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Chapter 7: Military Intervention
- University of Missouri Press
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47 Chapter 7 Military Intervention The troops that arrived in Bloomsburg onAugust 13,1864,consisted of a cavalry company and two cannons from an artillery battery. Captain Bruce Lambert was in charge of the cavalry company, which had just been mustered into service at Harrisburg on August 12. Lambert’s men were part of the hundredday state militia called up to help defend the state against a potential Confederate invasion that never materialized. Lambert himself was already a veteran, having served in the Anderson Troop, a cavalry company that had been raised to become the personal bodyguard of Brigadier General Robert Anderson, the hero of Fort Sumter.A resident of Chambersburg, Lambert had served with the Anderson Troop from October 1861 until the company was discharged from service in March 1863. A large number of Lambert’s men came from Philadelphia and Johnstown, with a contingent of students from the University at Lewisburg. Lambert himself was twenty-four; most of his men were younger, many of them teenagers. Lieutenant John Roberts brought his two-gun section of the Keystone Battery to Bloomsburg. Roberts had previously served with the battery when it enlisted for a year’s service in August 1862. Most of his artillerists also had served during that time. The Keystone Battery was composed of Philadelphians enlisted on July 12 for a hundred-day term of service.1 Also arriving in Bloomsburg that day was Lieutenant Charles Brockway on a ten-day leave of absence to have some dental work done. As word spread that Brockway had arrived, rumors began to circulate that the lieutenant was in command of the soldiers who were setting up camp on the county fairgrounds. However, Brockway was in no way attached to the troops. As the war dragged on, Brockway was becoming disillusioned with the abolitionist goals of the war and was thinking about resigning. He had been slightly ill when he arrived in Columbia County, and soon was diagnosed with typhoid fever, which extended his leave.2 Captain Lambert received orders from General Couch on what his mission would be in Columbia County. Couch directed Lambert to consult with Captain Silver and see that all federal laws were enforced. Couch wrote further: 48 The Fishing Creek Confederacy There is a disposition on the part of many of the citizens to resist the draft or in other words to resist the laws for its enforcement. You will see that this law is respected and obeyed. You will also arrest the murderers of Lieut. Robison [sic] who fell while in the act of arresting deserters. All your official acts must be characterized by a knowledge of your duty and your obligations to your country. You being the representative of the military authorities of this Department in that region you will see that your command abstain from everything tending to prejudice the minds of the people against you, your troops or the Govt.3 Word quickly spread about the presence of soldiers in Bloomsburg. “The soldiers look well,” reported the Star of the North, “conduct themselves gentlemanly , so far as we have noticed, and are one hundred days’ men.” However, continued editor Jacoby, it was mysterious as to why the troops were there. “Their object may be to intimidate Democrats, arrest drafted men, or to make the Abolitionists of this county feel more secure in their lives and property.” After castigating the Republicans for slandering good and peaceful Democrats, Jacoby warned the soldiers that if they were there to arrest deserters, it would not work.“There are too many chances for those drafted men to make their escape . Those who have not reported do not mean to go or be taken by a provost guard—manacled and dragged into the service against their will is something they do not intend to allow, if we do not mistake the sentiment of the nonreportants in this county.” Jacoby wrote further that the Republicans had lied to the soldiers, telling them that people in the northern end of the county were in open resistance to the draft, had thrown up entrenchments, and had formed companies of men to resist the army. How could the Republicans know the people elsewhere in the county when they “go too little among the people.”4 While the Democratic editors were waging a war of words against the arrival of the soldiers, citizens in the upper townships decided to take further action. Word spread outward from the Benton area that a meeting would...