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26 Ekim 2020 Pazartesi

Crenshaw, Foner and Gates Discuss Reconstruction

Crenshaw, Foner and Gates Discuss Reconstruction

From the Columbia News:

On October 20, 2020, leading scholars examined the intersections of 19th-century history with contemporary politics, and offered visions for America’s future, during “Why Reconstruction Matters.” The online event was moderated by Columbia President Lee C. Bollinger and introduced by Vice Provost and University Librarian Ann Thornton. Nearly 700 people viewed the panel, which was cosponsored by the World Leaders Forum and Columbia Libraries.

The panelists—Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, professor at Columbia Law School, Eric Foner, emeritus professor of history, and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., filmmaker and Harvard professor—have each written extensively about the period of Reconstruction, and were all featured in a recent PBS documentary series on the topic.

--Dan Ernst

23 Eylül 2020 Çarşamba

Ramsey on Originalism and Birthright Citizenship

Ramsey on Originalism and Birthright Citizenship

Michael D. Ramsey, University of San Diego School of Law, has posted Originalism and Birthright Citizenship, which is forthcoming in volume 109 of the Georgetown Law Journal:

The first sentence of the Fourteenth Amendment provides: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” This language raises two substantial questions of scope. First, what does it mean to be born “in” the United States? Does that include birth in U.S. overseas possessions, territories, bases, or places under temporary U.S. occupation? Second, what does it mean to be born “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States? Does that include persons born in the United States to parents who are only temporary visitors or parents not lawfully present in the United States?

The original meaning of the citizenship clause’s text indicates a broad scope for constitutional birthright citizenship as to both places and persons. At the time of enactment, places subject to the permanent U.S. sovereign authority were considered “in” the United States without regard to whether they were territorially contiguous or culturally integrated into the U.S. political system. In mid-nineteenth-century terminology persons born within U.S. territory were “subject to [its] jurisdiction” unless excluded legally by international rules of immunity or practically by military or political realities.

But these originalist solutions in turn raise a challenge for originalism as a theory of modern constitutional interpretation. There is little evidence that the Amendment’s enactors considered or could have foreseen the modern implications of either question. The United States had no material overseas possessions when the Amendment was drafted and ratified. Restrictive federal immigration laws did not materially take hold in the United States until the late nineteenth century. Application of the citizenship clause thus requires originalism to confront the role (or lack thereof) of intent in modern originalist theory. Modern originalists generally claim to be bound by the original meaning of the text rather than the original intent of the enactors. But in the case of the citizenship clause, the text’s resolution of key questions of its scope appears to be largely accidental. The citizenship clause presses originalism to explain why original meaning should be binding in modern law when it does not reflect the enactors’ policy choices. As the Article will discuss, explanations are available, but they may take originalism away from some of its apparent common ground.

--Dan Ernst

18 Eylül 2020 Cuma

VanderVelde and Chin on the Reconstruction Congress and the "Chinese Question"

VanderVelde and Chin on the Reconstruction Congress and the "Chinese Question"

Lea S. VanderVelde, University of Iowa College of Law, and Gabriel Jackson Chin, University of California, Davis School of Law, have posted Sowing the Seeds of Chinese Exclusion as the Reconstruction Congress Debates Civil Rights Inclusion, from Tsinghua China Law Review 12 (2020):185-233:

Frank Leslie's Weekly (1872)(LC)
 During Reconstruction, Congress amended the Constitution to fundamentally reorder the legal and social status of African Americans. Congress faced the challenge of determining how Chinese people would fit in to the emerging constitutional structure. This article draws on a method of digitizing the Congressional Globe to more broadly explore the arguments about Chinese rights and privileges during Reconstruction. Unlike African-Americans, Chinese were part of an international system of trade and diplomacy; treatment of other people of color was understood as a purely domestic question. In addition, while a core feature of Reconstruction was ending the enslavement of African-Americans and overruling Dred Scott by making Africans Americans born in the U.S. citizens and granting them eligibility for naturalization, for Chinese, Congress chose to leave in place racial restrictions on naturalization, which had existed since 1790. This rendered them perpetual foreigners in America. With regard to labor rights, by abolishing slavery, Congress intended to raise up the freedmen, giving African Americans a chance to work on equal terms with other citizens. In the main, Congress continued to treat the Chinese people as constitutive of the so-called “Chinese question,” a nominalization that ascribed to them features of caste, from which there was little possibility of upward mobility. Congress recognized that some Chinese workers in the U.S. who were building railroads or working in mines might be subject to labor exploitation from bosses and from jobbers, sometimes white and sometimes Chinese. However, rather than intervene to liberate Chinese laborers through laws that would free them from involuntary servitude, and give them fair terms on which to compete, Congress eventually moved in another direction: excluding the Chinese altogether in 1882.

--Dan Ernst

22 Ağustos 2020 Cumartesi

Federal History 2020

Federal History 2020

Federal History 2020, issue 12 of the journal of the Society for History in the Federal Government, is available here.

    Editor’s Note
        — Benjamin Guterman
    Roger R. Trask Lecture

    For the Records    
        — Marian Smith

    Articles

    Federal-Local Collaboration in Law Enforcement During the Civil War
        — Wyatt Evans

    Recycling OPEC Oil Revenues and Resurrecting the Dollar, and the U.S. International Payments Position in American Foreign Policy, 1970–1975
        — Simone Selva

    Strengthening American Scientific Manpower:  The National Science Foundation’s Postwar Science Education Programs and the Limitations of Federal Desegregation Policy
    — Emily K. Gibson

    The USB Maine Conspiracy
        — Kenneth C. Wenzer

    Research and Resources

    Technodiplomacy:  A Concept and Its Application to U.S.-France Nuclear Weapons Cooperation in the Nixon-Kissinger Era
        — John Krige

    An Interview with Daniel Immerwahr    
        — Alexander Poster

    Book Reviews

    Henry Clay: The Man Who Would Be President
    By James Klotter
        — Reviewed by Harry L. Watson

    The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation
    By Brenda Wineapple
        — Reviewed by Daniel S. Holt

    Digitized Collection of the Territorial Papers of the United States, 1764-1953
    By United States Government and Readex
        — Reviewed by Christopher R. Eck

    The Mayaguez Crisis: Mission Command and Civil-Military Relations
    By Christopher J. Lamb
        — Reviewed by Fred H. Allison

--Dan Ernst

17 Ağustos 2020 Pazartesi

Period of Sengoku in Japan (1467-1573)

Period of Sengoku in Japan (1467-1573)

Historian consider period of Sengoku to have begun as early as 1467, with the beginning of the Onin War.

In 1467, a decade-long conflict broke out. The Onin War breaks out to determine who would succeed the ruling shogun– the military dictator who ruled Japan on behalf of the figurehead Emperor. A rival imperial court was brought back from destruction as lords fought for control of the country. The Akamatsu, Yamana and Hosokawa clans were particularly prominent, but they dragged the rest of the aristocracy into their conflict.

During this time, the Daimyos ruled hundreds of independent states throughout Japan, consisting of other Daimyos, rebellious peasants, and Buddhist warrior monks. Each independent state raised their own armies.

The period from the Onin War to 1568 was the year in which Oda Nobunaga occupied Kyoto and thereby initiated the period of military consolidation.

Beginning in Kyoto, the war brought terrible destruction to Japan’s capital city. Over the course of the war, there was seldom time for the city’s inhabitants to rebuild the charred ruins of homes destroyed in the fighting.

Sengoku period close is generally marked to be the Battle of Sekigahara in which the Western Army of Tokugawa Ieyasu overcame the Toyotomi Loyalists of the Eastern Army.

