Civil War Blog

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on April 18, 2013

What was the role of Freemasonry during the Civil War?  Were members of Masonic lodges more loyal to Freemasonry than to the nation?  In a prior post entitled, A Civil War Masonic Story, Most likely Fiction, a story was presented that was told by the historian of a Masonic Lodge in Virginia which presented the Masons of Danville, Virginia [the Confederacy] in a humanitarian role toward Northern Masons who were wounded in battle and found themselves at the mercy of their Confederate captors.  The likelihood of that story being true was placed in great doubt after an analysis of the facts surrounding the characters who were identified in the story – two U.S. Congressmen from New York.

The story below is also from the History of Roman Eagle Lodge No. 122, A. F. and M., Danville, Virginia, 1820-1895, a copy of which was presented by a member of that lodge to a resident of Gratz, who donated the book to the Gratz Historical Society.

A large number of Masons from Fredericksburg Lodge No. —, being in our town, refugees from Fredericksburg, and among them the stationed officers of the lodge, the use of our hall was tendered to them for the use of their lodge, should they desire so to use it.  On several occasions they so used it.

The action of the lodge members towards the Masons of the United States army, who were prisoners, was in strict conformity to the directions of the W. M. as to what he thought their course should be,  Many of the army were sick, needy, and dying.  Not one, who applied, in need of any comforts was neglected , or left unsupplied.  Physic, food, clothing and company were furnished to all…. All the prisoners, sick or well, received the best supply of food that the Confederate government could get for them….

There was a sick man sitting at the window, a captain of a Brooklyn cavalry regiment, who on every other occasion had seemed to be as mad a man as one could be, now looking happy and smiling as possible…. He said, “I have been sitting here and watching the meals that are carried to the sick, and I find, contrary to what I believed, that there is not the slightest difference.  I feel happy to find that the Southern matrons bear no dislike to the sick Union soldiers, but feed all alike.  It makes me feel happy and contented as a prisoner can be….”

[Another] man [said] his only sister had knit for him a silk undershirt just before he left for the army, and if he was killed he wanted to die with it on him; that he had sent it out to be washed some weeks ago, and it had not been returned.  The officer of the station was told to find it and restore it to the owner.  It had been stolen by some one in his room.  When restored the young man was so happy in getting the lost article that he refused to allow the thief to be reported and punished.

The W. M. tried to find out all the Masons among the prisoners as well as he could among 6,000.  But one day he received a note to call on a brother in great need in the third story of the Holland factory prison.  He was an escaped prisoner from Andersonville, and when within three miles of the United States forces in Kentucky had been arrested and brought to this prison.  In going through the bushes, in an attempt to escape, all his clothes were torn off.  We soon found out he was a Mason, and once had him clothed.  The writer received a letter from him some time after the war was over, in which he stated that when he was taken prisoner he was a second lieutenant in the youngest regiment in the corps, and during his imprisonment he had become a Brigadier General, and in a fight after his return he was made a Major General.

Were these stories true?  Or, were they much like the story of Ben Wood, previously presented here, that had little support in the facts?

In turning to the currently presented history of the Roman Eagle Lodge, which can be found on the web site of the Grand Lodge of Virginia, the general story is repeated that the Masons of the Roman Eagle Lodge assisted their fellow Masons from both armies:

[Roman Eagle Lodge] also played a role in the War at this time [1861-1865] giving many of its sons and assisting in giving brotherly love and care to the Masons from both armies. To understand this important part of its history and the complete, importance of the role that Worshipful George E. Dame played in the history of Roman Eagle Lodge and Virginia Masonry, a more in-depth study of the History of Roman Eagle Lodge is necessary and most interesting. The first History of Roman Eagle Lodge was written at the request of the Lodge by Worshipful George W. Dame, in 1895. He was then eighty-four years of age with a Masonic life of sixty-two years.

George W. Dame

According to the above paragraph, the history of the lodge was written for the lodge (at their request) by W. M. George F. Dame, in 1895 when he was eighty-four years old.  According to the title page of the book, he was the author (see below).

And, according to a page in the book written by George W. Dame, the lodge did support the writing of the book by a resolution which was passed on 8 November 1880.  If the resolution date is correct, it took George W. Dame about 15 years to complete the history – as it was published in 1895 when he was eighty-four years old!

The accuracy of the Civil War stories presented in the History of Roman Eagle Lodge was brought into question in the prior blog post because the information given by George W. Dame was easily checked.  In the case of the stories presented  in this blog post, no names are given, making it nearly impossible to fact-check them.  Perhaps a reader will be able to shed some light on the claims.  As always, comments are welcome.

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The portrait of George W. Dame and the title page are from that book.

