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Henry Ambrose Bitner

  • Enlisted in Company K, Pennsylvania 11th Infantry Regiment on 24 Apr 1861.
  • Mustered out on 31 Jul 1861 at Harrisburg, PA.

  • Sgt. Company E, Pennsylvania 11th Infantry Regiment on 04 Oct 1861.
  • Mustered out on 20 Apr 1863.
 
  • Commissioned 2nd Lieut  in Company F, Pennsylvania 54th Mitilia Regiment on 30 Jun 1863.
  • Mustered out on 17 Aug 1863.

  • Appointed 1st Sgt of the 2nd Batt. of the Veteran Reserve Corps 8 Oct 1863
  • Mustered out on
 
Henry was born 14 May 1840 in the Ligonier Valley of Westmoreland County, PA. He married Rebecca Jane Dunn on 25 Sep 1872 in Pleasant Co., WV.  He went there to work in the logging industry after the war.

Henry's Great Grandson, Tom Bitner, remembers hearing the following story:  After the war, Henry and a friend of his from PA went to WV looking for work.  They were told that there was a logging camp that needed help. They were hired there. The foreman informed them that most of the workers there were former Confederate soldiers, and he hoped that they wouldn't have any trouble. They decided to stay. That evening after dinner, they were in a room with a fireplace. Henry stood in front of the fire, with his hands behind him - a habit of his. A man approached him, and asked if he had ever been in charge of a prisoner train to Elmira, NY. Henry replied in the affirmative. The man asked if Henry remembered standing on a train platform with a plug of tobacco, when a prisoner walked up to him, and asked if it were possible to get a chew. Henry gave him the plug of tobacco. While this conversation was going on, Henry's partner was standing by a barrel full of axe handles that was by the fireplace. Henry could hear him rattling around to get ahold of an axe handle (just in case.)  However, the man  talking to Henry said, "I was that fellow, and you'll have no trouble as long as you are here!" (And they didn't!)

Henry and Rebecca moved back to the Ligonier Valley about 1880, where the last two of their five children were born.

Henry died 26 Jan 1908, and he and Rebecca rest in the Ligonier Valley Cemetery, Westmoreland Co, PA.


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