A Yankee Horseman in the Shenandoah Valley: The Civil War Letters of John H. Black, Twelfth Pennsylvania Cavalry

Preface

Preface In many respects, John Henry Black was typical of the thousands of volunteers who fought for the Union during the Civil War. The son of Jacob and Mary Black, he had been born on his father’s farm near Canan Station, Allegheny Township, Pennsylvania, on July 28, 1834. Black’s grandfather, Adam, a native of Maryland, had been an early settler to the region and had operated a sawmill and grist mill in addition to serving as justice of the peace. Jacob Black was born about 1804 and raised in Greenfield Township, but following his marriage he moved to Allegheny Township, where he raised a family of nine children and farmed. In 1850 he owned real estate worth $4,500.00, and by 1860 the value had risen to $12,000.00, with a personal estate of $1,500.00.1 Blair County, in the south-central part of the state, had been formed in 1846 from Huntingdon and Bedford Counties. Its main towns were Altoona, Hollidaysburg, and Duncansville. Branches of the Juniata River cut through the county, as did parts of the Pennsylvania Canal and the Pennsylvania Railroad. More than thirty ironworks operated there by the 1850s, and lead, zinc, and coal were abundant. Despite the topography, which was somewhat mountainous, farming was not uncommon, with corn being the principal crop.2 Preface x John Black lived with his parents until the age of twenty, helping his father with farm chores and finding the time to obtain an education. He attended local schools and the Tuscarawas Academy in nearby Juniata County. About 1854 John began teaching in the public schools of Duncansville , Blair County, remaining in that profession until his enlistment at the outbreak of the war in the Fourteenth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry . At the time of the 1860 federal census, Black was living in Newry, Blair County, in the household of a merchant named James McIntosh.3 As Black grew to manhood, growing sectional disputes threatened the United States. The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 resulted eventually in the secession of eleven Southern states and the outbreak of civil war. Black’s home state of Pennsylvania provided nearly 360,000 white soldiers for the Union cause, in addition to some 8,600 black recruits and thousands more men who served in the U.S. Navy. More than 33,000 were killed or mortally wounded during the war. Units from Pennsylvania , the second most populous state in the Union, comprised a significant percentage of the total number of Union servicemen, particularly in the Eastern theater of the war. A number of prominent generals, including George Meade, George McClellan, John Reynolds, and Winfield Scott Hancock, also hailed from the Keystone State. Republican Governor Andrew Curtin, who guided the state through the conflict, remained a staunch supporter of President Lincoln, as well as an advocate of measures to assist the state’s military veterans and their families. Beyond the large number of troops the state provided, Pennsylvania also represented an important part of the nation’s war economy. Numerous arsenals and factories supplied arms and equipment, while Philadelphia banks provided vital capital and the state’s coal mines helped fuel the Northern war effort.4 Blair County provided its share of Pennsylvania’s volunteers and draftees. A number of militia companies had been in existence in the county during the period between the Mexican War and the outbreak of the Civil War. Several of these, including the Altoona Guards, the Hollidaysburg Fencibles, the Juniata Rifles, and the Logan Rifle Rangers , were mustered into service at the beginning of the conflict. During the course of the war, more than fifty volunteer companies that ultimately joined the Union army were organized primarily in Blair County, with an additional eighteen companies of militia also seeing service. Among the regiments with a heavy Blair County contingent were the Third and Fourteenth Pennsylvania Infantry of 1861, both enlisted for three months, and later the 105th, 110th, and 125th Pennsylvania Infan- Preface xi try and the Twelfth Pennsylvania Cavalry. A significant event that took place in the county during the war was the Loyal Governors’ Conference , held September 24–25, 1862, in Altoona. The meeting brought together representatives from fifteen loyal states to discuss current military and political issues. After passing a number of resolutions, the governors then traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with President Lincoln.5 John Black was one...