Civil War Union Army Officer. He was a splendid type of the volunteer soldier of the Union during the Civil war, and his brilliant record won for him a commission and promotion in the regular army, which he adorned for many years. He was of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and his military instincts and genius came to him through a long line of honorable forebears, clearly traceable to William, the Norman Conqueror. His grandfather, James Gageby, came from the north of Ireland to the United States in 1774. He settled in Philadelphia, and was in Independence Hall when the Declaration of Independence was read. He was doubtless greatly impressed by that dramatic event, for he entered the patriot army and with it served and fought during the entire struggle. After the war was over he located in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, where be died in 1836, esteemed and honored, at the advanced age of eighty-six years.
Robert Gageby, son of the revolutionary veteran, James Gageby, was born and reared in Westmoreland county. In 1834, during the building of the Pennsylvania canal and Portage railroad, he came to Johnstown, where he lived during the remainder of his life, dying in 1880, at the age of seventy-four years. He was a man possessing in eminent degree many sterling qualities of head and heart, and took an active and intelligent part in all community affairs. He was a stanch Republican, and firm in upholding his political principles. He married Rebecca Scott, a native of Somerset county, Pennsylvania, of Scotch extraction, and a descendant of the famous Scott and Stewart families of Scotland.
James Harrison Gageby, son of Robert B. and Rebecca (Scott) Gageby, was born September 5, 1835, within the corporate limits of Johnstown. He received his early education in the public schools of that city, and when about eighteen years of age took a course in Elder’s Ridge Academy, then under the charge of Dr. Donaldson. In his early youth he worked with his father in the blacksmith shop of Gageby & Kinley. At the age of twenty-two his love of adventure led him to Iowa, then but sparsely settled, where for three years he followed various avocations. Returning home, the opening of the Civil war appealed to his patriotism and martial spirit, and on April 19, a week after the firing on Fort Sumter, and immediately after Governor Curtin had made his call for troops, he enlisted under President Lincoln ‘s first call for three months’ men, as a sergeant on Company K, Third Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers. This company was already in existence as the Johnstown Zouaves, and as such was thoroughly drilled and entirely qualified for active service on the instant. With his company Sergeant Gageby served in General Patterson’s command in Maryland and Virginia, and was engaged in the battle of Falling Water, Virginia, July 2, 1861. Discharged on the expiration of his term of service, July 30 following, Sergeant Gageby aided in recruiting a company for the Seventy-sixth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, in which he was to be commissioned. Before its organization was perfected, however, he enlisted, October 25, in the Nineteenth Regiment United States Infantry, in which he was appointed first sergeant, to date from his enlistment—a fine tribute to his soldierly bearing and qualities. For several weeks he was on duty at Greensburg, Pennsylvania, drilling a detachment of the regiment, and subsequently at the headquarters of the regiment, in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the capacity of drill sergeant. He was so engaged until the organization of Companies G and H, of the First Battalion of the regiment, when he went to the field as first sergeant of Company G, assigned to duty with the Army of the Potomac. After serving at Harrison ‘s Landing his battalion acted as bodyguard to General McClellan in the campaign through Maryland. It took part in the battles of Antietam and South Mountain, and afterward in the battle of Fredericksburg, at which the Sergeant Gageby ‘s battalion was assigned to the Seventeenth Infantry Regiment, with which it served in that engagement. In March, 1863, his company was transferred to the Army of the Cumberland and assigned to the First Battalion, Nineteenth Infantry. He was promoted to second lieutenant in Company A, that regiment, at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, June 1, 1863, and served as such until the battle of Hoover ‘s Gap, when he was placed in command of Company G, led it in the charge of the brigade of Regulars against a Confederate division, and was brevetted first lieutenant "for gallant and meritorious service in action" upon that occasion. He was returned to Company A just prior to the battle of Chickamauga, in which engagement he was wounded and taken prisoner, September 20, 1863. He was taken to Libby Prison, Richmond, and was there while the famous tunnel for escape was being dug by the prisoners. Colonel Rose, chief of the tunneling party, advised Lieutenant Gageby, Captain E.L. Smith and Lieutenant M.C. Causten that they were to consider themselves as a part of the liberty seeking company, although, on account of the prejudices of some of the volunteer officers, they were not permitted to work in the tunnel: at the same the they were charged to aid in preventing the discovery of the tunnel while work was progressing. Lieutenant Gageby escaped through the tunnel February 9, 1864, but was recaptured two days later near Charles City crossroads, Virginia, and was returned to the prison and incarcerated in the "middle dungeon" for eight days, when he was taken to Danville, Virginia; later to Charlotte, North Carolina; to Macon, Georgia; and Charleston, South Carolina; and in the last named city was held for several days under the fire of the Union batteries playing upon it. He was then taken to Columbia. South Carolina, thence back again to Charlotte, North Carolina, later to Raleigh and Goldsboro, North Carolina, and finally to Wilmington, Delaware, where he was released on parole, March 1, 1865, after an imprisonment of seventeen months and ten days.
