USA > Pennsylvania > Pennsylvania in American history > Part 19
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* Lincoln's and Curtin's Proclamations, War of Rebellion, No. 45, PP. 136, 145.
+ Cameron to Lincoln, War of Rebellion, No. 45, p. 141.
į Stanton to Couch, War of Rebellion, No. 45, p. 185.
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gency.' It is believed to be the only body of troops during the entire war, unless we may except the veteran corps, who committed themselves to the control of the government for a period of uncer- tain duration. In fact, the time they were actually retained proved to be brief, but with Lee about to invade the state it threatened to extend into the indefinite future and they assumed the risk. Mr. Stanton wrote, June 15th, "No one can tell how long the present emergency for troops in Pennsyl- vania may continue. The present movement is but the execution of Jeff Davis's original plan to make Pennsylvania and the loyal states the theatre of war. Human foresight cannot say how long it may take to drive out the rebels."+ Mr. Stanton gave his consent to the suggestion of Cameron, Curtin and Couch at twenty minutes of two o'clock on the 17th of June, and that same afternoon fifty-seven students of Pennsylvania Col- lege, four students of the Lutheran Seminary, and twenty-two other men from the town of Gettys- burg, the first of the emergency troops, took the
* War of Rebellion, No. 44, p. 215.
+ Stanton to Cameron, War of Rebellion, No. 45, p. 141.
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oath and entered the service. These eighty-three men became Company A of the Twenty-sixth Pennsylvania emergency infantry .* Although these troops, for the sake of convenience, have been classed with the militia, the distinction between them drawn by General Couch when he reported "troops are mustered into United States service . . to serve during the existing emergency. The governor mustered in the militia in the state service for three months,"t and based upon the fact that they were in the service of the general government and were paid, equipped and clothed by it, ought to be strenuously maintained.
Mustered and complete in organization on the 22d of June, the regiment under command of Col- onel W. W. Jennings started for Gettysburg on the 24th, but meeting with a railroad accident, it was detained at Swift run, six miles away from its point of destination. About this time General Couch reported with some satisfaction to Mr. Stanton that he had "one Pennsylvania regiment near Gettysburg
* Stanton to Couch, War of Rebellion, No. 45, p. 185. Dr. E. W. Meissenhelder, in Pennsylvania College Book, p. 421.
+ Couch to Stanton, War of Rebellion, No. 45, p. 408.
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to harass the enemy and if possible to hold the mountains there."* The following evening a detail of one hundred men marched into the town, where they were joined by the rest of the regiment on the morning of the 26th. Driven by Early from the Chambersburg pike at Marsh creek, where a shot or two was fired and where he lost his pickets, Colonel Jennings, finding that he was becoming enmeshed with the forces of the enemy, already so strong that he was powerless to contend against them, and likely to be continually increased, de- termined to extricate himself if possible and make his way back to Harrisburg. Overtaken by White's cavalry on the Hunterstown road at the farm house of Henry Whitmer and attacked, the regiment was drawn up in line on the right hand side of the road and opened fire. An engagement ensued lasting for from twenty minutes to half an hour. At this obscure, unknown, and unvisited spot, four miles from the town, began the rattle of musketry which a few days later was to be heard in louder and fiercer tones from Kulp's Hill to Round Top, and which while time lasts the generations of men can
* Couch to Stanton, War of Rebellion, No. 45, p. 264.
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never forget. In the language of Doubleday, here was the first serious resistance Lee's army encoun- tered before the coming of the army of the Poto- mac. They were the opening shots of the battle of Gettysburg .* The attack was repulsed, but Company B, the rear company, commanded by Captain Carnaghan, were almost all taken prisoners. Private Thomas H. Dailey, Company C, was hit in the face by a ball and several rebels were shot from their horses before they retired.+ Private A. Stan- ley Ulrich, Company E, and James K. Moore, Company C, becoming separated from the regiment in this engagement and refusing to surrender, finally found their way to Gettysburg on the 30th of June and there associating themselves with Company K of the One Hundred and Twenty-first P. V., fought in the army of the Potomac through the whole of
* About the only opposition he encountered came from a militia regi- ment at Gettysburg, but this was soon driven away. Doubleday's Chancel- lorsville and Gettysburg, p. 112.
