[Pennsylvania County Histories]
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'ioK.Z. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from This project is made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries https://archive.org/details/pennsylvaniacoun02unse MARK TWAIN’S senai® mok. E A TENTS: UNITED STATES. GREAT BRITAIN. FRANCE. Juse 24TH, 1873. May i6th, 1877. May i8th, 1877. TRADE MARKS: UNITED states. GREAT BRITAIN. \ Registered No. 5,896.- Registered No. 15,979. DIRECTION^. Use but little moisture, and only on the gummed lines. Press the scrap on without wetting it. *. * _ • DANIEL SLOPE & COMPANY, NEW YORK. % $ t IND EX, IK DBX. D • I . 1 F' INDEX. »■ enrolled. Out of this material our im- ! mediate and complete organization of the j Reserve Corps was effected, i One of the first orders issued by the Com- mauding General enjoined on examining surgeons the rejection of all recruits who i did not fully meet the physical requirements of the regular army. This, together with the fact/that the standard of moral courage ! and the spirit of intelligent patriotism were i on a par with the physical excellence of the !men, accounts for the efficiency of the division in the discharge of every soldierly I duty. ®3,OOO,OOO for Military Purposes. The organization was effected in compli¬ Gallant Sons of the Keystone ance with Governor Curtin’s recommenda¬ tion to the Legislature, convened in extra State Who Were the session April 30, 1861, to “recruit and equip 1.5 l egiments exclusive of those called iuto First to March the service of the United States.” ---- May 15 a bill was passed authorizing a loan of 83,000,000, and empowering the Gov¬ ernor to carry out his recommendation. The TO RELIEF OF WASHINGTON. following day George A. McCall, of West --- i Chester, an experienced and competent sol- dier, was appointed and promptly confirmed Made Up of the Rest and Most Sol¬ as Major General, and assigned to the duty 'of organizing the “Pennsylvania Reserve dierly Men, and Aided by N o unteer Corps.” General McCall immedi¬ ately entered upon duty, and labored with such energy that, on June 21, the First Rifles (Bucktails), the Fifth Infantry and Battery GOY. CURTIN’S WISE PATRIOTISM. B, First Artillery, commanded respectively bv Colonels Kane and Simmons and Captain Haston, responded to a call from General Their Grand Military record Unsurpassed in Scott and marched to the support of the Eleventh Indiana, commanded by Colonel the War’s Annals. Lew Wallace, at Cumberland, Md. As fast . as transportation could be furnished after the battle of Bull Run, July 31, the entire BATTUES MANY AND LOSSES ENORMOUS division was thrown into Washington City and there mustered into service. Though the division continued to be designated as [WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH.J the “Pennsylvania Reserves,” it generally led in forward movements, and frequently Among the few prominent statesmen of covered the rear of the army in retreat. the late war period who had sagacity to measuie and wisdom to provide against the First Signs of Hostility. due emergency precipitated by the South¬ . En route to the nation’s Capital the first ern d.sumomsts in the early days of 1861 indication of liostilo sontimont was obsorvod none is more deserving of the gratitude of on reaching Baltimore, where scowling laces and murmurs of indignation greeted the American people than Andrew G. Cur- the Pennsylvania boys. The advance was . tm, -the great war Governor of Pennsyl¬ led by the First Regiment, commanded by vania. He is one of the three surviving , Colonel R. Biddle Roberts, a prominent Governors of the loyal States during the lawyer of Pittsburg, who voiced the senti- war epoch. 6 ' menis of his followers when, in reply to a i pompous policemen who volunteered the in- Ihe Pennsylvania Reserve Corps, the first tormation that it would not be sale to march rehef1* ofd S°ldiei'S to march to the through Baltimore, he said with emphasis: J relief of the beleaguered Capital of the | “Sir, we are not here looking for safe nation, was his own conception and, in 1 places!” great measure, his own creation ' Rhl there was no outbreak ou the part of the citizens. Perhaps a knowledge of the th?wwrSTreSOf the time Predicted fact that every rnusKet was loaded, that 40 [ , "hat they termed the Governor’s folly ' rounds of ammunition reposed in every and extravagance in pushing his pet military | cartridge box, and that an opportunity to scheme would prove his discomfiture, yet • a\ enge the dastardly assault by these same people on the Massachusetts troops on the Cor reC°ld,°f the Penns.vlvania Reserve I Corps stands an imperishable tribute to the ; 19th of April would not be shunned, may have exercised a restraining influence, G Curt’inagaClty ^ patriotism of Andrew i From Washington the regiments