Glorious Recollections: J. Howard Wert's Lost History of the 209Th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, 1864-1865, Including the Defense of Bermuda Hundred, the Battle of Fort Stedman and the Storming of Petersburg with Additional Documents

By Michael Barton

Glorious Recollections: J. Howard Wert's Lost History of the 209th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, 1864-1865, including the Battles of Bermuda Hundred, Fort Stedman, and Petersburg is a Civil War regimental history originally written in 1894. It was not published at the time and has now been edited and supplemented for today's readers. Wert's text is both a detailed history and a devoted memoir. It describes his regiment's actions in the closing months of the war, particularly its participation in the battles of Bermuda Hundred, Fort Stedman, and Petersburg, and, after the war, its marching in the Grand Review. On the same pages, Wert also shows Civil War memory and veteran pride taking shape. The editors have supplemented Wert's manuscript with introductory and interpretive essays, personal documents from the soldiers, reminiscences from unit reunions, a biographical sketch of its commander, a collective portrait of one of its companies, and the rosters of the entire regiment.

The publication of this regimental history, previously unknown, adds to our understanding of Pennsylvania soldiers serving late in the war. Many of them had prior service while others were enlisting for the first time, such as Wert himself. This history also deepens our understanding of J. Howard Wert, one of Pennsylvania's most productive historians, novelists, poets and educators in the late 19th century. His account of a notorious Harrisburg neighborhood, the "Old Eighth Ward," has been republished recently; his "lost world" science fiction novel, Alecto and Ebony, is being prepared for publication; his Civil War poetry has been well-known for over a century; his collection of Battle of Gettysburg artifacts is world famous; and with this book his accomplishment as a military historian comes to light.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 30, 2016
• ISBN: 9781514488867

Book preview

Copyright © 2016 by Michael Barton.

ISBN:      Softcover         978-1-5144-8887-4

      eBook         978-1-5144-8886-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Front Cover image from the Library of Congress, Currier and Ives The Battle of Petersburg, VA, April 2, 1865

Interior Photos from Army Heritage and Education Center, Carlisle, PA.

Rev. date: 10/10/2016

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Contents

Introduction: Recovering the 209th

History of the 209th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, of the 18th Army Corps, Army of the James; and the 9th Army, Army of the Potomac;

Personal Documents from the Regiment Till this cruel war is over: A Letter by Pvt. Christian Burn, Co. A, 209th P. V. I.

Our prayers ever should be for freedom: Pvt. Simpson’s Letter on Slavery

With Respect to the Death of Capt. James P. McCullough: An Obituary and Tribute

The Dead Were Bravest of All: Capt. John Landis’s Memoir of the 209th

Geminee Cripes! Capt. Andrew Mensch’s Memoir of Daring at Petersburg

Peace to the Ashes of Our Heroic Colonel: Lt. Wert Honors Col. Kaufman

Other Historians of the 209th

The Battle of Wert and Bates: Contesting the History of the 209th

Capt. Landis and Lee’s Last Hope: The Battle of Fort Stedman

The Regiment Remembers: History, Memory, and Conviviality at the 1891 Reunion

The Regiment Sings its History: A Song for the 209th Pa. Vols.

The Soldiers of the 209th The Most Uncomfortable Man: Col. Tobias Kaufman of the 209th

A Sketch of Bvt. Col. George Washington Frederick

A Collective Biography of Cumberland County’s Company F

Photos

Rosters of the 209th Regiment

Introduction: Recovering the 20⁹th

By Michael Barton

J. Howard Wert’s history of his Civil War regiment, the 209th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, might still be lost on a shelf in the Rare Book Room of the Muhlenberg College library were it not for a web of relationships begun several years ago. Douglas Kauffmann, whose great-grandfather, Tobias B. Kaufman, was colonel of the 209th, had been preparing since 1994 a book about his ancestor and the regiment. Through that work he came to know Craig Caba, a Civil War historian and collector in central Pennsylvania. Mr. Caba referred Kauffmann to Muhlenberg College, understanding that it held Wert’s original manuscript on the 209th. Douglas Kauffmann and his brother Robert discovered the document there in 2004. Douglas told Diane Koch, director of Muhlenberg’s Rare Book Room, what a Civil War gem the college possessed, and he suggested they have it published. Ms. Koch then asked one of Muhlenberg’s adjunct professors of history, Edward H. Bonekemper III, to evaluate the manuscript. After transcribing a portion of it with two of his students, Mike Engels and Mark Cantora, Prof. Bonekemper recommended publication.