Returning to duty with his company, at Lookout Mountain, in May, 1865, he was with his regiment there, and, the war being over, was with it in Arkansas and the Cherokee Nation the remainder of 1865 and in 1866. He was brevetted captain September 20, 1865. He was on regular army recruiting service from September, 1866, to March, 1868. In that year he was appointed captain in the Thirty-seventh Regiment United States Infantry, successfully passed examination at Louisville, Kentucky, and joined his regiment at Fort Stanton, New Mexico, in March, 1868. He was engaged in several scouts and expeditions against the Mescalero Apache Indians, and in October was ordered with his company to the Canadian river expedition under Colonel A.W. Evans, at Fort Bascom. This campaign against the Comanches continued about four months, the troops being without tents the greater part of the time. The Comanche village on the Salt Fork of the Red River, Texas was found December 25, 1868, and here the command was actively engaged in battle with the Indians from 10 o’clock in the morning until sundown. In April and May of 1869, Captain Gageby was with General J.R. Brooke on the expedition against the Mescalero and Sierra Diablo Apache Indians, and with his company he fought a brief engagement with them near the big canyon of the Guadaloupe mountains, New Mexico. On August 11, 1869, he was assigned to the Third Infantry, and with his company (D) served in 1810 guarding the Missouri Pacific Railway in Colorado, where he had several slight skirmishes with Arapahoe and Cheyenne Indians. He was subsequently on duty at Fort Lyon, Colorado, and Camp Supply, Indian Territory, and in 1874 was ordered on reconstruction duty in the south. He was so engaged until August, 1877, when he was ordered north to serve during the railroad riots in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. He was on duty at Fort Missoula, Montana, from September, 1877, to 1878, when he was ordered on recruiting duty. He rejoined the Third Infantry Regiment in May, 1881, and served with it until April, 1883.
In February, 1889, Captain Gageby came to Johnstown on leave of absence, and was there at the time of the great flood, in which he lost several members of his family, and all his home property. He was placed on duty there by order of the Secretary of War, and served with the National Guard of Pennsylvania until September, 1889, when he was placed on special recruiting service for one year. He was subsequently selected by Colonel Mason, of the Third Infantry, for the regular recruiting detail, and was on that duty until he was promoted to major, Twelfth Infantry, July 4, 1892. He was placed in command at Fort Sully, South Dakota, where he remained two years, being then transferred to Fort Niobrara, Nebraska. At the time of his death he stood within two files of a lieutenant-colonelcy, which it was his ambition to reach.
The foregoing military record is one of which any man might well he proud. Courageous in action, firm in the discharge of every duty, he was at the same the one of the most affable, companionable and generous of men, and his friends in the army were perhaps more numerous than those of any other officer of his rank. Although by reason of his occupation separated for the greater portion of his life from the scenes of his childhood, it is doubtful if there was at the time of his death (which occurred, in Johnstown, July 13, 1896), a man in the community more universally known and more sincerely liked than was Major Gageby. He had a remarkable faculty for remembering names and faces, and was scarcely ever at fault in recognizing and calling by name any person he had ever met. Constantly forming new acquaintances, he was never forgetful of old friends, and grasped them to himself as "with hoops of steel." Coming from a long line of stalwart Presbyterian ancestors, he was of a reverential mind, and was a constant attendant upon divine services, though holding to no special creed. He was a lifelong Republican. He became affiliated with the Masonic Fraternity while stationed in Indian Territory. He was a member of the Grand Army Post in Johnstown and a companion of the Nebraska Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. His remains are interred at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in Grand View cemetery.
