Part I

Tobias was born October 19, 1837, on a farm in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, five miles south of Carlisle. The farm was located on the banks of the Yellow Breeches Creek, which remains one of the best trout fishing rivers in Pennsylvania. A few miles east of the farm was an area known as Boiling Springs. The Boiling Springs Tavern was founded in 1832 on property adjacent to the bubbling springs that gave the area its name. In 1845, Daniel Kauffman, no direct relation to Tobias, founded the village of Boiling Springs on property he purchased from his father, Abraham. Today Boiling Springs remains a thriving community whose residents are acutely aware and deeply proud of their heritage. In 1995, the people of Boiling Springs celebrated the sesquicentennial of their town and produced a lovely book on their first one hundred and fifty years entitled At a Place Called the Boiling Springs. Tobias found a prominent place in the book's chapter on the military history of the town's citizens.

Cumberland County is located in the Cumberland Valley of central Pennsylvania. In 1863, during the celebrated invasion of the Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania, General Robert E. Lee's Second Corps, under the command of General Richard Ewell, marched through the Cumberland Valley within a few miles of Tobias's home place. In fact, General J. E. B. Stuart and many of his cavalry crossed the Yellow Breeches at Boiling Springs during the early morning hours of July 2, 1863. Stuart was trying desperately to reunite with Lee's infantry in time to make a contribution toward a Confederate victory at Gettysburg. He was too late. While Stuart was passing through Tobias's hometown, Tobias was marching toward Gettysburg from the east. Tobias would arrive that day in time to charge down Little Round Top and help stop an impassioned Confederate assault on the left wing of the Army of the Potomac. General James Longstreet, Lee's "Old Warhorse," proudly and deservedly called the efforts of his First Corps "the best three hours fighting ever done by any troops on a battlefield." However, we are getting ahead of ourselves. When Tobias was born to Benjamin and Martha Kauffman on their farm in 1837, no one could know that the greatest battle ever fought on American soil would take place some thirty miles away and that Tobias would be there.

Tobias grew up in a large Mennonite family. His father, Benjamin, was a member of the New Mennonite church. That was a branch of the Mennonite church that was very conservative and committed to the traditional Mennonite teachings of pacifism and strict moral purity. Tobias was a devoted Christian. In three letters written to his sister Susan during the early months of the war, Tobias refers to his interest in his faith and his hometown Sunday school. (See appendix 5 for a copy of the letters. For a summary of the Kauffmann family background, see appendix 6. See appendix 7 for a biographical sketch of Tobias B. Kaufman's father, Benjamin Kauffman. See appendix 8 for info on two cemeteries in the Boiling Springs area where family members of Tobias B. Kaufman are buried.) During his forty years in Belmond, Iowa, after the war, Tobias developed a reputation as a Christian gentleman beyond reproach. The fascinating question unfolds as one studies Tobias's military career, "How could a young man who truly honored his Mennonite heritage and upbringing become such a hard-nosed fighter who participated so willingly and fervently in the Civil War?" Certainly the cause inspired him! He was a committed patriot who believed in preserving the Union. It is also likely that he held abolitionist principles. Many in the Mennonite church were involved in the Underground Railroad. Daniel Kauffman, who founded the village of Boiling Springs, was a Mennonite who was fined often and dearly for his participation in the Underground Railroad. That Tobias was willing to fight in the Civil War as a Mennonite was unusual but not unprecedented. That this Mennonite farmer/ teacher demonstrated such a remarkable ability for military leadership and an aggressive fighting spirit does make his story rare.

It is not surprising that Tobias grew up strong, disciplined, and welleducated. Such qualities might be expected of children raised on a Mennonite farm. At one time, his father owned as many as 260 acres of farmland in the Boiling Springs area. Tobias had several sisters but only one brother, Benjamin Jr. Tobias must have spent countless hours at hard labor on the family farm. Tobias was also devoted to learning. He was a teacher when the Civil War began. He was also attending a Normal school, which was a school to train teachers. In April 1861, Tobias was a single man of twenty-three.

Like so many other Pennsylvanians, Tobias volunteered in 1861 when Lincoln extended his initial call for 75,000 troops. Pennsylvania's quota was quickly filled, leaving thousands of young men like Tobias with no unit in which to serve. Governor Andrew Curtin quickly remedied the situation. Curtin was a staunch defender of the Union war effort and an outspoken opponent of the Confederate cause. It was his belief that Pennsylvania needed an army of state troops to guard against any Confederate attacks that might come from Virginia through Maryland. Curtin called for the formation of a Pennsylvania Reserve Volunteer Corps that would be composed of thirteen regiments of infantry, one regiment of cavalry, and one regiment of artillery. On June 8, 1861, Tobias was mustered into the First Pennsylvania Reserves as a member of Company I. Following the Union defeat at the battle of first Bull Run, it became apparent that the Union was going to need thousands more soldiers to defend the capital and to prosecute the war successfully. Lincoln extended an urgent call for more troops. The Pennsylvania Reserve Corps had already been formed during the months of June and July, and Governor Curtin immediately released them for service in the federal army. Within weeks, the Reserves were stationed near Washington DC, and their presence near Washington was a great relief to Lincoln and the residents of the capital.

Tobias was mustered into service at Camp Wayne, West Chester, Pennsylvania, on June 6, 1861. A Declaration of Pension Certificate dated on Tobias's seventy-fifth birthday, August 19, 1912, and signed by Tobias states that he was mustered into service as a private. It also states that during Tobias's time of service in the First Pennsylvania Reserves, he...