USA > Pennsylvania > Perry County > History of Perry County, Pennsylvania, including descriptions of Indians and pioneer life from the time of earliest settlement, sketches of its noted men and women and many professional men > Part 59
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PERRY COUNTY IN SECTIONAL, WAR
would arrive at Ickesburg and other towns. Alexander Barnes then kept a hotel at Ickesburg, and at such times his hostelry was packed.
THE FAMOUS RIDE DOWN SHERMAN'S VALLEY .*
Many of the famous rides of men and women of history have been immortalized by poet and painter. Almost every schoolboy and girl can recite the stirring stanzas which tell of the daring rides of Paul Revere and Sheridan, but few people even residing in the territory know of the dashing ride of Benjamin S. Huber, a young Chambersburg lad, down the main highway through Sherman's Valley, bearing to Governor Curtin the minutest facts relating to the invasion of the North by General Lee, during the great conflict between the States for the preservation of the Union. The vast conflict at Gettysburg so occupied the minds of the entire nation that Ben Huber's ride, which helped turn that battle to a victory for the Union forces, seemed a mere passing episode and was for- gotten.
When the seemingly innumerable waves of gray were sweeping through the streets of Chambersburg hey had thrown outposts far in every direction and had cut the telegraph wires, so that no facts from back of Lee's lines could get to Harrisburg, to the ear of that great war governor, Andrew G. Curtin, who in turn could acquaint the Northern forces of the facts and the direction taken by Lee. The more active loyal men of Chambersburg knew the great necessity of getting to Governor Curtin the facts and espe- cially the fact that the infantry had taken the Gettysburg road. General Knipe, of Harrisburg, with a weak force, could not con- tend with Lee's immense army and his forces were practically only harassing the advance outposts. Between him and Chambersburg was a virtual barrier of gray. To Benjamin S. Huber, a country lad. went the task of getting the facts to the governor. He was one of a brave lot of young and daring fellows used in that service from about Chambersburg, others being Shearer Houser, J. Por- ter Brown, Anthony Hollar, Sellers Montgomery, T. J. Grimeson, Stephen W. Pomeroy, and a Mr. Kinney.
According to the records of the period Huber carried no notes. but was to personally meet the governor and convey to him not only the fact that the infantry took the Gettysburg road, but the approximate number of men and supplies and the multitude of things which might be desired in the way of information. He made his way up a ravine and being familiar wih the mountain he crossed through a gap known as the "Three Square Hollow" road,
*Not to be confused with the ride of Stephen W. Pomeroy, down the Tuscarora Valley, a few days later.
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
above Blain, having succeeded in getting a horse. On swiftly motinted steed he sped through Blain, Andersonburg, Loysville, and New Bloomfield, arriving at Newport, where he took a Pennsylvania Central train-as the Pennsylvania trains were known in that day -and was carried to Harrisburg, where he laid before the gover- nor the information which was flashed to General Meade and turned that warrior and attendant victory towards Gettysburg.
Again let us draw from a Perry County author. Col. A. K. Mc- Clure, in his "Lincoln and Men of War Times," says:
"Lee then commanded the largest and the most defiant army the Con- federates ever had during the war. General Ewell's corps, over twenty thousand strong, eneamped on my farm (at Chambersburg), and thence General Rhodes and Early made their movements against York and Har- risburg. On the 26th of June, General Lee entered Chambersburg with his staff, and it is needless to say that his movements were watched with in- tense interest by all intelligent citizens. Early and Rhodes were already operating on the lines of the Susquehanna, and Lee's army was so disposed that it could be rapidly concentrated for operations in the Cumberland Valley and against Philadelphia or thrown south of the South Mountain to operate against Washington. Lee held a brief conneil in the Centre Square of Chambersburg with General A. P. Hill and several other offi- cers, and when he left them intense anxiety was exhibited by every one who observed them to ascertain whether his movements would indicate the concentration of his army in the Cumberland Valley or for operations against Washington. When he came to the street where the Gettysburg turnpike enters the square, he turned to the right, went out a mile along that road, and fixed his headquarters in a little grove close by the road- side, then known as Shetter's woods. When Lee turned in that direction, Benjamin S. Huber, a country lad, happened to be present, and, as he had already exhibited some fitness for such work, he was started immediately overland for Harrisburg to communicate to Governor Curtin the fact that Lee's movement indicated Gettysburg as his objective point. Lee was fated to lose three days in valuable time at his headquarters in the quiet grove near Chambersburg, as his cavalry had been cut off from him by encountering our cavalry forces in eastern Maryland, and he could get no information whatever of the movements of the Union Army."
