You may now be familiar with Lt. Col. Benjamin Franklin Carter and his former body servant Henry Johnson. Of course, Captain Mark Kerns of the US First Artillery figures prominently in the story without having been given the same historical attention. So who was this man that Lt. Col. Carter respected so much as to bury him in his own coat?

Mark Kerns was the youngest of seven children born to Abraham Kerns and Naomi Ish. His parents were married in Loudon, Virginia, near Naomi’s home, which may lead us to wonder who Mark would have fought for had they lived near her family. But they did not—they settled in Bedford, PA, where Abraham was born and raised. They had all seven children in Bedford, but when Mark was just three, fifty-year-old Abraham died. For four years, Naomi managed her seven children on her own. Then in 1842, she married widower and reverend Samuel Fisher who had three kids of his own.

The expanded family settled in Chambersburg, PA, about twenty-five miles west of Gettysburg. Mark was just one year older than his step-brother Charles Fisher, who would later follow his father into the ministry. The boys grew up together and education was clearly a focus in their household.

In 1855, he graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA, which was noted in the Waynesboro newspaper.

Mark did well enough that he was asked to speak at the commencement. The Saturday Express noted this and remarked briefly on his subject matter—the most challenging time in the country’s creation—and also gave a dour review of the speech.

The Lancaster Examiner was even less kind:

Mark moved past his negative reviews to join the regular army where he became an artillery officer. Perhaps not a great orator but a strong leader, he was promoted to captain, and in the Civil War, he was steadfast in combat. During the Peninsula Campaign, he was wounded in the leg, though the wound must not have broken bones. The Bedford Gazette posted with some pride about their native-born son.

Captain Kerns did not remain out of action for long. A few months later, Longstreet’s flank attack at Second Manassas rolled the Union line, nearly leading to the destruction of the Army of the Potomac. A desperate holding action on Chinn Ridge allowed the Union to escape. This was where Captain Kerns made his final heroic stand that attracted the admiration of Lt. Col. Carter. Carter buried Kerns in his own coat and sent his personal effects to Naomi. Kerns’s body, though, was never identified.