Major Gageby was happily married in 1873 to Matilda Fend, a daughter of Jacob Fend, who died January 29, 1899, and is interred in Grandview cemetery, Johnstown. To Major and Mrs. Gageby was born an only child, Emma, at Fort Missoula, Montana, five hundred and forty-five miles from the nearest railroad point. Miss Gageby was married, November 12, 1904, to Lieutenant George Wilbur Cochen, of Brooklyn, New York, a son of Theodore Cochen. Lieutenant Cochen is an officer in the United States Artillery Corps, stationed at Fortress Monroe, Virginia.
Robert Gageby, son of the revolutionary veteran, James Gageby, was born and reared in Westmoreland county. In 1834, during the building of the Pennsylvania canal and Portage railroad, he came to Johnstown, where he lived during the remainder of his life, dying in 1880, at the age of seventy-four years. He was a man possessing in eminent degree many sterling qualities of head and heart, and took an active and intelligent part in all community affairs. He was a stanch Republican, and firm in upholding his political principles. He married Rebecca Scott, a native of Somerset county, Pennsylvania, of Scotch extraction, and a descendant of the famous Scott and Stewart families of Scotland.
James Harrison Gageby, son of Robert B. and Rebecca (Scott) Gageby, was born September 5, 1835, within the corporate limits of Johnstown. He received his early education in the public schools of that city, and when about eighteen years of age took a course in Elder’s Ridge Academy, then under the charge of Dr. Donaldson. In his early youth he worked with his father in the blacksmith shop of Gageby & Kinley. At the age of twenty-two his love of adventure led him to Iowa, then but sparsely settled, where for three years he followed various avocations. Returning home, the opening of the Civil war appealed to his patriotism and martial spirit, and on April 19, a week after the firing on Fort Sumter, and immediately after Governor Curtin had made his call for troops, he enlisted under President Lincoln ‘s first call for three months’ men, as a sergeant on Company K, Third Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers. This company was already in existence as the Johnstown Zouaves, and as such was thoroughly drilled and entirely qualified for active service on the instant. With his company Sergeant Gageby served in General Patterson’s command in Maryland and Virginia, and was engaged in the battle of Falling Water, Virginia, July 2, 1861. Discharged on the expiration of his term of service, July 30 following, Sergeant Gageby aided in recruiting a company for the Seventy-sixth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, in which he was to be commissioned. Before its organization was perfected, however, he enlisted, October 25, in the Nineteenth Regiment United States Infantry, in which he was appointed first sergeant, to date from his enlistment—a fine tribute to his soldierly bearing and qualities. For several weeks he was on duty at Greensburg, Pennsylvania, drilling a detachment of the regiment, and subsequently at the headquarters of the regiment, in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the capacity of drill sergeant. He was so engaged until the organization of Companies G and H, of the First Battalion of the regiment, when he went to the field as first sergeant of Company G, assigned to duty with the Army of the Potomac. After serving at Harrison ‘s Landing his battalion acted as bodyguard to General McClellan in the campaign through Maryland. It took part in the battles of Antietam and South Mountain, and afterward in the battle of Fredericksburg, at which the Sergeant Gageby ‘s battalion was assigned to the Seventeenth Infantry Regiment, with which it served in that engagement. In March, 1863, his company was transferred to the Army of the Cumberland and assigned to the First Battalion, Nineteenth Infantry. He was promoted to second lieutenant in Company A, that regiment, at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, June 1, 1863, and served as such until the battle of Hoover ‘s Gap, when he was placed in command of Company G, led it in the charge of the brigade of Regulars against a Confederate division, and was brevetted first lieutenant "for gallant and meritorious service in action" upon that occasion. He was returned to Company A just prior to the battle of Chickamauga, in which engagement he was wounded and taken prisoner, September 20, 1863. He was taken to Libby Prison, Richmond, and was there while the famous tunnel for escape was being dug by the prisoners. Colonel Rose, chief of the tunneling party, advised Lieutenant Gageby, Captain E.L. Smith and Lieutenant M.C. Causten that they were to consider themselves as a part of the liberty seeking company, although, on account of the prejudices of some of the volunteer officers, they were not permitted to work in the tunnel: at the same the they were charged to aid in preventing the discovery of the tunnel while work was progressing. Lieutenant Gageby escaped through the tunnel February 9, 1864, but was recaptured two days later near Charles City crossroads, Virginia, and was returned to the prison and incarcerated in the "middle dungeon" for eight days, when he was taken to Danville, Virginia; later to Charlotte, North Carolina; to Macon, Georgia; and Charleston, South Carolina; and in the last named city was held for several days under the fire of the Union batteries playing upon it. He was then taken to Columbia. South Carolina, thence back again to Charlotte, North Carolina, later to Raleigh and Goldsboro, North Carolina, and finally to Wilmington, Delaware, where he was released on parole, March 1, 1865, after an imprisonment of seventeen months and ten days.
