USA > Pennsylvania > Martial deeds of Pennsylvania, Vol. 2 > Part 36
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brigade, which he led upon Little Round Top at an opportune moment, and subsequently, at dark, scaled Round Top itself, driving out the enemy, and fortified it. He continued to com- mand his brigade in the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, and Bethesda Church, and was mustered out with the corps at the end of its service. In less than a month he was in the field again with a regiment for one hundred days, at the end of which he raised one for veteran service, and was ordered into the Shenandoah Valley, where he was pitted against the redoubtable Moseby. Colonel Fisher was brevetted Brigadier- General in this his final campaign, and soon after the close of the war was elected a member of the Pennsylvania Senate. In Feb- ruary, 1871, he was appointed an associate justice of the court in Wyoming Territory, and in December was made Chief Justice, which office he still holds.
OAH G. RUHL, son of John and Catherine (Gerberick) Ruhl, was born on the 20th of February, 1823, in York county. In 1840 he entered the regular army as a private, and was engaged against the Indians in Florida. He served in Mexico from Palo Alto to the capture of the City of Mexico, and at the conclusion of the war left the army. Reentering the service as a Captain in the Eighty-seventh regiment in 1861, he served in the Shenandoah Valley until after the close of the Gettysburg campaign, having in the meantime been promoted to Major, when his regiment was incorporated with the Sixth corps and in the campaign of the Wilderness fought with the Army of the Potomac. The duty here was unusually severe, and his health becoming impaired, he was, on the 30th of August, discharged on surgeon's certificate. He had previously been promoted to Licu- tenant-Colonel, and during a considerable time had commanded the regiment.
AMES CARLE, son of John and Maria (Suttle) Carle, was born on the Sth of September, 1835, in Broome county, New York. He served an apprenticeship to the business of printing, and five years in the regular army, and entered the volunteer service in April, 1861, as a Captain in the Sixth Reserve regi-
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NOAH G. RUIIL .- JAMES CARLE .- JAMES S. NEGLEY.
ment, participating in all the battles in which that noted body was engaged. At Antictam he had a part of his left hand shot away, but remained with his company until ordered back. When the Reserve corps, at the expiration of its term of service, was mustered out, the remnants-a few scarred veterans -- were organized into two new regiments, the One Hundred and Nine- tieth and Ninety-first, and Captain Carle was given command of the latter. Soon after crossing the James he was directed to charge the enemy before Petersburg. This order was gallantly executed, and the Thirty-ninth North Carolina regiment was captured in a body. On the 18th of August, 1864, in an action upon the Weldon Railroad, near the Yellow House, he was captured with a large part of his brigade, and was held at Belle Isle, Salisbury, and Danville, until near the close of the war. " For conspicuous gallantry and meritorious services" he was brevetted Brigadier-General by the President.
AMES S. NEGLEY, Major-General of volunteers, was born in Allegheny county, on the 26th of December, 1826. In the war with Mexico he enlisted as a private in the First Pennsyl- vania regiment, in which he fought in the siege of Puebla, the battle of Cerro Gordo, and other engagements of the campaign which carried the flag in triumph to the City of Mexico. On being mustered out he returned home and engaged extensively in horticulture. He was for many years connected with the militia, and at the opening of the civil war was in command of a brigade. He rendered important service in raising and organizing troops for the first campaign, and was selected by Governor Curtin to command the camp at Lancaster. General Patterson chose him to lead one of his brigades in the Shenandoah Valley, he having in the meantime been made a Brigadier-General of volunteers.
After the muster out of his first command he was given a brigade in McCook's division of the Army of the Cumberland. General Negley was for a time with General Mitchell in northern Alabama, but was subsequently given the Eighth division of Buell's army, and put in command at Nashville. While Buell was upon the campaign northward which culminated in the battle of Perryville, Negley was obliged to tax his best resources to
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prevent the city from falling into the hands of the enemy. An officer of his command says: "While besieged, affairs wore a gloomy aspect. Shut out from the world, with no news for months from the army or from home, surrounded by a vindictive enemy resolutely determined to capture the capital with the executive members of the government, compelled to fight for every mouth- ful of food we ate, the condition of the garrison became every day more critical. Yet no one was discouraged, and all were determined to stand by the city, with full faith that under the gallant Negley and Palmer it would be successfully held. Our expectations were not disappointed, and on the morning of the 20th of October we saw from our fortifications the victorious legions of Rosecrans approaching the city."
