Pennsylvania's Civil War Muster Roll Conservation Completed

Great news from the Pennsylvania State Archives:

After seven years and approximately $1.2 million in funding, the Pennsylvania Civil War Muster Rolls Project ended in June 2012.  The project completed conservation work on over 2,500 mustering-out rolls for all regiments and emergency brigades raised in Pennsylvania during the Civil War. They are essential for the research of any given soldier, company, or regiment, for they list the status of each at the point of mustering-out of service.  The rolls are among the most popular records housed at the Pennsylvania State Archives, and had become badly soiled and torn over the last 150 years.  They were literally falling apart, and in the last century, well-intentioned staff used cellophane tape to repair them.  In this condition they could not be easily shown to patrons, or even photographed. 

State Archives staff encapsualte the final in-house muster roll - PA State Archives

In 2005, the State Archives was awarded a grant of $375,000 from the federal Save America’s Treasures Program that was joined by a $450,000 grant from the Pennsylvania General Assembly to clean, repair, deacidify and encapsulate the muster out rolls.  Over the years, the Keystone Preservation and Conservation Fund also supplied funds.  The conservation treatments were either performed by the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia or at the State Archives.

To read the entire latest issue of Access Archives: The Newsletter of the Pennsylvania State Archives, click here. 

To read a description of the Civil War Muster Rolls collection at the State Archives, click here. 

Archive Find: Dr. Gruver's Cure

Among the many fascinating documents found in the General Correspondence files of the PA Adjutant General, researchers can discover a variety of inventors and entrepreneurs wishing to sell their ideas and wares to the Commonwealth during wartime.  One such letter, while rather ordinary at first glance, offers us a.....stimulating look into the world of Civil War era medical treatments. 

Danville Sept 15. / 62

To his excellency A. G. Curtin Gov. of Pa

Enclosed find a card to which we humbly invite your attention.  There are many soldiers who are confined to the Hospitals for weeks and months whom I am quite confident I could cure in a few days and thus restore to their ranks.  There are some now in the field whom I have cured of maladies which were incurable by every other known remedy.  The reason I desire a commission to practice is because I can do more good in this way than in any other, but should my proposition not be advisable I am ready to serve in any other capacity where I can be serviceable most. 

Respectfully your humble [servant]

Dr. W. F. Gruver

            Address

                        Danville

                                    Montour [County]

                                                            Pa

Unfortunately, the card which Dr. Gruver sent along to Governor Curtin, and which apparently detailed his miracle cure, is no longer with his letter.  Thankfully on the outside of the letter, someone, probably a staff member in the Adjutant General's office, wrote a brief note summarizing the reason for the good doctor's letter. 

To Gov Curtin

[Dr. Gruver] Thinks he can cure all sick soldiers by electricity

It's unclear whether Pennsylvania took Dr. Gruver up on his offer, but one can imagine that a few "doses" would send any sick soldier sprinting for the front, cured or not.  

source:

Gruver, Dr. W. F.,  Letter to Gov. of Pennsylvania, September 15, 1862. Pennsylvania State Archives, Record Group 19, Office of the Adjutant General, Series 19.29, General Correspondence.

An Emergency Man Visits Antietam

With the Battle of Antietam over, and the Rebel army back across the Potomac River, the men of the Pennsylvania Emergency Militia who had entered Maryland, even stood poised in line of battle all day on September 19th outside of Williamsport, were finally given orders to return to Pennsylvania.  For one militiaman, coming within ear shot of a battlefield was not enough.  Upon returning to the camps just outside of Chambersburg, PA, Private John Witmer, Co. H, 2nd PA Emergency Militia, decided to once more head south.  Writing to his grandfather on Sept. 29, Witmer described the day-by-day actions of his adventure in the Emergency Militia, including his two day excursion to the battlefield at Antietam.  In his writings, Witmer offers us a fascinating glimpse of what the landscape looked like a full week after the fighting, and gives us insight into the scenes at the many field hospitals that littered the landscape.  At one point a soldier of the 15th Massachusetts acted as Witmer's battlefield guide, showing the militiaman where the 15th had suffered more casualties than any other regiment that day; over 50% (330 men) in roughly 20 minutes of fighting.  One wonders how Witmer's fellow militiamen reacted when he told them what he saw and heard during his Antietam battlefield adventure.  