Returning to duty with his company, at Lookout Mountain, in May, 1865, he was with his regiment there, and, the war being over, was with it in Arkansas and the Cherokee Nation the remainder of 1865 and in 1866. He was brevetted captain September 20, 1865. He was on regular army recruiting service from September, 1866, to March, 1868. In that year he was appointed captain in the Thirty-seventh Regiment United States Infantry, successfully passed examination at Louisville, Kentucky, and joined his regiment at Fort Stanton, New Mexico, in March, 1868. He was engaged in several scouts and expeditions against the Mescalero Apache Indians, and in October was ordered with his company to the Canadian river expedition under Colonel A.W. Evans, at Fort Bascom. This campaign against the Comanches continued about four months, the troops being without tents the greater part of the time. The Comanche village on the Salt Fork of the Red River, Texas was found December 25, 1868, and here the command was actively engaged in battle with the Indians from 10 o’clock in the morning until sundown. In April and May of 1869, Captain Gageby was with General J.R. Brooke on the expedition against the Mescalero and Sierra Diablo Apache Indians, and with his company he fought a brief engagement with them near the big canyon of the Guadaloupe mountains, New Mexico. On August 11, 1869, he was assigned to the Third Infantry, and with his company (D) served in 1810 guarding the Missouri Pacific Railway in Colorado, where he had several slight skirmishes with Arapahoe and Cheyenne Indians. He was subsequently on duty at Fort Lyon, Colorado, and Camp Supply, Indian Territory, and in 1874 was ordered on reconstruction duty in the south. He was so engaged until August, 1877, when he was ordered north to serve during the railroad riots in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. He was on duty at Fort Missoula, Montana, from September, 1877, to 1878, when he was ordered on recruiting duty. He rejoined the Third Infantry Regiment in May, 1881, and served with it until April, 1883.
In February, 1889, Captain Gageby came to Johnstown on leave of absence, and was there at the time of the great flood, in which he lost several members of his family, and all his home property. He was placed on duty there by order of the Secretary of War, and served with the National Guard of Pennsylvania until September, 1889, when he was placed on special recruiting service for one year. He was subsequently selected by Colonel Mason, of the Third Infantry, for the regular recruiting detail, and was on that duty until he was promoted to major, Twelfth Infantry, July 4, 1892. He was placed in command at Fort Sully, South Dakota, where he remained two years, being then transferred to Fort Niobrara, Nebraska. At the time of his death he stood within two files of a lieutenant-colonelcy, which it was his ambition to reach.
The foregoing military record is one of which any man might well he proud. Courageous in action, firm in the discharge of every duty, he was at the same the one of the most affable, companionable and generous of men, and his friends in the army were perhaps more numerous than those of any other officer of his rank. Although by reason of his occupation separated for the greater portion of his life from the scenes of his childhood, it is doubtful if there was at the time of his death (which occurred, in Johnstown, July 13, 1896), a man in the community more universally known and more sincerely liked than was Major Gageby. He had a remarkable faculty for remembering names and faces, and was scarcely ever at fault in recognizing and calling by name any person he had ever met. Constantly forming new acquaintances, he was never forgetful of old friends, and grasped them to himself as "with hoops of steel." Coming from a long line of stalwart Presbyterian ancestors, he was of a reverential mind, and was a constant attendant upon divine services, though holding to no special creed. He was a lifelong Republican. He became affiliated with the Masonic Fraternity while stationed in Indian Territory. He was a member of the Grand Army Post in Johnstown and a companion of the Nebraska Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. His remains are interred at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in Grand View cemetery.
Major Gageby was happily married in 1873 to Matilda Fend, a daughter of Jacob Fend, who died January 29, 1899, and is interred in Grandview cemetery, Johnstown. To Major and Mrs. Gageby was born an only child, Emma, at Fort Missoula, Montana, five hundred and forty-five miles from the nearest railroad point. Miss Gageby was married, November 12, 1904, to Lieutenant George Wilbur Cochen, of Brooklyn, New York, a son of Theodore Cochen. Lieutenant Cochen is an officer in the United States Artillery Corps, stationed at Fortress Monroe, Virginia.
