Civil War Blog

Posted By Brian Tomlin on February 27, 2015

February 3. Legislature of Canada approves message to British Crown for union of British North American Provinces.  The four provinces united were: Province of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. The former Province of Canada was split back into its pre-1841 parts, with Canada East (Lower Canada) renamed Quebec, and Canada West (Upper Canada) renamed Ontario. These were the original four provinces of Canada.

February 15-16. Earliest inter-colonial cricket match held in the West Indies between Barbados and Demerara (now Guyana). This is recognized as the start of West Indian first-class cricket.

February 20. The Canadian Legislature approves a motion in favor of Confederation. The British Parliament approved the measure in July, 1867, officially forming the Dominion of Canada.

February 21. John Deere receives a patent for a steel plough. This model was an improvement of his earlier designs, first released in 1837. These ploughs increased productivity of U.S. farmland and especially helped the boom in farming in the midwest.

Category: Culture | Comments Off on Events of February 1865
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Posted By Norman Gasbarro on February 26, 2015

The 106th Pennsylvania Infantry Monument at Gettysburg is located adjacent to the Copse of Trees on Hancock Avenue.  It was dedicated in 1889 by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and is the second monument to this regiment at Gettysburg;  the first monument is located on Emmitburg Road at the Codori farmhouse.

The drawing of the monument pictured above is from a Philadelphia Inquirer article of 11 September 1889.

A picture of the monument can be seen on Stephen Recker’s Virtual Gettysburg Web Site which has more information about the monument and the 106th Pennsylvania Infantry.

A full description of the second monument, its GPS Coordinates, additional photographs, and some of the history of the 106th Pennsylvania Infantry, can be found on the Stone Sentinels Web Site.  There is also a picture and information about the first monument.

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Two brief articles about the 106th Pennsylvania Infantry appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer of 11 September 1889:

A Magnificent Bayonet Charge.

Behind the low stone wall in front of and the the left of Meade’s headquarters the 106th Regiment bore a conspicuous part.  While the conflict, which began on the left, raged the 106th lay on the ground in the read of the the crest of a little hill which overlooked the field.  Marching to the left to support Sickles, as the rose to the top of the hill they beheld the elated enemy 60 years away.  The regiment fired one volley with a crash as of a single piece, and charging bayonets on the flank of the rebels hurled them back in confusion and chased them to the Emmittsburg Road.  This  charge and terrible slaughter was made under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Curry.  The 106th was among the first to enter the town after the victory.  Lieutenant William H. Smith was among the killed and adjutant Pleis was mortally wounded.

A Furious Bayonet Charge.

The 106th bore a conspicuous part at Gettysburg behind the low stone wall in front and to the left of Meade’s headquarters.  Marching to the support of Sickle’s crushed lines, the regiment, in General Webb’s brigade, reached the crest of the hill over which they came face to face with and advancing column of rebels not sixty years distant.  A volley like a crash from one piece shook the rebel lines and a bayonet charge utterly routed them.  Lieutenant Colonel Curry led the 106th in pursuit as far as the Emmittsburg Road and the carnage along the whole route was terrible.  It was in this raid that Adjutant Pleis was mortally wounded by a shell.  On 3 July, the 106th was on Cemetery Hill supporting the 11th Corps and withstood the fearful cannonade around Rickett’s Battery.

The oration at the monument of the 106th will be delivered by General James C. Lynch.

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William L. Curry

The commander of the 106th Pennsylvania Infantry at Gettysburg was Lieutenant Colonel William Levering Curry. Very early in the war, Curry, a wallpaper manufacturer from Philadelphia, received a commission as Lieutenant Colonel in the 3-month service, 22nd Pennsylvania Infantry, and served through his discharge on 7 August 1861.  Thereafter he joined the 106th Pennsylvania Infantry at Philadelphia as its Lieutenant Colonel.  Captured during the Peninsular Campaign on 9 June 1862, he was sent to Salisbury Prison in North Carolina, where he was exchanged and paroled later in the year.  He rejoined his regiment, led it at Gettysburg, received his Colonel’s commission on 5 April 1864, and fought through Spottsylvania where he was mortally wounded on 11 May 1864.  He was taken to a hospital in Washington, D. C., where on 7 July 1864, he died.

No record has been found for a pension based on his service, so it can be assumed that he was not married.

William L. Curry is buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia.  More information about Colonel Curry can be found at his Findagrave Memorial.

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Around the base of the Pennsylvania Memorial at Gettysburg are a series of plaques which, by regiment and company, note the names of every soldier who was present at the Battle of Gettysburg.  The plaque for the 106th Pennsylvania Infantry is pictured below.  By clicking on the plaque it should enlarge so the names can be more clearly read.  If a name does not appear, it could be that the soldier did serve in the 106th Pennsylvania Infantry, but was not part of the regiment during its days at Gettysburg.  There could also be errors on the plaque.

