The Lancaster County Regiment at Stones River

An overdue post on the 79th Pennsylvania at Stones River. Be sure to also read accounts of the battle on the "Battle Files" page.

Kurz and Allison illustration of the Battle of Stones River (Source)

After successfully checking the Confederate invasion of Kentucky at the Battle of Perryville, the Union army pursued the Confederates south and celebrated Christmas in Nashville, Tennessee.  Under pressure from Washington to create positive headlines after the disaster at Fredericksburg, Gen. William S. Rosecrans, the new commander of the Union army which was renamed the Army of the Cumberland, led his army out of its camps at Nashville on December 26, 1862.  The 79th Pennsylvania found itself towards the rear and center of the army as part of Col. John C. Starkweather's brigade of Maj. Gen. Lovell Rousseau's division of Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas's center wing.

The Lancaster County Regiment experienced its first excitement of the campaign on December 30 when Confederate Gen. Joseph Wheeler's cavalry brigade attacked the wagons of Starkweather's brigade.  The Fortunately for the Pennsylvanians, luck and Quartermaster Lewis Zecher's good management saved the regiment's wagons from capture, and Starkweather ordered a countermarch and formed his brigade to drive off the Confederate cavalrymen.

Starkweather then proceeded to the battlefield the next day--December 31, the first day of the Battle of Stones River--passing bands of Union soldiers retreating from the battlefield who spoke of disaster.  Sergt. Sigmund E. Wisner wrote that although the Lancasterians were skeptical that the battle was lost, the men marched silently and "despondency was depicted upon each countenance."  The brigade arrived on the battlefield in the evening, taking a position in woods in the center rear of the Union lines where they would spend the night without blankets or fire.

New Years Day passed without either army making a move.  Starkweather's position changed little, occupying wooded terrain between General Johnson's division and the Nashville and Murfreesboro turnpike.

Map of Battle of Stones River, Jan. 2, 1863
The 79th Pa was part of Thomas' Corps positioned
at the Union center near the Nashville Turnpike.

Shortly after dawn on January 2, Rousseau's artillery came under fire and Confederates began to stir across from the Union center.  Starkweather's brigade was ordered up to the front lines to support the artillery. While moving forward to this position, a rebel artillery shell tore through Company G, killing Corp. Mark Erb and wounding Pvts. Samuel Pickel and Isaac Quigley. 

The 79th Pennsylvania spent the rest of the day lying in deep mud behind Battery A, 1st Michigan Light Artillery.  Blankets and rations were scarce, and almost every account of the battle mentions how they survived the couple days on meat from the dead horses.  Several of the accounts even reviewed the meat as surprisingly good.  Elsewhere on the battlefield, Confederates attacked the Union left but were decisively repulsed by a line of artillery and Union counterattack.

Companies C, E, H, and I, 79th Pennsylvania, spent a quiet but nervous night on the picket line, enduring cold and rain without fires.  As dawn broke on January 3, the Lancasterians were surprised to find that Confederate infantry and artillery had advanced overnight, and began to open fire on the 79th Pa pickets at an uncomfortably close distance of 300 yards.  Three men from Company E were wounded in the retreat back to the main line, which now occupied (along with knee-deep mud) trenches dug by army engineers.  

Later that day, as one of the last actions of the battle, Starkweather's brigade supported an effort led by Rousseau to clear the woods to their front of annoying sharpshooters.  As the 79th Pa advanced toward one group of sharpshooters, Pvt. John Shroy of Company A was killed.

That night, Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg withdrew his Confederate army from the battlefield, fearing additional Union reinforcements and the threat of a rising river that could split his command.  Rosecrans moved his victorious army into Murfreesboro, where it camped for most of the rest of the winter and spring.

