Tributes to Colonel Joshua B. Howell

From L.S.Dickey's 1915 History of the 85th Pennsylvania

             Colonel Joshua B. Howell, founder and leader of the 85th Pennsylvania regiment, died on September 14, 1864. While his regiment was encamped at Fort Morton near the famous Petersburg (VA)  Crater, Howell's death occurred nearby at the X Corps headquarters. His death came as the result of a fall from his horse. He was 58 years of age. His long-sought after promotion to general came posthumously.

          Howell had had several close calls with death in the previous year, mostly notably in August of 1863 on Morris Island near Fort Sumter, South Carolina. A bombproof under Howell's command was hit by an enemy shell. Buried under a pile of rubble, Howell nearly died, and was left with a severe concussion from which he never fully recovered. He took several medical leaves from his beloved regiment in the following 12 months, the second time under the supervision of his brother, Dr. Benjamin Howell. 

      

            

Dr. Charles Clark

Howell's death was remembered twenty-five years later by his friend, Dr. Charles Clark, the surgeon and later historian for the 39th Illinois who had treated him after his riding accident. In 1889, Clark wrote. "On the morning of the 13th, we were painfully shocked to hear that Colonel Howell, then temporarily commanding the Third Division, had been seriously injured the previous evening by the falling of his horse. His clothing and even his sash and sword were still on him...the Colonel was placed aboard and taken to the Brigade Hospital...he was suffering from a severe concussion of the brain and possible hemorrhage. it was evident, however, that he could not live. He remained unconscious up to a few moments before dissolution, when he opened his eyes an effort to speak, but was unintelligible." [Yates Phalanx, Charles Clark, 171]

          Colonel Howell's untimely death was a dark day in the history of the 85th Pennsylvania regiment. Had he lived another month, he would have had the opportunity to return home to western Pennsylvania with the majority of his regiment, whose three-year enlistments were about the expire 

          Weeks prior to his death, Howell had been promoted to acting commander of the Third Division in the X Corps of the Army of the James. Howell's personal horse had been injured so he was riding a substitute at the time that was said to have a sensitive mouth and did not respond well to its reins being pulled. Howell's body was sent back to New Jersey near his boyhood home for burial. 

          Nine days prior to his death, Howell wrote proudly to his daughter that, "To my great surprise I received an order last week assigning me to the command of this [Third] Division due to the illness of [the] General commanding, who had gone on to Fort Monroe. It is a high compliment from Corps Head Qrs. and a responsible command." [Book of John Howell and his Descendants, p.453]

        This account of Howell's death appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer five days after the event.

       "A very great calamity befell the Tenth Army Corps in the sudden and lamentable death of Brigadier-General [actually his rank in the state militia] Joshua B. Howell , commanding a brigade in Major General A.H. Terry's division.The circumstances were as follows: Shortly after dinner, Gen. Howell proposed to mount his horse and ride to a point somewhat distant from his quarters. He had only succeeded in gaining his position on his horse, which was exceedingly uneasy at the bit, when the general unfortunately grasping the wrong rein, the horse suddenly careened and fell backward, falling wholly on the person of the deceased, where he remained. His orderly at once rushed to the general's rescue, and with much exertion got his prostrate form from beneath the vicious animal. Being borne to his quarters he was found to be insensible, and did not rally to the last. He died in the evening, and his embalmed body is now on its way to his Pennsylvania [actually New Jersey] home."

        Howell's posthumous promotion to Brigadier General was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in February of 1865, to be postdated from the day of his death. 

         Howell's last corps commander. General Alfred Terry, wrote this touching tribute to Howell in 1882. "At this distance of time, I cannot speak of General Howell's military career, but my recollection of him as a man and an officer are as clear and distinct as they were eighteen years ago. I have never known a more courteous gentleman; I never saw a more gallant and devoted officer. The record of his service was without spot or blemish...His untimely death was lamented by all his comrades as a loss wellnigh irreparable..." [The Book of John Howell and His Descendants, pp. 429-30]

             Soon after his death, General John G. Foster named a fort in Howell's honor at Mitchelville on

Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, near where Howell and his regiment were stationed in early 1863. The structure, built by the 32nd U.S. Colored Regiment,  has been historically preserved. 

           Furthermore, a Grand Army of the Republic post, Post #31 in Woodbury,  New Jersey, was named in Howell's honor. Howell was born in New Jersey in 1800 and lived there until moving to Uniontown in the late 1820's.

