Gen. Rousseau Visits Lancaster

Late on the night of February 1, 1863, Major General Lovell H. Rousseau arrived in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for a brief but planned stop on a journey from Tennessee to New York. The general had received national attention as a loyal Democrat and border state warrior who helped secure Kentucky for the Union, but his Lancaster hosts knew the “gallant Rousseau” better for the men whom he commanded. Under Rousseau, the “Lancaster County Regiment”—more formally known as the 79th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry—had fought its first battle four months earlier near Perryville, Kentucky, on October 8, 1862. In that battle, the regiment lost over one-third of its number as casualties in a successful stand against repeated Confederate assaults.

After Rousseau's arrival was announced, an “immense concourse of citizens” gathered the next night to hear Rousseau at the Caldwell House in Lancaster.  The 79th Pennsylvania's former regimental band, the Fencibles band, played a number of airs, including "Auld Lang Syne" and "Hail to the Chief."  J. M. W. Geist, editor of the Express, remarked,  

There was an appropriety in the occasion which was felt  no less by the General than by every member of the Band.  He had heard them play these same airs when both together shared the privations and dangers of the battle field, and they had seen the gallant soldier as cheers from the whole line indicated how warm a place the Kentucky patriot and soldier held in the hearts of the men of his Division.  It was a meeting of old friends and a waking up of old reminiscences.  And we need hardly add that the Band did full justice to its reputation on this interesting occasion.

The general responded by praising the Lancaster County Regiment, saying "a better drilled, more thoroughly disciplined, and braver body of men could not be found in the army."  Furthermore, Lancaster should be proud of Col. Hambright, "for the rebels had never yet seen the backs of the 79th. P. V."  Afterwards, Rousseau greeted many Lancasterians in the parlor of the Caldwell House, sought treatment for the throat ailment for which he was traveling to find a cure, and left the following morning on a train to Washington (not New York, as originally intended) in the company of journalist Josiah Rinehart Sypher and Lieut. Samuel L. Hartman--a 79th Pa officer on his staff.   

Rousseau’s visit represented a public testimonial to the Lancaster County Regiment’s sacrifice at Perryville and the community’s commitment to remember it. It showed how a regiment’s participation in a battle, even one that received relatively little national attention, still impacted the community five hundred miles that sent it off to war.  Presumably, this was an opportunity for at least a few men and women from families directly impacted by the Perryville casualty list to publicly remember their loss.

Another event taking place a few blocks away showed how a unit’s experience in battle could play upon notions of loyalty in that unit’s hometown. Instead of attending General Rousseau’s reception which coincided with the eve of city elections, many of Lancaster’s Democrats crowded Fulton Hall for a partisan political rally. Stuart A. Wylie, editor of one Republican paper, the Lancaster Daily Inquirer, could not resist comparing the two assemblages. After reviewing the courage of and sacrifices made by Rousseau, Wylie noted, “At one place we had a Kentuckian advising the people to be faithful, and a few minute’s walk distant, we had men counseling factious opposition and denunciation of the Government.” A letter to another Republican paper vilified Lancaster’s Mayor George Sanderson—a prominent Democrat and editor of the Lancaster Intelligencer—wondering if the mayor intentionally avoided the general because Rousseau, also a Democrat, was “too vigorous in his prosecution of the war…to be palatable to the very questionable political sensibilities of the Mayor.” The letter concluded, “‘Tis a burning shame that our city which has sent forth so many noble, patriotic sons…could not have a man as its chief magistrate who would extend the hand of fellowship and welcome to a General, who had so brilliantly led those sons—some to victory, and some to death! but all to glory!”

