Events of close relatives
Birth	1840 3025 Washington, Pennsylvania Source: full family tree.FTW   Text: Date of Import: 30 Dec 2007
Death	2 July 1863 (Age 23) Gettysburg, PA, see NOTES for info and scrapbook for pictures Source: full family tree.FTW   Text: Date of Import: 30 Dec 2007
Book	1991 (127 years after death) Inscription at Gettysburg, by Sara Gould Walters Source: full family tree.FTW   Text: Date of Import: 30 Dec 2007
Last Change	12 May 2008 - 12:15:16 - by: lois

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Note	The book by Sara Gould Walters is written in Memory of David Acheson, but it is full of notes about the famly of Alexander Acheson and the town of Washington, PA[full family tree.FTW] Captain David Acheson - Killed at Gettysburg, this was the sone of David Acheson and his second wife. From Washington Pennsylvania, four Acheson brothers marched off to fight for the Union in the Civil War; John with the 85th Pennsylvania Volunteers, Alexander with the 140th Pennsylvania Volunteers, Joseph with Knap's Battery, and David as the Captain of Company C, 140th Pennsylvania Volunteers Casualties of Company C 140th Pennsylvania Volunteers The book by Sara Gould Walters is written in Memory of David Acheson, but it is full of notes about the famly of Alexander Acheson and the town of Washington, PA His burial site info, see scrapbook for pictures of his site Birth: Jan. 10, 1841 Death: Jul. 2, 1863 Civil War Union Army Officer. Served in the Civil War as Captain and commander of Company C, 140th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. On the 2nd day of the Battle of Gettyburg (July 2, 1863), Captain Acheson was leading his company toward the fighting in the Wheatfield after the start of the late afternoon attacks by General James Longstreet's Corps. He was killed in the woods north of the "Stoney Hill" area by two shots from men of the Confederate 3rd South Carolina Infantry. The intense fire from the Confederates forced his men to leave his body amongst the rest of the dead and wounded in the area (a subsequent attempt the next day to retrieve it was drive back by Rebel gunfire). After the Confederates retreated after their defeat in the battle, his remains were located and interred in a grave on Weikert's farm. To mark the site, one of his men carved the initials "D.A" in the boulder near his grave. This helped to located Captains Acheson's body when his family came to retrieve it and take it home to Washington, Pennsylvania, where he was buried in July 15, 1863. Five years later a member of Company C revisited the site, deepened the carved initials, and added "140 PA". This inscription can still be seen today in the Gettysburg National Military Park, and is located on the western side of the John T. Weikert farm, inside of the tree line that marks the border of a field. It is often marked with a flag. In 1991 Sarah Gould Walters published "Inscription at Gettysburg: In Memoriam to Captain David Acheson, Company C, 140th Pennsylvania Volunteers". (additional information by Russ Dodge) (bio by: Ethan Bishop) Burial: Washington Cemetery Washington Washington County Pennsylvania, USA
Note	David Acheson archives In one letter home from the Civil War, Union Army Capt. David Acheson wrote about seeing President Lincoln sweeping by his camp on horseback to survey the troops. Another letter from the Washington, Pa., officer made note of women who sneaked to his camp to take a peek at soldiers, and how much he missed their company. In the last letter home, dated June 28, 1863, five days before he was gunned down at Gettysburg, Acheson informed his parents that he suspected he was heading into the “campaign of the war.” The soldiers in his command were terribly worn down from marching 23 miles a day north by the time they reached Uniontown, Va., in advance of fighting at Gettysburg. Along the way, the soldiers had been forced to sleep in puddles of water, Acheson wrote. “I never knew what a man was able to endure before,” noted the 22-year-old son of a judge who was among four brothers serving in the war. Acheson was a charming, naive man who loved gardening, not one who would have enjoyed the limelight, said Ellen Armstrong of West Middletown, Pa., a descendent of the Achesons who inherited some of the soldier’s belongings. “He was not a show-off,” Armstrong said. But Acheson has emerged today as somewhat of a local war celebrity through his death and the lengths his comrades went to ensure him a proper burial. He’s been the subject of at least two books, as well as numerous articles in local newspapers. And, Acheson’s story was featured last month in a WQED documentary on problems the Gettysburg National Military Park faces in preserving the many monuments at the 6,000-acre battlefield, including a crude marker bearing his initials. “There was never more of an unlikely (hero) that you could ever find,” Armstrong said. At 3:30 a.m. on July, 2, the second day of battle, Pennsyvlania’s 140th Regiment, Co. C., was called to arms before Acheson and his men had time to eat breakfast. The events of the day would be told in a letter written by the unit’s adjutant, William A. Shallenberger, and reprinted in the 1991 