Civil War Union Army Officer. He was a splendid type of the volunteer soldier of the Union during the Civil war, and his brilliant record won for him a commission and promotion in the regular army, which he adorned for many years. He was of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and his military instincts and genius came to him through a long line of honorable forebears, clearly traceable to William, the Norman Conqueror. His grandfather, James Gageby, came from the north of Ireland to the United States in 1774. He settled in Philadelphia, and was in Independence Hall when the Declaration of Independence was read. He was doubtless greatly impressed by that dramatic event, for he entered the patriot army and with it served and fought during the entire struggle. After the war was over he located in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, where be died in 1836, esteemed and honored, at the advanced age of eighty-six years.
Robert Gageby, son of the revolutionary veteran, James Gageby, was born and reared in Westmoreland county. In 1834, during the building of the Pennsylvania canal and Portage railroad, he came to Johnstown, where he lived during the remainder of his life, dying in 1880, at the age of seventy-four years. He was a man possessing in eminent degree many sterling qualities of head and heart, and took an active and intelligent part in all community affairs. He was a stanch Republican, and firm in upholding his political principles. He married Rebecca Scott, a native of Somerset county, Pennsylvania, of Scotch extraction, and a descendant of the famous Scott and Stewart families of Scotland.
James Harrison Gageby, son of Robert B. and Rebecca (Scott) Gageby, was born September 5, 1835, within the corporate limits of Johnstown. He received his early education in the public schools of that city, and when about eighteen years of age took a course in Elder’s Ridge Academy, then under the charge of Dr. Donaldson. In his early youth he worked with his father in the blacksmith shop of Gageby & Kinley. At the age of twenty-two his love of adventure led him to Iowa, then but sparsely settled, where for three years he followed various avocations. Returning home, the opening of the Civil war appealed to his patriotism and martial spirit, and on April 19, a week after the firing on Fort Sumter, and immediately after Governor Curtin had made his call for troops, he enlisted under President Lincoln ‘s first call for three months’ men, as a sergeant on Company K, Third Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers. This company was already in existence as the Johnstown Zouaves, and as such was thoroughly drilled and entirely qualified for active service on the instant. With his company Sergeant Gageby served in General Patterson’s command in Maryland and Virginia, and was engaged in the battle of Falling Water, Virginia, July 2, 1861. Discharged on the expiration of his term of service, July 30 following, Sergeant Gageby aided in recruiting a company for the Seventy-sixth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, in which he was to be commissioned. Before its organization was perfected, however, he enlisted, October 25, in the Nineteenth Regiment United States Infantry, in which he was appointed first sergeant, to date from his enlistment—a fine tribute to his soldierly bearing and qualities. For several weeks he was on duty at Greensburg, Pennsylvania, drilling a detachment of the regiment, and subsequently at the headquarters of the regiment, in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the capacity of drill sergeant. He was so engaged until the organization of Companies G and H, of the First Battalion of the regiment, when he went to the field as first sergeant of Company G, assigned to duty with the Army of the Potomac. After serving at Harrison ‘s Landing his battalion acted as bodyguard to General McClellan in the campaign through Maryland. It took part in the battles of Antietam and South Mountain, and afterward in the battle of Fredericksburg, at which the Sergeant Gageby ‘s battalion was assigned to the Seventeenth Infantry Regiment, with which it served in that engagement. In March, 1863, his company was transferred to the Army of the Cumberland and assigned to the First Battalion, Nineteenth Infantry. He was promoted to second lieutenant in Company A, that regiment, at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, June 1, 1863, and served as such until the battle of Hoover ‘s Gap, when he was placed in command of Company G, led it in the charge of the brigade of Regulars against a Confederate division, and was brevetted first lieutenant "for gallant and meritorious service in action" upon that occasion. He was returned to Company A just prior to the battle of Chickamauga, in which engagement he was wounded and taken prisoner, September 20, 1863. He was taken to Libby Prison, Richmond, and was there while the famous tunnel for escape was being dug by the prisoners. Colonel Rose, chief of the tunneling party, advised Lieutenant Gageby, Captain E.L. Smith and Lieutenant M.C. Causten that they were to consider themselves as a part of the liberty seeking company, although, on account of the prejudices of some of the volunteer officers, they were not permitted to work in the tunnel: at the same the they were charged to aid in preventing the discovery of the tunnel while work was progressing. Lieutenant Gageby escaped through the tunnel February 9, 1864, but was recaptured two days later near Charles City crossroads, Virginia, and was returned to the prison and incarcerated in the "middle dungeon" for eight days, when he was taken to Danville, Virginia; later to Charlotte, North Carolina; to Macon, Georgia; and Charleston, South Carolina; and in the last named city was held for several days under the fire of the Union batteries playing upon it. He was then taken to Columbia. South Carolina, thence back again to Charlotte, North Carolina, later to Raleigh and Goldsboro, North Carolina, and finally to Wilmington, Delaware, where he was released on parole, March 1, 1865, after an imprisonment of seventeen months and ten days.
