USA > Pennsylvania > History of the First regiment infantry, National guard of Pennsylvania (Grey Reserves) 1861-1911, pt 1 > Part 7
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The movement began on the afternoon of September 15. Fol- lowing the directions of General Order No. 9 of that date the regiment, with Colonel Kneass in command, at five o'clock formed on Seventh Street, with its right resting on Arch facing east, moved out Arch to Eighteenth, thenee to Market, thenee to the West Philadelphia depot of the Pennsylvania Rail- road. There the regiment entrained, and at eight o'clock the start was made for Harrisburg. The delays, apparently the neces- sary attendant on all such movements, followed through the night, and it was nine o'clock on the morning of the sixteenth before the Harrisburg destination was reached. After a brief stop for a review by the Governor and a parade, the day hot. the streets dusty. a start was again made at noon, for Chambersburg. There was a hearty welcome and encouraging cheers as the train passed through the thrifty towns of the Cumberland Valley-Mechanicsburg, Car- lisle, Shippensburg, and others. The arrival was after dark. and the troops were quartered through the night in churches and school-houses, until the next morning when they moved out to a wood on the south side of the town to an encampment known as " Camp MeClure."
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DEPARTURE OF THE REGIMENT
1862
Instead of a camp, it was seareely a halt. Orders immediately followed to re-entrain, and the regiment was again on its way, this time over the State line to Hagerstown, Maryland. On the ronte an issue of ball cartridge was made, forty rounds for the cartridge-box and twenty for the pocket. At eight o'elock on the evening of the seventeenth on its arrival at Hagerstown the regi- ment left the cars, stacked arms in the main street, and awaited the distribution of what proved to be a very limited supply of rations. The commissariat. by those who looked to it to be fed, was pronounced a failure, and what the soldier got he had either brought with him or gathered up from his own pursuit of it or obtained it through purchase by his officers while on the move. Coffee was a negligible quantity. There was mischief somewhere -nobody cared to inquire where. It was said there were ample stores at the depots, but supplies and consumers rarely met.
Knapsacks and baggage were left behind at Hagerstown, and with lightened load the regiment pulled out for its first real march to Boonsboro. The distance was ten miles, which with an hour's halt at Funkstown was covered before daylight on the morning of the eighteenth. "I remember," reads a note made of the occasion, " that weary mareh, and how we dropped like logs, in bivouac, at three o'clock in the morning. feeling the coming day might be fatal to some of us; for signs of war and battle were in the air, and the guns of Antietam had been making unwonted music to our ears. Signals on the mountain tops, orderlies dashing by, broken caissons and vacated rebel camping grounds told us we stood on sacred soil; but the battle was over when we reached Boonsboro."
This absence of a proper food-supply was at the time the cause of much harsh comment and searching criticism. The strictures on the Government by the soldiers were severe, while the soldiers, for the liberal way in which, it was alleged, they undertook to furnish their own supplies, were themselves sharply denounced. A writer of the time has said, as it were with the "tongue of a sword," or still touched with the asperities of the moment, that the country suffered as heavily from the incursion of the militia as it did from the invasion of the enemy.
Quartermaster Foering was detached from the regiment and assigned by General Reynolds to the highly responsible post of
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HISTORY OF THE FIRST REGIMENT, N. G. P.
1862
"Aeting Assistant Quartermaster and Commissary of the Divis- ion," with headquarters at Hagerstown, Md. His official report to the Board of Officers, from the wide scope it covers and the excellent opportunity his detail gave him for a broader field of observation, is a contribution to the story of the times of true historie value. It bears date December 2, 1862, and as it-is nowhere to be found, except possibly in fugitive pamphlet form, outside of the regimental archives, it is here freely quoted from, as follows :
At Harrisburg I concluded to purchase some coffee, sugar and bread and also telegraphed to Philadelphia for some soda biscuit and hams.
The hams were sent immediately on the receipt of telegram to the ware house but owing to the scarcity of cars did not get beyond Harrisburg where they laid until after our return to the City when they were ordered back again, the Regiment losing the freight and porterage paid on same.
The soda biscuit ( 10 barrells) were sent to Freed, Ward & Freed's ware house on receipt of telegram and for the same cause were kept there until the Tuesday following the return of the Regiment to the City when they shipped them to Chambersburg they no doubt knowing we were home at that time.
Orders were sent by Q. M. Sergt. Wattson to the agent at Chambersburg to dispose of them to the best advantage and remit the proceeds of sale.