The Morning Post   Camden, NJ   8-19-1887

The article at left from 1887 describes the donation of Howell's sword to the G.A.R. Post named in his honor by his second wife, Katherine. Joshua B. Howell's first wife, Mary, died in 1852. Howell married Katherine two years later. Katherine Howell died in 1898 and is buried in Delaware.

            In the years following his death, his regiment worked to keep Howell's memory alive. In 1890, a Washington County newspaper reported that, "The local committee of the 85th regiment yesterday made a contract with C.S. Kilpatrick, the Connellsville artist, to paint a life-size picture of Col. Joshua B. Howell. The canvas will be about 4 x 7 feet and the painting will represent the colonel in a standing posture, dressed in full uniform, with sword in hand, a camp scene in the rear. It is to be completed in September [in one month] and will be on exhibition at the regimental reunion [at Uniontown] here September 1." [The Canonsburg [PA] Notes, 8-16-1890, p.2]

       Around 1904, it seems that the portrait of Howell was donated to the Fayette County Courthouse in Uniontown. As of 1964, according to a local newspaper, it was still hanging in Courtroom No. 1. But at some point it the next nine years, the portrait became lost. 

        In 1973, the Evening Standard newspaper of Uniontown carried a headline that read, "Judge Feigus Seeks Portrait of Howell." The accompanying story outlined the mission of Judge Samuel Feigus. 

        "An oil portrait that hung in Courtroom No. 1 here at the courthouse for many years is being sought by Judge Samuel J. Feigus. Judge Feigus has been working on a history of the county bar Association, the courts, its judges, and other famous figures associated with the court in past years. The picture in question is a full-length portrait of Brig. Gen. Joshua B. Howell, at one time a member of the county bar association. 

      "It was procured on April 11, 1904 and for dozens of years adorned Courtroom No. 1...Anyone with information on the missing portrait who would like to aid Judge Feigus in his historical research is asked to contact him..." [Evening Standard, 5-2-1973,  p.6]

      It is unknown if Judge Feigus successfully tracked down the location of the Howell portrait or its current whereabouts. Feigus died a year later in 1974.

        More recently, Howell's likeness was recently added to the Gloucester County Wall of Heroes in the county justice complex in New Jersey. 

Glouceser County, NJ Wall of Heroes
https://www.nj.com/gloucester-county/2011/02/wall_of_heroes_brig_gen_joshua.html

     

George Fisher's Centennial Birthday

          The longest living member of the 85th Pennsylvania regiment was William Mahaney of Company C. Mahaney enlisted into the regiment as a 17-year old in 1861 and died in 1944 at the age of 99, several months shy of his 100th birthday.
       

Lincoln (NE) Star
1-26-1938

The second-longest living soldier in the regiment, the subject of this article, was Corporal George Fisher of Company E. Fisher was 23 when he joined the regiment and died at the age of 100 in Nebraska in 1938.
        About three months prior to his death, a local newspaper in Beatrice, Nebraska wrote an article in celebration of Fisher's 100th birthday. Although intended to be celebratory in nature, the article is a mixture of fact and fiction with somewhat dubious information relating to Fisher's service in the Civil War. Since he was likely the main source for the details of the story, Fisher seems to have misremembered or exaggerated some of the events. Colored by the passage of time, Fisher's remembrances and perhaps some information provided by his children and grandchildren resembled but did not accurately reflect past events.

       This is not meant to disparage a 100-year old man who honorably served his country for three years. It is meant as a warning that obituaries and articles such as this one are not always 100% accurate.
        The article states that Fisher, born in Germany, came to this country alone at the age of 15. After having what little money he had stolen from a hotel room in New York City, the article states that he "walked to Uniontown, PA and got a farm job which he kept 22 years except for time spent in the service of the Union army during the Civil War."
      As a reader, I would like to know what motivated Fisher to "walk" to Uniontown. The distance is over 300 miles and it seems that Fisher could have found work as a farm laborer much closer to New York City.
         The article continues on that, "He [Fisher] enrolled as a private in Co. 'E,' 85th Pennsylvania infantry in September, 1861. He was mustered into service on November 12, 1861 for a three-year enlistment and on August 27, 1863, was wounded by the explosion of an enemy shell."
     