On the very last day of the year 1862 General Rosecrans, who had superseded Buell, met the rebel army under Bragg in front of Murfreesboro, at Stone River. McCook with the divisions of Johnson, Davis, and Sheridan, held the right of the Union line ; Thomas with the divisions of Negley and Rosecrans the centre ; and Crittenden with the divisions of Palmer, Wood and Van Cleve, the left. Early on the morning of the 31st of Decem- ber, with massed columns, Bragg attacked the Union right, just at the moment that Rosecrans was about to attack from the Union left. Rosecrans' right wing was crushed and driven before help could reach it. Negley stood next with his noble division. He made a stubborn fight. "Pushing out," says a writer in the Rebellion Record, "to the Cedar Forest, where Negley's gallant division was struggling against great odds, trusty Sheridan was met, bringing out his division in superb order. During all this period Negley's two brigades, under valiant old Stanley and brave John F. Miller, were holding their line though fearfully outnum- bered. When the right broke, Negley had pushed in ahead of the right wing, and was driving the enemy. His troops sustained one of the fiercest assaults of the day, and the enemy was dreadfully punished." At nightfall the right and centre had been driven back, and many gallant men had perished. But a line more con- tracted had been taken up, and the courage of the troops was un- broken. On the afternoon of the following day the fighting was renewed on the Union left, upon the opposite side of Stone river,
Eng.by HER Hal !
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HON. JAMES S. NEGLEY,
REPRESENTATIVE FROM PENNSYLVANIA
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JAMES MILLER.
and the foe was again driving Rosecrans' troops. "The enemy," says the writer above quoted, "as usual had massed his army, and advanced in great strength. Negley's division, supported by that of Davis and St. Clair Morton's pioneer battalion, was immediately sent forward to retrieve the disaster. A sanguinary conflict ensued, perhaps the most bitter of the whole battle. Both sides massed their batteries, and plied them with desperate energy. The infantry of either side displayed great valor; but Negley's unconquerable Eighth division resolved to win. The fury of the conflict now threatened mutual annihilation, but Stanley and Miller charged simultaneously and drove the enemy rapidly before them, capturing a battery, and taking the flag of the Twenty-sixth Tennessee, the color sergeant being killed with the bayonet." . By the valor of Rosecrans' army a complete triumph was won, Bragg retreating and leaving the field in the hands of the victors. For valor displayed in this fight, Negley was made Major-General of volunteers. His division was warmly engaged at Chickamauga, and with the army retired to Chatta- nooga, where it was intrenched. Soon afterwards General Negley took leave of his command, and was called to other fields of duty. In 1869 he was elected to Congress, and was twice reelected.
AMES MILLER, son of Henry and Ann (Shaw) Miller, was born on the 15th of April, 1835, in Jefferson county. He entered the service as a Sergeant in the One Hundred and Fifth regiment in September, 1861. In a skirmish near Auburn, Vir- ginia, in October, 1863, he was severely wounded, having in the meantime been promoted to Lieutenant. In the battle of the Wilderness he was again severely wounded in the left elbow. In the battle near Farmville, on the 6th of April, 1865, he had his horse shot under him; but nothing daunted led a daring charge, in which sixteen officers and a hundred men were captured. He was promoted to First Lieutenant, Captain, Major, and Colonel in succession. " His reputation," says an officer of his regiment, "was that of a sober, upright and fearless man. He had the good-will and confidence of the officers and men under him, who were always ready to follow where he led, even to a charge on works apparently impregnable, and in the face of certain death."
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MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
HOMAS FOSTER GALLAGHER, Colonel of the Eleventh Reserve regiment and Brevet Brigadier-General, was born on the 17th of January, 1822, in Westmoreland county. He served in the militia from 1846 to the opening of the Rebellion-having been Captain and Colonel-when he was commissioned Colonel of the Eleventh. He was with Mcclellan upon the Peninsula, and at the battle of Gaines' Mill was taken prisoner, with the greater part of his regiment. Having been exchanged, he returned in time to lead at Bull Run; and at South Mountain, while in command of a brigade and charging up the steep acclivity, was severely wounded, in consequence of which, in December, 1862, he resigned. In 1863 he was made Colonel of the Fifty-fourth militia which he led in the exciting chase after John Morgan in Ohio. He has served two terms in the Pennsylvania Legislature. He was married in 1849 to Miss Lizzie Kin McBride.