+ Mss. statements of Joseph L. Lenberger, hospital steward; William G. George and Joseph Donnel, of Co. H .; George B. Lessig, of Co. F; Lieutenant Edward P. McCormick, of Co. C; William Few, of Co. E. Contemporary ms. of Captain F. Kleinfelter, Co. A. Contemporary let- ters of Samuel W. Pennypacker, Co. F. Bates, Vol. V, p. 1225. State- ments made in 1881 by Rufus E. Culp, J. W. Diehl, A. F. Gitt, and Henry Whitmer.
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the battle, and afterwards aided in burying the dead .* Corporal Charles Macdonald and Privates George Steele and A. W. Shick, from Company F, had been ordered, after the performance of a special duty, to meet the regiment at Gettysburg. At the turnpike gate on the York pike they were charged upon by the rebel cavalry and were only captured after they had discharged their muskets and Shick had endeavored to bayonet a horseman, one of two who fired four shots at him.t Here was the first encounter within the limits of the town. J. How- ward Jacobs, of Company F, was left in Gettysburg with a squad of men in charge of the wagons. They took a rebel prisoner and afterward about fifty in number participated in the engagement at Wrightsville in which nine men were wounded, and aided in the burning of the bridge over the Susquehanna.}
Upon the repulse of White's cavalry on the Hunterstown road the regiment resumed its march,
* Ms. statement of A. Stanley Ulrich.
¡ Ms. statement of Corporal Charles Macdonald, Co. F.
į Ms. statement of J. F. Jacobs, of Co. F. Report of Colonel J. G. Frick, War of Rebellion, No. 44, p. 279. Report of Major G. O. Haller, War of Rebellion, No. 44, page 996.
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and after having been drawn up in line of battle again at Dillsburg to resist a threatened attack, and after meeting at different other points small bodies of the enemy, it arrived opposite Harrisburg at Fort Washington at two o'clock on the afternoon of Sunday. It had lost one hundred and seventy-six men captured and all of its equipage and supplies. It had spent two days and a half in almost continuous marching and skirmishing, substantially without rest or shelter. From the time the men left Gettysburg early on Friday morning until dusk on Saturday even- ing they had been without food. For two days longer they were without tents, and through the nights lay upon the bank in the fort exposed to the rain. About the hour of their arrival at Harrisburg, General Couch telegraphed to the president that the enemy had opened fire with his artillery within four miles of the defensive works, and it appears from the report of the rebel General Rodes that he made a thorough reconnoisance of the fortifications on the 29th, and had ordered an assault for the fol- lowing day .* The army of the Potomac interfered
* Couch to Stanton, War of Rebellion, No. 45, p. 390. Rodes' re- port, War of Rebellion, No. 44, P. 552.
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with his purpose. At one o'clock on the 28th General Halleck sent word to Meade: "General Couch is also directed to co-operate with you and to move his forces as you may order."* On the 28th Meade reported to Halleck: " If he (Lee) is crossing the Susquehanna I shall rely upon General Couch with his force holding him until I can fall upon his rear and give him battle,"f and on the 30th Meade sent a dispatch to Couch: "The army is in good spirits and we shall push to your relief or the en- gagement of the enemy as circumstances and the information we receive during the day and on the marches may indicate as most prudent and most likely to lead to ultimate success. Can you keep the enemy from crossing the river?"} What Meade requested was accomplished. Early was prevented from crossing the Susquehanna at Wrightsville by the resistance he encountered and by the burning of the bridge, and at Harrisburg, Rodes, confronted by Couch, by the fortifications, and by abattis thrown across the highways, did not quite reach the river.
* Halleck to Meade, War of Rebellion, No. 43, p. 62.
Meade to Halleck, War of Rebellion, No. 43, p. 67.
Į Meade to Couch, War of Rebellion, No. 43, p. 68.
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At 12.15 on the 30th, General Halleck di- rected General Couch that "every possible effort should be made to hold the enemy in check on the Susquehanna till General Meade can give him bat- tle,"* and at seven o'clock on the next morning Meade sent a dispatch to Halleck, saying: "If General Couch has any reliable force I shall call upon him to move it to aid me,"f to which Halleck responded: "I have ordered General Couch to co-operate with you as far as possible."} In compliance with these orders, by command of General Couch, the Twenty- sixth Pennsylvania emergency infantry, together with some batteries of artillery and other infantry regiments, on the afternoon of the 30th, marched about four miles from the fort in pursuit of the enemy then in retreat from the Susquehanna.
