Joseph is well documented in Pennsylvania's Civil War records. He joined two weeks after the Battle of Gettysburg. He was a 25 year old farmer, 5 foot 8 3/4 inches tall, with a fair complexion, gray eyes, and dark hair when he enlisted. He participated in the pursuit of Lee, did duty on the Rappahannock, in the Bristoe Campaign, Rappahannock Station, and the Mine Run Campaign. He had continued duty at Bealeton Station and in the Battle of the Wilderness.
It was in the Battle of the Wilderness that he received a gunshot wound to his right shoulder (chest) on May 5, 1864. He was in the Emery U. S. Hospital in Washington, D. C. for a time, furloughed for 30 days, and transferred to the U. S. Hospital in Pittsburgh for four months. He was transferred to the Veterans Reserve Corps in January 1865 and mustered out with his unit on July 15, 1865.
According to his pension papers, he was "considerably" disabled and received a pension until his death July 29, 1897 of gangrene of lungs, feet and legs. Dr. B. Frank Price believed it was the gunshot wound in the breast that was the true cause for wasting away of lungs which terminated in consumption (tuberculosis). He is buried in Monongahela Cemetery, Braddock, PA.
Additional information: Joseph Ritner Simmers, the first child of James and Elizabeth Simmers, was born in 1838 in Winfield Township, Butler County, PA. He married his childhood sweetheart, Mary Ann Fox, who lived on the adjoining farm on June 3, 1857. His Great Grandfather, George Simmers, was in the Revolutionary War, and his Grandfather Joseph Simmers, was in the War of 1812.
