Young Life Lost at Bull Run

Henry Philip Hale was the third child of Philip Moore Hale and Mary Ann Brown Dickinson Hale, and older brother to my great grandmother, Virginia Augusta Hale Scribner.  Henry was born April 20, 1843 in Baltimore, Maryland, and died in the early days of the Civil War on August 7, 1861 in Richmond, Virginia.

In 1861, Henry was living in Brooklyn, New York with his mother and four of his siblings.  On his 18^th birthday, Henry joined the Union effort and enlisted in New York City.  His enlistment paperwork incorrectly shows him to be 22 years old.  Henry was mustered on May 7 as a Private in the 11^th New York Volunteers, 1^st Fire Zouaves, Company G.

The 11^th New York Volunteer regiment was organized in New York City in May of 1861 as a Zouave regiment under the command of Colonel Elmer E Ellsworth, drawing many volunteers from the ranks of the City’s volunteer fire companies.  The company was known for its unusual dress and drill style.  Like most Zouave regiments, the men of the 11^th New York were fashioned in uniforms not typical of the standard Union soldier.  The 11^th Volunteers were issued clothing that among other items included light grey jackets, red overshirts and dark blue trousers, and received a red or blue fez with a blue tassel.  In the summer before the First Battle of Bull Run, most of the Zouaves left their jackets in camp due to the July heat.   Private Henry P Hale proudly had his photograph made in his uniform with no jacket.  The photo was taken July 9, 1861 while he was in Alexandria, Virginia, and Henry Hale mailed the photo to his family from his post at Camp Ellsworth the next day.

The 11^th NY Volunteers, 1^st Fire Zouaves, left New York aboard the steamship, Baltic, on April 29 and steamed to Annapolis, Maryland arriving on the evening of May 1.  The next day, the troops disembarked and traveled to Washington.  In Henry’s letter to his family on May 7, he wrote that “we are quartered in the room of Commerce next to the Patent office – the best quarters in Washington”.   And on June 2, he wrote that “We are quartered in the House of Rep. – that is, the one they are just building.”  In that same letter, he said that “The President [Lincoln] received us last night.  He is about 7 foot, he looked like a fool standing with his hat off – “.

The 11^th New York Volunteer regiment’s first major combat experience occurred on the morning of July 21, 1861 known as the First Battle of Bull Run near Manassas, Virginia.  It was the first large-scale battle of the Civil War and Henry’s regiment suffered extensive casualties.  Although accounts of the battle differ, most sources list 177 men lost at Bull Run, with 35 men killed, 74 wounded, and another 68 missing and presumed captured. 

Henry P Hale was among the wounded Union prisoners taken by Confederate forces to Richmond, Virginia and arriving on August 1, 1861.  Henry was taken to the Ross Factory Hospital located on Main Street in Richmond which was an old tobacco factory building.  Henry wrote a letter to his mother dated August 2 to reassure her that he was fine:

Richmond, August 2 / '61

Dear Mother,

I write this to inform you of my whereabouts.  I am still among the living although I was wounded in the Battle of Bull Run, and, I presume, named among the dead in the papers.  It was God's Will that I only got a slight wound in the thigh.  I am recovering fast.  We are treated here with utmost kindness.  Everything is done for us that one could wish.

I hope that War will soon end and we will all soon return home.  I hope Dave [his brother] is successful in finding employment and is doing well.

I have nothing to write about.  I am in a hospital in Maine Street.  Give my love to Grandmother, Sis, Dave and the children.  Goodbye, God bless you all 
--  Your Affectionate Son,     Henry P Hale

Even though Henry only mentioned a slight wound in his thigh in his letter to his family on August 2, he died five days later while still a prisoner in the hospital in Richmond, Virginia.   Very likely his wound became infected.

The Hale family must have struggled with all of the conflicting information that they received, not really knowing the true facts, only the reality that Henry never came home.  It appears, though, that the family was informed of Henry’s death by mid-September.   Henry P Hale’s obituary appeared in a Baltimore newspaper on September 19, 1861. 

 "Died at Richmond. - Henry P Hale, son of Mr. P M Hale, of this city, has died at Richmond, VA, of wounds received at the battle of Bull Run.  His age was 18 years."

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Key Individuals:

Henry Philip Hale  (1843 - 1861)

Philip Moore Hale  (1807 – 1870)

Mary Ann Brown Dickinson Hale  (1816 – 1880)

Virginia Augusta Hale Scribner  (1848 – 1940)

Notes: 

Understandably, there was much confusion and difficulty with record keeping after the Union devastation at The First Battle of Bull Run.  The Union company muster records show that Private Henry P Hale was killed in action on July 21, 1861 probably because he was missing after the battle.  Union records however noted later that he died in Richmond from his wounds. 

On September 25, 1861 both The New York Times and the New York Daily Tribune newspapers printed lists of Union prisoners at Richmond after the Battle of Bull Run.  The newspaper accounting included Henry P Hale’s name twice among the list of wounded:  first as “Henry P. Hale, bullet through head”, and then later in the same paragraph, as “Henry P. Hale, not stated”.  By the time the newspaper was published, the family already knew that Henry had died in the prison hospital in Richmond.

I will likely do another blog post that is simply a transcription of the letters that Henry P Hale sent to his mother and sister in those brief few weeks after he enlisted and before he died. 

– Jane Scribner McCrary