The period from Nobunaga's death to 1598, during which Hideyoshi completed the unification of the daimyo, is given the name Momoyama, from the location of Hideyoshi's castle built between Osaka and Kyoto.
Period of Sengoku in Japan (1467-1573)

24 Ağustos 2019 Cumartesi

American Civil War (1861-65)

American Civil War (1861-65)

The Civil War was rooted in the civil societies of Northern and Southern states, based in uneven national modernization. Deracinated populations sought political and cultural solutions.


It was a social and military conflict between the United States of America in the North and the Confederate States of American in the South.

Both sides had advantages and weaknesses. The North had a greater population, more factories, supplies and more money than the South. The South had more experienced military leadership, better trained armies, and the advantage of fighting on familiar territory.

Combat began on 12 April 1861 at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, and intensified as 4 more states joined the South. Although many Confederate and Unionist leaders believed the war would be short, it dragged on until 26 May 1865, when the last major Confederate army surrendered.
American Civil War (1861-65)
 

4 Mart 2019 Pazartesi

General Strong Vincent

General Strong Vincent

On June 17, 1837, Strong Vincent was born in his grandfather’s house, the honorable Judge John Vincent, on the northwest corner of East 1st and Cherry Street in the Borough of Waterford. The family moved to Erie in 1843. The judge every year always had the whole family return to his home for Christmas. A special Christmas tradition at his home was that all of the grandchildren would find a hundred dollar bill beneath their plates. According to the Vincent's family journal, the children enjoyed playing hide and seek in the house, because at that time the house extended much farther north and all buildings were connected to the house, wood shed, livery and tack rooms, wood shop and carriage houses, etc. that gave a lot of area’s to hide. The house burned down during the late 1990s.

Strong Vincent was a lawyer who became famous as a U.S. Army officer during the fighting on Little Round Top at the American Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, where he was mortally wounded.

Vincent was born in his Grandfather’s home in Waterford, Pennsylvania, son of iron foundry-man B. B. Vincent and Sarah Ann Strong Vincent. His early education was obtained in the academy at Erie, where he spent two years in his father's iron foundry, before attending Trinity College and Harvard University, graduating in 1859. While attending Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, He met and courted the young lady who would become his wife. Expelled for beating up a man who impugned his lady's honor, Vincent enrolled at Harvard. He practiced law in Erie.

At the start of the Civil War, Vincent joined the Pennsylvania Militia as an adjutant and first lieutenant of the Erie Regiment. On September 14, 1861, he was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the 83rd Pennsylvania Infantry and was promoted to colonel the following June. After the death of his regimental commander in the Seven Days Battles (at the Battle of Gaines's Mill), Vincent assumed command of the regiment. He developed malaria on the Virginia Peninsula and was on medical leave until the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862. On May 20, 1863, he assumed command of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, V Corps, Army of the Potomac, replacing his brigade commander, who was killed at the Battle of Chancellorsville.

At the Battle of Gettysburg, 26-year-old Vincent and his brigade arrived on July 2, 1863. He had started the Gettysburg Campaign knowing that his young wife, Elizabeth H. Carter, whom he had married on the day he enlisted in the army, was pregnant with their first child. He had written her, "If I fall, remember you have given your husband to the most righteous cause that ever widowed a woman."

Maj. Gen. Daniel E. Sickles of the III Corps had deviated from his orders, moving his corps to a position that left undefended a significant terrain feature: Little Round Top. The chief engineer of the Army of the Potomac, Brig. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren, recognized the tactical importance of the hill and urgently sought Union troops to occupy it before the Confederates could. A staff officer sent by Warren encountered Vincent's brigade nearby. Vincent, without consulting his superior officers, decided that his brigade was in the ideal position to defend Little Round Top, saying "I will take the responsibility to take my brigade there." Pvt. Oliver Willcox Norton, Vincent's brigade standard bearer and bugler, later wrote that he and Vincent made a reconnaissance of the Confederate forces as the brigade was moving into position, "While our line was forming on the hill at Gettysburg I came out with him in full view of the rebel lines. They opened two batteries on us instantly, firing at the colors. Colonel Vincent looked to see what was drawing the fire and yelled at me, "Down with the flag, Norton! Damn it, go behind the rocks with it."

One of Vincent's regiments, the 20th Maine, led by Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, has received most of the fame for the defense of Little Round Top, but there is little doubt that the efforts and bravery of Vincent were instrumental in the eventual Union victory. Vincent impressed upon Chamberlain the importance of his position on the brigade's left flank and then he left to attend to the brigade's right flank. There, the 16th Michigan Infantry was starting to yield to enemy pressure. Mounting a large boulder, Vincent brandished a riding crop given to him by his wife and shouted to his men "Don't give an inch!" A bullet struck him through the thigh and the groin and he fell. Due to the determination of the 20th Maine, the 44th New York, the 83rd Pennsylvania, and the 16th Michigan Infantry Regiments, the Union line held against the Confederate onslaught. Vincent was carried from the hill to a nearby farm, where he lay dying for the next five days, unable to be transported home due to the severity of his injury.

The commander of the Army of the Potomac, Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, recommended Vincent for promotion to brigadier general on the evening of July 2. The promotion was dated July 3, 1863, but it is doubtful that Vincent knew about the honor before he died on July 7, 1863. Vincent's wife gave birth to a baby girl two months later, who died before reaching the age of one and is buried next to her father. His corps commander, Maj. Gen. George Sykes, described Vincent's actions in his official report from the battle:

Night closed the fight. The key of the battle-field was in our possession intact. Vincent, Weed, and Hazlett, chiefs lamented throughout the corps and army, sealed with their lives the spot entrusted to their keeping, and on which so much depended.... General Weed and Colonel Vincent, officers of rare promise, gave their lives to their country.

Strong Vincent is buried in the Erie Cemetery and is memorialized in Erie by a statue erected in 1997 at Blasco Memorial Library, and in the naming of Strong Vincent High School.

General Strong Vincent
General Strong Vincent

Strong Vincent’s Birthplace
Strong Vincent’s Birthplace.

Mrs. William Vincent, Great Grandmother of Strong Vincent, sits on the side porch of her son Judge John Vincent’s Waterford home. Photo taken in the 1800s
Mrs. Elsie Vincent, Aunt of Strong Vincent, sits on the side porch of Judge John Vincent’s Waterford home.

25 Temmuz 2018 Çarşamba

Red Army of Russia

Red Army of Russia

The Soviet army today is essentially a conventional army that is the product of Imperial Russian military tradition passed on directly to the Soviets via the Imperial army officers who joined the Red Army in the 1920's.

Red Army was formed in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Its first civilian leader was Leon Trotsky, who proved a brilliant strategist and administrator. The Red Army began life as a small volunteer force of proletarians from the major urban citadels of Bolshevik power in northern and central Russia.

Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Russia entered a period of civil war that lasted until the founding of the Soviet Union in 1922. The main forces involved in this unrest were the Red Army, who were pitted against the counter –revolutionaries or “white Russian” ranging from moderate socialists to conservatives advocating the restorations of the tsarist regime.

By the end of the civil war against the Whites and the various armies of foreign intervention, in the autumn of 1920, Red Army had grown into a mass conscript army of five million soldiers, 75 per cent of them peasants1 by birth - a figure roughly proportionate to the size of the peasant population in Russia..
Red Army of Russia

25 Temmuz 2017 Salı

Battle of Fort Pillow

Battle of Fort Pillow

It is an engagement in which Confederate soldiers allegedly murdered defenseless African American troops.