OHN ROSKELL EVERHART, Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel, was born in West Chester in 1828. Both his grandfathers served in the Revolutionary army with Washington, and his father com- manded a company in 1812, was afterwards extensively engaged in mercantile pursuits, and was finally lost in the ship Albion, wrecked off the coast of Ireland. He was educated at Princeton College and in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania. Soon after graduating he went to Paris to further prosecute his studies. Returning, he commenced practice in his native town. At the time of the prevalence of Asiatic cholera in the Chester county almshouse, he volunteered his services, and was very successful in the treatment of the disease. At the opening of the war he was assigned as surgeon of the Ninety- seventh regiment. For three and a half years he remained on duty, proving himself in every position a skilful and faithful officer. During the prevalence of the yellow fever at Hilton Head, South Carolina, in 1862, his treatment and sanitary regulations were efficacious in staying the disease and confining it to the limits of his command. He served as a medical examiner of the Department of the South, under General Hunter, Brigade and Post Surgeon. Returning north with his regiment, he was on duty with the Army of the James until active operations of 1864
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Junto Conhart JOHN P. EVERHART Surgeon 97" Reg'PV
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T. F. GALLAGHER .- J. R. EVERHART .- R. PATTERSON.
had closed, when he retired from the service. In the summer of 1872 he went with General Pennypacker to Europe, travelling extensively in Great Britain and upon the continent.
ENJAMIN MEYERS ORWIG, Lieutenant of Battery E, First artil- lery, son of Samuel and Mary (Meyers) Orwig, was born on the 31st of August, 1840, in Union county. He studied his pro- fession in the law department of the University of Pennsylvania, which he left reluctantly to join the battery that an elder brother, Thomas G., was organizing, soon rising to the place of second in command. He preserved his health during his entire army life, having never but once been in hospital as a patient. This battery won distinction on many hard-fought fields, and had the honor of being the first Union artillery to enter the rebel capital at its downfall. He died of a congestive chill on the 28th of October, 1867, at Des Moines, Iowa, where he had taken up his abode.
OBERT PATTERSON, Major-General of volunteers, a native of Ireland, came to Pennsylvania with his family at the age of six and settled in Delaware county. He served as Licu- tenant and Captain in the War of 1812, and after its close became attached to the militia, rising to the rank of Major- General in 1824, which office he held for a period of over forty years. He commanded the troops in the State troubles of 1838, and in suppressing the riots of 1844, in Philadelphia. He volunteered for the Mexican War and became Major-General, and second only to General Scott in command of the army of occupation. At Cerro Gordo he was lifted to his saddle from a sick-bed, but bore himself gallantly in the fight. When General Scott was relieved, the chief command fell to him, and he with- drew the army. None seemed so fit, when the Rebellion came, to lead and discipline the new levies, and he was appointed by Governor Curtin over Pennsylvania troops. Not many days after he was given by the General Government the command of the Department of Washington, embracing the disputed territory over which troops must pass to the Capital. When the main avenues were cut off by the mob in Baltimore he seized that by
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MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
Annapolis, and for some days being unable to communicate with the national authorities, assumed the responsibility of author- izing twenty-five additional regiments from Pennsylvania. Ilis action was ignored, but subsequent events showed that his judgment was correct. He took possession of Baltimore and reopened all the lines of travel. Having organized a column, he moved against the enemy, who were holding Harper's Ferry and the right bank of the Potomac. When partially across the stream, and in prospect of speedily meeting the foe, his artillery and some of his best troops were taken from him, obliging him to withdraw. He now proposed to fortify Maryland Heights, and move his force to Leesburg, where he could be in striking distance of the mouth of the Valley, and in case of need could reinforce McDowell at Manassas. This sensible plan was rejected and he was directed to keep in front of the enemy in the Valley, and fight if a reasonable prospect of success offered. He fought Stonewall Jackson at Falling Waters and defeated him, advanced as far as Bunker Hill and made vigorous demonstrations in front of Winchester, where a rebel army under Johnston was in- trenched, on the day that General Scott had advised him that the battle of Manassas would be fought, and then withdrew to Har- per's Ferry. The battle of Manassas was not fought until several days later, and Johnston was left free to unite with Beauregard. Patterson was blamed for not having detained Johnston, and charged with the disaster at Manassas. But the plan of dividing the Union army, and allowing the entire rebel force to come between Patterson and McDowell, was defective, and the conduct of Patterson is now seen to be above reproach. At the conclu- sion of the campaign he resigned. He has held numerous civil offices of great responsibility, and during a long life, now pro- tracted beyond fourscore years, has been a successful merchant and manufacturer.
