John Calvin Rutherford

John’s family background is a mystery but his life is a notable one because of his sacrifice in a time of war as a soldier and his work in keeping the peace as an officer of the law. He enlisted in Company I of the 88th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry in 1861 when he was 25.

He was in Virginia in the summer of 1862, along with 77,000 others wearing a Union uniform. They fought against 50,000 soldiers from the South at Bull Run, with the North suffering twice the number of casualties.

Three weeks later the 88th was put to the test again at the Battle of Antietam. The Confederates were outnumbered by more than two to one, and it was called the bloodiest day in American history. John was one of the nearly 23,000 casualties, having been shot through the knee.

He remained hospitalized until given a surgeon’s certificate of disability and discharged on February 20, 1863. Treatment today might have included knee replacement, but at least John didn’t lose his leg to amputation, which was common during the war. He remained on a disability pension for the rest of his life and no doubt walked with a limp. Unfortunately, there is no monument to mark the service of the 88th at Antietam although there is an impressive one where they fought at Gettysburg months after after John came home.

Wedding bells rang for John and Mattie Benson on October 12, 1865. Their three children were many years apart, born in 1866, 1875, and 1887. John worked as a spinner in a cotton mill, then had a grocery store in the 1870s.

Information on his career after that is missing but he found some comfort in joining the Grand Army of the Republic to fellowship with other veterans. He may have even attended a reunion of the 88th when it was held in Reading in 1890, and his face might even be one of those seen here.

Perhaps it was that event that even inspired him to return to uniform, which he did when he joined the police in 1894 at age 58. Mattie died in 1896, then John died four years later from chronic kidney disease.

Although buried in Section 200, his grave has a civilian marker, not a military one, and is just outside the southeastern corner of the  Soldier’s Plot.