In the meantime the Rebel Army in part made a raid on Chambersburg and among other articles and stores taken possession of, took five barrells of our biscuit remarking to the forwarding merchant that they would divide with him leaving one half. So the Board has the satisfaction of knowing the First Regiment has contributed some little towards feeding a small por- tion of the Confederate Army.
There was much complaint made that the Regiment was getting along badly for want of provisions, which cause is only to be attributed to the faet that the rations were not drawn when there was a chance of same being done as the Regiment being so much on the move. the opportunities were few. The morning after the Regiment left Hagerstown the first wagons pressed, were loaded up from the ware house containing, besides ammunition, rations. I sent to the Regiment without having any requisition for same and in two instances I sent one of my assistants out to the camp ground for the express purpose of having the rations sent for.
. .
At the first meeting of the Board after returning a Committee was ap- pointed to inquire into the cause and see further if the Company oflieers would not be reimbursed by the proper authorities for the amount expended by them in purchasing supplies. Capt. J. Ross Clark being made Chairman of said committee waited on me and from him I received the information of the raising of said committee and also that I was a member of same, after stating particulars to me I remarked that I did not think it worth while to inquire as the case would no doubt be referred to me as aeting Quarter Master of the Division, and all I could say would be that all the requisitions made by the Regiment were tilled-and he concluded best to let the matter drop, as I heard nothing further on the subjeet.
.
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SPECIAL ORDER NO. 10
1862
Special Orders No. 10, Headquarters First Regiment Infantry, Gray Reserves, Seventh Pennsylvania Militia, Hagerstown, Md., of this day, September 17, 1862, reads as follows: " Charles J. Biddle, Brevet Major U. S. A. (serving as a private in C Com- pany), will perform the duty of a major in this Regt."
It might be well, when any one of this number of prominent men who, through official sources, it has been said, were comprised within the ranks of this militia contingent, comes under special mention, that something be said of him and his antecedents, not alone for himself, but also in a measure as typical of his fellows.
It should be remembered, too, in this connection, that it had been held as a sort of tradition, if nothing else, that brevet rank in the regular army once conferred was always retained, and might be made available at any time thereafter, for assignment to military duty, "according to brevet rank," whenever the circumstances should require it.
Besides the duty that this Special Order No. 10 imposed upon Major Biddle, he was afterward during these same militia opera- tions assigned as aide-de-camp and assistant adjutant-general of a brigade.
Major Biddle was the son of Nicholas Biddle, the president of the Bank of the United States, and a brother of that eminent jurist of Philadelphia, the Hon. Craig Biddle. He had won dis- tinetion as a soldier in the Mexican War. A captain in the voltiguers (foot riflemen), an organization of the regular army created specially for service during that war, he had been brevetted major for gallant and meritorious conduct at the storming of Chapultepec.
At the breaking out of the Civil War Major Biddle's services were in instant demand. Col. Thomas L. Kane had organized the Forty-second Regiment ( Thirteenth Pennsylvania Reserves) Pennsylvania Volunteers, afterward better and more familiarly known as the famous " Bucktail Regiment." Colonel Kane was elected to its coloneley and Major Biddle was made lieutenant- colonel. Colonel Kane, though the organizer of the regiment, promptly declined the honor, and in language most emphatic and expressive, in his letter of resignation to Governor Curtin recom- mended Colonel Biddle for the appointment. "Sir :-- I this day " (so reads this letter of June 13, 1861) " resign the post of colonel of the Rifle Regiment of the Reserve Volunteer Corps of Penn-
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HISTORY OF THE FIRST REGIMENT, N. G. P.
1862
sylvania respectfully presenting for appointment by you to fill my place Lieutenant-Colonel Charles J. Biddle, whose merits as an officer and gentleman need no other advocacy on my part." The appointment was made accordingly and Colonel Biddle held the place until his election to the Thirty-seventh Congress as the repre- sentative from the Second Congressional District of Pennsylvania.
Colonel Kane continued to serve as lieutenant-colonel, until when, not alone in recognition of his magnanimity, but as well because of his special fitness and conspicuous courage, he was made a brigadier-general of volunteers.
