By Stephen R. Bockmiller
Few veterans are known to have served in any uniformed role in the Civil War and World War I. Among this limited cadre is George Leonard Fisher.
Although his passing in 1927 made the news in his adopted hometown of Hagerstown, Md., his record and a rich photographic legacy that spans both conflicts had largely gone unnoticed.
Born Nov. 20, 1846, in the Kingdom of Bavaria to George N. and Barbara (Hachtell) Fisher, George emigrated through the port of Baltimore in 1854, having arrived from Bremen aboard the ship Weser. The Fishers settled in the remote farming community of Buck Valley in Fulton County, Pa.
Fisher left home in August 1862 and joined the fight to preserve his adopted country. He crossed over the Maryland border into adjacent Washington County and enlisted in Company A of the 7th Maryland Infantry at Hagerstown. Just three months shy of his 16th birthday, he listed his occupation as carpenter.
The boys of Company A had the good fortune of deploying in their own community. Assigned to the 8th Army Corps, it, and the rest of the regiment, became part of the famed Maryland Brigade. Brig. Gen. John Reese Kenly, an attorney and Mexican War veteran, commanded the force. The brigade trained in Baltimore and missed the Battle of Antietam. From Sept. 20, 1862, until the following June, the 7th spent a relatively quiet existence as a garrison force in Washington County, protecting the important transportation lines of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
On June 1, 1863, Fisher’s service record was blemished for the first and only time in his long military career. He and several of his comrades were accused of engaging in a “riot” in Bolivar, Va. The provost arrested Fisher and three others, and tossed them in the guardhouse in Harpers Ferry. According to a diary kept by one of the provost, a court martial took place two days later, though no verdict was recorded.
Meanwhile, Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Confederates crossed into Maryland as part of the second invasion of the North. Eighth Corps units pulled back from Washington County to Frederick, Md., and took up station there during the Battle of Gettysburg. After the engagement, as the defeated Confederates made their way back to Virginia, victorious Maj. Gen. George G. Meade solidified his lines along the Sharpsburg Pike opposite Lee’s Williamsport defenses. On July 10, the Maryland Brigade reinforced the 3rd Division of Maj. Gen. John Newton’s First Corps. Two days later, the brigade engaged in a skirmish at Funkstown.
“I was forced to sleep in a hole dug in the ground.”
Fisher and the rest of the brigade settled into a predictable military routine until the following spring, with the exception of the October 1863 Bristoe Campaign.