Lancaster at Shiloh: Pvt. F. J. Bender

"Battle of Shiloh" Lithograph by Prang & Co. (Source: Library of Congress)

77th Pa. Monument at Shiloh
(from regimental history)

Besides a few stray men and officers with Lancaster connections, Lancaster County's only real representation at Shiloh was one full company and two partial companies in the 77th Pennsylvania.  As part of McCook's division, they participated in the counterattack around the middle of the Union line and helped salvage the battle for the Union cause.  As the only Pennsylvania regiment at Shiloh, the regiment's veterans--led by John Obreiter of Lancaster--erected a monument there after the war, and published a book, The Seventy-Seventh Pennsylvania at Shiloh, about the regiment and the monument.

The first Lancasterian of the 77th Pennsylvania to write home publicly about the battle was Pvt. F. J. Bender of Company C.  As one of 14 men from the town of Mount Joy to join Company C, Bender wrote regularly to the Church Advocate, a religious newspaper published in Lancaster by the Church of God.  His letter of April 10, 1862, describes the experience of battle from the vantage point of a rational, literate, articulate Civil War soldier.      

From the May 8, 1862, Church Advocate: (alternate link)

Settling In South of Nashville: Camp Andy Johnson

Lithograph of the First Union Dress Parade in Nashville, March 4, 1862 (Library of Congress)

After marching through Nashville on March 7, 1862, the 79th Pennsylvania and the rest of McCook's division spent the next couple weeks positioned a couple miles south of the city at Camp Andrew Johnson.  Here they spent time on an active picket line guarding against Rebels threatening from the direction of Franklin, Tennessee.  On March 9, the 1st Wisconsin--another regiment in the 79th PA's brigade--was attacked and suffered a few casualties including one killed. 

Their interactions with Southern civilians continued.  Sergt. William T. Clark of Company B recorded in his diary entry of March 12:

Two men came up in a carriage who had escaped from Memphis where the Rebels are drafting men for their Army. A black man came who wanted to go to his master who lived in Nashville & who had hired him to the Tennessee & Alabama R.R.Co. His wife lived with her master 27 miles from Nashville & near where he had been working. At Franklin he saw 100 Rebel Calvary who said they would attack us tonight.

(As an aside, see this excellent post  by William G. Thomas for a discussion of the role of slaves as railroad laborers in the South.)

View of the Capitol, Nashville
(Library of Congress)

Opportunities also arose for the men of the 79th Pennsylvania to go back and explore the city of Nashville.  According to Sergt. Clark, four men from each company could receive a pass to visit the city each day.  On Sunday, March 23, Clark took his turn to attend worship at First Presbyterian Church and visit the impressive Capitol building as well as the City Cemetery, where several notables including Confederate General Felix Zollicoffer were buried.  Clark remarked, "In this cemetery, side by side lays all that remains of what was once Loyal & Rebel soldiers."

Pvt. Flavius J. Bender of Mount Joy, Lancaster County, and Company C, 77th Pennsylvania--also in McCook's division--similarly experienced Nashville and recorded his thoughts in two letters published in the Church Advocate, a religious newspaper based in Lancaster. 

From the March 27, 1862, Church Advocate: (alternate link)


From the April 17, 1862, Church Advocate: (alternate link)


Finally, I add a letter discussing the same subjects--with a little more editorializing--by Jacob Cassell, Quartermaster of the 77th Pennsylvania. From the March 26, 1862, Daily Evening Express: (alternate link)

'By Degrees We Are Advancing': The 77th Pa Moves South

Brig. Gen. Thomas J. Wood
of Kentucky (Source)

I missed this letter a couple days ago, so let's go back to December 16, 1861, and Bacon Creek Station with the 77th Pennsylvania, which had recently and unhappily been transferred from Negley's Brigade to the command of Brig. Gen. Thomas J. Wood.  Both versions of "Camp Wood," one near Bacon Creek Station and the other at Munfordville, were named after the general, who was a native of Munfordville.

