USA > Pennsylvania > History of the First regiment infantry, National guard of Pennsylvania (Grey Reserves) 1861-1911, pt 1 > Part 14
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The twenty-third and twenty-fourth were two uneventful days attended by the excessive heat then seasonably prevailing and the requisite drills, parades, roll-calls, and guard mounts.
Marching orders previously received, reveille was sounded at two o'clock in the morning of Saturday the twenty-fifth, the regi- ment moved at five and arrived at Chambersburg at eleven, where the camp was established to the accompaniment of a rain and wind storm of some violence.
Sunday, the twenty-sixth, was a quiet day in camp, and in the evening the regiment entrained for Philadelphia. It reached the city at noon on Monday, where a most ereditable escort awaited its arrival. A parade followed through some of the principal streets. At its conclusion there was a general handshaking, greet- ing, and reception. For the two following days the companies reported for a daily roll-call, and on August first the whole regi- ment was mustered out by Lient .- Col. Isaae Starr. mustering officer.
Inquiry is much retarded and a serious historic impairment necessarily followed the failure to discover any official report of this campaign. either from General Brisbane or any of the four Pennsylvania colonels who commanded his Twenty-eighth. Thir-
Crueles. Of Smith
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tieth, Thirty-second and Thirty-third regiments. Nothing is found at Harrisburg or in the Government " War Records " that would indicate that any such reports were ever made.
The regimental archives are alike scant. Full of data, detail, and incident attendant upon the beginning of a service, the most conspicuous rendered in the regiment's early history, they supply nothing of what followed its close. There was no order of con- gratulation summarizing events or conferring distinction nor do the minutes of the subsequent meetings of the Board of Officers give it any special mention. Colonel Smith's General Order of August 4, 1863, announcing that he " re-assumes the command of the First Regiment Grey Reserves, Reserves Brigade. organized and officered as it was previous (viz., June 25) to being mustered into the service of the State as the Thirty-second Regiment P. M.," is published to the command and the incident is closed.
The militia, however, did not fail to contribute something of itself, and in cooperation with the volunteer forces attached to its column, to the chastisement that fell upon the enemy in his Penn- sylvania misadventure. Besides, it won encomiums and approba- tion from national and State authorities alike.
Maj .- Gen. Darius N. Couch, U. S. V., commanding the Depart- ment of the Susquehanna, in his official reports 1 of the operations of that Department, June 11-July 15. 1863, makes special men- tion of some of the substantial results accomplished by his troops.
Col. Pierce of the 12th Penna. Cav. who succeeded Milroy: killed, wounded and captured a rebel cavalry company at McConnellsburg. Had Col. Pierce fully carried out my instructions he would have inflicted very heavy loss on the rebels, breaking up their trains.
On July 5th Captain Jones, First New York Cavalry, attacked Lee's wagon train near Greencastle and brought off 645 prisoners, 300 of whom were wounded, 90 wagons and one piece of artillery.
Number of prisoners reported 1341, of whom 500 were taken under arms. 400 wounded and the remainder stragglers and deserters. This does not include quite a number who escaped through the mountains and went north. being aided in this by the citizens.
Of the regiments supplied by Pennsylvania, General Conch makes this approving comment :
The militia of Pennsylvania raised to resist the invasion was composed of men from all classes and professions and was a fine body of men.
" War Records, vol. xxvii. part ii. p. 211.
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In his acknowledgments for the aid and assistance rendered him by the State officials and the "great number of gentlemen residing within the limits of the Department, all working for the common good," he makes special mention of a prominent Phila- delphia organization of nation-wide repute for its patriotic war service as follows:
Among the patriotic associations of the country, the Union League of Philadelphia is not surpassed for its vigor and efficient labor. It alone placed several regiments in the field.
The value of the militia force to the campaign of 1863 is thus commented on by Brig .- Gen. A. L. Russell, Pennsylvania's efficient adjutant-general, in his annual report of 1863:
Under the call of the President, New York sent forward six thousand three hundred and eighty-five (6385) men, and New Jersey furnished five hundred and two (502) men.
Whilst expressing her acknowledgments to her sister states for their timely assistance, it should not, however, be forgotten that the defence of Pennsylvania, at this point, was the defence also of New York and New Jersey.
