SW Pennsylvania Invasion Threats Part 4 Greene County

Greene County PA with the city of Waynesburg
Mongolia County, WV with city of Morgantown
LOC

During the Jones-Imboden Raid by Confederates into western Virginia in the spring of 1863, southwestern Pennsylvania began preparing for the possibility of invasion. Greene County residents were extremely concerned that their horses and cattle would  be confiscated by the raiders, and that the Confederates might move on to Waynesburg to steal bank funds. The Waynesburg

Waitman T. Willey
Photo by Matthew Brady   LOC

Messenger reported that a courier sent from Morgantown by Waitman T. Willey, newly elected senator-elect from West Virginia, warned Greene Countians of events in Morgantown. Willey, the newspaper said, had escaped capture by fleeing to the Greene County community of Carmichaels. A Committee of Safety of seven prominent Waynesburg citizens was quickly organized with the goal of raising a local militia. After Confederate General Jones occupied Morgantown, the Waynesburg Messenger reported, “In view of this raid and of the fact that we are exposed here on the border to similar rebel incursions, we suggest that measures be immediately set on foot to organize the militia in the several townships.” [Waynesburg Messenger, April 29, 1863, p.3]

Among the community leaders of Waynesburg who were selected to form the Committee of Safety  was James B. Lindsay. Lindsay had been the sergeant major of the 85^th Pennsylvania before returning home in early 1862 on permanent medical leave.

Lindsay in fact went on a scouting mission to Morgantown while that community was being occupied. With him was Rufus K. Campbell and Samuel A. Porter, both Union veterans.  Upon returning to Waynesburg, Lindsay reported that his small party had been chased home by Confederate raiders. Lindsay also reported that the Confederates numbers around 1,500 and were presently camped two miles from Morgantown.

Pittsburgh Gazette    April 29, 1863

         It will remembered that after confronting and defeating Jones’ force at Rowlesburg, (West) Virginia, Union Colonel John Showalter decided to withdraw his force to Uniontown and then to Wheeling. Both Waynesburg and Washington (PA) had organized local militias to support Showalter but called off the march to Morgantown when word was received that Showalter had left.

Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin notified Washington, DC in late April of the potential

PA Governor Andrew Gregg Curtin

for raids progressing into Pennsylvania. However, President Lincoln astutely surmised that southwestern Pennsylvania was in no real danger. Lincoln wrote, “I do not think the people of Pennsylvania should be uneasy about an invasion. Doubtless a small force of the enemy is flourishing about in the northern part of Virginia on the ‘screwhorn principle’ on purpose to divert us in another quarter. I believe it is nothing more.” [Baylor, 142]

Word had reached the men in the regiment that some farmers back home tried to use the hilly topography to their advantage by hiding their livestock in deep ravines, while some businessmen hid their merchandise in barns and coal mines. [Robert Van Atta, Pittsburgh Tribune Review, April 9, 2000]

This part of the panic was mocked by some in the regiment, which was stationed on Folly Island near Charleston (SC) Harbor. One soldier who did not take the threat very seriously was Company G’s Mark Gordon of Greene County. In his letters

Marquis Lafayette Gordon
Experiences in the Civil War

home, Gordon had sometimes complained that his and other Union regiments were doing the dirty work for the government while many able-bodied men back home chose to sit out the war for as long as possible, if not permanently. In Gordon’s view, it was fitting that citizens back home were getting a taste of the war that he and his regiment had been attending to for the last 17 months. Gordon wrote, “Our boys had a great time after the arrival of the last mail, laughing over the scare of the people in Greene Co. had at the time of the threatened invasion by the Rebels…Some men…should have shown more pluck than to run off with their horses and cattle and leave their wives and children in the hands of a merciless vagabond band of guerillas.” [M.L. Gordon’s Experiences in the Civil War, p. 34]

Gordon was referring to the panicky atmosphere in Morgantown, just 26 miles from his hometown of Waynesburg. In a letter written by Anne Mathiot Dorsey from her farm a few miles south of Morgantown to her brother several days after the occupation, she wrote that while the raiders helped themselves to all the horses they could find in the town, most of the men had fled, leaving their wives and children to fend for themselves. [Source: Anne Mathiot Dorsey, letter to Jacob D. Mathiot, May 8, 1863, Myron B. Sharp, ed.  “The Confederate Raid at Morgantown,” Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania]

       A correspondent for a Philadelphia newspaper in Uniontown wrote, "Another person came in [from Morgantown] named FIELD and told a thrilling story, but on cross questioning, it appears he had deserted his wife and children to save one horse." (Philadelphia Inquirer, May 1, 1863)

Confederates with Confiscated Livestock

       In any event, by May 6, the Waynesburg Messenger reported that, “all imminent danger of a Rebel incursion having passed away, the Washington [PA] lads returned to their homes and our own people resumed their usual business occupations. At present, all is quiet, and all alarm allayed.”

