Source:Fleming-greens/content
THE recent articles dealing with historical events called up by commemorated street names in Pittsburgh, seem to have found widespread appreciation.
Various letters and telephone conversations so attest. The articles dealing with our Pittsburgh soldiers in Mexico, 1846–1848, and the biographies of the five Butler brothers lead in interest, judging from the responses.
Much valuable and interesting matter has been sent in for use and many practical suggestions made.
In the way of a curiosity and of undoubted value as a historic document the contribution of Robert H. Kelly, Jr., of Pittsburgh, is entitled to first place. It is the roll book and descriptive list of Capt. Robert Porter’s company, the Hibernian Greens of Pittsburgh, which served in the Mexican War as Company I of the Second Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers under Cols. William B. Roberts and John W. Geary, and was part of the victorious army of Gen. Winfield Scott, fighting its way from Vera Crus to the “Halls of the Montezumas.”
This precious relic is written in a book of curious vellum paper, the pages 12x8 inches. More than half the book contains Spanish records written by various persons in that language usually in a fine running hand, and perfectly legible.
The records of the “Greens” were kept by Mr. Kelly’s father, Robert H. Kelly, Sr., who was the bugler of the company. Previous to the Civil War, 1861–65, and after his return from that war, Mr. Kelly, Sr., was widely known as a school principal in Pittsburgh and was for years a resident of Verona.
In the Civil War Prof. Kelly served as a bugler in Knap’s Pittsburgh Battery officially, in the service, called “Independent Battery E, Pennsylvania Light Artillery.” The records show that Robert H. Kelly served as bugler from July 11, 1861, to April 8, 1865, when he was discharged as a veteran on a surgeon’s certificate of disability. During its whole service Knap’s battery was attached to the command of Maj. Gen. John W. Geary, later Governor of Pennsylvania, under whom Bugler Kelly had served in Mexico. In that war Mr. Kelly went out with and returned with the “Hibernian Greens” and was present on duty with the company throughout its term of service.
The records of the “Greens” as kept by Prof. Kelly are yellow with age. They have been preserved for nearly 70 years in a soft leather case. The oil from the leather has gradually soaked into the paper and discolored it greatly in all the portion occupied by the “Greens’” records. Parts of the Spanish records not thus stained show the paper in the book to have been originally pure white and of excellent quality.
The discolored pages have become brittle and the outside edges have broken off and some of the first pages are so fragile that they break at the touch, consequently the book must be handled very carefully.
On one page, now mostly in pieces, Mr. Kelly has written “Taken at the citadel, City of Mexico, September 14, 1848, by R. Hamerton Kelly, Company I, Second Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers.”
On the rest of the page he appears to have been trying his pen on the paper as his various signatures and many pen flourishes testify. The Spanish records are in various handwritings and the entries are numbered and dated. No opportunity has yet been had to have these entries translated. They are all brief, taking up but three or four lines each. No doubt within these pages is a story of Old Mexico. As a relic and souvenir the book is unique.
Mr. Kelly has written a journal of the service in close lines on both sides of the page. Several pages of company records are in another handwriting. Evidently by one unskilled in the use of a pen or quill and in a strained hand, in plain old style chirography and with a labored finger movement entirely different from Mr. Kelly’s rapidly running hand.
The writer evidently was a man of few words for he has boiled down big happenings to the fewest possible words.
The first entries covering the first three months of the “Green’s” service that this unknown has written are verbatim as follows:
January—I company, Second Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, mustered into service January 4, 1847, there being 77 men in said company, viz., one captain, three lieutenants, four sergeants, four corporals, two musicians and 63 privates.
January 9, 1847—Left Pittsburgh for the seat of war on board the seamboat [sic] Cambria for New Orleans.
January 17—Arrived at New Orleans and dropped down to Camp Jackson.
January 19—Fleming Montgomery, a man belonging to company, murdered. Murderer not known.
January 23—Camp flooded with water and the regiment deserted to New Orleans.
January 25—Got the company together and got five recruits.