On March 16, 1864, Confederate major general Nathan Bedford Forrest began a raid by some 7 cavalry into Kentucky that reached as far as Paducah in March 25.

From nearby Jackson, Tennessee, the Confederate cavalry General Nathan Forrest detached a division under Gen, James Chalmers, with some 1500 -2000 men, to attack the Fort Pillow, defended by 262 Negro and 295 white soldiers. Fort Pillow was built on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River about 4 miles north of Memphis in 1861.
 Chalmers began an investment of Fort Pillow at dawn on April 12. The Confederates quickly drove the Union pickets in and then occupied hills that allowed sharpshooters to begin engaging the fort’s defenders.

Fort Pillow’s defenders fought bravely but were overwhelmed by sheer force of numbers. The Federal commander, Maj. Lionel Booth was killed by a sniper and replaced by Maj, William Bradford. Many were shot down as they attempted to flee to the river; others were shot in the river or drowned.

In Mid -afternoon Bradford refused a surrender ultimatum from Forrest, who had arrived to take personal charge of the attack. The Confederate then assaulted the fort and captured it with a loss of only 14 killed and 86 wounded. The garrison, however, suffered 231 killed, 100 serious wounded and 226 captured (including 58 Negroes).
Battle of Fort Pillow

25 Haziran 2017 Pazar

Harvey: Civil War's Barking Dog

Harvey: Civil War's Barking Dog


Harvey became famous in history as a Civil War dog who stood by his men, during the good and bad times.




During the Civil War it was not uncommon for soldiers to bring their dogs with them. Daniel M. Stearns of Wellsville, Ohio was one of them. He and his dog Harvey, a bull terrier, became part of the 104th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Company F in 1862. Harvey, one of three mascot dogs with the company, was the only one to serve the full three years of active duty with the unit - longer than most of the men. During his time of service, he would bark at the enemy and was wounded at least twice when his company went into battle. The first time he was wounded he was captured and returned the next day under a flag of truce.

The soldiers of Company F often wrote home about the dogs. Captain William Jordan wrote his children describing Harvey and Colonel as "having the run of the regiment." The two dogs would sleep in whatever tent that best suited them for the night. Jordan also wrote to his family how Teaser, the other canine mascot, ran after one of the company's pet squirrel and how Harvey saved the rodent by picking it up in his mouth and bringing it out of harm's way. Another letter, written by Private Adam Weaver to his brother, told about Harvey attending campfire sing-alongs. Harvey would sway from side to side and bark while the men sang. Some believed the dog was joining in with the music but according to Weaver "My idea is that the noise hurts his ears as it does mine!"





Stearns was proud of his dog and when promoted to 2nd Lieutenant in 1862 he had a special brass tag made to hang on his dog's collar that read "I am Lieutenant D.M. Stearns dog. Whose dog are you?" In 1865 Company F mustered out of the military when the Confederate Army surrendered. After the war, the regiment had a portrait of Harvey painted so they could display it at reunions, and their favorite mascot's picture was on the badges the men wore during the social gathering.

Harvey survived his wounds and it is believed he lived his remaining days with Stearns.


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1 Nisan 2017 Cumartesi

Erie's Underground Railroad

Erie's Underground Railroad

Not an actual railroad at all, the Underground Railroad was a series of complex secret routes, churches, institutions and privately owned homes that aided runaway slaves on the dangerous journey north. Pennsylvania, the first free state north of the Mason-Dixon line, provided many entry points to freedom.

Upper Canada had banned the importation of new slaves on July 9, 1793, and all slavery throughout the British Empire ended with the Slavery Abolition Act of August 1, 1834.

The United States, however, remained bitterly divided.

The Underground Railroad was not run by any single organization or person. Rather, it consisted of many individuals — many whites but predominantly black — who knew only of the local efforts to aid fugitives and not of the overall operation. Still, it effectively moved hundreds of slaves northward each year — according to one estimate, the South lost 100,000 slaves between 1810 and 1850.

From around 1830, until the end of the Civil War, an influx of runaway slaves came through Erie seeking their freedom, not in Erie, but across of Lake Erie, in Canada where they would be legally freed from bondage. The city of Erie was one of many sanctuaries throughout the county, which included Girard, Wesleyville, Waterford and Meadville, in Crawford County. These sanctuaries were mainly the homes of abolitionists and churches.

With the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act by Congress in 1850, slaves who had escaped to the northern states were in immediate danger of being forcibly abducted and brought back to southern slavery. Slave catchers from the South operated openly in the northern states, where their brutality quickly alienated the local population. Federal officials were also best carefully avoided, as the influence of plantation owners from the then more populous South was powerful in Washington, D.C., at the time.

Slaves therefore had to lie low during the day — hiding, sleeping, or pretending to be part of the local citizenry — moving north by night. The danger of encountering US federal marshals would end once the Canadian border had been crossed, but the passengers of the Underground Railroad would need to remain in Canada (and keep a watchful eye for slave catchers crossing the border illegally in violation of Canadian law) until slavery was ended via the American Civil War of the 1860s.

The majority in Erie was lukewarm on the subject of slavery; most people disapproved, but slavery had their supporters in Erie, and slave catchers were free to operate within the county. In fact, some of Erie's early settlers and prominent citizens were slave owners themselves — Rufus Reed, John Grubb, the Kelso family, Pierre Simon Vincent Hamot, and many others. Competing newspapers at the time revealed a deeply divided citizenry; yet Erie, from its free black communities to its middle-class white society, rose in defiance, in small groups of ordinary people, defying race and gender — and in some cases, the law — in what would later be known as America's first civil rights movement.

Erie’s newspapers were instrumental in driving the abolition movement in the county. Erie's Henry Catlin used the power of the pen to promote his anti-slavery views. From his second-floor office in the Lowry Building at East Fifth and French streets, Catlin turned out weekly issues of his newspaper, the True American, from 1854 to 1861, for three cents a copy. "It is a medium of free discussion for all manner of men and women, except slaveholders, rum sellers, and codfish aristocrats," he wrote. Fugitives were sometimes concealed in newspaper bins until it was safe for them to sail away to Canada.

When Catlin invited abolitionist Frederick Douglass to speak in Erie on April 24, 1858, an angry mob threatened to run both of them out of town. Douglass showed up anyway and delivered a speech, entitled Unity of the Human Race, at Park Hall. Lovisa-Card Catlin, founder of the Arts Club of Erie, who spearheaded the effort to purchase Frederick Childe Hassam's painting Summer Afternoon, Isles of Shoals for the community, married the widower Henry Catlin, a man of culture, in 1893. Catlin is credited with coming up with the name Kahkwa for Erie's Kahkwa Club — that having been the name of a tribe of Indians that were part of the Erie tribe that frequented Erie County, when the country was a forest.

The abolition movement in Erie was centered in New Jerusalem, a neighborhood that ran north of West Sixth Street to the bayfront, from Sassafras west to about Cherry Street. In the 1830s, white abolitionist William Himrod, a partner in a successful local ironworks, bought up property behind Millionaires' Row, divided it into small tracts, and sold it to free blacks; thus formed a community known as New Jerusalem, complete with a church, school and many private residences.

William Himrod used his home, at East Second and French Streets, to house Himrod's French Street Sabbath School for Colored Children. According to family diaries, Himrod and his wife provided food and a temporary haven for freedom seekers on their way to Canada. Jean Himrod Stull Cunningham, artist, naturalist and environmental steward, who passed away in 2011, was among William Himrod's many descendants still living in the area.