Returning to duty with his company, at Lookout Mountain, in May, 1865, he was with his regiment there, and, the war being over, was with it in Arkansas and the Cherokee Nation the remainder of 1865 and in 1866. He was brevetted captain September 20, 1865. He was on regular army recruiting service from September, 1866, to March, 1868. In that year he was appointed captain in the Thirty-seventh Regiment United States Infantry, successfully passed examination at Louisville, Kentucky, and joined his regiment at Fort Stanton, New Mexico, in March, 1868. He was engaged in several scouts and expeditions against the Mescalero Apache Indians, and in October was ordered with his company to the Canadian river expedition under Colonel A.W. Evans, at Fort Bascom. This campaign against the Comanches continued about four months, the troops being without tents the greater part of the time. The Comanche village on the Salt Fork of the Red River, Texas was found December 25, 1868, and here the command was actively engaged in battle with the Indians from 10 o’clock in the morning until sundown. In April and May of 1869, Captain Gageby was with General J.R. Brooke on the expedition against the Mescalero and Sierra Diablo Apache Indians, and with his company he fought a brief engagement with them near the big canyon of the Guadaloupe mountains, New Mexico. On August 11, 1869, he was assigned to the Third Infantry, and with his company (D) served in 1810 guarding the Missouri Pacific Railway in Colorado, where he had several slight skirmishes with Arapahoe and Cheyenne Indians. He was subsequently on duty at Fort Lyon, Colorado, and Camp Supply, Indian Territory, and in 1874 was ordered on reconstruction duty in the south. He was so engaged until August, 1877, when he was ordered north to serve during the railroad riots in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. He was on duty at Fort Missoula, Montana, from September, 1877, to 1878, when he was ordered on recruiting duty. He rejoined the Third Infantry Regiment in May, 1881, and served with it until April, 1883.
In February, 1889, Captain Gageby came to Johnstown on leave of absence, and was there at the time of the great flood, in which he lost several members of his family, and all his home property. He was placed on duty there by order of the Secretary of War, and served with the National Guard of Pennsylvania until September, 1889, when he was placed on special recruiting service for one year. He was subsequently selected by Colonel Mason, of the Third Infantry, for the regular recruiting detail, and was on that duty until he was promoted to major, Twelfth Infantry, July 4, 1892. He was placed in command at Fort Sully, South Dakota, where he remained two years, being then transferred to Fort Niobrara, Nebraska. At the time of his death he stood within two files of a lieutenant-colonelcy, which it was his ambition to reach.
The foregoing military record is one of which any man might well he proud. Courageous in action, firm in the discharge of every duty, he was at the same the one of the most affable, companionable and generous of men, and his friends in the army were perhaps more numerous than those of any other officer of his rank. Although by reason of his occupation separated for the greater portion of his life from the scenes of his childhood, it is doubtful if there was at the time of his death (which occurred, in Johnstown, July 13, 1896), a man in the community more universally known and more sincerely liked than was Major Gageby. He had a remarkable faculty for remembering names and faces, and was scarcely ever at fault in recognizing and calling by name any person he had ever met. Constantly forming new acquaintances, he was never forgetful of old friends, and grasped them to himself as "with hoops of steel." Coming from a long line of stalwart Presbyterian ancestors, he was of a reverential mind, and was a constant attendant upon divine services, though holding to no special creed. He was a lifelong Republican. He became affiliated with the Masonic Fraternity while stationed in Indian Territory. He was a member of the Grand Army Post in Johnstown and a companion of the Nebraska Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. His remains are interred at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in Grand View cemetery.