January 27—Six of our men deserted.
January 28—Got on board the ship J. N. Cooper and sailed for Lobos Island.
February 11—Arrived at Lobos.
February 14—Landed on the Island.
March 4—Got on board and sailed for Point Lizardo, 11 miles below Vera Cruz.
March 9—Sailed up to Sacrificios, three miles distant from Vera Cruz, and landed.
March 10—Had a skirmish with the enemy.
March 11—Invested the city.
March 17—Commenced erecting batteries.
March 22—Opened our batteries on the city.
March 27—City and castle surrender.
September [sic] 28—The enemy marched out and laid down their arms.
March 30—We entered the city.
There the record stops, the next two pages being a discriptive [sic] list of the company, evidently incomplete as only 40 men are enrolled. A complete descriptive roll, containing 78 names is in Prof. Kelly’s handwriting farther on in the book. It is odd to find the first sergeant of the “Hibernian Greens of Pittsburgh,” a Dutchman, Francis Von Swartow, and evidently some man—“36 years old, 6 feet, 3 inches in height.” One can note also that 14 of the “Greens” were Germans, born in Germany. Twenty-four were natives of Ireland. Robert H. Kelly was a native of Pennsylvania, 26 years old. Captain Robert Porter, who was born in Pittsburgh, and after the war an attorney here.
A note in a fine hand appended at the end of the list states that “Corporal Joseph Burke and Private Robert D. Nicholson were killed between the City of Mexico and Puebla about May 26, 1848, on their way to the latter place to disinter the remains of some members of the company.”
Burkes and Nicholson were murdered by guerillas [sic]. There were a number of deaths during the company’s service.
A roster of this company appears in the History of Allegheny County, published in 1876 and 88 names are enrolled there. One, a drummer, Charles Stricker, who enlisted at Vera Cruz, April 8, 1848, does not appear. From the roster in the county history it will be seen that the company received in all 10 recruits, three at San Angel in the latter part of 1847, two men from York, Pa., and one from Pottsville, Pa., most likely transfers. One name is duplicated on the roster.
The troops now on the Rio Grande are having a protracted season of “watchful waiting.” There was no such delay in 1847. As will be seen from the journal above, “The Hibernian Greens” landed in Mexico exactly two months after their muster in at [sic] Pittsburgh and were under fire two months after leaving Pittsburgh.
Prof. Kelly’s journal is interesting but too long for the space here. It would make a small pamphlet.
A different kind of a war story, that of a continental war, comes from “A. L. O. A.” Elderly people will recall the Sunday school books of the long ago written by “A. L. O. E.” These initials, long a puzzle to many, but very simple when translated—“A Lady of England.”
So the transmittor of some letters written in France and Flanders in 1815, much averse to having her name in print, will have to be mentioned as “A Lady of Avalon,” a promise having been made not to use her real name. The writers of the letters are dead, one from the effects of a wound received at the battle of Waterloo. These writers were Scotch soldiers serving under the Duke of Wellington with descendants in Pittsburgh at the present time who do not wish their names or the letter writer’s printed.
Events of the past two years in the same countries make these letters peculiarly pertinent and interesting. So also the Mexican records and from the same causes. The letters of the Scotch soldiers show that comrades were comrades then as ever since.
Three of the letters were written to his parents by the slain soldier. They are replete with pious observations and Christian resignation. They are full of human interest.
The comrade’s letter apprising the dead soldier’s parents of his fate reads:
Perhaps you will be surprised at being addressed by a stranger, but it is a task I impose upon myself through a friendship that subsisted betwixt me and a worthy comrade soldier, your son. What I have to relate is but a melancholy narration but I hope you will not give way to grief, as there is still a possibility of a better turn than at present may appear. He was wounded on the ever memorable day, the 18th of June, by a cannon ball through the thigh near the groin. I cannot altogether flatter you with any hopes of a recovery, but when I left him he was alive. I myself carried him to a house at which place I left him in care of a surgeon. I have heard no other accounts as yet but that he still survives.