PART III. CIVIL AND MISCELLANEOUS.
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CHAPTER I.
EMINENT CIVILIANS.
NDREW GREGG CURTIN, Governor of the Com- monwealth from 1861 to 1866-covering the entire period of the war --- known at the front as the SOLDIERS' FRIEND, was born at Bellefonte, on the 22d of April, 1817. He was the son of Roland Curtin, a native of Ireland, a man of intelligence and refinement, having been educated in Paris, and one of the earliest settlers of Centre county. His mother was a daughter of Andrew Gregg, for many years a member of both the House and Senate of the United States, Secretary of State of Pennsylvania, and candidate for Governor in 1823. He was educated in the celebrated school of the Rev. Dr. Kirkpatrick at Milton, and in the law school of Dickinson College. In 1839 he was admitted to the bar and com- menced practice at Bellefonte in partnership with John Blanch- ard, subsequently a member of Congress. He took a leading rank as an advocate, and soon distinguished himself in debate. As early as 1840 he entered the political arena, championing Gen- eral Harrison for the Presidency, and aiding by his youthful and impassioned eloquence to create a sentiment which carried the Farmer of North Bend to the highest place in the gift of the American people. At the next Presidential election he labored with equal zeal for Henry Clay, and in 1848 was placed upon the electoral ticket, giving powerful support to the hero of the Rio Grande. He was again upon the electoral ticket in 1852, and advocated the cause of General Scott.
He was now looked upon as one of the most influential young men of the State and acknowledged as a leader. In the contest for Governor in 1854 he was made Chairman of the State Central
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Committee, which had in nomination James Pollock. The ticket was successful and Curtin was selected for Secretary of State, which also embraced the duties of Superintendent of Common Schools. He came to the office at an important and critical era in school legislation and school management. In his report of 1855 he says : " It is undeniable that the common school system had lost the prestige and hopes of its earlier years, and had disappointed the expectations of its friends. Its failing energies and want of adaptation to the great objects of its creation seemed to portend its ultimate decay, unless animated by a thorough re- form and an infusion of fresh vitality." To the infusion of the needed vitality he addressed himself with that enthusiasm and energy which were his most marked characteristics. He rightly appreciated the value of public education in a free State. "All the principles," he says in his report of 1857, "that tend to the ameli- oration of humanity, every step in the progress of civilization, and all institutions founded in benevolence, have come from the intel- ligence of the common mind. The great principle of universal suffrage, which lies at the foundation of our theory of govern- ment, can only be protected from abuse by the education of the masses, and without it they are insensible to its perfection, and can have no just appreciation of the value of its perpetuity."
Important legislation had been secured in the last year of the preceding administration, but for several causes violent opposi- tion had arisen and there was imminent danger of the repeal of its most important feature, that of a county superintendency which secured a due supervision of the qualifications of teachers and the expenditures of money. This he labored zealously to maintain until the fruits of its maturity should be a sufficient guarantee for its preservation, and this he was successful in accomplishing. He ably argued in his report the necessity of having a corps of trained teachers, and sketched a plan for a system of State Normal Schools, which was the basis of the law passed at the succeeding session of the Legislature, now working such excellent results. While laboring thus for the upbuilding of the school system he did not neglect the duties of his office proper, exemplifying the principles of sound statesmanship. He never lost sight of the fundamental condition which he enunci-
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ANDREW G. CURTIN.
ated near the close of his report of 1855: "Our preeminence amongst the nations of the earth does not result from the fertility of our soil, our free form of government, and abundant physical resources. These constitute powerful motive forces, but the great leading power is the universality of education."
At the close of Governor Pollock's administration, Curtin returned to his home at Bellefonte, and resumed the practice of his profession ; but was not suffered long to remain in retirement. In 1860 he was nominated and elected Governor of the Common- wealth, by a large majority, though in the face of violent opposition. The canvass was all the more animated from the fact that a presidential election was to occur a month later, and this was held as settling which side should triumph. Pennsyl- vania has ever been regarded as the keystone of the Federal arch, not only from its location midway between the States of the North and those of the South, but because of its magnitude and power, the observation being current previous to an election, " as goes Pennsylvania so goes the Union." Now more than ever was it looked upon as the battle-ground; for as it should range itself on the one side or the other in the great sectional contest, so would the decision be rendered. Even a lukewarm support of the National cause would have made doubtful the issue.
