Book Published on The Camp Kettle and 100th Pennsylvania

The Camp Kettle
Library of Congress

Congratulations to long-time friend and talented genealogist Gary Hawbaker on publishing a book containing on the Camp Kettle newspaper published by the 100th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment. The full text of the newspapers is presented along with detailed biographies of soldiers associated with it. There aren't too many direct Lancaster connections, but anyone interested in the 45th Pennsylvania (which at times was brigaded with the 100th Pennsylvania) would appreciate the material. Here are further details about the book:

THE CAMP KETTLE

Civil War Newspaper

100th Pennsylvania Volunteers

The Roundhead Regiment

With selected biographies of members of the 100th Pennsylvania and the 8th Michigan who fought with them After years of research, the complete collection of The Camp Kettle has been transcribed (with photographs and letters from the editor’s collection included). Pension records for seventy-five soldiers were researched and valuable information found in them has been included. Of special interest are the original soldier letters that families sent to the Pension Office to prove that a son had provided for the family before or while he was in the service which were never returned to the family.

Background on other newspapers printed by soldiers during the Civil War is included as well as references to The Camp Kettle found in other newspapers across the United States. Where available, images of the soldier and of his grave stone are shown.

Biographies and family histories of 75 soldiers (47 Pennsylvania and 28 Michigan). Over 8,000 references in the index. Major surnames: Atherton, Ayers, Badger, Bailey, Baker, Banks, Barton, Bell, Bidwell, Bonner, Borden, Brown, Browne, Campbell, Church, Clements, Condon, Crawford, Crowl, Cubbison, Dunlap, Eichbaum, Emery, Evans, Ferren, Fisher, Foote, Gilmore, Gordon, Graul, Gross, Gulmire, Hamilton, Hanna, Hart, Hobbs, Holton, Johnson, Kelly, King, Lobinger, Lock/Locke, Marshall, McClain, McClure, McCracken, McCreary, McKeever, McMillen, Miel, Miller, Mills, Mire, Nelson, Nicklin, Noah, Otto, Parkhill, Pentecost, Quest, Rhett, Rogers, Romberger, Semple, Shelter, Smith, Stevenson, Stewart, Stoner, Sutherland, Thurston, Waddington, Wagner, Watt, White, and Wood.

Publication is 5½ x 8½ inches. Perfect Bound. Laminated Soft Cover. Illustrated. 510+ pages. Index.

Gary has made available an order form available, which I have uploaded and made available at this link.

A Fourth of July Barbacue with the 79th Pa and the People of Shelbyville, Tenn

Union Soldiers in Shelbyville, Tennessee
(Harper's Weekly October 18, 1862)

After their expedition to Chattanooga in early June 1862 and a couple weeks of rest afterwards, the next excitement in the annals of the 79th Pennsylvania was an Independence Day celebration hosted by the citizens of Shelbyville, Tennessee.  Hon. Edmund Cooper was the orator of the day, which also featured cannon salutes, a sword presentation to Capt. Michael Locher of Company H, and a feast thrown by the citizens for Union soldiers in the region.  Soldiers commented with a spirit of thanksgiving that there more ladies present than they had seen in a very long time.

Stuart A. Wylie
Editor, Inquirer
(Source: Ellis and Evans)

The food--corn bread, pork, and mutton alternately described as a "barbacue" and a "basket dinner"--was appreciated by the soldiers, even if it didn't quite live up to Lancaster County standards.  William T. Clark wrote in his diary, "There was plenty to eat but it was evident they did not understand getting up such dinner in the manner they do in Pennsylvania."  Elias Witmer unenthusiastically described the dinner in a Daily Evening Express letter "to show the Lancaster county people, who have every luxury at their command, how some of the rest of mankind live."

The day's events were recorded in a letter from Hospital Steward John B. Chamberlain published in a new outlet for news in Lancaster.  The Lancaster Inquirer under the editorial direction of Stuart A. Wylie began a daily version, the Daily Inquirer, in early July 1862, just in time to publish interesting news from the Seven Days Battles which must have been eagerly consumed by the people of Lancaster.  It would be Lancaster's second daily paper and would last for two years.  I believe most of the first year is accessible on microfilm, and it will be an invaluable source of information about the 79th Pennsylvania in late 1862 and early 1863. 