                                                NEXT: Washington County

SW Pennsylvania invasion Threats Part 3 Fayette County

Southwestern Corner of Pennsylvania with Counties of Greene and Fayette
Pennsylvania cities of Waynesburg and Union(town)
Northeastern Virginia with city of Morgantown   LOC

George Baylor, 12th VA Cavalry
Member of Grumble Jones' Raiders
From Bull Run to Bull Run   1900

     The previous post reviewed the Jones-Imboden Confederate Raid in (West) Virginia from the Shenandoah Valley to Morgantown near the Pennsylvania state border in 1863.
      Once Confederate raiders had fought several battles and confiscated hundreds of valuable livestock to reach the brink of the Pennsylvania border, residents of the southwestern part of the Keystone State understandably became more and more alarmed. 

One of Confederate General William "Grumble" Jones’ raiders into western Virginia, George Baylor of the 12^th Virginia Cavalry, revealed in his postwar  memoir that, “Passing over a bridge at Morgantown, we started in the direction of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, but prudence counseled us that a further advance into the enemy’s country was dangerous, in the extreme; we countermarched and moved south.” (Bull Run to Bull Run, George Baylor,1900)
Interestingly, Baylor states only that Jones' men "started in the direction"  and "advance[d] into tthe enemy's country," indicating that some of Jones' men did indeed cross the state border into Pennsylvania. 

Morgantown resident Anne Mathiot Dorsey (who was born in Fayette County) wrote to her brother shortly after the Confederates had left Morgantown. She wrote that her son, Henry, left Morgantown with four horses that he wished to hide from Jones' marauders. She said Jones' men chased Henry all the way to Smithfield, Pennsylvania, a few miles from Uniontown. When he got to Smithfield, he met many frightened townspeople who were moving their horses to presumed safety. Henry pushed on to Brownsville where he met more frenzied and frightened citizens. (Source: Anne Mathiot Dorsey, letter to Jacob D. Mathiot, May 8, 1863, Myron B. Sharp, ed.  “The Confederate Raid at Morgantown,” Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania)

Some (West) Virginia refugees from the Monongahela River Valley fled all the way to Pittsburgh, prompting that city to hold a citizens’ meeting in early May during which it was determined each city borough and township should raise a company of volunteer militiamen.

Philadelphia Inquirer    April 30, 1863

     One goal of Jones’ raid was to encourage the residents of western Virginia not to pursue statehood, but the methods of his men had the opposite effect. The Wheeling Intelligencer reported that “It was noticeable all along the route that in taking horses they robbed everybody – friend and foe -- alike. It was in vain that [Confederate] sympathizers plead their sympathy and asserted their friendship and good will. They only reply was that ‘if you are friends you can well afford to contribute your horses and plunder.’ This sort of dealing greatly disgusted them, and not a few of them were forced to curse their late friends in the roundest terms. They lost a great deal of sympathy in a very few hours. In fact the tour of the rebels was a complete Unionizing tour.” [Wheeliing Intelligencer, May 4, 1863]

Speculation as to Jones’ and/or Imboden’s next move after Morgantown had southwestern Pennsylvania in an uproar for several days. Wrote a Pittsburgh newspaper,

“It is only certain that the enemy are still hovering about Morgantown and vicinity, but in what numbers it is impossible to determine. Neither is it possible to ascertain with any degree of certainty where they may next appear. Waynesburg, Uniontown, Brownsville, Washington (all Pennsylvania towns) and Wheeling are spoken of as within striking distance, and some even go so far as to express fears that an attempt may yet be made on Pittsburgh…We trust the people of the western counties of Pennsylvania and [West] Virginia will be found wide awake, and ready to embrace the opportunity offered them, to meet the rebel marauders and give them such a lesson as won’t need repetition.” (Pittsburgh Gazette, 2 May 1863)

 Uniontown in Fayette County (where the 85^th Pennsylvania had trained) was just 18 miles from Morgantown and was  thought to be a possible destination by the raiders on their way to the industrial center of Pittsburgh if the rebels they set foot on Pennsylvania soil.