William Himrod’s home was an addition that was added to Dickson Tavern in 1841. It was often alleged that the tunnels under the Dickson Tavern were part of the Underground Railroad, but the claims have since been disputed. The abolition movement was not in the habit of keeping records. Without documentation, a logical argument can be made for and against the tunnels beneath the tavern having been used to transport slaves to the waterfront.

Far from the passive victims described in antebellum history books, free blacks in the North, many of them former slaves or indentured servants, had the reason, and the resources, to help. They worked as laborers, started businesses, pursued education and established churches, which were at the heart of family and community life. The Wesleyan Methodist Colored Church, the forerunner to St. James African American Episcopal Church, was originally built on West Third Street, between Walnut and Chestnut. Later, it doubled as a school.

Separated from downtown Erie by a large ravine, New Jerusalem became a hotbed for anti-slavery activity. Enslaved persons who managed to break free knew they could live and work openly among their own people. Many of Erie's black families have roots in New Jerusalem. Erie City Council renamed a portion of West Front Street, between Sassafras and Myrtle, in honor of the Lawrence family, whose leadership in education and music has inspired generations.

Barber Shops in the past were a place, while getting a haircut, or not, where one would go to exchange information and keep in contact with others in the community; therefore, it should be no surprise that a barber shop played a vital role in New Jerusalem. One such shop was Vosburgh barbershop. Shortly after arriving in Erie with his wife Abigail, African American Robert Vosburgh opened a barbershop at 314 French Street, not far from the Himrod Mission. In the Vosburgh barbershop, anti-slavery activists kept an eye on the comings and goings around town. Vosburgh could change a fugitive's appearance, provide a new suit of clothes, and put him in touch with an Underground Railroad conductor who could take him to Canada, either along the lakeshore or by boat.

Many of the Vosburghs' nine children, who were educated at Himrod's school, became part of Erie's emerging middle class and went on to successful careers in real estate and railroading. Two sons, one a porter, and another a second cook on the Steamship Erie, were among the more than 250 passengers killed in 1841, when the elegant ship exploded in flames on a return trip from Buffalo.

Just three doors from Vosburgh's Barber Shop was the office of Pierre Simon Vincent Hamot, a successful banker and salt trader, whose black servant mysteriously disappeared soon after Vosburgh moved into the neighborhood. Like all black men in Pennsylvania, Vosburgh had been stripped of his right to vote, but he would find other ways to bring about change. The Hamot house, at 302 French Street, is now home to the Hamot Health Foundation.

A longtime friend of Vosburgh was Hamilton Waters, a former slave from Somerset County, Maryland, who had hired himself out in order to buy his mother's freedom as well as his own. Once he arrived in Erie, he worked as a clothes presser in Vosburgh's Barber Shop. Waters lived with his family at 137 East Third Street, between French and Holland. He was often seen performing his duties as the city's lamplighter, with his grandson in tow.

One night in the summer of 1858, Jehiel Towner of Erie contacted Frank Henry of Harborcreek about helping three passengers escape to Canada. The next night at about dusk, Hamilton Waters brought the family to Frank Henry in a wagon. A skiff was waiting at the mouth of Four Mile Creek to take them across the lake to Canada. "The driver, one Hamilton Waters, was a free mulatto, known to everybody around Erie," Frank Henry wrote in his diary, "He had brought a little boy with him as a guide, for he was almost blind as a bat."

Waters' determination to secure his release from slavery, provide for his family, and assist freedom seekers helped to shape the character of one of America's most influential composers, Harry Thacker Burleigh. Burleigh would go on to study at the National Conservatory of Music in New York. His grandfather's plantation songs would someday reach an international audience.

The Harry T. Burleigh Society, founded by the late Charles Kennedy Jr., brings Burleigh's songs and stories to local schools, churches and special events. Erie City Council renamed East Third Street, between French and Holland, Harry Burleigh Way, in recognition of his family's contributions.

Some of the best-documented Underground Railroad stories are found in the diaries of Frank Henry, who routinely stowed runaways in the old Wesleyville Methodist Church, which since has been demolished. His diaries were the basis of numerous stories by H.U. Johnson, publisher of Lakeshore Home Magazine, who reconstructed stories of the Underground Railroad in the 1880s, after the danger of releasing the information had passed.

The local Underground Railroad story includes many other people and places throughout the Lake Erie Region, research and the documentation is far from being finished.

The old Wesleyville Methodist Church at 3306 Buffalo Road
The old Wesleyville Methodist Church at 3306 Buffalo Road. Frank Henry routinely stowed runaways in the old Church, which since has been demolished.

13 Ağustos 2016 Cumartesi

Jack: Civil War Dog Hero and POW

Jack: Civil War Dog Hero and POW


Jack became famous in history as the mascot for the 102nd Pennsylvania Infantry. When captured, the regiment exchanged a Confederate prisoner for the dog who stood by them.




Before the outbreak of the Civil War, a stray bull terrier wandered into the firehouse of the Niagara Volunteer Company on Penn Avenue in Pittsburgh. At first, the men basically ignored the dog and some were even unkindly to him. After one man kicked the dog, fracturing his leg, some took pity on him and helped nurse him back to health. After fighting a much larger dog to the finish, the bull terrier won the respect from all the tough men in the firehouse. The dog, given the name Jack, became a part of the team and went on to answer every fire call the company ran.

When volunteers were needed for the war, most of the firemen enlisted in the 102nd Pennsylvania Volunteers Regiment and took Jack with them. Jack was a smart dog and quickly learned what the different bugle calls meant. The regiment's first duty was to defend Washington, DC, which they did during August 1861 until March 1862. After that, they fought in many bloody and deadly battles. Jack would run to the front lines during battle and after each battle he would comfort the wounded and dying soldiers and later search for the dead. If the men were in need of water or food while marching, Jack would lead them to a water source and catch small animals for them to eat.

Jack was wounded twice during his time of service. At Malvern Hill he was severely wounded when he was shot through the shoulder and neck. The medics of the regiment were able to save him and soon Jack was back on the field. He suffered lesser wounds while at Fredericksburg. Jack was also captured twice by the Confederate soldiers. Once he was able to escape six hours after being captured, and the other time he was held as a prisoner of war (POW) for six months before he was exchanged for a Confederate prisoner. While in prison, Jack's presence cheered up and gave hope to other Union prisoners.

In August 1864, the men of the regiment raised $75 and bought a silver collar and medal for Jack while in Pittsburgh on veteran furlough. On December 23, 1864, Jack disappeared and was never seen again. Some believe he was killed by somebody who wanted his silver collar.


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16 Nisan 2016 Cumartesi

Sallie Ann: Civil War Dog Hero

Sallie Ann: Civil War Dog Hero


Sallie Ann Jarrett became a famous dog hero in the deadliest war in American history. The brave and loyal canine stood by her fellow soldiers for almost three years in some of the bloodiest battles during the Civil War.




In May 1861, a civilian presented a four week old bull terrier to the 11th Pennsylvania Infantry at a training camp in West Chester. The men named the little brindle puppy Sallie Ann Jarrett - after Sallie Ann, a pretty young lady of a nearby town who would drop by to visit, and after their commander Colonel P. Jarrett. Sallie, who could barely get around on her short wobbly legs, became the official regimental mascot. She was well taken care of and soon became very fond of her new friends. Sallie Ann adapted quickly to army life, learning the various drum rolls and bugle calls. She joined the soldiers at their drills, and eventually learned to take her place at the head of the regiment with the colonel's horse.

