PREFACE.
Table of Contents
When the idea of publishing the History of the Fifty-Seventh Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers was first conceived and a committee appointed to prepare the manuscript for the same, the chief difficulty to be met with was to confine the limits of the work to such a size that the price of the book would be such that it might be placed within the means of all the survivors of the regiment.
The committee regrets that the muster-out rolls of the regiment were not accessible, nor could they be copied from the rolls at Washington, D. C.
Even if the rolls could have been copied and published in the book, it would have greatly added to the price of the work and would have required a much greater fund than the committee had on hand for that purpose.
A great deal of pains have been taken and the marches, campaigns and battles of the regiment have been carefully studied, and it is to be hoped that they will be found to be accurately described.
If the labor of the committee will meet the approval of those who have marched and fought with the gallant old regiment, it will be duly appreciated by those compiling the work.
The Historical Committee
1. J. M. Martin.
2. E. C. Strouss.
3. R. G. Madge.
4. R. I. Campbell.
5. M. C. Zahnizer.
6. B. F. Smith.
CHAPTER I.
BY J. M. MARTIN.
Table of Contents
Organization of the RegimentCamp CurtinDeparture for WashingtonIn Old VirginiaColonel Maxwell ResignsColonel Campbell.
The sanguinary battle, and almost disgraceful rout of the Union army under General McDowell at the first Bull Run in July, 1861, convinced the authorities at Washington that the insurrection of the slave states was not a mere spasm of anger at their defeat in the preceding presidential election to be crushed out by the levy of 75,000 troops, undisciplined and indifferently equipped, in a three months' service of holiday soldiering, and that Secretary Seward's prophecy that a sixty days' campaign would restore the Union and bring peace to the nation was a dream destined not to be realized. Acting on this conviction a call was made for 300,000 volunteers to serve for three years, or during the war.
To meet the emergency, evident to many, who were not disposed to accept the prophecy of the Secretary of State, Andrew G. Curtin, whose name will go down in history as "Pennsylvania's War Governor," organized, equipped and had put in training that superb body of men, "The Pennsylvania Reserves," who through all the four years of bloody conflict to follow, were to find the place their name indicated, on the skirmish and picket line, and in the front of the battle, were the first to respond, and none too quickly, for the safety of the Nation's Capital. In obedience to this call other regiments and battalions were promptly organized and forwarded so that by September 1, 1861, Arlington Heights and the environments of Washington were thickly studded with the camps of these new levies, and out of the mass was being moulded, under the hand of that skillful drill master, General George B. McClellan, that mighty host known in history as the Army of the Potomac, whose valiant deeds in the cause of Union and Liberty are co-eternal with that of the Nation.
At the first, regiments were recruited and mustered from single cities, towns and counties, but as time passed and the first flood of recruits were mustered into service, companies and squads, to the number of a corporal's guard, were gathered from distantly separated districts, and rendezvousing at some common camp were consolidated into regiments and battalions. Such was the case in the organization of the 57th Pennsylvania Volunteers, the place of rendezvous and final mustering being in Camp Curtin at the State Capital.
The roster of the regiment, by company, shows the different sections of the state whence recruited, viz:
Company A, Susquehanna and Wyoming counties.
Company B, Mercer county.
Company C, Mercer county.
Company D, Tioga county.
Company E, Allegheny, Mercer and Lawrence counties.
Company F, Mercer county.
Company G, Bradford county.
Company H, Bradford county.
Company I, Mercer and Venango counties.
Company K, Crawford county.
Thus it will be seen at a glance on the state map that there were representatives in the regiment from Wyoming county in the east; thence along the northern border of Crawford, Mercer, Venango and Lawrence counties in the extreme west. Before, however, the final rendezvous of these several companies at Camp Curtin there were smaller camps established for recruiting in several localities, notably that at Mercer, Mercer county, where it may be said was established the original regimental headquarters.
The Hon. William Maxwell, a graduate of West Point, but at that time pursuing the peaceful avocation of the practice of law in that county, was, about September 1, 1861, authorized by Governor Curtin to recruit a regiment for the service. With this in view he established a rendezvous camp outside of the borough limits of the town of Mercer, on North Pittsburg street, in a field given for that purpose by the late Hon. Samuel B. Griffith, and which was named in honor of the donor, "Camp Griffith." Here temporary barracks were erected and a regular system of camp duties inaugurated, and the usually quiet hamlet of Mercer became the scene of quite active military enthusiasm; the still breezes of the Neshannock being stirred by the beat of drums and shrill notes of fife. In two or three weeks after the establishing of this camp a large number of volunteers were recruited who formed the nucleus of what afterwards became Companies B, C, E, F and I, of the regiment. When the number of these recruits became sufficient for the formation of a battalion Colonel Maxwell transferred them to Camp Curtin. In making this transfer the men were taken in conveyances overland to the "Big Bend" on the Shenango and there embarked on a canal boat for Rochester, Beaver county, and thence by the only line of railway, the Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne & Chicago, to Pittsburg and Harrisburg. Along the way from Camp Griffith to the Ohio these recruits enjoyed a continual ovation; the last, alas! that many in that band ever received. At Pittsburg they were joined by others from Allegheny and a small contingent from the northeastern part of Lawrence county, who cast their fortunes with Company E.
Col. William Maxwell
Arriving at Camp Curtin the regiment was rapidly filled up to the required ten companies by the addition of Companies A, D, G, H and K. In the latter part of October the regiment was organized and mustered into the United States service.
