One of Penn State's First Grads at the Battle of Stones River

Farmers High School of Pennsylvania, 1859 (?)
(Penn State Archives, Source)

In 1861, the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania graduated its first class, which consisted of eleven students who studied there three years to earn a Bachelor of Scientific Agriculture degree.  Among them was John W. Eckman, whose father Joseph ran the St. Charles Furnace in Columbia.  The founding of Farmers' High, which was renamed the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania a year later and eventually Penn State University, reflects a growing interest in scientifically managing agriculture and industry--a trend alive and well in Civil War era Lancaster County considering the founding of the Linnaean Society and the publication of The Lancaster Farmer by Simon Snyder Rathvon.

On August 28, 1862, Eckman joined a special cavalry unit known as the Anderson Troop--a company recruited at the war's outbreak to serve as bodyguard to Gen. Robert Anderson of Fort Sumter fame--as it expanded to a full regiment, the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry.  The unit continued its special relationship with the commanding officer of the Army of the Ohio and then Cumberland, and served as headquarters guards and orderlies.  Another of Eckman's classmates, Milton S. Lytle (whose diary is in PSU Special Collections), also joined the "Anderson Cavalry."

Maj. Adolph Rosengarten
15th Pa Cavalry
(Source)

In the days after Christmas 1862, the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry--actually about 300 of them, as the rest refused to go due to a lack of officers--was among the lead elements of the Union army as it advanced towards Murfreesboro.  On December 29, the regiment attacked Confederate infantry near Wilkinson's Cross Roads, gallantly charging but suffering many casualties including its two commanders, Majors Rosengarten and Ward.  In his letter published in the January 16, 1863, Daily Evening Express (link), Eckman wrote,

On the 29th we had a severe fight with infantry.  We made a charge (150 of us only) through a piece of woods, and the rebels, 2000 strong, were posted behind the fence.  The only way we could get at them was by riding close to the fence and firing down on them--which we did, and I know my carbine sent a man reeling into eternity.  We took several prisoners, but how many we killed I can't say.  But we paid dearly for it: both Majors fell--one dead, the other mortally wounded, who has since died; ten others fell dead, and many wounded.  We fell back discouraged and disheartened, leaving the dead, and all the wounded who could not get away, in their hands.  Two of my mess wounded, one taken prisoner, a fourth had his horse killed, and two escaped unhurt, I being one of them.  That fight brought on the battle of Murfreesboro, which I think will prove one of the severest that has yet occurred.

After the war, Eckman continued in his father's footsteps and ran the Montgomery Furnace in Port Kennedy  near Norristown, PA.  His name also pops up for serving as Treasurer for the Valley Forge Centennial Association, a delegate to the Republican National Convention, and as an alternate delegate at national Grand Army of the Republic encampments.

St. Charles Furnace, Columbia
(Ellis and Evans, 1883)

Like several Lancaster soldiers I've encountered, business ventures took Eckman back to the South near where he had marched as a soldier.  In the 1880s, Eckman moved (although he might have maintained residence in Pennsylvania) to Pulaski, Virginia, a town deep in the Shenandoah Valley near Blacksburg known for being rich in minerals.  He became general manager of the Pulaski Iron Works, which was known as southwest Virginia's first modern pig iron blast furnace and worked there until 1912.  There's even a funny story you can read in the regimental history on page 533 about how courthouse records there were lost when the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry came through in 1865, and how the locals took advantage of this to bury Eckman in lawsuits over land ownership when he tried to run Pulaski Iron Works there decades after the war.  

Related Links:

• Post on 1861 letter from soldier in Anderson Troop from Strasburg
• Regimental history of the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry, containing several accounts of the Battle of Stones River
• In 1911, Eckman returned to Penn State for Commencement Week and a celebration of fiftieth anniversary of the school's first class, of whom seven including Eckman were present. 
• A January 14, 1863, article in the Express lists seventeen Lancasterians in the Anderson Troop and also mentions Jacob B. Garber, Jr., son of a "distinguished agriculturalist" of Lancaster County and Class of 1862 graduate of the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania.

  

'E.H.W.' Reviews the 'Wild Goose Hunt' to Alabama

Echoing J. R. Sypher's description of Negley's Alabama expedition is a letter by the 79th Pennsylvania's regular correspondent, Corp. Elias H. Witmer (bio). He has a stinging review of the Alabama town of Rogersville, which displays full Lancaster County snobbery on the two matters of which a 19th-century Lancasterian would be most proud: public education and farm management:

Rogersville is a small post village, and one of the smallest kind, in Limstone county. It is one of those towns which we find at almost every cross road in the northern states, containing a smith shop, dwelling, and school house; but the town, however, is minus the latter. It is black as "Tow Hill" [in Columbia, PA]; occupied almost entirely by the same race of people; was built by the first settlers, who, from appearance, had great antipathy to white-wash, paint, and elbow grease. The country is as barren as Patagonia; their cattle &c., as poor as Job's famous turkey, and the citizens very ready to take the oath of allegiance,and then--cut your throat. Land sells from a dime to five dollars an acre, and produces excellent crops of mullin and thistles. Their plows are self-sharpening land pike, and their swine such as require knots tied in their tails to prevent them from getting into the potato patch. Each family supports a score of cats, and a dozen dogs, which receive more care and attention than their children, and their continual barking makes the nights hideous. The people, in general, live and die in ignorance. Other people think for them, and thus they become and remain the dupes of another's will.