In addition to showing the notion of battlefield sacrifice as a central theme in commemorative appeals, General Rousseau’s visit illustrates a complex and evolving relationship between home front activities and support for soldiers from that community. From a purely political perspective, though, the parties generally desired to tether Lancaster County’s natural support for its own regiment to their own party platforms. Both Democrats and Republicans, who aligned with War Democrats to form the Union Party, attempted to appear as the regiment’s true home front advocate and the soldier’s friend. As the battle’s memory formed in the weeks and months succeeding October 1862, a variety of factors helped Republicans to depict the Democrats as outsiders looking in, as exemplified by accusations surrounding General Rousseau’s February 1863 visit.

The Battle of Sweeden's Cove, June 4, 1862

Map of Sweeden's Cove
Detail of Map by N. Michler, 1862 (Library of Congress)

The 79th Pennsylvania's very first engagement--on June 4, 1862, at Sweeden's Cove near Jasper, Tennessee--also happened to be perhaps its most tactically interesting and superbly executed mission of the entire war.  On May 28, the 79th Pennsylvania and other infantry, cavalry, and artillery under the command of General Negley left camp with twelve days' rations to march south again in the direction of Pulaski, Tennessee.  Instead of continuing south to Rogersville, as they had a couple weeks early, they veered east to march over mountainous roads to Fayetteville, Winchester, and ultimately the all-important city of Chattanooga approximately 90 miles east of Pulaski. Although I haven't seen it stated explicitly, I surmise the goal of this mission, which would have been planned by Negley and his superior General Mitchel, to feint towards Chattanooga to draw Confederate resources there and also encourage Unionist sentiment. 

The men of the Lancaster County Regiment enjoyed the first opportunity for real mountain marching, and soldier-correspondent Corp. Elias H. Witmer (bio) described the march on May 30 between Pulaski and Fayetteville:

The day is warm, the hills become steeper, the roads rougher, the poorly fed and worse cared for cavalry horses pant and fall to the ground, the artillery horses have become powerless, but the 79th is full of life--they laugh at their mounted fellow soldiers--the artillery call us the bull-dog regiment--the cavalry say we are the 1st Pennsylvania foot cavarly; we take it as a compliment, it gives us new life, and we push forward as fast as though the enemy, with 50,000 men, were on our heels.  We waded streams, crossed a small creek forty-one times, arrived at our place of bivouac, took a bathe, eat supper, made out bed, squatted, "good night," and were sound asleep. 

Confederate Col. John Adams
(Source)

Over the next few days, they continued marching east through a fertile valley and then through more mountains, reaching the peak of that section of the Cumberland Mountains on June 4.  Somewhere along the way, they discovered that Confederate cavalry, which Witmer plausibly estimates at 600-800, was encamped in the valley (Sweeden's Cove) that they were about to enter from the backdoor and descend.  The Confederate cavalry was a brigade under the command of Col. John Adams that had move out of Chattanooga and crossed the Tennessee River on May 29 and 30 under the orders of Gen. Beauregard. [OR Chap XXII, pp. 895-896]

After already having marched twenty miles that day, General Negley and acting brigade commander Col. Henry A. Hambright (bio) of the 79th Pennsylvania prepared to attack the rebels at the foot of the mountain.

Although it's not clear the specific roles of Hambright and Negley, they positioned two sections (four guns) of artillery just off the wood line and prepared their two regiments of cavalry out of sight.  Companies A, D, and F of the 79th Pennsylvania moved out of the woods and engaged the Confederates as skirmishers, soliciting the intended response of the cavalry being drawn up in a battle line. 

Satellite View of Sweeden's Cove near Jasper, Tennessee (Google Maps)
Union forces attacked from west to east (left to right on the map).

As soon as Adams' men were ready to charge, Hambright's artillery opened fire, initiating a panicked retreat by the Rebel horsemen.  One of the 79th Pennsylvania's skirmishers, Pvt. James Fields, wrote, "the moment [the Confederate cavalry] began the work [of attacking] we let drive and showered them in earnest from our cannon, which made them look two ways for Sunday." [7/5/1862 Weekly Mariettian]

It was then the Union cavalry's turn, and the 7th Pennsylvania Cavalry and 5th Kentucky Cavalry chased the routed Rebels for five miles.  Fields continued,

as the shot came thick and fast amongst them, they began to think about getting out of reach, and then our cavalry came rushing from the bushes and on them--and such getting away you never saw--they ran as if the devil was after them, dropping canteens, swords, sabres, guns, pistols, haversacks, overcoats... 