Almost immediately after the failure of Pickett s charge had been demonstrated, at ten o'clock on the night of the 3d of July, General Meade sent a dis- patch to General Couch suggesting the possibility that Lee would again assume an offensive attitude
* Halleck to Couch, War of Rebellion, No. 45, P. 433. ¡ Meade to Halleck, War of Rebellion, No. 43, P. 70.
Į Halleck to Meade, War of Rebellion, No. 43, P. 71.
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and await an attack, and saying that if so, "I will apprise you of the fact so soon as I am certain of it, and I then desire you either to form a junction with me, or, if in your judgment the same can be done without jeopardizing the safety of your command, attack him."* Lee, however, did not await the at- tack but retreated toward the Potomac. Couch then thought seriously of distributing his command among the regiments of the army of the Potomac as the best means of defending the state, but this plan was not carried into effect.t General W. F. Smith advanced from Harrisburg with all the available force and reached a point near Cashtown. It ap- pears that he sent a captain entirely around the rebel army to report to General Meade that he pro- posed to throw his force across the turnpike in the rear of Lee, not then knowing that the battle was ended. General Meade, who was anxious about the safety of Smith's position, instructed him that he had better return, and Smith philosophically says : "I should have been two days earlier, and then such a move would have been of great service even
* Meade to Couch, War of Rebellion, No. 45, p. 499.
+ Couch to Stanton, War of Rebellion, No. 45, P. 527.
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if the militia had been very roughly handled, which would probably have been the case."* On the 8th of July General Halleck ordered General Couch that all the forces in his department should "be thrown forward to assist Meade,"t and on the 10th he sent a dispatch to Meade that he thought it would be best "to postpone a general battle till you can concentrate all your forces and get up your re- serves and re-enforcements."¿ Another desperate struggle between the two armies north of the Poto- mac was then anticipated. "I think," said Meade to Halleck, "the decisive battle of the war will be fought in a few days."§ The Twenty-sixth was at- tached to the brigade of Brigadier General Charles Yates and the division of Major General N. J. T. Dana, U. S. V., and on July 12th was sent by rail as far as Shippensburg and from there marched to Chambersburg. On the 14th, with 467 men in ranks, it marched to Greencastle. From Chambers- burg, Couch had sent word to Meade that he had with him at that point nine thousand men and eight
* Meade to Smith, War of Rebellion, No. 45, P. 539.
+ Halleck to Couch, War of Rebellion, No. 45, p. 611.
¿ Halleck to Meade, War of Rebellion, No. 43, p. 89.
§ Meade to Halleck, War of Rebellion, No. 43, p. 86.
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guns, but was unable to move them for want of transportation for the supplies. Under the spur of a dispatch from Halleck to Couch saying, sharply : "Take it wherever you can find it, and if you can find none go without it and live on the country. Do not stop at trifles at this crisis,"* we made our march of that day. General Couch did us the credit to report that he thought many of the Penn- sylvania troops would do well; and he notified Meade that Dana's division, twelve thousand strong, would be at Greencastle on the night of the 14th and at his disposal.t In the providence of God, however, it happened that we were not then to be subjected to the final test. On that day Lee with his army crossed the Potomac, a defeated and almost dismayed leader, with a broken army whose victo- ries were in the past and never more to recur.
What may be termed the active campaigning of the Twenty-sixth, and perhaps no regiment ever had more of it within so short a space of time, there ended.
And what was the outcome? Did the efforts
* Halleck to Couch, War of Rebellion, No. 45, p. 678.
+ Couch to Smith and Halleck, War of Rebellion, No. 45, pp. 651, 697.
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of these earnest young soldiers have any appreciable effect upon the mighty struggle with which they became associated, or were they but a picturesque and interesting preliminary, worthy to be remem- bered as an incident, but without substantial conse- quence? Let us again turn to the official reports for the answer. Early's division consisted of the brigades of Hays, Smith, Hoke and Gordon, sup- ported as has been said by Jones's battalion of artil- lery and White's battalion of cavalry .* Early says in his report: "I moved towards Gettysburg and on reaching the forks of the road about one and a half miles from Cashtown, I sent General Gordon with his brigade and White's battalion of cavalry on the pike through Cashtown toward Gettysburg, and moved with the rest of the command to the left
through Hilltown to Mummasburg. I had heard on the road that there was probably a force at Gettysburg, though I could get no definite infor- mation as to its size, and the object of this move- ment was for Gordon to amuse and skirmish with the enemy while I should get on his flank and rear so as to capture his whole force. On arriving at * War of Rebellion, No. 44, p. 285.