Monday 22nd     We marched through Greencastle and encamped in a woods about a mile beyond.  Here I left the Regiment, and in company with [Robert] Houston, from the neighborhood...set out for the battle field of Antietam.  We walked to Green Castle and about five o'clock took the [train] cars for Hagerstown where we arrived about six o'clock.  We found all the hotels crowded, and it was with great difficulty that we got room to sleep upon the floor in an entry, and still more difficult to get any thing to eat.  We slept well that night - as it was quite an improvement upon lying on the ground in the open air.

Tuesday 23rd     We had a very scanty breakfast for which and our bed we paid seventy five cents, we then got upon the top of a stage [coach] paid one dollar and were driven out to the battle field, where we arrived about Eleven o'clock A.M.  We immediately went down across that part of the field where our right wing commenced the engagement, and through a cornfield out of which our men had charged the enemy, next through a piece of woods where nearly every tree was shattered by the fire from the artillery.  The ground every where was strewn with broken guns, knapsacks, haversacks, canteens, clothing and every thing that a soldier carries about him.  
                               We passed among the hospitals and found great numbers of wounded, both of our own and the rebels.  The barn floors, stables, hay mow's and in many cases the barnyards were filled with sick and wounded, besides the quantities in all the houses, in the neighborhood of the battle-field.  

an Antietam field hospital

We found Dr. Houston from about the Gap [in Lancaster County, PA], surgeon in charge of Sedgewick's [sp] division hospital.  He received us very kindly, and invited us to take dinner with him, which we did quite willingly.  He went over a part of the battle field with us and about for o'clock in the afternoon in company with a soldier* of the Massachusetts 15th we went over a part of it again.  He seemed interested in showing us where the heavy fighting had taken place, but as for that it was very evident that the ground along the whole line had been fiercely contested.  I picked up a good Enfield rifle which I brought home with me, likewise numerous bullets and such things as trophies.  We stayed all night at the hospital, and on

Wednesday 24th     started to join our regiment which we hoped to join before they were disbanded, we walked across the battle field to the turnpike and got into an army wagon going to Hagerstown and reached that place about 2 1/2 o'clock, just in time to take the cars for Greencastle.

*Could Witmer's guide have been one of these men?
(click "Faces of the 15th")

  Standing in front of the 15th Massachusetts monument, Antietam volunteer Jim Buchanan shares the story of the 15th with Antietam visitors, just as an actual soldier of the regiment had done with militiaman John Witmer.

sources:
Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania volunteers, 1861-5 : prepared in compliance with acts of the legislature. Harrisburg: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869. 

Witmer, John S. to Grandfather, September 29, 1862. Pennsylvania State Archives, Manuscript Group 7, Military Manuscripts Collection.

151st Camp Curtin Commemoration

Camp Curtin - Harper's Weekly

On April 18, 1861, while boarding trains headed to Washington, five companies of Pennsylvania volunteers, forever known as the "First Defenders", became the first Keystone men to be mustered into military service, and eventually the first Northern soldiers to arrive in Washington after President Lincoln's call for troops.  As the First Defenders continued their trip to Washington that day, more and more volunteer companies arrived.  The First Defenders, and several other companies, had occupied several hotels and boarding houses throughout the city.  It soon became clear to Gov. Andrew Curtin that Harrisburg needed to find a proper location for these men to camp, organize, and train.  Several companies from Johnstown had made camp at a fairgrounds about a mile north of the city.  It was soon determined that this spot, with it's wide open fields, proximity to the Susquehanna River,  and easy access to both the Pennsylvania Railroad and Pennsylvania Canal, was the best possible location.





layout of Camp Curtin - William J. Miller

Throughout the day, more and more volunteers began to arrive at, what had been named, "Camp Union".  Harrisburg native, major in the Pennsylvania Militia, and later the Col. of the 46th Pennsylvania at Antietam, Joseph Knipe was responsible with constructing and organizing the new camp of instruction.  Approaching one of the buildings at the old fairgrounds, "Major Knipe, apparently a man with a good sense of drama, climbed a ladder and appeared on the roof of the building clutching a national flag.  He wrestled with the halyards on the flag pole for a few moments, but soon had the flag attached to the ropes.  He turned to the crowd below and shouted, 'What shall we name the camp?  I propose the name of Governor Curtin!'  The suggestion was a popular one.  While Knipe ran the colors up the pole, the growing crowd cheered and sent hats sailing into the early twilight sky of that Thursday, April 18.  Camp Curtin was born."

