Pennsylvania marks its role in the Civil War

By Scott Beveridge

PITTSBURGH – Samuel B. McBride of the 140^th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry crouched for his life behind a tree after having survived three solid days of battle in what became the most-successful drive of Confederate forces in the Civil War.

The Union soldier from Canonsburg, Pa., serving the Union Army likely was relieved to see back up troops arrive on the morning of May 5, 1863, during another skirmish along the banks of the Rappahannock River in the Battle of Chancellorsville, Va. 

Then McBride, a young theology student, became counted among the wounded after being struck in the forehead by a Minié ball in the surprise Southern victory that killed more than 17,000 Northern soldiers.

McBride’s story was retold May 7 and 8, 2011, when a traveling Pennsylvania museum marking the 150^th anniversary of the war made its first stop in Pittsburgh at the Sen. John Heinz History Center along its four-year tour of the Commonwealth. One of its display cases is left empty to be temporarily filled by local historical groups as the Pennsylvania Historical Society trailer makes its way to each of the state’s 67 counties.

“I think it’s fantastic for a roaming museum,” said John Schroeder, manager of the road show named Pennsylvania Civil War 150. “There is a lot of information but it’s not overwhelming.”

There are kiosks reminding visitors the war was the deadliest on U.S. soil, and that its outcome restored the union, abolished slavery and increased the power of the federal government. It speaks to Pennsylvania’s legacy of having been the location of a major turning point in the war, the Battle at Gettsyburg, and a state where every resident was transformed by the war and affected by its outcome.

For example, Pittsburgh supplied the manufacture of iron, steel and textiles to the war effort. Farmers in neighboring Washington and Greene counties contributed the bounty of their lands to feed the army and also supply it with wagons and livestock. Yet at the same time, thousands of Pennsylvanians fueled by racism chose to serve the enemy forces of the Confederate Army.

McBride kept a detailed diary of his wartime experiences, and some of its most-compelling entries involved the four days he spent around the village of Chancellorsville in Virginia’s Spotsylvania County. The Chancellorsville Campaign gave Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Confederate forces the confidence to launch another raid into the North. His diary, Bible and other artifacts now belong to the Heinz History Center, which chose to feature him in the temporary display case in the traveling museum.

But all McBride had to do was look into a mirror to be reminded of the horrific battle he survived. For the rest of his life he wore a dent in his forehead, a battlefield scar from his near-death experience. Judging by the photo, right, he wore it proudly even long after he was assigned to a Presbyterian church in what would become known today as New Kensington in Westmoreland County, Pa.


(Click here to watch a video of the Wildcats - re-enactors of the 105th Pennsylvania Regimental Band - performing at the Pittsburgh event.)

Pittsburgh - the arsenal of the Civil War

 

Workmen pose beside one of Thomas Jackson Rodman's innovative 20-inch cannons built at Fort Pitt Foundry in Pitttsburgh. (Sen. John Heinz History Center photo)
 
PITTSBURGH – While the 1863 fighting at Gettysburg, Pa., set a course for the Union Army to win the Civil War, those living in that state's battle-free western region became heavily engaged in the conflict from its start two years earlier.


“Although the battles that determined the fate of the Union were not fought in Western Pa., no life went untouched by the conflict as Pennsylvania played a critical role providing industrial might, agricultural bounty and natural resources for the war effort,” said Andy Masich, president of Pittsburgh's Sen. John Heinz History Center, which created the exhibit about to travel to 40 different destinations through 2014.


“More than 340,000 Pennsylvanians, including 8,600 African American troops, served in the Union army, a number second to only New York state,” Masich stated in a news release.


Pennsylvania as a whole not only gave the U.S. Army men and food, their foundries forged 80 percent of the iron used by the North to produce artillery, making the state the "Arsenal of the Union," a new traveling Civil War exhibit proclaims.


The artifacts in this new display, which fills a 500 square-foot mobile museum, are on display this week at the history center at 1212 Smallman Street before they make their first stop March 31 at Beaver Area Heritage Museum in Beaver, Pa. It's set to arrive at Chartiers-Houston Community Library in Houston, Washington County, Pa., June 17 and stay through July 15. 


The tiny museum is patterned after one known as Pennsylvania Civil War 150, which began last year to travel across the state to commemorate the conflict's 150 anniversary. At each location along their way, both museums leave open space for local historical groups to display their Civil War memorabilia.


The Heinz History Center's traveling exhibit features prominently artifacts of Canonsburg, Pa.'s Samuel B. McBride, a Union soldier who survived a gunshot wound to his head during the Battle of Chancellorsville, Va., and wore a dent in his forehead for the rest of his life to prove the battle scar.

Thomas Jackson Rodman

The exhibit also showcases an innovation of Salem, Ind., native Thomas Jackson Rodman, who perfected at Fort Pitt Foundry in Pittsburgh the world's first 20-inch monster cast-iron cannon of remarkable strength.


Forged at Fort Pitt Foundry and completed in the "Rodman Process" Feb. 11, 1864, the 117-000-pound cannon proved to have been too heavy for mobile battle use. It was given its extra might by having been cooled internally by running water through a hollow core rather than let it cool externally. The Fort Pitt Foundry between 1861 and 1864 created 2,000 pieces of artillery.

Rodman's 15' Lincoln Gun at Ft. Monroe, Hampton, Va. (not in exhibit)

The history center also features four life-like museum figures, plus a companion Dog Jack. The museum figures are:

·   Strong Vincent, a young attorney from Erie, Pa. who rallied Union troops in the fierce battle on Little Round Top with the phrase, “Don’t give an inch!”

·   Martin Delany, a Pittsburgh abolitionist who was one of the first African Americans admitted to Harvard Medical School and later, the highest ranking African American in the Civil War.

·   Kate McBride, a young worker from the Allegheny Arsenal, who represents the women and children who toiled on the home front to support the Union efforts.

·   Tillie Pierce, a 15-year old Gettysburg native who hauled buckets of water for thirsty soldiers, tore cloth into bandages to aid physicians, and comforted the wounded after Confederate troops overran her hometown.