Not until the night of the 29th, however, when the Confederate wagon train was hurried through Chambersburg towards Gettys- burg, was it certain that that was the objective point. Stephen W. Pomeroy, of Strasburg, with a despatch telling that fact sewed inside the lining of the buckle-strap of his trousers, managed to get to his father's home, secured a horse and hurried through the gap of the mountain from Path Valley to Tuscarora Valley, where he secured a fresh horse and sped down that valley to Port Royal, arriving between two and three o'clock in the morning. The mes- sage was quickly sent to Governor Curtin, but unsigned, as the lad was so exhausted that he left at once.
The following bit of verse which first appeared in Colonel Shoe- maker's Altoona Tribune, may not be inappropriate here :
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PERRY COUNTY IN SECTIONAL, WAR
BEN HUBER'S RIDE. BY H. H. HAIN.
Of the famous rides of yesteryear,
Of Sheridan and Paul Revere;
Of those daring rides on worthy steed,
Have been read by men of every creed.
The Union of States was almost rent
By insurrection and discontent, On the part of the South in '63-
'Twas the aftermath of slavery ; Lee, with his army in fettle fine, Crossed the Mason-Dixon line,
And in Chambersburg, where the ways diverge,
A halt occurred in the onward surge ;
Lee and his staff, in conference there,
In bold relief in the public square,
Decided the route of those clad in gray
As they marched forth in battle array.
To points far out outposts were flung, And wires were cut-No word of tongue
Could hope to pass the band of steel ;
The town was 'neath a despot heel. To get facts to Governor Curtin then,
Was a task worthy of any man. Ben Huber quietly stole away
And slipped through mountain pass that day,
And how those Northern lads did rally
As he sped down the Sherman's Valley,
Telling that Lee, awaiting his fate, Had entered the loyal Keystone State. On fiery steed he ne'er drew rein, At Newport swung aboard a train, And soon poured into the governor's ear
Details of Lee's army drawing near ;
And instantly the Union code Flashed, "Lee takes Gettysburg road."
Northern troops then turned that way, Ben Huber's ride had saved the day.
At Gettysburg the tide was turned,
And into the hearts of men were burned,
The Union shall not be rent in twain,
But undivided ever remain, And guarantee to all and each
The words of Lincoln's famous speech,
That the government of Freedom's birth Shall never perish from the earth.
Harrisburg, Pa., May 11, 1921.
This record of Ben Huber's daring ride down Sherman's Valley, when every echo of the clattering hoofs spelled the beginning of the end of disunion, comes not only from one source, but is a part of the annals of the great Sectional War, when the swords of brothers met in mortal combat. In a volume by Lieut. Joshua
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
Smith, entitled "From Gettysburg to Appomatox," he relates the incident and so graphically that it is here reproduced :
"The latter part of June it was discovered at Chambersburg that Lee was moving towards Gettysburg. The Confederates having possession of the Cumberland Valley and all lines being down, it was difficult to commu- nicate with Harrisburg, so that the authorities there might know of the movements of the armies.
"On June 26, 1863, Ben S. Huber, a young lad, volunteered to carry a dispatch to Governor Andrew G. Curtin, apprising him of Lee's move- ments and the probable concentration of the armies at Gettysburg. Huber rode through the 'Three Square Hollow,' through New Germantown, Blain, Andersonburg, Loysville, New Bloomfield and at Newport intercepted a Pennsylvania Central train, and soon appeared before the governor with the very important intelligence, being identified by some reliable parties from Chambersburg. The authorities acted accordingly and our troops were ordered to move toward Gettysburg. The fact that Perry County harbored so many refugees with their horses and the significant ride of young Huber through Sherman's Valley, indicates that it was the extreme northern border of the great war drama of the sixties."
The acts of the Pennsylvania Legislature covering the payment of border raid claims, dated April 9, 1868, and May 22, 1871, names the counties damaged by raids, and includes York, Cumber- land, Adams, Franklin, Fulton, Bedford, and Perry. The latter act authorized the appointment of a commission, consisting of two members from each of these counties, to consider the claims pre- sented.
While the Cumberland Valley was in the hands of the Confed- erates Surgeon William W. Bowles, of the Confederate Army, wrote a letter from Shippensburg to his former instructor, Charles A. Barnett, late judge of Perry County, he having been a student at the New Bloomfield Academy while Mr. Barnett was principal.
