Bio and Download Civil War Pension File – Robert Reid Burchfield, Co. E, 63rd Regiment, Pa Vols.

American Civil War Veterans Pension PDF file available thanks to Kerri Fawcett.

These Civil War pension records were obtained from the U.S. National Archives and are public domain government documents. They are shared here freely for historical and genealogical research.

B: Feb. 12, 1830 Saegerstown, Crawford County, Pennsylvania
D: 8 Jan 1865 Florence, South Carolina
Son of Nancy McGill and William H Burchfield.
Grandson of Anna Marie Baird and Patrick McGill.
Brother of Civil War soldiers Samuel Montgomery Burchfield and William Burchfield.
Served in Company E 63rd regiment Pennsylvania Infantry.
findAgrave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/78058331/robert-reed-burchfield​

Robert Reid Burchfield (1830–1865)

Early Life and Family Roots

Robert Reid Burchfield was born on February 12, 1830, in Saegertown, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, to Nancy McGill Burchfield and John Burchfield. As the grandson of Anna Marie Baird and Patrick McGill, he belonged to a family with deep Pennsylvania roots and longstanding military traditions woven through its history.

Civil War Service

During the later years of the Civil War, Robert was drafted and mustered into Company E, 63rd Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, on September 8, 1863. The 63rd Regiment — known as the “Third Pennsylvania Reserves” — had already fought in many of the Eastern Theater’s major battles before his enlistment, including Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg.

By 1864, the regiment faced the brutal realities of the war’s final campaigns. During battles such as the Wilderness and the Petersburg sieges, many soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured and sent to Confederate prison camps.

Imprisonment at Florence Stockade

Robert did not survive the war. He died on January 31, 1865, at the Florence Stockade Military Prison in Florence, South Carolina.

The prison had been hastily constructed by Confederate authorities in September 1864 to relieve overcrowding at the infamous Andersonville prison. Enclosed by pine-log walls across approximately 23 acres, Florence Stockade held as many as 18,000 Union prisoners at its peak.

Conditions inside the camp were appalling. Prisoners had little shelter, often digging crude “shebangs” in the ground or sleeping completely exposed to the elements. Food consisted largely of cornmeal mush and occasional beef rations. Disease spread rapidly through the camp due to contaminated creek water used for drinking, washing, and latrines. Scurvy, dysentery, and smallpox were common, while harsh winter weather and ice storms added to the suffering. A guarded “dead-line” surrounded the prison interior, and any prisoner crossing it risked being shot.

Nearly 2,800 men perished at Florence Stockade within just a few months. Many were buried in mass trenches before later being reinterred at Florence National Cemetery.

Legacy

Robert Reid Burchfield’s death, likely caused by disease or exposure, reflects the quieter tragedies endured by thousands of Civil War prisoners of war far from the battlefield. Though he did not fall in combat, his sacrifice remains part of the larger story of hardship, endurance, and loss experienced by ordinary soldiers during the final years of the American Civil War.

A Note on Historical Events:
The stories and events shared here are part of our family’s history and the wider world’s past. They are told to remember and understand—not to celebrate or encourage conflict in today’s world.