From the July 12, 1862, Daily Inquirer: (alternate link)

Sypher Dispathes: 'Little Wee Blue-Bellied Yankees'

Newspaper Cart and Vendor in Camp (Alexander Gardner, Library of Congress)

The following post features the second and third letters written by Lancaster's civilian adventurer and journalist J. R. Sypher in a grand tour of the Western Theater in May and June1862.  See this post <link> for an introduction to his tour.

Five days after leaving Lancaster, Josiah Sypher finally reached the encampment of Gen. Negley's division on May 7, 1862.  A letter he wrote the following day describes his journey from Louisville to Columbia, Tennessee, essentially retracing the route that the 79th Pennsylvania marched between October 1861 and March 1862.  Sypher's comments touch on the state of the railroads, the desire among soldiers for newspapers, and conditions in Nashville and Columbia.  Sypher had just missed the excitement following the capture of Capt. Kendrick's detail and the expedition to Pulaski by a battalion from the 79th Pennsylvania, which I posted about two weeks ago. 

His next letter, dated May 12, recounts the forward movement of some infantry, artillery, and cavalry commanded by Gen. Negley from Columbia to Pulaski.  After Negley and his bodyguard, a section of artillery coincidentally commanded by Sypher's brother, Lieut. A. J. Sypher, led the march followed by the 79th Pennsylvania mounted on wagons and the 7th Pennsylvania Cavalry.

Enslaved African-Americans along the route made an impression upon J. R. Sypher, a staunch if not Radical Republican who took the time to "converse with a large number of these peculiarly situated people."  See his second letter posted below for an interesting description of those conversations, and Sypher's impression of their view of the world and of the Yankees ("wee men wid blue bellies, so small that you couldn't hardly shoot 'em.").  Sypher concludes by focusing on the vexing question of what the Union Army will do with the slaves in occupied territory, "the most important interrogatory of the age," and describing how he struggled to give an answer to an old man "whose soul was panting for freedom."            

Map of Tennessee from Columbia to Pulaski (Extracted from 1863 Map)
<View here>

With apologies for a corrupted image files late in the letter, here is Sypher's letter from May 8 published in the May 14, 1862, Daily Evening Express: (alternate link)


And from the May 19, 1862, Daily Evening Express: (alternate link) 

Compelling and Worth Retelling: Letters from the 45th PA and Other Regiments

Scene on Otter Island, South Carolina, where Companies B and K, 45th Pennsylvania, were stationed beginning in December 1861. (New York Illustrated News, May 17, 1862)

In my reading of Lancaster County newspapers from 150 years ago, I recently decided to take a glance at two digitized weekly newspapers, the Columbia Spy and the Mariettian, and have been absolutely amazed at the soldiers' letters they contain!  In late 1861 and early 1862, they seem to average about five per month (a little over one per edition) and cover a variety of units:

1. Co. K, 5th Pennsylvania Reserves
2. Battery G, 1st Pennsylvania Light Artillery
3. Co. E, 107th Pennsylvania Infantry
4. Co. I, 23rd Pennsylvania Infantry ("Birney Zouaves")

But, most of all, they cover the wartime experiences of Companies B and K, 45th Pennsylvania Infantry, which were recruited in Marietta and Columbia, respectively, which were probably Lancaster County's two "bloodiest" companies in terms of casualties, and the regiment ranks in the Top 20 for men killed in battle for all Union regiments.  They also had the most unique travelogue of Lancaster companies, which included

• Spending several months on Hilton Head, South Carolina, where they were on the front line of the Union's emancipation policy and regularly interacted with runaway slaves (Wikipedia page about operations there)
• Fighting at South Mountain and Antietam in September 1862
• Being transferred to fight at Vicksburg, Mississippi
• Fighting in East Tennessee on their way back east
• Going through miserable fighting at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor
• Participating in the Siege of Petersburg and operations through the end of the war

Sgt. (later Capt.) John F. Trout
Company B, 45th Pa.
(From recent Ebay auction)

