- Joined
- May 23, 2018
I recently started reading Gary Ecelbarger's We Are in for It about Kernstown. So far, it's been really good, but I've been intrigued by an incident he briefly refers to early in the book.
On page 6, Ecelbarger talks about how the 110th Pennsylvania had a lot of tension between its companies that had come from rural counties and its 4 Philadelphia-recruited companies. Seems like things came to a head in January 1862 in Hagerstown, Maryland, with some of the troops brawling with each other in the local saloons.
Their officers got them out of town and started marching them on a road that had just been macadamized. Rather than calming down the situation, it just escalated further. A brawl broke out that lasted for about 20 minutes and featured the men chunking goose-egg sized limestone macadam at each other. By the time things settled, there were 3 dead and over 40 injured, including some mortally.
The limestone throwing and the death toll piqued my curiosity, so I wanted to learn more about the event but am finding most histories of the regiment silent on the incident.
The only other mention I found was in another one of Ecelbarger's books. Both times he lists a manuscript history of the regiment in an archive and letters printed in a local newspaper at the time as the sources. I did find a roster for the 110th and located some deaths in Company A that fit the location and date but no further explanation, so that's just surmising on my part that it's connected.
Has anyone come across this brawl being mentioned in other sources? (Thinking I'm maybe just looking in the wrong places.) Did those sources give any more information?
Likewise, is anyone familiar of similar incidents of a regiment attacking each other like this during the Civil War? I've read about the massive snowball fights they used to have with each other, but of course, those always seemed fairly good natured. And featured snowballs, not chunks of rock!
On page 6, Ecelbarger talks about how the 110th Pennsylvania had a lot of tension between its companies that had come from rural counties and its 4 Philadelphia-recruited companies. Seems like things came to a head in January 1862 in Hagerstown, Maryland, with some of the troops brawling with each other in the local saloons.
Their officers got them out of town and started marching them on a road that had just been macadamized. Rather than calming down the situation, it just escalated further. A brawl broke out that lasted for about 20 minutes and featured the men chunking goose-egg sized limestone macadam at each other. By the time things settled, there were 3 dead and over 40 injured, including some mortally.
The limestone throwing and the death toll piqued my curiosity, so I wanted to learn more about the event but am finding most histories of the regiment silent on the incident.
The only other mention I found was in another one of Ecelbarger's books. Both times he lists a manuscript history of the regiment in an archive and letters printed in a local newspaper at the time as the sources. I did find a roster for the 110th and located some deaths in Company A that fit the location and date but no further explanation, so that's just surmising on my part that it's connected.
Has anyone come across this brawl being mentioned in other sources? (Thinking I'm maybe just looking in the wrong places.) Did those sources give any more information?
Likewise, is anyone familiar of similar incidents of a regiment attacking each other like this during the Civil War? I've read about the massive snowball fights they used to have with each other, but of course, those always seemed fairly good natured. And featured snowballs, not chunks of rock!