USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of genealogy and biography of the state of Pennsylvania with a compendium of history. A record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Volume I > Part 13
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The break came earlier than was expected : it was never hoped for by the north, and at the time little preparation had been made for the emergency. Indeed, the new administration was seriously handicapped. The machinery of the government had been largely in the hands of the southerners, or of their sympathizers, and every available instrument of war had been turned over into their hands.
On the eventful morning of April 12. 1861, Moultrie's guns were trained on Fort Sumter, and civil war proclaimed throughout the land. No formal declaration was made: none was needed. for the action was enough to satisfy the country as to the intentions of the states in seces- sion. It meant war, long drawn out through almost five full years, until the final surrender at Appomattox in 1865.
With Lincoln the attack on Sumter meant not reflection, but action,
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and he immediately called for 75.000 men of the militia of the loyal states to "suppress treasonable insurrection." Pennsylvania was asked to con- tribute 14,000 of this number. and Governor Curtin immediately issued his proclamation calling for volunteers. The response was quick, and within forty-eight hours five companies, armed. uniformed, and equipped. 530 strong. were ready for service. These men were needed at Wash- ington, and were the first troops to arrive in that city. They were the famous "First Defenders." and comprised the Ringgold Light Artillery. of Reading : the Logan Guards, of Lewistown ; the Washington Artillery. and the National Light Infantry. of Pottsville: and the Allen Rifles, of Allentown.
This was the battalion that marched through the streets of Balti- more, accompanied with a detachment of United States regulars intended for garrison duty, and. was the notable command that was subjected to the sneers and jeers, the insults and assaults of as mean a set of rebel sympathizers as ever lived. But the soldiers withstood the attacks and made no attempt at resistance. They might have formed battalion front and charged, but they could not have obeyed a command to "fire." for there was not a single round of ammunition among them : but the seces- sionists did not know this.
Before the "Defenders" were safely arrived at Washington, the streets of Harrisburg were overrun with thousands of men from every quarter of the state. and it at once became evident that Governor Curtin had not over-estimated the loyalty of his people. Fourteen thousand men had been called for, and more than four times fourteen thousand volunteers reported in answer to the call. Within one month's time twenty-five regiments were organized and sent to the front, and the services of thirty more regiments were offered, but not accepted. The
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war department did not favor accepting from any state more men than is regular quota.
The overplus of volunteers were not returned to their homes, but were formed into that famous organization known as the "Pennsylvania Reserve Volunteer Corps." under the provisions of an act of the legisla- ture, passed May 15. 1861. They were mustered into service for three years and numbered sixteen thousand men. comprising thirteen regiments of infantry, one of cavalry, and one of artillery. Curtin and Cameron were satisfied that Pennsylvania would be required to furnish more than twenty-five regiments of troops before the war would be ended, and at the same time they were aware that the southern portions of the state were dangerously near the enemy's country, and therefore were subject to invasion. The original purpose in organizing the Reserve Corps was to defend the state against invasion, and also to be prepared for any call for more volunteers by the president. This came sooner than was ex- pected. for after the disastrous defeat at Bull Run, in July, the president immediately called for 500,000 men, and the Reserve Corps was called into active service at the front.
The first year of the war was devoted chiefly to work of organization and preparation for later events. There was no difficulty in raising men ; in this respect the resources of the state never were overtaxed. But the governor and his board of war were desirous to perfect a military estab- lishment within the state. independent of that of the general government. For the accomplishment of this end many things were required to be done, but all the means to work them out were not at hand. At the ont- break of the war the state had less than fifteen thousand stands of effect- ive arms, and even those were mostly of old patterns. The supply of artillery pieces was moderate, and fair in quality, but the guns were not new models. The only material of war which the state possessed in
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abundance was enthusiasm and men. These were always at the com- mand of the governor, and the other requisites were furnished by the war department at Washington.
