Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania embraced the transportation and protection of fugitive slaves moving northward across the Mason-Dixon Line. Daniel Kaufman (alternately spelled Kauffman), born in Cumberland County in 1818, laid out designs for the town and helped make his presence known. His support for the Underground Railroad strengthened in Boiling Springs, as indicated by the events of October 24, 1847.

As shown by evidence later presented in court, thirteen slaves belonging to the Oliver family escaped in Maryland, crossed the border into Pennsylvania, and eventually found themselves in Kaufman’s barn in Boiling Springs. Kaufman consented to provide them with shelter and food, and within the next day he offered up his wagon to transport the slaves across the Susquehanna River. News of the fugitive slaves spread, and within a few short months the slave owner’s family filed a lawsuit against Kaufman.

The Court of Common Pleas of Cumberland County opened the case Oliver et al. v. Kaufman against Kaufman and two other known associates, Stephen Weakley and Philip Breckbill. The defendants argued that the suit could not be tried in state court as the issue pertained to federal law. Nevertheless, the jury delivered a verdict in favor of the plaintiff; Kaufman had to pay $2000 in damages. When a panel of judges of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court oversaw the case, their “majority opinion” notably argued “that Congress possesses the exclusive right to legislate on the subject [of fugitive slaves] and that State Legislatures have no right whatever” and could therefore not recover any damages. The Cumberland County Court’s ruling was reversed. The case continued in 1852, this time in a federal court, only to conclude in favor of the plaintiff and with Kaufman liable to approximately $4000 in damages and fines.

Kaufman’s case occurred during a period of heavy debate in Pennsylvania regarding state sovereignty and the adherence to federal mandates including the Fugitive Slave Laws of 1793 and 1850. Prior to the case seen in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania judges gave credence to the state’s “common law” and “clear right to declare that a slave brought within her territory becomes ipso facto a freeman,” as quoted by a law journal in Paul Finkleman’s An Imperfect Union: Slavery, Federalism, and Comity. traced the evolution of state sovereignty in Pennsylvania.

For a more detailed summary of the cases, the House Divided record of the case provides access to several primary documents, including newspaper articles and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision to reverse the ruling of the case. Finkleman’s book puts Kaufman’s trial into context, but his summary of the case will help those even vaguely familiar with its nuances. LexisNexis, though requiring a subscription, grants access not only to the court documents, but to modern scholarship on the case’s wider importance in the debate on Federalism and state’s rights. In Robert Kaczorowski’s article “Federalism in the 21ST Century,” the Fugitive Slave Laws emerge as the focal point for a much wider debate on the intent of the Founding Fathers with regard to state rights and federal mandates.

The Christiana Riot took place on September 11, 1851 when Maryland slaveowner Edward Gorsuch and several of his relatives attempted to capture fugitive slaves at William Parker’s house in Christiana, Pennsylvania. Gorsuch was killed and several members of his party were wounded in the fight, but Parker and the fugitive slaves escaped to Canada. House Divided has several newspaper articles and a diary entry related to this event, including an editorial from Frederick Douglass’ Paper. The African Americans who participated in the riot “are to be tried…for high treason,” which Douglass characterized as “the climax of American absurdity.” Editors of the Memphis (TN) Appeal, however, had a different perspective on what they called a “great judicial farce.” Instead of facing “charges of which they might by convicted,” the Appeal criticized prosecutors for their decision “to rest [the case] solely on the law of treason.” “The State authorities fail[ed] in their duty and pass[ed] over the real crimes [of] riot and murder,” as the Appeal observed. Teachers may also want to check out the resources available from “Slavery & Abolition in the US: Select Publications of the 1800s,” which is a digital collection of books and pamphlets produced by Dickinson College and Millersville University. The site has a number of great sources, including: A True Story of the Christiana Riot (1898), which is a recollection by David Forbes, and The Christiana Riot and the Treason Trials of 1851: An Historical Sketch (1911),  written by William Hensel to commemorate the 60th anniversary. Two of the best secondary sources on this event are Jonathan Katz, Resistance at Christiana: The Fugitive Slave Rebellion, Christiana, Pennsylvania, September 11, 1851 (1974) and Thomas P. Slaughter, Bloody Dawn: The Christiana Riot and Racial Violence in the Antebellum North (1991). While William Parker’s house no longer exists, a historical model of the building is available on House Divided’s Virtual Field Trips page.  (See this page for help in using these files).

