Civil War people: January 2008 Archives

Background post - Yorktown Square: York has produced its fair share of high-ranking naval officers.

Many leading Civil War generals who were quite famous in the 19th Century have slipped into obscurity, and today are only remembered by hard-core Civil War buffs. Ignored by the popular media, their contributions are largely forgotten. One such man was Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin, a York native who rose by the autumn of 1862 to be one of the most powerful men in the Army of the Potomac, and yet, by the time of the Gettysburg Campaign, was an backdrop to the unfolding action.

General Franklin is the subject of an excellent book published in 2002 by another York native, Dr. Mark Snell, the chair of Shepherd University's Civil War Studies program. This outstanding biography, From First to Last: The Life of William B. Franklin, brings Franklin's contributions (and failures) back to life for the modern reader.

One of the previously misidentified photographs

Background post: New photo of Lincoln at Gettysburg Address

Museums and archives around the country contains millions of documents, photographs, recordings, files, and other historic material. Some of these are in modern, environmentally-controlled atmospheres such as the $7.5 million dollar storage area Pennsylvania is constructing at the State Library. Others are kept in poorly controlled office, library or warehouse space, where humidity and temperature swings are deteriorating the collections.

At times, these historic collections are so large that no one is really sure what they contain, especially if they are misidentified with the wrong captions. Such was the recent case of some Lincoln-related photos at the Library of Congress. A sharp-eyed researcher found "new" photos of Lincoln's Second Inauguration (March 4, 1865).

Lt. Gen. Richard Stoddard Ewell, CSA

Several Confederate soldiers in the Gettysburg Campaign had family or personal ties to this region. It was not uncommon in the mid-19th century for people to move around quite a bit, despite the lengthy transportation requirements of the day. As a result, they often knew folks in other towns, and letter writing became an art form. York was typical – several citizens had extensively traveled through Maryland and Virginia; many had attended school with people from the South; and some had antebellum military connections with the Rebels.

In a recent post, I mentioned the cryptic comments from Confederate records in the Louisiana State Archives that a soldier from that state was "supposed to have been killed by the citizens of Penn." In scanning through old CSA letters, diaries, journals, etc. from men in the Gettysburg Campaign, I have found dozens of accounts of Keystoners hiding in out-of-the-way places to take potshots at passing columns of troops, and one account of two Rebel stragglers being apprehended by McConnellsville residents and murdered.

The Louisiana Tigers left the Willoughby Run / Oak Hill area northwest of Gettysburg on June 27, 1863, and marched through East Berlin into western York County, finally camping late that afternoon near Big Mount. The roads were "exceedingly muddy," and scores of men straggled in the slop and mire. A few never rejoined the ranks, taking the opportunity to slip away and desert. An old book has a cryptic entry for Private Charles Brown of the 8th Louisiana, who was "supposed to have been killed by the citizens of Penn[sylvania]."

Licensed Battlefield Guide and well regarded writer and researcher Timothy H. Smith will present what should be a fascinating talk on "The Gettysburg Civilians" this upcoming Tuesday evening, January 8, at 7:30 p.m. in the Valentine Auditorium of the Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary. Take Route 30 through downtown Gettysburg and turn left as you crest Seminary Ridge (opposite the Lee's Headquarters museum / Appalachian Brewing Company). Parking and admission are free.

Why not make an evening of it and have a relaxing dinner in Gettysburg, drive around the battlefield to see the most recent tree cuttings, and then learn more about the residents and farmers during the summer campaign of 1863?

In mid-1862, George W. Welsh was a 21-year-year-old butcher living in the rural village of York Sulphur Springs (later shortened to York Springs) in Adams County. He decided to join the army and, on October 8, enlisted in the 127th Pennsylvania Infantry, a nine-months’ regiment. He was mustered in five days later as a private in Company I. The colonel of the regiment was William W. Jennings, later the sheriff of Dauphin County and a wealthy industrialist.