Blood-Stained Scabbard

Añadido: 2026-05-09

[00:00:01]Hey all, Ron here from Military Images magazine with a new episode of Life on the Civil War Research Trail.

[00:00:09]One of our contributing editors, Scott Valentine, sent this photograph. He's John Alfred Colts spelled K O L Tes German origin name and a bit of a outline of his performance at the battle of second Manasses or second bull run. And I want to do a bit more research and really found some interesting details about the battle and about him and his life and what became of him after the battle. And um first of all I want to start with this photograph, a classic image of a Union colonel. And he wants us to see him in that colonel's uniform. You can see he has his great coat pulled back to reveal the colonel's straps on his shoulders. You can just make out the eagle running across the uh top of that strap. He's also wearing a heck of a heck of a pair of knee high boots and a sword. Really really wonderful photograph. Classic studio pose from that Civil War time period. You students of the Civil War who study photography, you've seen a number of poses just like this one.

[00:01:43]At the second battle of Bull Run, his regiment, the 73rd Pennsylvania Infantry, they're in the reserve initially, but in the afternoon of August 30th, 1862, well, Stonewall Jackson's Confederate Corps threatened, at least elements of it, did his opposite number on the Union side, Major General Fran seagull commanding the first corps. He called in Colts's brigade. At the time, Colts was in charge of the 73rd and to New York regiments. And that sort of set the scene for what happened to Colts next.

[00:02:31]to appreciate who he was and how he became a colonel in the Union Army, you have to sort of go back in time a little bit to rewind the clock to his birth in Germany and coming to America as it's like he was a teenager when he came to America just before the Mexican War. He volunteered to serve and he did and then he went on to settle in Philadelphia.

[00:03:04]That became his adopted home in the country. Seemingly appropriate, right, for an immigrant to come to Philadelphia, the cradle of independence back in colonial times.

[00:03:19]He did not necessarily leave the military. At some point after the Mexican war, he joined the Marines and he had a job as a guard at the US Mint in Philadelphia.

[00:03:35]He was also very active in the local militia. And if you are in the militia at that time, the 1840s, the 1850s, up to the war, the militia, it's the forerunner of the National Guard.

[00:03:51]They're all over the country. It's as much a social organization as it is a drill team as it is a preparatory for any possible military emergency that might come because the US Army, the regular army is tiny during this period in our history.

[00:04:12]He not only ingratiates himself with the militia, but he proves himself to be a talented militia soldier and he gets a lot of respect. He becomes popular with the folks under his command. He's also very good at recruiting. So when the war happens, he uses his popularity, he uses his abilities as a recruiter to bring in a bunch of soldiers to enlist in Pennsylvania regiments, including the 73rd, for which he is commissioned colonel, the original colonel of the regiment. And this is all happening after Fort Sumpter into late 1861.

[00:04:57]So now we're at the end of 1861. The regiment heads south and Colts, as I mentioned earlier, he winds up being in command of a brigade, his own 73rd and those two New York infantry regiments, the 29th and the 68th.

[00:05:17]During the battle on August 30th, as my research informed me, and the work of Scott Valentine, they're ordered to reinforce another brigade that's being overwhelmed by Jackson's core. So, Colts and his command arrive along the top of Chin Ridge and they look down and as they look down, they see Confederates, a lot of them coming their way. and artillery. It becomes literally a storm of artillery fire and infantry fire. And that's all threatening his right flank.

[00:05:59]The Confederate troops, by the way, include parts of South Carolina Brigade commanded by Nathan G. Evans, the 11th Mississippi Infantry, elements of Brigadier General James L. Kemper's Division, and John B. Richardson's Washington artillery of Louisiana.

[00:06:20]So, starting to get a little bit messy.

[00:06:24]Colts is trying to figure out his plan.

[00:06:26]And then he sees the arrival of two more sections of enemy cannon. And they're already taking a pounding by enemy fire.

[00:06:37]and Colts decides that he's going to prevent that artillery from inflicting further damage on his brigade and threatening the right flank. So, he moves forward to the head of the line.

[00:06:53]He's on horseback. The classic classic move. You're going to lead by example.

[00:06:59]So, he heads up to the front of the line. He's got his sword waving in the air. He's rallying the men. He wants them to take those new sections, as much artillery as they can. At the outset of all this, as he's coming up to the front, he's waving that sword.

