Department of the Monongahela

Last updated

The Department of the Monongahela was a military department created by the United States War Department during the Gettysburg Campaign of the American Civil War.

Contents

History

On June 9, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln, responding to Robert E. Lee's impending invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania, called for 100,000 volunteers from those two states, as well as West Virginia and Ohio, to help repel the invasion, with only about 33,000 recruits answering his call. The Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, ordered the creation of two departments to organize these militia and defend Pennsylvania. The Department of the Susquehanna consisted of most of central and eastern Pennsylvania. The Department of the Monongahela consisted of western Pennsylvania, including Johnstown, the Laurel Highlands, and Erie, as well as Hancock, Brooke, and Ohio counties in West Virginia, and the Ohio counties of Columbiana, Jefferson, and Belmont. The headquarters were established in Pittsburgh, under the command of Maj. Gen. William T. H. Brooks, a combat veteran of the Union Army of the Potomac.

Brooks energetically set out to defend Pittsburgh, ordering citizens and railroad crews to build an elaborate network of earthworks and fortifications along key routes of approach that any invader might use. He organized home guard units, and sent out scouts looking for signs of Confederate activity. He established communications linkages with Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside, commanding the adjacent Department of the Ohio, as well as the Department of the Susquehanna's Maj. Gen. Darius N. Couch. Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin sent 10,000 rifles, ammunition, and supplies to Pittsburgh, and Federal troops were hastily diverted to assist in the defense of the river town should it be threatened.

Brooks's fears over a Confederate attack on Pittsburgh would prove unfounded, although Morgan's Raid through southern Ohio caused concern, as did John D. Imboden's raid on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad between Martinsburg, West Virginia, and Cumberland, Maryland, [1] well southeast of Pittsburgh. Satisfied that Pittsburgh was safe with the repulse of Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg and the capture of John Hunt Morgan following the Battle of Salineville, Brooks sent home the volunteers and militia, and the forts were abandoned.

The department was merged into the Department of the Susquehanna on April 6, 1864. [2] General Brooks returned to active field command, leading a division in the XVIII Corps in the Army of the James.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isaac R. Trimble</span> Confederate Army general

Isaac Ridgeway Trimble was a United States Army officer, a civil engineer, a prominent railroad construction superintendent and executive, and a Confederate general in the American Civil War. He was born in Virginia, lived in Maryland for much of his adult life, and returned to Virginia in 1861 after Maryland did not secede. Trimble is most famous for his role as a division commander in the assault known as Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg. He was wounded severely in the leg during that battle, and was left on the field. He spent most of the remainder of the war as a prisoner, and was finally paroled on April 16, 1865, one week after Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia following the Battle of Appomattox Court House.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gettysburg campaign</span> Military campaign during the American Civil War

The Gettysburg campaign was a military invasion of Pennsylvania by the main Confederate army under General Robert E. Lee in summer 1863. It was the first time during the war the Confederate Army attempted a full-scale invasion of a free state. The Union won a decisive victory at Gettysburg, July 1–3, with heavy casualties on both sides. Lee managed to escape back to Virginia with most of his army. It was a turning point in the American Civil War, with Lee increasingly pushed back toward Richmond until his surrender in April 1865. The Union Army of the Potomac was commanded by Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker and then by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William E. Jones (general)</span> Confederate Army general (1824–1864)

William Edmondson "Grumble" Jones was a Confederate cavalry general with a reputation for being a martinet to his troopers and fractious toward superiors, but acknowledged to be a good commander. After disagreements of a personal nature with J.E.B. Stuart, Jones's brigade was set to guarding supply lines and unavailable during a crucial juncture of the Gettysburg Campaign when Lee suffered from a lack of capable reconnaissance cavalry. As the personality clash between Jones and Stuart escalated, Jones faced charges for impertinence, and was transferred to separate him from Stuart. Jones was killed leading a counter-attack in the 1864 Battle of Piedmont.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John D. Imboden</span> American politician

John Daniel Imboden, American lawyer, Virginia state legislator, and a Confederate army general. During the American Civil War, he commanded an irregular cavalry force. After the war, he resumed practicing law, became a writer, and was active in land development founding the town of Damascus, Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morgan's Raid</span> Military campaign in the American Civil War

Morgan's Raid was a diversionary incursion by Confederate cavalry into the Union states of Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia during the American Civil War. The raid took place from June 11 to July 26, 1863. It is named for the commander of the Confederate troops, Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan. Although it caused temporary alarm in the North, the raid failed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Virginia in the American Civil War</span> Origin of West Virginia; during the U.S. Civil War

The U.S. state of West Virginia was formed out of western Virginia and added to the Union as a direct result of the American Civil War, in which it became the only modern state to have declared its independence from the Confederacy. In the summer of 1861, Union troops, which included a number of newly formed Western Virginia regiments, under General George McClellan drove off Confederate troops under General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Philippi in Barbour County. This essentially freed Unionists in the northwestern counties of Virginia to form a functioning government of their own as a result of the Wheeling Convention. Before the admission of West Virginia as a state, the government in Wheeling formally claimed jurisdiction over all of Virginia, although from its creation it was firmly committed to the formation of a separate state.

The Battle of Carlisle was an American Civil War skirmish fought in Pennsylvania on the same day as the Battle of Gettysburg, First Day. Stuart's Confederate cavalry briefly engaged Union militia under Maj. Gen. William F. "Baldy" Smith at Carlisle and set fire to the Carlisle Barracks. Stuart's cavalry withdrew and arrived at the Battle of Gettysburg, Second Day, to the annoyance and concern of Gen. Robert E. Lee.