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Tags: Monument

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on February 25, 2015

The 105th Pennsylvania Infantry Monument at Gettysburg is located south of the town of Gettysburg on Emmitsburg Road.  It was dedicated in 1889 by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

The drawing of the monument pictured above is from a Philadelphia Inquirer article of 11 September 1889.

A picture of the monument can be seen on Stephen Recker’s Virtual Gettysburg Web Site which has more information about the monument and the 105th Pennsylvania Infantry.

A full description of the monument, its GPS Coordinates, additional photographs, and some of the history of the 105th Pennsylvania Infantry, can be found on the Stone Sentinels Web Site.

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The Philadelphia Inquirer article of 11 September 1889 told of the action of the regiment at Gettysburg and gave some information on the monument dedication:

The 105th Fought Like Demons.

The 105th was at Emmittsburg on 30 June 1863 and was ordered on 1 July to move rapidly to Gettysburg.  By forced marches it reached the left of the field shortly after dark on the 2nd.  Five companies were deployed as skirmishers for the 63rd.  In the afternoon at 3 o’clock the regiment was moved forward to the brow of the hill along Emmittsburg Pike, where, under a heavy fire of shot and shell from front and lank, it held its position unflinchingly.  The command met the enemy’s infantry on the road, where there was a desperate fight.  The line on the left was broken through, and the brigade retreated in good order to the line from Cemetery Ridge to Round Top where it remained until the close of the battle.  Of 247 who went into the fight one officer, George W. Crossley, was killed, 13 officers and 111 men wounded, and 9 were missing.  Among the wounded officers were Colonel Craig and Lieutenant Colonel Greenawalt.  The regiment rallied some eight or ten times to the cry of “Pennsylvania!” after the remainder of the brigade had left them, and Lieutenant Craig, who had two horses shot under him, declared his men “fought like demons ad were as easily handled as on dress parade.”

The dedication ceremonies at 2 will consist of music, prayer by Chaplain D. S. Steadman, poem by Captain S. A. Craig, oration by Chaplain J. C. Truesdale, presentation of monument by the committee, and short addresses by Colonel L. B. Duff, Colonel O. C. Redic, Captain John Hastings, Captain A. C. Thompson, and Captain J. C. Kelso and others.

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Calvin A. Craig

The commander of the 105th Pennsylvania Infantry at Gettysburg was Colonel Calvin A. Craig.  Craig joined the 105th Pennsylvania Infantry at Pittsburgh on 28 August 1861 at the rank of Captain of Company C, but on 29 July 1862, he was transferred to headquarters at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment.  On 4 May 1863, he was promoted to Colonel.

During the Civil War, Calvin A. Craig received five recorded wounds, the final one of which resulted in his death on 17 August 1864:  (1) Bull Run, Virginia, 29 August 1862; (2) Gettysburg, 2 July 1863; (3) Wilderness, Virginia, 4 May 1864; (4) Petersburg, 6 June 1864; and (5) Deep Bottom, Virginia, 16 August 1864.

Calvin A. Craig is buried in Limestone Cemetery, Limestone, Clarion County, Pennsylvania.  He left a widow, but no children.

More extensive information about Calvin A. Craig including about his family and military service can be found at his Findagrave Memorial.  Also, the complete pension application file of the widow Elmira J. [Craig] Craig is available on Fold3 (22 pages) and includes a request for reimbursement of final expenses from the niece of Mrs. Craig, Ruby Craig Potts, with whom the widow made her home in Chicago until her death in 1918.

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Around the base of the Pennsylvania Memorial at Gettysburg are a series of plaques which, by regiment and company, note the names of every soldier who was present at the Battle of Gettysburg.  The plaque for the 105th Pennsylvania Infantry is pictured below.  By clicking on the plaque it should enlarge so the names can be more clearly read.  If a name does not appear, it could be that the soldier did serve in the 105th Pennsylvania Infantry, but was not part of the regiment during its days at Gettysburg.  There could also be errors on the plaque.

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Tags: Monument

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on February 24, 2015

A news story that appeared in the Harrisburg Patriot on 15 April 1907 told of the untimely death of a Civil War veteran, James P. Wilson:

COLORED VETERAN FALLS FROM TRAIN AND DIES OF INJURY

By Associated Press to the Patriot

Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, 14 April 1907 — James Wilson, colored, a veteran of the Civil War, found lying in the Conococheaque Creek, near Scotland, this morning at 3:45 o’clock and carried to the Scotland Station, where he died from a fractured scull.  It is said that Wilson was a passenger on a train last evening and got off at Scotland.  When the train moved away he tried to board the last car, but it was a vestibule car, and he could not gain admittance.  It is thought that the man was walking toward Shippensburg and fell from the bridge into Conococheaque Creek.  When he was found by a train crew he was still conscious, but died upon reaching Scotland.