Nationally, the battle provided sorely needed good news after the Army of the Potomac's setbacks.  For the 79th Pennsylvania, it served as an introduction to the miseries of trench warfare, even if the regiment suffered much lighter casualties than it had at Stones River.  Several weeks after the battle, Lieut. W. Wilberforce Nevin (bio) documented this new type of warfare:

The space between the town [of Murfreesboro]and our lines was won inch by inch, crawling now, and now charging through a sheet of flame.  Many a brave men fell merely in gaining a few furrows.  All the area of strife was covered by sharpshooters, and in the din of conflict their rifles were unseen and noiseless messengers of death.  A convulsive plunge, and a stretched corpse with a little red spot in the forehead told the tale.  Somebody had fallen, as unconscious as his neighbors of the direction of the fatal ball.  All the fighting ground, for the most part ploughed fields, was ancle deep in mud, or worse.  Charging was no more an impetuous dash, but just a steady march into the jaws of death.  On this slippery, swimming ground, we had to eat and sleep.  In the centre the approaches were covered by trenches dug secretly, and occupied by night.  These, of course, under the rain became knee deep in a few  hours with cold and dirty water, but in them night and day lay our indomitable troops, relieving each other, regiment by regiment, in the night.  Too low to stand up in, to wet to sit down in, the wretched occupants had to remain bent and strained, or to kneel over thighs in water.  A single peep over the embankment was a signal for a dozen bullets.  In our eyes, scientific warfare is simply torture. 

79th Pennsylvania Casualties at Stones River

Alleged image of William K. Patton
Sold in 2007 by Heritage Auctions

Killed in Action

Corp. Mark Erb, Company G (1/2/1863)  Erb is listed in the 1860 census as a 19 year-old laborer on the farm of Emanuel Landis near Soudersburg, East Lampeter Township. 
Pvt. John Shroy, Company A (1/3/1863)  John F. Shroy is listed in the 1860 census as a 16 year-old plasterer living with Samuel and Elizabeth Shroy (presumably his parents) in Lancaster Township.

Mortally Wounded

Pvt. William K. Patton, Company H (1/3)--Died 1/13/1863
Pvt. Michael Brandt, Company E (1/3)--Died 1/20/1863

Wounded

Pvt. Samuel Pickel, Company G (1/2)
Pvt. Isaac Quigley, Company G (1/2)
Pvt. Benjamin Bones, Company E (1/3)
Sergt. J. H. Friday, Company E (1/3)
Corp. E. W. Hollinger, Company E (1/3)

Died of Disease

Pvt. William R. Kochel, Company E

The Capture of Capt. Kendrick's Detail

Capt. William G. Kendrick (WGK)

On May 2, 1862, Capt. William G. Kendrick (bio), the regiment's senior line officer, and his detached detail serving with the the telegraph corps near Pulaski, Tennessee, were interrupted by Confederate cavalry under the notorious John Hunt Morgan (bio).  The rebel horsemen approached unrecognized to within twenty yards of the detail before leveling their rifles at Capt. Kendrick, who was in no position to resist.  Kendrick recounted

The first thing I knew twenty rifles were leveled at me by a desperate gang of Guerillas swearing they wold kill me if I moved.  One snapped his piece.  Had it gone off I might not be now writing this letter.  Such is the fortune of war.  I took supper with Capt. Morgan.  He and all his officers treated me as a gentleman.  I had not one unkind word spoken to me after I got in the town by the Rebel soldiers.  The ladies were very jubilant over our Capture.  I had my album and the little boys ambrotypes with me.  An old lady asked if I had children.  I showed the little boys.  She shed tears over them saying poor, dear little fellows, their father a prisoner and so far from them.  There was quite a rush of ladies to see them, nearly all pronouncing them the handsomest of children they ever saw.  I soon had a number of friends amongst the women, who pitied me for the sake of my dear little boys.  [WGK 5/3/1862]

John Hunt Morgan (Source)

Word of the capture of Capt. Kendrick and ten or fifteen others from the Lancaster County Regiment quickly got back to Negley's brigade camp thirty miles north in Columbia and caused much excitement.  Around midnight, four companies--Companies C, E, I, and G--of the 79th Pennsylvania with some cavalry and artillery set out in the darkness to find out what was going on.  As a corporal in Company E, correspondent Elias H. Witmer made the forced overnight march of thirty-one miles.  When the expeditionary force came within five miles of Pulaski, they ran Kendrick and the others, who had been lumped in with 200 prisoners from Gen. Mitchell's division and paroled.  