Although the number of volunteers furnished by Pennsylvania for the service during the first year of the war exceeded the expectations of the governor, the resources of the state in that respect were not seriously taxed. There still remained an abundance of material to provide for the exigencies of the next year. In 1862 it became necessary to make a draft under the direction of the general government. It was also pro- vided that drafted men could furnish substitutes, or could relieve them- selves from military duty on payment of three hundred dollars. This alternative provision led to abuses, and drew into the ranks of the army many men who were morally unfit for military service. Buying and selling substitutes became a regular business, which in itself was legiti- mate enough, but it led to a pernicious practice called "bounty jumping." with all its attending evil results. But it was practiced in all the states. and no more in Pennsylvania than elsewhere.
The successes of the Confederate arms during the summer of 1862 made it evident that an invasion of Pennsylvania would be attempted before the end of the year, but when and where were questions of specu- lation. The opportunity came in the fall, when, on October 10, General Stuart and his troop of cavalry made a dash across the line into Franklin county and spread terror among the quiet people of Chambersburg. The invaders ransacked private dwellings, plundered stores, and every build- ing that tempted them. On the following morning they sacked the mili- tary storehouse, set fire to that structure, and carried away all the booty they could pack on twelve hundred stolen horses. Stuart's men departed as secretly as they came, and before it was possible to raise an army to oppose them.
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In the next year a still more formidable raid was planned, but was not carried out as successfully as its originators had desired. This was Lee's invasion with his entire army of more than eighty thousand trained and desperate fighters. It was not that Lee was tempted to invade Pen- sylvania territory solely for purposes of plunder, or to replenish his supply of military stores, but rather to shift the scenes of war to a free state, one which had most strenuously opposed the institution of slavery, and therefore was considered the bitterest enemy against which the south had to contend. If this state could be laid under subjection, it was assumed by the Confederacy that the whole north would soon be overcome. Had the rebel army been successful at Antietam, in Septen- ber, 1862. Pennsylvania would have been invested during that year, but the results of that battle turned the enemy in another direction. The greater success at Chancellorsville. May 1-3. 1863, gave Lee an oppor- tunity, and he took quick advantage of it.
In June the southern counties of the state from one end to the other were threatened with invasion, and in several of them small detachments of Confederate troops made their appearance and committed numerous petty depredations. On June 15. Jenkin's cavalry entered Greencastle. and on the evening of that day Chambersburg was again invested. Ship- pensburg and Carlisle were likewise visited, but Lee's whereabouts and intentions could not be determined. On the 27th, Ewell, who com- manded Lee's advance, took possession of Carlisle. It was then sup- posed that Harrisburg would be attacked, and preparations were made to defend it. On the 20th Governor Curtin called for sixty thousand volunteers to defend the state, and almost every able-bodied man tendered his services. Harrisburg was put in a condition for defense, the ap- preaches to the city were strongly guarded or destroyed, and nearly all persons who could not remain and fight departed to places of safety.
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The capital city was threatened, but the attack was not made : the demon- stration was a ruse to divert the attention of the defensive force.
Ewell's advance was followed by Lee's main army, but instead of laying siege to the capital, the great Confederate commander turned toward Gettysburg, marching by way of Casintown. Here his force was divided. Gordon's division taking possession of Gettysburg, and Early occupying York, upon whose people he levied heavy tribute in govern- ment money and provisions. In all these preliminary movements several skirmishes took place, for the rebel advance was not wholly unopposed. Carlisle was shelled and set on fire ; raids were made in the direction of Harrisburg : a skirmish took place at Wrightsville ; and at Hanover Kil- patrick's cavalry clashed with Stuart's raiders. These, however, were only the by-plays which preceded the greater battle-a battle of giant forces, without parallel in the annals of warfare.
While the Confederate army was laying waste the border townships and deciding on a position in which to make a stand, the Union com- manders were not idle. General Meade had been ordered in pursuit of Lee, and all this time had been watching his movements through the efficient action of Reynolds, who held the left of the line. It was well that these two noted generals, Meade, first in command, with Reynokls second, should lead the Union forces against the enemy on this memor- able occasion : they were Pennsylvanians, and it was their duty and pleasure to give battle to the foe who dared to invade the territory of their state.
The battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1-3. 1863. . \ detailed narrative of its events from beginning to end is hardly necessary in these pages. It has been made the subject of volumes, and has been published in foreign countries. It is read in every schoolroom, and an account of it is kept in every family in Pennsylvania. It was the most memorable
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battle of the war. Its result checked the advance of the Confederates into the northern free states, and was the turning point in the fortunes of the war. It developed military genins, and brought into prominence more military commanders than any other battle fought during the war. General George J. Meade was pitted against General Robert E. Lee, the latter the commander-in-chief of the Confederate armies, and concededly one of the ablest generals of his time : but on the third day at Gettysburg Meade clearly outgeneraled and outwitted Lee, and when the latter least expected it and was least prepared for it. the Union artillery swept down the enemy as grass before the scythe : and the Union infantry poured into the ranks of their foes such withering volleys of musketry that the dead and wounded lay in great heaps on the blood-stained earth.
Gettysburg was not wholly Meade's victory, nor Hancock's, nor Reynolds, who was killed early in the battle; nor Doubleday's, nor Geary's, nor Sickles. The honor of the victory belonged to all of them. officers and men alike, whether adorned with shoulder straps and sword. or carrying the heavy old army musket of that time. It was the victory of the Union army, composed of officers and men from a dozen states. but among the one hundred thousand soldiers whom Meade and his subordinates commanded in that fierce three days' fight, there were far more Pennsylvanians than men from any other state.
There were brave officers and equally brave men on both sides at the Gettysburg fight, and they fought like heroes : and they died like heroes. On the Union side the losses amounted to 4.834 killed. 14.700 wounded. and 6,043 missing, a total loss of 25,186 officers and men. On the Confederate side the loss was 6.500 killed, 26,000 wounded, and 9.000 prisoners. Lee went into the fight with about 80,000 men, but when he turned his face southward at the close of the third day, hardly more than halí that number were with him. The Union forces aggregated about
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100,000 men. Some of these were raw troops, hastily gathered from this and New York state, and organized by General Couch.
Among the officers killed were Generals Reynolds, Vincent, Weed. Zook, Cross, and Farnsworth. The list of wounded officers included the names of Major Generals Sickles. Hancock, Butterfield. Doubleday, and Bierney, and Brigadier Generals Barlow, Barnes, Gibbon. Hunt, Graham. Paul, and Willard. Among the prominent officers killed on the Con- federate side were Major General Pender and Brigadier Generals Barks- dale (died on the field ). Armistead ( died in Union hospital). Garnett. and Semmes. The wounded list included Major Generals Hood. Heth. and Trimble, and Brigadier Generals Kemper. Scales. Anderson. Petti- grew. Hampton. Jones, and Jenkins.
After the battle of Gettysburg comparative peace reigned within the state during the remainder of the year. The emergency militia returned to their homes, but held themselves in readiness to answer any further call for their service. They had put the state capital in condition for defense. and had gone to the assistance of the main army at the time of the battle. after making a successful stand against the enemy at Carlisle.
Notwithstanding the heavy drains on the resources of the state dur- ing the first three years of the war, there yet remained more men and more of the old martial spirit for which Pennsylvania ever has been noted. The reports of the adjutant general show that at the close of the year 1863, the state had sent into the service a total of almost two hundred and fifty thousand men. The entire population in 1860 was a little less than three millions, and it was never thought that the war would call into the service from a single state such a vast army of sol- diers. The demands had been great, but they were promptly complicd with. The military establishment of the state was now in systematic order, and no longer did the Quaker element oppose the wishes of the
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people. Indeed, the military records show that thousands of Quaker descendants were enlisted in the ranks, and others were commissioned officers during the war, and they proved thorough soldiers and good fighter -.
