Before James Chadwick and his fellow College Company volunteers could depart for training, many arrangements had to be made and the company brought to full size. The students voted that only persons who were students at the time of their enlistment would be admitted into the company. Recruits were found in various academy schools throughout the county and especially in the southwest region, as several youths from Hartstown and the Espyville Academy volunteered.
On the eleventh of June the community bade farewell to its own. Faculty, townspeople, and President Loomis all spoke as the Allegheny Company stood in formation before the College’s great hall. Miss Hattie Bain presented the volunteers with a large flag sewn by the ladies of the town.[1] President Loomis’s valedictory to the volunteers was reminiscent of the farewell the Spartans paid to their troops departing for the battle of Thermopylae. With tears streaming his cheeks, this physically imposing man growled in his deep voice, “Come back with the flag, boys, or come back wrapped in its folds.”
After receiving their flag, the volunteers were served a sumptuous meal on the campus green, then marched to Dock Street, where they boarded a canal boat. A great crowd cheered them off as a cornet band played and girls sang patriotic tunes. Their destination was Camp Wilkins, a filthy fairgrounds east of Pittsburgh on Penn Street, where they joined other regiments already encamped. On June 20, the College Company was merged into the 39th Regiment, 10th Reserve, Pennsylvania Volunteer Reserve Corps, becoming Company I.
On June 25, James wrote home.
Camp Wilkins, Pittsburgh, PA
June 25, 1861
Dear Father:-
You have doubtless heard ere this that I am no longer a civilian but a soldier. Our company left Meadville just two weeks ago today and after a pleasant trip of three days by canal to Brighton and thence by [railway] cars to Pittsburgh, we reached our destination.
I must confess I find it rather a hard life thus far but it is not as bad yet as I expected for I sat down and “counted the cost,” taking a candid view of the matter before I enlisted as a volunteer.
Our fare consists of baker’s bread with crackers which are so hard that you can not easily break them, salt bacon and occasionally a mess of fresh beef, coffee twice a day, without milk, and sometimes a mess of beans. It is rather hard living after having the appetite pampered by the good victuals of Mother Brooks.
At present there are eleven companies at Camp Wilkins. At Camp Wright which is twelve miles from here there are four regiments or forty companies. Judge [John S.] McCalmont will be our commanding officer, that is, he will be the Colonel of our regiment.[2] He will take charge of us the last of this week. Col. G[eorge] S. Hays, who was in the Mexican War, is in command of the Camp now. –Rev. John Green is here; he preached in camp last Sunday; he has been chosen as Chaplain to Hays Regiment, but I do not know how long he will stay.
There are a number of boys here whom you know—Joe and Tom Ross, Brad Wilson, George McCool of Scrubgrass, are in the Franklin company. John Ford is in the Middlesex company; he was married a day or so before he left home. Ben Anderson, son of Samuel, is with the “Jefferson Grays.” I had the pleasure of seeing Harvey Crawford this morning who was in town.
We have been sworn into service for “three years or the term of the war”. We received our blankets from the Government last week, also shoes—heavy cow-hide and sewed, they are quite good.
We have no bedding to lie upon, but just roll up in our blankets, taking our carpet sacks for pillows and lie down on the soft side of a board. (Literally true.) I think I never slept better than I do now, though at first it went rather hard.
At five in the morning we are waked by the rattle of the drum when every man must be up and ready for prayers in ten minutes—our company is the only one which has worship night and morning. We are called the best company in the regiment. We marched last Sunday, as a company, to Christ Church, (Methodist,) and heard a splendid sermon by J. McKendre Riley, D. D., of Baltimore.
We have not yet received our uniforms but expect to get them before a great while. I wish to get a furlough of a week or so, if I can, in order to go and see you and the rest of the dear ones at home, but it may not be for a month or so yet.
I brought no clothing with me except one suit which I had on. An inventory of my effects is as follows: 1 cap, 1 pair of shoes, 1 pair of boots, 2 red flannel shirts, 2 muslin shirts, 1 pair of pants, a vest and coat and an India rubber coat as protection from dews and rain when posted as sentry. Also 2 towels, a night cap and Havelock which were presented by Sue Brooks when I left Meadville.[3] I have no book with me except my Bible.
Well, I must close for the present. Excuse this disconnected letter. I have written what I though[t] would interest you and just as it happened to come in my head. I must stop now for I am on guard to-day and my turn has come. It would amuse you to see me pacing my beat, my musket on my shoulder with its polished saber bayonet, which by the way, was made at Harpers Ferry Armory.
Please write soon to your “sojer boy.”
J. D. C.
Next posting: July 24, 2011
Jonathan E. Helmreich
College Historian
Allegheny College
Meadville, PA 16335
[1] Five feet by ten feet, the Allegheny flag was unusually large for a company flag of that era. With seven stripes of red and six of white, it showed 30 gold starts in its blue corner filed in an elliptical disposition, with single stars in each of the four corners of the field. Thus the 34 states of the Union before secession were represented, demonstrating the desire of both the women of Meadville and the student volunteers that the Union be preserved. On one side of the flag, within the starry ellipse, was inscribed in gold lettering the phrase “Our Country.” On the other side appeared the Latin words “Semper Fidelis” that in 1883 would become the slogan of the U.S. Marine Corps.
[2] McCalmont was a member of the Allegheny College class of 1840. To preserve morale, higher officials decided not to disperse the men of the College Company. Of course, as company members were killed or wounded, their replacements were not from the college. By the end of three years’ service, the company had fewer Alleghenians, but its esprit d’corps, comradeship, and even the idealism planted by the original student contingent remained.
[3] Besides making a flag for the company, the ladies provided each man with small gifts, in most cases a “Handy Betty” (sewing kit), a New Testament, and a white muslin Havelock to protect his neck from the southern sun.