Colonel A. K. McClure graphically sums up a few facts of the Battle of Gettysburg, which follow :
"The Battle of Gettysburg was not only fought on Pennsylvania soil, but in no other important battle of the war was Pennsylvania heroism so gen- erally and so conspicuously displayed. General Meade, a Pennsylvanian, was suddenly thrust into the command of the Army of the Potomac only three days before the Battle of Gettysburg began, and he was the chieftain who won the greatest of all the Union victories in the fratricidal strife. General Reynolds, another Pennsylvania soldier, was charged by Meade with the responsible duty of making the reconnaissance in force that pre- cipitated the battle in the undulating plains between Gettysburg and Cash- town, where the heroic Reynolds fell early in the action when his single corps was driving the enemy. General Hancock, another Pennsylvanian, was hurried to Gettysburg by Meade after the report of the defeat and death of Reynolds, and authorized to decide whether the discomfited corps at Gettysburg should fall back upon Meade's line or whether Meade should advance the entire army. It was Hancock's command that received and repulsed Pickett's charge with the Philadelphia brigade in the Bloody Angle. Hancock lay on the field severely wounded until he was able to send the cheering report to his chief that the final charge of the enemy not
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PERRY COUNTY IN SECTIONAL WAR
only resulted in failure, but in the almost annihilation of the charging columns. Sykes, another Pennsylvania soldier, commanded his corps and performed heroic service in the many conflicts of the memorable field. Birney, another Pennsylvania soldier, commanded Sickels' corps after Sickels had fallen in the bloody conflict in the Peach Orchard, and the last clash of arms at Gettysburg was made by part of the Pennsylvania Re- serves, led by the heroic McCandless, who closely followed Pickett's retreat, and who recovered the position the enemy had won from Sickels the day before, with many prisoners and 5,000 stand of arms.
"Armistead, the only officer of Pickett's command who successfully crossed the stonewall into the Union lines with a number of his followers, was struck by the Sixty-ninth Pennsylvania that forced them to accept surrender or death, and it was there that Armistead, the hero of the gray, and Cushing, the hero of the blue, made the high-water mark of American heroism for the entire Civil War. Thus four Pennsylvania soldiers-Rey- nolds, Hancock, Sykes, and Birney-commanded corps in the great decisive battle of the war, and to these must be added the gallant Gregg, the Penn- sylvania trooper, who met the attack of Stuart's whole cavalry force as more than 10,000 cavalrymen made the hills tremble in the shock of battle, and won a victory quite as important to the Union cause as was the repulse of Pickett's charge. No half-dozen other states of the Union furnished such a galaxy of chieftains as did our grand old commonwealth in the desperate and bloody conflict that decreed the continued life of the greatest republic of the world's history."
While it is impossible to go into any general detail of the various soldiers, yet there are a few facts here recorded, which are but illus- trative and almost had their counterparts in many other cases. Many families sent two, three, four, five, and even six sons to de- fend the flag. From a little home one mile east of Blain, on the Ickesburg road (in Jackson Township), went six stalwart sons of Cornelius Baker and wife, the son Samuel falling in action near the close of the war. The Blain G. A. R. Post was named after him. A younger brother-a mere lad-went to Harrisburg to en- list, but was rejected on account of his youth. From Saville went five sons of Mrs. Ellen Hall, all of whom returned safe, yet one's life was saved by the deflection of a bullet by a little pocket Testa- ment which he carried. I may be pardoned for mentioning an- other. From the farm of John Hain, Sr. (grandfather of the writer ), in Howe Township, went five sons, the younger, Fred- erick Hain, dying at Washington, D. C., ten days after the battle of Antietam, where he was wounded. His remains lie in the Centre Union churchyard, in Buck's Valley. Sheridan's famous ride was viewed by a number of Perry Countians, several con- tingents being at Cedar Creek, as will be seen in the brief descrip- tion of companies, farther on, with their muster rolls. The story is told of a man named Brown, from Toboyne Township, an ex- pert fifer, who crossed the Kittatinny or Blue Mountain, when hon- orably discharged. The first notice his family had of his coming home was when they heard afar the sweet notes of his fife playing, . "Oh, My Poor Nelly Gray."
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
George A. Shuman, a Perry Countian, was made a major, June 16, 1865. During the war he had a part in thirty-six engagements. A horse was shot beneath him at Lafayette and another at Fair Garden. At Thompson's Station eleven holes were left in his clothing and a bullet cut his beard. At Readyville a ball battered the scabbard of his saber. On his return from the war he brought with him his faithful war horse, and for years she occupied a prominent place in the parades at the county soldiers' reunions. She was captured in South Carolina and Major Shuman had rid- den her on Sherman's March to the Sea. She lived to be thirty- seven, although blind. At New Albany, Indiana, Major Shuman, with some of his men, were captured by Confederate General Mor- gan's men. Upon learning that they belonged to the same fra- ternity General Morgan ordered returned to him his watch and revolver, which had been appropriated. After the war Major Shu- man was engaged in breeding thoroughbred messenger horses.