Looking on the Internet for more information about Wert, Ms. Koch came across work that my students and I had done with Wert’s writings on Harrisburg’s Old Eighth Ward. Kauffmann had told her about my work on Wert as well. She got in touch, told me about the 209th manuscript, and asked me if I would be interested in developing it for publication. I told her I would be very interested.

At the time I happened to be teaching my Civil War course at Penn State Harrisburg and directing graduate research. I told my students about the opportunity to turn this manuscript into a book and asked for volunteers to help with the editing. Four graduate students in our American Studies program immediately joined up: Stephen S. Noel, Maureen Frei, Matthew C. Bolin, and Kim Hostetter. Ms. Hostetter, coincidentally, had previously informed Kauffmann about my work on Wert’s history of the Old Eighth Ward. The four students began immediately to transcribe and annotate the Wert manuscript. I was their supervisor, but they quickly became my co-workers and, I must say, my instructors. After the project started, Ms. Hostetter told Kauffmann about our editorial work, he notified me of his interest, and I was grateful to have him join the group. He added to our store of knowledge with his research on his ancestor, titled now as Tobias’s Story: The Life and Civil War Career of Tobias B. Kaufman. Three other graduate students from Penn State Harrisburg later assisted us; they are Paul Miller, now a Ph.D. student at George Mason University, who added annotations to Wert’s history, and Ann Marie McDonald and Holly Scott, who helped with clerical work.

While I concluded an agreement with Muhlenberg to edit Wert’s history, our students went looking for other materials to supplement the regimental history. With the assistance of Dr. Arthur Bergeron, Mr. Noel discovered fifteen photographs of regimental members at the Army Heritage and Education Center. He also found there the letter of Christian Burn and the memoir of A. C. Mensch. Stephen Noel went on to write his master’s thesis on Wert and the 209th: Looking Forward to a Great Past: J. Howard Wert and the Civil War as Experience and Memory, completed in 2006 at Penn State Harrisburg. We also found photographs of Wert at the Historical Society of Dauphin County. Ms. Frei discovered the Song for the 209th on the Internet, which had been uploaded by the Brown University Library. Ms. Hostetter came across the John Landis Memoir at the Cumberland County Historical Society in Carlisle, and Mr. Bolin went to the National Archives to compile biographies on the soldiers of Company F. We also discovered articles from a 209th regimental reunion publication that are included here. For certain, this project has been a long-term, team effort by students, professors, librarians, archivists, descendants and the soldiers themselves.

John Howard Wert (he nearly always shortened John to J) was one of central Pennsylvania’s most productive historians, novelists, poets and educators in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was born on February 12, 1841, in Mt. Joy Township near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. His father, Adam Wert, was a farmer and a prominent abolitionist; his mother, the former Catherine Houghtelin, was a homemaker and active in Pennsylvania Methodism. J. Howard attended Gettysburg College (at the time Pennsylvania College), graduated in 1861, and became a teacher in Gettysburg.

Shortly thereafter came one of the most influential events in Wert’s life: his involvement in the battle of Gettysburg, where he served as a civilian scout for Union generals. He wrote in his battlefield Hand-Book that during the three fierce days of conflict of July, 1863, he saw for miles along right and left and centre, rows of heaped and mangled dead. In the succeeding months he daily wandered over the battlefield, and during each succeeding summer he strolled again and again over familiar scenes, determining that he should write a work which shall render this field a durable study to both soldier and civilian for all the ages of the future. The hundreds of military relics he retrieved from the Gettysburg battlefield are known today as the Wert Collection, which is owned by Craig Caba.

