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John A. Proudfoot – White Supremacist, 1866
Posted By Norman Gasbarro on August 17, 2018
During the Civil War, John A. Proudfoot served as a Private with Company H of the 192nd Pennsylvania Infantry. His military record is from his muster on 21 February 1865 to discharge on 24 August 1865.
John Alexander Proudfoot was born on 2 October 1830 in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, the son of John Proudfoot and his wife Sarah Proudfoot. Just prior to the Civil War, he married Susan Shultz and with her had at least two children, after which she died. He then married Catherine “Kate” Sheetz, about 1863 at Halifax, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, and with her had at least nine known children. At the time he enrolled in the 192nd Pennsylvania Infantry, John was a railroad laborer and was living in Halifax. Later, he moved with his family to Jefferson Township and Wayne Township in Dauphin County. He died on 14 January 1892, and is buried at St. Paul (Bowerman) Cemetery, Enterline, Dauphin County. His grave marker, pictured above, recognizes his Civil War service.
Prior to his death, John Proudfoot collected a Civil War Pension, which after his death was collected by his second wife Catherine who survived him. The Pension Index Card, above, is from Ancestry.com.
In prior posts here on this blog, John Proudfoot was mentioned in The 1863 Draft for Upper Dauphin County and Halifax Area Civil War Veterans.
After the war, John A. Proudfoot openly supported the white supremacist views of Heister Clymer by signing a call for denial of equal rights to African Americans, both those who were previously slaves and those who were previously freemen. The statement was published in the Harrisburg Patriot of 24 July 1866 and included his name, regiment, company and rank.
Heister Clymer was a white supremacist candidate for Pennsylvania Governor on the Democratic Party ticket in 1866, and was previously profiled here on 26 April 2016.
The call for a meeting of Union Soldiers was printed in the Harrisburg Patriot, 24 July 1866, along with an up-to-date list of Clymer supporters who openly supported Heister Clymer‘s white supremacist views and wanted to deny “negro equality and suffrage” even to those who had been free men before the war.
The undersigned honorably discharged Union soldiers, believing that we battled in the late war for the Union of these States, and had successfully maintained it, view with alarm the persistent efforts of radical men who seem determine, practically to destroy the Union we went forth to save. They would have the community believe that Union soldiers are willing to give up in the hour of victory the great object to which their sacrifices and toll and blood were given….
Therefore we unite in requesting all the honorably discharged officer, soldiers and seamen of Dauphin County who favor the wise and constitutional policy of President Johnson, who oppose the doctrine of negro equality and suffrage, and desire the election of the Hon. Hiester Clymer, to meet in Mass Convention at the Democratic Club Room, Walnut Street, below Third, Harrisburg, at 7 1/2 o’clock, on the evening of the 25 July 1866, for the purpose of electing fourteen delegates to the Convention of Union Soldiers, which is to assemble in this city [Harrisburg] on Wednesday, 1 August 1866.
The Dauphin County veterans who signed the racist petition calling for the meeting were from a variety of regiments and social levels. Included in the list were some residents of Upper Dauphin County, the area north of Peter’s Mountain – all of which is included in the geographic area of the Civil War Research Project.
John A. Proudfoot was only one of many honorably discharged Union soldiers who openly supported the white supremacist gubernatorial campaign of Heister Clymer in 1866. The full list of those with a connection to Upper Dauphin County will be presented over time.
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