By the rapid movements of the enemy I have had no opportunity of getting information concerning his fate, but the first I receive you may depend upon my forwarding it to you. He has at present three months’ pay which in the event of his decease may be of use to you, and if it should be the case I shall write to you and give you the necessary directions how to apply for it. Be so good as to write upon the receipt of this.
No date or place appears on this letter. However, a letter from Camp de Mains, France, August 11, 1815, from another comrade to the dead soldier’s brother tells of his end in a Brussells [sic] hospital June 22, four days after the battle of Waterloo.
The dead soldier was a sergeant and a popular man in the company. One comrade expresses it: “He was an ornament to society and led an exemplary life.”
A. L. O. A. sends also a story of the formation of the Republican party written by the late Jacob Weyand of Beaver and published in July, 1900.
This is most interesting matter, especially that pertaining to the Lafayette Hall convention in Pittsburgh in 1856. Of this convention Francis P. Blair, Sr., of Maryland was president and Russell Errett of Pittsburgh secretary, the latter for many years an editorial writer on the old Gazette and a member of Congress from the Pittsburgh district.
The names of the 14 survivors that Mr. Weyand enumerates are especially interesting in this presidential year by reason of national prominence that attended most of them. These men were:
Senator Joseph R. Hawley of Connecticut.
John H. Bryant of Illinois.
Charles G. Davis of Massachusetts.
George H. Frey, Sidney Edgerton, Rush R. Sloan, Roeliff Brinkerhoff and William H. Upson of Ohio.
William Penn Clark and William A. Cook of Washington, D. C.
S. P. McCalmont, William H. Lane, Jacob Weyand and Allen A. Craig of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Weyand added a note stating that since writing his article Mr. Edgerton had died in his home in Akron, O. It would be interesting to know how many if any of the fathers of the Republican party are alive today—that is, of the 260 members of the Pittsburgh Convention of 1856.
To be sure, this is really Wood street history, from the standpoint of these articles, old LaFayette Hall having stood on part of the site of the present Columbia Bank Building.
This history has been reverted to, but recurs by reason of the kindness of A. L. O. A. The Weyand story appeared in the Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette of July 20, 1900.
A. L. O. A. sends also a newspaper clipping headed,
“NEWS OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD.
Opening of the Pittsburgh Sanitary Fair.
Grand Military and Civic Procession.
Inauguration Ceremonies. Gov. A. G. Curtin’s Opening Address.”
The clipping is from a Pittsburgh contemporary of June 2, 1864. Gov. Curtin arrived the evening before. At 4 o’clock, June 1st the procession moved from Smithfield and Water street, via Smithfield, Fifth, Market, St. Clair (Sixth), Federal street to West Park, then the West Commons, in Allegheny City. The following was the order:
Chief marshal, Maj. Gen. James S. Negley.
Detachment of City Police.
City Band.
Beck’s Band of Philadelphia.
Hyatt’s Cadets from West Chester (The Pennsylvania Military Academy), escort to the Governor.
Four-horse carriage occupied by the Governor, Adj. Gen. Alex. L. Russell, Col. R. Biddle Roberts and Col. Samuel B. Thomas, aids [sic]. Troops from Camp Copeland (Braddock), under command of Col. David B. Morris.
Invalid corps on duty in the city.
Civic procession, chief marshal, James L. Graham.
Mayors of Pittsburgh and Allegheny and members of Councils of Pittsburgh and Allegheny, in carriages.
FIRE DEPARTMENT.
Assistant Chief Engineer James Hamill, assisted by Sheriff John H. Stewart and Robert W. Mackey.
Eagle reel and steamer.
Allegheny steamer.
Duquesne steamer.
Neptune steamer.
Niagara steamer.
Vigilant steamer and reel, three horses, tandem.
Good Intent reel.
Relief steamer and reel.
Hope (Allegheny) steamer and reel.
Gen. Grant (Allegheny) steamer and reel—all volunteer companies.
In the procession there were a number of carriages occupied by prominent citizens, “of whom,” naively remarks the reporter, “we could not take any account.”