 

The death certificate of James Wilson gives the information that he was born in Chambersburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, to parents James Wilson and Mary Jones.  His estimated year of birth was 1840, based on his age at death of 67.  The specific cause of death confirms what was found in the news article.

James P. Wilson is buried at Lebanon Cemetery, Chambersburg, and some further information about him can be found at his Findagrave Memorial.  A G.A.R. shield and flag holder is at the side of his grave marker.  According to the stone, he served in Company L of the 2nd United States Colored Cavalry and was 66 years old at the time of his death.

One of 17 Military Index Cards for James P. Wilson is pictured at the left.  These cards are found on Fold3.  According to the card, Wilson was 17 years old at the time of his enrollment, 15 February 1865, at Chambersburg.  He was a substitute for Martin L. Garver of Franklin County.  Wilson gave his occupation as butcher and had yellow complexion, was 5 foot – 3 inches tall, had dark eyes and black hair.  He enlisted for one year. He was discharged at Brazos, Santiago, Texas on 12 February 1866.

In 1890, James P. Wilson was living in Chambersburg and reported his Civil War service to the census taker.  No Civil War-related injuries were stated.

On 5 September 1890, James P. Wilson applied for a pension based on his service in the 2nd United States Colored Cavalry.  The pension was received.  Although Wilson’s death certificate (above) indicates that he was married at the time of his death in 1907, no widow applied for benefits.  The Pension Index Card shown at the left is from Ancestry.com.

Based on information in the death certificate, it can be assumed that in 1860, James Wilson at age 13 was living with his parents in Chambersburg.  His father James Wilson, age 65, was employed as a cutter and his mother, Mary Wilson, was 39 years old.  There were three other children in the household, all girls who were younger than James.  There are several persons of the name “James Wilson” who were enumerated in Chambersburg in the censuses from 1860 through 1880, making it difficult to determine which is the one who served in the 2nd United States Colored Cavalry during the Civil War.  One possibility for 1880 is that James Wilson, age 40, was living with a wife named Ida Wilson, age 26, in Chambersburg, and working as a laborer.  This 1880 information has not been confirmed.  As fr the 1900 census, no possible matching form has been seen.

Additional information about James P. Wilson is sought from readers.

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February is Black History Month.  This post on James P. Wilson is about the role of one of many African Americans in the Civil War.

Category: Research, Resources, Stories | 1 Comment »
Tags: African American, G.A.R.

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on February 23, 2015

The first postal commemoration of the death of Abraham Lincoln was a black, fifteen cent stamp issued on the first anniversary of the assassination, April 1866.  That stamp was described in a previous blog post entitled Early Postage Stamps Honoring Abraham Lincoln.

Beginning with the Civil War Centennial, 1961-1965, there was an increase in the number of philatelic commemorations of the Abraham Lincoln assassination, but these commemorations were in the form of covers with specially prepared cachets or souvenir cards, each cancelled with an appropriate date.  Some of those items are presented below.

No postage stamp was issued by the U.S. Postal Service commemorating the 100th anniversary of the assassination.

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Cancelled at Washington, D. C., 14 April 1865, recognizing the 100th anniversary of the assassination.

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Cancelled at Washington, D. C., 15 April, recognizing the 100th anniversary of the death of Abraham Lincoln.

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There are known philatelic covers cancelled in each of the cities where the funeral train stopped on its way to Springfield, Illinois.

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Cancelled at Springfield, Illinois, 4 May 1865, recognizing the 100th anniversary of the burial of Abraham Lincoln.

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A souvenir card issued at the Convention of the Lincoln Society of Philately, 17 May 1969, Louisville, Kentucky, recognizing the restoration of Ford’s Theatre in 1968 “as a shrine to the memory of Abraham Lincoln.”  This card should have had a postage stamp specifically related to Lincoln or Washington, D.C., rather than the Apollo 8 stamp that was affixed to it and cancelled.  Cards such as this one are a common issue at philatelic society meetings and usually bear some connection to the date, place or theme of the organization sponsoring them and are usually sold as a fund raiser for the event sponsors.

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This card was issued commercially as part of a series of American history events which depicted artists renditions of those events.  One of the events was the Lincoln Assassination.  The cancel is 15 April 1985, which is the 120th anniversary of the death of Lincoln, not of the assassination.

The text of the souvenir card reads:

Lincoln is Assassinated

What began as an enjoyable evening of theatre for President Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary at the Ford Theatre in Washington, D.C., ultimately ended in tragedy.  A fanatical, pro-South actor, John Wilkes Booth, fired the shot that mortally wounded the sixteenth President of the United States.  Reverberations of shock and disbelief echoed through the land as his funeral train carried Lincoln to his Springfield, Illinois, burial site.

