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Emerguildo Marquis
03/18/2025
Emerguildo Marquis
Emerguildo Marquis was a ghost of war, a kid from Mexico who clung to the Pennsylvania Volunteers as they marched home, a stowaway in history. Shoeless, nameless, a relic of America’s first imperial war, he was taken in by Captain James Nagle, a house painter turned soldier who raised him in the coal fields of Pottsville. He learned English, learned a trade, learned to be an American. But war pulled him back. When the Civil War erupted, he enlisted, first as an infantryman, then as a bugler in the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry—the sound of battle itself. Nagle, now a general, hadn’t forgotten the boy he brought home and pulled him onto his staff. War ended, and Emerguildo faded. No records of what came next, just a grave beside the Nagle family, buried as one of their own. No monuments, no speeches—just the quiet proof that he existed.
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