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Mummasburg I ascertained that the force at Get- tysburg was small, and while waiting there for the infantry to come up, whose march was considerably delayed by the muddy condition of the roads, a company of French's cavalry that had been toward Gettysburg captured some prisoners, from whom it was ascertained that the advance of Gordon's force, a body of cavalry from White's battalion, had en- countered a regiment of militia, which fled at the first approach, and I immediately sent forward Colonel French with his cavalry to pursue this militia force, which he did, capturing a number of prisoners. Hays's brigade on arriving was also dis- patched toward Gettysburg, and the other brigades, with the artillery, were halted and encamped near Mummasburg. I then rode to Gettysburg and found Gordon just entering the town, his command hav- ing marched more rapidly than the other brigades, because it moved on a macadamized road. The militia regiment which had been encountered by White's cavalry was the Twenty-sixth Pennsylvania militia, consisting of eight or nine hundred men, and had arrived in Gettysburg the night before and moved that morning a short distance out on the
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road towards Cashtown, but had fled on the first ap- proach of White's cavalry, taking across the fields between Mummasburg and Gettysburg and going toward Hunterstown. Of this force one hundred and seventy-five prisoners in all were captured and subsequently paroled. Hays's brigade was halted and encamped about a mile from Gettysburg, and two regiments were sent to aid French in the pur- suit of the fugitive militia, but could not get up with it."*
Leaving out of view, because immaterial, the uncomplimentary allusions to ourselves and the somewhat exaggerated descriptions of rebel prowess, the facts which appear beyond question from this report are that Early used all of his division, and spent the whole day of the 26th of June in an unsuccessful effort to "amuse" and "capture" this regiment. The engagement on the Hunterstown road occurred between four and five o'clock in the afternoon, and he did not reach Gettysburg until after he had been informed of its result. He had been sent to meet the army of the Potomac, and, failing to find them, he encountered us. To him + Early's Report, War of Rebellion, No. 44, p. 465.
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had been entrusted the most important duty com- mitted to any portion of the army of northern Vir- ginia-that of checking the advance of the army of Meade-and he had been himself held for one day by a regiment of undisciplined troops. The elab- orate preparations, which included "Gordon with his brigade and White's battalion of cavalry" on the Chambersburg pike, and Early with "the rest of the command" on the Mummasburg road, had no outcome but 176 useless prisoners, and one-fourth
of the time before the impending battle wasted and lost. But this does not yet tell the whole story. Stuart had taken a wild ride around the rear and on the other side of the army of the Potomac from Lee, and communication with him was impossible. The only bodies of cavalry remaining with Lee were Jenkins's brigade and White's battalion .* Jenkins accompanied the invading army on the way up the Cumberland valley toward Harrisburg, and Lee was, therefore, utterly dependent upon White's battalion, which rode over the mountains with Early, to as- certain the whereabouts of the army of the Poto- mac. Lee was groping his way through an enemy's * Lee's Report, War of Rebellion, No. 44, p. 316.
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country without light. His wailing cry for his cav- alry is almost as pathetic as that of the Roman emperor to Varus for his legions lost in the German woods. "The movements of the army preceding the battle of Gettysburg had been much embarrassed by the absence of the cavalry."* So late as the 27th, the day after our engagement, be it noted, he laments: "No report had been received that the federal army had crossed the Potomac, and the ab- sence of the cavalry rendered it impossible to obtain accurate information."+
That body of cavalry, from which alone Lee could hope to get the facts necessary to determine his course, was engrossed in pursuing what they called the "fugitive militia," but Colonel Jennings, more skillful to save than General Early was to capture, by celerity of movement combined with firm resistance when it became necessary, thwarted every attempt and the regiment was not taken. To the military critic must be left the problem of de- termining the effect upon the impending battle of the detention for a whole day of Early's division and
* Lee's Report, War of Rebellion, No 44, p. 321. + Lee's Report, War of Rebellion, No. 44, p. 307.
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White's cavalry, the only part of Lee's army which was upon the same side of the mountains with Meade. The selection of Gettysburg as a battle-ground was fortuitous, or, at most, a sudden inspiration upon the part of Reynolds, who, when he met the enemy and saw the location, determined to fight.