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Posted By Norman Gasbarro on April 17, 2013

Rev. O. E. Pflueger was the Lutheran pastor of the Lykens Valley Charge from 1889 to 1902.  The charge at first consisted of five congregations in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania:  Simeon’s Lutheran Church in Gratz; St. John’s Lutheran Church (also known as the Hill Church) in Mifflin Township, near Berrysburg; Salem Lutheran Church, Elizabethville; Zion Lutheran Church in Rife; and St. Jacob’s Lutheran Church in Centre View.  During his time of service, St.John’s (which was not a Union Church), split off from the group and for the remainder of his service, Rev. Pflueger served the four other congregations while being headquartered in Elizabethville.

Rev. Pflueger was a avid record keeper and communicator and established The Parish Record, which in the early years was an annual report of his activities and pastoral acts as well as a summary of the events of the year  in the parish.  After the split of St. John’s from the parish around 1895, it appears that The Parish Record was only published in the year of Rev. Pflueger’s departure, 1902, but is a summary of all the pastoral acts of the years 1895-1902.  In 1902, as a commemoration of Rev. Pflueger’s service and as a souvenir of his service to the parish, the Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsylvania re-published all the nubers of The Parish Record in one bound, hardcover edition.

For the Civil War Research Project, the information provided by Rev. Pflueger in the obituaries is invaluable in that it exceeds the information provided by the local newspapers.

The Civil War veteran Harrison Riegle died in 1899.  The obituary that appeared in a local newspaper was very brief:

Harrison Riegle, a prosperous farmer living near Loyalton died on Monday afternoon of miner’s asthma.  He was buried this morning in the Gratz Lutheran and Reformed Cemetery.  Solomon Rettinger and Mr. Riegle wedded sisters and died three hours apart.

The obituary by Rev. Pflueger included the following:

Harrison Riegel, a son of Daniel Riegel and Catharine Riegel, was born 15 November 1840, baptized in infancy, 9 April 1867 he was united in marriage with Hannah Rickert, who remains with four sons and three daughters, the fruit of this union, to mourn his departure, after having been preceded by three sons and four daughters.  He was received into membership with Hoffman’s Reformed Church by confirmation 2 March 1889.  Died 31 July 1899, aged 58 years, 8 months and 16 days.

Rev. Pflueger conducted dozens of funerals in the years he served in the Lykens Valley Parish and nearly all are recorded in the same detail in The Parish Record.  In addition to the funerals, detailed information is given on parish activities – information which is very helpful in tracing the ancestry and descendants of Civil War soldiers.  If a Lutheran “event” occurred in the Lykens Valley between the years 1889 and 1902, it probably can be found in this volume.

Category: Resources, Stories | Comments Off on Funerals Conducted by Rev. O. E. Pflueger, 1889-1902
Tags: Berrysburg, Centre View, Elizabethville, Gratz Borough, Loyalton, Rife

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on April 16, 2013

A Military Map of Philadelphia, 1861-1865, is available from the Library of Congress web site, and shows the locations of all Civil War hospitals within the city and the locations of forts and the regiments that supported them.  The map is shown above in low resolution.  The actual map can be downloaded directly from the Library of Congress (click here and follow instructions on the web page) or viewed through the viewer.  The map is also available through the map resources of Ancestry.com (U.S. Map Collection, 1513-1990) and print copies which are suitable for framing (17″ x 11″ or 24″ x 18″) can be ordered through that site.

The map was drawn by Frank H. Taylor and important buildings and sites are keyed by number to the map. Hospitals are identified by letters.

The hospitals included on the map are as follows:

A. Southeast Corner of Broad and Cherry Streets.   B. Southeast Corner of 10th and Filbert Streets.  C. National Guard’s Hall.  D. 22nd and Wood Streets.  E. 12th and Buttonwood Streets.  F. 5th and Buttonwood Streets.  G. Pennsylvania Hospital.   H. 8th and Catharine Streets.  I. 9th and Christian Streets.  J. 24th and South Streets.  K. Officers Hospital at 24th and Chestnut Streets.  L. Citizen’s Hospital at Broad Street and Washington Avenue.  M. Sutterlee Hospital, West Philadelphia.  N. Summit House, Darby Road.  O. Haddington Hospital.  P. Hentonville Hospital.  Q. St. Josephs Hospital.  R. 5th and George Streets.  S. 6th and Master Streets.  T. Episcopal Hospital.  U. Camac Hospital.  V. Istington Lane Hospital.  W. Turner’s Lane Hospital.  X. McClellan Hospital, Nicetown.  Y. Cuyler Hospital, Germantown.