The regiment and Sallie proceeded south to engage the rebels in April 1862. She saw her first combat at Cedar Mountain. Sallie went with the men to the front lines and would bark furiously at the enemy. She was brave when under enemy fire, and even a bit humorous when she would chase after the bullets that struck the ground around them.

On September 17, 1862, the soldiers were fighting in the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, the Battle of Antietam. The men attempted to send Sallie to the rear to protect her from the vicious fighting, but the dedicated dog refused to go. Thousands of lives were taken that day. Sallie survived, and gave birth to 10 puppies one month later. When weaned, the little dogs were sent north to good families while Sallie remained with the soldiers.

In the spring of 1863, Sallie as usual at the head of her regiment stood before Abraham Lincoln during the Army of the Potomac's review. Legend says the president doffed his tall stovepipe hat to acknowledge the dog.

In July 1863, Sallie became separated from her regiment during the retreat through Gettysburg, and the men feared she had been killed. She was unable to pass through the Confederate army to reach her unit so she went back to their previous location on Oak Ridge. Three days later, after the battle, a member of the brigade found the tired and hungry dog guarding her wounded and deceased comrades.

On May 8, 1864, Sallie was shot in the neck, was treated and returned to active duty a few days later. The bullet, a minie ball, remained lodged in her neck for several months before it worked its way out, leaving a noticeable and honorable battle scar.

On the night of February 5, 1865, Sallie kept waking the men with her mournful cries as though she knew something bad was about to happen. The following morning, Sallie Ann was struck by a bullet and killed during the Battle of Hatcher's Run - three months before the end of the war.

“Poor Sallie fell in the front line in the fight at the Run - a bullet pierced her brain,” mourned a fellow soldier in a letter after the battle. “She was buried where she fell, by some of the boys, even whilst under a murderous fire, so much had they become attached to the poor brute, who so long had shared with them the toilsome march and the perils of battle. It would, indeed, be a pleasant reverie if one could reconcile himself the poor Indian’s theory of the happy hunting-grounds, where his faithful dog would bear him company.”





Close up of Sallie Ann Jarrett at the base of the 11th Pennsylvania Infantry monument

In 1890, the veterans of the 11th Pennsylvania Infantry erected their monument at Gettysburg. One veteran described the monument as “A bronze soldier on top, looking over the field, while the dog, Sallie, is lying at the base keeping guard.”

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28 Eylül 2015 Pazartesi

Civil War Recruitment Building

Civil War Recruitment Building

Built in 1823, the Civil War Recruitment Building, located in the Borough of Waterford, was used as the the recruitment center for the Pennsylvania 83rd regiment, Company E, during the Civil War.

The building, though historical in its significance, is not listed on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Erie County. Owned and maintained by a private owner, under the cover of darkness on a Monday morning on Labor Day in 2014 the owner removed and threw away all the architectural wood trim and ornamentation that defined the building’s period, then proceeded to cover the building entirely with vinyl siding, creating a modern facade.

During the civil war Waterford was the designated recruitment center for the surrounding area. The recruitment building, located on the east side of High Street, between South Park and East Second Street, was home to the Pennsylvania 83rd regiment, commonly called the 83rd Pennsylvania.

The 83rd Pennsylvania was a volunteer infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. They participated in almost every major battle in the East, including Seven Days Battles, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Petersburg and the South’s Surrender. They, alongside the 20th Maine, 44th New York and the 16th Michigan, fought in the spirited defense of Little Round Top in which former regiment commander Colonel Strong Vincent, native of Waterford, was mortally wounded. The 83rd Pennsylvania suffered the second-highest number of battle deaths among Union Army infantry regiments during the war, behind only the 5th New Hampshire.

The regiment was mustered into United States service on September 8, 1861, then Mustered out June 28, 1865, after the war. During the war the Regiment lost during service 11 Officers and 271 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded, and 2 Officers and 151 Enlisted men by disease. Total 435.

The recruitment building before the modern facade
The recruitment building before the modern facade.

The recruitment building before the modern facade
The recruitment building before the modern facade.

The recruitment building today, with the modern facade
The recruitment building today, with the modern facade.

21 Haziran 2015 Pazar

Erie County’s Civil War History

Erie County’s Civil War History

When announcement came that the slave-holding States had inaugurated civil war, the people of Erie County were practically unanimous in the sentiment that the Union must be preserved. Party differences were forgotten, for the time being, and men of all shades of politics were united together in acts of patriotism. The national flag was displayed from hundreds of buildings, and in all the towns and villages vast and enthusiastic meetings were held to declare in favor of sustaining the Government. Amid the general patriotism, none were more earnest and active than the ministers of the Gospel, who, as a class, allowed no opportunity to pass by which they might advance the cause of the Union. The church, as a body, was warmly enlisted on the side of the Government, and did quite as much in its way, as any other instrumentality, in firing the public heart, inducing volunteering and building up a solemn faith in the ultimate triumph of the national army.

The first war meeting in the county was held in Wayne Hall, Erie, on the 26th of April, 1861. It was very largely attended, and was presided over by William A. Galbraith, one of the leading Democrats of the Northwest. Speeches were made, in addition to Mr. Galbraith's, by George H. Cutler, John H. Walker and George W. DeCamp. A movement had already been started by Captain John W. McLane to organize a regiment to serve for three months. Volunteers were flocking to McLane's standard with surprising rapidity, and it was necessary to raise a fund for the support of the families of many of those who had enlisted. The sum of $7,000 for the purpose was subscribed at the meeting, which was increased in a few days to $17,000. The amount allowed to the needy out of this fund was $3.50 per week to the wife of each volunteer, and 50 cents per week for each of his children. Similar meetings were held in almost every town in the county, and volunteer relief funds were subscribed everywhere. The speakers in most general demand were Messrs. Galbraith and DeCamp.

The 1st Regiment

The camp of the three months' regiment was established on a piece of vacant ground in Erie at the southeast corner of Parade and Sixth streets, where volunteers poured in from all parts of the northwest. More offered in a few days than could be accepted, and many were reluctantly compelled to return home. As a sample of the spirit of the time, the borough and township of Waterford sent forward nearly 100 men. Five companies were recruited in Erie alone, but of these fully one-half were from other places. It was considered a privilege to be accepted, and those who failed to pass muster or arrived too late were grievously disappointed. The regiment left Erie for Pittsburgh at 2 P. M. on Wednesday, the 1st of May, being accompanied by Mehl's Brass Band. A vast crowd was at the railroad depot to witness its departure, and many affecting farewell scenes were witnessed. The regiment reached Pittsburgh at 9 A. M. the next day, and took up its quarters in Camp Wilkins. A number of its members were discharged because the companies to which they were attached exceeded their quota. On the 5th of May, the regiment was presented with a camp flag by the ladies of Pittsburgh, in the presence of 10,000 spectators. It received arms and uniforms on the 29th of May, and was carefully drilled every day that it remained in camp. For some reason, the regiment was never called into active service, and it returned to Erie on Saturday evening, July 20. An immense concourse welcomed the soldiers at the railroad depot, and escorted them to the West Park, where a public supper had been prepared by the ladies of the city. But one member died during the absence of the regiment,

The 83rd Regiment

In the meantime, the President had issued a call for 300,000 men for the war, and Colonel McLane had made a tender of a regiment for that service. Many of the members of the three months' regiment had volunteered to go with the Colonel, and they were accordingly dismissed until the 1st of August to await an answer to his proffer. On the 24th of July, Colonel McLane received an order authorizing him to recruit a new regiment. Those of the First Regiment who had re-enlisted were recalled, and recruiting began actively throughout the northwestern counties. The 83d regiment, composed principally of men from the counties of Erie, Crawford, Warren, Venango and Mercer, rendezvoused at Camp McLane, about two miles east of the City of Erie, and was mustered into service between July 29 and September 8, 1861, for three years, where the men were enlisted by Captain J.B. Bell, of the regular army.