The invasion of Pennsylvania and Maryland by General Lee in June last, which resulted so disastrously to the rebel army in the memorable days of the July battle of Gettysburg, contemplated in the programme of the rebel leaders the capture and sackage of the State capital, the destruction of the bridges over the Susquehanna, and the transfer of the seat of war to Penn- sylvania.
The large force of militia called out by the proclamation of your Ex- cellency of the 26th of June organized under the command of Maj .- Genl. Couch commanding the Department of the Susquehanna and the extensive fortifications opposite Harrisburg, continued under the directions of that officer, no one can doubt had the effect of retarding the march of the rebel army as to enable the Army of the Potomac to arrive in time to avert 50 dreadful a calamity.
Bates, in the fifth volume of his "History of Pennsylvania Volunteers," concludes his chapter on the militia in the campaign of 1863 with this appreciative recognition of the value of their services :
Further services for which the militia had been called, was no longer required, and during the months of August and September the majority of the men were mustered out.
With a few exceptions they were not brought to mortal conflict. They nevertheless rendered most important service. They came forward at a moment when there was pressing need. Their presence gave great moral support to the Union army, and had that army been defeated at Gettysburg,
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they would have taken the places of the fallen, and would have fought with a valor and desperation worthy of veterans. Called suddenly to the field from the walks of private life, without a moment's opportunity for drill or discipline, they grasped their muskets, and by their prompt obedience to every order showed their willingness-all unprepared as they were-to face an enemy before whom veterans had often quailed.
The foregoing paragraph is the conclusion of a series of liberal citations from Bates's "History of Pennsylvania Volunteers," from which the conclusions are drawn on the pensionable status of the Pennsylvania militia engaged in the Antietam and Gettysburg campaigns of 1862 and 1863, as established in Senate Doeument No. 378, 61st Congress, 2d Session, entitled :
FEDERAL AND STATE MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS
Mr. McCUMBER presented the following
HISTORY OF CERTAIN FEDERAL TROOPS WHICH, BY REASON OF SHORT OR DISPUTED SERVICE, HAVE NO PENSIONABLE STATUS, AND STATE MILITIAS WHICH WERE ACTIVELY ENGAGED IN THE CIVIL WAR FOR DIFFERENT PERIODS OF TIME, BUT WHICH WERE NEVER MUSTERED INTO THE SERVICE, AND WHICH, THEREFORE, HAVE NO PENSIONABLE STATUS.
The facts disclosed in these citations, so concise in structure and convincing in deduction, accepted as proofs by the United States authorities, show that the care Pennsylvania took in pre- serving the history of her volunteers, at the hands of her able his- torian, the Hon. Samuel P. Bates, as thus adduced in these later years, is a tribute to the watchfulness and forethought of the men of that day that could not then have been within the scope of reasonable anticipation. The citations are too lengthy for repro- dnetion here, but Bates's " History," to be found in all our public libraries, is always readily accessible, while a Senate Public Document is not. The text, deductions, conclusions, and finding's of that doeminent, so far as it treats of our State Militia, of much interest and some valne, helpful to supplement the story here told, are as follows :
PENNSYLVANIA
In the early fall of 1862 and again in the early summer of 1863 Penn- sylvania organized a large body of militia or emergency troops, primarily for the defence of the State and incidentally and ultimately for the support of the Union armies under Mcclellan and Meade in their fieree conflicts with
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Lee's army of northern Virginia in the campaigns north of the Potomac River, made famous by the battles of South Mountain and Antietam, Mary- land, and Gettysburg, P'a.
Twenty-six regiments of Pennsylvania emergency militia were raised in 1802, numbered from the first to the twenty-fifth, inclusive, and one knowu as the " National Guard Regiment," and also a number of independent com- panies of infantry. cavalry, and artillery.
These militia troops were organized at various dates between September 1 and 21, 1862, and were discharged at various dates between September 15 and October 15, 1862. The longest period of service for any of them was one month.
