Pennsylvania Honors Its First Civil War Martyr

04.25.11 |

The first Pennsylvanian to die in the Civil War was officially honored this past weekend. German immigrant and blacksmith George Leisenring was 26 when he boarded a train with 12-hundred others, on April 19th, 1861, to answer President Abraham Lincoln's call for volunteers to defend the nation's capitol. When he got there, he was attacked by a mob of secessionists and fatally stabbed. On Saturday, a memorial was unveiled in his honor at the cemetary where he was buried in southeastern Pennslyvania.