Slightly over a year after the battle, at age 23, Wert enlisted in the 209th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment, which was organized at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg on September 16, 1864. The 209th consisted of veterans who were re-enlisting and recruits such as Wert who had not previously served, a total of 989 men overall. Wert was mustered in to Company G with other men from Adams County. He was promoted from sergeant to first sergeant on January 2, 1865, and then promoted to second lieutenant on February 13, 1865. According to Samuel Bates’s History of Pennsylvania Volunteers (1871), his regiment saw limited action, mainly fatigue duty at fortifications and road building near the James River in Virginia. Not surprisingly, Wert gives his unit more credit than that. Immediately after being organized, they left to help defend union positions at Bermuda Hundred, Virginia, until late November, 1864. On March 25, 1865, they were successful in repulsing Confederate forces near Fort Stedman, Virginia. On April 2, 1865, the 209th was engaged in the storming of Petersburg, Virginia, losing seven killed and 52 wounded but capturing the enemy ground and many prisoners. From April 3rd to the 9th they assisted in the pursuit of Lee’s army. With tens of thousands of other troops, the 209th marched in the Grand Review in Washington, DC, on May 23rd. The unit was disbanded in Harrisburg on June 7, 1865. Altogether, the regiment lost 39 men—two officers and 17 enlisted men were killed in battle or mortally wounded, and 20 enlisted men died of disease. More details of their military service can be found in Frederick Dyer’s Compendium of the War of the Rebellion (1908) and internet sites such as Pennsylvania Volunteers of the Civil War (http://www.pacivilwar.com/regiment/209th.html)

After the war, Wert became a principal and then superintendent of the Gettysburg schools. In 1874 he moved to Harrisburg where he became first assistant and then principal of the Boys’ High School. It was there he championed the education of African American youth. Three were admitted in 1879, and two of them graduated with honors. In his history of Boys’ High, Wert noted he was proud of the fact that … all were treated with impartial justice without regard to religious belief, financial standing, race, or color. One of the black graduates, the Rev. William H. Marshall, praised Wert for your determination to see that poor and rich, white and black, influential and non-influential, were equal before the law. Harrisburg’s most noted African American leader at the time, Superintendent of Schools William Howard Day, said of Wert, In his domain, all had equal chance. All were treated fairly. His last post was principal of Harrisburg Central High School; he served until 1894, when he left teaching to concentrate on his writing, he said. Another reason he retired was because his research showed him that he was paid less than other schoolmasters.

Wert’s first book was published when he was only a sophomore in college. The Mystic League of Three, or the Gambler’s Revenge; A Tale of the North and the South (1860) was issued in serial form in the New York Clipper entertainment newspaper; then his story was turned into a stage show that ran for forty nights in a New York Bowery theater. The audience might have wondered how a farm boy could write so fluently about the sporting life in a big city he had never seen. His other novels, published late in his career, were A Trio of Tramps (1905) and Alecto and Ebony: A Tale of Suffering Beneath the Earth (1909), a science fiction adventure reminiscent of Jules Verne fifty years earlier. His most frequently cited histories included A Complete Hand-Book of the Monuments and Indications and Guide to the Positions on the Gettysburg Battlefield (1886); Gem Souvenir of Gettysburg (1891); The Two Great Armies at Gettysburg, Being Chapters I, II and III of Gettysburg and its Monuments (1890); The Passing of the Old Eighth (a series of 35 newspaper articles, published in the Harrisburg Patriot from1912 to 1913); Annals of the Boy’s High School of Harrisburg, 1875-1893 (1895); and Amargosa Gems (1906). Poems of Camp and Hearth (1887) was his one book of poetry, although he contributed single poems to many magazines. His writings, it was reported, appeared in over 400 publications.

Wert’s history of the 209th was written partly in pique. After reading the report of an 1891 regimental reunion, he said he was upset with its historical inaccuracies, such as the misspelling of names. In particular, he was offended that the reunion report, when it quoted one of his own published articles, placed a period in the middle of a sentence, rendering his remarks unintelligible. That imagined insult provoked him to write his own complete and more accurate history of the regiment. For this version, he says he worked from his diary as well as other documents he did not name or cite.

