John H. Black

On April 22, 1861, John entered Co. H, 14th Pa. Vol. Inf., and served out his first enlistment of three months, and on December 10, 1861, re-enlisted, becoming a member of Co. G, 12th Pa. Cav., in which he served faithfully for two years. He then re-enlisted in the same company and regiment as a veteran, with the rank of first sergeant and later was advanced to the rank of first lieutenant. Capt. Black by no means escaped all the dangers of warfare. He took part in the second battle of Bull Run, where he was taken prisoner and was paroled on the field of battle. Later he was wounded in Loudon County, Va., when his command and the guerilla band under Col. John S. Moseby, had a sharp engagement. Capt. Black was so seriously injured that he was permanently disabled and he was honorably discharged on July 20, 1865.
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LOVE AND DEVOTION

The author of the "Leather & Steel" “12th Pennsylvania Cavalry in the Civil War” contributed this story. Larry B. Maier.
Thank you Larry for the interesting story of John H. Black...
LIEUTENANT JOHN H. BLACK AND JENNIE

John H. Black left behind his blackboard and teacher’s desk, and most importantly his beloved fiancée Susan (or Sarah) Jane (Jennie) Leighty in Duncansville, Blair County, Pennsylvania, when he enlisted as an Orderly Sergeant in the 12th Pennsylvania Cavalry on Jan 24, 1862. He undoubtedly was prepared for the worst, but could not have foreseen that the Civil War would provide him with uncommon love and devotion from his Jennie.

In due course, John’s intelligence and education propelled him up the ladder of promotion, from sergeant to a 1st lieutenant in Co G. His romance continued apace, but mostly through the mail and a few brief visits while he was on furlough.

Black spent most of his time throughout 1863 and 1864 in the lower Shenandoah Valley where his letters had only a small distance to travel to Duncansville in Central Pennsylvania. Neither his regiment’s disastrous encounter with Stonewall Jackson’s Corps at Manassas Junction in August, 1862. where Black and half his comrades were captured, nor the battle at Second Winchester in June, 1863 during which the 12th suffered nearly as much, slowed the flow of letters or their romance.

In early 1864, the couple and particularly John, was presented with a dilemma. In order to retain fighting men, the government offered an inducement of a healthy financial bonus and 30 days leave for any soldier who would re-enlist as a “Veteran Volunteer” for the duration of the war. One side of John wanted to re-enlist, despite the extended term of service, in order to obtain the quick trip home and thirty days with his beloved. The other wanted to get out of the army as soon as possible so they could settle down. On January 3, 1864, Black wrote a letter to Jennie that contained the following: “I will do so (serve) if health and life permits until the 10th of December 1864 [what he believed to be the end of his term of enlistment], and then I will quit soldiering and not re-enlist but will return to my native county and state…. If it were not for you I would have re-enlisted before this. It is for your sake alone that I will forsake a soldier’s live… so much I love you, you have often told me in your letters to not re-enlist. And now my dear Jennie, the loved one to me of this wide world, I will solemnly make this candid vow to you. So rest easy, if others do re-enlist, you can safely say that there is one in the Army that loves you so dearly that for your sake he will not re-enlist.”

But the lure of being with Jennie within weeks over-came every reservation and his solemn promise. On February 1, 1864, Lieutenant Black re-enlisted. It was a decision he certainly regretted many times over.

On March 8, 1864, Black and the rest of the Veteran Volunteers from the 12th Pa. Cavalry commenced their thirty-day leaves and scattered to all corners of the Commonwealth. Jennie and John made good use of their time and were married in Duncansville sometime during his month home. The time passed quickly and soon John was back with his regiment with only sweet memories and a very heavy heart. One of his first letters to his new bride after returning reads like something from a love struck teenager including a sly reference to their “wedded bliss.” “Well dear Jennie I have at last got the uniform on and doing duty differently from what I had been before….”

Lieutenant Black avoided the consequences of a broken vow during the balance of 1864, which found the regiment contesting Confederate General Jubal Early’s incursion into the Shenandoah Valley, and dueling with Colonel John S. Mosby’s Rangers. His luck held during the first few months of 1865 despite several encounters between the 12th and Mosby’s partisans. Unfortunately for the love-struck couple, Mosby would eventually make John pay for ignoring her wishes.

The end of March 1865 found the Confederacy crumbling around its capitol in Richmond, Virginia. In the Shenandoah Valley, the 12th was mostly involved in clean-up operations and attempting to kill or capture Mosby’s Rangers. On March 19, 1865, the majority of Black’s regiment went on a reconnaissance-in-force along the Eastern edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Mosby was waiting and would spring his ambush in the village of Harmony, Va. on March 21, 1865.

Lieutenant Black’s company was in the vanguard. Despite virtually all of the regiment’s officers and men having been fooled over and over by the ploy of the Confederates leaving decoys loitering in the road to fain surprise and panic, the Union troopers fell for the bait again. With a shout and brandished sabers the Yankees charged after the Rangers who had been dangled in the middle of the road. After a brief pursuit both the Blue and Gray entered a stretch of road border by a tree-line. When the Yankees were fully committed, the Rangers burst out from behind the trees and into the Yankee column, with pistols cracking and swords hacking into the startled Bluecoats. After a brief but frenzied battle, the 12th broke and fled back down the road. Lieutenant Black was not among his comrades.

Sometime during the melee one of the Rangers shot John. He was knocked out of his saddle by a pistol ball that entered at his hip and lodged in the small of his back. Lying in the dust paralyzed from the waist down, the Rangers stripped him of twenty dollars in cash and his “…hat, boots, jacket, vest, shirt collar, letters, knife, comb, gold pen, and in fact everything but pantaloons, shirt, and drawers…,” and then left him to die.

Much to everyone’s surprise, including the Rebels who left him behind and his own, Black survived his wounding, but initally his condition was too grave to allow for any significant travel. In the first letter he was able to write to his bride after being shot, Black described his ordeal. “I have been at two different houses. The first place I was at was an old lady and her three daughters. They treated me as a mother and sisters would treat a person. I remained there two weeks getting better but not well enough to stand a trip over the river. For fear some rebels might chance along and move me south, I was one night moved to where I now am. Here I am receiving every care and attention that can be given anyone. So do not trouble yourself at all. Just be thankful as I am that my life was spared at all. When I fell from my horse, wounded, I thought my day was sealed…. My wound gives me no pain at all, I rest quite easy…. When the ball struck me, both my legs and in fact all of the parts of my body below the wound was paralyzed. That is what has disabled me so…. My love to you while my name to this as your true, devoted, and affectionate husband….”

Obviously, the war was over for Lieutenant Black – but the couples’ struggles were just beginning. At some undiscovered time, probably in the late summer of 1865, John was able to return home to Jennie in Duncansville. Probably later, despite his disability, John returned to teaching, remained an “’ardent Republican,’” and even held the office of county treasurer for three years. Presumably also because of his war wound, John and Jennie were unable to have children of their own. Having plenty of love left to share, though, they adopted two daughters named Carrie and Lillian.

Sadly, by 1878 Lieutenant Black’s life had become a daily ordeal, because he was “’…obliged to remain in-doors the greater part of his time, and much of this time he is obliged to spend in bed…. If he remains out of his bed for an hour, his feet become very much swollen, causing him increased pains.’” Worse, the woman he loved and who stood by him and cared for him despite an affliction that was the direct result of his broken pledge despite her repeated pleas, passed away in 1908. Fourteen hard years later, the 87-year-old former trooper gave up the pain and the struggle and joined the love of his life.

Information provided by:"Patrick Wyman"
and Larry B. Maier
Thank You Patrick and Larry for this information...