Hardman Philip Petrikin

Son of a once-prominent lawyer in Bellfonte, Centre County, PA, he had been a clerk in the Receiver's Department at Lecompton, Kansas by about 1856. In 1860 he was 28 years old and lived in Bellefonte with his widowed mother Elizabeth, then a school teacher, maternal grandmother, also Elizabeth, and sister Miriam/Marion. Giving his occupation as "gentleman," he enrolled on 8 June 1861 in Centre County and mustered at Camp Tennally (Tenleytown) in Washington, DC as First Lieutenant of Company E, 5th Pennsylvania Reserves on 21 June.

He was mortally wounded in the chest and captured while leading a squad of men from Companies E and I on picket near Confederate positions southeast of the East Woods on the evening of 16 September 1862 at Sharpsburg. Captain Robbins of the 4th Alabama Infantry went to his aid. He died of wounds at a Confederate field hospital in or near the Dunker Church early on 17 September 1862.

His service basics from Bates1 and the Card File,2 both as H.P. Petriken, and as killed outright on the 16th. Details from Hartwig3, who cites the National Tribune of 21 October 1891. He is mentioned also in Colonel Fisher's Report. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

See further details and a related post-War story in a fine post by John Banks. For further detail, see also a post about Petrikin from August Marchetti at the PVRC Historical Society.

1832 in PA

09/17/1862; Sharpsburg, MD; burial in Union Cemetery, Bellefonte, PA