The incident clearly elicited the fighting spirit of the men in the 79th Pennsylvania.  Witmer, the Mountville storekeeper, concluded his letter by creatively asserting, "A dead codfish could as easily climb a greased sapling, tail foremost, with a loaf of bread in his mouth, as a band of these marauders to whip the Lancaster Co. Regiment."  His entire letter describing the expedition, published in the May 14, 1862, Daily Evening Express, is here: (alternate link)


As paroled prisoners, Capt. Kendrick and the other men returned from the front lines. I'm not sure how the exchange process worked, but Kendrick sat out the rest of 1862 and would rejoin the army as a key staff officer for Gen. Negley.

Jettisoned Posts

(From Hardtack and Coffee)

As the ship of Civil War Sesquicentennial sails on, I need to jettison a couple drafts of posts from my little canoe to try to keep up.  Most of these posts are related to the Lancaster home front, and were conceived under the delusion that I would have a few hours to compile various primary sources to put together a story.  Unfortunately, I haven't had time, especially of late, so I'm just going to note each post and provide references or pseudo-references so anyone trying to tell the story of Lancaster and the Civil War can find them. 

Here are the posts on which I'm giving up, roughly in chronological order:

• Muster Rolls by Company.  I still need to post these as a reference, although they were printed in the September and October 1861 editions of the Intelligencer and LEH, which are available online.
• The War Loan.  [DEE 9/17/1861; LEH 9/11/1861]
• The Election of 1861, voting by soldiers in the 79th Pennsylvania, and the ensuing lawsuits over the validity of their votes.
• County and municipal relief work for soldiers' families, which was perhaps the first large-scale government cash assistance effort. Also interesting [List in 11/06/1861 LEH; Comments in 11/12/1861 Intelligencer; 12/20 & 12/30/1861 DEE; Mariettian: 6/8/1861, 8/24/1861, 9/7-9/21/1861, 10/26/1861; Also see original committee minutes at Lancaster County Historical Society]
• Interactions between Patriot Daughters (and other aid organizations) and the 79th Pennsylvania.  Especially related to socks. [DEE 1861: 11/11 blankets, "Warwick" letter late November 1861, Acknowledgement Letter from Wilberforce Nevin on 11/26/1861; LEH: Poem and note mid-December 1861; HW: 1/11/1862 poem] 
• Deaths in the 79th Pennsylvania, December 1861 - February 1862.  
• A public meeting to form a hospital in Lancaster. [DEE 1/7/1862]
• Curiosities from Kentucky. [DEE 1/10/1862]
• Patriot Daughters of Lancaster report for 1861. [DEE 1/11/1862]
• The Mayoral Election of 1862.  War Democrats and Republicans work very hard in an unsuccessful bid to unseat Mayor George Sanderson.  A couple 79th Pennsylvania connections, including a smear by the Sanderson campaign of their opponent--a doctor who helped poor soldiers' families--that prompted the family of Lewis Jones to write a letter to the Daily Evening Express.  [See newspapers from late January into early February 1862, especially DEE]

Let me know if you have any questions about any of these topics.  I'll be happy to clarify or expand upon anything I've written above for anyone interested.

Nearly the First Battle: The Battle of Rowlett's Station

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the first battle of the central wing of the Union army in Kentucky. It was the first battle in the neighborhood of the 79th Pennsylvania, and was a small engagement known as the Battle of Rowlett's Station.  Only one Union regiment, the 32nd Indiana comprised of many German immigrants, fought in the battle, but the 79th Pennsylvania and the rest of Negley's Brigade and McCook's Division were only a couple miles away and marched at the double quick towards the battlefield, only to arrive after the battle's conclusion.  The experience of watching thousands of Union soldiers ready for battle converge with urgency on the battlefield made quite an impression on the Lancaster County Regiment.

