Apr 15, 2013 5 min read

“All Quiet on the Border,” a book by Kent Fonner, could possibly describe the temperament of Greene County during those tumultuous years of the Civil War.

Fonner talked about the men who served, those who died or were wounded, about women who aided those serving and described the era preceding and during the Civil War at Cornerstone Genealogy Society’s April meeting.

Isaac Scherich was born and raised on a farm in the western part of the county. He enlisted in the 18th Cavalry under Capt. William Lindsay and lost one arm in a battle in Shenandoah Valley. He survived the war and during the re-election of President Abraham Lincoln in 1864, a Dr. Gray and Steve Knight (local undertaker) questioned his right to vote, saying that he was not 21.

Knight wrote a statement that Scherich signed saying he was 21 years of age. Knight took his ballot and as he put in the ballot box, he told Scherich that he had earned the right to vote even if he was 10 years of age.

In March 1863, the draft was put into place. The enrollment officer for Greene County was W.G.W. Day, who owned a livery stable in Waynesburg. He appointed a man by the name of Alexander for enrollment officer for Dunkard Township. Dunkard Township was in the middle of an oil boom at the time and not many men were happy about the draft. Alexander was met at the local store by the local gentry of Dunkard Township with a rope in hand, Fonner said.

William Silveus and Mary Mildred Silveus were Fonner’s great-great-grandparents. William, at the age of 28, enlisted in August 1862 with the 8th Pennsylvania Reserves Infantry. He was captured in December of that same year at Fredericksburg, Va., and then was held in a Rebel prison for a while. He was paroled but then came down with typhoid fever and died. He is buried in a military cemetery in Annapolis, Md.

Fonner was unable to find anyone from Greene County who served with the Confederate Army, except in Dr. Duesenberry’s book where he talks of A.B. Miller saying that some of the “boys went north and some south,” but no names were mentioned.

M. Lafayette Gordon, son of John Gordon, of the 85th Pennsylvania Infantry, wrote a letter to the Waynesburg Messenger from a camp near New Berne, N.C., stating “the Greene County drafted men are here.” The men were conscripted in the Pennsylvania state draft in October 1862 and were to serve for nine months. The Greene County men were under Capt. Hiram H. Cree of Company A.

A Soldiers Aid Relief Society was formed in Waynesburg with Frances Lazear, Margaret Bell Miller, Ezra Myers and Mrs. Sayers, to name a few. There were several of these relief agencies in the county.

In 1850, a national crisis was developing in Kansas, Fonner writes. The issue was slavery. The pro-slavery supporters formed their own legislature government in Lecompton, Kan., while the anti-slavery supporters formed their own territorial legislature in Topeka. The Lecompton Constitution included a strong provision protecting slaveholders’ “property” and specifically excluding free blacks from its bill of rights.

Free staters, viewing the referendum as a farce, refused to vote and so the Lecompton Constitution passed and was sent to Congress for approval and into the ruckus was sent Maxwell McCaslin of Greene County.

McCaslin was born in Virginia but moved to Greene County and became a stock drover. He was appointed Indian Agent for Osage Kansas in 1856 by then-President Franklin Pierce. McClasin, seeing the violence and voter fraud happening in the Kansas territory at the time, wrote letters to his friends in Pennsylvania urging them not to support the Lecompton Constitution. Now-President Buchanan, who wanted an end to the Kansas controversy, fired McClasin as Indian Agent.

By 1865, there were two main factions in Greene County – the Republicans and the Democrats. The Republicans were pro-Lincoln and for everything Lincoln suggested. The Democrats had two divisions – the Union and Peace Democrats.

In Samuel P. Bates’ book, “History of Pennsylvania,” Fonner found the only reference to a black soldier from Greene County. Emanuel Patterson was shot in the stomach and killed in action at New Market Heights, Va. There were other black soldiers that died from disease, during the war, but Patterson was the only one who was killed.

In late spring and summer 1863, there were conflicting reports about a Confederate raid on Greene County. The Confederate troops were reported to be occupying Morgantown, W.Va., on Keck’s farm, burning homes and stealing horses. There were reports that there were as many as 10,000 men. A hurried meeting was held at the courthouse in the early morning hours and a public safety committee was formed to defend the town.

Troops were sent to Waynesburg from Washington, and it was reported in Wheeling that Waynesburg had been occupied by the Confederates. It was a nervous two days for Waynesburg. The paper finally reported that “all is quiet on the border.”

The next meeting will be at 7 p.m. May 14 in the Log Courthouse on Greene Street with James “Fuzzy” Randolph talking about the biography and music of Stephen Foster.