[00:07:19]Shell fragments from one of those enemy cannon scatter. They hit Colts and his horse, killing both of them instantly.

[00:07:33]His brigade rushes forward and according to the official record filed by Colts's lieutenant colonel, they make it as far as they reach the guns. They actually reach the guns, but they're taking a they're taking a beating and there's about a half an hour where all this is going on and then they fall back.

[00:07:59]When it's all over, about a third of the brigade is wiped out. In the 73rd, in Colts's regiment, five color bearsers have been shot down. They save the colors.

[00:08:15]So, as they're retreating, they're able to get Colts's body. I don't know what happened to the horse. I assume they left it behind. There's no way they're going to get a dead horse. uh dead or wounded, not sure, but according to the reports, he was killed instantly and the horse. So, we assume the horse is gone.

[00:08:37]They're taking Colts's body off of the battlefield and they successfully remove him.

[00:08:45]There's a bit of irony here because according to one report, his commission as a brigadier general was approved and on its way to him the morning of the battle. So he may have known that he was going to be a brigadier general. He was going to trade that eagle on his strap or for a star. Never got to do that.

[00:09:14]Instead, his comrades carried his body after they got him off the battlefield.

[00:09:20]The regiment and the rest of the brigade wound up with a drawing to Centerville.

[00:09:24]The battle was over. Confederates won.

[00:09:28]Second Manasses, as you students of the Civil War know, and they carry Colts's body to Centerville on sort of a makeshift stretcher of musketss. Not exactly sure how they did that, but that's according to one of the reports I saw. And from Centerville, the major of the reg regiment escorts the body under guard, fairly common for higher ranking officers, and they bring the body to Washington DC so that it can be imbalmed and then being shipped on to Philadelphia.

[00:10:07]Meanwhile, word of his death gets to Philadelphia. He has a young wife, got four kids, and of course, they're all grieving. They're all in shock for the loss of a husband, a father. And of course, the people in Philadelphia, especially the German population, are quite saddened and grieving at the loss of a good man.

[00:10:34]The funeral happens on September 5th, not long after the battle, really about six days after the battle. And Colts is, I mentioned, he's a popular figure and his body lays in state in Independence Hall. Visitors come by and they're paying their respects and they notice at the foot of the casket is a color tinted photograph. And as someone who's interested in Civil War photography, this is an interesting use case of photography being used as a device and a funeral at the casket. And we know today how important photographs play, what kind of role they play in funerals, in services, and um and various ceremonies connected to the dead. Well, here we are in the Civil War, sort of the early time period of photographs being used in this way. So they see the photograph and then on the opposite side of the casket, it's open and they can see his face and his shoulder is exposed. And according to people who saw his face, they suggested and they said it looked natural, although they noticed that there's some discoloration that they attributed to gunpowder residue.

[00:12:06]And so you have to wonder at least I started wondering there's the early report that I came across that I hadn't mentioned but I'll mention it now is he when he was hit by the shell fragment it literally cleaved his head in two. Now whether that happened towards the back of his head and sort of split it wide open I don't know. Both could be true, but apparently according to one report, his head is really badly split by the gunshot or pardon me, the shell fragment. And then in the uh the open casket apparently tells a slightly different story. At least his face seems to be fine.

[00:12:52]Once the viewing ended in Independence Hall, the casket gets closed. It's carried to a hearse and it's wheeled through the se city streets and there is a large long formal procession. It's an imposing escort of police officers of military and they're headed to Glenwood Memorial Gardens to have the service.

[00:13:17]When they get the casket to the service, they lay on top of it an empty scabbard.

[00:13:26]Another detail that I found as I was researching is his sword. When the shell fragments or fragments hit him and the horse, the sword apparently was knocked out of his hand.

[00:13:44]That's what the report says, that a shell fragment knocked the sword from his hand. I guess it's also possible that he could have dropped it after he was hit and killed. Um, surely he did, but apparently the fragment knocked it out of his hand and the sword was lost, but they did find the scabbard and the scabbard was bent and it was stained reportedly with his blood and they lay that on top of his casket as a uh an icon as representative of his leadership, his loss of life and the marshall spirit that he brought. got to the Union Army, to the United States of America, and to his regiment, the 73rd Pennsylvania, and his brigade.

[00:14:35]So, there you have the story of Colonel Colts and his untimely, tragic death at the second battle of Bull Run. Thanks for listening. We'll see you on the next episode of Life on the Civil War Research Show.