were f ■ matched uo ieniialiytown, five miles west Such was the spontaneous and general re¬ where camps were established. There the r sponse to the President’s call that, when the : division was organized into three brigades, ? iequired <o,000 soldiers had been mustered General John P. Reynolds assigned to com-f into service, there yet remained companies 1 mand the First, George G. Meade the Sec- I ond, and Colonel John S. MeCalmont, of the I •§' and regiments far in excess of the lew - Tenth, temporarily to the Third. Rubse- • [organized, ready, willing and eager to be quently General E. O. C. Ord relieved ' Colonel MeCalmont. Across ilie Potomac. at Washington as to the e: mer’s control of McDowell’s corps On October 10, with banners flying and compromised by a decision to send the Re- marching to the tunes of “Dixie’s Land” and j serves to join the army before Richmond, I “Hail Columbia,” tho Potomac was crossed and, on the evening of June 8, 1862, the and Camp Pierpont established near the , j division was marched to Gray’s Landing, on village of Langley, where winter quarters • the Rappahannock, ten miles below Fred¬ were constructed, company and regimental ericksburg! and there embarked for the drill and picket duty occupying the time. peninsula., December 20 the Third Brigade, accom¬ During the few weeks prior to the move¬ panied by the First Rifles, a squadron of the ment many contrabrands had attached them¬ First Cavalry and Battery B, marched out selves to the different regiments as officers’ of camp and proceeded to Dranesville, 12 miles distant. Here a rebel force of equal servants and in other menial positions. They numbers, under the afterward noted cavalry kept up communication with their friends; leader, General Stewart, was encountered, at home, so that the time of departure for and the first victory acnieved by any por¬ the seat of active operations was known to: tion of the Army of the Potomac won. The all the colored sympathizers for miles around,1 enemy’s losses, as ascertained afterward and, at a certain point, seemingly a desig¬ from official sources, were 43 killed, 143j . nated rendezvous on the route, there was wounded and 8 missing, while those of the gathered a motley crowd of both sexes, in Union forces were T killed and 83 wounded. size and age ranging from the little naked I Congratulatory orders were issued by Gen- pickaninny in its mother’s arms to the de-1 eral McClellan, Secretary of War Cameron crepit, grizzled and superannuated “uncle” j and Governor Curtin, an 1 the flags of the and “atmty,” to greet the passing trans-1 regiments engaged were sent to Washington ports. —— ,—— - . I and “Dranesville, December 20, 1861,” in¬ Chanting their weird songs and wildly scribed thereon in golden letters. gesticulating they raced aloilg the beach, After the bat le until to the middle of many of the stalwart males wa ling to their March. 1802, whenever the weather per¬ armpits out into the river and pleading to ! mitted, the troops were exercised in com-1 be taken aboard, while those ashore vocifer- j pany and regimental drill, acquiring that; ated “Glory halier lu yer! bress de Lawd, de ' proficiency for which they were afterward day ob juberlee am hea’.” noted. Touched a Responsive Chord. In the Enemy’.'' Country. Sable brothers aboard, bound for the seat of war, caught the wild refrain the regi¬ A forward movement having been ordered, mental bands struck up, and as the strains the middle <■.{ April found the division com¬ of the “Star Spangled Banner” floated in fortably encamped at Falmouth, on the the air it seemed as if some occult power $ north side of the Rappahannock, opposite I had touched a responsive chord in the souls Fredericksburg. This was the farthest of the lowly blacks, for their illuminated point in rebeldom on a direct line between faces fairly glowed with the spirit of the Washington and Richmond yet reached by song. any considerable portion of the Union army. Soon the sympathizing contrabands were The section of country penetrated had, left behind. The vessels glided down the prior to Lee’s evacuation of Manassa, been river, out into and southward on the given up to the rebel army and became a Chesapeake, up the York river, then thread¬ stamping ground for bushwhackers. Butj ing tortuous windings and finally landing at all these retreated before McCall’s ad vane-1 W hite House, the base of supplies of the ing columns, which crossed the Rappa- j Army of the Potomac. hannoek at Fredericksburg and burned Lhej Transportation facilities proved insuffi¬ railroad bridges at that point. cient to carry the entire division, and the The van of the movement was taken by j Third Brigade was forced to remain behind the First Cavalry, commanded by the brave for 48 hours, arriving at White House and accomplished soldier, Colonel Bayard, on the 14th.