USA > Pennsylvania > A history of the Juniata Valley and its people, Volume I > Part 27
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Perry county furnished Company I, One Hundred and Sixty-second regiment (Seventeenth cavalry), which was organized in the fall of 1862. John B. McAllister was captain of Company I; Andrew D. Vanling, first lieutenant; Lewis W. Orman, second lieutenant. Captain McAllister was made lieutenant-colonel soon after the regiment was organized. It was ordered to Virginia on November 25, 1862, and during the winter was broken up into detachments for scout and picket duty. In the Chancellorsville campaign the Perry county company was on escort duty with General Meade. The Sixteenth, as part of General Buford's command, was one of the first regiments to become engaged at the battle of Gettysburg, and all through the late summer and fall of that year it was active in watching Lee's movements and skirmishing with the enemy. In the summer of 1864 it was with Sheridan in the Shenandoah and followed that intrepid cavalry commander until the surrender at Appomattox.
Perry county furnished a few men for the One Hundred and Sixty- sixth regiment and Juniata county contributed Company F to the One
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Hundred and Seventy-first, which was drafted from the militia for nine months' service. The officers of this company were: William H. Mc- Clellan, captain; Frederick S. Schwalm, first lieutenant; David Geib, second lieutenant. Late in November, 1862, the regiment was ordered to Suffolk, Virginia, where it was for a time attached to General Ferry's division, but about a month later it was sent to Newbern, North Caro- lina, where it passed the winter. In June, 1863, it was ordered back to Virginia and after the battle of Gettysburg was for a few days at Har- per's Ferry, moving thence, via Boonesboro, Maryland, to Frederick City. On August 3d it was ordered to Harrisburg and there mustered out a few days later.
Perry county furnished some men for the One Hundred and Sev- enty-second and practically all of Company E, One Hundred and Sev- enty-third regiment (nine months' drafted militia). The officers of this company were : Henry Charles, captain ; Isaac D. Dunkel, first lieuten- ant ; Samuel Reen, second lieutenant. On November 30, 1862, this regi- ment, commanded by Colonel Daniel Nagle, left Harrisburg for Nor- folk, Virginia, where it was employed on guard duty until the following May, after which it did provost duty until July. It was then ordered to Washington and from there into Maryland to assist in the pursuit of Lee's army, then retreating from Gettysburg. Then, after guarding the Orange & Alexandria railroad until August 13th, it was ordered to Harrisburg, where it was mustered out on the 18th.
Company M, One Hundred and Eightieth regiment, was raised in Huntingdon county with the following officers: Captain, Samuel L. Huyett ; first lieutenant, Roland C. Allen; second lieutenant, Edward Brady. This regiment, also known as the Nineteenth cavalry, was re- cruited under orders from the war department, dated June 2, 1863, by Colonel Alexander Cummings, who became its commander. Soon after it was mustered in it was ordered to Tennessee and attached to the cavalry division of General B. H. Grierson. It took part in the celebrated raid along the Mississippi Central railroad and was in nu- merous engagements with the Confederate cavalry under Forrest. At the battle of Nashville in December, 1864, it formed part of General Wilson's cavalry command and was active in the pursuit of Hood's army into Alabama. In February, 1865, it was reduced to a battalion and ordered to New Orleans, where it was mustered out on May 14, 1866.
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The One Hundred and Eighty-first (Twentieth cavalry) was re- cruited in the summer of 1863 and mustered in for a term of six months. Company E was recruited chiefly in Mifflin county, and Perry county also contributed a number of her sons to the organization. Joseph T. Rothrock was captain of Company E; Samuel Montgomery, first lieu- tenant; Andrew W. Decker, second lieutenant. It was ordered to Mary- land immediately upon being mustered in, under command of Colonel John E. Wyncoop, and assisted in moving trains. The several compa- nies were then on detached duty for a time, when seven of them were united and late in November defeated a portion of General Imboden's forces, taking a number of prisoners. It was mustered out on January 7, 1864, and was quickly reorganized for the three years' service.
In the One Hundred and Eighty-fourth regiment, organized in the spring of 1864, there were a number of men from Mifflin county, espe- cially in Companies D and H, and the lieutenant-colonel, Charles Kleck- ner, was from Perry county.
