John M Burchfield - "He was a good soldier and performed his duty faithfully."
John M. Burchfield
1841-1902
Family and Vital Details
John M Burchfield
Born SEPT. 8, 1841 • Woodcock, Crawford, Pennsylvania
Died Dec 28, 1902.
Parents: John Burchfield and Nancy McGill Burchfield.
Spouse: Elvira Delpuretta Hamilton
Married Feb. 10, 1882 in Pennsylvania
Siblings: Sarah Ann Burchfield, James Burchfield, Charles P Burchfield, William P Burchfield, Robert Reid Burchfield, Augustus Ivin Burchfield, Samuel Montgomery Burchfield, Esther Burchfield Winters, and Caroline A Burchfield Minneley.
No children.
Civil War Veteran, Husband, Brother, and Pensioner
Early Life and Family
John M. Burchfield was born on September 8, 1841, in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, the son of John Burchfield and Nancy McGill Burchfield. He grew up in a large Pennsylvania family alongside his siblings Sarah Ann, James, Charles P., William P., Robert Reid, Augustus Ivin, Samuel Montgomery, Esther, and Caroline.
When the Civil War erupted, the Burchfield family answered the call to service. John and his brothers Robert, Samuel, and William all served in the Union Army. Their brother-in-law, Henry Minneley, husband of Caroline Burchfield, also wore the blue. Like many families of the era, the Burchfields contributed multiple sons to the preservation of the Union.
Answering the Call
On September 1, 1864, at the age of twenty-three, John enlisted as a Private in Company F, 211th Pennsylvania Infantry.
Although his period of service lasted less than a year, it came during some of the most intense and decisive months of the war. Company F was assigned to the defenses south of Richmond and participated in the long Siege of Petersburg. The regiment endured months of trench warfare, artillery fire, disease, and exposure before taking part in the final campaigns that brought the war to a close.
Among the actions in which the 211th Pennsylvania Infantry participated were:
Defenses of Bermuda Hundred, Virginia, October 1864, Assigned to protect Union supply lines south of Richmond.
Siege of Petersburg, December 1864 – March 1865, Engaged in trench warfare and artillery exchanges; heavy casualties.
Battle of Fort Stedman, March 25 1865,Repelled a Confederate assault near Petersburg; one of their fiercest fights.
Assault on Petersburg, April 2 1865, Participated in the final breakthrough,
Appomattox Campaign, April 3–9 1865, Pursued Lee’s army westward, contributing to the Confederate surrender.
The surrender at Appomattox Court House, April 9 1865, Present at the surrender of Lee’s forces.
John was discharged on June 16, 1865, having faithfully completed his service. Like many veterans, however, he did not leave the war behind when he left the Army.
The Hidden Wounds of Service
The pension records of John M. Burchfield paint a picture of a man whose health never fully recovered after military service.
On June 1, 1899, fellow veteran Charles C. Culbertson, who had served beside John throughout their enlistment, provided testimony on John's behalf. Culbertson remembered John entering service as a healthy and able-bodied young man. During the war, however, he became seriously ill.
Culbertson recalled that John suffered what was then described as being "poisoned" on his feet and legs while stationed at Point of Rocks, Virginia. In nineteenth-century language, this likely referred to severe infection, ulceration, or blood poisoning rather than deliberate poisoning. He further testified that John was hospitalized at Point of Rocks, City Point, and Chester Hospital in Philadelphia for rheumatism and diseases contracted in the line of duty.
Most telling was Culbertson's statement that after returning home, John remained unable to perform manual labor for a year or two and was never again the strong laborer he had been before the war.
"He was a good soldier and performed his duty faithfully."
Those simple words, offered by a comrade more than thirty years after the war, may be among the finest tributes found anywhere in his pension file.
A Lifetime of Ill Health
The disabilities that followed John throughout his adult life were carefully documented during his pension examinations.
A medical examination conducted on November 30, 1898, recorded numerous chronic conditions:
Hypertrophic catarrh of the nose and throat
Residual effects of malaria
Residual effects of rheumatism
Crackling and impairment of the right shoulder
Limited movement of the arm
General symptoms associated with chronic illness
The examining physician noted that John could not properly lift one arm and that his range of motion was restricted. His shoulder, chest muscles, and upper arm exhibited signs of long-term damage and deterioration.
Additional testimony revealed another serious disability. In a 1901 affidavit, Mary A. Holmes stated that she had known John since 1872 and that he was already partially deaf when she first met him. Over the years she watched his hearing steadily worsen until he became nearly totally deaf.
She further testified that John had repeatedly told her he contracted malaria during his Army service and had suffered from its effects ever since his discharge.
Taken together, these records describe a veteran burdened by chronic pain, hearing loss, respiratory problems, rheumatism, and the lingering effects of disease for nearly four decades after the war.
Marriage and Family Life
On February 10, 1882, John married Elvira Delpuretta Hamilton. Their marriage came after many years of struggling with the health problems that followed his military service.
Although pension records naturally focus on illness and disability, they also reveal a man who remained rooted in his community. Witnesses consistently stated that they had known him for decades and that he had lived in the same general area since returning from the war.
That continuity mattered. Friends, neighbors, and fellow veterans could attest not only to his identity but also to the gradual decline they had personally witnessed over the years.
Final Years
By the closing years of the nineteenth century, John's health had become increasingly fragile. Pension examinations and supporting affidavits document a man whose ability to work had been steadily diminished by conditions that traced back to his military service.
Evidence within the pension file strongly suggests that John died on December 28, 1902, despite some later publications listing a 1903 date. His pension application and the chronology of subsequent filings support the 1902 date as the most likely correct one.
He was sixty-one years old.
John was laid to rest in Oak Hill Cemetery in Bradford, McKean County, Pennsylvania.
Elvira's Long Road to a Widow's Pension
John's death did not end the story contained within his pension file.
Like many Civil War widows, Elvira faced a complicated path when seeking benefits. Pension laws of the era often terminated a widow's eligibility upon remarriage. Following John's death, Elvira remarried multiple times. All of her marriages eventually ended in widowhood. William H. McKinney died on March 5, 1892, and John W. Henderson died on July 9, 1905.
A letter preserved in John's pension file, dated April 29, 1914, confirms that Elvira had survived all of her husbands. Because her subsequent marriages had ended with the deaths of her later spouses, she once again became eligible for a widow's pension based upon John M. Burchfield's Civil War service.
The pension file therefore tells not only the story of a soldier's sacrifices, but also the perseverance of the woman who spent years navigating the complicated pension system before finally reclaiming the benefits earned through her husband's service.
Remembering John M. Burchfield
John M. Burchfield was one of thousands of Union veterans whose wartime suffering continued long after the guns fell silent. The records left behind show a man who entered the Army healthy and able-bodied, served faithfully during the final campaigns of the Civil War, and spent the remainder of his life carrying the physical consequences of that service.
His story survives because fellow soldiers, neighbors, physicians, and family members took the time to tell it. Through their testimony, we see not merely a pension applicant, but a veteran whose sacrifices were remembered by those who knew him best.
More than a century later, the words of his comrade Charles Culbertson still stand as a fitting epitaph:
"He was a good soldier and performed his duty faithfully."