General Kane had an intense passion for battle, rarely ever so keenly developed, as in the following instance. His brigade had a long march before it reached the field at Chancellorsville. The battle had been some time in progress. It is related of him, as he gradually drew near the scene, and the noise and din of the conflict increased in intensity, with his eyes afire and his cheeks aglow, he turned to his adjutant-general and said with enthusiasm : " Captain ! Captain ! aren't you glad you have lived to see this day." The captain (John P. Green, afterward First Vice-Presi- dent of the Pennsylvania Railroad) modestly ventured the reply : " Well, General, if I really had my own choice I should be much more rejoiced if I were sure I should live to see the end of it."
To return to the night march to Boonsboro. An amusing incident is told of it. The march was well along, when the regi- ment pulled out of the road into the timber for a short halt and a brief rest. Overstrained to the limit of endurance, the men were soon all sound asleep. Other troops began to pass along the road. and their tramp aroused some of the more restless. One especially, bewildered at his sudden awakening, hurriedly gathered accoutre- ments, knapsack, and musket, and hastened to join the ranks of the moving column, thinking it his own, with the very natural inquiry for his own Company D. "Yonder on the right," was the prompt response. Our new recruit pushed along until he dropped into what he supposed was his place or very near it, neither he in the darkness recognizing any of the men about him, nor they him. He had failed to extend his inquiry beyond the letter of his com- pany. What regiment it was had altogether escaped him. By and by day began to break, strange faces were all about him, and the distant boom of the cannon indicated a near approach to a
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PROGRESS OF THE CAMPAIGN
1862
battle-field. Suddenly it dawned upon him he had forgotten to ask for the regiment, and when he did, back came the answer, " Twenty-ninth Pennsylvania." Without disclosing his mistake, he quietly let himself drift to the rear, and after some tribulation, much fatigue, and a bit of chagrin found his way back to his com- mand again.
With the coming dawn of the eighteenth came confirmation of the cheering rumors of the night before: that Antietam was over, the battle won, the invasion a failure, and that the enemy was in haste to put the Potomac between himself and his adversary. Then the regiment retraced its steps to Funkstown, a distance of about seven miles, where it was halted, reviewed by the colonel, camp lines designated, streets laid out, and every preparation made for a well-organized stop. But it was not so to be. Stuart, the famous Confederate cavalry leader, was still abroad on our side of the Potomac. There was a bit of a flurry about Williamsport. Again there was a toilsome hurried march over the old route as far as Hagerstown, and then well out the Clear Spring Road in the direction of Williamsport, where the most of the flurry was. At Hagerstown " the hasty loading of trains, locomotives with steam up, and many anxious faces told of danger to the town, which happily General Reynolds and his Division averted." All night on this the night of the eighteenth out on the Clear Spring road, with one or two companies detailed for picket, the regiment was in line of battle, " every man at his post," silently awaiting, with loaded musket well in hand, an enemy that never appeared. listen- ing for sounds that were never heard. It seems to be conceded that this large gathering of militia at this point came under Stuart's observation, and diverted a movement which, though only intended as a raid, would, if successful, have been fraught with serious consequences.
The morning of the nineteenth dawned and there had been no attack. The enemy had disappeared entirely. In this vicinity, at least, everything hostile and in arms that had been on this, was now upon the other side of the river. and the day was devoted to rest-much-needed rest. It was seven o'clock on the evening of the twentieth before the regiment was again on the move. Orders were then received to strike tents and be ready for the march. The route carried the command through Hagerstown again; and
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1862
HISTORY OF THE FIRST REGIMENT, N. G. P.
thence on to Greencastle. Speed was not an essential, and so with an easy, swinging gait and frequent restful halts the journey was completed and Greencastle reached on the early morning of the twenty-first. The eamp, well located convenient to water, and appropriately named " Camp Rest," indicated that something of a stop was intended. Company C, with its strength increased- by details to one hundred men, was detached for duty as provost guard in Greencastle, and Captain Atwood Smith was named as the provost marshal of the town.
A general order prescribed the duties of the guard, limited the issue of passes, designated who might be admitted within the eamp limits, fixed the hours for drill, guard mount, and dress- parade, and generally arranged for the usual details attendant npon the soldier's life in the field. The squad and company drills were to be of two hours each, the one in the morning, the other in the afternoon. Five o'clock was fixed as the hour for dress- parade, " on the road east of the eamp, right resting south faeed east."