Companies A and K, One Hundred and Eighty-fifth regiment (the Twenty-second cavalry), were recruited in Huntingdon county. Morti- mer Morrow was captain of Company A; John H. Boring, first lieu- tenant; Eugene Dougherty, second lieutenant. The regiment was or- ganized in camp near Chambersburg by uniting the Ringgold cavalry battalion with five companies that had been raised for the six months' service in July, 1863, and was under command of Colonel Jacob Hig- gins. The Ringgold battalion entered the service in 1862, but the Hunt- ingdon county companies were not added until the organization of the regiment in February, 1864. Mifflin county furnished a detachment and Juniata and Perry counties were also represented. It was ordered to Virginia, where it was attached to General Averill's command. Among the engagements in which it participated were Darkesville, Bunker Hill. Buckleytown, Martinsburg, Opequan, Fisher's Hill, Mount Vernon Forge, and Cedar Creek. About one-half the regiment was mustered out in April, 1865, and in June the remnant was consolidated with the Eighteenth cavalry, forming the Third Provisional cavalry, which was mustered out on October 31, 1865.
In Companies D and K, One Hundred and Eighty-seventh regiment, there were twenty-six Perry county men, and Huntingdon county fur- nished Company B to the One Hundred and Ninety-second, which was
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called out on July 12, 1864, for one hundred days, under command of Colonel William B. Thomas. The officers of Company B were: Wil- liam F. Johnston, captain ; Alfred Tyhurst, first lieutenant ; Henry Hoff- man, second lieutenant. Company H also contained a large number of Huntingdon county men ; the officers of this company were : Thomas M. Leester, captain; John F. Snyder, first lieutenant; Mart Cunningham, second lieutenant. This regiment was originally the Twentieth militia, which had been called out for a short time in 1862, and again in 1863, just before the battle of Gettysburg, to aid in repelling the invaders.
The One Hundred and Ninety-fourth, also a one hundred days' regi- ment, was organized at Camp Curtin in July, 1864, under command of Colonel James Nagle. Company H was recruited in Mifflin county with George W. Staats as captain; John W. Kartner, first lieutenant ; Francis S. Haeseler, second lieutenant. During its term of service the regiment served by detachments, performing provost duty in the camps about Baltimore. It was mustered out at Harrisburg on November 6, 1864.
A detachment of Mifflin county men served in the One Hundred and Ninety-fifth regiment, which was organized as a one hundred days' regiment in July, 1864, but at the expiration of that term was reorgan- ized and continued in service until January 31, 1866.
The Two Hundred and First regiment (one year's service) was organized at Camp Curtin on August 29, 1864, under command of Col- onel F. A. Awl. In this regiment there were a number of Perry county men, recruited at Duncannon. It was occupied in guard and provost duty until May 21, 1865, when it was mustered out.
Company B, Two Hundred and Second regiment, was recruited in Juniata county and was mustered in with the regiment at Camp Cur- tin on September 3, 1864, for one year. Lewis Degan was the captain; William N. Sterrett, first lieutenant ; Abner S. Bear, second lieutenant. In the same regiment Huntingdon county furnished Company K, with A. Wilson Decker as captain; John S. Morrison, first lieutenant ; Peter Shaver, second lieutenant. The regiment, commanded by Colonel Charles Albright, was in Virginia nearly the entire period of its enlist- ment, but saw no fighting except occasional skirmishes with guerrillas. It was mustered out at Harrisburg, August 3, 1865.
In the Two Hundred and Fifth Regiment, Company D was recruited
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in Huntingdon county and Companies F and K in Mifflin county. The officers of Company D were: Thomas B. Reed, captain; Jonas B. Shoultz, first lieutenant; Davis H. Geissinger, second lieutenant. Of Company F, Jacob F. Hamaker, captain ; John Swan, first lieutenant ; Henry Printz, second lieutenant. Company K was officered by F. B. McClenahan, captain ; Samuel Haffly, first lieutenant ; Jacob Kohler, sec- ond lieutenant. The regiment was mustered in at Camp Curtin on Sep- tember 2, 1864, for one year, with Joseph A. Matthews as colonel. Three days later it moved for the front and, after a short time in the Washington defenses, was sent to City Point, Virginia, as an escort to some 1.300 drafted men. About a month later it was attached to General Hartranft's provisional brigade of the Ninth corps and was under fire for the first time at the recapture of Fort Stedman, March 25, 1865. It was again heavily engaged on April 2nd, when the first assault was made on the inner line of works at Petersburg. It remained on duty in Virginia until ordered home about the first of June, and was mustered out on June 2, 1865.