The letter was written by Pvt. Flavius J. Bender, one of fourteen men from Mount Joy, Lancaster County, who joined Company C, 77th Pennsylvania.  It was published in the January 16, 1862, edition of the Church Advocate, a religious newspaper printed in Lancaster as the organ of the Church of God (Winebrenner).  The letter discusses the new challenge of life on the move with the army, conditions in Kentucky, and faith in the regiment: (alternate link)

A Camp Nevin Letter from F. J. Bender

Card for Mount Joy Church of God from 1870s.
F. J. Bender attended this church before the war.  (Source)

Back to the Church Advocate for today's letter authored by Pvt. Flavius J. Bender, formerly of Mount Joy, Lancaster County, and lately of Company C, 77th Pennsylvania.  I'm posting it two days early as there's a 79th PA letter also written on November 24, 1861. In the way of reminders, the Church Advocate was a religious newspaper published in Lancaster by the Church of God (Winebrenner), a Baptist-like offshoot of the German Reformed Church, and the 77th Pennsylvania was one of three regiments (including the 78th and 79th Pennsylvania) that initially formed Negley's Brigade.

Look forward to some excitement, with good and bad news from the regiment, as they strike tents and march South on November 26, 1861.

From the December 19, 1861, Church Advocate: (alternate link)

The Voyage Down the Ohio, Part II: 'E.H.W." and F.J. Bender Letters

"Passage Down the Ohio River, of General James S. Negley's Brigade" (FLI 10/14/1861)

On October 20, 1861, Gen. Negley's Brigade continued on its journey down the Ohio River toward Louisville, Kentucky.  Soldier-correspondents E. H. Witmer and F. J. Bender documented that portion of a journey whose sights left a deep impression upon the six steamboats' passengers for readers of the Daily Evening Express and Church Advocate, respectively.

Their letters give a sense that they had finally left home and were in the process of determining who they were going to be as soldiers.  A false alarm, although rather unrealistic in retrospective, gave the men of the 77th and 79th Pennsylvania at least the chance to think about combat.  Also, since October 20 was a Sunday--the first Sunday for which attending church was not a possibility--both Witmer and Bender naturally turned to the soldiers' religious world and what faith would look like privately and publicly in the army.

From the October 29, 1861, Daily Evening Express: (alternate link)

From the November 14, 1861, Church Advocate, noting that the October 30 dateline is a typo that should read October 20: (alternate link)

'Onward! Upward!': Pvt. F.J. Bender's Journey to Pittsburgh

Camp Slifer, Chambersburg (Harper's Weekly, June 29, 1861)

Even though this blog focuses on the 79th Pennsylvania, it takes me relatively little time to post soldiers' letters here.  So, I plan to post letters from other Lancaster County soldiers who campaigned with the 79th Pennsylvania in Kentucky and Tennessee.  For 1861 and 1862, this basically means a few letters from Cos. C and K, 77th Pennsylvania, which coincidentally each had intended at some point in the recruiting process to be part of the 79th Pennsylvania.  Don't expect much in the way of annotation due to my time constraints, but I think the letters stand pretty well on their own.

The majority of these non-79th PA letters were written by a soldier named Flavius J. Bender of Co. C, 77th Pennsylvania.  As he records in this letter, Bender belonged to a cadre of fourteen enlistees (including younger brother Ezra) from Mount Joy who joined the company which otherwise was recruited from Huntingdon County.  Bender was a devoted member of the Church of God (Winebrenner), and was one of many correspondents who wrote to the denominational newspaper published by E. H. Thomas in Lancaster during the Civil War.  Thanks to Gaye Denlinger, of Conestoga, PA, for making her bound volumes of a complete run 1861-1864 of the newspaper available to me.

The following letter was published in the November 7, 1861, Church Advocate: (alternate link)