CHAPTER XVI.
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ORIGIN AND EARLY INCIDENTS OF THE CIVIL WAR -
PATRIOTIC SPIRIT IN SCHUYLKILL COUNTY.

     THE limits and scope of this work will not permit even an enumeration of all the events that led to the civil war.  It is quite proper, however, that a brief mention should be made of some of the more important and immediate antecedents of the contest, in which many of the citizens of this county bore a conspicuous and honorable part, and in which many laid down their lives.
     The doctrine which has by some been termed a grand political heresy—that of State sovereignty or, as it was improperly termed at the south. State rights—was what led to the civil war.  By this is meant the right of a State to set aside any act of Congress which may be deemed unconstitutional by the State authorities.  This doctrine was distinctly set forth in the famous Kentucky resolutions of 1798, and was for a long time accepted by many, perhaps a majority, in all parts of the country.  It involves not the right of nullification alone, but that of secession.

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South Carolina in 1832 was dissatisfied with the protective tariff which Congress established, and adopted an ordinance of nullification and secession.  A compromite was effected, some concessions to her prejudices were made and she repealed her ordinance.
     The question of the introduction of slavery into Kansas arose, and the people of the northern States evinced a determination to prevent it, in which they were successful.  In 1856 threats of secession were freely uttered in case of the success of the Republican party, which in 1855 had been formed on the issue of slavery extension.  In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected President, and this was regarded by southern statesmen as the finishing stroke against the extension of their institution, and they proceeded to execute their threats.  South Carolina took the lead in this, followed by Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Virginia, Florida and Louisiana, all of which before the end of November issued calls for State conventions to consider the question of secession.  In this they were followed after a time by Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas and North Carolina, all of which adopted ordinances of secession.
     South Carolina adopted the ordinance on the first day of December, 1860.  Three days later Governor Pickens issued his proclamation, declaring it to be a "separate sovereign, free and independent State, having a right to levy war, conclude peace, negotiate treaties," etc.
     John B. Floyd, of Virginia, was at that time Secretary of War.  He had caused 70,000 stand of arms to be placed in the arsenal at Charleston, and had put that arsenal in the care of the governor of South Carolina; and thus when the State seceded it was able to possess itself of these arms, and it was also found that the northern arsenals generally had been depleted and the arms sent south.  Many of the ships of the navy had been sent to distant seas, and the government was left without efficient resources with which to repress a sudden uprising.
     The senators from South Carolina were the first to resign their seats, followed by others, and by members of the cabinet and of the House of Representatives.  Texas, the last of the seven States which united in forming the "Southern Confederacy," adopted the ordinance of secession February 1st, 1861.  On the 4th of the same month the delegates that had been appointed by the conventions for that purpose met at Montgomery, Ala., to form a government.  They adopted the constitution of the United States, with some additions and alterations, as the constitution of the Confederate States, and chose for provisional President and Vice-President Jefferson Davis and Alexander H. Stephens.
     When South Carolina passed the ordinance of secession in December, 1860. Fort Moultrie, in Charleston harbor, was garrisoned by sixty effective men in command of Major Anderson.  The fort was not secure against attack, and Major Anderson was denied reinforcements.  Accordingly on the night of December 20th he removed his force to Fort Sumter, which had been quietly prepared for his occupation.  He had been instructed by the President "not to take up without necessity any position which could be construed into a hostile attitude, but to hold possession of t1ie forts, and if attacked defend himself." This evacuation of Fort Moultrie therefore surprised the President and aroused the indignation of the South Carolinians, who thought they had a pledge from the President to prevent such removal.  He was induced to take this step because he entertained just apprehensions of the occupation of Fort Sumter by the South Carolina troops, and an attack on his small force in the nearly defenseless fort where he was, in which case it would have been impossible for him to hold out a day.
     Three commissioners that had been appointed by the South Carolina Convention "to treat with the United States " repaired to Washington, and in obedience to their instructions demanded that Major Anderson should be ordered back to Fort Moultrie, and, in case of refusal, that the forts in Charleston harbor should be unconditionally evacuated.  About this time the government offices, forts, etc., were possessed by the state troops, who were supplied with arms and ammunition from the arsenal.
     An attempt was made by the government to revictual and reinforce Fort Sumter, and for that purpose the steamer "Star of the West " was sent in January, 1861, with two hundred men, provisions, ammunition, etc.  She was fired on from Morris Island, was struck by several shot and compelled to return without landing her troops and cargo.
     April 12th, 1861, at 4 a. m., the bombardment of Fort Sumter was commenced from the batteries of Fort Moultrie, Sullivan's Island and elsewhere.  The rebel forces were under the command of General Beauregard, who demanded the surrender of the fort.  Major Anderson replied that he would only surrender when his supplies were exhausted.  The cannonading was kept up with spirit on both sides.  The result was the surrender of the fort on the 13th, and on the 14th Major Anderson and his command left on the steamer "Isabel" for New York.
     After the attack on Fort Sumter it was feared that the Confederate troops would march at once on Washington, and all the available forces were so disposed as to afford the best protection to the capital possible with the meagre number of troops available.  Measures were immediately taken to raise troops in several States, and thousands of volunteers at once offered their services.  President Lincoln promptly issued his proclamation and call for 75,000 troops for three months, and stated that they would first be used to "repossess the forts, places and property which had been seized from the Union."  The proclamation also called a special session of Congress for the next 4th of July, to do whatever might be deemed necessary for the public safety. Another proclamation, declaring a blockade, was soon issued.
     To the call for volunteers the people of the loyal States responded with the utmost alacrity.  Only two days after Governor Andrew, of Massachusetts, issued orders calling for troops, two regiments were on their way to Washing-