It had been hoped that the disastrous defeat of Lee's army at Gettys- burg would put an end to rebel invasions of the territory of Pennsylvania. yet still another raid was made in July, 1864, and once more Chambers- burg was made the object of attack. The people here never had felt secure, and after the first visit in 1862 they put away in secure places as much as possible of their valuable property. Indeed, at the time of the third raid the inhabitants had but little left ; their resources had been drawn upon for the general needs of the war, as had those of other lo- calities, but Stuart's cavalry raid in 1862, and Lee's invasion in the next year had taken nearly all they had left, but now, on July 30, 1864. a column of three thousand Confederate sofliers under General MeCausland laid siege to the town with two batteries of artillery and threatened its de- struction unless the inhabitants would pay $500,000 in greenbacks or $100,000 in gold. A half hour's time was granted in which to comply with the demand, but the Confederate commander was told that "Cham- bersburg could not and would not pay any ransom." Then the invaders rang the court house bell to assemble the people, but none came. Next many prominent citizens were taken into custody, and threats were made to carry them to Richmond, unless the demands were satisfied. But all this was to no purpose, and, seeing which, the Confederates set fire to the town and in the course of a few hours destroyed property of the value of $3.000,000, and left three thousand persons homeless and penni- less. Thus Chambersburg was the only town within the limits of the Union states that was totally destroyed by the enemy during the war.
"The burning of Chambersburg," says Egle, "was an act of ruth-
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less vandalism, unnecessary at the time as a means of promoting the protection or the success of the invader, and perpetrated merely as a show of bravado, in defiance of all honorable warfare and the sacred rights of humanity. The inhabitants offered no resistance at the time to the ad- vance -- there was no Union force intrenched in the town and. therefore. no necessity to fire it as a means of dislodging an enemy."
McCausland's raid in 1864 was the last invasion of this state during the war. The scene of events was laid in other localities, and the gov- ernor kept up his work of organizing regiments and companies and send- ing them on to the front to replenish the depleted ranks of the army. The last year of the war was uneventful so far as Pennsylvania was con- cerned. The Confederate armies had been driven back and constantly beaten by the victorious Union troops, and gradually the people at home began to turn their attention to accustomed pursuits. However. during the year 1865, the state furnished for the service 25,840 men in addition " to those already sent into the field.
Pennsylvania's contribution to the service of the government during the period of the war aggregated 387.284 men, who were recruited and raised under the several calls for troops in each year as follows:
1861 .- Under call of April 15. for three months. ... 20,979 Under call of July 22, for three years, the Penn- sylvania Res. Vol. Corps. 15,856
Under Act of Congress of July 22, for three years 93.759
Total for 1861 130,594
1862 .- Under call of July 7. including 18 nine-inos.
regts. .
40.383
Under draft of Ang. 4. for nine mos 15.100
Ind. Cos. for three years. 1.358
Recruits forwarded 9.259
Enlisted in organizations of other states, and
in regular army 5,000
Total for 1862 71 100
1 SD COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND GENEALOGY
1863. Under authority of War Dept., for three yrs. . 1,066
Under president's call in June. for six mos. . .
Emergency volunteers 7.062
Recruits forwarded 4.458
Enl. in regular army. 934
Militia called out in June, for go days. 25.042
Total for 1863 43.046
1864 .- Re-enlistments for three years 17.870
Under authority of War Dept., for three yrs. . 9.867
Under call of July 6. for 100 days. 7.075
Under call of July 27, for one year 16,094
Recruits forwarded 26.567
Drafted men and substitutes 10.651
Recruits for regular army 2,974
Total for 1864 91.704
1865 .- Under call of Dec. 19. 1864. for one year 9.645
Recruits forwarded 9.133
Drafted men and substitutes 6.675
.