Green River bridge, near Munfordville, with one span destroyed by Confederates (HW 1/04/1862)

Strategically, the battle resulted from the Union army pushing the frontier of its advance down the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, specifically to the town of Munfordville with its impressive railroad bridge over the Green River <See Map>.  The Confederates had destroyed one section of the bridge on their retreat, but its repair was under way as the Union army built up its presence around Munfordville so a force of Confederate infantry, artillery, and cavalry--including Texas cavalrymen known as the "Texas Rangers"--was dispatched to attack the Indiana companies scattered in picket and skirmish lines on the hills south of the Green River bridge.

Battle of Rowlett's Station with a company of the 32nd Indiana formed in a square to resist an attack by Col. Terry's Texas Rangers (HW 01/11/1862)

Soon after the first shots were fired, the well-drilled 32nd Indiana regrouped and utilized its reserve companies to defend repeated attacks and killed the Texas Rangers' Colonel  B. F. Terry.  The 32nd Indiana lost ten men and one officer--Lieut. Max Sachs, whom the 79th Pa's Wilberforce Nevin had come to know--and the Both sides withdrew from the field, but the Green River bridge was safe, and a sorely needed victory could be claimed by the North.  Additionally, the idea that a bunch of German immigrants could defeat the fiercest rebel cavalrymen set the right tone for the many immigrants in the Army of the Ohio. 

The 79th Pennsylvania was actually on the road on December 17, 1861, marching about eight miles from Bacon Creek Station to Munfordville.  As soon as they arrived to set up camp, the alarm beat and the regiment double-quicked toward the Green River, but the battle had concluded before they reached the river.  Over the next few weeks while encamped nearby and performing picket duty in the area, almost all sources remark on the graves of the men of the 32nd Indiana who died, which were marked and decorated with evergreen wreaths. 

Here's the diary entry of Lieut. John H. Druckenmiller of Company B for December 17, 1861:

Struck tents at 8 a.m. and formed line. Marched to Munfordville in three hours, a distance of ten miles. Were just pitching our tents when we heard the booming of cannon. The word fall in was given and was promptly obeyed by the boys. We formed line in double quick time & started for the scene of action, which was on the other side of the River. The fight lasted about forty five minutes. The attack was made by about seven or eight hundred Cavalry supporting a Battery. Our men all infantry but three companies were thrown across the river as a picket and were attacked suddenly. The rest of the forces were on this side & of course could not cross untill they received orders to that effect. Consequently we did not get over. We formed line of Battle on the hill & remained there a short time when the order to countermarch was given. Our loss was ten killed and thirteen wounded. Two of the killed were Lieutenants. The Rebel loss is estimated at about seventy five or a hundred killed. The number of wounded is not known. Went out on picket duty with Capt. Klein and one hundred men from our Regiment. Went about five miles from camp up the River on this side. Arrested one man who attempted to cross our line. Night was cold but clear, almost as light as day.

Lieut. Wilberforce Nevin of Company G, also included an account of the day's excitement in a letter that was extracted in the December 28, 1861, Daily Evening Express: (alternate link)


Sources and Links:

• All for the Regiment by Gerald Prokopowicz 
• Preservation of the 32nd Indiana Monument

'Not a book or a woman is to be met in a month': A Letter from the 79th PA's New Camp

Union Army Camp Guard (detail of photography by Matthew Brady via fold3.com)
Note that this scene is from a series of 1863 photographs of the camp of the 1st Pennsylvania Reserves, which included three Lancaster companies, but that's another story for another time.