Sgt. William T. Clark (bio) recorded in his diary that the people in the nearby town of Jasper "told us the rebels didn't run, they flew."  The victory was decisive, and the pathway to continue the expedition to Chattanooga was now open.  

Besides captured ammunition and commissary wagons, the Confederates lost 20 killed, another 20 wounded, and 12 captured.  Clark mentioned on the next day that "Our cavalry found 20 bodies of the rebels that were killed yesterday," which must be those now buried in Bean-Roulston Cemetery in a mass grave.  Union losses were two killled and seven wounded, mostly among the 5th Kentucky, I believe.  The 79th Pennsylvania suffered no losses. 

From the June twenty-something (my notes were corrupted), 1862, Daily Evening Express, we have Corp. Elias Witmer's letter describing the engagement which contains Col. Hambright's report: (alternate link)

Sypher Dispatches: Florence, a Truce Party, and back to Columbia

Florence, Alabama (Wikipedia)

This post contains the sixth, seventh, and eighth letters of Lancaster journalist and adventurer J. R. Sypher.  Read an introduction here. 

After chasing away Confederates from the opposite side of the Tennessee River and a somewhat daring raid in which some boats were burned and captured, the 79th Pennsylvania's next mission was a march to the town of Florence, Alabama, about twenty miles downriver from Rogersville.  Advance elements took the city on May 16, and the main body arrived the next day. 

Occupying Florence--in which the Lancaster County boys under acting Provost Marshall Capt. Morris D. Wickersham represented themselves well--seemed to appeal to 79th Pennsylvania.  As a sidenote, Wickersham actually spent much of the rest of his life in Mobile, Alabama, as a lawyer and minor politician there.  Sypher noted, teasing Wickersham (whom he likely knew well through education causes in Lancaster):

This morning Captain Wickersham was sent in with two companies to picket and guard the town, and when it was seen how good looking and well-behaved the Lancaster soldiers were, to say nothing personal of the officers, the ladies of Florence really put on their nice things, not rough home-spun, and appeared in the streets and at the door-ways, it is feared to a damaging extent, for many of the boys say they would "like to remain awhile."

Otherwise, the most noteworthy news item was the exchange of the notorious Confederate Cavalryman John Hunt Morgan's son for the son of Union Gen. Ormsby Mitchel.  Gen. Negley graciously allowed J. R. Sypher to accompany the truce party, and his letter describes what he saw within Confederate lines. 

Monument in Lawrenceburg, TN
(Wikipedia)

The week-long expedition ended on a very sour note, though, as the regiment received orders to march hurriedly northward.  They stopped at one o'clock in the morning to bivouac on the Tennessee-Alabama line.  The next day took them on a wilderness road to Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, and another day's march in the rain got them to Mount Pleasant, Tennessee, and a camp they called Camp Duchman after the regiment's aged (and mostly irrelevant) lieutenant colonel.  The command finally reached their old camping grounds at Camp Morehead in Columbia on May 21 or 22. 

Sypher, who had probably been spending time with his brother's artillery section, returned to the Lancaster County Regiment and was outraged to see men of the 79th Pennsylvania without shoes, which launched him into a tirade about a Army quartermaster and feelings about Jewish speculators similar to that what Gen. Grant had when he expelled Jews from the Western Theater later that year. 

