ABOUT BLOG

This blog is intended as a platform for information about the 85th Pennsylvania regiment. My goal is to tell the story of the soldiers so that the reader feels as if he or she was with them in camp. Where did they serve and what were the living conditions where they served? What was it like for them in battle and who were their leaders? What were the stories of the men who died and those who survived?

This led me to a search of more letters, diaries and remembrances of the men in their regiment. Eventually this led me to writing a modern history of the regiment told from the point of view of the men themselves. (Ordering information for my book on the 85th Pennsylvania is here.)

Dan Clendaniel at Morris Island, S.C.

Some of the places where they fought have survived; some are gone. The Seven Pines battlefield has a series of markers and a cemetery, but little else, replaced by the town of Sandston and the Richmond Airport. Fort Wagner has washed away into the sea. The Kinston and Goldsboro (NC) bridges were replaced long ago. On the other hand, Chesterfield County, VA has preserved a number of sites associated with the Bermuda Hundred Campaign. Remarkably, Fort Gregg, an earthen structure near Petersburg, VA, survives. And Appomattox Court House remains a much-visited destination.

The world of western Pennsylvania in which I grew up in the 60s and 70s was the coal mines and steel mills. But a century or so earlier, this area was dominated by farming, small businesses and travel on the National Road. Learning about the men in the regiment introduced me to this era of the Ohio River Valley.

This blog will present stories that did not make it into my book, but are nonetheless compelling. It will include incidents that took place during the war and will feature of some of the men who served in the regiment, including their pre- and post-war lives. I am hoping that folks like me who are 85th Pennsylvania descendants will add their ancestors’ stories and photos as well