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ton.  In every city and almost every village in the loyal north meetings were held, large sums of money were pledged for the support of the families of volunteers, regiments were raised and sent forward, and a degree of patriotic feeling was aroused the existence of which had by some been doubted.
     On the 29th of April the President called for 40,000 volunteers to serve three years, and 25,000 regulars for five years' service.  In his message to Congress, which convened in special session in July, he recommended the passage of a law authorizing the raising of 400,000 men and placing $400,000,000 at the disposal of the government, in order to make this contest a short and decisive one.  During the nine days of the session acts were passed to legalize the past action of the President, to authorize the calling out of 500,000 volunteers, to appropriate some $266,000,000 for the prosecution of the war, and to confiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes.
     At the breaking out of the war hardly any one anticipated a struggle of beyond two or three months; but instead of the short, decisive war that was at first anticipated, the contest was prolonged through four years, with an expenditure of life and treasure unparalleled in the history of similar wars.  During this time the union forces experienced alternate successes and reverses till the decisive triumphs of Grant and Sheridan, the resistless march of Sherman to the sea, and the complete exhaustion of the enemy's resources, brought the consummation for which the friends of the Union had so long
labored and prayed.  The tension at which the feelings of the friends of humanity had been held during four years was relaxed, and the world breathed free again.
     In this county, as in all parts of the country, the departure of the first companies of volunteers was an occasion of peculiar interest.  It was the first time in the history of the country that the national existence had been threatened, and the patriotic feelings of every loyal citizen were roused into intense activity.  It was the first general call which had been made on the present generation for volunteers to serve in the field, and, of course, the first occasion on which the people had been called to bid adieu to fathers, sons or brothers, who took their lives in their hands for the defense of their country.  They experienced a higher pride in the patriotism of their kindred and friends, and a more poignant grief at parting than they felt on similar occasions afterward; for the acuteness of these feelings was, to some extent, worn away by frequent exercise, and after the first departure less of idle curiosity was felt.
     The brave volunteers of Schuylkill county who left the comforts of their homes, their social and domestic pleasures, and who severed for the time the ties which
linked them to their families and friends, to rally for the defense of the institutions under which they had been permitted to enjoy these comforts, pleasures and affections; to face the stern realities of grim-visaged war, to endure the hardships and privations of the field, to inhale the pestilential emanations from southern swamps, to languish in sickness and pain on pallets, "with no hand of kindred to smooth their lone pillows," and too often to find solitary graves where neither mother nor sister, wife nor children could come to "drop affection's tear," deserve a more extended history than the limits of this work will permit.  They constituted parts of organizations the balance of which carne from other regions, and their histories are inseparably connected with those of these organizations.
     On the receipt of the intelligence that the national flag had been fired on the people in Schuylkill county at once forgot party distinctions, and came to be actuated
by the feeling that the government must at all hazards be sustained.
     On Monday, April 15th, at noon, the proclamation of the President was received.  The requisition for troops came on Tuesday, the 16th, and on Wednesday, the 17th, two days from the time of receiving the proclamation, two companies, the Washington Artillerists and the National Light Infantry—numbering some two hundred and fifty men—were marching for Harrisburg and Washington.  New companies were at once formed in various parts of the county, and their lists were rapidly filled.  Such was the patriotic ardor aroused that men whose heads were white with age and scarcely adolescent youths presented themselves, and so great was their anxiety to serve their country that they regarded their rejection as a hardship.
     On the evening of the 16th a meeting convened at the court-house in Pottsville, at which patriotic resolutions were adopted and five trustees—Andrew Russel, Thomas H. Walker, S. N. Palmer, Levi Huber and Benjamin Haywood—were appointed to take charge of subscriptions and funds for the aid of the families of volunteers.  During the meeting subscriptions to the amount of $5,200 were received, and within four days this amount was increased to $6,915, from 77 contributors.  Similar meetings were held in other parts of the county, and within a week a total of $24,286 was subscribed.
     Of this fund Burd Patterson & Son subscribed $1,000, William H. Johns $250, Christopher Loeser, James S.
Kirk and Gideon Bast each $200, and each of the following $100:

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Many others contributed smaller sums, according to their ability.
     By the 24th of April 22 companies, aggregating 1860, men, had left the county for the seat of war.  Of these 1,600 had reached Washington on the evening of the seventh day after the issue of the President's proclamation.  At a meeting on the 25th a draft was adopted of a law authorizing and requiring the county commissioners to levy a tax of two and a half mills on the dollar, according to the last valuation of the property in the county, to constitute a fund for the benefit of families of volunteers who required assistance.  Under a resolution at this meeting a committee of three in each township and borough was appointed to report the families of volunteers requiring aid.  Meetings were held in all parts of the county, and everywhere prompt measures were adopted to sustain the government in its hour of peril.  A number of the patriotic women of the county organized a "Nurse's Corps " and tendered their services to the government through the Secretary of War.
     The patriotic spirit which the ladies of this county thus early manifested did not forsake them, but throughout the war they labored in their sphere for the comfort of those who had left their homes and gone forth to face the stern realities of "grim-visaged war," in the defense of their country and its institutions.  Many a soldier, as he languished in a distant hospital, far from wife, mother, sisters and friends, has had occasion to bless his unknown benefactress who sent from among the mountains in Schuylkill county some article for his comfort, or some delicacy which the government was not able to furnish.  Ladies' aid societies were organized in different parts of the county, auxiliary to a central society at Pottsville through which the contributions of these societies were forwarded to hospitals or to recent battle fields; and by this system the patriotic benevolence of these ladies was made available for the objects of it more fully than could have been done had each acted independently of the other.
     Truth compels the admission that though, in the first wave of patriotism that swept over the county, as well as the entire north, no sympathy with the enemies of the country was discernable, yet as time wore on a small party of skulking sympathizers with those enemies was found to exist here.  That such a feeling should exist among the comparatively ignorant was not a matter of surprise; but that an educated and somewhat influential professional man could be found to foster and encourage disloyal sentiments among these was a cause of deep regret and chagrin among the better class of citizens in the county.
     On the evening of April 17th five Pennsylvania companies, including two from Schuylkill county, mentioned above, had reported at Harrisburg.  As they passed
through Baltimore the next day they were insulted and assaulted by the mob which the day after attacked the 6th Massachusetts.  They reached Washington at 7 P.M. of the 18th, being the first to reach the city in reponse to the call of the 15th, for which promptness they were subsequently voted the thanks of the House of
Representatives.  They were quartered in the capitol, on the Potomac front of which they immediately commenced the construction of temporary defenses.  During the period of their enlistment they were engaged in various duties in and about Washington.  They became a part of the 25th regiment, of which Lieutenant H. L. Cake, of the National Light Infantry, was made colonel, and Captain John B. Selheimer, of the Logan Guards, lieutenant-colonel.  An evidence of the good quality of the soldiers composing these companies is found in the fact that of one of them more than half afterward became commissioned officers, of every rank from lieutenant to brigadier-general.
     The muster rolls of the companies as they reached Harrisburg were as follows:

WASHINGTON ARTILLERY.

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NATIONAL LIGHT INFANTRY

     In 1862 an invasion of Pennsylvania by the rebels was threatened, and Governor Curtin on the 10th of September in that year issued an order calling on the militia to organize, arm and be in readiness for a sudden call.
Says Wallace:
     "The order had the desired effect throughout the State, and nowhere was there a deeper feeling of earnestness and determination than in Schuylkill county.  The people closed their places of business and went to drilling.  Companies were organized throughout the county and ready to move at a moment's notice.  The order came on the 13th of September, and between that date and the 17th eighteen companies left the county for Harrisburg for State defense.  One company of cavalry started, but was ordered back before reaching Harrisburg."
     These companies returned after a campaign of two weeks. Some of them were in line of battle, but none were actually engaged.

- END OF CHAPTER XVI -