In the rear the “Boilers” of the Clinton Iron Works made a creditable demonstration, displaying banners and flags.” These works were on West Carson street, in what was then Monongahela borough. The “Boilers” were puddlers.
On the arrival of the procession at the Auditorium of the fair the military were formed into line with their right resting towards Federal street. Gov. Curtin alighted from his carriage and accompanied by his staff, was escorted into the hall, preceded by the Washington Cornet Band, which discoursed appropriate music.
After prayer by the Rev. Dr. William Preston of St. Andrews Protestant Episcopal Church, Gov. Curtin delivered a patriotic address, the chronicler recording:
“During the delivery of the oration, which was listened to with marked attention, the Governor was frequently greeted with shouts of applause.”
Gen. Negley in response to repeated calls, arose and was accorded an ovation. He delivered a short address. Felix R. Brunot was chairman of the meeting. This day was one of the gala days in Pittsburgh in Civil War times.
Assistant Engineer James Hamill became noted as an oarsman and was the champion sculler of America a few years later. Robert W. Mackey became state treasurer and one of the most famous Republican politicians in the United States.
A curious relic and souvenir of the Sanitary Fair is a small envelope with the line in left upper corner: “Pittsburgh Sanitary Commission Fair,” enclosing a fake letter from a lady accepting an offer of marriage. This letter was received at the fair postoffice where anyone could obtain a letter upon payment of a fee, the contents varying. The lady accepting the offer does so in chaste and appropriate words and furnishes her picture, which is reproduced today as showing how the belles of a half century ago “dolled up.” Their costumes certainly looked good at the time and it will be noted took up much more room than “vogues” in 1916.
The letter is also contributed by A. L. O. A. and is a valuable historic souvenir of stirring days when the patriotic people of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania raised $363,570 in less than a month for the welfare and comfort of the soldiers fighting the battles of the Union.
Several persons have called attention to the fact that some mention of Gen. Richard Butler’s residence in Pittsburgh was omitted in the Butler stories, especially Richard Butler’s membership of the Masonic order in old Lodge 45 of Pittsburgh, a lodge still in existence and more than a century old.
Among the first members of this lodge were Col. William Butler, brother of Richard; Gen. John Neville, Judge Hugh Henry Brackenridge, Capt. Joseph Ashton, John Ormsby, Gen. James O’Hara, Capt. Michael Hufnagle, Maj. Isaac Craig, Senator James Ross, Samuel Ewalt and Capt. John Irwin. Most of these were soldiers in the Continental Army and most of their names were inscribed on the tablet erected by the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Daughters of the Revolution on the wall of Trinity Church in Oliver avenue.
Seven of these early craftsmen in Pittsburgh have been honored with commemoration in local nomenclature, Butler, Neville, Brackenridge, O’Hara, Craig, Ross and Irwin. Two, Ormsby and Ewalt, have lapsed.
When William Irwin’s brick house at the southwest corner of Market street and the West Diamond was completed in 1799 Lodge 45 held its meetings in a room on the third floor. Later members other than those above noted were Anthony Beelen, Tarleton Bates, James M. Riddle and Judge Henry Baldwin, who have received mention in these stories and perhaps were intimates of all the Butlers, surely of Col. William and Capt. Edward Butler.
The Pittsburgh directory of 1840, published by Isaac Harris, shows Capt. James R. Butler to have been “quartermaster at U. S. military, Penn street; dwelling house, U. S. Arsenal, Lawrenceville.”
In the list of officers attached to the “Allegheny Arsenal at Lawrenceville” in the same directory occurs the line, “Capt. J. R. Butler, military storekeeper and paymaster.”
Capt. Butler was the son of Gen. Richard Butler, a captain of the “Pittsburgh Blues” in the War of 1812.
S. Jones’ Directory of Pittsburgh, 1826, notes Capt. J. R. Butler as military storekeeper. He was for many years, therefore, a United States soldier and contemporary with William Barclay Foster, founder of Lawrenceville.
