Pennsylvania
Just as Pennsylvania earned the nickname "the Keystone State" for its central role in the nation's formative years, the Commonwealth earned that reputation a new during the country's second great trial, the Civil War. During four years of war, Pennsylvania contributed substantial human and material resources to the war to end slavery and preserve the nation. At times, with its southernmost boundary the fissure point between free and slave states, Pennsylvania directly felt the tempest of war. Yet in spite of its legacy as a keystone, the story of Pennsylvania in the Civil War is hardly one of unanimous support for the Union. No corner of the Commonwealth escaped the war's long reach, and many of those touched lacked enthusiasm for the national cause.
Initially, many Pennsylvanians accepted secession, but the public mood shifted dramatically when the Confederates shelled Fort Sumter, South Carolina in April, 1861. In an outpouring of patriotism, Pennsylvania volunteers quickly answered President Abraham Lincoln's call for troops to quell the rebellion. Days after the attack on the fort, Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin rushed five companies of plucky-if underarmed-militia from Pottsville, Reading, Allentown, and Lewistown to the unprotected capitol in Washington, D.C. This timely intervention earned these troops the title "First Defenders."
In the succeeding four years of war more than 360,000 Pennsylvanians wore Union blue. Many trained at Camp Curtin near Harrisburg, a huge staging and supply depot, others prepared at smaller camps in Easton, Pittsburgh, and West Chester. A majority of Pennsylvania troops fought in the eastern theater, with only about 10 percent serving in the western armies. Few white Pennsylvanians enlisted to free black slaves from bondage. Most detested slavery, but not on moral grounds. Rather, they eyed slave labor as a threat to their status and livelihood as paid free workers. Numerous factors motivated volunteering, including patriotism, the threat of being drafted, or other generous "bounties" paid for enlisting. The conflict also attracted thousands of teenage enlistees with the illusion of war as an adventure. Bored with the humdrum of farm or village life, they viewed the war as an opportunity for escape and personal heroism.
Pennsylvania blacks, however, probably viewed the war as an opportunity to prove their worthiness and to strike at the southern slave system. Of all the northern states, Pennsylvania ranked first in the number of black soldiers - 8,612 - mustered for the Union cause. When Pennsylvania began recruiting blacks in mid-1863, the War Department established Camp William Penn north of Philadelphia where eleven thousand blacks had been trained by the war's end. The eleven regiments of United States Colored Troops recruited in Pennsylvania often suffered racial indignities while demonstrating their soldierly mettle. Initially paid less than white recruits, they were often given menial jobs and faced the prospect of being reinslaved or killed if captured by the Confederates.
Gettysburg Other Name: None State: Pennsylvania Location: Adams County Campaign: Gettysburg Campaign (June-August 1863) Dates: July 1-3, 1863 Principal Commanders: Union States: Maj. Gen. George G. Meade
Confederate States: Gen. Robert E. Lee Forces Engaged: Union States: 83,289
Confederate States: 75,054
Total: 158,300 Estimated Casualties: Union States: 23,000
Confederate States: 28,000
Total: 51,000 total Results: Result(s): Union victor
Union v.s. Confederacy
1862
January 31 - President Lincoln issues General War Order No. 1 calling for all United States naval and land forces to begin a general advance by Feb 22, George Washington's birthday.
February 6 - Victory for Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in Tennessee, capturing Fort Henry, and ten days later Fort Donelson. Grant earns the nickname "Unconditional Surrender" Grant.
1861
February 9 - The Confederate States of America is formed with Jefferson Davis as president.
April 12 - At 4:30 AM Confederates under General Pierre Beauregard open fire with 50 cannons upon Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. The Civil War begins.
April 17 - Virginia secedes from the Union, followed within 5 weeks by Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina, thus forming an eleven state Confederacy.
April 19 - President Lincoln issues a Proclamation of Blockade against Southern ports. For the duration of the war the blockade limits the ability of the rural South to stay well supplied in its war against the industrialized North.
July 4 - Lincoln, in a speech to Congress, states the war is..."a People's contest... a struggle for maintaining in the world, that form, and substance of government, whose leading object is, to elevate the condition of men..." The Congress authorizes a call for 500,000 men.
February 20 - President Lincoln is struck with grief as his beloved eleven year old son, Willie, dies from fever, probably caused by polluted drinking water in the White House.
North South
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