The American Civil War, The War between the States, The War of Northern Aggression, The War of Southern Rebellion—the names have multiplied over the years—has held a lasting fascination for our country. Well it might, for its legacy continues to shape our political views, cultural perceptions, and economic trends. As the sesquicentennial of the bloodiest of all our national conflicts approaches, discussion of its course and its impact has intensified.
Allegheny College well before the war’s outbreak took interest in the issues involved and eventually became deeply invested in terms of the blood of its students, faculty, and alumni. Founded in 1815 in Meadville, in northwest Pennsylvania, its graduating seniors in 1861 numbered seventeen and its faculty half a dozen.[1] The president was the Reverend George Loomis, a supporter of the Union who had left his previous post in Maryland because he recognized that his views were not sympathetically received there. The faculty of the college, which had been patronized by the Methodist Episcopal Church since 1833, had at first been reluctant to speak out against slavery, for fear of causing a rift with the southern members of that church. But eventually one of its mathematics faculty, Charles Kingsley, chaired the church committee that led the Methodists to adopt a firm anti-slavery stance (he in time would become a noted bishop). Influential Professor Lorenzo D. Williams who had served as Acting President prior to Loomis’s appointment in 1860 was an outspoken critic of slavery. Both his sons would enlist in the Union cause, and he himself became in 1862 chaplain of the 111th regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Corps. In the years prior to the war most of the faculty supported the Know-Nothings, sharing less their anti-foreigner leanings and more their anti-Catholic and anti-slavery tendencies.
As national tensions mounted, so did those on campus. Even the young student William McKinley (the future president) whose equanimity and debating skills were admired by his cohorts, lost his calm when a Southern lad proposed Jefferson Davis as the next president of the United States. McKinley promptly retorted that he would fight rather than let that happen.
News of Southern attack on the Federal base at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, aggravated the tension. Northern students bristled at comments made by some of their Southern colleagues. The Union supporters called an indignation meeting and elected a committee that demanded that those persons favoring the attack “Recant, or leave within 24 hours for your homes.” Vainly Loomis called for conciliation. Twelve unrepentant Southerners departed. Shortly thereafter, on Saturday, 20 April, a congregation of students cheered as James Stubbs raised the Stars and Stripes atop the cupola of the main building of the college, Bentley Hall.
That afternoon the students assembled on the steps of the Crawford County court house, their hearts aflame. An appeal for volunteers went out. After some rousing speeches, the boys signed up, proclaiming themselves the College Company. It would go on to establish an illustrious, triumphant and tragic, record for three years. It would experience a rout, fight bravely, become one of the most seasoned companies in the Army of the Potomac, be among the first sent into difficult battles, and suffer the loss of more than half of its student patriot members.
Among the novice soldiers was James Doddridge Chadwick. Born in Rockland Township, Venango County, Pennsylvania, on September 4, 1836, at the time of his enlistment on April 16, 1861, he was nearing the completion of his senior year at Allegheny College. During his three years of service, he regularly wrote letters home to his parents. Slightly more than a hundred of these have survived and have been transcribed to a typescript, a copy of which was donated to Chadwick’s alma mater. The location of the originals is unknown to this editor.
It is the goal of this blog to reproduce from the transcripts those extant letters and provide comment to give them place and assist the reader’s understanding of their context in the war’s development. Perhaps the letters will promote a more personal and poignant understanding of the war and help us see it, not only from our perspective today, but also as it appeared to the eyes of one young participant. For many months of his service, Chadwick was seconded to his brigade’s headquarters and later served in other staff capacities. He thus escaped most of his company’s combat experience. His descriptions of battles are few and limited; more evident will be the tedium, hopes, and fears of a young man determined to persevere though deeply missing his family. Unlike his Allegheny College compatriot, Levi Bird Duff, who participated in many skirmishes and battles and commented critically on the conduct of the war and performance of personnel, Chadwick appears to have accepted current headquarters thinking. He also apparently appreciated the removal from battle duties his clerking post provided him, which may explain why he made no attempt to take a furlough and thus risk being replaced during his term of service. Additional information and comment from readers will be appreciated.
The motivation for Chadwick’s enlistment is only once mentioned in his letters. Like his fellow students, he strongly supported the Union and in December 1863 he commented that patriotism was what brought him into the Army. No doubt he was also influenced by a spirit of camaraderie with those who had been his close companions for several years and also by the thought of adventure. His own family background was anti-slavery and in some of his letters James is critical of slavery, calls for its end, and expresses hope that the war will “advance the principles of Liberty and Human Rights” (December 12, 1861).
The eldest of the seven children of Elihu Chadwick Jr. and Isabel Jolly Chadwick , James grew up on a farm in Western Pennsylvania that served as a station on the Underground Railway. According to a member of the Venango Historical Society, “The station on the Chadwick farm was a large room or cellar constructed under ground, near the huge barn. It was walled and ceiled with hand-picked stone, well fitted together to prevent cave-ins. . . .[T]he huge old barn. . . has [since]been torn down. . . .[and] the huge beams and beautiful hand-dressed stone used for the foundation. . . [have] been taken across the river to a farm and used in the construction of farm buildings there.”[2]
The writer went on to state that the farm
“was owned and operated by Elihu Chadwick (Jr.), a very genial, generous man, and highly respected by all the early settlers in the community. He was an agent sent by the Bingham Heirs who owned all the land in Rockland Twp. as a surveyor to survey and map out farm lands for the people who were coming across the mountains, and the south, who wished to establish homes in western Pennsylvania. He was very dedicated to the cause of Freedom and to the freeing of the negro slaves in the South. ”
“Mr. Chadwick was quite well-to-do in those days when money was money. He and his family impressed the local gentry by driving a spanking team of carriage horses, and riding in a surrey with fringe on top. They also kept stables of fine riding horses. ”
Next post: May 13, 2011
Jonathan E. Helmreich
College Historian
Allegheny College
Meadville, PA
[1] Most students attended for a few terms, but relatively few persevered to graduation. Thus the class of 1861 had but 17 graduates, even though the number of students who at one time or another were part of the class numbered 95.
[2] This passage is from a letter written by Mrs. Ruth Canfield of the Venango Historical Society quoted by the late Richard Chadwick Edstrom, Allegheny College Class of 1951, in a note accompanying the transcribed copy of the Civil War letters of James D. Chadwick donated to Allegheny College by the late Mr. Edstrom. The transcription of the letters is located in Special Collections, Pelletier Library, Allegheny College, Meadville, PA. It is apparent from the format, pagination, and name spellings (Everill or Evrill) that the transcription was undertaken by two different persons. The present location of the original letters is unknown to the editor of this blog.
More information on the College Company can be found in Jonathan E. Helmreich’s, The Flag of the Allegheny College Volunteers (Meadville, PA: Allegheny College, 2002), and in his Through All the Years: A History of Allegheny College (Meadville, PA: Allegheny College, 2005). A few passages in this blog are borrowed closely or directly from the phrasing employed in these previous works. Also, see chapter 6, “Allegheny in the Civil War,” in Ernest Ashton Smith, Allegheny—A Century of Education 1815-1915 (Meadville, PA: The Allegheny College History Company, 1916). Spelling and punctuation vagaries in the transcription of Chadwick’s letters are reproduced in the quotation of the letters, although what appear to be typographical slips are corrected.