When Captain William H. Boyd's 43 man company of First New York Cavalry probed the Confederate advance near Greencastle, they lost one man killed in the brief fight. Corporal William H. Rihl, a twenty-year old Philadelphia gardener, was killed instantly with a rifle shot to the head, the first Union soldier to die in Pennsylvania. Confederates buried Rihl in a shallow grave but local citizens removed his body for a proper burial in the Lutheran Churchyard. In 1886, a memorial was dedicated where he fell and his remains were returned to rest there. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Jacob Hoke, Historical Reminiscences of the War: Or, Incidents which Transpired in and about Chambersburg ... (Chambersburg, PA: M.A. Foltz, 1884), 45.
William H. Beach, The First New York (Lincoln) Cavalry ... (New York: The Lincoln Cavalry Association, 1902), 249.
William H. Beach, The First New York (Lincoln) Cavalry ... (New York: The Lincoln Cavalry Association, 1902), 249.
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
Personal