The Department of the Susquehanna was a military department created by the United States War Department during the Gettysburg Campaign of the American Civil War. Its goal was to protect the state capital and the southern portions of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and to deny the Confederate army passage across the vital Susquehanna River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ohio in the American Civil War</span> Overview of the role of the U.S. state of Ohio during the American Civil War

During the American Civil War, the State of Ohio played a key role in providing troops, military officers, and supplies to the Union army. Due to its central location in the Northern United States and burgeoning population, Ohio was both politically and logistically important to the war effort. Despite the state's boasting a number of very powerful Republican politicians, it was divided politically. Portions of Southern Ohio followed the Peace Democrats and openly opposed President Abraham Lincoln's policies. Ohio played an important part in the Underground Railroad prior to the war, and remained a haven for escaped and runaway slaves during the war years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pennsylvania in the American Civil War</span> Role of Pennsylvania in the Union

During the American Civil War, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania played a critical role in the Union, providing a substantial supply of military personnel, equipment, and leadership to the Federal government. The state raised over 360,000 soldiers for the Federal armies. It served as a significant source of artillery guns, small arms, ammunition, armor for the new revolutionary style of ironclad types of gunboats for the rapidly expanding United States Navy, and food supplies. The Phoenixville Iron Company by itself produced well over 1,000 cannons, and the Frankford Arsenal was a major supply depot.

The 54th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment which served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skirmish of Sporting Hill</span> Battle of the American Civil War

The Skirmish of Sporting Hill was a relatively small skirmish during the Gettysburg campaign of the American Civil War, taking place on June 30, 1863, at various locations in present-day Camp Hill, East Pennsboro Township and Hampden Township in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. It is known as the northernmost engagement of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winchester, Virginia, in the American Civil War</span> Site of numerous battles during the American Civil War

The city of Winchester, Virginia, and the surrounding area, were the site of numerous battles during the American Civil War, as contending armies strove to control the lower Shenandoah Valley. Winchester changed hands more often than any other Confederate city.

During the American Civil War, Pennsylvania was the second largest state in the Union, and Harrisburg was the state's capital. Located at the intersection of important railroads, Harrisburg proved an important supply and logistics center for the dissemination and transportation of materiel for the Union Army. Tens of thousands of new recruits were mustered into service or drilled at a series of Harrisburg-area United States Army training camps, including the sprawling Camp Curtin. Confederate forces under Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell threatened Harrisburg during the June 1863 Gettysburg Campaign, but were instead called by General Robert E. Lee to return to Gettysburg campaign. Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin ordered local workers to erect a series of forts and earthworks to protect the city, which then had a population of 13,000 residents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">35th Virginia Cavalry Battalion</span> Military unit

The 35th Virginia Cavalry Battalion, also known as White's Battalion, White's Rebels and the Comanches, was a Confederate cavalry unit during the American Civil War raised by Elijah V. White in Loudoun County, Virginia in the winter of 1861-62. The battalion was initially raised as border guards along the Potomac River below Harpers Ferry but were ultimately mustered into regular service as part of the Laurel Brigade. Despite this, they continued to play a conspicuous role in the ongoing partisan warfare in Loudoun throughout the war. The battalion was particularly notable during the 1863 Gettysburg Campaign, when it played a prominent role in the Battle of Brandy Station and subsequently conducted a series of raids on Union-held railroads and defensive positions in Maryland and Pennsylvania. The 35th was the first Confederate unit to enter Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pittsburgh in the American Civil War</span>

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was a thriving and important city during the American Civil War, and provided a significant source of personnel, war materiel, armament, ammunition, and supplies to the Union Army. Situated at the confluence of the Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio rivers, Pittsburgh was an important transportation hub for both riverine and rail transport, as well as overland via its system of roads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Retreat from Gettysburg</span> A timeline of events for the Confederate Army after losing the Battle of Gettysburg

The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia began its Retreat from Gettysburg on July 4, 1863. Following General Robert E. Lee's failure to defeat the Union Army at the Battle of Gettysburg, he ordered a retreat through Maryland and over the Potomac River to relative safety in Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John H. Morgan Surrender Site</span> United States historic place

The John H. Morgan Surrender Site is the place where, during the American Civil War, Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan, the leader of Confederate troops responsible for Morgan's Raid, surrendered to Union troops following the Battle of Salineville. The site is located at a crossroads between the villages of Gavers and West Point in Columbiana County, Ohio, about 60 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 23, 1973 for its military significance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacob C. Higgins</span>

Jacob C. Higgins (1826–1893) was a commander of Pennsylvania troops who participated in both major military conflicts of his time, the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War. Among his Civil War commands, he guided the 125th Pennsylvania Infantry regiment under heavy fire during the Battle of Antietam and likewise during the Battle of Chancellorsville. Following the muster out and return home of the 125th PA, the Gettysburg Campaign sent cavalry under Confederate General John D. Imboden to threaten vital railroad resources at Altoona and iron production facilities in the Juniata River watershed; in response, Emergency Militia was organized by Colonel Higgins and minimized this northwestern incursion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">43rd Pennsylvania Militia Infantry Regiment</span> American Civil War cavalry unit

The 43rd Regiment, Pennsylvania Infantry Militia was a militia infantry regiment called out by Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin for home defense service in the Union Army during the American Civil War from July 6, 1863, to 1865 August 13, 1863.

References

  1. Spencer, Tucker (2002). Brigadier General John D. Imboden: Confederate commander in the Shenandoah. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky. p. 144. ISBN   978-0-8131-2266-3.
  2. The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. ; Series 1 - Volume 33, p. 814

Sources