Recruits for regular army 387
Total for 1865 25 840
The war of 1861-65 closed with the final surrender at Appomattox in April, 1865, although hostilities on a minor scale were continued in other localities for some weeks. Pennsylvania troops took part in the final event, as they had done before in almost every important battle of the war. Their services, with those of the loyal people of Pennsylvania. during the long struggle were made the subject of a special message from Governor Curtin to the legislature, in which he said :
"Proceeding in the strict line of duty, the resources of Pennsylvania. whether in men or money. have neither been withheld nor squandered. The history of the conduct of our people in the field is illuminated with incidents of heroism worthy of conspicuous notice, but it would be im- possible to mention them in the proper limits of a message, without doing
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OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA.
injustice, or, perhaps, making invidions distinctions. It would be alike impossible to furnish a history of the associated benevolence and of the large individual contributions to the comfort of our people in the field and hospital, or of the names and services, at all times, of our volunteer surgeons, when called to assist in the hospital or on the battlefield; nor is it possible to do justice to the many patriotic Christian men, who were always ready to respond when summoned to the exercise of acts of human- ity and benevolence. Our armies were sustained and strengthened in the field by the patriotic devotion of their friends at home: and we can never render full justice to the heaven-directed. patriotic. Christian benevolence of the women of the state."
Soon after the battle of Gettysburg. Governor Curtin suggested to the governors of several other states the propriety of establishing a final resting place for the dead who gave up their lives in that memorable en- gagement. The idea met with general approval, and resulted in a meet- ing of persons appointed by the governors of the respective states. The commissioner acted with promptness, completed a formal organization, and the battlefield of Gettysburg was set apart for a soldiers' cemetery. It was formally dedicated November 19. 1863. Under the agreement and regulations, Pennsylvania retained sovereignty over the cemetery lands, but in 1872 ownership and management were vested in the federal government. The National Soldiers' Cemetery is now one of the institu- tions of the United States. Any state which was represented by soldiers in the Gettysburg battle is entitled to share in its privileges. This has been very generally accepted, and numerous splendid monuments mark the localities where state troops fought or held positions. In the same manner, scattered here and there over the broad extent of this sacred silent city, are hundreds of monuments which commemorate the deeds of regiments which participated in the engagement; and thousands
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upon thousands of "markers" indicate the resting place of brave men who "here gave their lives that the nation might live." The National Soldiers Cemetery is regarded as one of the most historic places in America, and every year is visited by thousands of survivors of the great battle, and many more thousands of interested, liberty-loving citizens from every state in the U'nion.
The Soldiers Orphan Schools, three in number, are the direct out- growth of the war of 1801-65, and owe their origin to Governor Curtin's pledge at the beginning of the contest to sustain, clothe, and educate the children who were thereby made destitute and dependent. The governor was ever mindful of this promise, but the opportunity for its fulfillment was presented quite unexpectedly. In 1863 the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, through its vice-president. Colonel Thomas Scott, donated to the state fifty thousand dollars to be paid as bounties to volunteers. This generous gift the governor declined, because he had no authority to accept in an official capacity, and was unwilling to undertake its dis- bursement in any other way. Then Colonel Scott suggested that the fund be used to establish a system of education for the benefit of the destitute orphans of soldiers.
The subject in its new form was taken under consideration, and a bill was prepared embodying the provisions necessary to carry the proposed measures into effect. The bill was not acted upon at once, but the legisla- ture authorized the governor to accept the gift, and to use it for the pur- pose last indicated. Accordingly, on June 16, 1864, Governor Curtin ap- printed Thomas H. Burrowes superintendent of soldiers' orphans, and entrusted him with the work of organizing a system of education for their especial benefit. At first Dr. Burrowes selected several schools in different parts of the state whose commissioners were willing to accept pupils under the prescribed regulations. At the beginning of 1865 six
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schools and five homes had agreed to receive two hundred and seventy- six orphan pupils.
This system, however, did not work satisfactorily. The fund then at the command of the superintendent was small, and there was shown a reluctance in many places to erect the buildings necessary for proper compliance with the regulations. In remedy. the legislature, on March 26, 1865, pased an act "establishing the right principle that the destitute orphans of our brave soldiers are to be the children of the state." This act brought the system more directly under the control of the state, and to advance its efficiency, the sum of $75,000 was appropriated to carry on the work. This measure was opposed in certain quarters, but the governor's influence carried it to a successful end. For nearly ten years afterward about eight thousand orphans were cared for annually by the state, at an expense of about half a million dollars.
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