The Krise Brothers and the Battle of Gaines’ Mill

In the heat of battle, heroes emerge, sometimes from the most unlikely of sources.

~ Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson

Historyof Pennsylvania Volunteers: 1861-1865 v2, part 2 by Samuel Bates

Cambria County was and is a rural farming area in western Pennsylvania where my paternal grandmother’s family comes from. Her grand-uncles Daniel and Henry Krise were coopers on a local farm before the War Between the States.  Young and idealistic the brother’s joined the Union Army weeks after the firing on Fort Sumter in April of 1861. As members of the Pennsylvania Reserves Infantry they went to Virginia to fight in the Peninsular Campaign.

The Peninsular Campaign was led by Gen. George McClellan its purpose; to capture the Confederate capitol of Richmond. The largest of the Seven Day Battles, Gaines’ Mill was one of the most vicious of the war and the only obvious victory by the Confederates during the peninsula campaign. The battle began midday on June 27^, 1862. At the start of the battle General Stonewall Jackson was to bring his men to back up General Lee in the battle. When Jackson didn’t arrive on time the confederates were forced to delay their assault. The tide of battle turned when General Jackson’s troops arrived. Disjointed, disorganized, and companies crushed, the battle became a desperate struggle for the Union forces. By sunset the battle raged so fierce the smoke enveloped the Colonel Gallagher’s Pennsylvania 11^th Reserves and Colonel Simpson’s New Jersey 4^th obliterating their view of the Union pullback until they were surrounded by the Confederates. From the report of General McCall “The situation of these two brave regiments , which so nobly maintained their ground after all had retired, was now hopeless; their retreat was entirely cut off by the increasing force of the enemy, who were still advancing, and they were forced to surrender.”  Over 600 soldiers in the Pennsylvania 11^th Reserves captured among them were the Krise brother’s Henry and Daniel.

The non-commissioned soldiers captured during the Peninsular Campaign including those at Gaines Mill were sent to Belle Isle at the end of June. Like the notorious Andersonville prison, conditions were deplorable. By mid-July Belle Isle held over 10,000 prisoners of war, the prison was only meant to hold 3,000. Prisoners including Henry and Daniel were filthy, covered in vermin and starved. Gratefully for their incarceration was brief. Henry & Daniel were amongst the first wave of prisoners exchanged in August of 1862. Both continued the fight for the preservation of the Union. Daniel re-enlisted joining and died during the war in 1864. He is buried in Alexandria Cemetery. Henry was shot in the face at South Mountain and discharged. It’s believed Henry died of his wounds at home in 1867.   

Source:  History ofPennsylvania Volunteers: 1861-1865 v2, part 2 by Samuel Bates pg 222-245