Major Gageby was happily married in 1873 to Matilda Fend, a daughter of Jacob Fend, who died January 29, 1899, and is interred in Grandview cemetery, Johnstown. To Major and Mrs. Gageby was born an only child, Emma, at Fort Missoula, Montana, five hundred and forty-five miles from the nearest railroad point. Miss Gageby was married, November 12, 1904, to Lieutenant George Wilbur Cochen, of Brooklyn, New York, a son of Theodore Cochen. Lieutenant Cochen is an officer in the United States Artillery Corps, stationed at Fortress Monroe, Virginia.
Robert Gageby, son of the revolutionary veteran, James Gageby, was born and reared in Westmoreland county. In 1834, during the building of the Pennsylvania canal and Portage railroad, he came to Johnstown, where he lived during the remainder of his life, dying in 1880, at the age of seventy-four years. He was a man possessing in eminent degree many sterling qualities of head and heart, and took an active and intelligent part in all community affairs. He was a stanch Republican, and firm in upholding his political principles. He married Rebecca Scott, a native of Somerset county, Pennsylvania, of Scotch extraction, and a descendant of the famous Scott and Stewart families of Scotland.
James Harrison Gageby, son of Robert B. and Rebecca (Scott) Gageby, was born September 5, 1835, within the corporate limits of Johnstown. He received his early education in the public schools of that city, and when about eighteen years of age took a course in Elder’s Ridge Academy, then under the charge of Dr. Donaldson. In his early youth he worked with his father in the blacksmith shop of Gageby & Kinley. At the age of twenty-two his love of adventure led him to Iowa, then but sparsely settled, where for three years he followed various avocations. Returning home, the opening of the Civil war appealed to his patriotism and martial spirit, and on April 19, a week after the firing on Fort Sumter, and immediately after Governor Curtin had made his call for troops, he enlisted under President Lincoln ‘s first call for three months’ men, as a sergeant on Company K, Third Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers. This company was already in existence as the Johnstown Zouaves, and as such was thoroughly drilled and entirely qualified for active service on the instant. With his company Sergeant Gageby served in General Patterson’s command in Maryland and Virginia, and was engaged in the battle of Falling Water, Virginia, July 2, 1861. Discharged on the expiration of his term of service, July 30 following, Sergeant Gageby aided in recruiting a company for the Seventy-sixth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, in which he was to be commissioned. Before its organization was perfected, however, he enlisted, October 25, in the Nineteenth Regiment United States Infantry, in which he was appointed first sergeant, to date from his enlistment—a fine tribute to his soldierly bearing and qualities. For several weeks he was on duty at Greensburg, Pennsylvania, drilling a detachment of the regiment, and subsequently at the headquarters of the regiment, in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the capacity of drill sergeant. He was so engaged until the organization of Companies G and H, of the First Battalion of the regiment, when he went to the field as first sergeant of Company G, assigned to duty with the Army of the Potomac. After serving at Harrison ‘s Landing his battalion acted as bodyguard to General McClellan in the campaign through Maryland. It took part in the battles of Antietam and South Mountain, and afterward in the battle of Fredericksburg, at which the Sergeant Gageby ‘s battalion was assigned to the Seventeenth Infantry Regiment, with which it served in that engagement. In March, 1863, his company was transferred to the Army of the Cumberland and assigned to the First Battalion, Nineteenth Infantry. He was promoted to second lieutenant in Company A, that regiment, at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, June 1, 1863, and served as such until the battle of Hoover ‘s Gap, when he was placed in command of Company G, led it in the charge of the brigade of Regulars against a Confederate division, and was brevetted first lieutenant "for gallant and meritorious service in action" upon that occasion. He was returned to Company A just prior to the battle of Chickamauga, in which engagement he was wounded and taken prisoner, September 20, 1863. He was taken to Libby Prison, Richmond, and was there while the famous tunnel for escape was being dug by the prisoners. Colonel Rose, chief of the tunneling party, advised Lieutenant Gageby, Captain E.L. Smith and Lieutenant M.C. Causten that they were to consider themselves as a part of the liberty seeking company, although, on account of the prejudices of some of the volunteer officers, they were not permitted to work in the tunnel: at the same the they were charged to aid in preventing the discovery of the tunnel while work was progressing. Lieutenant Gageby escaped through the tunnel February 9, 1864, but was recaptured two days later near Charles City crossroads, Virginia, and was returned to the prison and incarcerated in the "middle dungeon" for eight days, when he was taken to Danville, Virginia; later to Charlotte, North Carolina; to Macon, Georgia; and Charleston, South Carolina; and in the last named city was held for several days under the fire of the Union batteries playing upon it. He was then taken to Columbia. South Carolina, thence back again to Charlotte, North Carolina, later to Raleigh and Goldsboro, North Carolina, and finally to Wilmington, Delaware, where he was released on parole, March 1, 1865, after an imprisonment of seventeen months and ten days.