In June, 1863. a considerable body of Pennsylvania State troops were or- ganized to meet the emergency occasioned by the threatened invasion of that State by the Confederate army under General Lee. These troops were not mustered into the service of the United States, but were called out by Gov- ernor Curtin for the defence of the State as long as the exigencies of the time required. They are generally known as the " Emergency militia or the ninety-day militia of 1863," and consisted of twenty-eight regiments of in- fantry, from the thirty second to the sixtieth, inclusive (except the thirty- third), together with several batteries and independent companies. They numbered about 25,000 men and were temporarily under the command of United States officers and were cooperating with United States forces. They were not mustered into the military service of the United States, and while so commanded they were taken beyond the limits of the State and kept be- yond those limits for a comparatively short period.
The Pennsylvania militia regiments of 1863 were organized at various dates between June 20 and July 13, 1863, and were mustered out at various dates between August 1 and September 9, 1863. A very few of them were in service for about sixty days; the greater number served but little more than thirty days.
The officers and men of the Pennsylvania Militia are given a pensionable status under the general law at the Pension Bureau by a decision of the Assistant Secretary of the Interior rendered March 3, 1892, in the case of Randolph M. Manley. Company I, Forty-seventh Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia, and reported in volume 5 of Pension Decisions, page 295. Their very brief service precludes any pensionable status under the act of June 27, 1890, but if any of them had served ninety days a pensionable service under that law by virtue of the above decision would undoubtedly be recog- nized.
The basis of the decision which gives the members of the Pennsylvania Militia a pensionable status is that they were called into service by the President of the United States and were, therefore, officers and enlisted men of militia employed in the military service of the United States as contem- plated by the first paragraph of section 4693, Revised Statutes, which con- fers a pensionable benefit upon any officer of the army, including regulars, volunteers, and militia, or any officer in the Navy or Marine Corps, or any enlisted man, however employed, in the military or naval service of the United States, or in its Marine Corps, whether regularly mustered or not.
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disabled by reason of any wound or injury received, or disease contracted, while in the service of the United States and in the line of duty.
A distinetly different view, however, regarding the military status of the Pennsylvania Militia is taken by the War Department, the holding there being that these troops should not be considered as in the military service of the United States in the sense that they were a part of its military estah- lishment. inasmuch as they were raised in response to a call, not of the President of the United States, but of the governor of the State of Pennsyl- vania, in which it was stated that "they will be mustered into the service of the State for the period of ninety days, but will be required to serve only so much of the period of muster as the safety of our people and the honor of our State may require." An exhaustive statement regarding this matter is contained in a letter addressed by General Ainsworth to the Commissioner of Pensions, dated February 13, 1899, which is printed as a part of Senate Adverse Report No. 899, Fifty-sixth Congress, first session. That letter con- cludes with the statement that the military status of the Pennsylvania ninety-day state militia of 1863 is not described by any words used in the first paragraph of section 4693, Revised Statutes, quoted above, but that it is accurately and precisely described in the third paragraph of that section by the words "Any person not an enlisted soldier in the army, serving for the time being as a member of the militia of any State, under orders of an officer of the United States," and to such person that law gave only a limited pensionable status, namely, a status for wound or injury received in battle with the rebels or Indians, provided the elaim was filed and completed prior to July 4, 1874, as explained in the first pages of this document.
However divergent these views may be regarding the military status of the Pennsylvania Militia, the fact remains that, whether properly or im- properly, the members thereof are recognized at the bureau for full pension- able status under the general law. It is proper to remark that the adverse report (S99) above mentioned was made on a bill (S. 394) proposing recog- nition by the National Government of the military status of the Pennsyl- vania Militia of 1863, thus showing that Congress adopted the view of the War Department regarding the military status of that body of troops.
The regiment resumed its routine, though details are meagre, but it was apparently with much of its former zest. This was evi- denced by a confirmation in the militia of what had already been demonstrated for the volunteers, the readiness of our people to respond willingly to a call to arms, a willingness that was neither deterred by the casualties of war, nor impaired by the frequent repetition of the call. In Company D, where only does this evi- dence seem to be best attainable, twelve new members were added to the active roll at its first meeting after the campaign, and so on from time to time during the following six months other names were added, all men of reputation and worth, until the new recruits within that period aggregated thirty-cight.
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HISTORY OF THE FIRST REGIMENT, N. G. P.