Other topics in Sypher's letters include:

• Unkind words for Negley's staff officers' handling of the march.
• Outrage at the 5th Kentucky Cavalry (Col. Haggard), which was "especially notorious and obnoxious as slave catchers".
• Comical indignation at being mistaken for a chaplain.
• Policies by Tennessee's Governor Andrew Johnson to punish those who destroy Unionists' property
• A review of Capt. Standart's Ohio battery
• The forced opening of Columbia's churches so that Union soldiers could attend

Since there are three letters, I won't embed them here but instead will provide the links:

1. May 17, 1862, Florence, Ala., in the May 24, 1862, Daily Evening Express
2. May 22, 1862, Columbia, Tenn., in the May 31, 1862, Daily Evening Express
3. May 28, 1862, Nashville, Tenn., in the June 5, 1862, Daily Evening Express

Sypher Dispatches: The Rogersville Expedition

Area of operations near Rogersville, Alabama
(Source: Library of Congress, U.S. Coast Survey, A. D. Bache, Supdt., 1865)
(View magnifiable extract of map here)

Fourth and fifth letters in the grand tour of Lancaster journalist J. R. Sypher.  Read an introduction here.

I'm not sure if any of the Lancaster County Regiment soldiers would have believed in when they left home in October 1861, but over seven months later they were entering Alabama without taking a single casualty in battle.  While the main elements of the Union and Confederate forces were maneuvering to the west in what would develop as the Siege of Corinth (Mississippi), General Negley's division under command of General Ormsby Mitchell was pushing forward into Alabama from camp at Pulaski, Tennessee.

On the morning of May 13, four regiments of infantry, several companies of cavalry, and four pieces of artillery under command of General Negley left camp, and after a day's worth of marching arrived in Rogersville, Alabama, a town just north of the Tennessee River.  Shortly after their arrival and just as the Lancasterians had started bathing in a stream that fed into the Tennessee River, an alarm came in and the regiment double-quicked it to Lamb's Ferry four miles away.  The cavalry and artillery arrived just in time to fire parting shots at a couple rebels retreating across the river, and a couple daring men of the 79th Pennsylvania succeeding in burning a ferry boat.  [WTC Diary]
 
On May 14, detachments scouted up and down the river.  On May 15, the regiment had a little more excitement with another trip to Lamb's Ferry (downstream?).  Corp. William T. Clark of Company B, 79th Pennsylvania, recorded:

When we arrived at the shore, 20 or more Rebels were seen on the opposite side. A few shot, and shell scattered them in every direction. We drew lots to see who would go over with the boat, when John Cramer, Fred Offlebach were drawn from our squad. They burned one large ferryboat, brought 2 flats, 2 dugouts and one large boat across with them.

Read more details in two letters by J. R. Sypher dated May 14 and May 15, 1862.

From the May 21, 1862, Daily Evening Express: (alternate link)


From the May 24, 1862, Daily Evening Express: (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) 

Sypher Dispatches: From Lancaster to Louisville

Another company from Lancaster--Company B, 1st Penna. Reserves--in 1863
I suspect the civilian on the right of the picture is J. R. Sypher, who traveled with the Army of the Potomac as a journalist.  (Mathew Brady via Fold3.com)

The following post is the first in a series of a dozen or so letters by Lancaster lawyer, journalist, and civilian adventurer J. R. Sypher during his travels through the Western Theater as a sort of "embedded reporter" in May and June 1862.  

J. R. Sypher (suspected)
(Enlargement of above photo)

On May 2, 1862, former Daily Evening Express assistant editor Josiah Rhinehart Sypher left Lancaster for a two-month tour of the Western Theater, where he had spent time as a correspondent before the war.  I've written about Sypher--and brother James Hale Sypher of Standard's Ohio Artillery Battery and brother A.J., Armorer on the USS St. Louis ironclad--several times before on this blog, including his letter after having been chased out of Memphis in June 1861 and a quarrel with the Democratic Intelligencer in August 1861 over dueling rallies in Drumore Township (which Sypher coincidentally refers to in the opening to his letter below).