The original manuscript gives the impression that Wert had completed his research and writing, but it does not have the look of a polished final draft. It is handwritten on lined, 8½ by 11 inch paper. It is not in perfect order, as Wert wrote many insertions, and re-numbered pages. The handwriting is generally legible but at times we had to make a best guess at what he had written. Wert was an accomplished, if verbose, writer, so we needed to make only a few corrections to his spelling and grammar for the sake of readability. He had certain bad habits that we have not corrected: he hyphenated too much, he used which when it should have been that, and he italicized or underlined words for reasons known only to him. We have not tried to improve the text, and we have indicated our editorial changes only where we thought they were important enough to mention.

The main title, Glorious Recollections, we lifted from Wert’s preface, where he described his purposes. We use his words to emphasize that he is the history’s author, but also because the phrase conveys his essential message. We have here Wert’s memorial to his regiment’s experiences, and also to his generation’s heritage. Thirty years after the war, he wanted to do more than record their service as historical fact. Wert also wanted to proclaim, and defend, that he and his comrades had been vital members of the grand army that had saved the Union, even if their regiment was not the first one to serve, or the one that served the most.

One question about Wert’s history we cannot answer: Why was it not published until now? The Wikipedia entry for J. Howard Wert lists as one of his publications a work titled History of the 209th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, but that title cannot be found anywhere else, including WorldCat, the most comprehensive online library database available. Perhaps the title in the Wikipedia entry refers to the unpublished manuscript rather than a published book. Perhaps Wert was unsatisfied with his manuscript at the end and did not take it to a printer. Perhaps he was unable to persuade enough of the regiment’s veterans to purchase copies in advance of publication, thus denying him the capital needed to complete the project. Or perhaps his comrades simply declined to have their history told by Wert, and told him as much. And how did the original manuscript turn up at Muhlenberg College rather than his alma mater, Gettysburg College? Or why not at the Adams County Historical Society or the Historical Society of Dauphin County, archives where his personal papers are kept? In any case, now we have the history in print and widely available.

The main points of Wert’s account are, as we said, the regiment’s actions at Bermuda Hundred, Fort Stedman and Petersburg. But besides the main points he provides eye-catching details to appreciate. For example, Wert notes Yanks and Johnnies becoming too familiar with one another, trading coffee for tobacco on the front lines. He remarks on war’s devastation: in a few months, what had been forest and fertile field alike became a desert … war desolates all it touches, and with no laggard step. New recruits were killed within 2 minutes, he notes. Confederate deserters numbered not less than one hundred daily as the war concluded. Two arrived naked.

He comments that there were two great events in a soldier’s life—the first was receiving mail from home, leading to tears trickling down bronzed and bearded cheeks. The other was the arrival of hometown newspapers to enable us to find out what we were doing.

Artillery duels were beautiful to behold. Gen. Benjamin Butler was a man of infinite device with exalted ideas of exact justice. The sutler’s tent affected a soldier the same way that a red flag acts on a belligerent bull. The capture of the regiment’s Col. Kaufman brought forth his indomitable bravery and pugnacious disposition. Capt. McCullough resolutely fought back the death struggle, until he had calmly dictated his will and given directions as to [other] matters. Their outfits made Zouaves good targets, Wert mentions. There was sickness—sickness everywhere. The hardtack had worms. As for the fusillade of bullets, it was generally stated by military men that it requires a man’s weight in metal for each one hit.

Wert could exaggerate, as did other regimental historians. He asserts that the 209th was the first unit to enter Petersburg, and that their valor and endurance are scarcely paralleled. He could underplay events, too. Referring to the battlefield and its gore, he writes Let us draw the veil on the spectacle.

The final days of the siege of Petersburg were most costly to the regiment. There were scenes of horror, including corpses drowned in ditches. Afterwards, license ran wild, and there was robbery and dissolute women. Six thousand Confederate prisoners were marched away; they were intensely rebel but showed a stately chivalry. The blacks were the only true friends we met, he insists.