Entrance to Allegheny Arsenal
          Pittsburgh    LOC

   After defeating Jones at Rowlesburg, Union Major John H. Showalter was reinforced with a militia company from Wheeling and four howitzers. Showalter, however, felt he was low on provisions and vastly outnumbered, and so he departed from the area with his force of 450 men. He soon received orders to defend Wheeling, a city on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

Showalter by the time of his new orders had entered Morgantown after Jones’ men had departed the city. A direct march to Wheeling would have covered 75 miles. Showalter decided on an roundabout route through Pennsylvania. His 450 men would march to Uniontown, ride by rail to Pittsburgh, and then travel on the Ohio River to Wheeling. This trip would be about 150 miles, but Showalter felt he could arrive more quickly for the defense of Wheeling.

John H. Showalter
                 USGenWeb Project

Showalter’s men camped in Smithfield, Fayette County before arriving in Uniontown. The appearance of his troops in the area provided momentary relief for panic-stricken citizens, but their presence also caused much alarm. Citizens felt that Showalter's presence meant the Confederates were surely on their way to the Fayette County seat. Several false news accounts claimed that the Confederates had actually moved into Uniontown. At about this time, the Wheeling Intelligencer, in a story picked up around the country, wrote erringly that, “The rebels proceeded from Morgantown into Uniontown, where they committed some depredations, and returned by way of Blacksville towards Fairmont, passing within thirteen miles of Waynesburg.” (Wheeling (VA) Intelligencer, (April  30,1863)

A Philadelphia correspondent emphasized that Showalter’s arrival had an unsettling effect on the residents of Fayette County. “Major Showalter and his command went from Pittsburg to Wheeling and back to his old place (Rowlesburg) again, and after making an extensive circumbendibus and almost frightening the honest old farmers of the southern counties of Pennsylvania out of their propriety by the rumors of the ubiquitous ‘Stonewall’ [Jackson] was about to visit them to relieve them of their horses and produce.” (Philadelphia Enquirer, May 8, 1863, Reprinted in The Times-Picayune, New Orleans, LA, May 30, 1863, p.2)

Showalter was roundly criticized for abandoning Morgantown, but most of the residents of Uniontown seemed relieved by the brief appearance of him and his men. While in Uniontown, one of Showalter’s soldiers, George W. Weekly wrote,

“After breakfast [in Smithfield], we started for Uniontown, and before we had marched three miles the citizens came meeting us with their teams, and by the time we got to Uniontown there was not a corporal’s guard on foot. At Uniontown, we had a big dinner served in the machine shop, after which we had the usual dress parade, …We were then crowded into some hog cars and shipped to Pittsburgh…” (Clyde Cale, Preston County (WV) Journal, 24 July, 2013, p.5)

       

Meanwhile, knowing that Showalter’s stay in their city would be brief, Uniontown continued to organize their own defenses. Local citizens felled trees along Chestnut Ridge southeast of the city to create an obstruction for potential Confederate visitors. Defenses were also established on the Morgantown Road (present-day Route 119) three miles southwest the city and bank funds were sent to Pittsburgh. (Morning Herald, Uniontown, PA, December 31, 1945, p.4)

Uniontown residents formed a citizen militia, according to a Harrisburg newspaper account. “The Citizens of Uniontown had a most gratifying exhibition of the loyalty of one section of Fayette County. B.F. Hibbs, of the First Pennsylvania Cavalry, appeared in town on Wednesday afternoon at the head of forty farmers, all well mounted and each with his squirrel rifle upon his shoulder.” (Evening Telegraph, Harrisburg, PA, May 4, 1863, p.1)

A correspondent for a Philadelphia newspaper reported from Uniontown that, “Preparations have been made to defend Uniontown…At first the people were rather slow to seize the musket preferring to yield to what they considered an overwhelming force, but their enthusiasm being aroused, quite respectable forces was mustered.”  (reprinted in the Brooklyn (NY) Daily Eagle, May 1, 1863, p.3)

Alarm in Uniontown was also raised by the presence of an allegedly Confederate spy.

“Major Showalter…captured and brought with him to Uniontown David Lilly, the spy and traitor who piloted the rebel forces into Morgantown and pointed out to them the residences and property of the prominent Union men...Lilly had been in Uniontown only a few days before, doubtless for the purpose of taking observations with reference to the possibility of a raid through Fayette County.” [The Reporter and Tribune, Washington, PA, May 13, 1863]

Colonel Joshua B. Howell
Dickey's History of the 85th Pennsylvania Infantry

While stationed on Folly Island near Charleston,  South Carolina, the men of the 85^th Pennsylvania received word of the Jones-Imboden Raid with varying reactions. Colonel Joshua Howell of Uniontown expressed alarm in this letter to his daughter: “We hear that the Rebels have been making a raid on Morgantown, Pa. which makes me feel extremely anxious for the safety of Uniontown and the welfare of those dear to us there.” (Francis Howell, ed., Book of John Howell and His Descendants, Volume II, 439)