Only a week before leaving, Sypher was admitted to practice law, passing a "highly creditable examination."  He studied under none other than Thaddeus Stevens--with whom he shared many political beliefs--although it's unclear how much Sypher personally interacted with Stevens.  As a progressive-minded Republican, Sypher seems to show up in just about every reform movement and civic activity in Lancaster, such as the Lancaster County Bible Society and Temperance picnics. Just several weeks earlier, he was one of six founding members of the Linnaean Society of Lancaster City and County, a very active science and natural history society whose collection formed the basis of what is now the North Museum near Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster. [DEE 4/26/1862]

The Express sent Sypher off with the following announcement published on May 3, 1862:  

J. R. Sypher, Esq., formerly our Southern and Western correspondent, and more recently our editorial assistant, started for the seat of war in the department of the Mississippi, on Friday morning.  He goes as special correspondent of the Express, being provided with a military pass from the War Department, authorizing him to go anywhere within the lines of the armies of the United States.  For this we are indebted to the kindness of Secretary Stanton and Col. Sandford.  The conditions of the parole attached to the pass are very stringent, but the Express has no cause to fear them, as we have never yet published a line involving the censure of the war department, although important information has been frequently in our possession in advance of its publication elsewhere.

Mr. Sypher intended going direct to Corinth, and thence with Gen. Halleck's army to Memphis.  Being familiar with the country in the southwest, and having a pretty extensive acquaintance with the people there, his letters will no doubt be as interesting as valuable.  

George D. Prentice
Editor, Louisville Journal(Source)

Sypher penned his first letter in Louisville, the gateway to the Western Theater for Lancasterians during the Civil War.  Lancaster maintained a strong patriotic and logistical connection to Louisville, cheering on border state warriors like Louisville Journal editor George D. Prentice and relying on the soldiers' aid infrastructure there to distribute goods to Lancaster soldiers and others in need.  

From the May 8, 1862, Daily Evening Express: (alternate link)

From the Mississippi Flotilla: 'The Rebels to be Bagged'

Back to the Sypher brothers, A. J. Sypher (previous letter)--an officer about the ironclad gunboat USS St. Louis--was quickly gaining on his brother James Hale Sypher in terms of battle count, as the Mississippi Flotilla looked forward to their next fight after forcing the surrender of Island No. 10.  His letter exudes confidence in the ability of the gunboats as they took on Fort Wright and Fort Pillow between April and June 1862.  

Other content includes the story of an escaped slave and his rejection and subsequent acceptance by the fleet and the correspondence of a Virginia soldier and his mother.

In another month, look for more letters from the USS St. Louis, this time penned by Daily Evening Express correspondent and gentleman adventurer J. R. Sypher, who was on a grand officially-sanctioned tour of the Western Theater to visit with the 79th Pennsylvania and his brothers.

Also, be sure to read my post about the letters written by another Lancasterian, Francis Kilburn, from a mortar boat and Craig Swain's interesting post about the operation of a mortar boat. 

From the April 23, 1862, Daily Evening Express: (alternate link)

Conditions in Occupied Nashville: A Letter from J H Sypher

The Capitol at Nashville (HW 3/8/1862)

With spring's arrival came a flurry of new letters from correspondents across the Western Theater.  Jacob Hall Sypher, the Ohio artillery officer and future Radical Republican Congressman representing a district in Louisiana, wrote this letter a week to the Daily Evening Express (of which his brother was the local news editor) after arriving in Nashville with Battery B, 1st Ohio Light Artillery, of General George H. Thomas's division.  His letter touched on his impressions of his city, the widespread pro-Confederate sentiments of its inhabitants, and military policy towards civilians.  On the last point, Sypher boasts of the army's restraint and leniency--an important benchmark for comparison when we try to understand the Army under Buell vs. the Army under Sherman in 1864. 

