Local expert shares details of Civil War
While much information is available at libraries, museums and historical societies on the regiments and companies that served in the Civil War, one local expert is able to share the details of service that kindle thought about the soldiers on a human level.
Bradley Pflugh, social studies department chairman at South Butler County School District and Knoch High School history teacher, has written books on the Civil War and is a font of information on the Boys in Blue from Butler County.
Pflugh said more than 2,800 men from the county served in the Civil War.
Most were 18 to 20 years old, but when Lincoln became desperate for troops later in the war, men in their 20s were also called upon to help keep the Republic intact, Pflugh said.
“If one brother goes, they are pretty much all going,” he said.
He said most mustered in at Camp Reynolds in Pittsburgh with their fellow privates from Beaver, Allegheny and Westmoreland counties.
The men were then sent to Camp Curtain in Harrisburg, then to Washington, D.C.
It was in the nation's capital that they were designated to action in either the East or the West, which at that time meant St. Louis and Cincinnati.
“Most Butler boys went to the east,” Pflugh said. “If you were in the East, it was all about controlling strategic objectives, like railroads.”
He said most men entering service at the beginning of the war figured their service would be short, as defeating an army of less literate men who they considered largely uncultured would surely take no time at all.
By 1863 and '64, the county had trouble filling ranks.“People were not as willing to go when they saw the pine boxes,” Pflugh said.He said the women and children of Butler County were greatly affected when their husbands and fathers left for war and they were left with tending a farm.Most times, parents of the soldiers and their wives would help with farm chores while the man of the house fought for the Union.Pflugh said soldiers lived and breathed on receiving letters from their loved ones at home, and wouldn't stand for it if they had not heard from their family.“They would write to a friend or neighbor and ask why their loved one wasn't writing,” Pflugh said.In addition to reports of horrible climates and disease at their stations, soldiers also kept up on the finances at their farms in their letters.The men also treasured the “housewife” they carried with them during their service.Pflugh described the housewife as a rectangle of fabric neatly hemmed by their wives, mothers or sweethearts.Each housewife had little fabric pockets where the soldiers would carry fishing line and hooks, needle and thread, a little lemon powder or other small necessities or treats.The soldiers rolled up their housewife to be carried in their packs.“That was their go-to kit,” Pflugh said.After the war, each community in the county formed a Grand Army of the Republic post, where Civil War veterans could meet and share a conversation and refreshments, Pflugh said.He said officers were elected and official meetings held at the G.A.R. posts.“Chicora, Zelienople, Harmony and Connoquenessing had very active posts,” Pflugh said.The two cannons at Diamond Park in Butler are from G.A.R. posts in the county, but Pflugh doubts the cannons were used in the Civil War.He said the last meeting of the Butler G.A.R. post was in April 1922 at the old Nixon Hotel on the Diamond.Pflugh said 12 of the original 800 members were still living, with the oldest being 85 and the youngest 75.Residents can view the foundation stones of a G.A.R. building in Clinton Township, where a marker describes the post and land donation to build it.The marker and foundation are on Westminster Road near the Westminster United Presbyterian Church.Pflugh said the G.A.R. spawned the current American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) posts that now welcome veterans across the U.S.
