That same day, his brother, Private Jesse Kosier, also re-enlisted at Fort Taylor – for a second three-year term of service. Their brother, Private William S. Kosier, re-enlisted at Fort Taylor on 18 December 1863, also for a second term of service.

Sometime during the mid-1860s, George W. Kosier wed Candace Brooks Chellis, possibly while he was home on furlough. (Their first daughter, Lillian A. Kosier, was born in Illinois in September 1864, according to the 1900 federal census.)

1864

On 25 February 1864, the Kosiers and their fellow 47th Pennsylvanians set off for a phase of service in which their regiment would truly make history. Steaming first for New Orleans via the Charles Thomas, the 47th arrived at Algiers, Louisiana on 28 February, and then moved by rail to Brashear City. Following another steamer ride – to Franklin via the Bayou Teche – the 47th joined the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division of the Department of the Gulf’s 19th Army Corps. In short order, the 47th became the only Pennsylvania regiment to serve in the Red River Campaign of Union General Nathaniel Banks.

From 14-26 March, the 47th trekked to and through New Iberia, Vermillionville, Opelousas, and Washington while en route to Alexandria and Natchitoches. Often short on food and water, the regiment encamped briefly at Pleasant Hill the night of 7 April before continuing on the next day, marching until mid-afternoon.

Rushed into battle ahead of other regiments in the 2nd Division, 60 members of the 47th were cut down on 8 April during the volley of fire unleashed by both sides during the Battle of Sabine Cross Roads. The fighting waned only when darkness fell. Exhausted, those who were uninjured collapsed beside the gravely wounded. After midnight, the surviving Union troops withdrew to Pleasant Hill.

The next day, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were ordered into a critically important defensive position at the far right of the Union lines, their right flank spreading up onto a high bluff. By 3 p.m., after enduring a midday charge by the troops of Confederate General Richard Taylor, the brutal fighting still showed no signs of ending. Suddenly, as the 47th was shifting to the left of the Union forces, the men of the 47th Pennsylvania were forced to bolster the 165th New York’s buckling lines by blocking another Confederate assault.

Lieutenant Colonel Alexander was nearly killed, and the regiment’s two color bearers, both from Company C, were also wounded while preventing the regimental flag from falling into enemy hands. Private Ephraim Clouser of Company D was shot in his right knee, and Corporal Isaac Baldwin was also wounded. Still others from the 47th were captured and held as prisoners of war until released during prisoner exchanges. At least two of the 47th’s POWs never made it out alive.

After these engagements, the 47th Pennsylvanians fell back to Grand Ecore, where they resupplied and regrouped until 22 April. Retreating further to Alexandria, they and their fellow Union soldiers scored a clear victory against the Confederates at Cane Hill. On 23 April, they their fellow brigade members crossed the Cane River via Monett’s Ferry and helped to build a timber dam, from 30 April through 10 May, to enable federal gunboats to easily traverse the Red River’s rapids.

Beginning 16 May, D Company moved with most of the 47th from Simmsport across the Atchafalaya to Morganza, and then to New Orleans on 20 June before returning to Washington, D.C. aboard the McClellan from 5-12 July.

Sheridan’s 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign

Still able and willing to fight after their time in Bayou country, the Kosier brothers and their fellow 47th Pennsylvanians joined up with General David Hunter’s forces at Snicker’s Gap, Virginia in mid-July 1864. There, they again assisted in defending Washington, D.C. while also helping to drive Confederate troops from Maryland.

Attached to the Middle Military Division, Army of the Shenandoah in August, it was here that the Kosier brothers would suffer a deeply personal loss when Private Jesse Kosier died from pleurisy at the Union Army’s Field Hospital in Sandy Hook, Maryland on 30 August. His death was certified by N. F. Graham, Assistant Staff Surgeon.

Note: Some sources indicate that Jesse Kosier’s date of death occurred on 31 October 1864 in Weverton, Maryland or at Antietam; however, these dates and locations are incorrect. The federal burial ledger for Jesse Kosier, shows that he died from pleurisy on 30 August at the “F.H. Sandy Hook Md.” [Field Hospital, Sandy Hook, Maryland]. he entry’s handwriting is unclear, and the physician may have spelled Jesse’s surname incorrectly as “Kaseir” rather than “Kosier,” but the regiment and rank are a match. (Source: Registers of Deaths of Volunteers, U.S. Office of the Adjutant General, Record Group 94, U.S. National Archives.)

