The guns fired at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, echoed throughout central Pennsylvania. The citizens of the Cumberland and Susquehanna valleys answered this call with a ready response. Such large numbers of men volunteered that companies were turned away from enlisting in the Army. Early in the war, Leo Faller of Carlisle wrote his family about this response of Pennsylvanians to the call to arms: "The people in Washington seem to think the Soldiers grow like Musarooms in Pennsylvania for we have a terrible lot of men here-more than any other state but still they come. "1 Why were Pennsylvanians so ready to join? What was their reaction to the war? What were the feelings of these soldiers and their communities towards the South and Southerners? Were the same feelings universally shared by all of the local citizens? This paper will examine these attitudes, concentrating on the actual words of soldiers from central Pennsylvania.
The southern portion of Pennsylvania lies within easy access of Virginia. General Robert E. Lee made use of this fact during the Civil War. Even before the war began, slaves fleeing from the South used the Cumberland Valley as an escape route. Residents of the Cumberland Valley came into contact with Southerners on many other occasions. The Cumberland Valley itself was part of a central trade route between North and South. Many travelers between North and South passed through the mid-state area. Resorts such as Doubling Gap, close to Newville, and Mt. Holly Springs were popular tourist attractions, frequented by Southerners. Nearly one half of the student population at Dickinson College at the dawn of the Civil War were students from the South.2 Carlisle Barracks had been home to countless southern officers, who formed lasting friendships with local residents. The commander of the garrison at Carlisle Barracks in the beginning of 1861 resigned from the Army in June 1861 to accept a commission in the Confederate Army.
The people of the Cumberland Valley and the Susquehanna Valley had more exposure to Southerners and southern views than many other Northerners. This sharing of friendship and activities created varying degrees of sympathy for each side of the issues that severed the country in April 1861.3
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