An order from Governor Curtin assigned Colonel Kneass to the command of a brigade and the command of the regiment fell for a time upon Lieut .- Col. Charles H. Graff. Privates Samuel Fluck and S. H. Venable, of Company F, were detached as orderlies at brigade headquarters. Edward Wattson, the regi- mental quartermaster-sergeant, being on detached service with his chief, Quartermaster Foering, at Division Headquarters at Hagers- town, the quartermaster's department of the regiment was placed in charge, for a while, of that mueh-esteemed eitizen afterward so prominent in public affairs for a full half century, Alexander P. Colesberry, a soldier in the regiment who had made himself of value in many important ways.
The few days available from the twenty-first to the twenty- fourth were well utilized for such instruction and experience as can only be obtained through life in the field and eamp. Its value was fully demonstrated when within the year to follow the regiment was again called to the performance of those other and more strenuous duties of the campaign of '63. On the twenty- fourth the camp was broken and the regiment was entrained at Greeneastle for its uneventful ride to Philadelphia. It reached its destination on September 25, with little delay and no appreciable detention. Mustered out, honorably discharged, and formally
CARB, Pneus
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ROSTER OF OFFICERS
1862
congratulated by its commanding officer, it again returned to its place as the First Regiment Infantry, Gray Reserves, Reserve Brigade, First Division, Pennsylvania Militia.
ROSTER OF THE OFFICERS, SEVENTH REGIMENT PENNSYLVANIA MILITIA (GRAY RESERVES ), ANTIETAM CAMPAIGN, SEPTEMBER, IS62
Field and Staff : Colonel, Napoleon B. Kneass; Lieutenant-Colonel, Chas. H. Graff; Major, Joseph N. Piersol; Adjutant, William W. Keys; Quar- termasters, Alfred R. Foering, Alexander P. Colesherry; Surgeon, Win. C. Byington; Assistant Surgeon, Silas Updegrove; Sergeant-Major, Benj. H. Du-enberry; Quartermaster Sergeant, Edward Wattson; Com- missary Sergeant, Kauffman Oppenheimer; Hospital Steward, John H. Pratt.
Company "A"-Captain, Chas. S. Smith; First Lieutenant, Jas. D. Key- ser; Seeond Lieutenant, George F. Delleker.
Company "B "-Captain, C. Fred. Hupfeld; First Lieutenant, William Hart, Jr .; Second Lieutenant, Charles S. Jones.
Company "C"-Captain, Atwood Smith; First Lieutenant, Wm. W. Allen; Second Lieutenant, Jno. W. Powell.
Company "D "- Captain, J. Ross Clark: First Lieutenant, Chas. K. Ide; Second Lieutenant, Charles E. Willis.
Company " E" -- Captain, Jacob Loudenslager; First Lieutenant, Julius C. Sterling; Second Lieutenant, Thos. Allman.
Company "F"-Captain, Harry C. Kennedy; First Lieutenant, Harry A. Fuller ; Second Lieutenant, Robert M. Banks.
Company "G"-Captain, George W. Wood; First Lieutenant, Geo. W. Mackin; Second Lieutenant, John Rutherford, Jr.
Company "H"-Captain, Francis P. Nicholson; First Lieutenant, William W. Keys ( promoted to Adjutant ) ; Second Lieutenant, Geo. W. Kern. Company "I" -- Captain, George W. Briggs: First Lieutenant, Edward A. Adams; Second Lieutenant, Joseph A. Speel.
Company "K"-Captain, Henry D. Welsh: First Lieutenant, David A. Woelpper; Second Lieutenant, John Wandell.
Company "L " -- Captain, Isaac Starr, Jr .; First Lieutenant, Benoni Frish- muth; Second Lieutenant, John S. Jenks,1
The congratulatory order of Colonel Kneass is so concise, thorough, and yet so explicit as a brief resume of the important happenings of the campaign, that its place is clearly in the body of the text.
HEAD QUARTERS FIRST REGT. GRAY RESERVES, SEVENTH PENNA. VOLUNTEER MILITIA, Philadelphia Sept. 26th, 1862.
GENERAL ORDER No. 20
The Colonel commanding gives thanks to his command-
First-For the alacrity displayed in obedience to Orders No. 35 of the Commander-in-Chief, His Excellency Gov. Curtin, in rallying and proceeding to Harrisburg and Chambersburg for the defence of the State.
Second-For the decision of the Regiment, through its Board of Offi- cers, to cross the State line and proceed to Hagerstown (or elsewhere) in
' See appendix for muster-roll.
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HISTORY OF THE FIRST REGIMENT, N. G. P.