While these measures were in progress, Captains Gregg and Bell, of the United States Army, opened a recruiting office in the city for the regular cavalry, and enlisted a considerable number of young men. The Perry Artillery Company, an Erie military organization, offered its services to the Government, and were accepted, with C.F. Mueller as Captain, and William F. Luetje as First Lieutenant.

An immense meeting was held in Farrar Hall, on the 24th of August, to assist in raising men for McLane's regiment. It was addressed by William A. Galbraith, James C. Marshall, George W. DeCamp, Col. McLane, Miles W. Caughey and Capt. John Graham. Meetings of a like character followed throughout the county. The principal speakers besides those named were Alfred King, Strong Vincent, William S. Lane, Morrow B. Lowry and Dan Rice. The harmonious feeling of the time is best illustrated by the statement that the Democrats and Republicans united in a Union pole-raising in Greenfield.

Simultaneously with the efforts in behalf of the new regiment, recruiting was going on with great vigor for the navy. Some sixty persons from Erie went to New York to serve under the command of lieutenant T.H. Stevens. Up to September 7, Captain Carter, of the United States steamer Michigan, had enlisted 700 seamen, who were forwarded in squads to the seaboard.

By September, the Ladies' Aid Society had been organized in Erie to furnish relief to the sick and wounded soldiers in the field, with branches in most of the towns in the county. It was maintained during the entire war, and did invaluable service. Through its labors, boxes of delicacies, hospital supplies, medicines and other comforts for the sick were forwarded to the front almost daily.

The regiment of Colonel McLane, on being reported full, was ordered to the front, and left for Harrisburg on the 16th of September. Its departure was attended by the same vast outpouring and marked by the same pathetic incidents as before, and none who were eye-witnesses will ever forget the scenes of the day. A flag was presented to it on the part of the State December 21, and it became officially known as the Eighty-third Regiment.

The 111st Regiment

Before the departure of the Eighty-third Regiment, Major M. Schlaudecker, of Erie, commenced recruiting for another, adopting the same place for his camp that had been occupied by Colonel McLane's command. Enlistments went on with such alacrity that the regiment left for the front on Tuesday, the 25th of February, 1862, at 2:30 P. M., with every company full. At Harrisburg, it was presented by Governor Curtin with a stand of colors, and took rank as the One Hundred and Eleventh Regiment. It is not necessary to say that the scenes at its departure from Erie were fully as affecting as those before stated. The regiment was accompanied by Zimmerman's Brass Band.

Among the important events in the early part of the year 1862 were the rumors of a war with Great Britain, and the projected naval depot on the lake, in anticipation of the same. A committee of citizens was sent on to Washington by the City Council, to urge the adoption of Erie as the site for the proposed establishment. On the 8th of January, the entire crew of the United States steamer Michigan was ordered to other points, with the exception of eight officers and men. March 8, the newspapers were notified by the Secretary of War that the publication of army movements would not be permitted. A meeting was held in Erie on the 12th of April to provide for the relief of those who might be wounded in the battles that were daily expected in Virginia. Considerable money was raised, and committees were appointed to furnish attendants for those who might need their services. By this date, the country was having war in earnest. Bodies of rebel prisoners were taken through on the Lake Shore Railroad every few days. It might be supposed that war matters absorbed the whole of public attention, but this was only the case in a general sense. All lines of trade and manufacture were carried on with unabated energy during the entire conflict, and a course of public lectures was maintained in the city each winter, comprising some of the most noted orators of the day.

The news of the battles around Richmond, in which the Eighty-third suffered terribly and Colonel McLane was killed, reached Erie in the latter part of June, and caused great mourning. Emblems of sorrow for the dead were placed on many buildings, and hospital stores were hastily sent forward for the wounded.

The 145th Regiment

Early in July the President called for 300,000 more troops, and of this number it was announced that Erie County's proportion was five companies of 100 men each. A meeting to encourage enlistments was held in Wayne Hall, at which the County Commissioners were asked to appropriate $100,000 toward equipping a new regiment. This was succeeded by others, both in Erie and in the country districts. The martial spirit had been much cooled by the disasters in Virginia, and it began to be necessary to offer extra inducements to volunteers. Erie City offered a bounty of $50 to each recruit and the various townships hastened to imitate its example. Another call for 300,000 men decided the County Commissioners to appropriate $25,000 to pay an additional bounty of the same amount. In August, for the third time, the fair grounds were turned into a military camp, and the organization of the One Hundred and Forty-fifth Regiment began. Recruits came forward rapidly, and the regiment left for the seat of war on the 11th of September.

At the same time that enlistments were in progress for the last-named regiment, volunteers were being gathered for other organizations. The navy was receiving numerous accessions, mainly from Erie. Captains Lennon, Miles and Roberts were each raising a cavalry company. It was officially reported that two hundred men had entered the navy from Erie City alone, up to the 16th of August.

The First Draft

Notwithstanding the large number of volunteers, the quota of Erie County, under the various calls of the President, was still short, and a draft seemed inevitable. The papers were full of articles urging the people, for the credit of the county, to avoid the draft, and meetings were constantly being held to induce volunteering. Many persons were badly scared over the probability of being forced into the service, and a few quietly took up their abode in Canada. As the chance of a draft became more certain, insurance companies were formed for the protection of the members. Those who joined these organizations paid a sum varying from $20 to $50, which was placed in a common fund, to procure substitutes for such of their number as might be drawn from the wheel of fate. While preparations for the draft were in progress, recruiting for both the army and the navy went on with great energy. On September 25, Captain Lennon's cavalry company left with full ranks, and by the 4th of October, Roberts' and Miles' companies were both in camp at Pittsburgh.

Toward the latter part of September, the State authorities became alarmed for the safety of Harrisburg, and a hasty call was issued for minutemen to assist in the defense of the capital. Six companies, including some of the leading business men, left Erie for Harrisburg, in response to the Governor's appeal, but, happily, were not needed to take part in any fighting. They returned in the beginning of October, far from pleased with their brief lesson in military duty.

Meanwhile, an enrollment of the militia had been made, preliminary to the draft, under the direction of I.B. Gara, who had been appointed a Commissioner for the purpose. These proceedings, as well as the subsequent measures in connection with the subject, were carried on under the State militia law, the Federal Government not having yet taken the matter into its hands. W.P. Gilson was appointed a Deputy Marshal to prevent the escape of persons liable to conscription into Canada. The officers to manage the draft were B.B.Vincent, Commissioner, and Charles Brandes, Surgeon. Governor Curtin gave notice that volunteers for nine months would be accepted up to the day of drafting.

The draft was held in the grand jury room of the court house on the 16th of October, 1,055 names being drawn for the whole county, the owners of which were to serve for nine months. A blindfolded man drew the slips from the wheel, which were read as they came out to the crowd in attendance in and around the court house. There were many funny incidents, and some that were very sad indeed. North East and Springfield were the only districts in the county that escaped the draft, their quotas being full. In filling the wheel, all persons were exempted above the age of forty-five years; also, all ministers, school teachers and school directors.