Of all the public men in the nation no one would have gone farther in the path of honor to have preserved peace and tran- quillity than Governor Curtin. He sincerely deprecated war and bloodshed, and when, in response to the resolve of the Virginia Legislature, Congress asked that commissioners be appointed from the several States to devise a plan of pacification, he selected as one of the members of the delegation from Pennsyl- vania his old friend Governor Pollock, who he knew would labor with a Christian's zeal for an honorable peace. But when he saw all hope of reconciliation shut out, and the madness which ruled the hour triumphant, he met the danger with no timid hand nor trembling front, and hesitated not for a moment to take up the red gauntlet of war, and declare : "No part of the people, no State, nor combination of States, can voluntarily secede from the Union, nor absolve themselves from their obligations to it. To permit a State to withdraw at pleasure from the Union, without
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MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
the consent of the rest, is to confess that our Government is a failure. Pennsylvania can never acquiesce in such a conspiracy, nor assent to a doctrine which involves the destruction of the Government."
The exigencies of war precipitated at a time of profound peace, with no preparation for, or even expectancy of its coming, im- posed great labors and grave responsibilities upon the Executive. Everything in the nature of war material was wanting and had to be improvised. But never for one moment did he falter. He was especially popular with the young men, and to his call they rallied with a unanimity and an enthusiasm rarely witnessed.
The first levy had scarcely been enrolled before the threats of invasion were freely uttered, and a hostile flag was flaunting almost within hailing distance of the southern border. Ile keenly felt the dangers to which the State was exposed, and called to- gether the Legislature in extra session to grant authority for raising a corps for home defence. His plan was adopted, and the power to act and the means for its accomplishment were placed at his disposal. The Pennsylvania Reserve Volunteer Corps was the result. It consisted of fifteen regiments-thirteen of infantry and one each of cavalry and artillery. But while still in camp and before its drill was perfected, the disaster at Bull Run caused the Government to tremble for its own safety, and to the earnest appeals to have this corps sent to the reinforcement of the shattered army of the Union a prompt response was accorded, and it arrived at a time of dire need, and when few troops from any quarter were ready to be thrown into the breach. Once incorpo- rated in the National army it never returned to the special duty for which it was created, but wherever the Army of the Potomac fought, there was the Reserve corps battling with the sternest. until the very day on which its full term of three years expired.
Call after call for troops came, and the population was drained of the young and hardy and zealous. Still the industries of the State were not suffered to languish, and no abatement of heart or hope was felt. Early in 1863, having indicated his disposition not to be a candidate for reelection, President Lincoln, recog- nizing the great service which Governor Curtin had rendered, and being aware that his health was broken by his severe labors
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ANDREW G. CURTIN.
and anxieties, thoughtfully tendered him a foreign mission. But his fidelity to his great trust and his personal popularity caused him to be nominated for a second term, and he was triumphantly reelected. The spring of 1863, when the disasters of Fredericks- burg and Chancellorsville were bearing with a fearfully depress- ing weight, was the most gloomy and hopeless of the whole war. But Governor Curtin accepted the nomination, and bore aloft the standard of the Union with the same courage and enthusiasm as had characterized him in his most sanguine and prosperous hour. His own spirit was infused into the people of the entire Common- wealth, and as at the beginning the loyal States turned with anxious look to the attitude which Pennsylvania should assume and were not disappointed in their hopes, so now were they gladdened by the voice of its millions proclaiming their devotion to the unity of the nation. In closing his annual message of 1863, he said: " It would be unjust to omit referring again to the loyal spirit of our people which has been evinced in every mode since the war commenced. Not only have they sent 277,409 men for the general and special service of the Government, and supported with cheerfulness the burdens of taxation, but our storehouses and depots have literally overflowed with comforts and necessaries spontaneously contributed by them, under the active care of thousands of our women-faithful unto death-for the sick and wounded prisoners, as well as for our armies in the field. Their patriotic benevolence seems to be inexhaustible. To every new call the response becomes more and more liberal. When intelligence was received of the barbarian starvation of our prisoners in Richmond, the garners of the whole State were instantly thrown open, and before any similar movement had been made elsewhere, I was already employed on behalf of our people in efforts to secure the admission through the rebel lines of the abundant supplies provided for the relief of our suffering brethren. . . . We are fighting the great battle of God, of truth, of right, of liberty. The Almighty has no attribute that can favor our savage and degenerate enemies. No people can submit to territorial dismemberment without becoming contemptible in its own eyes, and those of the world. But it is not only against territorial dismemberment that we are struggling, but against
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