Sadly enough when the Union of States was almost rent by se- cession, the second officer of the Confederate government was Vice-President Alexander H. Stephens, the son of a native Perry Countian, his father having been born at Duncannon, as told in a sketch of Mr. Stephens, elsewhere in this volume. Like even the wife of the great President, Abraham Lincoln, whose brothers were in the Confederate service, there were other Perry County descendants, and even natives, who wore the uniform of gray. In the hearts of a very few conflicting emotions labored, for their kin -yes, even their own sons-were fighting in opposing armies. The most noted of these was General James A. Beaver, whose uncle, Thompson McAlister, once a representative in the Pennsylvania Legislature from Franklin County, had located in Covington, Vir- ginia, where he raised a Confederate regiment and marched to Manassas, participating in the battle. However, his heart was not in the cause and he resigned and returned home. He had married a Miss Addams, a sister of the governor's mother. He was also an uncle of Mrs. Beaver, whose maiden name was McAlister. Rev. William Cochran, a noted Presbyterian minister, who had been born in Millerstown, and was long located in Missouri, had a son in blue and one in gray. He came North during that trying period and preached in Perry County. Alexander Moreland, a son of Captain David Moreland, of the War of 1812, left Blain, Perry County, and located in Jackson, Missouri, where he had married a lady of considerable wealth and strong Southern proclivities. He had entered mercantile life and when the storm broke between the North and South he became a supporter of the Confederacy, en- listed as a private, was awarded a commission, and when General Lee led his powerful Southern army into Pennsylvania, he was among the commissioned officers in command. Frederick Watts
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PERRY COUNTY IN SECTIONAL WAR
Hulings, a grandson of Marcus Hulings, the pioneer, and also of General Frederick Watts, and the son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Watts) Hulings, born in what is now Perry County, removed to the South and was once speaker of the House of Representatives of Tennessee. He was a captain in the Confederate service, but in attempting to get on a passing train during the war period, was in- jured so badly that he died from the effects.
While no soldier enlisting from Perry County attained such noted designation, yet two native Perry Countians who went to the front, became brigadier generals on the Union side, and later both men became governors of commonwealths of this great land. General James A. Beaver, who became governor of Pennsylvania, entered the service as a lieutenant, and General Stephen Miller, who became governor of Minnesota, entered the service as a lieu- tenant colonel. The names of both are enshrined in the hearts of their people. Biographies of both appear elsewhere in this volume, and show them not only to have been brave and good men, but men of the highest character in every respect.
Rev. W. R. H. Deatrich, D.D., long a Reformed minister in . Perry County, was arrested on July 1, 1863, near Chambersburg, by order of General Imboden, of the Confederate Army, on sus- picion of robbing his mail, and was marched on foot along with his cavalry to Gettysburg, a distance of twenty-four miles. Wearing a silk hat and weighing over two hundred pounds, with the ther- mometer over ninety degrees in the shade, the trip was anything but enjoyable. While a prisoner there he witnessed the famous Pickett charge from the Confederate side. He was given his re- lease pass on July 3.
Just as women served in the recent World War so did they serve their country within certain lines during the great sectional struggle. Miss Sarah M. Kerr, later the wife of Major Peter Heistand (long residents of Newport), was one of the Pennsyl- vania telegraphers during the war when the men were needed else- where, being stationed at the Spruce Creek tower.
At various times during the war different contingents were on President Lincoln's guard. One Perry Countian so placed was the late David H. Smith, of near Elliottsburg, later of Duncannon. When President Lincoln was delivering his famous Gettysburg speech, Mr. Smith was stationed immediately behind him.
Benjamin McIntire was provost marshal during part of the war period, his successor being Hiram Fertig. Dr. Joseph Swartz. of Duncannon, was surgeon of the 166th Regiment, and Dr. J. M. Miller, of Newport, assistant surgeon of the 172d Regiment.
At the end of the Pennsylvania Central Railroad bridge, at Marysville, a block house was built to guard against invaders, ac- . cording to Wright's History.
5,56
HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
THE LIST OF SOLDIERS FROM PERRY COUNTY.