Returning to duty with his company, at Lookout Mountain, in May, 1865, he was with his regiment there, and, the war being over, was with it in Arkansas and the Cherokee Nation the remainder of 1865 and in 1866. He was brevetted captain September 20, 1865. He was on regular army recruiting service from September, 1866, to March, 1868. In that year he was appointed captain in the Thirty-seventh Regiment United States Infantry, successfully passed examination at Louisville, Kentucky, and joined his regiment at Fort Stanton, New Mexico, in March, 1868. He was engaged in several scouts and expeditions against the Mescalero Apache Indians, and in October was ordered with his company to the Canadian river expedition under Colonel A.W. Evans, at Fort Bascom. This campaign against the Comanches continued about four months, the troops being without tents the greater part of the time. The Comanche village on the Salt Fork of the Red River, Texas was found December 25, 1868, and here the command was actively engaged in battle with the Indians from 10 o’clock in the morning until sundown. In April and May of 1869, Captain Gageby was with General J.R. Brooke on the expedition against the Mescalero and Sierra Diablo Apache Indians, and with his company he fought a brief engagement with them near the big canyon of the Guadaloupe mountains, New Mexico. On August 11, 1869, he was assigned to the Third Infantry, and with his company (D) served in 1810 guarding the Missouri Pacific Railway in Colorado, where he had several slight skirmishes with Arapahoe and Cheyenne Indians. He was subsequently on duty at Fort Lyon, Colorado, and Camp Supply, Indian Territory, and in 1874 was ordered on reconstruction duty in the south. He was so engaged until August, 1877, when he was ordered north to serve during the railroad riots in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. He was on duty at Fort Missoula, Montana, from September, 1877, to 1878, when he was ordered on recruiting duty. He rejoined the Third Infantry Regiment in May, 1881, and served with it until April, 1883.
In February, 1889, Captain Gageby came to Johnstown on leave of absence, and was there at the time of the great flood, in which he lost several members of his family, and all his home property. He was placed on duty there by order of the Secretary of War, and served with the National Guard of Pennsylvania until September, 1889, when he was placed on special recruiting service for one year. He was subsequently selected by Colonel Mason, of the Third Infantry, for the regular recruiting detail, and was on that duty until he was promoted to major, Twelfth Infantry, July 4, 1892. He was placed in command at Fort Sully, South Dakota, where he remained two years, being then transferred to Fort Niobrara, Nebraska. At the time of his death he stood within two files of a lieutenant-colonelcy, which it was his ambition to reach.
The foregoing military record is one of which any man might well he proud. Courageous in action, firm in the discharge of every duty, he was at the same the one of the most affable, companionable and generous of men, and his friends in the army were perhaps more numerous than those of any other officer of his rank. Although by reason of his occupation separated for the greater portion of his life from the scenes of his childhood, it is doubtful if there was at the time of his death (which occurred, in Johnstown, July 13, 1896), a man in the community more universally known and more sincerely liked than was Major Gageby. He had a remarkable faculty for remembering names and faces, and was scarcely ever at fault in recognizing and calling by name any person he had ever met. Constantly forming new acquaintances, he was never forgetful of old friends, and grasped them to himself as "with hoops of steel." Coming from a long line of stalwart Presbyterian ancestors, he was of a reverential mind, and was a constant attendant upon divine services, though holding to no special creed. He was a lifelong Republican. He became affiliated with the Masonic Fraternity while stationed in Indian Territory. He was a member of the Grand Army Post in Johnstown and a companion of the Nebraska Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. His remains are interred at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in Grand View cemetery.
Major Gageby was happily married in 1873 to Matilda Fend, a daughter of Jacob Fend, who died January 29, 1899, and is interred in Grandview cemetery, Johnstown. To Major and Mrs. Gageby was born an only child, Emma, at Fort Missoula, Montana, five hundred and forty-five miles from the nearest railroad point. Miss Gageby was married, November 12, 1904, to Lieutenant George Wilbur Cochen, of Brooklyn, New York, a son of Theodore Cochen. Lieutenant Cochen is an officer in the United States Artillery Corps, stationed at Fortress Monroe, Virginia.
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