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.

Better Know an Officer: Capt. William G. Kendrick

Capt. William G. Kendrick (WGK)

Name:  Capt. William G. Kendrick, Company A, 79th Pennsylvania (later a 14th Corps staff officer)

Born:  August 26, 1815, Cecil County, Maryland

Died:  February 10, 1897, Fort Wayne, Indiana

Pre-war Life:  Sailor from 1837 to 1847.  Married Anna Louise Stoddart in 1849 in Delaware and had several children.  Supervised bricklaying contract for Lancaster County Courthouse.  Local government connections.  

Post-war Life:  Architect in Lancaster.  Moved to Springfield, Ohio, and Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he died.   

Key Events: Captured with men by Morgan's raiders while on work detail in May 1862.  Battle of Chickamauga.  

On the battlefield, very few men acted like they had less to lose that Capt. William G. Kendrick, but when it came to returning home to their families few men acted like they were missing out on so much by being away in the army.  Kendrick, the senior captain of the 79th Pennsylvania and seemingly Col. Hambright's right-hand man, made a name for himself as a daredevil: first when narrowly escaping cannibals while sailing around the world, then as a captain in the 79th Pennsylvania, and later as a staff officer to Brig. Gen. James Negley of the 14th Corps.       

Fortunately, Kendrick left behind one of the best collections of private letters related to the 79th Pennsylvania, which his descendents have published and made available <here> (warning: file size is very large).  Kendrick writes to his wife with extreme self-confidence regarding his competence as a leader, his favored status among Col. Hambright's line officers, and a bluntness about those he deems poor officers. His letters recounting his close calls in battles and the risks he took on independent expeditions must have terrified his wife.  I'd call him arrogant or narcissistic, but he has some pretty good letters of recommendation in his file to back him up, including one from Gen. George H. Thomas.  Kendrick also writes openly about homesickness and the emotional challenges of leaving his wife and young children and going off to war.

Louisa Stoddart Kendrick (WGK)

Kendrick appears to have had talents in the building trades which he employed during the building boom of the 1850s in Lancaster.  Searching the Lancaster Intelligencer for his name during the 1850s gives some of the details of work he supervised, including a contract for $8,800 to do the brick masonry work for the Lancaster County Courthouse.  Before the war, it also appears Kendrick was active in Lancaster City's Know Nothing Party during the 1850s before getting in trouble for some breaching some secret related to the order.  The economic downtown appears to have hit Kendrick hard though, as he repeatedly states that we would resign as soon as he had enough money to stabilize his family's situation.

Lancaster County Courthouse, built 1852-5.  (Source and info)

Highlights of Kendrick's tenure as officer included dining with Confederate cavalryman John Hunt Morgan after a telegraph detail Kendrick led was captured by him in 1862, working hard as a staff officer during the Battle of Chickamauga, and then supposedly giving up a cot he found to Gen. Thomas the night after the 14th Corps made its famous stand at Chickamauga.  Earlier in the war, Kendrick led a detachment of the 79th Pennsylvania on a daylong expedition into the countryside, and the next post will focus on the excitement that resulted from the excursion.

Better Know a Soldier: Lewis H. Jones

Union army camp scene (Mathew Brady via Fold3.com--Image ID B-270)
Lewis Jones unofficially served as a cook for Company H, 79th Pennsylvania.

Name: Pvt. Lewis H. Jones, Company H, 79th Pennsylvania
Born: December 5, 1824
Residence: 311 S. Queen St., Lancaster City (according to 3/24/1862 letter)
Occupation: Listed as "engineer" in 1860 census, although he was working in a restaurant for a Lancaster County miller named Jesse P. Ronk due to an economic downturn that hit Lancaster's industrial development pretty hard.
Death: Killed at Battle of Perryville, Kentucky, on October 8, 1862. 
Family: First marriage in 1844 to Mary Ann King with child William Henry Clay in 1845.  Second marriage on April 7, 1844, to Elizabeth Boullay/Boley/Boulalay with children: Paul James (1851-1853), Joseph Franklin (b. 1853-1933), Glancy (1855-1864), Washington (1857-1930), Theresa (1859-1940), and Freeland (1861-?). 

