When Harlow B. Pike died at his home on South Avenue on April 3, 1935 at the age of 91 years, it might have seemed to be just another passing of one of Bradford’s early oil producers, a hardworking man who had spent his life in the oil fields. But Harlow Pike’s greatest memories were not of successful oil strikes, oil derricks, leases or barrels of crude, but of his time spent as a soldier in the Union army during the Civil War. Fighting in over 40 battles and wounded twice — miraculously surviving both wounds and the danger of infection — he was truly a remarkable man in a remarkable period of history.
Harlow Pike was born in Bradford in 1843, one of nine children of Barnabas Pike and Mary Colegrove of Smethport. His father, Barnabas, came to the Bradford area from Massachusetts in 1827, and settled near present day Sherman Street. Pike Street, off Congress Street, is named for him. A contemporary of Levitt Little and Daniel Kingsbury, Barnabas realized the value of real estate, and bought up large portions of the available land in the Littleton settlement. Years later, when his son Harlow returned to Bradford after serving in the Civil War, this real estate would provide a comfortable living.
Educated in the local school (called the Pike School, also on Congress Street), Harlow might have spent his life quietly in Bradford, but at 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Harbor. Three days later, Abraham Lincoln called up the militia, and the War Between the States began. Idyllic life in Bradford was over.
Harlow Pike immediately enlisted as a private to serve three years in the Army of the Potomac, Company I, 71st New York Volunteer Infantry (called the Excelsior Brigade) on May 11, 1861. It was his 18th birthday.
“Fighting in the army was different in those days,” he recalled in 1932. “We never got any rest but were given ammunition constantly and fought one battle after another.” He participated in the weeks’ long siege of Yorktown, Virginia in spring of 1862. “Yorktown, my first battle, was the most terrifying. After that, I didn’t mind the fighting, gradually growing used to it.”
He was also in the battle of Williamsburg on May 7, 1862, the Battle of Seven Pines May 31-June 1; Seven Days Battle (in an attempt to capture Richmond) including Oak Grove (June 28), Savage Station (June 29), White Oak Swamp and Glendale (June 30) and Malvern Hill (July 1).
The Battle of Kettle Run was fought outside Manassas, Virginia in August 1862. Union forces had 330 men killed or wounded. Harlow was one of the wounded, being shot through the right arm and right side. He said “Three of my companions were crippled for life in that battle. Out of a company of twenty-two, seventeen of us were wounded that day.”
But Harlow recovered, and went on to participate in many more battles, including Groveton, August 29, the Second Bull Run on August 30, the battle of Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862 and the “Mud March,” a failed attempt by the General Burnside’s Army of the Potomac to cross the Rappahannock River in Virginia during heavy rains in January 1863. Pike recalled the soldiers being bogged down in the mud. “We had to march back to camp, while the “Graybacks” ridiculed us and painted signs “Stuck in the Mud” for our benefit.”
His unit went on to fight at Chancellorsville on May 1-4, 1863, where the Union army was defeated by General Robert E. Lee. Considered to be the bloodiest battle so far in the war: of the nearly 31,000 casualties (Union losses of 17,200), nearly two-thirds occurred on May 3rd. Harlow Pike made it through unscathed.
The Battle of Gettysburg was next, on July 1-3, 1863. Once again, Harlow escaped injury. But he played a part in Gettysburg history: he was one of the soldiers who carried General Daniel Sickles whose right leg had been mangled by cannon fire from the battlefield to a nearby farmhouse. Sickles right leg was amputated that afternoon.
But Pike’s luck ran out a few weeks later, on July 23,1863, in the Battle of Wapping Heights (also known as the Battle of Manassas Gap) when he was severely wounded when shot in the back of the neck.
Several months later, recovered from his injuries, he fought in several other battles, including Spotsylvania, the Battle of the Wilderness, Cold Harbor and others.
He returned to Bradford following the war, married Esther Beckwith in 1878, and had three children. He engaged in real estate, and oil production and it was said his mind was keen, his interests varied and his enjoyment of life most complete.
But the comradeship and memories of the Civil War remained with him his entire life. He joined the local chapter of the Union Veteran League and was the club commander in 1900; when that organization disbanded he joined the GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) John Melvin Post 141 and remained a member the rest of his life.
Pike frequently served as commander of that post and was very active in that organization’s affairs and never failed to participate in the annual Memorial Day observances in the city.
At its peak, the GAR had over 500 members, all veterans of the Civil War, but time takes its toll, and when Harlow Pike died in April 1935, at the age of 91, he had outlived nearly all his fellow GAR members.
Pike is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery. He was given a military funeral by members of the VFW. Flags were flown at half-mast throughout the city, and the Pennsylvania National Guard fired a salute volley over the grave. Homer Chatley, age 89, the lone survivor of the GAR, attended his friend’s funeral.