The other buildings noted in the map legend are as follows:

1. U.S. Army Headquarters, Girard Street, above 11th Street.  2. Independence Hall.  3. Post Office (Provost).  4. Custom House.  5. Jay Cooke and Company.  6. Pennsylvania Bank (Provost).  7. Pennsylvania Railroad Offices.  8. Girard House.  9. Continental Hotel.  10. Pennsylvania Railroad Depot, 11th and Market Streets.  11. Union League (on site of Keith’s Theatre).  12. National Hall.  13. U.S. Mint.  14. New England Soldiers’ Rest, 13th and Chestnut Streets.  15. Provost Marshal, 1314 Locust Street.  16. New Union League Building (1865).  17. Academy of Music.  18. Soldiers’ Reading Rooms, 20th Street, below Market Street.  19. J. V. Merrick and Sons’ Machine Shops.  20. Cooper Shop Volunteer Refreshment Saloon.  21. Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon.  22. Commissioners’ Hall, West Philadephia.  23. Military Clothing Depot, 23rd and Filbert Streets.  24. Matthews and Moore, Cannon Foundry (on site of U.S. Mint).  25. Baldwin and Company, Locomotives.  26. Ladner’s Military Hall, 3rd Street below Green Street.  27. U.S. Laboratory, 6th and Oxford Streets.  28. Ridge Avenue, Car Barn.

Military regiments encamped at various locations throughout the city are noted on the map as is Camp William Penn, which was Pennsylvania’s official training location for U.S. Colored Troops.

All railroad depots, landmark buildings, cemeteries, arsenals, the Navy Yard, etc., are easily located on the map, but not included in the map legend.

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Tags: African American, Regiments

Posted By Brian Tomlin on April 15, 2013

The front room of every house in the Victorian era. referred to as the parlor, was by far the most important room in the house. The most money was spent on its furnishing and decorating, the most consideration given to decorating and design. This was the room visitors would see, after all, and was a most important reflection of who the family was. The Civil War in the U.S. took place int he 1860s, when several historical revival styles of decorating were taking place. The popular furnishings were reproductions and influences of earlier styles; some of the most popular styles at that time were American Empire (massively large and heavy dark wood furniture in a relatively plain style), Gothic Revival (arches on furniture, spool turnings, carvings and other embellishments that resembled highly stylized leaf patterns), Rococo Revival looking back at 18th century France with ornate carvings of fruits, flowers, birds (along with heavily gilt mirrors and marble table tops). Cast-iron furniture had also become popular by the 1860s. Beginning during the Civil War, Renaissance Revival style became fashionable (with large furniture with lots of ornamentation).

We speak of popular styles because the industrialization of manufacturing had made machine-made, mass-produced furniture and household furnishings made available to the middle class the latest fashions. this was also the era when many women’s magazines began to appear, explaining the latest styles.

And whatever style one gravitated toward, during the Civil War era, one only stuck with one style. The wild eclecticism of the late 1870s and 1880s had not yet come about.  This was no more true than in the parlor, when it was considered important to have every piece pf furniture match, preferably in the same pattern from the same manufacturer.

Walls. The parlor was to be painted in light shades to avoid being dreary in the low light of the evening, when the room was most likely to be used. Shades of gray, pink and green were used, with woodwork painted a darker tint of the same color. Machine-made wallpapers had been introduced in the 1840s and had become something of an obsession by the Civil War, especially for the parlor and bedrooms. Scenic wallpapers which depicted scenes of nature or historical scenes or exotic faraway places were as popular as wallpapers which created the illusion of other materials such as velvet, stone, wood grain or architectural features.

Flooring. Floors were wood and either painted or covered with floorcloth, although by the Civil War carpeting had become popular for the parlor.

Windows. Elaborate window treatments were the rule during the Civil War. Layers of different kinds of window treatments would be piled on top of one another. Most typically, sheer lace curtains were place against the window itself and were often called “glass curtains” for that reason. On op of that floor length draperies made of velvet, brocade, or other heavy fabrics would be added with tie backs.  Patterned and ornately decorated valances would go on top of the whole thing, along with tassels and ropes and heavy rods. Even more modest homes would likely do some form of all this in the parlor if nowhere else.

Furniture. Parlor sets typically included a sofa, a love seat, a lady’s chair without arms (to accommodate the large dresses women wore), and an armchair for the man of the house. Other seating options might be a corner chair, ottomans, cushions. The room had many tables, often including a center table called a tea-table which was higher than a modern coffee table and either circular or square. Sofa tables, lamp tables, fire screens, and a  curio cabinet to display treasured objects were often found. Most parlors had a fireplace, often as ornate and impressive as anything else in the house.

