Beaver’s Diary, Document and Lifesaver

Posted by on Mar 9, 2020 in | Comments Off on Beaver’s Diary, Document and Lifesaver The Pennsylvania State Archives has in its collection numerous diaries recording the personal experiences of prominent people in the state’s history. One of those diaries not only documented its owner’s life but also possibly saved it. James Addams Beaver (1837–1914), born in Millerstown, Perry County, was an attorney in Bellefonte, Centre County, who would serve as the 20th governor of...
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War and Tranquility: From Gettysburg to Glen with Robert Bruce Ricketts

Posted by on May 8, 2015 in | Comments Off on War and Tranquility: From Gettysburg to Glen with Robert Bruce Ricketts The order was clear. Capt. Robert Bruce Ricketts and his two companies of artillery were to hold the Union’s left flank on East Cemetery Hill just beyond the outskirts of Gettysburg. “In case you are charged here,” Ricketts’ commanding officer Col. C.S. Wainwright told him, “you will not limber up under any circumstances, but fight your battery as long as you can.” The reality facing Ricketts on...
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How They Served: Recovering the Experiences of Five Pennsylvanians in the American Civil War

Posted by on May 8, 2015 in | Comments Off on How They Served: Recovering the Experiences of Five Pennsylvanians in the American Civil War Pennsylvania supplied approximately 362,000 soldiers to the Union effort in the Civil War from 1861 to 1865. This was more than any other Northern state except New York. The Keystone State suffered the loss of 33,183 sons to death while in war service, and virtually every aspect of Pennsylvania society was affected by the pervasive nature of the great conflict and its staggering cost in terms of...
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Letter to Governor Andrew Gregg Curtin

Posted by on May 8, 2015 in | Comments Off on Letter to Governor Andrew Gregg Curtin Casualties in the American Civil War were enormous on both sides of the four-year conflict. Reuben Kemmerer (also spelled Kemerer), of Company I, 81st Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, suffered wounds to his right hand during the Second Battle of Deep Bottom in August 1864. He was one of approximately 2,900 Union soldiers wounded in the engagement which took place in Henrico County, Virginia,...
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The Pennsylvania Civil War Muster Rolls Project

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Pennsylvania Civil War Muster Rolls Project Imagine, nearly a century and a half ago, an entire company of soldiers mustering out at the end of their service. A hundred or more war-wearied men line up and, one-by-one, give a personal accounting to field clerks as they leave the army to return home. Company officers sitting at a makeshift table huddle over a huge sheet of heavy ruled paper and list each soldier and record what happened to...
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The Union’s Forgotten First Defenders

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Union’s Forgotten First Defenders Throughout the four years of the American Civil War, more than two million men served the Union, some for months, others for years. The vast majority were volunteers, young boys and aging men who willingly left home behind to fight for the preservation of the Union and the eradication of slavery.1 Historians have documented the stories of countless citizens-turned-soldiers, recalling the...
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The “War History” of Corporal Funk

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on The “War History” of Corporal Funk
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The Bucktails

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Bucktails Three days after the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Harbor on April 15, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln issued an emergency call for troops to help defend the nation’s capital. Thomas Leiper Kane (1822–1883), scion of a prominent Philadelphia family, helped raise a mounted rifle regiment in Pennsylvania’s Northern Tier counties of Cameron, Elk, McKean, and...
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At the Gettysburg Battlefield with Traveling Photographers

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on At the Gettysburg Battlefield with Traveling Photographers   As Union and Confederate troops converged on the Adams County community of Gettysburg in mid-summer 1863 to wage what has been described the pivotal battle of the American Civil War, little did they know how long it would take for the rest of the world to discover the outcome. Of the five hundred journalists who covered the war, forty-five reported on the Battle of Gettysburg waged from...
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John White Geary’s White Star Identity Badge

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on John White Geary’s White Star Identity Badge John White Geary (1819–1873) was a courageous individual who gallantly served his country, fighting in both the Mexican War of 1846–1848 and the American Civil War, and dutifully led his Commonwealth as governor for two consecutive terms, from 1867 to 1873. Born near Mt. Pleasant, Westmoreland County, he attended Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Washington County, from which he graduated in...
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