Four Perry county companies-E, F, G, and I-were recruited for the Two Hundred and Eighth regiment, which was organized on Sep- tember 12, 1864, and mustered in for one year, under command of Colonel Alfred B. McCalmont. The officers of these companies were as follows: Company E, F. M. McKeehan, captain; John T. Mehaffie. first lieutenant ; Solomon T. Buck, second lieutenant. Company F, Gard C. Palm, captain ; Henry Schreffler, first lieutenant ; Francis A. Campbell, second lieutenant. Company G, Benjamin F. Miller, captain; William A. Zinn, first lieutenant ; William Fosselman, second lieutenant. Com- pany I, James H. Marshall, captain ; Isaac D. Dunkel, first lieutenant ; John D. Neilson, second lieutenant. The regiment left Harrisburg the day after it was organized for the James river, where it was attached to Potter's brigade, but a little later it was made a part of the First bri- gade, Third division, Ninth corps, commanded by General Hartranft. It was engaged at Fort Stedman, capturing 300 prisoners, and was in the final assault on the Petersburg works. On June 1, 1865, the recruits were transferred to the Fifty-first regiment and the other members were mustered out.
Mifflin county contributed Companies H and I to the Two Hundred and Tenth regiment, which was recruited in the late summer and fall
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of 1864 for one year's service. John R. Miller was captain of Company H; William P. Miller, first lieutenant ; J. W. Muthersbough, second lieu- tenant. Of Company I, Perry J. Tate was captain; James H. Foster, first lieutenant : Charles J. Sefton, second lieutenant. Under command of Colonel William Sergeant, the regiment left Harrisburg for the front at Petersburg, immediately after it was mustered in. It was in action at Hatcher's Run, the Weldon Railroad, Dabney's Mills, Gravelly Run, and was present at Lee's surrender at Appomattox. It was mustered out on May 30, 1865.
Martin L. Littlefield, first lieutenant, and thirteen men from Juniata county were in Company G, Two Hundred and Thirteenth regiment, or- ganized in March, 1865, under command of Colonel John A. Gorgas. It served only about forty days, although mustered in for one year, until the war was declared at an end, but it remained in the Washington defenses until November 18, 1865, when it was mustered out of service.
What were known as the "Emergency Troops" were called out in 1862 and 1863 by Governor Curtin to repel the Confederate invasions of Maryland and Pennsylvania. In the Third emergency regiment Com- pany E was from Juniata county, Companies F and G from Huntingdon, and men from the valley counties were in some of the other companies. Mifflin county furnished two companies-A and C-to the Fourth emergency regiment, and in the Sixth, Perry county furnished Compa- nies D and I.
When it was rumored in the summer of 1863 that the Confederates contemplated the destruction of the Pennsylvania railroad in the vicinity of Mount Union, the Eighteenth militia was called out to protect the road. Companies I and K, commanded respectively by Captain William C. Laird and Captain John Deitrick, were from Juniata county ; Compa- nies D and E, commanded by Captain A. C. Simpson and Simon P. Wolverton, were from Mifflin and Snyder counties. Independent com- panies were also organized in Mifflin county under command of Cap- tains A. B. Selheimer, James E. Johnston, William Mann, J. T. Roth- rock, and David B. Weber. Captain Johnston's company garrisoned the block-house at Mount Union and defended the roads to the southward, and Captain Mann's company served as mounted scouts in Fulton county. This is known as the "Shade Gap and Mount Union campaign."
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Throughout the entire war the state of Pennsylvania was prompt to respond to every call for volunteers, and in no section of the state was the response more prompt than in the Juniata valley. Nor were there any soldiers in the field that made a more enviable record for valor. These brave men have been remembered by the people of the counties from which they volunteered by the erection of soldiers' monuments and the decoration of their graves on the 30th of every May. They gave some of their best years during the vigor of their manhood in preserv- ing the Union the forefathers established and gave to their posterity a united country. When the war ended the survivors returned to their homes, shops, and fields and again took up the labors that were inter- rupted by the "call to arms." The country has nothing of which it should be more proud than its citizen soldiery. While the "Boys in Blue" were battling for their country, the people at home were not idle. Sanitary commissions and relief organizations were formed and these sent needed supplies to the hospitals or contributed aid to the soldiers' families.
SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR
During the year 1897 and the early part of 1898 the condition of affairs on the island of Cuba was a subject of intense interest in the United States. Legislatures passed resolutions asking the Federal gov- ernment to intervene in behalf of the suffering Cubans. In his message to Congress in 1897 President Mckinley stated that the question had received his "most anxious and earnest consideration." On February 15, 1898, the United States battleship "Maine" was blown up as she lay at anchor in the harbor of Havana, and this incident increased the ex- citement to fever heat. On April 20, 1898, Congress adopted a resolu- tion authorizing the president "to use the army and navy of the United States to compel Spain to abandon her sovereignty over Cuba." Three days later the president issued a proclamation referring to the authority thus conferred upon him and said that, "by virtue of the power vested in me by the Constitution and the laws, and deeming sufficient reason to exist, I have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth, volunteers to the aggregate number of 125,000, in order to carry into effect the pur- pose of the said resolution ; the same to be apportioned, as far as prac- ticable, among the several states and territories and the District of Co-
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lumbia, according to population, and to serve for two years, unless sooner discharged."
Congress formally declared war on April 25, 1898, and the same day the secretary of war notified Governor Hastings, of Pennsylvania, that the quota of his state was ten regiments of infantry and four bat- teries of artillery. Immediately the mobilization of the National Guard at Mount Gretna was commenced and, on the 28th, the entire division was ready for duty. True to her history and traditions, the old Key- stone State was quick to answer her country's call.
The Fifth regiment contained two companies from the Juniata val- ley, viz. : Company A, of Huntingdon county, and Company G, of Mif- flin. The officers of Company A were : John S. Bare, captain; John C. Dunkle, first lieutenant ; Emanuel E. Eck, second lieutenant. Louis N. Slagle was captain of the Mifflin county company ; James S. Stackpole was first lieutenant, and William P. Schell, second lieutenant. A few Juniata county men were in Company G and some of Mifflin county's sons were in Company E, as well as in the Sixth regiment. The Fifth regiment was mustered into the United States service on May 11, 1898, with Theodore Burchfield, of Altoona, as colonel, and Rufus C. Elder, of Lewistown, as lieutenant-colonel. On the 17th it started for Chicka- mauga, Georgia, where it remained in camp until August. In July it was recruited to a full regiment of twelve companies, 106 men to each company, and was assigned to the First brigade, Third division, First army corps. On August 22nd the regiment was ordered to Lexington, Kentucky, and went into Camp Hamilton. On September 17th the men were granted a thirty days' furlough and never returned to camp, as the war was of short duration and there was no further need of their services. The regiment was mustered out on November 7, 1898.
During their brief term of service the Juniata valley boys had no opportunity of demonstrating what they would have done in the presence of the enemy. But many of them were "worthy sons of honored sires," whose fathers upheld the Union in the "dark days of '61," and whose more remote ancestors followed Washington through the struggle for independence, hence there is little doubt that had the opportunity been given them they would have rendered a good account of themselves.
CHAPTER XIV
ROADS AND TRANSPORTATION
Indian Trails-General Braddock's Road-Tuscarora Path-First Public Highways- Turnpikes-Early Stage Routes-Post Riders-Larger Streams Declared Highways -"Arks"-Internal Improvements under State Supervision-Canal Companies Chartered-Pennsylvania Canal-First Railroad-Projected Lines-Pennsylvania Railroad-Huntingdon & Broad Top-East Broad Top-Lewisburg & Tyrone- Mifflin & Centre-Sunbury & Lewistown-Failures-Susquehanna River & Western -Newport & Sherman's Valley-Tuscarora Valley-Kishacoquillas Valley-Good Roads Movement-State Roads-A Century and a Half of Progress.
W HEN the untutored savage-Nature's eldest child-desired to move from one place to another, he followed the lines of least resistance and, moving over the easiest ground, made a sinuous pathway through the wilds of the unbroken forest. Others followed the route until that sinuous pathway, with all its devious windings, became a recognized thoroughfare. Long before the coming of the white man, central and western Pennsylvania were ramified by Indian trails, many of which have become the highways, or even the railway routes, of civilization.