Witmer had kinder words about Florence, which gave him an opportunity to talk about the prevalence of Pennsylvania families who had immigrated to the region. It seems to have been a common theme for the regiment at this time, as a couple soldiers mention these types of connections. For example, back at Columbia, Tennessee, William Clark recorded in his diary that "This morning I took a walk through the cemetary in the northern part of the town and saw the graves of several from Pennsylvania & New Jersey." [5/25/1862]

Statue of Tennessee's Military
Governor Andrew Johnson
(Source)

Witmer connected Southern Unionists' experiences to anti-war Northerners, writing:

Wherever we find Pennsylvanians, there we find a love for the whole country; and it is a remarkable and deplorable fact, that while they in the south have remained true to the country, when persecutions were hurled at them thick and fast, and stood like martyrs when threats of the stake, the gallows and the knife were daily occurrences, that there are sympathisers in the north with their hellish deeds. Sympathy in the north for men who are in league with hell! We can scarcely believe it, yet in comes to us in glowing language upon the wings of the press every day. Oh, ye northern rebels, make peace with your God, the hour of retribution is fast approaching.

He also makes an interesting prediction that the war will end in guerrilla warfare based on what he was seeing happening to Unionist citizens, and endorsed Military Governor Andrew Johnson's efforts to protect Unionists and punish those who harmed them.    

From the June 2, 1862, Daily Evening Express: (alternate link)

Hempfield School District's Gettysburg 'Field Trip-Gate' Controversy

Just before leaving Lancaster to return to Pittsburgh after a pleasant Thanksgiving holiday with family, I glanced at the lead headline of the Sunday News and was surprised to see a lengthy article detailing a controversy about something near and dear to me, the Hempfield School District fifth grade Gettysburg Field Trip.  I fondly remember my trip to Gettysburg in 1997 as a ten or eleven year-old at Centerville Elementary School, and credit it with helping spark my interest in Civil War history.  The basic story is that in response to recent budget pressures some of Hempfield's seven elementary schools have cut field trips (with the Gettysburg trip getting the most attention).

A July 2011 tour of Gettysburg for
my father-in-law, my wife, and my
wife's cousin, whose Gettysburg field
trip had been cancelled.

However, what has inflamed passions--and gathered 343 protesting signatures at last count--is that the district's superintendent required equity among the PTO-supported field trips, effectively constraining field trip spending in the more affluent elementary schools to what the less affluent schools could raise.  It's a sad situation in which an elementary school rite of passage has become a casualty of the funding crisis.  While hanging out with my wife's middle school-aged cousin last July at a family picnic, I was shocked to learn his elementary school in Hempfield had cancelled the trip when he was to go on it.  Needless to say, we rectified that situation when I dragged him, my wife, and my in-laws over the battlefield three days later.  Anyway, I don't know enough of the details to pick a side in this battle, but here are three thoughts.

The Gettysburg field trip should receive high priority when making education resource allocation decisions.  Gettysburg National Military Park is an awe-inspiring treasure perfectly suited for school field trips that energizes learning in the classroom.  It boosts class morale, and I hypothesize it has small positive indirect effects on standardized test scores.  I recall several of my classmates--not just the highest academic achievers--being inspired to read Civil War fiction and non-fiction in fifth grade.  For some students, Gettysburg provides a place to forget the fatigue of the classroom and simply enjoy learning.  Plus, I can't see how it'd be all that expensive (although my perception of education spending is probably a little off after spending a couple years in a business school), but I don't know the numbers.  

We should cherish the ideal of equal access to fundamental educational opportunities.  I believe the district is sincere and correct in worrying that the inequity in field trips creates divisions within the district that are real and felt by students.  I haven't sufficiently collected my thoughts to articulate precisely why I passionately despise a situation in which some elementary schools get to go to Gettysburg and others don't based on funding, but it somehow uniquely offends my sense of what fairness means for elementary schools that feed to the same middle school.  Furthermore, East and West Hempfield Townships elected and many times re-elected Thaddeus Stevens--who may have done more than anyone else in Pennsylvania's history to advance public education and equity in education--and provided the "Greater Commoner" with his core constituency, so that should count for something.

