The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution. As the oldest and most senior branch of the U.S. military in order of precedence, the modern U.S. Army has its roots in the Continental Army, which was formed to fight the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783)—before the United States of America was established as a country. After the Revolutionary War, the Congress of the Confederation created the United States Army on 3 June 1784 to replace the disbanded Continental Army. The United States Army considers itself descended from the Continental Army, and dates its institutional inception from the origin of that armed force in 1775.
During the American Civil War, the Union Army referred to the United States Army, the land force that fought to preserve the Union of the collective states. Also known as the Federal Army, it proved essential to the preservation of the United States of America as a working, viable republic.
In the United States Armed Forces, brigadier general is a one-star general officer with the pay grade of O-7 in the U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Air Force. Brigadier general ranks above a colonel and below major general. The rank of brigadier general is equivalent to the rank of rear admiral in the other uniformed services. The NATO equivalent is OF-6.
Thomas Welsh was born in Columbia, Pennsylvania on May 5, 1824, the third of four children born to Charles Welsh and Nancy (Dougherty) Welsh. His father died before his third birthday, and at the age of 8, he left home to work in a nail factory. Thus began a long series of jobs including farming, factory work and the lumber business, in the towns of Colemanville, Gap, and Bird in Hand, through which he became self-sufficient at an early age. He attended school only sporadically, attaining the equivalent of four to five years of formal schooling, but was self-taught, and became an educated man. At age 20, Welsh headed west to find work as an itinerant carpenter in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Columbia, formerly Wright's Ferry, is a borough (town) in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 28 miles (45 km) southeast of Harrisburg on the east (left) bank of the Susquehanna River, across from Wrightsville and York County and just south of U.S. Route 30. The settlement was founded in 1726 by Colonial English Quakers from Chester County led by entrepreneur and evangelist John Wright. Establishment of the eponymous Wright's Ferry, the first commercial Susquehanna crossing in the region, inflamed territorial conflict with neighboring Maryland but brought growth and prosperity to the small town, which was just a few votes shy of becoming the new United States' capital. Though besieged for a short while by Civil War destruction, Columbia remained a lively center of transport and industry throughout the 19th century, once serving as a terminus of the Pennsylvania Canal. Later, however, the Great Depression and 20th-century changes in economy and technology sent the borough into decline. It is notable today as the site of one of the world's few museums devoted entirely to horology.
The 2nd Kentucky Volunteer Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
In the Battle of Monterrey during the Mexican–American War, General Pedro de Ampudia and the Mexican Army of the North was defeated by the Army of Occupation, a force of United States Regulars, Volunteers and Texas Rangers under the command of General Zachary Taylor.
Zachary Taylor was the 12th president of the United States, serving from March 1849 until his death in July 1850. Taylor previously was a career officer in the United States Army, rose to the rank of major general and became a national hero as a result of his victories in the Mexican–American War. As a result, he won election to the White House despite his vague political beliefs. His top priority as president was preserving the Union, but he died sixteen months into his term, before making any progress on the status of slavery, which had been inflaming tensions in Congress.
Welsh was severely wounded at the Battle of Buena Vista on February 23, 1847, when he was hit by a musket ball which shattered the bone just below his right knee. Though the wound would leave him lame for the rest of his life, his regimental surgeon named Dr. Blanton was able to save his leg from amputation (Welsh would later name his first son after Dr. Blanton).
The Battle of Buena Vista, also known as the Battle of Angostura, saw the United States Army use artillery to repulse the much larger Mexican Army in the Mexican–American War. Buena Vista, a village in the state of Coahuila, is seven miles (12 km) south of Saltillo, in Mexico.
He returned to Columbia to recover and was received as a war hero. In January 1848, as soon as his wound had closed, he returned to service, accepting a commission as a second lieutenant in the 11th U.S. Infantry Regiment serving under General Winfield Scott in the Vera Cruz campaign. His leg wound had not fully healed, however, and in May 1848, he was sent home on medical leave.
The 11th Infantry Regiment is a regiment in the United States Army.
Winfield Scott was an American military commander and political candidate. He served as a general in the United States Army from 1814 to 1861, taking part in the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War, the early stages of the American Civil War, and various conflicts with Native Americans. Scott was the Whig Party's presidential nominee in the 1852 presidential election, but was defeated by Democrat Franklin Pierce. He was known as "Old Fuss and Feathers" for his insistence on proper military etiquette, and as the "Grand Old Man of the Army" for his many years of service.
The Battle of Veracruz was a 20-day siege of the key Mexican beachhead seaport of Veracruz, during the Mexican–American War. Lasting from March 9–29, 1847, it began with the first large-scale amphibious assault conducted by United States military forces, and ended with the surrender and occupation of the city. U.S. forces then marched inland to Mexico City.
