Born in Pennsylvania circa 1821, Alexander Given was a cabinetmaker who resided in Tuscarora Township, Juniata County, Pennsylvania during the mid-nineteenth century.

In 1860, he lived in Tuscarora Township with his wife, Nancy, and their children: Isabella, (aged twelve), John (aged ten), Nancy (aged eight), and Margaret (aged six), and Alexander's daughter, Elizabeth "Giffin" (aged nineteen), and her one-year-old son, James. Also residing at the Given home at this time were seventeen-year-old housekeeper Sarah Williamson and her family: Jardin (aged sixteen), Mary (aged
fourteen), and Elizabeth (aged twelve).

Civil War Military Service

Alexander Given enlisted for service with the Union Army in early 1864. After enrolling in Harrisburg on 24 February 1864, he officially mustered in at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg the next day, as a private with Company C of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. He then caught up with his regiment while it was stationed in Louisiana, where it was assigned to the U.S. Army's Nineteenth Corps (XIX Corps) under Brigadier-General WIlliam Emory as part of Major-General Nathaniel Banks' 1864 Red River Campaign.

The 47th Pennsylvania was engaged in all of the major battles of that campaign, including the Battles of Sabine Crossroads/Mansfield (8 April 1864) and Pleasant Hill (9 April 1864), the Battle of Cane River near Monett's Ferry (23 April), and the Battle of Mansura near Marksville (16 May).

Transported with his regiment back to the Eastern Theater of the war in July 1864, Private Alex Given subsequently participated with his regiment in the Battle of Cool Spring near Snicker's Gap, Virginia in mid-July 1864.

Attached to the U.S. Army of the Shenandoah beginning in early August 1864, the 47th Pennsylvania then served under Major-General Philip Sheridan during his 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign. Private Given subsequently fought in the Battle of Berryville, Virginia (3-4 September 1864), the Battle of Opequon (19 September), the Battle of Fisher's Hill (22 September), and the tide-turning Battle of Cedar Creek (19 October).

It was during this latter combat engagement that he was severely wounded in action. Although a subsequent newspaper account of the casualties sustained by the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry at Cedar Creek indicated that Private Given had been wounded in the abdomen, affidavits filed later by officers of the regiment and by representatives from federal government agencies, including the U.S. Office of the Adjutant General, stated that Alexander Given had sustained a gunshot wound ("Vulnus Sclopet") to his left knee joint while in action during the Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia on 19 October 1864.

Initially treated by regimental medical personnel near the field of battle, he was subsequently transported to the Union Army's Jarvis General Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland for more advanced medical care. He then died there from battle wound-related complications on 1 November 1864, and was laid to rest at the Loudon Park National Cemetery in Baltimore, according to the Roll of Honor. Names of Soldiers Who Died in Defence of the American Union, vol. XIX.

Sources:

1. Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, vol. 1. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.
2. Giffen [sic], Alexander, Nancy, Isabella, John, Nancy (daughter), and Margaret; Giffen [sic], Eliabeth and James; and Williamson, Sarah, Jardin, Mary, and Elizabeth, in U.S. Census (Tuscarora Township, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, 1860). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
3. Given, Alexander, in Civil War Veterans' Card File, 1861-1866 (Co. C, 47th Pennsylvania Infantry). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
4. Given, Alexander, in Roll of Honor. Names of Soldiers Who Died in Defence of the American Union, vol. XIX. Washington, D.C.: Office of the U.S. Quartermaster General and Government Printing Office, 1867.
5. Given, Alexander and Nancy, in U.S. Civil War Widows' Pension Files. Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
6. Snyder, Laurie. 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers: One Civil War Regiment's Story, 2014-present.