The untimely death of Lincoln on April 15, 1865, just five days after Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, came at a time when the country needed him most.  Reeling from the devastation of the Civil War, a battered people turned to Lincoln’s wisdom, common sense, kindliness and moderation to heal the deep rift of a divided nation.

The historic U.S. mint stamp on this Panel honors President Abraham Lincoln, a great statesman and humanitarian.  It was issued in 1959.

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Special designed cancels are applied for through a local post office and do not necessarily indicate postal service approval of the event; any non-profit organization can apply for a cancel by submitting artwork through the local postmaster, which is what was done in early 2000, at Milford, Pennsylvania.  On 14 April 2000, a controversy was raging at the Pike County Historical Society (PCHS) over a report that supposedly authenticated the “Lincoln Flag” at the Society museum in Milford, Pennsylvania.  A crowd was drawn to the event at PCHS both by the controversy and the philatelic commemoration.

This flag has been the subject of a series of posts on this blog, concluding with a post entitled “The Lincoln Flag Hoax.”   For a listing of all prior posts on the Lincoln Assassination, including those about this 36-star flag, click here:

The cover shown above is one of only ten (10) that was signed by both the cachet-cancel designer James Levell and the postmaster, Vincent Frisella.  A total of 500 “officially” cacheted envelopes were cancelled at Milford on 14 April 2000 and an untold number of cancels were applied to covers without the “official” cachet on envelopes supplied by visitors to the museum and “Lincoln Flag Station” or interested persons who submitted their own covers to the Milford Post Office to have the cancel applied.  After a grace period of 30 days, the cancel device was destroyed.

At the time, the “official” covers were sold for $3.00 each by the PCHS.  It is not known at this time if any “official” covers still remain in inventory at the PCHS.  Contact Lori for more information.

News release as published in the Pike County Dispatch on 13 April 2000:

Pike County Historical Society Event

Milford, Pennsylvania – 14 April 2000 marks the 135th anniversary of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.  To recognize this significant event in American History the Pike County Historical Society (PCHS) in conjunction with the United States Postal Service, Milford, Pennsylvania Post Office, is sponsoring a special cancellation which features a portion of a 36-star flag and the words “Lincoln Flag Station.”

The Columns Museum of PCHS is home to an important relic of our national heritage, “Lincoln Flag.”  Many people believe that after President Lincoln was shot in the back of the head by John Wilkes Booth, the large flag which had been draped over the balustrade of the Presidential Box at Ford’s Theatre was used to cushion his head as he lay mortally wounded on the floor. This blood-stained flag was taken by a member of the cast of Our American Cousin, Mr. Thomas Gourlay.  The Gourlay family kept the flag and passed it down two generations, first to daughter Jeannie Gourlay, also a member of the cast and witness to the assassination, and then to her son, Vivian Paul Struthers, who donated it to the Pike County Historical Society in 1954.  Jeannie Gourlay Struthers moved to Milford, Pennsylvania in 1888 and brought the flag with her along with its secrets.

The “Lincoln Flag” is on permanent display at The Columns, 608 Broad Street, Milford, Pennsylvania.  Museum hours are Wednesday through Sunday, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.  A “Lincoln Flag Station” will be open from 2:00 p.m. through 5:30 p.m., with postal service employees applying the cancel to outgoing mail and favor cancels to patrons [on their] own philatelic mail.  Admission to the Lincoln room will be free to all persons visiting “Lincoln Flag Station.”  Interpreters will be present to tell the story of the flag and some of the research that has been done on it.  For admission to the rest of the museum, a donation of $3.00 is requested for adults and fifty cents for children.

The PCHS will also sponsor its first cachet in commemoration of the assassination.  The cachet is printed on the recently-released thirty-three cent Lincoln envelope and features a portrait of Abraham Lincoln surrounded by a Civil War motif and thirty-six star flags.  Both the cachet and cancel were designed by Jim Levell, for him, also a first in both categories!  This limited edition special commemorative envelope and cancel is available at The Columns Museum….

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Personal Note:  I made the application to the U.S. Postal Service for the cancel while I was serving as the Treasurer of PCHS in early 2000 and supervised the preparation of the covers for cancellation by the Milford Post Office.  I also wrote and submitted the press release which was published in the Pike County Dispatch, the day before the event.  In addition to the Pike County Dispatch, the same news release was sent to other area newspapers and to the philatelic press.  In his column in Global Stamp News, Dennis Carman, described the controversy surrounding the Lincoln Flag and concluded that while the Society was sticking to its story of the flag’s authentication, “four years later there are still skeptics” and there are those who “consider the Lincoln flag story to be a very compelling legend that still requires authentication.”  The covers and souvenir cards depicted in this blog post are from my own personal collection.

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Tags: Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln Assassination