There is but little preserved of record of the drills, parades, and inspections that for the next year were included within the seope of regimental operations, either for instruction or display. A General Order of October 21, 1863, dirceted that the regiment should assemble at the City Armory, Broad and Race Streets, on Wednesday, the 25th inst., at eight o'clock p.s., for inspection armed and equipped " as far as practicable." Commandants were " enjoined to have every man on the rolls present." Colonel Smith was in command, and except that the inspection was held, there is nothing further reported.
In obedience to a general order of December 22, 1863, the regi- ment paraded with Colonel Smith in command at nine o'clock on the morning of December 29. as an escort to the Twenty-ninth Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers, returning home for the thirty days' furlough incident to their re-enlistment.
General Order No. 6, of February 15, 1564, from regimental headquarters directed the regiment to assemble for parade (in commemoration of the birthday of Washington) at the armory, Broad Street below Raee, on Monday, the 224 inst., at 9.15 A. M .. in full-dress uniform with overcoats (unless countermanded) and white gloves. The weather seemed to have permitted it, as the regiment paraded without overcoats. Colonel Smith was in com- mand, the route short, and the turnout handsome, so the record reads.
The celebration of the third anniversary on the 19th of April, 1864, some time in preparation, was made a feature by a " Mili- tary and Citizens' Dress Ball " at the Academy of Music. The price of admission was fixed at two dollars and the net proceeds were appropriated in aid of the Central Fair of the Sanitary Com- mission. This function proved quite a success and the sum of $1779.31 was paid over to the Commission. The gross receipts were $3202.70 and the expenses $1423.39.
Captain Dendy Sharwood, of Company C, 11Sth Pennsylvania Volunteers, had been a corporal in Company C of the Gray Re- serves. He died of disease while still in the service, on November 21, 1863, and was buried with military honors under the escort of his old company, Captain William W. Allen commanding, at Laurel Hill Cemetery on November 24.
Lieutenant Edward Everett Coxe, of Company D, 119th Penn- sylvania Volunteers, died of wounds received in action at the
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Battle of Rappahannock Station, Virginia, November 7, 1863, and Captain William C. Moss, of Company D, 119th Pennsylvania Volunteers, died of disease while still in the service in the early winter of 1864. Both had been members of and went out to the field from Company D of the Gray Reserves. The company in touching and appropriate memorial resolutions paid fitting tribute to their worth, their virtues, and their valor as soldiers and as men.
The Board of Officers, with the assistance of their families, made special efforts to secure the remains of Major Truefitt and Captain Warner, killed at Spottsylvania Court-house, but the battle-fields of that campaign not altogether free from raiding columns of the enemy until after Lee's surrender, their efforts were not successful until after the close of the war.
As indicated by a resolution of Company D, on June 3, 1864, the last vestige of the gray uniforms disappeared. The resolution instructed the quartermaster-sergeant to present the gray coats, pants, etc., in possession of the company to the volunteer and cooper shop refreshment saloons. About the same time the surplus gray cloth remaining in the quartermaster's department was dis- posed of at public sale.
