Centre County Government

10. Centre County in the Civil War

Regional, class, and generational rifts in Centre County's divided personality deepened dangerously under the challenges and traumas of the Civil War. Half the population was younger than 21, and half the boys over 16 worked away from home. The panic of 1857 threw many furnace and forge workers out of jobs around Bellefonte, while farming thrived in the Democratic southern townships. Farmers who started with nothing could, by working themselves and their sons hard, leave large farms to them.

Excited war meetings greeted the firing on Ft. Sumter. Bellefonte Fencibles, Milesburg Eagle Guards, Potter Camerons and other militia units mustered at once for 3-months. Bells rang, sermons and farewells drew tears, streets echoed with marching. Citizens pledged $6,900 to care for wives and children. This patriotic elite, 300 of the county's best, marched back to cheers at the end of July without having seen a pitched battle.

Early 3-year enlistment was high in the iron region, ranging from 70% in Snow Shoe to 19% in Penns Township. The Battle of Bull Run, in September '61, doused enthusiasm. Some returning 3-monthers reentered civilian life; many joined 3-year units or recruited their own "Volunteer" companies. But men who had been afraid of missing out on the glory put off the decision to enlist. In June 1862, Gov. Curtin established "draft districts" in every county; if a quota were not met by volunteers, men would be drafted by lot.

Seven companies, 700 men, answered township recruitment calls. Drawn from one or two neighborhoods, each company was a community of brothers, schoolmates, pals and rivals. On August 25, 1862 these units elected officers and left for Camp Curtin, where they were mustered as the 148^th Regt., PA Volunteers. Bellefonte lawyer James A. Beaver, transferred from the 45^th Regt. to take command.

Soldiers faced terrible danger in their first battles. Even well-trained units like the 148^th, which had 3 months drilling before being sent to the front, and 4 months more in camp before their first battle, were trained by the manual in massed formations, smart flank turns, dense columns and lines of battle—maneuvers of exposure and charge. The maneuvers of survival each soldier learned for himself in combat—finding cover, digging breastworks, snagging assignment to details that took them off the line.

Chancellorsville reduced Co. D from 79 to 17 reporting for duty, Co. C from 93 to 19. Gettysburg's wheat field brought similar decimation to other companies. The 148^th was among the 10 regiments with highest casualties in the war. By the time its green soldiers were veterans in October, 1863, its 1,000 men had dwindled to half that number. An infusion of 283 draftees from other counties and 120 recruits refilled the ranks then. A year later, as crack veterans, the regiment was selected to receive repeating rifles.

Old soldiers from Centre County recalled Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg as the costliest battles for their units. They were wrong. What they regarded as the slow, grinding attrition of the 1864 campaign past Po River and Spotsylvania to Cold Harbor, Petersburg, and Richmond produced even more casualties, but fewer from Centre County. It was the draftees' turn to learn combat the hard way.

Pain and suffering hardened those at home too. Besides the arrival of the dead—at first ushered home by honor guards, then reported personally by officers, then routinely by messenger—and the anguished waiting for a first letter after every battle, there were young fathers haunted by fear of the draft and disaffected sons determined to avoid it. "War Democrats" in the German townships called anti-Lincoln Democrats "Tories" and were called by them "Nigger-kissers." Dealing with the draft and deserters tore the valleys apart. Penn Township marched on Bellefonte to spring an arrested draft evader from jail. Peter Gray Meek built the reputation of The Democratic Watchman branding "totalitarian government and not seceding states" as the threat to our union. In 1864, Lincoln was defeated by McClellan in the county 3256 to 2410.

Three women of Boalsburg, Emma Hunter, Sophie Keller, and Elizabeth Myers sought to heal the bitter savaging of pain and anger by sharing their grief, laying flowers on the graves of all the soldiers in the town's cemetery. The idea spread, took form from many sources, was caught up by G.A.R. veterans as their appropriate final contribution to the war, healing its wounds. Around 1875, after a decade of blocking out the black pall of loss and suffering, veterans began to recall the glory of simple comradeship, the steadiness that saw them through. The deepened meaning war had given their lives became clearer with each passing decade. The war had changed them, and the changes were for the better.

1901 GAR reunion of Co. E, 45^th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers in Pine Grove Mills