Besides referring to his multi-volume diary, Wert demonstrates that his research for his book included revisiting battle sites; he observes that there were still remains to be found in 1894 at the Battle of the Crater.

Heading home, the men were sullen and restive. Alongside them were deserters, substitutes, non-descripts, gamblers, thugs and thieves. As for Sherman’s men, one would never see such an army again—stalwart, ragged, bronzed, fearless conquerors, writes Wert.

Marching in the Grand Review in Washington DC (the worst mud-hole in the US) was nevertheless moral grandeur; it was the greatest military pageant ever witnessed in the western continent. At the same time, Wert reflects, the parade was a skeleton march of an army that left its noblest on a thousand gory fields … a skeleton march past a tenantless White House, including Arlington and its 16,000 graves.

The men that returned to Harrisburg on May 30, 1865, Wert announces, brought a record that was unsullied by a single stain, a record of heroism and devotion to duty. There were 659 come home, he says, out of 880 taken to Virginia. There were 221 killed, died or discharged because of wounds or sickness, amounting to a 25% rate of loss. In their main battles there were 143 casualties, a loss rate of 16%. Those are all Wert’s figures, higher than other statistics available, although no numbers are perfectly definitive for the Civil War.

Wert’s final words start with a complaint that was not uncommon among veterans at the time: he greatly resented the insults and slights aimed at Civil War pensioners. The men had earned their reward, he asserts. He was then prescient about two other issues: he said the suffering undergone by soldiers during the war would contain seeds of death for their lives as veterans afterwards, referring to their lasting physical and mental injuries, and finally he urged that battlegrounds be preserved, particularly Petersburg, the most wonderful and bloody siege of the world’s history. The historian was not given to understatement.

J. Howard Wert died on March 11, 1920, at the age of 80, at his home at 912 North 2nd Street in Harrisburg. His wife, Emma Letitia Aughinbaugh, had died eleven years earlier. His detailed obituary in the Gettysburg Compiler described him as a writer, educator, and Civil War veteran, the same way he might have identified himself. Four sons—Howard, Edward, Samuel and Frank—and a daughter—Annie—survived him.

He had prepared for them a complete list of the 253 books and articles contained in his J. Howard Wert Memorial Library, To Be Preserved, Undivided and Intact, by my Posterity. The list detailed where they would be found in his bookcase and other places, such as On Table of Bed Room and In Cylindrical case in front of this Book Case. Included were

44 Scrap Books filled with writings of J. Howard Wert; 10 books written or revised and prepared by J. Howard Wert … 1 Scrapbook of Poetry memorized by J. Howard Wert [60,000 lines, it was reported] … 9 Valuable Volumes of Civil War Literature, some of which make mention of J. Howard Wert as an officer … a Lutheran hymnal used by Emma L. A. Wert … and 42 Harrisburg School Directories . …

It was the kind of legacy we would have expected the proud author to leave. The last sentence of his instructions reads A hundred years after this, the library will be a rare and valued treasure. Those of us who have spent considerable time with Wert’s writings are obliged to agree.

History of the 209th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, of the 18th Army Corps, Army of the James; and the 9th Army, Army of the Potomac;

by J. Howard Wert, A.M.,

Late 2d Lieutenant, of Co. G, 209th P.V.

Author of Gettysburg Monuments and Dedications, The Two Great Armies at Gettysburg, Gem Souvenir of Gettysburg, Poems of Camp and Hearth, The Mystic League of Three, Alecto and Ebony, Rhyme and Reason, God’s Centennial, &c. &c. &c.

Contents

Chapter I Preliminary, Organization of the 209th, To the Front

Chapter II Services of the 209th in the 18th Army Corps, Army of the James

Chapter III A Winter in the Army of the Potomac

Chapter IV Battle of Fort Stedman

Chapter V The Storming of Petersburg

Chapter VI Final Services of the 209th, Lee’s Surrender, Grand Review, Home

Dedication

To Colonel George Washington Frederick,

Who commanded the 209th Regiment during almost its entire period of active service, and who valiantly led it to victory at Fort Stedman and amidst the ghastly slaughter of the storming of Petersburg, this humble work of affection and memory is respectfully inscribed.

