A Tale of Three Brothers Researching the Civil War tends to reveal stories that have been passed down to us from that most tragic of times in our American history. They can be both fascinating as well as mundane, but always interesting in their own way. As repetitious as some stories may seem, to many of us, each hold gold nuggets of history yet to be discovered. The following story does not stand out from the many hundreds that have made their way through time but, for me, it stands alone as this particular one happened to three members of my family; brothers that I share the same last name with. As the first cannons were fired at Fort Sumter, South Carolina on April 12, 1861, three brothers, Albert Carrington, Daniel Harlan, and Benjamin Franklin Crickenberger, aged 28, 23, and 21, respectively, were living near each other in towns situated in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia; Albert, in Mecaheysville, Daniel in Harrisonburg, and Benjamin in Conrad Store (known today as Elkton). Crickenberger, Opal. The Johannes Crickenberger Family . Self-published. 1996. Pp. 28. 42. 59. 62- 64. The State of Virginia would soon follow those that had seceded and depart the Union on April 14 th . All three brothers were farmers and descendants of a great-great- grandfather, who, when a Hessian soldier during the American Revolution, was captured by American forces with his brother, Hans, on a cold Christmas day in 1776, in Trenton, New Jersey. Johannes Kruckeberg would remain in the fledgling United States, migrating to the upper Shenandoah Valley (Strausburg), where he would soon marry and begin his family. Crickenberger, Opal. The Johannes Crickenberger Family . Self-published. 1996. P.6. On April 18, 1861, all three brothers, as did several other members of the Crickenberger family (seven other cousins, uncles and brothers would enlist in infantry regiments and one artillery battery during the war), answered the call to enlist to defend their native State. Albert enlisted in Co. E (Peaked Mountain Grays), Daniel, Company G (Valley Guards) and Benjamin in Company I (Riverton Invincibles), all three companies would soon become part of the newly designated, 10 th Virginia Volunteer Infantry presently mustering with other volunteer companies in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Murphy, Terrence V. 10 th Virginia Infantry. H.E. Howard, Inc. Lynchburg, Virginia 1989. IV. P. 2. With the onset of the campaign season in the Spring of 1863, all three brothers had participated in several major battles, and numerous skirmishes, fought by the Confederate Army of the Shenandoah and later, by the Army of Northern Virginia. By this time, the Army of Northern Virginia was once again on the move challenging the newly appointed commander of the Army of the Potomac, Major General Joseph Hooker. May 2, 1863, found the 10 th Virginia in the vicinity of the Chancellor Inn, west of Fredericksburg, marching on what would be a circuitous, yet disguised maneuver, planned by both General’s Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. The movement, had them marching from in front of the federal army, to around its right flank for a massive assault. None of the men were aware that they were about to become part of one of the most brilliant, yet daring, attacks perpetrated by both Confederate generals in the face of an overwhelming enemy. At the given hour, the assault began as a rush of a tidal wave as the Confederate soldiers crashed through the forest punctuated by the familiar “rebel yell.” The movement created a tempest that quickly spread surprise and confusion among the stunned Union defenders, moving rapidly overrunning the enemy picket lines, over their breastworks and swarming quickly through the camps of the Eleventh Army Corps of the Army of the Potomac. The attack would eventually ebb then cease due to darkness, holding the ground that they had so violently taken from the federal soldiers. Even though the attack brought success to Lee’s army, it came with a cost to the 10 th Virginia. Included on his official list of casualties reported by the commanding officer of the 10 th Virginia, was the name of Albert Crickenberger. During the assault, the oldest of the three brothers, had been critically wounded in the leg which caused it to be amputated. The wound became mortal, causing Albert to lose his life the same day. United States War Department, War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies . 128 vols . Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office 1899. Reprint. Harrisburg, Pa: Historical Times, Inc. 1985. P. 1035. Sadly, both of his brothers, Daniel, and Ben, buried his body somewhere on the battlefield. It is recorded within the family records that “when his mother heard the news [of Albert’s death] she fainted and continued to do so until late that night.” Crickenberger, Opal . The Johannes Crickenberger Family . Self-published. 1996. P. 42. The months that followed bear record to the various skirmishes and maneuvering as both armies sparred with each other. The month of June witnessed Lee’s second maneuver into the north in his attempt to move the war and his army out of war-torn Virginia. By the end of June, the command of the Army of the Potomac was again changed. As the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia marched from Virginia, through Maryland and into Pennsylvania, the Army of the Potomac, with its new commander, counter-moved to intercept them. This time, both met at the crossroads town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Unimagined by the two remaining brothers, a highly contested section of the battlefield known as Culp’s Hill will once again bring grief to their family. General Richard Ewell, now in command of the 2 nd Corps, Army of Northern