From the Daily Evening Express of March 21, 1862 (alternate link): 

The Bombardment of Fort Henry: A Letter from a Gunboat Officer

The Battle of Fort Henry by Currier and Ives (Source)

On February 2, 1862, General Ulysses S. Grant left Cairo, Illinois, with the Western Flotilla of ironclad gunboats to invade western Kentucky and Tennessee.  His first major obstacle was Fort Henry on the Tennessee River near the Kentucky-Tennessee border.  Fortunately for the federals, poor design and high water meant most of Fort Henry was underwater, and the Union gunboats induced a surrender after a bombardment.

Although victories at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson a week later would dramatically change the strategic picture in Kentucky and Tennessee for the 79th Pennsylvania, the Lancaster County Regiment did not participate in the fighting.  A. J. Sypher, brother of Lancaster Daily Evening Express local news editor J. R. Sypher, did fight in the battle though as an officer on the U.S. Gunboat St. Louis.  He penned this letter to his brother's newspaper a half hour after the fort surrendered.

[ADDITION: See Pistols and Politics: the Dilemma of Democracy in Louisiana's Florida Parishes for a reference to A. J. Sypher and his brother's postwar involvement in politics there, which apparently included forming a black militia in response to violence.]

USS St Louis (later Baron DeKalb) (Source)

Sypher's letter was the first of an oddly large number of letters written for publication in newspapers by Lancasterians or Lancaster-related sailors and Marines aboard ironclads and other ships in the Western Theater.  Look for more letters from A. J. Sypher and three or four other correspondents to be posted here in the future.

From the February 14, 1862, Daily Evening Express: (alternate link)

A 'Glorious Victory': A Letter From the Battle of Mill Springs

Currier & Ives Print of the Battle of Mill Springs (Library of Congress LC-USZC2-1959)

Recall how the Union advance through Kentucky was divided into three "wings", for lack of a better term.  General Grant had Union forces in the far western part of the state as the western wing.  General Buell focused much of his Army of the Ohio--including the 79th Pennsylvania--as the center wing advancing down the Louisville and Nashville Railroad.  Much of the rest of Buell's army was the eastern wing, led by Gen. George H. Thomas, and they were to advance deep into central Kentucky in hopes of preparing to liberate Union-sympathizing eastern Tennessee.  It was Thomas' men who fought the first significant battle among Union forces in Kentucky on January 19, 1862, when they achieved a decisive victory at the Battle of Mill Springs.  (Read the battle's wikipedia page for a summary; all I would do would be to summarize that page.)

One of the battle's participants was Lieut. Jacob Hale Sypher, brother of Lancaster Daily Evening Express local editor and gentleman adventure Josiah R. Sypher.  J. H. Sypher commanded one section of Standart's Battery B, 1st Ohio Artillery, which had already participated in the Battle of Camp Wildcat (See here for J. H. Sypher's letter describing that battle).  Four days after the Battle of Mill Springs, J. H. Sypher wrote his second letter of the war to the Daily Evening Express, which appeared in the January 31, 1862, edition of the newspaper: (alternate link)

'J.H.S.' Letter: The Battle of Camp Wildcat

J. Hale Sypher
(Library of Congress)

I've mentioned that I hope to post not only letters from the 79th Pennsylvania on this website, but also letters from others in the Civil War's western theater who wrote to Lancaster newspapers.  It is from one of those other soldiers that the Daily Evening Express published its first letter with a first-hand description of combat.

The author was Lieut. Jacob Hale Sypher, commanding one section (two of the six cannon) of Battery B, 1st Ohio Light Artillery.  He penned his account on October 27, 1861, of the Battle of Camp Wildcat, Kentucky, that took place a week earlier.  Total casualties numbered less than 100 in this minor action that was considered a Union victory.  J. Hale Sypher's connection to Lancaster was his brother, Josiah R. Sypher, whom I've mentioned in other posts and who was about to take over as the Daily Evening Express's local news editor.

