Bernhard was a carpenter, and a naturalized U. S. citizen. He was a casualty of the Civil War, succumbing to Typhoid Fever in Alexandria, Va. He was also commonly known as Bernard, and sometimes Barnard or Barney.
He was a witness to the marriage of his sister Josephine in 1859. He appears twice in the 1860 Census. In June of that year, “Bernard” Farabaugh was living in Conemaugh, Pa., as a boarder with a John and Mary A. Sibert; in July, he was living at his family homestead in Carroll Township. Both entries noted that he was a carpenter, and that he was born in Baden, Germany.
According to Samuel Bate's History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, Bernard Farabaugh served and died as a Private in Company A of the 40th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, 11th Regiment Pennsylvania Reserves. He was mustered in for a three year term on June 25, 1861. The Reserves were furnished and drilled at Camp Wright in Pittsburgh, and then marched to Harrisburg, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. They were assigned to General Meade's 2nd Brigade of the Reserve Corps., and numbered 900 strong. They were ordered north to Great Falls, Md., in September of 1861, when they first saw action in a skirmish near the Potomac. The 2nd Brigade was held in reserve during the Union's victory at the Battle of Dranesville, in December of that year. On March 10, 1862, the regiment advanced to Georgetown and Leesburg pike, and then camped in the rain at Hunter's Mills. They then proceeded to Alexandria under a cold rain in what was the most difficult march the regiment was to encounter. They camped at Fairfax Seminary where many fell ill, and Major Litzinger's health forced his resignation from service on April 1. It was here that Bernard Farabaugh died on April 6, 1862.
This is corroborated by the military file at the National Archives. Bernard's possessions were initially inventoried on March 21, 1862, at Seminary Hill near Alexandria, by Capt. Andrew Lewis of Company A. He was placed in Alexandria General Hospital, where he died of typhoid fever on April 6. "Barnard Farbaugh" is iburied at the Alexandria National Cemetery, at the southernmost end of a row in Section B, near a stone wall. However, it is not grave no. 1,325 as Samuel Bates records. That grave belongs to one W. B. Shaw. The correct grave number is 1,203, as reflected in the photograph.
The subsequent history of the 11th Regiment by Bates and other records continued to reference Bernard Farabaugh, even suggesting there were two soldiers with that name. But the the detailed file at the National Archives makes clear that the foregoing account is correct.
On September 26, 1896, Bernard's father Michael filed a military pension application on behalf of Bernard.