The Board of Officers resumed its sessions September 2, 1863. The meetings held at monthly intervals, with others by adjourn- ment and when specially called, were all well and attentively attended, until the unfriendly legislation of 1864 reduced the organization to a battalion and deprived it of its field officers. Out of the thirty-four meetings which that period may be said to include, Colonel Smith was in attendance at all of them, and Captain Loudenslager scored but a single absence. Captains Clark and Keyser rarely missed, with Captains Allen, Keys, White, and Gardner so frequently present as to be at all times in close touch with the regular proceedings. Major Nicholson, watchful of the every interest, active in all measures for better- ment and progress, was a constant attendant. Adjutant George D. Bethel, still the faithful, industrious, and zealous officer in regu- lar attendance up to that time, seems to have withdrawn. Coinci- dent in date with the passage of the Militia Act of May, 1864, if chosen to be so considered, that act might be fairly treated as operating as an honorable discharge. As Bethel's name is not again found in the records, he may have so chosen. He was suc- ceeded by J. Stewart Brown, who except with brief intervals
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when G. T. Irwin, Geo. A. Smith, A. R. Focring and T. Allman acted temporarily, served as acting adjutant and secretary until the Board ceased to hold its sessions. At all the meetings there was a full representation of the subaltern officers, Lieutenant Frishmuth, as he is styled after the Gettysburg campaign, or Lieut. John Story Jenks representing the Battery until, with its refusal to organize as infantry in February of 1864, it withdrew from the regiment. Major William H. Kern, paymaster, and Lieutenant A. R. Foer- ing, quartermaster, rarely away, never lost their interest. Lieut .- Col. Isaac Starr, Jr., remained active until his resignation was accepted to date from February 29, 1864. Captain Chas. Fred- erick Hupfield, from the beginning, a prominent and useful officer, was on June 17, 1863, honorably discharged on surgeon's certificate of disability. Captain George W. Gardner, who had been the first sergeant of Company C, succeeded Captain Geo. W. Kern as captain of Company HI, and Captain J. Parker Martin suc- ceeded Captain G. West Blake as captain of Company I. Captain Martin brought with hini an honorable record and valuable experi- enee: made first lieutenant of Company F, Eighty-eighth Pennsyl- vania Volunteers, September 12, 1861, and captain October 9, 1862, lie had resigned to be honorably discharged February 9, 1863. Captain John McCreight was made captain of Company B.
Supported by a preamble that set forth, among other things, that since the formation of the regiment it has been a practical school of instruction in the duties and discipline of the soldier, and has sent to share the deprivations of the camp, the glory and dangers of the battle-field, nearly three hundred of its members as commissioned and non-commissioned officers, some of whom in their devotion to the sacred cause in which they were engaged of upholding the glory of our country's flag and maintaining for us and future generations the blessings of the Union "have thus sacrificed their lives-they now, alas, fill a soldier's grave "- the Board of Officers at its meeting of December 2, 1863, resolved " That as a tribute of respect to their memory a suitable tablet be procured and placed in this armory on which shall be inseribed the name, rank, and regiment of those formerly members of this-who have been killed in battle or who have died from wounds received or disease contracted when in the service of their country."
The committee appointed to carry into effect the purpose of this
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resolution, Captains Clark, Loudenslager, Keys, White, Keyser, Allen, and Gardner, and Lieutenants Dusenberry, Maris, and C. S. Jones, subsequently reported that they had procured the tablet, and by direction of the Board it was turned over to the Committee on Armory to be properly and suitably placed in the armory building.
No name in the history of the city of Philadelphia for several generations through a worthy ancestor and his descendants has been more highly respected nor more favorably known than that of Jolin Price Wetherill. A letter of acknowledgment from the one who stood for the generation of the sixties, upon the receipt of resolutions of the Board, thanking him for favors done and services rendered, is illustrative of the estimation in which the regiment was held by the best people of the city. The letter is as follows :
PHILADELPHIA March 28, 1864.
LIEUT. ALBERT R. FOERING,
Qr. M. Ist Regiment, G. R.
My dear Sir: I am in receipt of the handsome engrossed Resolution passed at a stated meeting of your Board of Officers. For this kind remem- brance, of the very little share done, please accept my thanks. I have always felt the need in our city of one good efficient regiment, and have long since come to the conclusion that to secure that result, that the efforts of the city authorities should be centred in the 1st Regiment Gray Reserves. To accomplish this my endeavors, either private or public, have been and still will be most cheerfully given, feeling assured that, as New York is proud of her 7th Regiment, so will we in Philadelphia with equal confidence greet your Regiment as in every way its equal.
I am your obt. servant,
JOHN P. WETHERILL.
The regiment was re-equipped in a new fatigue uniform-dark blue cloth coat, light blue kersey trousers, and regulation cap. The Committee on Uniforms were authorized to make the neces- sary contracts for furnishing five hundred uniformis complete. and " to draw upon the funds now in the hands of the Paymaster for the payment of the same-said uniforms not to cost over fifteen ($15) dollars each and the whole amount not to exceed seven thousand five hundred ($7500) dollars." The cloth and kersey was purchased from the firm of Bullock and Sons, the uniforms were made and trimmed by Charles Stokes & Co., and the caps bought at a United States Government sale. The total cost for the five hundred and two complete, material and manufacture, was seven thousand six hundred and eighty-eight dollars and fifty-
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