I've barely begun reading these letters, but their content is usually fascinating both from a human interest standpoint and from the perspective of historical analysis.  Several different correspondents contributed, including Columbians George H. Stape ("45," I believe, in the Spy) and Lewis Martin (in the Mariettian).  The first letter from the 45th Pennsylvania in South Carolina, though, was written on December 13, 1861, by a soldier who signed his name "Hempfield."  (Based on circumstantial evidence, I'll nominate Sergt. John F. Trout of Landisville as a possible author.)  <Click here> for a link to the letter in the December 28, 1861, edition of the Columbia Spy, which is part of the Pennsylvania Civil War Newspapers Project.  Here's an excerpt:

Behold us then on the super-sacred soil of South Carolina, and nary bloody hand has welcomed us to ary hospitable grave thus far.  We were all upside down for a little while, but the Colonel [Thomas Welsh of Columbia] soon reduced us to order.  The boys generally went into bathing and oyster hunting, collecting curiosities, &c.  At night the contraband (who arrived simultaneously with the northern invaders) afforded amusement by their grotesque dances, &c.
...
Otter Island, on which we are stationed is some three miles in length by a width of two and a half miles.  It seems never to have been cultivated, but commands a very prominent point on St. Helena Sound.  Hutchinson Island, opposite, is highly cultivated, and grows cotton abundantly, but the crops have either been removed or burned.  

Col. Thomas Welsh
(Source)

Unfortunately, I mostly won't be posting on these letters, as telling the story of the 79th Pennsylvania fully consumes my blogging time capacity, but I just wanted to point out their existence and online availability for anyone who might be interested.  I'm compiling a list of the letters for my own use as a go through the newspapers, and I might polish it at some point and publish it online.

I hope that the resurrection of some of these stories as for entertainment, inspiration, and analysis becomes a hallmark of the Civil War sesquicentennial, as we begin to care not just what was going through the mind of Generals Grant and Lee but also, for instance, what was going through the mind of some corporal from Columbia who found himself building quarters on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, for some of the first slaves liberated by Union armies. 

Other References:

• Pennsylvania Civil War Newspapers Project (includes Lancaster Intelligencer, Columbia Spy, and the Weekly Mariettian), which you can search and browse by paper.
• Bates' regimental history and roster of the 45th Pennsylvania
•  Albert, Allen D. (Editor) History of the Forty-Fifth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, 1861-1865, Williamsport, Pennsylvania, 1912.
•  Biography of Col. Thomas Welsh (later Brig. Gen)
• Don’t forget it the Civil War military correspondence of Private John W. Bookman, 45th regiment, Pennsylvania volunteer infantry (at Lancaster County Historical Society)
  
• First Sergeant John Hipple, Co. B 45th Pennsylvania / by Donald L. Rhoads, Jr. (LCHS Journal, 2000)
• Also providing commentary from South Carolina was Franklin and Marshall College Class of 1861 Valedictorian Adam Cyrus Reinoehl, who wrote back to the Daily Evening Express throughout the war under the name, "Demas." 

'Three Days in Camp': A Newspaper Editor's Visit

J. M. Willis Geist, editor of the Daily Evening Express
From Ellis and Evans' 1883 History of Lancaster County

A strong theme that quickly emerges when researching the 79th Pennsylvania is the deep connection between the regiment and the hometown newspapers, especially the Daily Evening Express--the only daily paper at the way's onset and predecessor to the New Era (see examples of printing work here).  Its editor, J. M. Willis Geist (bio), started the paper in 1856 around the same time he was involved with starting Lancaster County's Republican Party.  Throughout the war, soldiers continuously requested their friends in Lancaster forward copies of the Express, and many of the regiment's diarists note regular arrival of the Express in camp.

Allegheny Arsenal, Lawrenceville, Pittsburgh, PA
Just up the street from Camp Wilkins (Source)

Shortly after Col. Hambright's regiment left Lancaster, Geist traveled to spend three days, October 12-14, with the regiment in camp.  When he returned, he published the following account posted below in the October 16, 1861, Express (alternate link).  I truncated the company rosters mentioned in the account and will post them on another occasion.