Clearfield Counties Civil War History from 1861 - Visit Clearfield ...

Clearfield County During America‟s Civil WarBy Tom Aaron and Jane Elling1861The first non Native American settlers in the area that would become ClearfieldCounty arrived in the 1780s on land that was part of both Lycoming and Huntingdoncounties.In 1804 the Pennsylvania Legislature created Clearfield County from theseparcels of land and with governmental authority initially provided by Centre County.Local government control began in 1812 with the election of countycommissioners and the county seat was established in the borough of Clearfield.The county‟s name was derived from the clear fields, reportedly caused byroaming buffalo, which were found in the area that once was the home of theChinklacamoose Indian tribe.In 1860 nearly 19,000 residents called Clearfield County home and lived in morethan two dozen townships and cities.predominate.Agriculture was the primary means of livelihood; with lumbering and mining alsoThe lumber industry began in the 1820s as a means for subsistence income to thelocal farmers. During the winter months the timber was harvested and taken to the localwaterways where the logs would be fashioned into rafts and with the spring thaw wouldthen be navigated on the local rivers to the eastern markets. These raftsmen would soonexperience competition.Entrepreneurs, many not county residents, saw that money could be made fromthe local forests, especially from the vast stands of white pine. They purchased land,

ought in their own employees and commenced to clear cut the local acreage. Instead ofusing rafts to transport their harvest, they would allow the logs to free float to market.This method called logging hindered the raftsmen. The waterways, clogged with logs,made them not navigable for their rafts.Tensions between the raftsmen, generally members of the Democratic Party, andthe loggers, whose affiliations were usually with the Republic Party‟s philosophy, wereenhanced by a series of legislative decisions by the Republican controlled state legislaturethat favored the loggers. Verbal sparring turned to acts of sabotage to each other‟soperations and culminated in an exchange of gun fire in the spring of 1857.The feuding between the two political parties would remain throughout the CivilWar and the editorial content of the two county newspapers would fuel the debates.The “Clearfield Republican,” the voice of the Democrats, and the “Raftsman‟sJournal,” the Republican counterpart, would agree on one subject—the listing ofcasualties that would soon be reported from the battlefronts.The Washington Cadets were a militia unit formed in the Borough of Clearfield.They were the best organized and equipped of the various other units in the county.Wearing their bright blue uniforms, they were readily recognized when they participatedin every public function.The Cadets met the first Sunday of every month, and during their April 7 thmeeting their attention was on preparing for the upcoming Fourth of July celebration.Those plans would soon change, and the Independence Day activities would be heldwithout them.

The Confederate bombardment of the Union fort in Charleston Harbor would turnyears of words, armed conflict in the western territories and at Harper‟s Ferry, politicaldivisions, and secession of southern states into America‟s Civil War. The incident at FortSumter would spur the recently inaugurated President to issue a call for “75,000 men forthree months service.” Abraham Lincoln was asking for a response from the local militiaunits and his call was for the maximum number of troops, and for the maximum amountof time that was then allowed by the country‟s Commander in Chief.The Washington Cadets were ready to answer the call and after making thenecessary arrangements marched off to Harrisburg on May 7 th and into service asCompany C, 34 th Regiment, and a part of the 5th Pennsylvania Reserves. The Cadetswould not be the only responders to leave the county.On May 9th a group calling themselves the Raftsmen‟s Rangers left Curwensville.Recruited by Edward Anderson Irvin, who was a successful 23-year-old businessman, theunit was made up of the local farmers, lumbermen and tradesmen. E.A.—as he was bestknown—and his recruits would become members of the 1 st Pennsylvania Rifles,Company K of the 42 nd Pennsylvania Volunteers of the 13 th Pennsylvania Reserve Corps,but most famously become known as members of the Pennsylvania Bucktails.The noted Civil War artist Edwin T. Forbes would write after the war, “One of themost conspicuous badges was worn by the Pennsylvania Bucktails. Attached to the sideof the hat or cap was a buck‟s tail, with the white side turned outward, which served sopositive a mark that many troops fell, shot through the head.”

Joining the Cadets and Raftsmen were the Clearfield County Rifles, the CentreHill Guards and the Mountain Calvary. By the war‟s end, men from the county wouldserve in at least 13 Infantry units and one each of artillery and calvary.Lewis Cass Aldrich in his 1887 History of Clearfield County Pennsylvania; withIllustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of its Prominent Men and Pioneers,wrote, “when, in 1861, the iron lips of Moultrie‟s gun spelled upon our sky in letters redas blood, „civil war,‟ the sons of Clearfield, breathing a spirit of patriotism as pure as theatmosphere of the hills around them, rushed to the Nation‟s capital to uphold the honor ofthe flag, and preserve intact the republic.”The citizens of Clearfield County shared the patriotic fervor of the soldiervolunteers. The Washington Cadets left with copies of the New Testament from theClearfield Bible Society and a flag made by the local ladies. In Curwensville, JanePatton Irvin, E. A.‟s mother, saw to making a similar flag for her son‟s recruits. It waswritten that it was made of “beautiful silk and expressly to the order for regulationproportions.” These banners, if they survived the war, would be the most prizedpossessions of the veterans.Proposals were made to convert Clearfield‟s Upper Witmer Park into acommunity garden. Ladies Aid Societies were formed to make items in support of thenewly formed U. S. Sanitary Commission that provided items that were not being offeredto the soldiers by the Federal Government.Local influential gentlemen solicited donations to establish funds to aid thefamilies of those volunteers who went off to war. In Curwensville, William Irvin, Jr., E.A.‟s father, quickly raised $3,000—and his contribution was $1,000.

Many of those who volunteered for three months service readily agreed to enlistinto Federal service for “three years, or until the duration of the war.” And, thedevastating defeat of the Union Army at the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21 st assuredthat this War of the Rebellion would not end soon. The families of the volunteers foundways to keep up the family farms, the logs going to market and goods available in thestores.The soldiers in the field found ways to cope with the boredom of camp life, themonotony of drill, inferior weapons, poor food, shoddy clothing and, most importantly,the loss of comrades.The first real Union victory of the war was the battle of Dranesville, VA, onDecember 20 th . Private James Glenn, at age 32, married with six children, joined hisfellow residents of Curwensville the month before and enlisted in E. A. Irvin‟s Bucktailcompany. Called “Uncle Jim” because of his age, he suffered a bullet wound to rightknee. As a result he became the first soldier in the Army of the Potomac to lose a leg byamputation. He would tell all after the war that he did not mind losing his leg, as he wasextremely proud of his contribution to the cause to save the Union.