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John S. Bottomstone – White Supremacist, 1866
Posted By Norman Gasbarro on August 13, 2018
During the Civil War, John S. Bottomstone served as a Private in the 36th Pennsylvania Infantry (Emergency of 1863), Company C, and as a Private in the 192nd Pennsylvania Infantry, Company H.
In Emergency of 1863, when Lee’s Army was approaching Pennsylvania and the Battle of Gettysburg took place, John S. Bottomstone answered the call of his state by joining the 36th Pennsylvania Infantry, 27 June 1863, which after the battle at Gettysburg, was sent to clean up the battlefield. He was discharged when the emergency ended, mid July 1863.
In his second enlistment, John S. Bottomstone signed up for one year of service in the 192nd Pennsylvania Infantry, Company H, on 14 February 1865, and was mustered into service at Camp Curtin on 21 February 1865. It was unnecessary for him to serve his full year of service because the war ended and he was discharged on 24 August 1865.
Pennsylvania Veterans’ File Cards (above) are from the Pennsylvania Archives. Someone at the Archives wrote on one card that John was 20 when he joined the regiment at Halifax, Dauphin County, and that he had grey eyes, sandy hair, a dark complexion, and stood 5 foot 8 inches tall. He was employed as a laborer and his residence was Halifax.
John S. Bottomstone was born in Pennsylvania on 28 February 1844, the son of Wilhelm Bottomstone (1819-1909) and Eliza [Ettion] Bottomstone (1821-1902). Some time after the war, he married Anna Margaret Kline (1852-1912), daughter of John F. Kline (1825-1906) and his wife Elizabeth [Cressinger] Kline (1832-1922). John and Eliza had at least two known children. In the several censuses taken in his lifetime, he is recorded as a stonemason, as a laborer, and as a bridge watchman. For a time, he was also employed by the Phoenix Bridge Company on a project in Montreal, Canada.
The above Pension Index Card from Fold3 notes that John S. Bottomstone applied for a invalid pension on 4 March 1899, which he collected until his death, and, following his death, his widow collected benefits until her death which occurred in 1922.
John S. Bottomstone died on 5 February 1910 and is buried at Halifax United Methodist Cemetery.
Previously, John S. Bottomstone was mentioned on this blog in a post entitled Halifax Area Civil War Veterans. and in a post entitled The Gratztown Militia and the Home Guards, a story of the 36th Pennsylvania Infantry (Emergency of 1863).
After the war, John S. Bottomstone 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 S. Bottomstone 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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