As I look across the room, thinking of how to begin this writing, I can see two of my “reunion ribbons”, commemorating the gatherings of the veterans of the 62nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry survivors…one is dated 1898, when the reunion was held here in my hometown of Kittanning, Pennsylvania…the other ribbon in my collection is a memento from the 1902 reunion held in Pittsburgh, PA that year…these events marked anniversaries of thirty-seven years and forty-one years respectively, from the time those men mustered into service with the 62nd [originally the 33rd] Regiment, to the times they gathered together to reflect on their service together during the American Civil War…undoubtably they also spent time remembering the many comrades that didn’t survive the war, or had answered their “final muster” since…
And there were many other reunions, not just for the 62nd, but for all who had waged war for four years from 1861 through 1865, including anniversaries of the great and terrible battles, such as Gettysburg, where so many of them would meet again in July of 1913, fifty years after the battle…
And to this day, on those same battlefields and historic sites, the families of those same men gather to remember “what they did here”, and place a wreath, or a flag, or a sheave of wheat…
Why do I write about these milestones?…on Sunday, March 24th, 2024, the members of the 62nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Living History Family gathered together to conduct our annual Company Meeting, marking our 30th anniversary of remembering and honoring the men of the original 62nd, their families, and their service…we do not take lightly the heritage that we carry forward…
Sometime back in early 1994, a young man named Gordon “Gordy” Sheaffer mused what he could do to pay tribute to his ancestor Jefferson Truitt, who Gordy learned had not only served in Company D of the 62nd, but was killed in action on June 3rd, 1864, at Bethesda Church, VA, as part of the Cold Harbor disaster…2nd Lieutenant Jefferson Truitt and most of the 62nd Regiment had mustered into service the first week of July, 1861, answering President Abraham Lincoln’s call for volunteers…he died with only 30 days left on his enlistment…
By the spring of 1994, the 130th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg had been commemorated a few months prior, and similar remembrances would soon be taking place at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and the previously mentioned Cold Harbor battlefields…Gordy had shared his vision of paying tribute with a few other family members, and before long, a living history group was in its infant stages…for the first number of years, the focus was specifically on “Company D”, as that was Truitt’s Company, and the only company of men from Armstrong County to muster into the 62nd Regiment…soon other family members and friends were joining Gordy for events and activities, including trips to Gettysburg, and the famed “Wheatfield” there…as years went by, valued members whose ancestors served in other companies of the 62nd enlisted in the living history group, as well as a number folks without lineage to the regiment, and through time the “family” has grown to represent the entire regiment…
So as we gathered together at the Armstrong County Historical Museum to conduct our annual Company Meeting, we had a video slideshow running on the screen, with images from many of our events and activities over the last three decades…we laughed at many, cried at others, and reminisced about so many places we have been, wonderful people we have met, and historic events that we have been blessed to be a part of…but even as we celebrate the anniversary, and discuss possible plans for an “anniversary event”, we never lose sight of why we are still doing this thirty years later…to honor and preserve the memory of the men of the 62nd Regiment and their families…
Although I wasn’t involved in the early stages of Gordy’s dreams and plans for this Living History group, I remember well the joy in learning of my ancestor who served in the 62nd PVI during the war and in the years that followed, and the excitement in ordering my uniform and joining the group…I still experience the same joy in meeting other descendants and hearing their stories, and likewise, having someone approach us at an event or online, seeking to join us or support us, descendant or not, because they sense the sincerity and devotion in our presentations…I have been humbled by the opportunity to be a part of nearly everything that the 62nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Living History Family has been and continues to be, and look forward to seeing the family continue to grow, as the story of the “ol’ Sixty-second” lives on through us…I believe that the fact that we not only focus on the Veterans of the Regiment, but on the fact that they were husbands, fathers, brothers, grandfathers, uncles, friends and comrades, and try to incorporate all of those aspects into our living history presentations, with our children, grandchildren, and entire families helping to “keep history alive”, has been the very thing that keeps people coming to see us, and the reason that we are still together and growing after all this time…
I hope you will join us for an event or activity soon, or contact us to share your interest in or connection to the 62nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry…
I also want to share some photos with you of our 30 years as the 62nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Living History Family. Please click here to access our slideshow: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Jn8Hh5yiYFbamu8B7
May God bless you all, and the 62nd PVI
Your humble servant, Slim
CoD62ndPVI 