After the draft, the main business for some weeks was hunting up substitutes. The price of these ranged from $50 to $250, though the average was in the neighborhood of $150. The act released parties from military service on payment of $300, and those who were able to raise the money generally availed themselves of the privilege. A good many persons who had concluded that the war was to be a long and bloody one, shrewdly put substitutes into the service for a term of three years. Swindlers were plenty, who hired out as substitutes, got their money in advance and then left for parts unknown. Some 300 persons were exempted for physical disability, about 250 failed to report, and, altogether, it is doubtful whether 500 of the drafted men ever went into the army. The first lot of conscripts, fifty-one in number, left for camp at Pittsburgh in the latter part of October, some 300 were forwarded on the 10th of November, and the balance went on at intervals between that and the end of the year. Andrew Scott was appointed a Provost Marshal to hunt up the delinquents, but hardly found enough to pay for the trouble. The Councils of Erie voted $45,000 for the relief of the families of conscripts from the city, and the Ladies' Aid Society supplied each family with a Thanksgiving dinner at its place of residence. A majority of the conscripts reached home by the ensuing August. Few saw any fighting and the number of deaths was quite meager.

Other Matters

By fall prices had gone up 25 to 40 per cent, with a steady tendency to advance. The National tax law was in full operation, and county, city and township levies were largely increased to provide money for bounties. Gold and silver had disappeared from circulation, and national treasury notes, or greenbacks, as they came to be known, were slowly finding their way into use, but the principal medium of exchange still consisted of the notes of uncertain State banks, county and city scrip and Government fractional currency or shin plasters. Even of the latter there were not enough for public convenience, and business men resorted to cheeks and due bills for fractional parts of a dollar. To meet the demand for small change, the city issued scrip in sums of 5, 10, 20, 25 and 50 cents, which proved of much convenience for the time being.

While this was the state of affairs financially, political feeling grew daily more intense. The term Copperhead, as applied to the Democrats, came into use about the beginning of 1863, and the latter, to retort upon the Republicans, styled them Blacksnakes, Revolutionists, Radicals and other names more forcible than polite. The Republicans taunted the Democrats with being opposed to the war, and the latter answered by saying that the Republicans aimed at the destruction of the people's liberty. Looking at the subject now, the embittered partisanship of the day seems supremely foolish and incomprehensible. There were true patriots on both sides, and both parties doubtless contained men who were more anxious for the triumph of selfish ends than of or the good of the country. The mass of the people were patriotic, no matter by what party name they called themselves.

The Second Draft

Early in the year 1863, Congress passed an act taking the matter of conscription out of the hands of the States, rendering all persons liable between the ages of twenty and forty-five, except such as were exempt from physical causes, or for other special reasons, and making each Congressional district a military district, under the supervision of a Provost Marshal, an Enrolling Commissioner and an Examining Surgeon, to be appointed by the President. To escape military duty, when called upon, it was made necessary to prove exemption, furnish a substitute or pay $300. Lieutenant Colonel H.S. Campbell, late of the Eighty-third Regiment, was named as Marshal; Jerome Powell, of Elk County, as Commissioner; and Dr. John Mackim of Jefferson County, as Surgeon, to act for this Congressional district. Headquarters were established at Waterford, and a new enrollment was made during the months of May and June. In the prosecution of their duties, the enrolling officers met with some hostility among the laborers and mechanics of the city, but nothing occurred of a serious nature. The Government was now enlisting Negroes into the army, and bodies of those troops passed through Erie frequently.

The news of the rebel invasion of Pennsylvania, and of the battles at Gettysburg caused a wonderful commotion throughout the county. The Governor made an urgent appeal for militia to defend the State, and instant measures were taken in response. A vast meeting was held in Erie on the evening of June 15, at which earnest speeches were made by Messrs. Lowry, Sill, Galbraith, Walker, Marvin, McCreary and others, pointing out the duty of the people to drive the enemy from the soil of Pennsylvania. About 400 citizens enlisted for the State defense, but, on reaching Pittsburgh, they were ordered home, the victory of Meade having rendered their immediate service unnecessary. Generous contributions of hospital stores were sent to the wounded Erie County soldiers at Gettysburg by the efforts of the Ladies' Aid Society. The fall of Vicksburg and Meade's triumph were celebrated in Erie with great rejoicing.

By reference to the newspapers of the day, we find that in June, Captain Mueller was in Erie recruiting another battery. Large numbers of young men were shipping in the navy. The citizens were making extraordinary exertions to avert another draft. Insurance companies against the draft were formed by the score, and hundreds of persons were putting in claims for exemption to the enrolling officers. Eastern regiments were passing through the city as often as two or three a week, on their way home to fill up their ranks. Not a few liable to military service were slipping off to Canada, and an occasional instance was reported of young men cunningly maiming themselves to secure exemption. The only portion of the male population who felt really comfortable were the deformed, the crippled and the over-aged.

The second draft in numerical order, and the first under the United States law, occurred at Waterford, under the supervision of the officers above named, on Monday and Tuesday, the 24th and 25th of August. The wheel stood on a platform in front of the Provost Marshal's office, and the names were drawn by a blind man. An audience of a thousand or more surrounded the officers, one of whom took each slip as it came out of the wheel and read it aloud, so that all present could hear. The crowd was good natured throughout the proceedings, but many a man who assumed indifference when his name was drawn was at heart sick and sore. The saddest features of the case did not appear to the public; they were only known to the parents, the wives and the children of the conscripts. It is impossible to state the number who were drafted, but as the county was announced to be nearly 1,400 short of its quota a week or so before, it is probable that it did not fall much below that figure. The price of substitutes ran up to $300, with the supply quite up to the demand. On the 26th of September, it was stated in the newspapers that eighty-three of the conscripts had furnished substitutes, 245 had paid commutation, 706 had been exempted and 127 had been forwarded to camp at Pittsburgh.

The fall election for Governor was one of the most exciting in the history of State politics. Meetings were held in all parts of the county by both parties, and much bad feeling prevailed.

Lively Recruiting

In October, appeared a call from President Lincoln for 300,000 more men.

On the heels of this, Governor Curtin announced Pennsylvania's quota to be 38,268, which he asked to be made up by volunteering. A general bounty of $402 was offered to veterans who should re-enlist, and $100 less to new recruits. To this sum the county added $300, and most of the districts $50 to $100 more.

During a portion of the season, the United States steamer Michigan, which had been fully manned again, was guarding Johnson Island, in the upper part of the lake, where about two thousand rebel prisoners were confined, whom rumor accused of a design to escape. In the month of November, reports became current of a proposed rebel invasion from Canada, Erie being named as the landing place. This was the most startling news, in a local sense, that had yet arisen out of the war, and our citizens were correspondingly agitated. While the excitement was at its height, 600 troops arrived from Pittsburgh, with a battery, all under the command of Major General Brooks. The latter directed entrenchments to be thrown up on the blockhouse bluff, and called upon the Citizens to lend him their assistance. Something like one thousand obeyed his summons, with picks and shovels, on the first day, but the workers dwindled woefully in number on the second day. The rumor, which was absurd from the start, soon proved to be false, the work was abandoned, and the troops left for the South in a few days, with the exception of the battery.

The encouragement given by the large bounties did much to promote volunteering. Erie County's quota of the new call was 673, which it was determined by the public should be made up without a draft. On the 14th of January, 1864, the members of the One Hundred and Eleventh Regiment came home to recruit their ranks. They were given a grand reception at the depot, and treated by the ladies to a sumptuous repast in Wayne Hall. The regiment went into camp on the fair grounds, and remained until February 25, when they left for the seat of war with ranks nearly full. A good many members of the Eighty-third Regiment, whose terms had expired, also came home in January, and were received with the cordiality their bravery entitled them to. Seventy-five more arrived on the 4th of March.

