Colonel James Herbert was a gentleman farmer from Maryland who traded his plow for a sword when the Civil War erupted in 1861. Present at the Battle of First Manassas, he noticed a Union officer mortally wounded in the fray. The day was hot, the fight chaotic, but Herbert managed to reach the dying soldier and gently pulled him into the shade to make his last moments more comfortable.
What followed was a quest that would end at a place called Gettysburg.
As Colonel Herbert pulled the unconscious Union officer under a nearby tree, the dying man’s wallet fell from his uniform. Another Confederate soldier, who witnessed the scene, stooped to retrieve it, but Colonel Herbert said simply, “I’ll take care of that.” Taking the object in hand, he noted that its owner had expired.
A quick perusal of the contents of the billfold told the colonel that the deceased was a Captain Brown who hailed from New York. Later that evening, when Herbert had more time to examine the wallet, he saw that it contained fifty-seven dollars in gold – a significant sum.
The good colonel knew that the dead Federal had been his enemy in war, yet, he was a man with a family. Herbert made up his mind that, if he survived the war, he would return the wallet to Captain Brown’s wife, and tell her of her husband’s final moments.
Through the next two years, Colonel Herbert experienced many battles and an equal number of hardships as the Army of Northern Virginia endured privations, sickness, and the destruction of war. Many times the lure of Captain Brown’s gold would have eased the rigors of the time, but Herbert held true to his quest.
Colonel Herbert entered Gettysburg, Pennsylvania late on July 1, 1863 with the rest of the regiment he commanded, the 1st (later known as the 2nd) Maryland Infantry. Suffering with intense heat exhaustion, the troops from Maryland had not drawn rations for two days. Stopping by the Eagle Hotel on Chambersburg Street with his friend and comrade, William Goldsboro, Herbert consumed two biscuits and drank some water. It would be his only meal at Gettysburg for the duration of the battle.
The next day, as darkness fell on Culp’s Hill, Colonel Herbert was severely wounded, shot by three minie balls, including a desperate wound in the thigh. His friend Goldsboro took command of the regiment. For several days, the colonel was nursed with other Confederates at Pennsylvania College north of town. After the troops pulled out, the more critically wounded were transferred to Camp Letterman east of town on the York Road. Herbert was one of them.
While recuperating in his cot at Camp Letterman, Colonel Herbert heard a woman’s voice outside his tent. Upon learning that Confederates occupied the tent, the woman said, “I wonder if any of them know about my husband.” She entered, her eyes filled with the anticipation of hope. She had searched for her husband for nearly two years without success – since the summer of 1861. She was introduced as Mrs. Brown, from New York.
James Herbert told her that he did indeed have news of her husband. Producing the wallet with the proper identification and fifty seven dollars in gold, he gently broke the devastating news of her husband’s death at First Manassas. Though grieved to learn of her husband’s fate, the widow was grateful to the prone Confederate, and gave him her earnest thanks to know the truth at last. The money, too, was most gratefully received.
The colonel survived his Gettysburg wound and the war, and was lucky enough to return to Maryland’s eastern shore to his own family. He died in 1884.
He is known to history as the commander of the 2nd Maryland confederate regiment, a unit that lost more than half their number on Culp’s Hill on the evening of July 2 and the morning of July 3, 1863. Already remembered as a valiant and brave soldier, Colonel Herbert should be known as well for a kindness he showed to a concerned and lonely woman anxious for news about her husband, long after the guns at Gettysburg were silenced.
Sources: "The Second Maryland Infantry", An Oration delivered on Friday, May 7, 1909 in Annapolis, Maryland by Lt. Randolph McKim. “An Act of Kindness at Gettysburg”, The Second Maryland Battalion File, Gettysburg National Military Park. The Telegram (a Baltimore newspaper), August 7, 1889, copy, GNMP. Goldsboro, William. The Maryland Line. Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press, 1972.
Editor's Note: No photo of Col. Herbert was available. As an officer, he would have used a pistol and saber, not a musket as seen on preceding page.