Decorations. Shawls, photographs, prints, flowers (fresh and dried), porcelain objects, homemade crafts, collections of exotic objects like seashells or stones. Because men’s hairstyles contained oily styling aids, crocheted bits of fabric were placed around at the headrest spot of furniture to protect them (antimacassars as the oil men used was Macassar oil).

Lighting. Candles were certainly used, the fireplace added somewhat to light, but kerosene lamps were the most high-tech form of lighting in most homes.

 Function. The parlor was used for many different purposes. In homes where a dedicated room could be reserved as a formal parlor, the everyday lives of the family would be lived in a back parlor, often called a sitting room. More modest families used their parlors for almost everything.

• accept visitors. Before the days of telephones, calling meant physically visiting someone. When you called on a friend,neighbor or family member, you were shown in to the parlor. You would most likely be offered some light food or drink. 
• before dinner. The family and any invited guests would gather in the parlor before dinner, and go into the dining room together when it was time to eat. Often the group, or sometimes just he ladies, would return back to the parlor after dinner for coffee. If it was ladies only, the men stayed in the dining room to drink and talk. Even in homes where this sort of formality was wildly out-of-place in everyday life, some version of this happened when entertaining.
• weddings. During the mid-nineteenth century, weddings and wedding receptions were often conducted in people’s homes.
• lying in state. Many families would have the dead bodies of relatives brought into their own homes in the casket for viewing and would be placed in the parlor.
• entertainment centers. Games would be played here, music played and sung, books read aloud, and various conversations and games would be played.

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Posted By Norman Gasbarro on April 13, 2013

Christian Shoop (1820-1895) was a Civil War soldier and a farmer.  He is buried at Long’s Cemetery, Halifax Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.  His wife Martha Shoop (1827-1911) is buried next to him.

In 1850, Christian Shoop appeared in the census as a farmer in Greenwood, Perry County, along with his wife Martha Shoop, and children William Shoop, David Shoop, and John W. Shoop.

Click on picture to enlarge.

Christian Shoop did not immediately join the army at the outbreak of the Civil War.  He waited until 10 September 1864, to enroll as a Private in Company G, 208th Pennsylvania Infantry.  The record of the 208th Pennsylvania Infantry can be found in Volume 1 of The Union Army:

208th Pennsylvania Infantry. – Colonel Alfred B. McCalmont; Lieutenant-Colonel M. T. Heintzelmen; Major Alexander Bobb. This regiment was mostly recruited from the counties of Perry, Snyder, Blair, Lebanon, Dauphin and Bedford. The several companies rendezvoused at Camp Curtin, Harrisburg, where they were mustered into the U. S. service from 26 August to 12 September 1864, for one year. Both Colonel McCalmont and Lieutenant-Colonel Heintzelmen were veteran officers. On 13 September 1864 it left for the front and was there assigned to the provisional brigade commanded by Colonel Potter on the Bermuda Hundred front. Picket and fatigue duty and drill occupied it until 27 November when it reported to the Army of the Potomac and was assigned to the 1st Brigade of General Hartranft’s Division, 9th Corps. It went into winter quarters near the Avery House, Gen. Hartranft’s headquarters. It was in support during the movement upon Hatcher’s Run in February 1865 where it was in line of battle and fortified its position, but was not attacked. It was warmly engaged at Fort Stedman, 25 March 1865, where it behaved with great gallantry, losing 4 killed and 38 wounded. Among the mortally wounded was Captain Prosper Dalien, a brilliant officer and a native of France who had served through the Italian wars of 1859. It formed part of the assaulting column on 2 April 1865 when the works of Petersburg were finally carried, losing 9 killed and 39 wounded. It then moved in pursuit along the line of the South Side Railroad as far as Nottaway Court House, which it reached on the day of Lee’s surrender. On the 20th it returned to City Point and thence to Alexandria, where it was mustered out on 1 June 1865.

After the Civil War, Christian Shoop settled in Halifax Township, Dauphin County, where both he and Martha can found in 1870 – he working as a farmer and she “keeping house.”  In 1890, still living in the Halifax area (Powell’s Valley), he indicated his Civil War service but did not say that he had any Civil War-related disabilities.  Pension records give a date 0f 28 April 1882 as his initial pension application.  The pension was awarded and he collected until his death in 1895 at the age of 75 years, 3 months, and 4 days.  His widow, Martha, applied for benefits, which she was awarded and collected until her death in 1911.

Not much is known about the life of Christian Shoop, his parents, or what happened to the three children who were enumerated in the 1850 Census.  If any readers can add anything to his story, it would be greatly appreciated.

Comments can be attached to this post, or sent by e-mail to the Civil War Research Project.

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The Pension Index Card is from Ancestry.com.

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Tags: Halifax Township, Powell's Valley