Virginia, had been given the assignment by Lee of capturing the strategic right anchor of the Union Army presently constructing breastworks on Culp’s Hill. During the early morning hours of July 2 nd , the 10th Virginia Infantry found itself, with the rest of Johnson’s Brigade, facing the base of Culp’s Hill. The hill appeared wooded, rocky, and laden with stone fences near its base. The men of the 10 th would have to cross over Rock Creek first, which ran at the base of the hill, before climbing what appeared to be a foreboding fortress crowned with Union soldiers waiting for them. The 10 th Virginia had taken most of the day fighting its way up the precipitous slope, eventually over-running the federal breastworks capturing many and driving the Union defenders. Darkness soon ended the staggering fighting as remnants of the 10 th Virginia and Steuart’s Brigade manned the captured federal breastworks and prepared for a federal counterattack. In the end, the casualty report submitted by the 10 th Virginia, listed six killed, seventeen wounded and over twenty-four missing or taken prisoner. Of the six dead, was listed the middle brother, Private Benjamin Franklin Crickenberger killed in action July 2 nd in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The remainder of the 10 th Virginia continued to follow the Army of Northern Virginia as it maneuvered and skirmished with the Army of the Potomac. As the Union Army was content to spend the winter in Culpeper County, Virginia on one side of the Rapidan River. Lee and his army sat on the opposite side constructing their winter camps. The 10 th had dubbed their camp “Camp Pisgah” as the camp was situated near Pisgah Church. Murphy, Terrence V. 10 th Virginia Infantry. H.E. Howard, Inc. Lynchburg, Virginia 1989. P. 86. The spring of 1864 witnessed a renewed effort by the newly promoted Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant, who chose to travel with the Army of the Potomac. Grant’s plan was to fight Lee as often as possible, destroying Lee’s army in the process. Meeting head on with Lee in the area known as the “wilderness,” without success, Grant would continue to sidestep Lee’s army only to be blocked once more by Lee at the town of Spotsylvania Courthouse. There Lee had his army entrench to defend itself against the Union juggernaut growing in numbers. Lee’s engineers had constructed a salient, commonly referred to as “the mule shoe,” as it protruded from Lee’s lines in a wide arc that reached end to end on Lee’s entrenchments. The defence of the salient was given to Ewell’s Corps, which Steuart’s Brigade with the 10 th Virginia Infantry were assigned to the left flank. On the early morning of hours of May 12, Hancock’s 2 nd Corps along with elements of Burnsides 9 th Corps, attacked and overran the salient with a sudden rush. Rauss Ed. The Bloody Angle. Hell’s Half Acre. The Fight for the Bloody Angle. May 12, 1864. Blue and Gray Magazine. Issue 6. Volume 1. July 1984. P.42. The men of 10 th Virginia were either killed, wounded, or captured, with a few survivors remaining falling back to a secondary defensive line. For the 10 th Virginia, the was over. Those of the 10 th Virginia that survived the maelstrom of Spotsylvania Courthouse, mustered less than a one hundred men. Among the numbers of those of the 10 th Virginia that were captured in this predawn surprise attack, was the third remaining brother Daniel. Murphy, Terrence V. 10 th Virginia Infantry. H.E. Howard, Inc. Lynchburg, Virginia 1989. Pp. 99-100. The prisoners were hustled to the rear between a cordon of jeering Union soldiers and soon marching under guard to a vast, holding area known as the “punch bowl” located on the Potomac River. Daniel and his fellow prisoners embarked on a steam boat the next day, heading for a prison camp somewhere in the north. It turned out to be a short trip and their lot to land at the wharf of Point Lookout. Daniel would spend the next two months as a prisoner of war at Point Lookout. Due to the rumored attack on Point Lookout to release the prisoners, by Confederate General Bradley Johnson, hundreds of prisoners would be transferred to other prisons; primarily the new prison recently established in Elmira, New York. Daniel would be one of those transferred by the end of July to Elmira. After enduring prison life for more than a year, Daniel was finally released on his oath in June 1865. Daniel would return home after the war to what he and his two brothers left behind when they joined the Confederate army four years prior. He would pass away at the age of thirty-nine due to congestive heart failure. Crickenberger, Opal. The Johannes Crickenberger Family . Self- published. 1996. P. 42.

--------------------------------------------------------- 1. Crickenberger, Opal. The Johannes Crickenberger Family. Self-published. 1996. Pp. 28. 42. 59. 62-64. 2. Crickenberger, Opal. The Johannes Crickenberger Family. Self-published. 1996. P.6. 3. Murphy, Terrence V. 10 th Virginia Infantry. H.E. Howard, Inc. Lynchburg, Virginia 1989. IV. P. 2. 4. United States War Department, War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. 128 vols. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office 1899. Reprint. Harrisburg, Pa: Historical Times, Inc. 1985. P. 1035. 5. Crickenberger, Opal. The Johannes Crickenberger Family. Self-published. 1996. P. 42. 6. Murphy, Terrence V. 10 th Virginia Infantry. H.E. Howard, Inc. Lynchburg, Virginia 1989. P. 86. 7. Rauss Ed. The Bloody Angle. Hell’s Half Acre. The Fight for the Bloody Angle. May 12, 1864. Blue and Gray Magazine. Issue 6. Volume 1. July 1984. P.42. 8. Murphy, Terrence V. 10 th Virginia Infantry. H.E. Howard, Inc. Lynchburg, Virginia 1989. Pp. 99-100. 9. Crickenberger, Opal. The Johannes Crickenberger Family. Self-published. 1996. P. 42.