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Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.

Conditions Governing Access

No special access restriction applies.

Preferred Citation

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Lewis Schaeffer, Soldier, Civil War Diaries, A&M 1540, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.

Biographical / Historical

Lewis Schaeffer (b. July 4, 1833) of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, served in Company A of the 68th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers (Scott Legion of Philadelphia) from 1862 to 1865. Schaeffer joined the army in the fall of 1862 when the unit was formed in Philadelphia. While he was at Fredericksburg in December of that year, he did not see combat. He participated in the Mud March in early 1863, the battle of Second Fredericksburg during the Chancellorsville Campaign in May 1863, and the battle of Gettysburg, where he was wounded on July 2. Due to his wound and then breaking his leg while on furlough that fall, Schaeffer spent the rest of 1863 in the hospital. There is no information about Schaeffer for 1864, but in January 1865 he was back on duty with his regiment. Schaeffer saw brief combat in the spring of 1865, but he was primarily responsible during that time for transporting Confederate prisoners between City Point, Virginia, and the prisons at Point Lookout, Maryland, and Hart's Island, New York. Schaeffer returned to Philadelphia after his discharge in June 1865.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Civil War - Pennsylvania 68th Volunteers, Company A.
• Civil War -- War diaries
• Civil War battles - Chancellorsville.
• Civil War battles - Fredericksburg.
• Civil War battles - Gettysburg.
• Diaries and journals.
• Schaeffer, Lewis
• United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
• United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Prisoners and prisons