1st PA Rifles Identified Photograph Pennsylvania “Bucktails” Full plate tintype

1st PA Rifles Identified Photograph Pennsylvania “Bucktails” - Inventory Number:  ALB 295

Chester Frayer Kimball

Wounded at Fredericksburg!

Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, the 1st Pennsylvania Rifles, Kane's Rifles, or simply the "Bucktails," was a volunteer infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was a part of the famed Pennsylvania Reserve division in the Army of the Potomac for much of the early and middle parts of the war and served in the Eastern Theater in several important battles, including Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg.

The typed provenance on the back of the frame reads: 

CHESTER FRAYER KIMBALL

 (Chester 7, Sterry 6, Daniel 5, Jacob 4, John 3, John 2, Richard 1, born in Homer, Cortland County N.Y  Apr. 30, 1842; married Dec 20, 1870  at Parkville, Mo.,  Sarah Margaret Boydston, born Buchanan County, Mo.  Apr. l, 1850, died Big Grove, Benton County, Iowa, May 18, 1878.  

Chester Frayer Kimball, soon after the death of his father on Sept 24.  1845 went, at the age of six years to live with his uncle, Hiram McDonald Kimball, near Roundtop, Tioga County, Pa., and where he lived until he enlisted in the Civil War.  

He enlisted Aug. 6, 1861, in Company E, First Pennsylvania Rifles, generally known as the "Bucktails," one of the most famous regiments in the Union Army. He was in the battle of Drainsville, Va., his first engagement, Dee. 30, 1861, and went through the Peninsular Campaign under Gen George B. McClelland. He participated in the second battle of Bull Run, South Mountain, Md.  Fredericksburg VA. Dec. 13, 1862, where he was wounded in the left shoulder by a fragment from a shell. He was sent to Lincoln Hospital at Washington, D. C., where he remained until June, 1863, when he was transferred to Company A, 13th Regiment, Veteran Reserve Corps and sent to a hospital at Portsmouth  N.H.  He was discharged- from Company A at Galloup's Island in Boston Harbor, Boston Mass., because of re-enlistment on May 5, 1864, for three years additional service. On Oct 17, l864, he was made a Corporal of Company A, l3th Regiment; V.R.C. and on July 22, 1865, was made Sergeant of Company A. He was discharged Nov. 17, 1865, at Galloup’s Island, Boston Harbor, Boston, Mass., because of the close of the war.

This picture was probably taken in Boston sometime between Oct 17.  1864, and July 22, 1865, since his uniform in which the picture was taken shows the stripes indicating a Corporal, and was probably, therefore, taken after he was made a Corporal and before he was made a Sergeant . 

The Captain of Company E was Capt. Nathaniel Niles of Wellsboro Pa. Whom Chas.  A.  Kimball came to know quite well in Wellsboro after 1884 and until the captain’s death.  The Colonel of this regiment was Col. Kane, of the famous Kane family of Pennsylvania, and a brother of the noted Arctic explorer, Elisha Kent Kane.  Upon being discharged at the close of the war, Chester Frayer Kimball returned to Tioga County, Pa  and remained there until April  1866, when he went to Nebraska, remaining there until November, 1867, when  he went to Southwestern Missouri, and remained there until February, 1869,  when he located at Parkville, Platte Couty, Mo.  and where he married In 1875, called the "Grasshopper Year," he took his family to Benton Co. Iowa where his wife died May 18, 1878, and he returned with his two boys  to Parkville Platte County, Mo  in 1878, and remained there until August, 1884, when he returned to Tioga County Pa.  and except for a residence of about one year at 13 Gates Street, Portsmouth, N. H., from the  fal1 of 1884 he remained there until his death Jan. 26, 1907  About 1880 or 1881 Chester F became a member of Compass Lodge  No. 120  A.F. &  A.M., at Parkville, Mo.; about 1883 he became  a member of  G.A.R post in Kansas City, Mo.; after returning to Wellsboro, pa., he  a  there became a member of George Cook Post, G.A.R., and subsequently helped organize and became a member of the Union Veteran Legion Post at that place.

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Inventory Number:  ALB 295