1862
accordance with the orders of Genl. Reynolds to the Colonel commanding, which were promulgated to the Board of Officers in consequence of the Com- mandant not desiring to order an unwilling command to execute what in law they could not be made to do, and feeling that with the knowledge of the facts, the Regiment would not be found wanting. as has been proven by the result, the Regiment to a man voluntarily electing to proceed.
Third-For the endurance of the command in the various arduous marches to which they were subjected, viz: from Chambersburg to Camp McClure and thence to Rail Road for Hagerstown, from Hagerstown to Camp " Union " (Boonsboro) and thence back to Hagerstown, from Hagerstown to Camp " Kneass " on the Western or Cold Spring Road and thence to Camp "Rest " near Greencastle, footsore and enervated by fatigue, most of the time without rations except such as could be bought or gratuitously obtained from residents along the route.
Fourth-For the promptness with which line of Battle was formed on Clear Spring Road, orders having been received at midnight whilst the men were asleep, said promptness causing it is said a detour of a large force of rebel cavalry and Infantry, estimated at 6000, from that to the Williams- port road, it evidently having been their intention to attack Hagerstown that night from the Clear Spring Road, it being a flanking road.
Fifth-To the officers, one and all, the Colonel Commanding would ten- der his sincere thanks. for the hearty cooperation evinced by them, in the execution of the various orders and commands. To the officers of the Com- mand is eminently due the credit of the discipline and subordination of the Regiment, in all the trying events through which it passed.
Sixth-In closing the Colonel Commanding presents to his command, both officers and men, his hearty assurance of kindly feelings, which he trusts are fully reciprocated.
By Conunand of
N. B. KNEASS, Col. Commanding.
W. W. KEYS, Adjutant.
It was six months before provision was made for the payment of the troops " called," as the act reads that provided for it, " into the service of the State and the United States " " by the proclamation of the Governor and the order of the 11th day of September last." The act was approved April 22, 1863; it named fifteen days as the time for which pay was to be allowed and fixed the rate at the same amount per month as was paid United States soldiers. It must have been in the minds of the assemblymen that this act was not likely to be ready for execution for some time after its passage, for it further " Provided, That should the Federal Government make payment to said Militia within six months it shall be taken to be in lieu of the payment provided for by this act. However that may have been, the State met its every obligation willingly, if indeed it was a bit tardy.
If the Legislature had been slow, it did not fail to recognize
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1-62
PROMPTNESS AND GALLANTRY RECOGNIZED
that the soldiers had been prompt. The preamble to the act gives significant expression to their promptness and gallantry. It reads : " Whereas, The Military of this State to the number of twenty- five thousand men promptly and gallantly responded to the procla- mation of the Governor and the order of September last and rendered most important services in defenee of the State and in aid of the Army of the Potomac. And whereas these men are justly entitled to some remuneration for their expenditures and serviees," therefore be it enacted, etc.
The weather has so much to do with the operations of the naval forces that its conditions are closely watched and its records carefully preserved. Not so with the movements of the land forces ; it may hinder or hamper, but weather never halts the opera- tions of the army. It is rarely consulted, scarcely discussed. must be taken as it comes, with stolid indifference as to the com- forts that follow its better conditions or the discomforts that attend its worse. The soldier, the toughened soldier, is uncon- cerned with either heat or cold, snow or rain, dust or mud. Feed him well, and you can fight him long and march him far. But the account of this campaign ought not to close without a brief reference to the glorious autumnal sunlight that followed the troops through all their movements in that gorgeous old Cumberland Valley, then decorated in leaf and flower, forest and field, in all its early autumn loveliness. This season of the American autumn ever has its outdoor charms, that war may dull but can never efface. Intensified on this occasion to an unusual brilliancy. unbroken by cloud, uninterrupted by rainfall, with sunlight by day and starlight by night, those days ever return as a blessed memory to be cherished more fervently as each recurring season of its anniversary brings the event more vividly to mind.
There were other congratulations from " higher up " that bring this campaign of September, 1862, to a fitting close. They iden- tify this whole militia movement as entitled to a well-recognized historic place amid the stupendous happenings by which it was for the time so completely overshadowed.
General MeClellan's letter to Governor Curtin, thanking him for his energetic action in calling out the militia, coneludes thus: " Fortunately circumstances rendered it impossible for the enemy to set foot upon the soil of Pennsylvania, but the moral support rendered to my army by your action was none the less mighty. In
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HISTORY OF THE FIRST REGIMENT, N. G. P.
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