Florentine H. Straub

A 30 year old machinist in Berks County, he enrolled in Reading on 4 June 1861 and mustered as 2nd Lieutenant, Company D, 3rd Pennsylvania Reserves on 28 July at "Camp McCall" in Washington, DC. He was promoted to First Lieutenant on 19 November and to Captain on 1 August 1862.

He led his company in action at Turner's Gap on South Mountain on 14 September and at Antietam on 17 September 1862, where he was killed. Major Briner of his regiment wrote:

I deeply regret to say that Capt. Straub, of my Company D, was killed while gallantly leading his men in the thickest of the fight. He fell by my side. I raised him up, and with the assistance of some of the men, we bore him off the field. He never spoke after he was shot. The ball entered his back on the right side and came out at his left breast. We were exposed to a cross-fire from the rebels as we were changing our position in front of their line. I had him carried about three miles to the rear, to the small village of Keitsville [Keedysville], where he was buried for the present.

Service information from Bates1 and the Card File.2 The quote above is from Briner's letter in the Reading Times of 22 September 1862, thanks to the Pennsylvania Reserve Volunteer Corps Historical Society (PRVCHS) via Facebook. His picture is from a tintype in August Marchetti's collection, featured online with Chris Rasmussen's fine post about Straub for the PRVCHS. Personal details from family genealogists. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Susan R Neihart (1832-1895) in August or September 1852 and they had 3 sons by 1860.

01/15/1831; Northampton County, PA

09/17/1862; Sharpsburg, MD; burial in Aulenbach's Cemetery, Mount Penn, PA