The Mon Valley’s ties to the Civil War
Civil War veteran Edward S. France is shown in a photograph taken where his comrades were buried in Monongahela Cemetery.
Donora Historical Society archivist Brian Charlton discusses the Mon Valley’s Civil War veterans, including those projected on the wall behind him, Saturday at Donora Public Library.
DONORA – Edward S. France called to order a Grand Army of the Republic meeting in Monongahela in 1935, asked for the roll call, and the only voice that he heard in response was his own.
At age 90, France was required then to surrender the charter of Starkweather GAR Post 60 as the sole surviving member of an organization that once boasted a roster of more than 300 men.
“He served in the honor guard at Lincoln’s funeral,” Donora Historical Society archivist Brian Charlton said Saturday when he presented a lecture on the Mon Valley’s connections to the Civil War.
His lecture coincided with the Donora opening of Senator John Heinz History Center’s traveling Civil War exhibit that will be on loan to the local library for the next five weeks.
France was wounded twice in the war, including once during the Battle of the Wilderness of Spotsylvania, while he served in the 6th Ohio Regiment. He eventually settled in Monongahela, where he lived the remaining 50 years of his life.
The closing of his GAR chapter was a “significantly touching” moment, the Observer-Reporter noted in an article it published May 13, 1967, marking the chapter’s 100th anniversary.
“He saluted the flag and the roster and later added, ‘Now and forever adjourned,'” the Washington newspaper reported.
France, who died four years later, also was known to have made weekly visits to the plot of graves where Civil War veterans were buried in Monongahela, including many from the revered Ringgold Cavalry.
The cavalry had its roots in the Mexican War, and it was named after Maj. Samuel Ringgold, who was killed in the conflict and became known as “The Father of Modern Artillery,” Charlton said.
Its members pleaded with U.S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton for permission to reorganize to serve in the Civil War, setting off in Beallsville to what is now West Virginia on June 22, 1861.
Among the cavalry’s most respected members was Sgt. Adam “Daddy” Wickerham of Carroll Township, a charter member of the 1847 Ringgold group.
“He was looked upon as the veteran of that group,” Charlton said. “His horse, Bully, was wounded several times, and each time he nursed it back to health. Bully finally died and was buried with full military honors.”
Charlton also displayed a photograph of William Harvey Crago of Carmichaels in Greene County. Crago was photographed with the bugle he played while serving in the Ringgold Cavalry and his revolver tucked into his belt.
“This is a display of manliness,” said Charlton, a history teacher in Belle Vernon Area School District.
Another veteran, Lt. John Holland, returned to the Mon Valley to become the first mayor of Monongahela, he said.
Joseph W. Abell of Charleroi would suffer from a Civil War facial wound for 40 years before shooting and killing himself to end his agony, a newspaper reported following his death.
The “constant torture from (the) old wound was said to have led up to the deed,” the report’s headline stated.
Capt. Joseph Taylor of Monongahela “goes on to fight the Indians on the Plains,” Charlton said.
Taylor later wrote about his participation in the Underground Railroad, having placed runaway slaves on a boat to cross the Monongahela River and deliver them to another conductor of the freedom route.
He wrote that the majority of the small city’s residents opposed slavery, but that he struggled with his participation in assisting runaway slaves.
“I was unable to decide if I was right or wrong,” he wrote.
The exhibit is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday through April 28.
Clarissa Confer, a history professor at California University of Pennsylvania, will speak about women in the Civil War and sign her book, “The Cherokee Nation in the Civil War” at 7 p.m. Thursday in the library’s community room at the rear entrance to 510 Meldon Ave.