Today's letter is the second that Lieut. W. Wilberforce Nevin wrote to the Daily Evening Express.  It's also our first correspondence after the 79th Pennsylvania ended its one-month stay at Camp Nevin.  On November 26, 1861, the regiment struck tents and marched down the road a mile or two to its new home, Camp Negley.  The letter has to rank as one of the most eloquent and introspective that we'll read over the course of the war.  Recall that Nevin was valedictorian of F&M's Class of 1853 (where his father would become president after the war) and had begun practicing law a year or two before the war began and he became an officer in Company G, 79th Pennsylvania.  (Read his bio post here)

The letter describes to an audience in Lancaster the transformation that the Lancasterians in the 79th Pennsylvania underwent in their first four weeks in camp.  It describes guard duty for the men at Camp Nevin, which basically meant one or two companies at a time forming a perimeter around the camp to ensure nobody went in or out without permission, as well as keeping watch over the guard house.  In his November 27, 1861, diary entry, Sgt. William T. Clark of Company B described his experience:

Rained very hard last night & the ground being wheat stubble was very soft & muddy. At noon weather cleared up & afternoon is fine. Today I am No. 1 of the 3rd relief of Camp Guard & am at the Guard House. Three prisoners being confined therein one for cursing his Capt., another while out on picket accidentally shot a man in the thigh. The other a Drum Major in Col. Stambaugh’s Regiment was put in for being drunk & not beating the reveille. He escaped out of the rear of the tent while I was on duty. Received letter from Coz. Maggie. We had mush & molasses for supper.

Nevin also describes his reaction to picket duty, which meant going out into the countryside as an advance guard against surprises by the enemy.  I'll defer to his description of this experience that apparently left quite an impression on the line officer.

With the regiment stationary in Kentucky, rather efficient lines of communication opened with Lancaster.  Almost all accounts from the regiment mention regularly receiving the newspapers from Lancaster mentioned on this blog (and often the Philadelphia Press).  I think Capt. William G. Kendrick mentioned that they usually arrived three days after they were printed, which seems pretty fast.  While they were sometimes shipped with the compliments of newspaper editors in Lancaster, Lancaster's Post Office sold special "newspaper stamped envelopes" for making it easier to send single newspapers.  [DEE 11/14/1861]

Nevin also includes the report of a special visitor to the regiment, a journalist from the Louisville Journal who wanted to see a regiment that generals had bragged of as a shining example of a healthy camp.  All the Lancaster newspapers reprinted this good news for people in Lancaster, although the weather and living conditions would become miserable as the calendar turned to December.

From the December 5, 1861, Daily Evening Express: (alternate link)

Better Know an Officer: Lieut. William Wilberforce Nevin

Lt. W. Wilberforce Nevin (taken 7/14/1862)
Don Wisnoski Collection, USAMHI

Name: William Wilberforce Nevin, 1st Lieut., Company G
Born: March 1, 1836, Allegheny, PA
Education: Franklin and Marshall College: Valedictorian, Class of 1853
Occupation: Lawyer since 1859. Before that, teacher in Sewickley, PA. 
Political Beliefs: Republican
Term of Service: Enlisted September 23, 1861. Promoted to Captain, August 23, 1862. Assistant Adjutant General on May 26, 1863.
Post-war: Lawyer, newspaper editor, railroad man. 
Death: September 27, 1899.  Buried in Woodward Hill Cemetery. 

Continuing the trend of 79th Pennsylvania line officers having immediate family members at the forefront of education in Lancaster (i.e., McCaskey and Wickersham), this post introduces Lieut. William Wilberforce Nevin (bio) of Company G, 79th Pennsylvania, hailed as "a patriot, a scholar, a gentleman."  The son of a distinguished German Reformed theologian and future president of Franklin and Marshall College, Wilberforce Nevin graduated at the top of his class at F&M in 1853.  His occasional letters as an officer in the 79th Pennsylvania to the Daily Evening Express exhibit enviable eloquence and reflect a distinguished career that spanned education, law, newspapers, and railroads.

Service Card of W. W. Nevin, PA Card File

Nevin joined the 79th Pennsylvania in September 1861 as one of three lawyers who recruited and led what became Company G.  After the war, Nevin continued his work as a lawyer in Lancaster, and his name appears regularly between 1865 and 1867+ as an active participant in Republican politics and veterans organizations, as well as working pro bono as a lawyer for veterans.  He became a journalist for the Lancaster Daily Evening Express and later for the well-respected Philadelphia Press.  Nevin spent the years 1879 and 1880 traveling in Europe and published his travel memoirs, Vignettes of Travel.  You can view a particularly interesting chapter, Chapter 5 beginning on p. 36, comparing Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as he knew it with Lancashire, England.  Later, Nevin moved to New York to work on behalf of railroads until shortly before his death in 1899.

