David L. Stricker

May 21, 1861. At twenty-one he enrolled at Dover, Delaware, raising the company the rolls first knew simply as "Capt. Stricker's Company" — it became Company A of the 2nd Delaware. He was mustered into United States service at Wilmington that June. Company Muster-in Roll, his compiled service record.

November 1862. Discharged from his captaincy "for the purpose of accepting a commission as Lieut Colonel" of the regiment, announced to the 2nd Delaware in Regimental Orders near Falmouth, Virginia. Muster rolls, appointment card, and Regimental Orders No. 6, Nov. 25, 1862.

July 2, 1863. Wounded — the rolls say "slight" — on the second day of Gettysburg. Five days later he reported himself wounded, from Dover, in his own hand, and was back with the regiment by August. Casualty report and his own letter of July 7, 1863, in the service record.

November 30, 1863. Word from home reached him as eight words on a telegraph blank from Trenton, New Jersey. He applied for leave the same day; ten days were granted by order of General Meade. Telegram and leave application, in the service record.

March 3, 1864. He married Sarah M. Smith at St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia. The church's own register, certified true by the pastor who married them, survives in her pension file. Certified extract of the marriage register, widow's pension file.

May 12, 1864. His last muster card closes his war in one line: "Killed in action while commanding 53 Pa Vols at Spottsylvania" — a Delaware lieutenant colonel leading a Pennsylvania regiment, ten weeks after his wedding. Field-and-staff muster card and casualty sheets, service record.

The forty-six years after. Sarah was twenty-five, ten weeks married, with no children. Her pension — thirty dollars a month, from the day he fell — began that September. She never remarried, and drew it until her death in January 1911. The last page of the file is her executor asking after nine weeks of pension she had earned and did not live to collect. Widow's declaration, pension brief, and drop notice, widow's pension file.