George Brown Eckert

In 1860 he was a 20 year old clerk living with his parents and sister in Reading, PA; his father was a wealthy ironmaster there. He enrolled in Reading, PA and mustered on 18 April 1861 in Harrisburg as a fifer (musician) in Company A, 25th Pennsylvania Infantry - the Ringgold Light Artillery - for 3 months' service. He mustered out with them on 23 July. He was appointed 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd United States Infantry on 5 August 1861 and was promoted to First Lieutenant on 12 March 1862.

He commanded Company C of the Third US Infantry at Antietam on 17 September 1862.

He was again in action at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, then on recruiting duty in Trenton, NJ. He resigned his commission on 10 November 1864.

By 1870 he was again a clerk, in his father's iron works in Reading. In 1873 he became a partner with his brother Henry in Eckert & Brother, and they took over their father Isaac's iron business in Reading, operating the Henry Clay Furnace and iron mines. He was also a Director of the Farmers National Bank and briefly its President after his brother Henry died in 1894. George was said to be a "millionaire ironmaster" at his death at age 58 in 1899.

His service from Heitman1 and the Card File,2 with his command at Antietam from Reese.3 Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860-1880, and a bio sketch in Morton Montgomery's Historical and Biographical Annals of Berks County Pennsylvania (1909), transcribed online by the PAGenWeb Project. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Mary Ann Trexler (1842-1929) and they had 3 children.

09/10/1840; Reading, PA

07/05/1899; Reading, PA; burial in Charles Evans Cemetery, Reading, PA