'Ho! For Old Kentucky!!': Rewind through Recruiting

From What a Boy Saw in the Army

Time constraints limit me from making a post out of every little news item related to the Lancaster County Regiment that I run across, so here's a list of items that I won't have time to discuss in detail.  I also recommend listening to Tim Orr's presentation, "Enlistment in the North and South During the Civil War," for a more general look at how Civil War regiments came into existence.  Compared to what happened elsewhere, the recruiting process was relatively tame in terms of partisan politics, presumably because Col. Hambright's stature as a military hero and proficient leader earned him bipartisan support. 

Here are a variety of references to news items from the Daily Evening Express, with the notations referring to the newspaper edition in which they appeared, ranging from September to November 1861.  

• Capt. Duchman's company, later Company B, is mustered in on September 5. (9/5)  Praise for Capt. Duchman. (9/10)
• Recruiting for Col. Hambright's regiment is "looking up."  (9/10)
• Battalion parade through streets of Lancaster with 400 men and visit by Brig. Gen. James S. Negley. (9/13)
• "Ranks Rapidly Filling Up" for Col. Hambright's Regiment. (9/17)
• Arrival of Capt. McBride's company, later Company D. (9/18)
• Sword presentation to Lieut. David Miles. (9/18)
• Arrival in Lancaster of Capt. McNalley's company, later Company C, 77th Pennsylvania. A scandal over the company's departure from Harrisburg ensued.  (9/20,25)
• Regiment is "nearly full." (9/25)
• Sword presentation to officers of Company F. (9/25)
• Capt. Wickersham's company filling up with many "school teachers and men of education." (9/25)
• Clothing distributed to Col. Hambright's regiment. (9/27)
• Officers of Col. Hambright's regiment entertained at N. Queen St. saloon and serenaded by Fencibles Band. (9/27)
• Report that Gov. Curtin assigned Hambright and his regiments to Negley's Brigade. (9/30)
• Dinner for volunteers in southern Lancaster City held by patriotic citizen Samuel Cormany. (10/1)
• Regimental parade on Center Square. (10/3)
• Controversy resulting from Capt. M. D. Wickersham unsuccessful recruiting visit to town of Christiana during which Wickersham's commitment to war was questioned based on his helping a stranded Southern female student at the Millersville State Normal School. (10/3,7,8)
• Fencibles Band concert to support Patriot Daughters of Lancaster. (10/4)
• Recruiting editorials: "More Union Men Wanted" and "Your Country still Calls," including announcement of company recruited by Frederick Pyfer and Benjamin Ober.  This company was recruited for Col. Hambright's regiment but later became Company K, 77th Pennsylvania. (10/10)
• Recruiting appeal: "Be in time, Young Men!" (10/17)
• Deserters from Col. Hambright's Regiment. (10/18,19)
• Capt. Foreman's grievances from a failed attempt to recruit a company for Col. Hambright's regiment. (10/20,22)
• Update on Pyfer and Ober's company. (10/22)
• Poem: "The Lancaster County Volunteers." (10/22,23,26,29;11/11)
• Presentation of sword to Capt. Wickersham. (10/30)
• Recruiting appeal: "More Men Wanted for Active Service in Kentucky." (11/2)

Advertisement for Capt. Pyfer's company, appearing in November 1861 editions of the Express.

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.