Political career and return to civilian life
Returning to Columbia during the election year of 1848, Welsh became active in the local Democratic Party. He supported Democratic presidential nominee Lewis Cass in his race against Welsh's former commanding office Zachary Taylor. He also spoke out against Federal anti-slavery legislation, instead favoring a doctrine of popular sovereignty, which espoused each territory's right to determine its own slavery or anti-slavery laws. Welsh married Annie Young in October 1850. The first of their seven children was born in 1851.
Lewis Cass was an American military officer, politician, and statesman. He represented Michigan in the United States Senate and served in the Cabinets of two U.S. Presidents, Andrew Jackson and James Buchanan. He was also the 1848 Democratic presidential nominee and a leading spokesman for the Doctrine of Popular Sovereignty, which held that the people in each territory should decide whether to permit slavery.
Popular sovereignty, or sovereignty of the peoples' rule, is the principle that the authority of a state and its government are created and sustained by the consent of its people, through their elected representatives, who is the source of all political power. It is closely associated with social contract philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Popular sovereignty expresses a concept and does not necessarily reflect or describe a political reality. The people have the final say in government decisions. Benjamin Franklin expressed the concept when he wrote, "In free governments, the rulers are the servants and the people their superiors and sovereigns".
He became an enterprising businessman, opening a dry goods store in Columbia's Canal Basin, selling insurance, and operating a small fleet of canal boats which he named after his children.
When the Civil War erupted in April 1861, Welsh raised one of the first companies of volunteers from Lancaster County and was elected as its captain. Within days, the company was mustered into service as part of the 2nd Pennsylvania Infantry, and he was appointed lieutenant colonel of the regiment. This was a three-months regiment, which served briefly in the Shenandoah Valley, then York, Pennsylvania, where it served out its term. In July, when his term of enlistment was over, Welsh was appointed by Governor Andrew Curtin as a colonel and placed in charge of Camp Curtin, the processing center set up to process as many as 500,000 volunteers into war service. Welsh is credited with instituting needed reforms in camp discipline and sanitation.
In October 1861, he was appointed to command the 45th Pennsylvania Infantry, a three-year regiment, which he had recruited from Center, Tioga, Lancaster, and Mifflin Counties. The 45th eventually became known as one of the best drilled and best disciplined regiments in the service, for which Welsh is credited.
After brief service around Washington, the 45th was sent south to Charleston Harbor, under Gen. H. G. Wright, as part of the blockade of southern shipping. There it participated in the Battle of James Island on June 10, 1862. In July, the 45th was called north to become part of the IX Corps under Gen. Ambrose Burnside, and Welsh directed the successful rear-guard action during the Union evacuation of Acquia Creek, near Fredericksburg.
When Confederate General Robert E. Lee launched his invasion of Maryland in September 1862, McClellan's Army of the Potomac (of which IX Corps was part) was sent in chase. At the Battle of South Mountain on September 14, Welsh, now in brigade command, engaged the rebels at Fox's Gap. His brigade came under heavy fire and suffered severe casualties, but succeeded in driving the Confederates off the ridge and securing a Union victory.
On September 17, 1862, at the Battle of Antietam, after first being held in reserved (on account of its losses at South Mountain), Welsh's brigade was placed into action in the afternoon after Burnside exhausted his other troops capturing the bridge that now bears his name. Against steady opposition, Welsh's troops advanced a mile, entering the village of Sharpsburg (threatening to cut off the Confederate route of escape across the Potomac) before being called back because they could not be supported. This was the furthest Union advance of the battle. As it was, the battle ended largely in a stalemate.
Welsh's performance drew praises from his superiors, and he was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on November 29, 1862 (confirmed by the Senate on March 13, 1863). He was assigned to command the 1st division of IX Corps, sent west to Kentucky, then south to Mississippi to serve under Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant during the Siege of Vicksburg, where he was assigned to guard the exterior of the Union line from attack by Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston.
Upon the surrender of Vicksburg, he marched with Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman to Jackson, Mississippi, and defeated the Confederates at the battle of Jackson. Welsh contracted a malarial fever during this campaign, from which he died in Cincinnati, Ohio, on August 14, 1863. He was buried in Mount Bethel Cemetery in his native Columbia.
Namesake
After the Civil War, Grand Army of the Republic Post #118 in Columbia was named for Welsh. For many years, this was one of the most active G.A.R. posts in Pennsylvania. The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War have a General Thomas Welsh Camp in Lancaster.
The Battle of Hoke's Run, also known as the Battle of Falling Waters or Hainesville, took place on July 2, 1861, in Berkeley County, Virginia as part of the Manassas Campaign of the American Civil War. Notable as an early engagement of Confederate Colonel Thomas J. Jackson and his Brigade of Virginia Volunteers, nineteen days before their famous nickname would originate, this brief skirmish was hailed by both sides as a stern lesson to the other. Acting precisely upon the orders of a superior officer about how to operate in the face of superior numbers, Jackson's forces resisted General Robert Patterson's Union forces briefly and then slowly retreated over several miles.