book, “Inscription at Gettysburg,” by Sara Gould Walters. There was a temporary halt to the fighting, allowing the regiment to nap in the afternoon, before it would come to be surrounded by Confederate soldiers. Rebel sharpshooters had taken aim under the cover of large boulders in a line of woods above a wheat field, where the Union troops had settled. “Tighten your belts, boys, our turn is next,” soldier John Paxton related in another letter from the war and reprinted in Walters’ book. Nearly 500 soldiers followed the 140th into battle, making up the largest regiment in the brigade. Acheson’s unit carried 38 men into the right flank of battle, the most dangerous position and one of honor. The day had quickly turned dark under heavy smoke from “shells smashing into trees, the rattle of enemy musketry,” Walters wrote. In no time, Acheson was downed by two shots to the chest in a line of fire released by soldiers from South Carolina. Dead bodies and horses littered the battlefield as the Pennsylvanians retreated in defeat. Of the 38 men with Acheson, seven were killed, 22 suffered injuries and two were captured before more Union troops arrived from the rear and pushed back the rebels. The following day, Acheson’s friend George Laughlin, went in search of his body. Laughlin, who went on to become a partner in Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. of Pittsburgh, had to turn back under Confederate fire. He and Acheson were classmates at Washington College before it became known as Washington and Jefferson College. The identities of the soldiers who buried Acheson in a shallow grave beside a boulder were unknown. Using a nail or other sharp tool, they carved his initials into the rock so that his family would know where to find the body. “It’s absolutely fascinating,” Armstrong said. “I just became so in love with these people.” News of the ill-fated battle soon reached Washington County “like a thunder peel from a clear sky,” Waters wrote. After losing a hand in battle, Lt. Isaac Vance of Amity broke the story in a note he sent that contained some of the names of the dead. “No one was able to stem the current of sorrow ... the village was quiet as a grave, except the outburst of anguish from some broken-hearted mother, wife or friend,” a newspaper reporter noted in an article. Acheson’s first cousin, A. Todd Baird, and schoolmate James Blaine Wilson had the gruesome task of retrieving the captain’s body 10 days after the battle. Wilson uprooted a geranium from a nearby garden to take home to the fallen man’s father, Washington County Judge A.W. Acheson. Wilson then sat atop the “rude coffin lined with zinc” in a wagon that carried the party through the night in a steady rain from Gettysburg to Harrisburg. Armstrong said a train likely carried the crew to Pittsburgh, where another wagon finished the trip to Washington. Baird would fall ill for many days with typhoid fever after walking through the heat and stench in the battlefield that was still piled with decaying horses, Walters noted. Acheson was reburied July 15 on a soft hill overlooking the Civil War section of Washington Cemetery. An aging white marble tombstone bearing crossed swords marks the grave, which is planted with flowers each spring by a person unknown to Armstrong or her relatives. More people ask for directions to the grave each year than any other in the cemetery. In Gettysburg, the National Park Service does not draw attention to Acheson’s temporary grave marker, or the many others like it “off the beaten track,” to ward off vandalism, said Katie Lawhon, spokeswoman for the park. “They are very, very important. They represent such an enormous loss for this country,” Lawhon said. “It’s one isolated example about how important that loss was to them, and then kind of magnify that ....,” she said, adding that 52,000 men were either killed, wounded or captured in the historic battle. WQED will rebroadcast Acheson’s story in the documentary, “Stone Soldiers: Saving the Gettysburg Monuments,” at 8 p.m. May 31. Observer-Reporter View Scott Beveridge's mapTaken in a place with no name (See more photos or videos here)Celebrity soldier

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Birth	full family tree.FTW   Text: Date of Import: 30 Dec 2007
Death	full family tree.FTW   Text: Date of Import: 30 Dec 2007
Event	full family tree.FTW   Text: Date of Import: 30 Dec 2007

Multimedia Object	David Acheson and friends civil war
Multimedia Object	David Achesons Grave Site in PA.jpg Type: Tombstone
Multimedia Object	David Acheson at Gettysburg, PA
Multimedia Object	Davic Acheson Civil Was Collage Note: See Notes and credits for this collage by Scott in the NOTES for David

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Family with Parents - [View Family (F192)]

Father	Alexander Wilson Acheson (I0317)
6 years Mother	Jane Belch Wishart (I0665)
#1 Brother	John W Acheson (I0658)
3 years #2	David Acheson (I0659)
10 years #3 Sister	Mary (Martha) Acheson (I0660)
#4 Brother	Alexander "Sandie" Acheson (I0661)
#5 Brother	Marcus Cunningham 'Mark' Acheson (I0662)
#6 Brother	Joseph Acheson (I0663)
#7 Brother	Ernest Francis Acheson (I0664)
2 years #8 Brother	Harry M Acheson (I0668)