Bombproof in Trench on Morris Island    LOC

          This account of Fisher's wounding is probably correct. In his comprehensive 1915 history of the regiment, historian Luther S. Dickey notes that Company E (Fisher's company) was in the trenches for digging duties near Fort Wagner on Morris Island on the night of August 27, 1863. Several members of Company E were killed by a shell explosion, including John H. Linn and Joseph Neely. Three other soldiers (William Marquis, Henry J. Ridgen and John I. White) later died of wounds suffered in this explosion.
        Although Fisher is not mentioned by name, Dickey writes that the explosion caused "more than a dozen casualties."
        The article continues "Fisher served with Generals Grant and McClellan and fought in the battles of Williamsburg, Charleston, Deep Bottom, Cold Harbor and others."
       There are several issues with this observation. The 85th Pennsylvania did not do much "fighting" at Williamsburg in May of 1862 during the Peninsula Campaign.  The divisions of Joseph Hooker and Phillip Kearney did  most of the fighting for the Union side. The 85th Pennsylvania formed a line and may have gotten off a volley or two into an unseen enemy beyond the tree line. And they were shelled by Confederate artillery. But for the most part they remained in formation and did not advance towards the battle. However, the 85th Pennsylvania did experience hard fighting at Charleston and (Second) Deep Bottom.

        The sentence also states that Fisher (and his regiment) served under Ulysses S. Grant and George B. McClellan. The 85th Pennsylvania assuredly served under McClellan's command during the Peninsula Campaign in Virginia in 1862. But they were never under Grant's direct command, either in the western theater or during the Overland Campaign of 1864. Technically, with Grant in command of the overall Union strategy beginning in March of 1864, every soldier in the Union army served under Grant. But in 1864, while Grant pushed towards Richmond with the Army of the Potomac, the 85th Pennsylvania was in the Army of the James under General Benjamin Butler and later under General Edward O.C. Ord.

        Grant did briefly accompany the Army of the James for part of the pursuit of the Army of Northern Virginia from the Petersburg front to Appomattox in April of 1865, a campaign that culminated with Robert E. Lee's surrender. 
       

LOC

The centennial article then states, "He [Fisher] helped construct the 'Swamp Angel,' a masked battery with which the Union army shelled Charleston...."
          This may have occurred. The regiment was stationed in the interior of Morris Island during the late summer of 1863 when the  Marsh Battery or Swamp Angel battery was under construction. It took much manpower to carry 13,000 sandbags to the site. The Swamp Angel was constructed between James and Morris Islands near Charleston, SC in July and August of 1863. The Swamp Angel floated on hundreds of sandbags (on top of 20 feet of mud), which soldiers carried over wooden planks to the marsh. On August 22, the Swamp Angel began an incendiary bombardment of Charleston, which continued until the 36th shot shattered its breech. 

         A problem here is that the 85th Pennsylvania was heavily involved in another Union effort at the time. Following the failed second assault on Fort Wagner on July 18 led by the black troops of the 54th Massachusetts, the next stage was unglamorous: the digging of a series of trenches or parallels to threaten the sand-walled battery. Along with the 100th New York and 3rd New Hampshire, the 85th Pennsylvania devoted almost all of their efforts in the month of August to this endeavor. Dickey's history of the regiment cites the diary of Commissary Sergeant John B. Bell for a day-to-day account of the regiment at this time. There are numerous references to "fatigue duty at the front," "completed seaward battery at third parallel," and the like, but no direct reference to constructing the Swamp Angel. 

           In his entry for August 17, Bell does state, "Regiment....moved to the front and during the day was engaged at fatigue duty filling gabions to strengthen the fortifications. Marsh Battery was completed ready for mounting guns."
           Next in the obituary,  the following reference is problematical. "...[Fisher] saw the battle of the

LOC

Monitor and the Merrimac."
          This could not have occurred. The battle of ironclads took place on March 8-9, 1862. The 85th Pennsylvania did not arrive at Hampton Roads for the Peninsula Campaign until three weeks later on April 1. Yes, several soldiers in the regiment wrote of seeing the Monitor in the waters around Fort Monroe as their ship came in for docking. At another time, the Merrimac was spotted when they were camped near Hampton, VA. But the ironclad battle itself was not witnessed by Fisher or anyone else in the regiment.

        The article concludes with the statement that, "A Republican, the aged man cast his first vote for president for a candidate with whom he shook hands several times, Abraham Lincoln."