Gov. Andrew Curtin

Maj. Joseph Knipe

Over the course of the bloody American Civil War, Camp Curtin would see over 300,000 soldiers pass through it's gates, including those of the Pennsylvania Emergency Militia, as well as large amounts of food, supplies, and equipment.  Pennsylvania and Camp Curtin became vital for President Lincoln, and the Union war effort.  For the soldiers, Camp Curtin would change their lives forever.  "It was in Camp Curtin," writes historian William J. Miller, "that volunteers learned that the life of a soldier was one of discomfort and frustration.  There, amid the disease and discomfort, in leaky tents and on the sun-baked parade ground, boyish illusions died.  Men learned to tolerate and work with other men.  They made strong friendships, some of which ended on battlefields, some of which survived and endured for decades.  There, also, they said farewell, often tearfully, to friends and comrades and to the life of extreme excitement, danger and boredom they had lived in the army.  For these men, Camp Curtin was as much a part of their war experience as were the marches, battlefields and hospitals."

Almost immediately at the end of the Civil War, and with the closing of the Camp, the Harrisburg neighborhood, fittingly known as Camp Curtin, sprang up.  However, it wasn't until 1922 that Union veterans were finally able to place a fitting memorial to Camp Curtin, and the Pennsylvania Governor for which it was named.  Even though it was memorializing the nation's largest and most productive Civil War camp, Camp Curtin Park, at 6th & Woodbine Sts. became the country's smallest state park.

Gov. Curtin monument - Camp Curtin Park

151 years after Joseph Knipe's theatrics, and proclamation in which he named Camp Curtin, on April 18, 2012, nearly 100 people gathered in Harrisburg's Camp Curtin Park to honor the history made there.  Attendees and speakers included: Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson, Harrisburg City Council, James Schmick of the Camp Curtin Historical Society, David Demmy of the Sons of Union Veterans, Jean Cutler of the Bureau for Historic Preservation, Wayne Motts of the National Civil War Museum, members of the Camp Curtin Memorial-Mitchell United Methodist Church, a military honor guard from Fort Indiantown Gap, living historians portraying Camp Curtin's soldiers and carrying reproduction flags on loan from the Pennsylvania Capital Preservation Committee, and residents of the Camp Curtin neighborhood.  Organized by Jeremy Young, of the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission - Bureau for Historic Preservation, the ceremony not only honored the history of the Camp, but also celebrated the listing of the neighboring Camp Curtin Memorial-Mitchell United Methodist Church in the National Register of Historic Places. 

The Camp Curtin neighborhood has experienced hard times in recent years, but it is the hope of everyone who attended Wednesday's ceremony that through a re-discovery and promotion of the city's rich history, and proper planning and historic preservation efforts, that this neighborhood, as well as the city and region, can reclaim the prominent and respected status that it is justly deserved.  The preservation and remembrance of Camp Curtin and it's surrounding neighborhood is much more than simply a local issue.  Camp Curtin's role in Pennsylvania and United States history is undeniable, and the pride seen on the faces of everyone who attended speaks volumes.  Let us hope that the remembrance of the sacrifices of Pennsylvania's Civil War generation will be the catalyst for remembrance, recognition of, and pride in, Harrisburg's (and beyond) other historically/culturally rich resources.

LOCAL NEWS STORIES ON THE EVENT:

FOX 43:

http://www.fox43.com/videogallery/69465803/News/4-18-Camp-Curtin-Anniversary#gl-0%20%20

ABC 27:

source:
Miller, William J. The Training of an Army: Camp Curtin and the North's Civil War. Shippensburg, PA: White Mane Publishing Co., 1990.