Stephen Dodson Ramseur was a Confederate general in the American Civil War, at one point the youngest in the army. He impressed Lee by his actions at Malvern Hill and Chancellorsville, where his brigade led Stonewall Jackson’s flank attack, taking 50% casualties. On the first day of Gettysburg, he dramatically routed a Union brigade, sending it running through the town, though his superiors did not authorise further pursuit. Ramseur also distinguished himself in the Overland campaign and the Valley campaign, where he was mortally wounded at Cedar Creek.
Samuel Wylie Crawford was a United States Army surgeon and a Union general in the American Civil War.
William Barksdale was a lawyer, newspaper editor, U.S. Congressman, slaveholder and a Confederate general in the American Civil War. A staunch secessionist, he was mortally wounded during the Battle of Gettysburg while leading his brigade's attack on Union forces not far from Cemetery Ridge.
The Siege of Corinth was an American Civil War engagement lasting from April 29 to May 30, 1862, in Corinth, Mississippi. A collection of Union forces under the overall command of Major General Henry Halleck engaged in a month-long siege of the city, whose Confederate occupants were commanded by General P.G.T. Beauregard. The siege resulted in the capture of the town by Federal forces.
The 54th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment which served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The 21st Regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Thomas Algeo Rowley was a Union Army general in the American Civil War. Following charges about the conduct of his officers at Gettysburg, Rowley was tried by a court martial that was later declared biased, and he was reinstated.
George Ashworth Cobham Jr. commanded a regiment in the American Civil War and rose to brigade command before being killed in battle.
Jacob Gartner Lauman was a prominent American businessman from Iowa and a controversial general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Preston Smith was a lawyer and soldier from the state of Tennessee who served as a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He was killed in action during a night attack during the Battle of Chickamauga in northern Georgia.
Sumner Carruth was an officer in the volunteer army of the United States during the American Civil War. He commanded the 35th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry and eventually rose to the command of two different brigades in the IX Corps.
John Irvin Curtin was a cousin of Pennsylvania governor Andrew Gregg Curtin. He led a regiment and then a brigade in the American Civil War.
William McEntyre Dye was a soldier from the United States who served in military capacities around the world. He became a brevet general in the Union Army during the American Civil War, a colonel in the Egyptian army and military adviser to the King of Korea.
Edward Harland was a Union general during the American Civil War. He was associated with early battles of the IX Corps as well as Union involvement in North Carolina and the Tidewater region of Virginia.
The 21st Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was organized in Worcester, Massachusetts and mustered into service on August 23, 1861.
The 29th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment in the Union army of the United States during the American Civil War. The regiment was organized in December 1861 when three new companies were attached to a battalion of seven Massachusetts companies that had been in active service since May 1861. These seven companies had been recruited to fill out the 3rd Massachusetts and 4th Massachusetts regiments and had signed on for three years of service. When the 3rd and 4th Massachusetts were mustered out in July 1861, the seven companies that had signed on for three years were grouped together to form a battalion known as the Massachusetts Battalion. Finally, in December 1861, three more companies were added to their roster to form a full regiment and the unit was designated the 29th Massachusetts.
The 9th Arkansas Infantry was a Confederate Army infantry regiment during the American Civil War. It served throughout the war in the western theater, seeing action in the Vicksburg, Tennessee and Georgia campaigns. Following its depletion in numbers the regiment was consolidated several times with other Arkansas regiments, finally merging in 1865 into the 1st Arkansas Consolidated Mounted Rifles.
The 19th (Dockery's) Arkansas Infantry (1862–1865) was a Confederate Army infantry regiment during the American Civil War. There were two other Arkansas units which were designated as the 19th Arkansas. Dawson's 19th Arkansas Infantry was organized at Nashville, Arkansas, on November 21, 1861. Hardy's Arkansas Infantry Regiment, which is also occasionally referred to as the 19th Arkansas was organized in 1863 from those parts of Dawson's 19th Infantry Regiment, the 24th Arkansas Infantry Regiment and Crawford's Arkansas Infantry Battalion, which escaped capture at the Battle of Arkansas Post.
The 100th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
References
Warner, Generals in Blue, 1964
Albert, Allen D., History of the Fourth-Fifth Regiment Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteer Infantry 1861-1865, Williamsport, PA: Grit Publ. Co., 1912.
Wiggin, Richard, ed., "Pride of Columbia: The Life and Legacy of Brig. Gen. Thomas Welsh, Proceedings of a Symposium," October 20, 2007, available online at http://sites.google.com/site/generalwelsh/symposium
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