When Dickinson College President Jesse Peck arrived in Staunton, Virginia, for a conference in the spring of 1849, local authorities detained him as a result of a prank by Dickinson students. As the Richmond (VA) Examiner reported:

“some reprobate student…wrote a letter to the Physician of the Hospital [in Staunton], giving him a description of some individual who had left Carlisle, the seat of Dickinson College, in a state of mental derangement; and stating, furthermore, that it was more than probable that the said individual had betaken himself to Staunton, inasmuch as it was a sort of monomania with him to regard himself as the President of [Dickinson College],…. It is needles to add, that the description of the insane person coincided precisely with the appearance of the Rev. Doctor himself – and that it required the reiterated identifications of the ministers of the Conference around, to save him from confinement!”

Moncure Conway (Dickinson College Class of 1849), who later became a southern abolitionist, admitted that he was one of the student leaders involved with the prank. You can read the full story here.

A new political movement born out of New York and Philadelphia spread across the country, emerging in Cumberland County in 1854, shaping its politics for more than two years. Spurred by anti-Catholic and anti-immigration sentiment, the Know Nothing party grew to significant prominence if only for a short period during the mid 1850s. Reverend Otis H. Tiffany was Dickinson College’s professor of mathematics and president of the Know Nothing State Council. Tiffany, a prominent leader and adamant speaker for the Know Nothing party, gave a public lecture at Carlisle Union Fire Hall on November 16, 1854 on the Protestant origins of American freedoms and on the dangers of the vast immigration and rapid naturalization of foreigners. Tiffany commented, “No foreigner is competent to discharge the duties of an American until he ceases to be identified with the land which gave him birth.”

Many of the sources on the Know Nothings in Cumberland County are derived from local newspapers such as the Carlisle American, Carlisle Herald, Shippensburg News and American Volunteer. During this time, Tiffany and several other professors at Dickinson College had been active in the Know-Nothing movement. While most of the papers were supportive, the American Volunteer was the most negative, commonly criticizing the party and the involvement of Tiffany and others from Dickinson College. On August 23, 1857 with the Know Nothing movement nearly dissolved, the Volunteer cited the negative effects brought on by the faculty “by their constant dabbling in politics…But we gained our point which was to drive them from their Know-Nothing lodges to their duties in the College.”

While unsuccessful in sustaining the Know Nothing movement in Cumberland County, Tiffany was and remained a respected leader throughout the community. In Alexander Kelly McClure‘s Old Time Notes of Pennsylvania, he comments on the merits of Tiffany. McClure, a prominent Pennsylvania politician and journalist, regarded Tiffany as the ablest of all the Know-Nothing leaders.

“The one who stood out most conspicuous as an active politician and consistent Christian gentleman was Dr. Tiffany, who, as I have stated, accomplished the union of the opposition forces at the conference in 1855. He was not only a man of unusual eloquence, but a sagacious leader in Church and State, and always commanded the respect of all who came in contact with him, whether supporting or opposing him.”

Frederick Douglass gave a speech in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on March 2, 1872 about his work relating to Santo Domingo. In 1871 President Ulysses S. Grant had appointed Douglass to the Commission of Inquiry for the annexation of Santo Domingo the United States of America. Douglass delivered his speech at Rheem’s Hall, which was located behind the Old Court House in Carlisle. Today that location is a parking lot. Reports about the speech did not appear in any national newspapers, but his visit created a local controversy. George Z. Bentz, who was the manager of the Bentz House and a Republican, refused to let Douglass eat his dinner in hotel dining room with the white guests. (The Bentz House stood on what is today the former Wellington Hotel on East High Street). The American Volunteer used the incident to characterize Republicans as hypocritical. “We have in this circumstance positive evidence that the Radicals are just as loath to recognize negro-equality as the Democrats,” as the American Volunteer observed. While the Herald “[found] no fault with” the manager’s decision, the editors argued that policies which denied African Americans entry into a hotel “[were] simply silly and wicked.” In addition, Historic Carlisle recently added a Wayside Maker for Douglass’ visit.

