00:06 - Hi i'm Joe Farley

00:08 - and i'm Larry Knorr.

00:09 - We're in Norristown Pennsylvania

00:11 - at Montgomery cemetery.

00:13 - In front of the grave

00:15 - of major general Samuel Kosciuszko Zook.

00:18 - One of the thousands of casualties at the battle of Gettysburg.

00:22 - General Zook was of mennonite descent

00:24 - he was born in 1821 in Chester county Pennsylvania

00:28 - he grew up

00:29 - near the

00:29 - revolutionary war encampment of

00:31 - general George Washington

00:33 - at Valley Forge

00:34 - as a boy he liked to play on the earthworks at the valley forge encampment

00:38 - liked to pretend that he was a soldier

00:40 - as a young man he got into the information technology of his time

00:44 - the telegraph and with a partner CF Barnes

00:48 - they together created a device that many thought rivaled

00:51 - the telegraph

00:52 - of the

00:53 - acknowledged inventor Samuel B Morris

00:56 - So the two camps the Zook Barnes camp

00:58 - and the Morris camp went back and forth in the courts for many years

01:02 - during that time Zook rose in his career in the telegraph business

01:06 - and became an executive in new York city

01:09 - for the Washington and new York telegraph company.

01:12 - By this time

01:13 - Zook held the position

01:14 - of lieutenant colonel

01:16 - in new York's colonial guard

01:18 - and he was in that position when the civil war broke out

01:21 - he saw his first action

01:22 - during the seven days battles

01:24 - he missed the battle of antietam because he was on medical leave

01:27 - but he returned in time to fight at fredericksburg where he became very upset

01:31 - with the decisions made by the commanding general, general burnside.

01:35 - Zook felt that the union army should advance immediately

01:38 - burnside felt that he had to wait for more troops

01:41 - it was Zook's opinion that

01:42 - a timely advance

01:43 - could have secured the hills on the other side of the river

01:46 - with a loss of fifty men or less

01:49 - he felt that a maneuver

01:50 - after the delay

01:51 - meant that

01:52 - a thousand or more lives would be lost.

01:55 - While he awaited the battle of fredericksburg zook was the military governor

02:00 - of the town of Fallmouth Virginia.

02:02 - When the battle began he led the assault on

02:04 - Mary's Heights in fact he was at the front of it

02:07 - and

02:07 - his forces made the furthest advance

02:09 - during the battle.

02:11 - During that advance the confederates repulsed the attack

02:15 - and Zook had his horse shot out from under him.

02:17 - General hancock was so impressed with Zook's bravery

02:21 - that he recommended his promotion

02:23 - to brigadier general.

02:25 - Zook was known as a stern disciplinarian and also as

02:28 - a master of profanity despite his mennonite roots.

02:32 - In fact there's a famous story about zook and

02:34 - general hancock that was told after the war

02:37 - about him

02:39 - and hancock having this exchange of expletives and

02:41 - adjectives that can't be repeated here on a family program.

02:45 - This exchange brought the enlisted men to such.

02:48 - Laughter that they were all in stitches

02:51 - Zook fought at chancellorsville and then

02:53 - Gettysburg

02:53 - on the second day at gettysburg

02:55 - he was part of the unions ill advised advance into the wheat field

02:59 - during that advance

03:00 - he was wounded three times.

03:02 - a Doctor

03:03 - who saw the wounds.

03:05 - Said

03:06 - that they were so severe

03:08 - that one could observe Zooks heartbeats

03:11 - he died one day later.

03:14 - Like to learn more about Samuel Zook you can read about him in our book

03:17 - keystone tombstones

03:19 - the civil war

03:20 - available through sunbury press

03:22 - dot com.