Private Ernest Kohler, Company A, 57^th N.Y. Volunteer Infantry

In 1936, an elderly Mary Shellman wrote her friend “Test” Kimmey that she had just given the deed to her lot in Westminster Cemetery to the local American Legion post. That lot was the burial site of five Civil War veterans. Shellman (1849-1938) had a deep interest in the Civil War and its participants, wrote much patriotic poetry, and took part in Westminster’s Memorial Day ceremonies for over half a century beginning in 1868.

The first soldier to be buried in the lot Mary Shellman eventually owned was Robert H. Clark(e), a native of Maine, who died on the way to Gettysburg on June 30, 1863. Thirteen year-old Mary fanned Clark(e) as he lay dying in a Westminster hotel and she corresponded with his son in later years. Over the following decades, four additional soldiers were laid to rest beside him thanks to Mary’s concern that “brave soldiers” not receive pauper burials. She obtained headstones for the graves of all but one man, Ernest Kohler.

According to various census records, Ernest Kohler emigrated from Prussia in 1850 when he was about 28 years old and eventually was naturalized. He joined the 57^th N.Y. Volunteer Infantry as it was forming in New York City in 1861 and participated in the Peninsula Campaign where he was wounded in the leg at the Battle of Fair Oaks. His regiment later fought in major engagements including Antietam and Chancellorsville. With other units of the II Corps, Army of the Potomac, the 57^th NY was marching toward Gettysburg via Johnsville (Frederick Co.) and Uniontown (Carroll County) on June 29, 1863. Ernest Kohler, like Clark(e), dropped out of his unit during the long, hard trek, but he did not die. Whether he was suffering from sunstroke (Mary’s account) or aggravation of an earlier war injury (his statement), he collapsed near Uniontown. By the time he recovered, his regiment was back in Virginia, but he never rejoined it and the army listed him as a deserter.

Kohler remained in the Westminster area until he died 44 years later – first living in a shanty he built in the woods on Richard Manning’s land and eventually living in the Alms House. A provost Marshall arrested him at his shanty late in the summer of 1863, but he was released and no further action was taken against him. The desertion charges, however, were never officially dropped and he was unable to clear his name or obtain a pension when he applied in the early 1890s.

Affidavits from several local men and Kohler’s own statements are the only known records of how he spent the second half of his life. For at least twenty years he lived alone making fishing nets to support himself. By 1890 he was a resident of the Carroll County Alms House where he died in 1907 at the age of 85. Mary Shellman didn’t want one of her “brave soldiers” buried in Potter’s Field at the Alms House, so she arranged for his interment in her lot, though his “deserter” status prevented her from obtaining a headstone from the government. His burial site has been known, yet has remained unmarked, for nearly 100 years.

Ernest Kohler was one of countless men whose lives were shattered by the Civil War.  He had no family to return to, and when he died there was no one to erect a memorial.  Members of the Pipe Creek Civil War Round Table and others in the Carroll County community generously contributed funds to purchase a marker compatible with the surrounding veterans' gravestones in Mary Shellman's lot.

Following the Memorial Day Parade in Westminster on Monday, May 29, 2006, the Round Table will hold a short service to remember Private Kohler and dedicate his memorial. The public is invited to attend.