There was not a soldier of the 209th that did not find in him, at all times, a devoted friend. A heroic soldier and a Christian gentleman, his memory will long live in the hearts of his Boys.

The Author

Philadelphia, Dec, 3d, 1894

Preface

W hile collating material for a series of war articles for a New York periodical, I met with a work issued, in 1892, from the press of the Harrisburg Publishing Co., giving the proceedings of the re-union at York, March 25 th , 1891, of Hartranft’s Division, together with a certain amount of historical matter in regard to the division and the regiments of which it was comp osed.

I found, in the book, much that was interesting. I found some disappointments in the way of inaccuracies and crudely collated material. These blemishes were perhaps inseparable from the circumstances under which the work was prepared. Some of the historians appear to have clung rather closely to Bates with his multitudinous mistakes. His work is perhaps as accurate as can be reasonably expected in so voluminous an undertaking, issued so soon after the war. To illustrate his inaccuracy, however, the following sample is presented. In giving the history of four regiments, (200th, 207th, 209th, and 211th Penna.), the attack on the Bermuda Hundred Line is given, in the State work, on three different dates, Nov, 16th, 17th, and 19th, 1864. In the roll of the company which I had the honor to partially command, I found nineteen names so badly misspelled as to be scarcely recognizable. Similar examples might be multiplied indefinitely. We have reached a period, when the material for correct history is so abundant, that it is not necessary to perpetuate errors that were inseparable from the [word missing] when they appeared in print.

The climax was however reached when, in perusing the work of the Harrisburg company, I found that on page 88, one of the comrades had seen fit to quote from the historical article I wrote for the York Dispatch of March 24th, 1891. I was pleased with the implied compliment to myself, but scarcely delighted to find that the absence of accurate editorial supervision, had made it unintelligible by inserting a period in the middle of a sentence.

I felt that the 209th deserved a fuller statement of its services than has yet been published, and to this labor of love I have addressed myself, with fond memories of the days that are past and with an ardent wish to do justice to all.

Comrades, we cannot too often think of the days at the front. We cannot too forcibly impress upon the rising generation the lessons of patriotism and devotion to the flag, which we learned amidst the lurid fires of battle. We saw the altar of the Union’s preservation drenched with the life-blood of many of our comrades, the noblest of the land.

It is our duty, comrades, as our ranks are rapidly thinned by death, to stand by each other, elbow to elbow, as in the line of battle in front of Petersburg, for the preservation of the glorious recollections of the past and for self-defense. Especially is this the case when there is a spirit abroad that desires to treat with contempt the veteran and his services—a spirit that would be delighted to see all who fought for the Union the inmates of pauper wards. Can it be doubted that such is the case when we have it on competent authority that a school-teacher in Pennsylvania, the proud old Keystone, exclaimed on one occasion, with glee: Now the drunken bums and loafers will loose their pensions.

In regard to the material at the disposal of the writer, I would say that I have in my possession substantially all works and articles of value published in regard to the closing scenes around the Confederate capital, and its outpost, Petersburg. In regard to accuracy of dates, I have before me as I prepare the work a voluminous diary that was kept, day by day, from the time we left Harrisburg until we returned there again, and which has been scrupulously preserved through all the intervening years.

The 209th took the initiative that led to the Division Reunions that have done so much to revive old memories. What has become a matter of State interest is due to a few individuals of our regiment residing in Carlisle and adjacent portions of Cumberland county, conspicuous amongst whom are Captain John B. Landis, Lieutenant R. R. Webbert, Sergeant S. D. Zeigler, Richard B. Craighead and William F. Wise, all of company A; and above all others, to Milton A. Embick, of company D. It is doubtful, had it not been for the zeal and energy of the last mentioned, who has been a member of the State Legislature and filled other honorable positions in the community, if our Division organization would ever have been accomplished. It is hoped the work now presented will still further cement the feeling of comradeship and assist in reviving the memories of the past.