Mechanicsburg's Irving Female College

When the 2nd Pennsylvania Emergency Militia left Harrisburg for the "seat of war", they, like other regiments, were speedily transported along the Cumberland Valley Railroad.  At each of the small towns along the route, hordes of townspeople turned out to cheer on the defenders of the Commonwealth.  Located about 8 miles west of Harrisburg, the small town of Mechanicsburg (originally named for the abundant amount of mechanics and machinists who lived in the area) turned out at the railroad station, and along the tracks, in droves that mid September in 1862.  The sights of their journey would be forever etched into the "green" soldiers' minds.  Louis Richards, a Reading militiaman in Co. G, remembered one particularly pleasing sight for the young men while passing through Mechanicsburg:

Crowds of people came out to the stations to meet us, and black and white, old and young, all joined in the heartiest demonstrations of welcome.  Were also greeted from the houses and roadsides all along the line by people waving their handkerchiefs and swinging their hats.  At Mechanicsburg a whole girls' school was out to see us.  This was a specially engaging sight to some of our number, who thought that that village would be a good place to camp.  The elite of the town were at the station, and S. pointed out to me the leading beauties of the place - I mean the ladies.  Soldiers of a day, we already began, in the midst of these inspiring scenes, to feel like real veterans.

An Illustrated History of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania



Founded in 1856, the Irving Female College was named for famed author Washington Irving, who served on the board of trustees until his death in 1859.  It became the first female college in the nation to grant degrees in arts and science.  Irving Hall, a large Italianate building, was soon constructed, "amongst a beautiful grove and grounds" located along the Cumberland Valley Railroad tracks, and on the eastern end of town (an area soon known as Irvington).  Irving Hall could house "forty students, as well as supply the classroom, the parlor, the library, and the college offices."  In the early days of the school, the average enrollment was 91 students (many of which were day students who lived in the surrounding region).

By the end of the 19th Century, the College was prospering; a second building was needed.  Known as Columbian Hall, the new building, "contained 40 additional dormitory rooms on the upper floors and a large auditorium on the first floor."  In 1901, an expanded wing was constructed onto the eastern wing of Irving Hall, creating rooms for music, a kitchen, a cafeteria, and a gymnasium.  In it's hey-day, Irving Female College had buildings that were, "...imposing in appearance, substantially built of brick, conveniently arranged, and comfortably fitted up with the modern conveniences, and every thing calculated to make it an attractive and safe home, with full and thorough educational advantages for young ladies."  Some of Irving's "young ladies" would go on to be accomplished alumnae, including Ida Kast, Cumberland County's first female attorney, and Jane Deeter Ripon, President of the Girl Scouts of America. 

postcard of Irving Female College ca. 1901. Columbian Hall is located on the right.



postcard of Irving Female College ca. 1901. Expansion can be seen at left-rear of Irving Hall.



The presence of Irving was not just enjoyed by the young men of the Emergency Militia, but by the town itself, as it, "...provided Mechanicsburg with a source of culture, music, great literature and drama that the rural town would not have experienced otherwise."  An alumna later said "The college meant a great deal to the community.  It was a social center."

Sadly, the College's brighter days would soon be behind it. Suffering from a combination of the economic downturn due to the Great Depression, and increased competition from larger private universities and state funded colleges, the College was closed and its buildings sold off by 1937.  Irving and Columbian Halls would soon be renovated on the interior, and converted into apartment space, which they still remain as to this day. 



President's Hall ca. 1982 (built 1911, since demolished)

In 1954, the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission placed a historical marker in front of the College along Main St., and in 1983, Irving Female College was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.  Through adaptive reuse and historic preservation, these historic buildings have stood, and continue to stand, as silent observers of our past. 



Irving Hall as seen today - Dave Maher

sources:

Egle, M.D., William H. An Illustrated History of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Civil, Political, and Military, From it's Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, Including Historical Descriptions of Each County in the State, Their Towns, and Industrial Resources. Harrisburg, PA: De Witt C. Goodrich & Co., 1876.

Richards, Louis. Eleven Days in the Militia During the War of the Rebellion; Being a Journal of the "Emergency" Campaign of 1862. Philadelphia: Collins, Printer, 1883.

Rose, Sarah, "Irving Female College National Register of Historic Places nomination form", 1982.  on file at the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office, or online through the Cultural Resource GIS.