         NEXT: Greene County Reacts

SW Pennsylvania Invasion Threats Part 1 Overview

SW Pennsylvania showing cities of Washington, Waynesburg, Uniontown and Somerset
West Virginia cities of Morgantown, Fairmont, Grafton and Philippi
Maryland-Pennsylvania border
LOC

      The next few posts are going to examine the homefront of the 85^th Pennsylvania and potential Confederate invasion threats in the spring of 1863. The men of the 85^th Pennsylvania all hailed from counties (Washington, Greene, Fayette and Somerset) that shared a border with Virginia and Maryland, both slaves states. Virginia joined the southern secession after Fort Sumter was fired upon two years earlier, while Maryland did not secede and remained within the Union for the duration of the war.
        Washington County and Greene County both shared a border with Virginia (note:the northwestern counties of that state were in transition at time of the invasion threats. Western Virginia had voted to separate from Virginia and join the Union). Fayette County bordered both Virginia and Maryland, while Somerset County shared a border with Maryland.   

           During the spring of 1863, while the 85^th Pennsylvania was just starting their one-year assignment around Charleston, South Carolina, news was percolating back home in about the potential for invasion by Confederate raiders. A Confederate incursion of that part of the Pennsylvania was thought to be realistic as a pathway  to the northern industrial city of Pittsburgh.

    Several members of the 85^th Pennsylvania expressed concern about the potential of a southern invasion. Others, like Mark Gordon of Company G, laughed it off. I will have more on these accounts in upcoming posts.

     It was not the first Confederate invasion scare in Pennsylvania. The south-central part of

Burning buildings in Chambersburg, PA   1862      LOC

the state had already been subjected to alarm in the late summer and fall of 1862. At that time, the Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee had crossed the Potomac River into Maryland following a resounding Confederate victory at Second Bull Run in Virginia.  Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Gregg Curtin responded by issuing a proclamation on September 4, 1862 calling on the citizens of his state to militarize.  The emergency seemed to subside later that month after the battle of Antietam, Maryland when Lee retreated back into Virginia. However, a month later, Confederate J.E.B. Stuart led a three-day cavalry raid into south central Pennsylvania during which he confiscated 1,200 horses.

During the Jones-Imboden Raid a few months later in 1863, the people of northwestern Virginia (present-day West Virginia) experienced battles and confiscation of property. Just across the (West) Virginia state border, the people of southwestern Pennsylvania did not suffer from physical oe financial loss but from the terror of what could  occur in their towns and counties if the raiders continued on their northerly course.

When this threat died down and the rebel troops of William "Grumble" Jones and John Imboden withdrew back into Virginia, the area was again made anxious in June by the path of prominent Confederate raider John Hunt Morgan. His marauding did not end until his band was stopped in Ohio near the Pennsylvania border in the summer of 1863.

On April 20, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation to accept West Virginia as the 35^th state. This event was to officially take effect two months later on June 20.  A convention in the city of Wheeling in the (West) Virginia panhandle between Pennsylvania and Ohio had voted for statehood a year earlier. On the last day of 1862, President Lincoln signed a bill accepting statehood on the provision of gradual elimination of slavery. West Virginia accepted this stipulation in an amended state constitution on March 26, 1863.

JONES-IMBODEN RAID OVERVIEW

The Jones-Imboden Raid in 1863 lasted for one month. One of its goals was to deny statehood to the region and to restore western Virginia into the Confederacy. Soon after the raid began, a newspaper in Imboden’s home town of Staunton, Virginia gloated that, “Lincoln issued his proclamation admitting Western Virginia as a State into the United States. Gen’s Jones and Imboden are now issuing a counter proclamation. It will be seen whether, in this case, the ‘pen is mightier than the sword.’”

 Another goal of the Jones-Imboden Raid was to disrupt and destroy key parts of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad that ran from Baltimore to Wheeling. This route was a vital link that provided the Union with men and supplies from the West. Jones and Imboden also planned to cut telegraph lines at Grafton, (West) Virginia and generally diminish Union authority in the area.

A third goal was to capture horses and cattle for Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Lee had sanctioned the raid during the late winter of 1862-63 to replenish the needs of his troops. With his impending summer invasion of Pennsylvania (that would include the battle of Gettysburg), Lee hoped that raids would re-stock food supplies and horses for his army and also do harm to morale above the Mason-Dixon Line.

                 Part Two of this series will explore the beginning of the raid and the occupation of Morgantown, (West) Virginia near the Pennsylvania border.

Philadelphia Inquirer
        April 29, 1863