This work is not intended to antagonize accounts that have appeared in the past, but to supplement them by a fuller statement of all the incidents of our service than has before been published—a statement which if not soon placed in tangible form, would be forever buried in oblivion. It is a history of the 209th only, although, of course, incidentally presenting some facts in regard to other regiments of the Division.

Although simply a regimental history, the author has attempted to so interweave a sketch of the momentous military movements of which our regiment was a fractional part, that the reader may gain some insight into the gigantic operations of the period. No one, however, who did not actually witness the scenes here partially sketched or similar ones, can form any conception of the stupendous scale on which were conducted the campaigns that crushed the Rebellion

With prayers that the Benignant Father Above will look with tenderness on all Our Boys, I remain, your Comrade,

J. Howard Wert

Philadelphia, Dec. 3d, 1894

Reunions of Hartranft’s Division

Roster of Dates Connected with the 209th P. V. Regiment.

Chapter I

Preliminary, Organization of the 209th, To the Front

Introductory

I t became evident to all, in 1864, that the blows dealt to the Rebellion by Grant in the east and Sherman in the West, were causing it to totter to its downfall. The military efforts of the Confederacy had reached their highest point in efficiency in 1863. After the two signal Union successes, in July of that year, at Gettysburg in the east and Vicksburg in the west, prospects of Southern success began to rapidly ebb. Still Lee and his subordinates in the armies of Northern Virginia and the Atlantic Coast, as well as the Confederate commanders on both sides of the Mississippi, were tenaciously contesting, with a valor worthy of a nobler cause, each inch of ground over which the Federal troops were advancing. The government needed new troops to supply the places of the men lost in the vigorous and aggressive campaigns that were being pressed into the very heart of the Confederacy. Accordingly, in 1864, the President of the U.S. called for 500,000 additional troops, and recruiting went on bri skly.

New Pennsylvania Regiments

In Pennsylvania, during the summer of 1864, fifteen new regiments were put in the field. These were numbered from the 198th to the 212th, inclusive, of the Pennsylvania line. The regiments were recruited for but one year, it being evident to the authorities that before that time had expired the Rebellion must collapse beneath the terrific and well directed blows it was receiving along the entire line of operations. As a matter of fact, the new regiments from Pennsylvania were needed for but nine months; but in those nine months was compressed, for the soldiers along the lines in front of Richmond and Petersburg, an experience more thrilling than that of an average life-time—for the nation, an amount of History surpassing in importance the usual record of centuries.

The Glorious Record of the Short-Term Regiments

It has been a custom, in some quarters, to speak sneeringly of short-term organizations. From a military point of view, the recruiting of men for short terms of enlistment, during the earlier years of the war, was undoubtedly a blunder. As far, however, as the individuals themselves, in these organizations, were concerned, the records of the War Department show that many of them suffered more severely, in proportion to their term of service, than the three-year regiments. This is shown in the terrific losses of the nine-months’ regiments that were hurried from the recruiting camps to the very front of their bloody baptismal conflicts of Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. A few figures of losses in a single combat will suffice to illustrate the fighting done by the often despised nine-month regiments.

This record of 1862, ’63, was duplicated by the one-year regiments that went out in the summer and autumn of 1864. This is amply shown by the annexed specimens:

Moral Courage Required to Volunteer in 1864

It should be borne in mind, in reference to the volunteers of 1864, that it required a high amount of moral courage to enter the army at that time. In 1861, a wild wave of enthusiasm swept over the two belligerent sections, that rendered enlistment, under the predominating impulse, an easy matter. The popular feeling in favor of war was so wrought up, that to enlist was easier than to remain at home. War was then a dream, not a reality. Going to the front was regarded, in both sections, in the light of a holiday excursion. The conflict suddenly precipitated after a long period of profound peace found a people who were utterly unable to appreciate the horrid realities of fields of slaughter. Both North and South, the war was laughingly spoken of as a sixty-days’ job.

