New---155th Pennsylvania Lieutenant's Letters Home

Letters From The Storm: The Intimate Civil War Letters of Lt. J.A.H. Foster, 155th Pennsylvania Volunteers, Linda Foster Arden, edited by Dr. Walter L. Powell, Mechling Books,365 pages commentary, illustrations, photographs, index, paperback,$29.95

Arden offers 101 letters written by Lieutenant Foster, Company K, 155th Pennsylvania to Mary Jane Foster, his wife; the documents are separated by Arden's comments regarding the events and situations described in the letters. Complaints regarding campaigns and camp life with descriptions of individual soldiers and unit combat are a focus of the letters. Additionally Lieutenant Foster addresses his loneliness, intimate fantasies and apprehensions about his spouses faithfullness.

The campaigns and combat of Antietam, Fredericksburg, Kelly's Ford, Brandy Station, Gettysburg, Bristoe Station, the Wilderness and Cold Harbor are described. Pontoon bridges new corps flags are described and drawn. Colorful language regarding personalities and events is not absent from the letters.

The 155th Pennsylvania Volunteers' Company K was formed in Kittanning in 1862, from recruits in Armstrong and surrounding counties. The 155th Pennsylvania Volunteers during their first years the regiment wore the regulation uniform of the Union Army. In 1863 they, along with the 140th New York, received Zouave uniforms. Unlike the 140th New York, the 155th Pennsylvania received a Zouave uniform never before created. Their uniform consisted of a dark blue Zouave jacket with not red but yellow trimming, a dark blue Zouave vest with yellow trimming, a red Zouave sash with a yellow trimming, dark blue Zouave pantaloons, and a red Zouave fez with a yellow trimming and a blue tazzle. The 155th Pennsylvania along with the 140th New York, and the 146th New York became the "Zouave Brigade" in the Army of the Potomac.

Mechling Books has also published The 155th PA Volunteer Zouaves, Co. K.'s history.

Text Source: Mechling Books and Wikipedia

Recent Issue Of Army History Journal: Pennsylvania Division at Antietam and Fredericksburg

Just recieved this pdf of the Army History Journal. The issue leads with an article on the Pennsylvania Division at Antietam and Fredericksburg.

"No Heroism Can Avail": Andrew A. Humphreys and His Pennsylvania Division at Antietam and Fredericksburg by Matthew T. Pearcy. Here is the link: Army History Summer 2010, no. 76 . Enjoy and pass it along.

Image Source: Pennsylvania Reserve Division monument at the Cornfield, Antietam

CWL --- Until Every Traitor Copperhead Kneels Before the Goddess of Liberty: Union Soldiers and the Antiwar Movement

'A Viler Enemy In Our Rear': Pennsylvania Soldiers Confront the North's Antiwar Movement, Timothy J. Orr, in Aaron Sheean-Dean, The View From the Ground: Experiences of Civil War Soldiers, University of Kentucky Press, 2007, pp. 171-198.

On May 3, 1863 a sergeant of the 28th PVI happened to view a large political meeting of the 29th OVI; the units were in the same brigade of the Army of the Potomac. The lieutenant colonel of the 29th "spoke of a set of traitors who were plotting against
the government and poisoning the minds of the people." (p. 172)

As a field of study, Civil War history has paid little attention to Union soldiers' camp scuttlebut on partisan politics. Several historians argue that anti-war Democrats had little or no success in obstructing the Republican war effort. Timothy J. Orr contends that the Democratic Party in the North were "hardly the enemies of the Union that the Republicans made them out to be." But the affect among troops of Republican propaganda regarding the degree of loyalty was extensive. Most soldiers from Pennsylvania "identified antiwar Democrats as the arm of the rebellion in the North." (pp., 192, 193)

Orr cites Pennsylvania troops' resolutions which appear in regional newspapers. Descriptive language of these resolution include: traitors of the worst class, fellow conspirators of the South, deserving of unmigated scorn, hatred, contempt and 'the hemp that is due traitors.' Also, the antiwar proponets should be crushed to the earth, suffer a traitor's doom. (pp.188-189)

The author describes how "Pennsylvania regiments contrcuted these resolutions with extreme care". A trend appears in which captains and lieutenants lead discussions among the enlisted men and then compose a letter to an editor. It took three weeks for the 140th Pennsylvania to draft a set of resolutions on which most could agree, with the colonel trying to stiffle the rhetoric. The 150th Pennsylvania wrote a resolutions document under the same conditions. The 100th Pennsylvania voted on each of their resolutions with the assent of each enlisted man in favor being signified by taking 'shoulder arms' and those opposed remaining at 'order arms.' (pp. 183-185)

Pennsylvania soldiers' vote in the 1863 and 1864 elections heavily supported the Republican Party. Committant to the military draft, suspension of habeas corpus, limitations on free speech, support of the federal authority, and a complete aversion to an armistice were the planks of the soldiers' political platform. In the election of 1864, 68% of Pennsylvania soldiers who voted cast votes for Lincoln.