Flag of Battery B, 1st O.V.L.A. (Source)

At a future date we'll hear more of J. Hale Sypher when his artillery section went on a small expedition with the 79th Pennsylvania.  J. Hale Sypher also had an interesting career later in the war and during Reconstruction.  He would go on to be Colonel of the 11th United States Colored Heavy Artillery.  Sypher moved to Louisiana after the war where he bought a plantation, studied law, and was elected to Congress as a Republican.

From the November 4, 1861, Daily Evening Express: (alternate link)

An Introduction to Civil War Newspaper Quarrelling

For better or for worse, much of what we know about wartime beliefs and attitudes comes from bickering, mostly of a partisan political nature, between the various editors of Lancaster's newspapers.  We infer that sometimes people would just roll their eyes when Editor X got his feathers ruffled over something Editor Y said, and I even recently read a soldier's letter published in the Lancaster Daily Inquirer that said to one of the editors not to take the controversies so seriously as Lancaster's reading population basically didn't.

However, sometimes these squabbles really did have significance as they outline the topography of opinions on questions such as: How does one oppose the war without being a traitor?  What was the real purpose of the war?  How does slavery tie into that purpose?  Who was and wasn't pulling their weight when it came to fighting the war?

Vigilance Committee of Memphis accosts Harper's Weekly sketch artist (Harper's Weekly June 22, 1861)

So, as a case study, let's look at a row from August 1861 centered around the unique and interesting character of Josiah Rhinehart Sypher (b. 1832), a man whose wartime occupation could (honestly) best be described as a "gentleman adventurer."  Though independently wealthy, Sypher was trained as a lawyer under Thaddeus Stevens and spent the war mostly traveling with the armies, primarily with the Army of the Potomac, but also occasionally in the West where his brother commanded a section of an artillery battery that actually once went on an expedition with the 79th Pennsylvania.

During occasional stops to Lancaster, Sypher agitated for certain political and social causes, like education reform, the temperance movement, and a pro-Republican agenda for prosecuting the Civil War.  As the war drew to a close in 1865, Sypher published one of the first Civil War unit histories ever written, History of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps--a division of Pennsylvanians that fought with the Army of the Potomac--and later wrote other history and education books.  Sypher's correspondence while following the Army of the Potomac also found their way to the pages of the New York Tribune, qualifying him as some sort of war journalist. 

At the war's outbreak, Sypher apparently was either visiting or living in Memphis, Tennessee.  He returned to Lancaster in late June or early July, and published an account in the July 5, 1861, Daily Evening Express: (alternate link)



In mid-August 1861 (maybe 8/11 or 8/12), Democrats held a rally at Drumore Centre, a crossroads in southern Lancaster County.  The Democratic press portrayed them as hardworking laborers now prepared to fight the war that abolitionists had started but were too afraid to fight, and the Republicans portrayed them as traitors who hailed the Confederate victory at First Bull Run.

Anyway, J. R. Sypher showed up and caused a commotion, and later wrote to the Lancaster Union (newspaper did not survive, as far as I know) accusing the whole convention as being orchestrated by the Intelligencer.  The Intelligencer retorted on August 20: (alternate link)



On August 20, the Daily Evening Express jumped in the fray, coming to the defense of J.R. Sypher and attacking Mayor Sanderson (who also published the Intelligencer): (alternate link)



Four days later, on August 24, Sypher replied in his own words: (alternate link)



Mayor Sanderson's next issue on August 27 did not address the issue specifically, so I'll stop here.  There is plenty of good material though from the August 1861 Intelligencer editions (available to browse here) in which the Democratic Party claims an identity as a party of "Peace, Law, and Order" (8/27) and the party that would actually be supplying the soldiers who comprised the Union army. 

As the 79th Pennsylvania goes to war, expect the newspapers editors in Lancaster to find many more trivial and substantial issues over which to quarrel, many of which related directly to the regiment. Soldiers' diaries and letters show that they definitely paid attention to what was going on in Lancaster, and we also know that there was a constant flow of newspapers from printing presses on S. Queen St. to camps in Kentucky and Tennessee.