It is impossible to give a complete list of the Perry County sol- diers during the Sectional War, as many went to Camp Curtin at Harrisburg, to enlist and did not give their residence, and conse- quently were credited to Dauphin County. Others enlisted in regi- ments from other counties, and as the government did not keep a record of their residences in the official rosters, it is impossible at . this late day to make a correct list without spending years at the work, and even then its correctness would be doubtful. The lists printed in the following pages are drawn from various volumes. regimental records and other publications, being corrected where they were known to be wrong. While they are almost all from Perry County, there will be found some from other counties, which belonged to Perry County companies. They follow :
THREE MONTHS' SERVICE -- SECOND REGIMENT, COMPANY D.
This company was mustered into the service of the United States on April 21, 1861, and, their time having expired, they were mustered out on July 26th, having been on guard duty in Maryland and Virginia, but es- caped action at the front. Their eagerness to go at the very beginning of the war showed their mettle, and they were the vanguard of a vast array of Perry Countians, who, in a steady stream flowed into the Union lines. The enrollment for this company began on the very day of President I,in- coln's call for troops. Three days later, on April 18th, it was off for the front. The names :
H. D. Woodruff, Capt., Bloomfield. DeBray, G. Smith, Millerstown.
J. H. Crist, Newport.
Duncan, Win. C.
C. K. Brenneman, Newport.
Eby, James B., Bloomfield.
Joseph Fry, Bloomfield.
Egolf, John F., Bloomfield.
Jacob Stump, Centre.
Elliott, John B., Saville.
George Stroop, Bloomfield.
Ernest, Wesley H., Millerstown.
George W. Topley, Bloomfield.
Ferguson, John F.
Wm. H. Troup, Oliver.
Fertig, Wm. R., Millerstown.
De Witt C. O'Bryan, Newport.
Fertig, John H., Millerstown.
George Kosier, Bloomfield.
Gardner, Reuben S., Newport.
Daniel Howard.
Hostetter, Win. S.
Charles Weber, Newport. Privates:
Holt, Frank. Heany, Thomas J.
Albright, H. A., Newport.
Howell, John W., Greenwood.
Arnold, John H., Madison.
Heany, James M., Juniata.
Allwood, Wm. H.
Holman, Daniel.
Bergstresser, Jacob, Carroll. Best, J. Edwin.
Idal, Comly. Jumper, Conrad.
Bent, Charles C. Becker, Philip.
Baldwin, Isaac, Millerstown.
Clouser, Win., Centre.
Clouser, Isaiah W., Centre.
Mysel, George.
Clay, Samuel, Centre.
Moore, George.
Campbell, John W., Bloomfield.
McDonald, Thomas, Carroll.
M'Clintock, John.
Charles, Eli B., Buffalo. Dial, George.
Maxwell, David. Mastha, Lewis.
Barnes, William H.
Lynch, Michael C., Bloomfield.
Lutman, Daniel W., Centre.
Leiby, Benj. F., Newport.
Orwan, George W., Centre.
Etter, Isaac, Newport.
James Hahn, Newport.
Hartzell, Adam J.
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PERRY COUNTY IN SECTIONAL WAR
Orwan, Samuel B., Centre.
Swartz, Daniel, Jr., Newport.
Orwan, Martin V. B., Centre.
Shively, David P., Newport.
Power, Wash. A., Centre.
Sullenberger, Jacob, Newport.
Rumbaugh, H. S.
Shultz, Van Buren, Newport.
Robeson, Amos, Bloomfield.
Rider, Thad. C., Newport.
Rider, Oliver P., Newport.
Weilly, Wm. C., Newport.
Swartz, John M., Newport.
Wright, Thomas, Newport.
Sanno, George, Newport.
Wright, Charles J., Millerstown.
THREE YEARS' SERVICE-THIRTY-SIXTH REGIMENT, COMPANY B. (Seventh Reserve.)
The Thirty-Sixth Regiment of the Union Army included Company B of Perry Countians, as well as a considerable number in Companies A and H. The regiment was organized in the early summer of '61, under com- mand of Colonel Elisha B. Harvey, of Wilkes-Barre. It was mustered at Camp Wayne, near West Chester. The state uniformed and equipped it. Company B was mustered in on May 4th. It was assigned to duty in the Second Brigade, commanded by General Meade. This company, as a part of the Seventh Reserve Regiment, participated in a skirmish at Great Falls on the Potomac, and in the engagements at Gaines. Mill, Charles City Cross- roads, the Seven Days' Fight on the Peninsula, Groveton, South Moun- tain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and the Wilderness. In the latter engage- ment, April 5, 1864, part of the regiment (272 officers and men) were taken prisoners and not released till the close of the war. They had be- come separated from supporting troops in the tangled wilderness. The private soldiers were sent to Andersonville prison, where sixty-seven died. The remnant of Campany B was mustered out on June 16, 1864. The roll : John Jameson, Capt., Liverpool.
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