National Archives photo The enlistment document of Thomas Oviatt, one of roughly 100 men to serve in Baldwin’s Company of militia.

The Warren Mail in Oct. 4, 1862 included this brief item: “We learn that Capt C. E. Baldwin’s company, which left this county some six weeks ago, is now acting as City Guard at Harrisburg.”

Who is Baldwin? And what is his company?

Given that “Baldwin’s Company” can be found on gravestones in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida and Nebraska, you might think that would be an easy question.

But it wasn’t.

So here’s what I learned: In response to the Confederate invasion in 1862 (that culminated in the Battle of Antietam), there was a call for many men to defend the Commonwealth. These militia were asked to serve for a short period. In this instance, the hitch was nine months – August 26, 1862 until June 5, 1863.

Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Silas S. Robinson, buried here at the Jackson Run Cemetery, was one of three men in Baldwin’s Company that died during their nine months of service during the Civil War.

They organized at the bustling metropolis of Garland.

This was a typical response through the war. According to a 1908 text on the Union Army, “a number of independent infantry companies were organized at various periods of the war and mustered in for such length of term as the occasion demanded.”

Baldwin’s Independent Company of Pennsylvania Militia Infantry was one such unit. It was recruited as “Company B” but never assigned to a regiment, which would have been the normal course of affairs.

The company – as the name implies – was recruited and placed under the command of Captain Charles E. Baldwin (more on him later). Other officers included Lt. Jacob J. Dennison, Lt. Julius L. Burroughs and First Sgt. Water Scott.

“Capt. C.E. Baldwin’s company will leave Columbus Station, P&ERR (Philadelphia & Erie Rail Road) for camp to the 25th inst,” the Mail reported on Aug. 16, 1861. “The company will meet at the station on the 23rd.”

In addition to the listed officers, the company included four sergeants, eight corporals, two musicians and 83 privates.

Records show the men coming from all around the county – Sugar Grove, Columbus, Spring Creek, Eldred, Brokenstraw, Farmington, Jackson Run. (I’ll take a look into who those men were for next week’s story).

Their nine months were spent on guard duty in Harrisburg and Washington, D.C.

A local reporter for the Mail published a dispatch on Nov. 8, 1862: “Coming through Harrisburg the other day…. Capt. Baldwin’s company from our county is also there.”

The June 3, 1863 edition of the Harrisburg Daily Patriot and Union gives us a little more detail about their service.

” This company, which is an unattached and independent one, arrived at Camp Curtin yesterday from Washington, where the company has been on guard duty for some time past,” that paper reported. “The company was recruited in Warren county, and has done provost duty hero and at Washington ever since it entered the service. It is now under command of Lieutenant Dennison, Capt. Baldwin having been detained on urgent business at Washington.”

We would most closely associate the role of provost as that of military police.

While these men responded in heightened times, they never saw the battlefield. But that isn’t intended to demean their service. In fact, I mean the exact opposite. What these men did allowed actually trailed soldiers who may have been held back in the defenses of Washington to be freed up to serve in the field with the Army of the Potomac.

There are so many administrative and logistical functions to keep an army moving and, for that war, short-term service like this played a valuable service.

It also doesn’t mean that the service was without risk.

Three of those 83 privates did not come home.

William Sharp died on Oct. 24, James F. Bander on Dec. 28 and then Silas Robinson on Jan. 18.

The local reporter who was in Harrisburg and came in contact with the company included this line in his report: One of (Baldwin’s) men named Sharp died some two weeks ago of small-pox. A few others are sick in the hospital.

Twice as many soldiers during the Civil War died of disease than died of war wounds.

According to the National Institutes of Health, pneumonia, typhoid, dysentery and malaria were the most common maladies.

From the Warren Mail on Jan. 31, 1863: “DIED: In Camp Curtin Hospital, near Harrisburg on the 29th, JAMES F. BRANDER, of Sugar Grove Pa., aged 20 years. His remains were brought home and buried at Sugar Grove on the 31st of December. Mr. B. was a deserving young man, and beloved by all his acquaintances.”

Brander was a member of the Sons of Temperance and the Mail reported some resolutions that the Sugar Grove Chapter approved regarding their departed member.

“Resolved, By the members of this Division, that by the death of James F. Brander, we have lost from our number a worthy member and a capable officer in the various stations he has filled.”

“Resolved, That by what we have learned, our country has lost not only a good citizen but also an excellent soldier.”

“Resolved, That we do most sincerely condole with the friends of the deceased in their irreparable loss and sad bereavement. “

Piecing together the story of Baldwin’s Company is just that – piecing it together.

Lt. Jacob Dennison is such an example.

From the March 20, 1863 edition of the Harrisburg Daily Patriot and Union: “False Pretense –Lieut. Jacob Dennison, of Captain Baldwin’s company of the provost guard Battalion,’ was arrested yesterday by officer Campbell, on a warrant issued by Alderman Kline, for obtaining boarding at Col. Omit’s hotel to the amount of $67 fraudulently and under false pretense

But that charge must not have stood or wasn’t that big of a deal because the Mail reported on June 20, just two weeks after Baldwin’s Company disbanded, Dennison “late of what was known as Baldwin’s Co., a nine month company from this county, whose time of service recently expired, together with Lieut. N. Spencer, late of the 111th Regt… are recruiting for a cavalry company under the recent call of the Governor for six months.

“We learn that they are having good success and will soon be ready to Forward, March!”

Perhaps the biggest mystery to this story, though, is Baldwin.

Who was he? What happened to him?

The honest answer? I don’t really know.

I have put together some bits that do paint a less-than-glowing picture.

Schenck’s History of Warren County notes that Baldwin was an attorney, admitted to the county bar on June 6, 1862. But he was also listed in March 1864 with the note “name stricken from rolls.”

The 1860 Census lists just one “Charles E. Baldwin” in Warren County, a resident in Southwest Township, where he lived with his wife, Charlotte, and children Walter, Charles, William and Seth.

However, by the 1870 Census, Charlotte is listed as the head of the house but, this time, with two more children – Laura and George.

The 1880 Census shows fewer kids at home but Charlotte as the lead name, atypical for Census records at the time.

Part of that absence for Charles might tie to a Nov. 16, 1867 note in the Warren Mail, courtesy of the Venango Citizen. That Venango County connection seems plausible given his residence in Southwest Twp.

“We learn from the New York Tribune that Charles E. Baldwin, a pettifogger, well known in this and in Warren county, has been convicted in New York city of forgery, and sentenced to five years imprisonment in the Penitentiary,” that report said.

A pettifogger is not a term of endearment – “a lawyer whose methods are petty, underhanded, or disreputable,” per the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

“On being brought up for sentence Baldwin protested his innocence, and asked for an arrest of judgment until he could obtain further evidence. But the Judge informed him that he had received official documents from Pennsylvania and South Carolina proving that he was a notorious forger. — Venango Citizen.”

Writer’s Note: As I’ve done before, I’d like to ask for your help with a story for a future week’s story. I recently came across the “Warren Academy of Sciences.” Anyone have recollections of that organization that they might be willing to share? Email me at jcotton@timesobserver.com.