Looking back: two local soldiers who fought at Gettysburg
James Jackson Purman of Greene County
David Acheson after Chancellorsville
James Purman’s Congressional Medal of Honor
David Acheson
David Acheson’s stone, located in the Weikert Farm, just off Weikert Lane in Gettysburg
Lt. James Purman
James Purman's Congressional Medal of Honor
On the afternoon of Nov. 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln stepped to a podium in the town of Gettysburg and addressed the crowd assembled to dedicate the Soldier’s National Cemetery. The speaker preceding President Lincoln, Edward Everett, had given a two-and-a-half hour oration and it was expected that Lincoln would give another long speech. Yet only a little more than two minutes later, Lincoln stepped from the podium and took his seat. His words, though few, would become the most remembered address in American history. Lincoln would begin his iconic address with:
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate – we can not consecrate – we can not hallow – this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.”
Many of those “brave men, living and dead,” called Western Pennsylvania their home. The 140th Pennsylvania regiment consisted primarily of men from Washington, Greene and Beaver counties. These men fought in some of the most violent confrontations at Gettysburg. They went into the conflict 589 men strong. At the end of the third day, 241 of those men would be listed as killed, wounded or missing. Two of the men that took the field of battle for the 140th were Lt. James Purman of Greene County and Capt. David Acheson of Washington County.
Purman was born in 1841 on a farm in Greene County. At the age of 12, he took a job in the printing office of The Waynesburg Eagle and a few years later moved to Illinois and worked as a typesetter at The Fulton County Democrat. He didn’t stay long, however, and returned to Greene County and enrolled at Waynesburg College.
In 1862, as the Civil War raged on, Purman, like so many other young men, answered the call of service. Purman, along with fellow student James Pipes, helped form Company A, 140th Infantry of the Union Army. After seeing their first fighting at Chancellorsville only two months before, the 140th would find themselves on the field at Gettysburg July 1, 1863.
According to Courtney Dennis, associate director of the Paul R. Stewart Museum at Waynesburg University, “On the afternoon of July 3, 1863, 140th Pennsylvania swept across the northwest corner of the Wheatfield and charged up what was later named Stony Hill. They ran straight into two South Carolina regiments and a deadly firefight ensued. The 140th held its position, but only temporarily. Confederate reinforcements arrived and converged upon them from three directions. The federals fell back and Lt. Purman and Sgt. James Pipes paused to catch their breath along the opposite side of the field. Seconds later, Confederate riflemen burst into view. As the pair made a run for it, they came upon a fallen comrade with wounds to both legs. Disregarding the impending danger, they carried the soldier to a more sheltered spot between two large rocks and continued fleeing. Ignoring enemy shouts to halt, Purman was struck near his left ankle and fell to the ground. The Union would, however, push back across the field, causing 24 hours to pass before rescue of the wounded could be undertaken.”
As the fighting continued the next morning, Purman was wounded once again when a minie ball struck his right leg. Injured and needing water, Purman called out to the nearby Confederates for help. A lieutenant from Georgia answered his cries. This lieutenant not only brought him water and cleansed his wounds, he also carried Purman to the shade of the tree line and left him with water and biscuits. Purman would later be picked up by a Union stretcher party. His right leg was amputated the next day, but he survived and returned to Waynesburg College to finish his education. For his actions the day he carried his comrade to safety, Purman was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Dennis adds, “Before his passing on May 10, 1915, Purman had a longtime wish granted. For years, he had exchanged letters with the Confederate officer who had come to his aid in the Wheatfield. That man was Thomas P. Oliver of the 24th Georgia. In 1907, Oliver traveled to Washington with a group of fellow Georgians, and the pair was able to meet for the first time since 1863.”
David Acheson was born in Washington in 1841. He grew up on his family farm and in 1860 enrolled at Washington College. Robert Stewart, author of History of the One Hundred and Fortieth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, stated Acheson was “one of the most promising young men in the College Class.” Feeling it was his duty to serve his country, Acheson enlisted in the 140th in summer of 1861 and was put in charge of recruiting more men from Washington County. He was made a captain in the regiment before setting out for Chancellorsville.
By the time the Battle of Gettysburg began, Acheson had become a highly respected officer in the 140th. He was trusted by his superiors and loved by the men he commanded. On the second day of the battle, Acheson was leading his men toward “the Wheatfield” to help repel attacks from Gen. l. Longstreet’s Corps, when his Company C came under fire from a South Carolina brigade in the woods just north of “Stoney Hill.” Shortly after the first shots were fired, Acheson was struck twice. He was dead almost before hitting the ground. His men were forced to leave his body as they were pushed into a retreat due the concentrated fire from the South Carolinians.
After the Confederates were forced to retreat, the men from Acheson’s company were able to recover his body. They buried him near where he fell, next to a large boulder. They marked the site by carving his initials into the stone. When his family learned of his death on the battlefield, they retrieved his body. On July 15, 1863, Acheson was laid to rest in the family burial plot in Washington Cemetery. In 1868, five years after the battle, a member of Company C visited the site where he and his comrades had buried their captain. Using a chisel, he recarved Acheson’s initials and added “140 PA.” That stone, located in the Weikert Farm, just off Weikert Lane, can still be visited today in Gettysburg.
When Lincoln took the podium that day in 1863, he spoke of men like Purman and Acheson. These were the men who consecrated those grounds, who gave the “last full measure of devotion.” It was through these men “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”