Veteran Spotlight
Josiah Pensyl
An Indian War Hero
“I have the honor to report that I am corralled by Comanches, two miles north of the Washita…”
– W. Lyman, Capt. 5th Infantry, September 10, 1874
Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Josiah Pensyl, sometimes spelled Pennsyl, was born on September 15, 1850, in Frederick County (no specifics regarding the specific community were encountered), to parents Charles and Margaret Pensyl.
Some claim he was born in Pennsylvania, but this writer will defer to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society records, and those of the U.S. Army Register of Enlistments, which state that he was born in Maryland, in addition to the fact that the receipt of his Medal of Honor was noted in an article published on June 14, 1868, in The (Frederick) News, which stated “two natives of Frederick County were the Congressional Medal of honored for heroism… (naming) Joshua Pennsyl (as one of the two).”
U.S. Army Register of Enlistments also gives Pensyl’s birthday as 1849, while his headstone states he was born in 1845.
Apparently, little is known of Pensyl’s personal background. Entering the Army, he became a member of Company M, 6th U.S. Cavalry, and was subsequently promoted to Sergeant. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for gallantry in action during the Indian Wars in Texas during the Battle of Layman’s Wagon Train.
The Battle of Layman’s Wagon Train was triggered on September 9, 1874, when an estimated 400 warriors of the combined Comanches and Kiowas tribes ambushed a military ration supply wagon train, led by Captain Wyllys Lyman, headed for Camp Supply in the Indian Territory, located just east of present-day Fort Supply. The supplies were intended for troops under Colonel Nelson A. Miles, who were then located at Camp Supply.
As the attack quickly intensified to the point Lyman and his 95 troopers found themselves hotly engaged in fending off several hundred warriors, Captain Lyman ordered the 95 troopers (of which 12 were mounted) under his command to place the supply wagons in a circle (a form of defense then called a “wagon corral”).
In addition, he dispatched a messenger to Colonel Miles at Camp Supply, asking for reinforcements. The message read in part, “I have the honor to report that I am corralled by Comanches, two miles north of the Washita… (the message in full can be viewed on the website at lymansredriverwar.com).”
Upon receiving the message for aid, Miles immediately dispatched the Sixth Cavalry—which included Sergeant Pensyl—which arrived during the early morning of September 14. Lyman and his troops had fought off the warriors that had engaged the troops in a sort of prolonged hit-and-run battle for the better part of five days, at a cost of two men killed and three wounded, and a number of mules disabled. The warriors reportedly lost more than a dozen, according to lymansredriverwar.com.
However, it would appear elements of the Sixth Cavalry had arrived as early as September 11, since, according to multiple sources, Sergeant Pensyl had been awarded the Medal of Honor “for gallantry in action at Upper Washita… on September 11.”
Pensyl’s post-war residency was recorded on the 1900 and 1910 censuses as Gila Valley, Arizona, where he also died on January 22, 1920, and was buried in Pima Cemetery in Graham County. An article published in the March 10, 1922, Bisbee Daily Review stated that Pensyl had lived in Gila Valley for 30 years before his death, and that he had (apparently never married) and lived his life “as a recluse.”
The Review also reported that relatives interviewed said “they had not seen Pennsyl (sic) for more than thirty years (and) believed he was one of the victims of Custer’s Last Stand on (the) Little Big Horn,” and “were astonished recently when they read legal notice that he had just died.”
According to a March 30, 2011, article published in the Eastern Arizona Courier, “An assortment of veterans gathered at the Pima Cemetery on Saturday to honor Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. Josiah (Joseph) Pensyl with a grave rededication.”