Among the features at the beginning of 1864, it is to be noted that two recruiting officers for the regular army were busy at work in the city. The national currency had supplanted all other paper circulation, and, being issued in vast amounts, had inflated prices to twice and thrice their normal standard. A remarkable speculation had commenced in real estate. Sixty persons had enlisted from Erie in the navy and hosts of others were thinking of doing the same in preference to entering the army. Several squads of negro soldiers passed through Erie from Waterford, where they had been accepted to apply on the quota of the county. Five or six criminals were released from prison by the court at the May session on condition that they must join the army.

To the joy of all, when the day for the draft arrived, Erie County escaped, her proportion having been raised. A few names were drawn, however, for the other counties of the Congressional district.

Half A Million More

The call of the President, in July, for 500,000 more men, was succeeded by the usual periodical endeavor to avoid the draft, which had become the all-exciting topic of discussion. At a meeting in Erie, $20,000 was subscribed to offer extra inducements to volunteers, besides the United States, county and district bounties. The quota of the county was stated to be 1,289, and of this, the city's proportion was about one hundred and fifty. Provost Marshal Campbell, in pursuance of instructions, gave notice that Negroes would be taken as substitutes. This hint was eagerly accepted, and Asa Battles, John W. Halderman and Richard M. Broas were deputed to go to the Southwest and pick up recruits to apply on the quota of Erie County. Meanwhile Ensign Bone had opened an office in the city, where he was shipping men by the hundred for the navy. About a thousand entered the service through that channel, receiving an average bounty of $400. The price of substitutes had increased to $550, $600 and $700.

President Lincoln was re-elected in November, after a contest which has never been surpassed in the hatred it engendered, and the vigor with which it was fought on both sides. Every speaker who could be mustered was forced upon the stump, and there was scarcely a cross-roads that did not have its mass meetings, pole raisings and political clubs. The great processions of the two parties in Erie during that campaign were the chief events of a life-time to many of the participants. Notwithstanding the heated canvas, the election passed off without a disturbance, and the defeated party acquiesced in the result with the calmness of a martyr.

On the 10th of November, there were two companies of home guards in Erie organized especially for State defense.

Nearing The End

The call for 300,000 more men in January, 1865, led the Councils of Erie to increase their offer of a bounty to $150, which was ultimately increased to $400. A draft took place at Ridgway, where the Provost Marshal's office had been moved from Waterford, on the 6th of March, in which 2,010 names were drawn from Erie County. The only district that did not have to contribute was Girard Borough. The names of the conscripts were telegraphed to Erie and read to the anxious thousands in waiting, from a window of the Wright Block. Occasionally, a sound of forced laughter would be heard as some excitable person's name was announced, but the general bearing of the crowd was solemn and painful. Hundreds of women were in the crowd, and their distress upon learning of the conscription of some father, husband or brother was most pitiful. The people were at last face to face with war's sternest and cruelest realities. The Legislature had passed an act authorizing any district to pay a bounty of $400, and large sums were now offered for volunteers and substitutes. The price of the latter at one period rose to $1,500, but got down finally to an average of between $700 and $800. Of the drafted men, a good portion entered the service and were mostly assigned to guard duty in the forts at and near Washington. The majority of them were back by the close of June.

On Sunday, April 9, came the glad news of the surrender of General Lee, which was everywhere hailed as the virtual end of the war. The demonstration in Erie over the event was the most joyful and impressive in the city's history. Cannons were fired, bells were rung, flags were thrown to the breeze, and the whole population shouted themselves hoarse for the Union and its gallant soldiers. The illumination in the evening made the streets almost as bright as the noonday sun.

This universal gladness was quickly changed to profound sorrow by the assassination of President Lincoln on that dreadful Friday, the 14th of April. Emblems of mourning instantly took the place of the tokens of victory, and every warehouse, shop and business establishment was closed on Saturday. The special train bearing the martyred President's remains to Springfield, passed through the City of Erie on the 28th of April at 2:50 A.M. There was no particular demonstration gathered at the depot to pay their last tribute of respect to the president.

9 Nisan 2015 Perşembe

Troops from Erie at Lee's Surrender

Troops from Erie at Lee's Surrender

Surrounded by overwhelming numbers of Union Army troops, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his 30,000-troop Army of Northern Virginia in the village of Appomattox Court House. Lee's surrender occurred one day after his army's attempted to retrieve badly needed train supplies at nearby Appomattox Station, where he was thwarted by Union forces commanded by General Ulysses S. Grant.

When Lee met Grant at the McLean House to discuss and sign surrender terms and documents on April 9, 1865, elements of the Erie-area 83rd Pennsylvania Regiment were in the vicinity of Appomattox village. Lee surrendered to Grant on April 9, but the actual surrender ceremony at Appomattox didn't occur until April 12. A small number of 83rd Regiment troops were present that day at Appomattox. Some elements of the 83rd came forward to Appomattox with supplies. Union Brigadier General Joshua Chamberlain wrote to his sister on April 13, in his letter he mentions the units that were there, and he includes the 83rd Regiment.

The 83rd Pennsylvania Regiment consisted of men from Erie County and Northwestern Pennsylvania. Formed in September 1861, the 83rd Volunteer Infantry fought in nearly every eastern battlefield during the war and was regarded as one of the Civil War's most distinguished Union regiments. During the Battle of Appomattox Station on April 8, 1865, the Union Cavalry, commanded by Major General George A. Custer, fought mostly Confederate artillery personnel west of Appomattox Court House. Fighting lasted from late afternoon to dusk. Union forces ended the clash holding the high ground west of Appomattox Court House, blocking Lee's line of retreat. After fighting west of Appomattox Court House on April 9, Confederate forces found themselves surrounded by about 100,000 Union troops, prompting Lee's surrender. Most of the 83rd Regiment was stationed about 43 miles southeast of Appomattox Court House, at Burkeville, Virginia.

The regiment spent that previous week guarding Confederate prisoners and Union Army supply wagons and trains. On any given day different companies in the 83rd Regiment would have been assigned to different tasks on different roads, guarding supply trains and wagons. They found themselves moving supplies forward to Appomattox. Burkeville was a hub for Union Army supply trains.

After learning of Lee's surrender, Confederate General Joe Johnston met three times in April 1865 with Union General William Sherman near Durham, North Carolina. On April 26, 1865, Johnston surrendered his Army of Tennessee and all remaining Confederate forces still active in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida; about 90,000 soldiers. The 83rd Pennsylvania Regiment was among three Erie-area Civil War Union regiments, also including the 111th Regiment, and the 145th Regiment, that fought extensively throughout the conflict — Men from Erie County and Northwestern Pennsylvania also served in the 111th and 145th regiments.

The 83rd Regiment incurred the second-highest number of battle deaths of any Union regiment in the Civil War. The 83rd Regiment suffered 435 casualties — 282 killed or mortally wounded and 153 who died of disease, according to the reference book Regimental Losses in the Civil War. The book was researched and compiled by Union Army Colonel William Fox and first published in 1898. Fox is quoted to have said of the 83rd. "None of its losses were caused by blunders. None occurred in disastrous routs. Its dead always lay with their faces toward the enemy.''

Civil War casualties for the 111th Regiment totaled 304 — 145 killed or mortally wounded and 159 disease-related deaths. Casualties for the 145th Regiment totaled 422 — 205 killed or mortally wounded and 217 who died from disease. It’s Estimated that about 6,000 Erie County men served in the military during the Civil War, including about 1,000 who served in the Navy. More than 1,000 soldiers from Erie County were either killed or died from disease during the war.