He also claimed to have been the first Union soldier wounded by enemy action in the Civil War, stating that he received a bruise on the forehead from an object thrown by a Confederate sympathizer while his unit was marching through Baltimore in April 1861.

He rose to the rank of major and led his regiment, but was mustered out upon the expiration of his term of service in October 1864, having been refused a leave of absence.

He contracted bronchitis while fighting a fire that destroyed his warehouse, and died in Philadelphia after a sea voyage taken in the hope of recovering his health.

Eight weeks later, his son was born, and Mary Bosbyshell returned from Mississippi with him to her father's house in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.

At age 15, he left school to become a telegraph messenger and for the next three years took various jobs in that field before deciding to pursue a career in the law.

A hostile crowd of Confederate sympathizers gathered; according to accounts in his lifetime, he was struck by a missile variously described as a stone or a brick.

I remember how I was impressed by the kindliness of his face and awkward hanging of his arms and legs, his apparent bashfulness in the presence of these first soldiers of the Republic, and with it all a grave, rather mournful bearing in his attitude.

In April and May 1862, Bosbyshell received successive promotions to first lieutenant and captain and was assigned to command his company, which he did at such battles as Second Bull Run, Antietam, and Fredericksburg.

While stationed at Louisville, he returned home to Pennsylvania on leave of absence to marry Martha Stem, daughter of a minister.

The acting commander of the 48th, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Pleasants, in civilian life a mining engineer, conceived the idea of digging under the Confederate lines and exploding a giant bomb.

After weeks of preparation, the bomb was exploded on July 30, creating a huge pit in the ground and a hole in the Confederate lines.

[10] Having returned to Pottsville, Bosbyshell entered first the banking business, and then the book and stationery trade, each time with "disastrous" results.

During Bosbyshell's campaign to become prothonotary, he was asked to organize the Schuylkill County branch, but declined because of his status as a candidate.

When Snowden left the Mint to accept a position as postmaster in 1876, President Ulysses Grant promoted Bosbyshell in his place.

[14] According to numismatic historian Q. David Bowers, Bosbyshell, while serving as Chief Coiner, used Mint facilities and out-of-date dies to strike rare three-dollar pieces, including the 1873, 1875, and 1876 issues.

Bosbyshell was hired, despite the fact that he was a Republican in a Democratic-run municipal administration, because of his friendship with Controller Robert Dechert.

[21] In August 1890, Bosbyshell was elected colonel of his National Guard regiment; the vote was unexpectedly close, as he was disliked by some of his fellow officers.

After consulting with the sureties on his bond as superintendent, Bosbyshell objected to resigning until the count (expected to take three months) was complete, but nevertheless left office as directed on March 31, 1894.

Henry Cochran, weighing clerk, had been surreptitiously extracting gold bars from a vault sealed in 1887, not with a solid door but with a latticed one that was somewhat loose.

Bosbyshell, in taking custody of the Philadelphia Mint's assets from his predecessor, Daniel Fox, had not asked for the gold to be weighed.

Although some of the gold was recovered, there was still a shortage of $12,810.82, and the government brought suit against Bosbyshell after he left office in 1894, securing judgment against him and the sureties on his bond.

[32][28] The district court had ruled for Bosbyshell on the matter of 733 silver dollars said to be missing, leaving only the question of the gold.

[33] With the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in 1898, Bosbyshell organized and served as colonel of the Nineteenth Pennsylvania National Guard Regiment, which was used for homeland defense.

An Episcopalian, he was a vestryman of the Church of the Savior in Philadelphia;[2] for many years he conducted the choir and involved himself in Sunday school work, often as superintendent.