Not so, in 1864. The stern and somber realities of hundreds of sanguinary fields, the horrors of the hospital, the gloom of the ever present and incessant carnival of death, had permeated to the remotest corners of the land, and hung like an ebony pall not only in the vicinity of Mason and Dixon’s Line, but from the isolated hamlets of far off Maine to the extremity of the Great Lakes and the frontier settlements along the Rocky Mountains. Those who volunteered in 1864 knew that it meant certain death or a brief life blighted by disease and enervating wounds for many of their numbers.

Hartranft’s Division

The one-year regiments of 1864 were appointed to different parts of the widely extended battle arena. Six of them, that were closely associated from the first, were, in time, formed into the Third Division of the Ninth Army Corps. This corps so widely known and celebrated, originally under the chivalrous Burnside,¹ was, when they joined it, commanded by the gallant General John G. Parke.

The regiments thus consolidated were the 200th, 205th, 207th, 208th, 209th, and 211th. Thus was presented one of the cases, so rare in the Union army, of an entire division formed of troops from the same State. This was the common mode of brigade and division organization in the Confederate army. The writer of this history believes it to be preferable to the indiscriminate mixing of troops from different states generally practiced at the North. Conspicuous examples of the success of organizations composed of troops from a single state, are found in the Federal army in other cases besides that of Hartranft’s Pennsylvania Division.² It is only necessary to mention the following gallant and successful commands—The Division of Pennsylvania Reserves;³ Webb’s Philadelphia Brigade;⁴ Stannard’s Vermonters;⁵ the Brigade of Grant from the same State;⁶ the Excelsior Brigade of New York;⁷ [Lorbert’s] New Jersey Brigade; Greene’s New Yorkers;⁸ Custer’s Brigade of Michigan cavalry;⁹ the Pennsylvania Brigades of Roy Stone;¹⁰ on the line of the Tape-Worm; Graham;¹¹ in the Peach Orchard; and Kane, in Culp’s Hill;¹² and the New York Brigade which under Willard¹³ and Sherrill¹⁴ checked Barkesdale’s¹⁵ Mississippians.

The badge of the Ninth Army Corps was one of the most beautiful and suggestive of any adopted in the Union army. It was a Shield upon which were displayed the Cannon and Anchor crossed—the Shield suggesting that the Corps stood as a defense against those seeking the Nation’s life; the Cannon and Anchor typifying the campaigns of the Corps both by land and Sea.¹⁶

The six Pennsylvania regiments composing Hartranft’s Blue Shield Division consisted of as good material as ever went from the Keystone or any other State. Three elements were prominently represented: Re-enlisted veterans of the three-years service; men too young to enter the army when the war began, who were burning with impatience to be able to say in future years, I, too, helped to save the Nation; and sturdy farmers and mechanics of limited means, whom the care of dependent families had deterred from volunteering at earlier stages of the war, but who saw, in the large local bounties now being paid, an opportunity of providing for the comfort of the helpless ones at home. The vicious system, then in vogue, of buying up recruits by means of bounty-brokers, and crediting them, in bulk, to other districts than those in which they resided, had borne its legitimate and disgraceful fruit of the presence in all the recruiting camps of a bounty-jumping element consisting of the lowest scum and ruffians from the slums of the great cities. The rolls of a few companies of Hartranft’s division were sullied by bearing the names of some of this class. At these men, however, all deserted immediately after receiving their bounties, before the commands had been sent to the front, they did not in any way affect the morale of the different regiments. It is safe to say the Pennsylvania one-year regiments of 1864 presented less of this material than any other commands organized at the North at this period of the war. The presence of this foul blot of bounty-jumping upon our national escutcheon was the result of a meretricious system which enabled unscrupulous brokers to use the lowest class for immense pecuniary gains to themselves.

So this mode of robbing the government and sapping its life could not have been carried on successfully, but for the guilty collusion of government officials which was purchased by the brokers. The crimes of mercenary agents and dishonest employees of the government leaves no stain on the brave men who went to the front with an honest purpose and nobly did their duty. Even with the injection of the disgraced bounty-jumper into the military history of the period, I find that the rolls of Hartranft’s regiment compare most