Yankees: May 2008 Archives

The 18th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry marched past the market shed in Hanover's town square, seen here in this vintage postcard depicting the square not long after the Gettysburg Campaign.

With the outbreak of Fort Sumter and the bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, hundreds of thousands of men enlisted in the fledgling volunteer armies over the next few months. Among them was William W. Hemenway a 24-year-old native of historic Lexington, Massachusetts, and the father of two. He enrolled in Company I of the 18th Massachusetts as a sergeant. He and his comrades participated in many of the Eastern Theater's more recognizable campaigns, including Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. He suffered a painful leg wound at Fredericksburg that would plague him the rest of his life. While recuperating, he finally was able to see his new daughter, Mary Grace, who was born shortly after the Battle of Antietam.

During the Gettysburg Campaign, Hemenway was now a first lieutenant. The vast majority of the nearly 100 men he had originally mustered in with in Company I were long since gone, most through illness or battles. Now, in June 1863, there were only 139 men left in the entire regiment, which had once boasted a thousand eager volunteers. The war had changed since then, and so had the handful of survivors still in the ranks. Soldiering was a hard life, and yet there were moments of pleasure, although they were few and far between. One of those rare moments came in Hanover, Pennsylvania, in southwestern York County on July 1, 1863...

For you Cannonball readers that may not be aware, there are some excellent on-line resources available from The Guilder Lehrman Institute of American History. The organization is sponsoring a temporary exhibit at the new Gettysburg Visitors Center at Gettysburg National Military Park, displaying several dozen "Letters from the War" in their gallery. Many are poignant and illuminating, shedding some light on the lifestyles of the average Civil War soldier.

Complete text of those letters can be found on-line at their website, which also features complete transcripts of many other epistles. Website visitors may listen to several audio versions of selected stories and other documents from the Battle of Gettysburg and other ACW events and campaigns. Also, they make available webcasts and podcasts from a number of leading contemporary ACW historians, professors, and lecturers.

The site is interesting and well worth bookmarking for future repeated visits.

Jack was the official mascot of the 102nd Pennsylvania, a volunteer infantry regiment that is now associated with the local York Civil War Round Table.

Soldiers away from home during the Civil War often adopted pets and mascots, including bears, eagles, cats, goats, chickens, and other domesticated animals. The most common pets were, of course, dogs. I cover several of these dog mascots and their combat prowess in my three human interest stories books, and I have been asked to write a book specifically covering animal mascots during the war. Perhaps someday...

The 102nd Pennsylvania is one of two Civil War infantry regiments whose monuments have been “adopted” by the York Civil War Round Table (the other being the 62nd New York). The 102nd had a dog named “Jack” for a regimental mascot. Let's learn a little more about this famed little mascot, whose ultimate fate was an unsolved mystery.