         It is possible that Fisher met Lincoln face to face, but to have shaken hands with the president more that once seems to be a stretch. First of all, several soldiers from the regiment claim to have encountered  Lincoln when they were posted near Washington, DC during the winter of 1861-62. When they had free time, the men would often tour the capital city and several wrote that they talked to the president while walking the streets of Washington. 

         Lincoln then crossed paths with the regiment when Lincoln reviewed the entire Army of Northern Virginia in early July of 1862 at Harrison's Landing,VA. Finally, Lincoln was present at City Point,VA on March 25, 1865 and reviewed Union troops, including what may have included some in the 85th Pennsylvania. But Fisher had completed his three-year enlistment and had gone home the previous November.
           Fisher and his wife, Martha Rockwell Fisher from Uniontown, spent the last six decades of his life in York County, Nebraska. He passed away on January 23, 1938, three months after his one-hundredth birthday.     

SW Pennsylvania Invasion Threats Part 7 Gettysburg

The Pittsburgh Gazette
June 12, 1863

In mid-June, coinciding with Morgan's Raid, Robert E. Lee’s Army of the Potomac began to enter central Pennsylvania as a prelude to the Battle of Gettysburg. Communities throughout the lower part of the commonwealth from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia were warned by Governor Andrew Gregg Curtin to prepare for aggressive action on the part of Lee’s army. It was thought that the state capital at Harrisburg was to be a target. In Greene County, the Waynesburg Messenger preached, “No time is to be lost, if you would save the capital of our proud old Commonwealth from the despoiling invader and our fields from devastation.” [117] 
   The Messenger noted that one hundred volunteer militiamen from Greene County were on their way to Pittsburgh under the command of a Waynesburg resident, Lieutenant Levi R. McFann, who had just completed a nine-month enlistment in the 123^rd PA. McFann’s volunteers would serve under Major General William T. H. "Bully" Brooks in the newly created Department of the Monongahela. This command was organized to protect western Pennsylvania from Pittsburgh to Johnstown in Cambria County, as well as parts of West Virginia and Ohio. [118]

Wheeling Daily Ingelligencer
         June 18, 1863

General Outline of the Department of the Mononghela
            Western Pennsylvnania, parts of Ohio and (West) Virginia
    LOC

Uniontown had the unlikely benefit of infantry protection from the 27th New Jersey. The nine-month enlistments of these men had expired on June 3 while they were in Louisville, Kentucky. On their way back home to New Jersey, they learned that Lee’s troops had entered central Pennsylvania and that their rail trip back home might be blocked.  Twenty-one year old Colonel George Mindil polled his troops and they collectively agreed to extend their military service while in southwestern Pennsylvania for this emergency. The 27^th New Jersey was briefly ordered to guard Uniontown before being shipped to the state capital at Harrisburg.  [119]

         The Army of the Monongahela saw little action in Ohio and West Virginia during the time of the Gettysburg Campaign. Following his defeat at Gettysburg, Lee crossed the Potomac River back into Virginia, and Pennsylvania was not threatened again for the remaining two years of the war.

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 2 Western Virginia

My last post presented an overview of Confederate invasion threats into southwestern Pennsylvania in the spring of 1863. For visual references, please refer to the map of the previous post. This post also included an overview of the Jones-Imboden Raid through western Virginia to the threshold of the Pennsylvania border. Today’s post will focus on the Jones-Imboden Raid in western Virginia and the Confederate occupation of Morgantown a few miles from the border with Greene County, Pennsylania. Future posts will focus on reactions in the Pennsylvania ounties of Washington, Greene and Fayette.

General John Imboden
The Photographic History of the Civil War
Volume 10

On April 20, Brigadier General John D. Imboden departed from the Shenandoah Valley towards western Virginia. His force numbered about 3,500, of whom four-fifths were infantrymen; the rest were cavalry and a six-gun battery. After a two-hour fight at Beverly in Randolph County against a small Union force, Imboden seized that town as well as nearby Buckhannon several miles to the west.  Imboden was now about 75 miles from the Pennsylvania border.

Imboden’s move was meant to preoccupy Union attention while General William “Grumble” Jones and his 3,000 men began a push to the north towards Mongolia County, which shares a border with both Greene and Fayette Counties in Pennsylvania. Jones’ main mission was to destroy Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridge on the CheatRiver at Rowlesburg, (West) Virginia, as well as to wreck 45 miles of railroad track from Grafton to Oakland, Maryland.

