One Man’s Story

The diaries and letters of one man’s experiences as a captain in the War Between The States

Over two million soldiers fought for the Union in the American Civil War.

History tends to focus on the exploits of those men - iconic battles such as Bull Run, Antietam and Gettysburg - and the generals who led those masses of men in combat.

But when you drill it down from the army level - corps, divisions, brigades, regiments and companies - each of those men, in addition to over one million Confederates, have a story to tell.

Many of those stories were lost because roughly 620,000 of the men engaged died in the war.

Other stories were lost because the men didn't - or couldn't - relive their memories.

But some of the stories have survived the last 150 years - including that of a Warren County man who entered the service at the rank of lieutenant and left it as a lieutenant colonel.

He was born in Erie and moved with his family to Youngsville.

He answered Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin's call for volunteers and enlisted in 1861 along with a good friend - Colonel George Cobham, who led his regiment - the 111th Pennsylvania.

He was commissioned captain - a moniker that would stick with him for the rest of his life - in 1862 and led his company in such famous battles as Cedar Mountain, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and Atlanta.

He married while still in the service, returned to Warren after the war and was ultimately elected Register and Recorder for Warren County in 1875, a position he would hold for two non-consecutive terms.

After leaving office, he was heavily involved in business interests across the country and instrumental in the Grand Army of the Republic - one of the leading Civil War veterans organizations - as well as facilitating the GAR Circle at Oakland Cemetery.

He died in 1904 and is buried at Oakland Cemetery, though he left letters and a diary from his Civil War service in a tin box that his family discovered and transcribed.

His name is William Alexander.

And this is his story.

William James Alexander was born on March 5, 1836, the sixth child of Archibald and Elizabeth Alexander. His father emigrated from Ireland while his mother was born in Windsor, Vermont. By 1840, census records show the family living in Brokenstraw Township and in Youngsville in 1850. The 1860 census identifies Alexander as a merchant in business with his father.

His pre-war life was, by any standard, ordinary for the time period.

The next four yeas would be anything but ordinary.

---

September 1861

Festering for decades principally over the issue of slavery, the battle lines of the American Civil War had been drawn - 11 southern states had seceded from the Union, the last being Tennessee on June 8.

War broke out at Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor the previous April when Confederates shelled the fort's Union occupants into submission.

Though the Union had picked up several minor victories in the wake of Fort Sumter, the first major engagement of the Civil War - First Bull Run or First Manassas (the Union often designated battles by waterways or geographic features - Bull Run - while the Confederates identified battles by towns) - resulted in a resounding Confederate victory with Union troops streaming unorganized back into Washington.

The Confederates won the first major battle west of the Mississipi River at Wilson's Creek the following month, as well.

The realization came quickly that what was once considered a 60- or 90-day war was going to take a lot longer than that.

And require more men.

Simon Cameron, then secretary of War, authorized a M. Schlaudecker to organize a regiment of men from this region, according to a history of the 111th regiment.

---

November 1861

Schlaudecker did just that - raising a regiment from Erie, Warren, and Crawford Counties that gathered at Camp Reed near Erie, Pa.

Alexander enlisted in Company D for three years and had been comissioned first leiutenant of Company D the previous October.

A letter from Col. George A. Cobham, Jr. - who was close friends with Alexander - told the lieutenant when to bring his men to camp.

"We will make arrangements to have them brought on the Cars (railroad) by that time," Cobham told Alexander. "I shall be much pleased to receive them at camp - and if you report them to me. I will take care of them for your Command, and see that no one else gets them from you."

Alexander, along with 45 men, marched into Camp Reed on November 2, 1861.

"They were as fine a body of men physically as were ever gathered in one company," the Warren Mail said after the war. "Many of them were hunters, who had ranged in the fastnesses of Warren, Forest and Elk counties and the crack of their rifles on the frosty mountain air on the spurs of the Alleghenies and brought down fiercer game than man. They bore on their faces the stamp of bravery and had been inured to hardship and outdoor life from youth, and therefore were petter prepared to be a good soldier."

Alexander, specifically, was described as one who "had seen a great deal of the world and like some young men had sailed past the rough places and was in the smooth water of foregiveness for everybody and this body of men that fell under his training yielded to his good influences.

"He soon found all the good there was in each man, and moulded them as with a master hand and made them instead of the turbulent mass they would have been under some training into one of the finest drilled, quietest, most soldierly companies in the regiment."

An article in the January 11, 1862 edition of the Warren Mail cites Alexander and the other lieutenant, a man named Spencer as "well disposed young men (who are) winning the good will of their new associates. They are industrious and obedient to their superior officers and I have no hesitation in saying they will distinguish themselves before the conclusion of the war."

After nearly three months in training at Camp Reed, the 111th Regiment was mustered into the service on January 24, 1862.

The regiment left Erie the next day and traveled to Harrisburg, arriving on the 27th.

"On the following day, arms and equipments were delivered and while drawn up in line in front of the arsenal on the Capitol grounds, the State colors were presented by Governor Curtin, who spoke in a patriotic and feeling manner," Samuel P. Bates wrote in the History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-1865.

The regiment proceeded to Baltimore on March 1, where it was put on guard and drill duty until the middle of May.