|
The following is courtesy of George Bradley,
Historian.
History of Company A, 46th PVI; The Logan Guards
The Logan Guards was a militia unit organized in
1858 in Lewistown, Pennsylvania. It gained fame in April 1861, when
President Lincoln issued an urgent appeal for troops to protect
Washington in response to the firing by rebels on Fort Sumpter in
Charleston, South Carolina. The President's call was issued late on
April 16, 1861. The Logan Guards and four other companies of
Pennsylvania militia were the first troops to arrive in the nation's
capital. They marched out of Lewistown listening to William Hopper, a
lone fifer, play "The Girl I Left Behind Me".
The 106 members of the Logan Guards, mostly new recruits, armed with
only 34 muskets, and no ammunition, bluffed their way through hostile
crowds in Baltimore on their way to protect President Lincoln. Medals
were later struck to honor these "First Defenders".
As militiamen, the Logan Guards served only ninety days. In August
1861, in response to calls for troops to serve three years, many of the
Logan Guards organized a new company under the command of future Brevet
Brigadier General J. Ard Mathews. Still calling themselves the Logan
Guards, upon arriving in Harrisburg, the new company was designated as
Company A of the 46th Pennsylvania Volunteers and left for the war on
September 16, 1861. The 46th Pennsylvania was recruited from throughout
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
One company came from Beaver County, another from Bethlehem, and two
came from the recently settled Potter County. Another was raised in
Pittsburgh and the rest came from healthy small cities like Harrisburg,
Reading, Scranton, Shamokin, and Lewistown. The regiment re-enlisted in
1864, although only one quarter of the men who started out with it were
still in its ranks when they were finally discharged on July 16, 1865.
Will Hopper died of wounds received at Chancellorsville.
In 1861, every regiment brought with it a band, providing the music
that kept men in step while on the march. Many of the musicians acted as
buglers and issued calls which regulated army life. The officers of the
46th Pennsylvania recruited as its musical arm an entire band from
Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, led by Richard Stanley, Principle Musician.
They accompanied the regiment through all of its early campaigns while
it did guard along the Potomac, when it marched through the Shenandoah
Valley in the spring of 1862, during and after the first Battle of
Winchester, and on its second campaign into central Virginia during the
summer of 1862. The band made news in June 1862, when it serenaded the
troops under Major General Nathaniel Banks as they re-crossed the
Potomac River to begin their second campaign. When not engaged in making
music, band members served as stretcher-bearers and surgeon assistants.
Their services were never more needed than they were on August 9,
1862, when outside Culpepper, Virginia, the 46th Pennsylvania and other
regiments in its brigade were severely mauled during the Battle of Cedar
Mountain where then Major J. Ard Mathews nearly lost his right arm. One
week later, in an effort to lighten the loads, which the army had to
carry while on the move, the regimental bands were discharged from the
service. Numerous members of the 46th Regiment Band went on to serve in
brigade bands, which were then organized. The 46th PA Volunteer Infantry
went on to fight to the end of the war on many battlefields, some famous
and some not. The 46th accompanied Sherman on his march to the sea. The
46th Regiment paid the price of admission for its place among Fox's
"Fighting 300" regiments. |