In its inaugural issue published on March 15, 1862 the New South, a weekly periodical with Northern sympathies, described the Union capture of Port Royal, South Carolina on November 7, 1861 as a “brisk little engagement with the enemy at Port Royal Ferry, in which the National forces, both Army and Navy manifested pluck and coolness the most desirable qualities in soldier’s or sailors.” This newspaper, which was highlighted in a previous post, documents life in occupied Port Royal through 1866 and is available online.  As part of Union efforts to enforce the executive-mandated blockade on the South, Captain Samuel F. Du Pont, commander of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron was sent to Port Royal, South Carolina where he helped capture Fort Walker and Fort Beauregard in the largest combined naval and military operation up to that point. The Civil War Blockade Strategy Board met during the summer of 1861 created a series of reports that informed the Union’s naval blockading strategy including Du Pont’s attack on Port Royal.  Matthew Parker made these reports fully available on “Thomas Legion” a website that organizes Civil War primary documents for easy research.  Other useful resources include the Library of Congress’s visual time line of the Civil War, which contains a collection of photographs from Port Royal, South Carolina from 1861 to 1865, a detailed essay on the battle of Port Royal, which appeared in the January 2001 issue of America’s Civil War.

In October 1909 Union veteran Edward Ripley argued that the Union’s defeat at the Battle of Harpers Ferry (September 15-17, 1862) was a “tragedy:”

“It is not too exaggerated a term to use where 12,000 brave and patriotic Americans, only too willing to serve their country, were bound hand and foot by an incompetent commander and, in spite of indignant protest, handed over to the enemy.”

After General Robert E. Lee invaded Maryland, he sent General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson to capture the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Col. Dixon S. Miles ordered his forces to retreat into the town in response to Jackson’s attack, which Col. Dixon S. Miles’s response. After the war Union General Julius White argued that “[Col. Miles] had lost all confidence in his ability” and explained that the high ground around Harpers Ferry was critical to defense: “Harper’s Ferry is not defensible by a force inferior to that attacking it, unless the surrounding heights be well fortified, and each of them held by a force sufficient to maintain itself unsupported by others.”
Teachers can learn more about this battle from a short essay and related maps on the National Parks Service website. This site, which also focuses on John Brown’s attack in October 1859, also has a virtual tour and a collection of over 300 images (not all are related to the battle). Anyone planning a visit should check out the detailed information in the “Self Guided” and “Ranger Guided” sections of “Plan a Field Trip” page. Other resources are available from the Library of Congress, including historic maps, photographs, and illustrations by Alfred Waud. In addition, Cornell University’s Making of America has two articles written after the war by Confederate generals John Imboden and John Walker. Union General Julius White, whose article is referenced above, wrote it in response to these Confederate officers’ accounts, which he considered “incomplete.”

The Battle of Olustee took place on February 20, 1864 in Baker County, Florida where the Union Army under Brigadier General Truman B. Seymour was defeated and forced to retreat back to Jacksonville in the largest battle fought in Florida during the American Civil War.  Under Brigadier General Joseph Finegan, the reinforced Confederate soldiers inflicted massive casualties on Union troops. Estimates on both sides list the total casualties for the Union Army at 1,860, almost 40% of the participating soldiers and 946 Confederate casualties, 20% of their soldiers at Olustee. Seymour’s army was notable for the participation of three colored regiments; the 8^th United States Colored Troops, the 35^th United States Colored Troops and the 54^th Massachusetts Infantry. For more information on these regiments during Olustee, check out portions of J. Matthew Gallman’s chapter in Wars within a War: Controversy and Conflict over the  American Civil War. Other documents of interest related to the Battle of Olustee can be found in volume 35 of the Official Records.