PA Civil War Veterans' Card File record for Lewis H. Jones.

Any research attempt to get accurate picture of the men of the 79th Pennsylvania suffers from a serious selection bias.  Illiterate soldiers tended to produce fewer letters, for instance.  Moreover, letters from soldiers to families that could be described as the working poor or working class seem to have had a very low chance of being saved.  Instead, the strongest historical voices from the Lancaster County Regiment come from well-educated men who hailed from economically stable families, often with deep roots in Lancaster County. 

Fortunately, we have a great exception in a year's worth of letters in the collection of the Lancaster County Historical Society from  Pvt. Lewis H. Jones.  Jones was one of a number of a identifiable group of "South Queen Street boys" who enlisted together in Company H, 79th Pennsylvania, and part of a family to whom the Civil War brought compounded tragedies. Jones' letters offer fascinating insights into how one soldier tried to help his wife, their four-then-five children, their relatives, and their neighbors avert disaster that always seemed to loom right around the corner. 

I mention Jones now for the emotional extremes he faced within a few days of each other as 1861 turned to 1862.  First, on December 28, 1861, his wife gave birth to their sixth son (fifth living).  The son was named Freeland after the teenage son of Jesse P. Ronk who with his wife employed Jones in their restaurant after he lost his industrial job and whom Jones held in high regard.  [Sidenote: Jesse P. Ronk was a wealthy miller near Bird-in-Hand.  The community Ronks in the heart of Amish country is supposedly named after Jesse Ronk]

Tragedy struck, though, nine days later when Jones' brother-in-law, Joseph Maxwell of Company C, 79th Pennsylvania, died on January 6 after minor complaints about irritation in the bowels somewhat suddenly took a fatal turn.  Jones, who would write letters for the illiterate Maxwell, and now took care of sending the body back to Lancaster for burial (at the cost of $40) and tended to Joseph's effects over the next month or two, sending much of his clothing back to Lancaster. 

As winter wore on, Jones' family, his sister-in-law's, and other South Queen St. families with men in the 79th Pennsylvania faced serious challenges for finding food, fuel, and medical care.  Lewis Jones even shipped discarded army clothing and food (dessicated vegetables with instructions to make soup) to his wife in March 1862 while the regiment was in Tennessee.  There was even a political and patriotic aspect of their suffering, as we'll revisit Elizabeth Jones, her sister, and her mother when they write an editorial in response to a smear campaign by one mayoral candidate against another that involved them.

There are many letter excerpts I'd like to present and historical angles to explore (what the letters say about relief work, marriage, life in the regiment, etc.), but I've hit the ceiling on the time I want to spend on this post.  I'll refer you to his letters, housed and transcribed at the Lancaster County Historical Society, and recently published in a book linked below. 

Sources and References:

• Lewis Jones Family Papers at the Lancaster County Historical Society.
• Ronk/Ranck family newsletter: http://ranck.org/Archive/Reporter/V19N1.pdf
• A Patriotic Destiny: From Lancaster to Perryville by Elwood Jones.  This book was written by a descendant and contains the LCHS letters interspersed with historical fiction.   
• Newspaper accounts of Joseph Maxwell's funeral.  

Direct Deposit for 79th PA Soldiers and Families

Union soldiers outside a sutler's store (Mathew Brady via National Archives)

On December 2, 1861, the 79th Pennsylvania assembled on parade to hear an address by commissioners sent by Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin to promote something known as the "Allotment Roll."  It looks like company commanders made arrangements with private bankers in Lancaster to offer the option of allowing soldiers' families to receive money directly in Lancaster.  The financial plight of soldiers' families had attracted much attention locally, and I'll try to address interesting aspects of Lancaster's implementation of the state-mandated "Relief Fund" in a future post.  It was hoped, though, that the U.S. Paymaster was finally fully operational in late 1861 and that the flow of money home from soldiers would alleviate the suffering of their families and the burden on local government coffers.  The allotment roll was meant to improve upon the decentralized process in the 79th Pennsylvania's first pay day in mid-November when each Captain made his own arrangements for sending its share of the estimated $14,000 in cash that soldiers of the 79th Pennsylvania sent back to Lancaster. [LEH]. 