Although I don't know much about Nevin's religious beliefs, his father is very interesting for having played a central role in one of the major conflicts of religion in America: the mid-nineteenth century clash between confessionalists and pietists that would help determine the character of Protestant denominations.  Loosely speaking, confessionalists advocated a more conservative understanding of the key theological formulations of the Reformation, while pietists favored a more "American" approach that emphasized revivals, conversion stories, and modern ways of expressing faith typical of the Second Great Awakening.  While this may sound dull, it's actually a very fascinating topic to watch unfold, especially for anyone trying to understand Christianity in all of its forms today.  I'll have more about this debate--especially as it relates to addressing the issue of slavery--when the Lutherans' national body convenes in Lancaster in May 1862.

Dr. John Williamson Nevin
Father of W. W. Nevin

Anyway, Wilberforce's father, John Williamson Nevin, made a name for himself as a "High Church Calvinist" while a seminary professor in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania.  During the 1840s, Nevin and a colleague attracted attention as proponents of what became known as the "Mercersburg Theology."  A bitter adversary at this time was a man named John Winebrenner, who essentially seceded from the German Reformed Church to create the Church of God, a more evangelistic, Baptist-like organization.  Winebrenner operated mostly out of Harrisburg with many churches in Lancaster, as well as the Church Advocate newspaper.  Wrapping up this tangent, this is the newspaper to which many soldiers wrote, including F. J. Bender regularly and E. H. Witmer on two occasions.  So, when trying to understand the religious world in which Civil War soldiers lived, it's important to recognize them as the children of the generation that faced many high-level choices and conflicts about the direction of Christianity in America.  

Grave of W. W. Nevin
Woodward Hill Cemetery

Back to W. Wilberforce Nevin, I hope you enjoy reading his letters as the secondary correspondent (to E. H. Witmer) to the Daily Evening Express, and are impressed by the authority with which he yielded his pen.  It looks like there will be two more over the next two months.  Apparently, a collection of W. W. Nevin's private letters to family members are housed in the Library of Congress, but I have yet to view them despite a deep desire to do so.  By the way, you might also be familiar with the sculptures of Wilberforce's sister, Blanche, including the Reservoir Park lion in Lancaster and the horse drinking fountain at the corner of W. Orange and King Streets. 

Further Reading:

• W. W. Nevin's October 28, 1861, Daily Evening Express Letter
• W. W. Nevin's Vignettes of Travel 
• Dies irae: nine original English versions translated by W. W. Nevin
• Passionate pilgrims: the American traveler in Great Britain, 1800-1914 by Allison Lockwood
• History of Franklin and Marshall College, 1903
• See my Google Books library for books written by John Williamson Nevin.
• John Winebrenner and the Church of God by Richard Kern
• John Williamson Nevin: American theologian by Richard E. Wentz
• "John Winebrenner: From German Reformed Roots to the Churches of God" by J. Harvey Gossard
  

'Our Present Duty is to Work': A Letter from Camp

From Hardtack and Coffee

Today's letter introduces us to a fourth semi-regular correspondent from the 79th Pennsylvania to Lancaster's newspapers, Lieut. William Wilberforce Nevin.  You might (rightly) recognize the surname "Nevin" for its connections to other aspects of Lancaster's history, but I'll postpone my biography of Wilberforce Nevin for another week.

On October 24, the Lancaster County Regiment boarded trains in Louisville and traveled a little over 50 miles south on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, passing camps along the way to arrive at Camp Nevin (no relation).  They arrived late at night, prepared fires, and spent the night on the ground before laying out camp the next day.  Their six-week stay at Camp Nevin allowed the regiment's soldiers their first real taste of army life, including their first issuance of ammunition, target shooting, and various drills overseen by Col. Hambright.  [WTC] 

From the November 1, 1861, Daily Evening Express: (alternative link)