Jones had set out from the Shenandoah Valley one day after Imboden began his march. Jones’ troops were soon contested by a hundred Union soldiers at Greenland Gap for over four hours before Jones seized the area. Jones proceeded to divide his force into thirds when he was 30 miles from Pennsylvania. While Jones himself headed to Rowlesburg, his two other detachments destroyed railroad bridges at the Maryland towns of Oakland and Altamont.

Historical Marker of Rowlesburg Battle

 Jones reached the key Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridge at Rowlesburg on the Cheat River on April 26. The destruction of this span was the paramount goal of the raid. But the bridge was defended by 300 men of the 6^th (West) Virginia under the command of Major John H. Showalter, along with townspeople and railroad workers. Showalter’s force blocked both ends of the bridge with stacks of railroad ties. He also had several well-placed artillery pieces to cover the area.

Significantly, Jones could not counter with his own artillery because he had sent it back to the Shenandoah Valley a few days earlier when its passage could not be secured across the rain-swollen Potomac River at Moorefield.

General William E. "Grumble" Jones
The Photographic History of the Civil War
Volume 10

After assaulting the bridge at Rowlesburg, Jones’ men withdrew. This was his only setback during the campaign. Jones proceeded to Morgantown, which he occupied the next day. He was now only five miles from the Pennsylvania border. In Morgantown, the invaders captured supplies and horses. On April 29, Jones and his men rode on to Fairmont about 35 miles away to the southwest, signaling the end of the threat to invade Pennsylvania. The largest battle of the raid ensued at Fairmont as Jones prevailed and his men blew up a bridge and train equipment.

Jones’ men also tore up miles of track and captured more horses and cattle before laying waste to thousands of barrels of oil at Burning Springs near the Ohio border.

The two commands of Jones and Imboden united in mid-May and returned to the Shenandoah Valley.  The cattle that both commands had seized helped to feed their own men as well as Lee’s army. Jones and Imboden also spirited away 1,500 horses, but many of these steeds had to replace their own mounts which had given out during the raid; many other of the other captured horses were unfit by the time they returned to the Shenandoah Valley. Most of the railroad track and bridges destroyed on the raid were quickly repaired. 
Jones and Imboden did acquire some recruits to the Confederate cause, but Imboden also lost 200 men to desertion when he tried to curb their thirst for looting and stealing. The raid also had the reverse effect of pushing more western Virginia residents towards the Union and impending statehood by the looting of their livestock. Homer Plimpton of the 39^th Illinois, part of the brigade that included the 85^th Pennsylvania, wrote from South Carolina, “According to the latest accounts that we have received the rebels are making some very active demonstrations in Maryland and on the border of Pa. Such raids will do us more good than harm. Let the enemy once get on to northern soil and our doubtful brethren will begin to realize what war is, and have something of an idea of the magnitude of the present war.” [The Civil War Journals of Col. Homer A. Plimpton by John L. Dodson]

"Confederate raiders attempt the capture of Union generals, Memphis, Tennessee, August 21, 1864, artist's impression,"
 House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson Collegehttp://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/43065.

                    
                     ALARM ACROSS THE PENNSYLVANIA BORDER

The most alarming event for the residents of southwestern Pennsylvania was the brief occupation of Morgantown, just a few miles from the state border. This caused panic to reach a fever pitch on the northern side of the Mason-Dixon Line.  Some Morgantown residents drove their livestock into Greene County for protection. There was also a false report that Stonewall Jackson was leading 20,000 cavalrymen into Pennsylvania. This “Jackson” was actually Colonel William T. Jackson who was under Imboden’s command.

Gray Days in Morgantown
             by Clyde Cale, Jr. 

When Grumble Jones’ force left Morgantown, it was strongly feared that southwestern Pennsylvania would be his next target for cattle, horses and supplies. Even though entering Pennsylvania was never a goal of the Jones-Imboden Raid, the Confederates seemed to be on a path towards the home counties of the 85^th Pennsylvania. Jones briefly headed in their direction when he crossed the Monongahela River from Morgantown, but then veered to the southwest towards Fairmont.

Small parties of Confederate cavalry did probe across the state line into Pennsylvania both during and after the brief occupation of Morgantown. Wild rumors and news accounts said the raiders had moved into Uniontown, which did not occur.  However, it was not out of the question that Jones’ men may have ridden into the southern part of Greene County or Fayette County in search of horses or to determine if any Union troops were in the area. When no Union troops were found, these Confederate bands returned to Morgantown and Jones headed to Fairmont.

                                   Next: Fayette County Reacts