One of Lancaster's private bankers, George K. Reed (bio), who administered parts of the regiment's allotment roll even visited the regiment's camp on December 4, 1861, presumably to get business in order [JHD].  The median response for the soldiers, who were paid $13 a month, seems to have been to allocate $10 to be picked up in Lancaster via the allotment roll.  That's what Lewis Jones, a working class husband and father of three or four young children tenuously living on South Queen St., decided to allot to his wife.  As a side effect, this process also necessitated the use of house numbers, as Lewis Jones' next letter contained an inquiry as to the number of the family's rented dwelling. [LHJ, 12/9/1861]

Here are some additional thoughts on the allotment roll and soldiers' finances from Corp. Elias H. Witmer of Company E, 79th Pennsylvania, published in the December 11, 1861, Daily Evening Express: (alternate link)

Providing for Soldiers' Families

A soldier's family in camp, allegedly with the 2nd Pennsylvania Reserves.
Library of Congress, LC-USZC4-7983

In reading wartime newspapers and soldiers' letters to their wives, something that has stood out to me is the very precarious existence that many poor and working class soldiers' families often faced.  It appears that many soldiers' going off to war put their families at risk not just financially, but also in terms of basic physical needs (e.g., food, medical care, fuel for winter).  I don't know how soldiers' army pay compared to that of their prewar occupation, but delays in receiving pay and logistical barriers to sending pay home certainly made things difficult.

Although newspapers record a couple tragic stories of 79th Pennsylvania families, most soldiers' families seem to have coped with the war's difficulties through some combination of:

1. Remote support from the soldiers themselves through letters.  As well as basic emotional support, the letters often contained specific directions for managing finances, procuring necessary goods, and even raising children.  The Lewis H. Jones letters at the Lancaster County Historical Society are fantastic in this regard.  A working class father of several young children with another one on the way, Jones was one of several men from South Queen St. who joined Co. H, 79th Pennsylvania, while the regiment was being recruited.  Besides expressions of devotion, his letters to his wife Elizabeth give instructions for which bills to pay and with which priority, tell her at which stores to get goods and the status of their account there, and give words of support to pass on to children to encourage their good behavior: "Tell josey to be a good boy and go to school." (11/6/1861)  "Tell Washey and Josey that they must not go to the crik [presumably, Conestoga Creek] or I wont give them eney money to buy cakes and ice cream" (6/29/1862)
2. Support from informal familial and social networks.  Lewis Jones' letters reveal a somewhat strong network among the South Queen Street families and their soldiers in the 79th Pennsylvania.  When Jones' friend and wife's brother-in-law died of disease in early 1862, Joseph also tried to help the Maxwell family in many ways, including one note from an 6/25/1862 letter, "Give Josephine [Maxwell] a dollar to buy som things for her childern for the forth of July."  The city's professional class also occasionally worked pro bono on behalf of needy soldiers' families, and one doctor's alleged indifference toward the Maxwells became part of a libelous campaign against the doctor when he ran for mayor in 1862 (another story for a couple months down the road).     
3. Support from institutions, private and public.  Religiously-oriented aid groups, such as the Union Dorcas Society, had already existed in Lancaster before the war and easily extended their mission to meet the needs of soldiers' families.  The Mennonites, whose wealth (as a group) and pacifism sometimes made them targets of scorn among the war's supporters, appear to have contributed prominently to aid efforts for soldiers' families.  Finally, as the article below indicates, the Lancaster County Commissioners also arranged for public sources of aid for soldiers' families, but I don't know too much about how public aid worked, so I'll be likely to revisit this topic as I learn more about it in the future. 

From the August 27, 1861, Daily Evening Express: (alternate link), it's apparent that some soldiers' families faced hardships even before the regiment left Lancaster.  Read on further in the column for an appeal (with some humor) to ladies to knit stockings for soldiers.