Additionally, although Jesse Kosier’s entry in the Civil War Veterans’ Card File at the Pennsylvania State Archives notes that he was interred at “Antietam,” an entry on the federal burial ledger for the Antietam National Battlefield site shows that Private Jesse Kosier’s remains were initially buried at Weverton, Maryland (as does the National Cemetery Interment Control Form completed by the Office of the Quartermaster General in Washington, D.C., but which contains an incorrect date of death – 31 October 1864).

When the federal government began exhuming and moving Union soldiers’ remains to national cemeteries, Private Kosier’s remains were exhumed and reinterred at the Antietam National Cemetery in site 3996 in Sharpsburg, Maryland on 31 August.

Soldiering On

Following their brother’s death, George and William Kosier continued to fight with the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, engaging in the Battles of Berryville, Opequan and Fisher’s Hill, Virginia (September 1864) and the Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia (19 October 1864).

On 22 September 1864, Sergeant George W. Kosier was promoted to the rank of 1st Lieutenant.

Following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in April 1865, the Kosier brothers and their fellow 47th Pennsylvanians were responsible, once again, for helping to defend the nation’s capital. Letters sent home and later newspaper interviews with survivors of the 47th indicate that at least one member of the 47th Pennsylvania was given the high honor of guarding President Lincoln’s funeral train during this time while others may have guarded the Lincoln assassination conspirators during the early days of their imprisonment and trial. As part of Dwight’s Division of the 2nd Brigade of the Department of Washington’s 22nd Corps, the 47th Pennsylvania also participated in the Union’s Grand Review on 23-24 May.

In early June 1865, 1st Lieutenant George W. Kosier was promoted to the rank of Captain and leadership of Company D.

On their final southern tour, the surviving Kosier brothers and their fellow 47th Pennsylvanians served in Savannah, Georgia from 31 May to 4 June. Again in Dwight’s Division, they were part of the 3rd Brigade, Department of the South. Relieving the 165th New York Volunteers in July, they quartered in the former mansion of the Confederate Secretary of the Treasury. Captain George W. Kosier and his brother, Private William S. Kosier, were two of the majority of 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers who finally mustered out on 25 December 1865. Following a stormy voyage home, they disembarked in New York City, and were shipped to Philadelphia by train where, at Camp Cadwalader, in early January 1866, they were officially given their discharge papers.

Return to Civilian Life

Both Kosier brothers returned home to Pennsylvania, where they began their lives anew. On 7 April 1870, George and Candace Kosier welcomed daughter Helen. In 1880, they resided in Byron, Ogle County, Illinois, where George was employed as a carpenter. In 1900, George and Candace were residing with Lillian in Eagle Grove, Wright County, Iowa, where George was employed as a bridge builder. By 1909, the three Kosiers were residing in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, where George was employed as a “bridge carpenter.”

George W. Kosier died in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois on 3 December 1920, and was interred at the Rosehill Cemetery and Mausoleum there. His wife preceded him in death on 5 January 1914.

The post-war journey of William Koser, however, is somewhat less clear. What is known is that, on 4 April 1880, William S. Kosier’s widow, Mary E. Kosier, filed for her Civil War Widow’s Pension, an indication that her husband had passed away either in 1879 or early 1880.

Sources:

1. Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5. Harrisburg: 1869.

2. Civil War Veterans’ Card File. Harrisburg: Pennsylvania State Archives.

3. “Kaseir, Jesse,” in Registers of Deaths of Volunteers, federal burial ledgers and national cemetery interment control forms. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Office of the Adjutant General (Record Group 94), U.S. National Archives.

4. Schmidt, Lewis. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown: Self-published, 1986.

5. U.S. Census (1880, 1900, 1910).

6. U.S. Civil War Pension Index:

Kosier, George: application no.: 1319353, certificate no.: 1097759, filed by the veteran from Iowa on 23 June 1904; and
Kosier, William S: application no.: 291461, certificate no.: 331447, filed by the veteran’s widow, “Kosier, Mary E.,” on 4 April 1880.

© Laurie Snyder, 2015. All Rights Reserved.

Jesse Kasier