Hempfield's current field trip funding policy sounds miserable and designed to fail, or at least invite major controversy.  It's unreasonable to solicit money from parents through PTO fundraisers and then not allow it to be spent on something educational that parents fervently support.  The incentives for parents of students in affluent and average schools in this scenario seem to be out of whack.  I guess it's one of the few times we can think of taxes as a virtue, as they avoid the messiness of trying to fund a public good with private donations. 

I wish a positive resolution for everyone involved, especially for the students in Hempfield's elementary schools whose fifth-grade Gettysburg trips are in jeopardy.  On the other hand, I guess if the funding situation isn't resolved, maybe Hempfield schoolchildren will have to just go to the Thaddeus Stevens Historic Site (to be operational in Lancaster in a couple years) and learn about a man who championed the cause of equity and fairness in public education.

To close out this post, here's a history tidbit for each of Hempfield's elementary school sites about people and events in East Hempfield and West Hempfield Townships from the Civil War:

1. Rohrerstown: Was the site of a major Republican Party meeting and torchlight procession of "Wide Awakes" supporting Lincoln just before the Election of 1860.  Thaddeus Stevens delivered a speech for the occasion.
2. Mountville: Was home to Corp. Elias H. Witmer of Company E, 79th Pennsylvania, whose letters to the Lancaster Express I am featuring on this website.  
3. Landisville: Was home to Capt. William D. Reitzel, who in 1862 recruited a company nicknamed the "Continental Blues" that became Company G, 2nd Pennsylvania Reserves.  Reitzel authored letters to the Daily Inquirer during his service and was wounded in action at Gettysburg.  I just found this note under "Dismissals" though from the 12/28/1863 New York Times: "Capt. WILLIAM D. REITZEL, Second Pennsylvania reserves, to date Dec. 7, 1863, for absence without proper authority, misbehavior in the presence of the enemy, and violation of General Orders No. 92, of 1862, by visiting improper places of amusement while under medical treatment."
4. Centerville: Mr. Getz (as in the affluent "Getz's Woods" neighborhood) traveled to Gettysburg shortly after the battle either as a relief mission or as a sightseeing trip.  The family farmstead at the corner of Sylvan Rd. and Harrisburg Pike was auctioned off in 2004 and included $10-20,000 of artifacts brought back from the Gettysburg battlefield that a Gettysburg antique dealer bought and resold on Ebay.  It also included a few other Civil War era items, and my wife now has two Paisley shawls from the auction.
5. Farmdale: Was where Lieut. Jacob H. Witmer of Company E, 79th Pennsylvania, taught school before enlisting in the "Normal Rifles," a company composed of many schoolteachers with connections to the Millersville State Normal School.  Two letters he wrote from camp in late 1861 and early 1862 to a schoolteacher friend in Silver Spring were auctioned off on Ebay a few years ago.
6. East Petersburg: Was home to Pvt. Josiah A. H. Lutz of Company B, 1st Pennsylvania Reserves, was mortally wounded at the Battle of Fredericksburg at the age of fifteen or sixteen.  He is buried in the East Petersburg Mennonite Cemetery. 

Detail of 1863 Bridgens' Atlas map of East Hempfield Township
showing what is now Centerville and Rohrerstown ("Hempfield P. O.").
Some of the farms on this map (e.g. Getz, Habaker) stayed in the family
until developed over the last ten or fifteen years.

Research Surprises: Millersville University and the "Normal Rifles"

Upon receiving the photograph album that was the subject of yesterday's post, curiosity about the people in the album led to simple Google searches of names penciled beneath the photographs.  I expected to find simple genealogical information, but, much to my surprise, upon querying "Sallie Eva Bolton" I found a collection of letters Sallie wrote to her mother while working basically as a teaching assistant in the formative years (1855-1858) of the institution we now know as Millersville University.  Exploring her letters and the album further, we also encounter connections to the 79th Pennsylvania's most literate company, Company E--the "Normal Rifles"--recruited mainly from the teacher's college (i.e., the "normal school") at Millersville. 

Cartes-de-visite of Sallie (Bolton) Pyle
Image by Bishop's Photographic Gallery, Philadelphia, c. 1861-4 (vws)

Sarah "Sallie" Eva (Bolton) Pyle

Born in 1836, Sallie was raised by Quaker parents in nearby Chester County, home of her mother's extended family (Brosius).  Her father, Evan Bolton, grew up in Liberty Square, Drumore Township.  In 1855, Sallie found herself in the village of Millersville, where the Lancaster County Teacher's Institute had located and established the Lancaster County Teacher's Institute.  Under the leadership of education proponent J. P. Wickersham, this became the Millersville State Normal School in 1859, the first of many such schools for teachers in the state. Upon the war's outbreak, Wickersham helped raise Company E, 79th Pennsylvania, and his brother Morris D. Wickersham took its captaincy.