The Civil War Fife - Louis D. Spiece (1840-1895)

 

   In early January 2017 I received a message through Ancestry.com from someone who had a photo of Louis D. Spiece (brother of Ann Elizabeth Spiece who married John Ross, and who was my 2nd great-great uncle.) She was anxious to place it with his family and offered it to me. I was thrilled. Sadly, a few days later she decided to keep the photo along with the other artifacts related to her ancestor. (She sent a photo of the picture.) The story though is still of interest: Louis D. Spiece, age 23, an unmarried teacher, enlisted as a private to fight in the Civil War in August 1862 in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, and was promoted to First Sergeant. After his mustering out in May 1863, he raised a company and was elected Captain of Co. C, 205th Regiment. Meanwhile, Samuel B. Fluke, who had tried to enlist but was rejected, was finally accepted on the promise of Captain Louis D. Spiece that he would not bear arms. So he was assigned to the 205th regiment as a Chief Musician, then promoted to fife major of the regiment. Samuel’s duties saw him up at 5 a.m. making the rounds with the drum major, sounding reveille, guard mount, sick call, roll call, and so on through the day until the final “Lights Out” signal at 9 p.m. He also did the cooking - “hard tack and pork one meal and pork and hard tack the next.” The silver fife which he played was presented to him by the officers of his company. It bears the inscription - Presented by Capt. L. D. Spiece and Lieut. Lower of Co. C, 205th Regt. P.I. To S. B. Fluke Musician of said Regt. At Harrisburg, Pa., Sept. 3rd, 1864

(Information from “Recollections of Bygone Days in the Cove” by Ella M. Snowberger, posted by the Fluke family on Ancestry.com)

  Many years later Louis applied for a disability pension that required many letters from those who had served with him in company C. One letter-writer was the fife player Samuel B. Fluke who told what he remembered and wrote, “I had no reason to doubt his word for he was and is still a man of truth and temperate habits.” Another wrote that he saw the Captain struck on the side of the neck with the butt of a gun by a rebel. Louis suffered in his later years with severe neck and back pain, and lingering effects of the ague he contracted in the swamps of Virginia. His disability claim was denied because there was no company surgeon’s report regarding his injury or illness. He passed away in 1895 at age 55. According to his obituary he had a ‘brilliant war record.’ “Captain Spiece was a brave and honorable soldier and a generous, whole-souled friend...Just 30 years after he laid down his sword and returned to his home in Bedford county, his life’s battle ends and his spirit takes its flight to the land of endless peace.”