In early days the Juniata valley was one of the leading pathways between the Atlantic seaboard and the Ohio valley. An Indian trail followed the windings of the river, and over this trail the Delaware Indians passed in 1742 on their way to attend a council at Philadelphia. Early traders and military scouting expeditions used it, and, when the first settlers sought homes along the Juniata, they followed the trail that had been used by the natives probably for centuries. Governor Morris described this path as "only a horse-way through woods and over mountains, not passable with any carriage." In 1755 the trail was improved by Colonel James Burd for the passage of General Braddock's army on the way to Fort Duquesne, where the city of Pittsburgh now stands. At the October term of the Cumberland county court in 1769 a petition was received from the settlers along the trail, asking that it
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be made a bridle path from Aughwick (now Shirleysburg, Huntingdon county ) to the mouth of the Kishacoquillas creek. Whether or not that petition was granted is not known, but in subsequent years the trail was improved from time to time by order of the court until it developed into the historic stage and mail route between Philadelphia and Pitts- burgh. The line of the old trail is now closely followed for many miles by the Pennsylvania railroad, one of the great trunk lines connecting the East and West.
Another noted Indian pathway was that used by the Tuscarora In- dians after their removal to New York. A small settlement of the tribe remained in the Tuscarora valley, in what is now Juniata county, and this settlement was used as a stopping place by the northern and southern portions of the tribe on their visits to each other. The trail ran from the county of the Five Nations in New York down the Susquehanna river to a point near the present city of Sunbury, where it turned to the southwest, passing near Richfield and crossing the Juniata near where Port Royal now stands. After crossing the river it led up the Tuscarora valley, entered the Path valley not far from the present village of Con- cord, Franklin county, and crossed the Potomac near Harper's Ferry, Virginia. This trail, which was known as the "Tuscarora Path," gave name to what is still known as Path valley. From Port Royal a branch led up the Licking creek valley to Lewistown, and after the Braddock expedition in 1755 was known as the Fort Granville road.
A much used Indian trail entered Huntingdon county not far from the present village of Blair's Mills, passed up the Trough Spring branch of the Tuscarora creek through Shade gap, then followed the Black Log valley northward to the creek of that name at the gap east of Orbi- sonia. From there it ran through Shirleysburg and crossed the Juniata a little above the present borough of Mount Union. It then followed the north side of the Juniata to the lower end of Cypress island (in the borough of Huntingdon), where it crossed to the south side of the river and continued on that side over Warrior's ridge to where Alexandria now stands. Here it again crossed to the north side of the river, then ran, via Water Street and Canoe valley, to Frankstown and Hollidays- burg and crossed the Allegheny mountains near Kittanning Point. A branch left the main trail at Black Log, passed the three springs near the borough of that name, crossed the Huntingdon county line at Side-
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ling Hill gap, and then, running past Bedford, crossed the Allegheny mountains some distance southwest of the main trail.
In 1761 the Cumberland county court ordered a road to be laid out from Carlisle to Sherman's valley. This is the earliest official mention of a highway in the Indian purchase of 1754. Viewers were appointed and, in January, 1762, recommended that a road be opened through the lands of Francis West and others "from Carlisle across the mountain and through Sherman's valley to Alexander Logan's, and from thence to the Gap in the Tuscarora Mountain, leading to Aughwick and Juneata as the nearest and best way from the head of Sherman's valley to Car- lisle."
The greater portion of this route is in Perry and Huntingdon coun- ties. The report of the viewers was confirmed by the court and the road ordered opened, but about all that was done was to remove the timber from a strip wide enough to permit the passage of vehicles. In the spring of 1767 a number of petitions for the opening of roads were presented to the court. Among these were, one for a road from Baskins' ferry, on the Susquehanna, to Andrew Stephens' ferry on the Juniata, and one from Sherman's valley to the Kishacoquillas valley. The latter was submitted to viewers, who reported in May, 1768, in favor of "a carriage road from the Sherman's valley road, beginning two and three- quarter miles from Croghan's (now Sterrett's) gap, running through Rye township and across the Juniata at the mouth of Sugar run, into Fermanagh township, and thence through the same and Derry town- ship, up the north side of the Juniata into the Kishacoquillas valley." This was the first road in Juniata and Mifflin counties.
During the next three years several petitions were presented asking for the opening of roads in various parts of the "New Purchase." Among these were, one for a road from John Furgus' place, in Sher- man's valley, to the Juniata river, below William Patterson's; one from James Gallaher's, on the Juniata river to Baskins' ferry ; and one from Logan's gap, in Armagh township, to Penn's valley. The road from Gallaher's to Baskins' ferry was confirmed as a bridle path at the April term in 1771, but no further record can be found to show the fate of the other petitions.
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