An estimated 3,200 citizens of Cumberland County served in the military in the course of the Civil War. With the 150th anniversary of the Civil War upon us there is renewed interest in the war and the role Cumberland County citizens played during this crucial era of our nation's history. This article is intended to provide an overview of how the war effort was organized in terms of troop call-ups and how they were organized at the state level, while also providing information on troops from Cumberland County. This is an overview intended to lead the reader into more research on specific units and their war experiences.
There were a number of companies that were "Cumberland County" units, such as the 30th Regiment, Co. H, the 158th Co. A, etc. These units, and others like them, were recruited largely in one community or one area of the county and were bound by community, and in many cases, family ties, to the company. In other cases county residents were cycled into units as "replacements" at various times during the war, and while it may appear the county was well represented in the unit it is unlikely it had an identity as being from Cumberland County. This article is divided into three parts to help explain when and where troops served.
Part 1 gives an overview of how troops were called into service in Pennsylvania and how the companies were organized. Part 2 is an overview of each company with a significant number of troops (10 or more) from the county. Part 3 provides a list of all the Pennsylvania and Regular Army companies in which residents from Cumberland County are known to have served along with the number of dead from Cumberland County in that unit.
The American Civil War was an epic struggle that resulted in almost 600,000 deaths between 1861 and 1865. The war was fought in major battles such as Gettysburg, Fredericksburg and Chickamauga and in hundreds of smaller engagements and skirmishes in dozens of states. Soldiers from Cumberland County were at many of those battles.
At the start of the Civil War the standing Army consisted of 16,000 men widely dispersed across the continent. By the end of the war over 2.5 million men would be enlisted in the Union Army. Beginning with the first call for volunteers in Aprill861 until the end of the war four years later, Pennsylvania supplied over 360,000 troops.
Parr 1- Troop Call-Ups In Pennsylvania 1861 to 1865
During the course of the war Pennsylvania would authorize 215 regiments, of which 205 would actually be activated. Referred to as the "Pennsylvania Volunteers," a regiment nominally consisted of 1,000 men in 10 companies of 100 each, although these numbers were not always achieved. Men were entered into service under 11 "calls" for enlistments of varying length depending on the status of the conflict. Some of these regiments would be for infantry service and others for cavalry companies. In many cases county troops made up the entire company but in others, companies included members from multiple counties. No artillery companies were organized in Cumberland County.
The seminal source of information on Pennsylvania troops in the Civil War is S.P. Bates' History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers. His research was augmented and refined by Richard A. Sauers in his books Advance the Colors, Volumes I and II. At the county level the pre-eminent work of cataloging the troops of the county and their companies is John D. Hemminger's book Cumberland County Pennsylvania in the Civil War, which he self published in 1926. These three sources, along with newspaper articles, provide the bulk of the basic information for this summary.
The following article is adapted from a speech given as part of the commemoration of the role of the Union Fire Company of Carlisle, Pennsylvania in the American Civil War, read before the Union Fire Company on April 21, 2011. Much of the material is derived from research for an upcoming book, "The Union Legacy," that will be published for the 225th anniversary of the company.