Colonel Garnett, of the rebel army, asserts: "I believe it was never General Lee's intention to fight a great battle so far from his base and that he was drawn into it by the want of information of the enemy's whereabouts."*
If, perchance, Early, instead of sending White and French to the Hunterstown road, and hurrying up the infantry of Gordon and Hays in the vain task to which he devoted them on the 26th of June, had been able to report to Lee the position and movements of the army of the Potomac, who can say that Rodes would not have made his assault upon Harrisburg on the 30th, or that a battle at Gettysburg would have ever occurred ? Unlike Meade, who permitted Stuart to ride at will, Early
* Garnett's Gettysburg, p. 9.
" Yet it seems certain that neither Meade nor Lee had thought of it as a possible battle-ground until accident thrust it upon them." Drake's Get- tysburg, p. 13.
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was diverted from his object and tempted from his duty. That Providence which rules the universe sometimes works out its ends by means that to the lesser comprehension of men seem inadequate, and in the great chain of cause and effect no link, how- ever apparently unimportant, can be omitted. If, in the play of events, your services were an essential factor at that crisis in the fate of America, your countrymen may well offer to you their grateful tribute, for you conferred upon them and upon their descendants for all the generations to come, benefits of incalculable magnitude .* If those services were not of such inestimable moment, it is still enough to preserve your memories green forever that in
* This regiment, on June 26th, was the first to encounter and exchange shots with the invaders of 1863. Alleman's At Gettysburg, p. 16.
" I immediately formed my Regt. in the field to the right of the road and opened fire on them, which checked them and caused them to move to the left of the road, and fall back on the infantry following them. . . . The conduct of the men under my command was such as could be desired." Official report of Colonel W. W. Jennings.
"Having been detached from General Lee's army my brigade had some days prior to the great battle passed through Gettysburg on our march to the Susquehanna. Upon those now historic hills I had met a small force of Union soldiers, and had there fought a diminutive battle." Reminiscences of the Civil War, General John B. Gordon, p. 140.
" When Gordon's brigade of Early's division met the 26th Pennsyl- vania Regiment at Marsh Creek, as we have already seen, it was the begin-
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Pennsylvania's time of trial you, her sons, were there to show that her resentful arm was raised to smite the foe, and that you, the first of all the troops of all the states, unaided and alone, met the rebel army upon the battlefield of Gettysburg.
ning of a series of events which colored and determined all the issues of this campaign in a military sense. This regiment was as unconscious of the re- sultant consequences of its action as was Lee or anyone else. It was one of those insignificant events that so often are the important factors in great re- sults." Spear's The North and the South, p. 97.
" It is an historical fact that owing to the advance movement of Col. Jennings' regiment Gettysburg became the battle ground." Circular No. 270 of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion.
THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
[Presentation of facts, June 3d, 1899, before Mr. Charles C. Harri- son, provost, Mr. Samuel V. Merrick, Mr. Samuel Dickson, Right Reverend Ozi W. Whitaker, D. D., and Mr. John C. Sims, committee upon the University.]
T HE subject of our inquiry is the origin of the University of Pennsylvania. I presume there can be no doubt anywhere as to the attitude that we ought to maintain in conducting such an inquiry. The University cannot afford to make a claim of priority, or of antiquity, which is not supported by the evidence produced in favor of it, and, on the other hand, it is equally clear that we ought not weakly to abandon a position which can be supported by such evidence. At the outset let us definitely understand just what is the nature of the inquiry. It seems to me that when you are looking for the origin you are asking when was the first movement commenced, which, being con-
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tinued, constitutes an essential part of the organiza- tion. If you meet this requirement it is all that can be reasonably asked. And I do not think it is of importance in the inquiry as to whether or not the movement in its origin was regarded as one of importance. Some very great organizations are the result of initial movements which were apparently of very little consequence when they began. If we look for the origin of the oak tree, which is the great- est of all the vegetable productions, we find it in one of the smallest of the nuts, and the Amazon river, which is one hundred and fifty miles wide at its mouth, has its source in some spring up in the Andes mountains. The University has gone through a number of stages. It has been a charitable school, an academy, a college, and a university. Most of the writers who have examined the subject have been content, going further back than the University, and still further back than the college, to rest with the academy, and the reasons for it are natural enough. The gentlemen who were interested in the forma- tion of the academy were people of influence here in Philadelphia at the time. And when they gathered together they made their records, and they wrote their
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