The most extensive collection of resources can be found at the Battle of Olustee site developed by Thomas R. Fasulo which includes primary sources such as official reports, maps, letters, diaries, images, speeches and periodicals. The Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park commemorates the battle and offers visitors a chance to immerse themselves through walking tours of the battlefield and a visitor center with historical information and artifacts. There is an annual reenactment of the battle in February and a Civil War Expo in September that provides visitors an authentic experience of the battle with hands on activities and historical reenactments

Camp William Penn in Chelten Hills, Pennsylvania opened as a training ground for African-American troops on June 26, 1863 with about eight men present.  Approximately eleven thousand former slaves and free African-Americans received training here under the leadership of Lieutenant-Colonel Louis Wagner.  Over the course of the war at least eleven regiments formed at Camp William Penn including the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 22nd, 24th, 25th, 32nd, 41st, 43rd, 45th, and 127th Infantries.   Led by Colonel Benjamin C. Tilghman, the 3rd Regiment United States Colored Troops became the first to depart from camp on August 13, 1863.  The soldiers from Camp William Penn went on to fight at Fort Wagner , the Battle of Olustee, and the Battle of New Market Heights (Chaffin’s Farm).  The Civil War Preservation Trust’s website offers an article regarding the participation of USCT Troops in the Battle of New Market Heights and a detailed map of the area.  George Washington Williams said, “The regiments that went from this camp were among the best in the army.  Their officers had been carefully selected and specially trained in military school under competent teachers, and the troops themselves were noted for intelligence, proficiency, and pluck.”  Famous historical figures such as Frederick Douglass and Lucretia Mott lived near the camp or visited the troops occasionally.  Many appeals were made to African- Americans to join the Union Army in newspapers such as The Liberator in Boston:

“Men of color!  We speak to you of your country, of the land where God in his mysterious providence has placed you to work out his inscrutable purposes.  Yet you have been strangers in a land of strangers, and it is now for you to decide whether that land shall be to you and your children more in the future than it has been in the past.  We can make no promises, but we have an abiding faith that the Almighty has not visited us with tribulation in wrath, but in mercy; that you and we, thus tried in the fiery furnace, if true to ourselves and to Him, shall emerge purified and redeemed from the sins and the wrongs of the past.”

Another resource that may be of value for teachers is Donald Scott’s article titled “Camp William Penn’s Black Soldiers in Blue” that gives a concise overview of the troops stationed at the camp as well as an insight into the interaction between the African-American and white soldiers.  Also available in limited view through Google Books is Cheltenham Township which provides some background information and photographs on the area where the camp formed, and includes mention of Camp William Penn and its basic purpose.

On September 8, 1865, the New York Tribune commented on the unusual amount of fanfare the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry received on their return to Boston.  The author of the editorial explained the public response reflected the 54th’s status as the first northern regiment of black soldiers and the reputation the regiment earned as being “the one on whose good conduct depended for a long time the success of the whole experiment of arming black citizens in defence of the Republic.”  Edwin Stanton, the Secretary of War, gave Massachusetts governor John A. Andrew permission to begin recruiting black troops on January 26, 1863.  Andrew carefully hired officers to lead the black regiment, including the regiment’s future commander Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, because the 54th was in his opinion “perhaps the most important corps to be organized during the whole war.”  The 54th is well known for their participation in the assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina on July 18, 1863. The same Tribune article equated the battle’s significance to African-Americans as “Bunker Hill has been for ninety years to the white Yankees.” Captain Luis F. Emilio of Company E published a reflective history of the 54th, A Brave Black Regiment…  (1894), which is partially available on Google Books.  HistoryNet, as mentioned in this previous post, has also published a background article on 54th regimental history that originally appeared in the October 2000 issue of American History magazine.
Members of the 54th who resided in Pennsylvania include:
Sergeant William Harvey Carney of Company C (1840-1908): received a Medal of Honor in 1900 for keeping the regiment’s colors from falling to the ground after Colonel Robert Gould Shaw was shot during the assault on Fort Wagner, the earliest African-American action to be recognized with a Medal of Honor.
Private John Henson of Company C (1843-1880): reassigned to the Ordinance Department of his regiment from November 1864 to February 1865.
continue reading "The 54th Massachusetts"