Military: Civil War: Re-Union of the 78th Regiment, PVI, 1886: Kittanning, Armstrong Co, PA Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Lisa Strobel. strobel@sgi.net USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: Printing this file within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ ____________________________________________________ (This letter was taken from the September 24, 1886 issue of the Kittanning Times) The 78th Regiment From the Millerstown Herald. To the Editor of the Herald I see by a notice in the Butler Times, that the Seventy-eighth regiment is to have a reunion October the nineteenth, at Freeport, Pa. I had the honor to serve three years and two months in that regiment and look forward to the coming reunion as one of the pleasant episodes in the life of an ex-soldier. I would here enlarge on the invitation of Colonel Blakely, and invite all ex-soldiers and immediate relative of those who fell in battle, or died of wounds or other disabilities incurred while in the army. The regiment was mustered into the service one thousand strong at Kittanning, on the tenth of September, 1861, the next day was transported to Pittsburg on flat cars, where the brigade, composed of the Seventy Seventh, Seventy Eighth and Seventy Ninth regiments and a battery of artillery, under command of General James S. Negley, was organized. The field officers of the Seventy-Eighth regiment were Colonel William Sirwell, lately deceased, whose memory will ever live in the hearts of every soldier who had the honor to serve under him peace to his ashes. Lieutenant Colonel A. Blakely, Major Gust (?) Bonifou (?), now deceased, a braver officer never lived. Quarter Master Captain Lowrey, Adjutant Lieutenant Powell, Chaplain Rev. R.C. Christy, known all over the western army as the fighting chaplain, from the fact that he would frequently pick up some fallen comrade's musket and go in with the boys. He to has answered to that last roll call. After remaining in camp at Pittsburgh for a week the brigade embarked on board of a fleet composed of seven steamboats. Destination, Louisville, Kentucky. We landed at the latter place without any accident except when about to back out from the wharf at Pittsburg the hurricane deck of one of the boats belonging to the fleet broke down with the weight of the soldiers, killing two of the band and wounding several others. Kentucky remained neutral up to this time, but B_____(?) had suddenly invaded her from the south with ten thousand Tennessee and Kentucky troops, and was marching on Louisville. He had got as far as Bowling Green General R____(?) hurriedly organized what was called the Kentucky Legion, for the protection of the city. In the meantime the government ordered General Negley to take the brigade and hurry with all speed to the defense of Louisville. Thus ours were the first northern troops, with the exception of the Thirty Second, Indiana, Colonel Wilbok (?), to go to the relief of Kentucky and Louisville. The routine of the Regiment from this time forward was the same as all the other regiments drilling, marching, skirmishing, foraging, etc. It was also in the Stone River, Chickamauga and Mission Ridge fights and in Sherman's Campaign from Chattanooga to Atlanta, fifty-two days under fire on the latter campaign. Was mustered out at Kittanning November fourth, 1864. Four hundred and eighty-seven out of one thousand. Where are the others? They found a place of rest beneath a sultry southern sky. Hugh McFadden Co. F. 78th Reg't. (This article was taken from the October 1, 1886 issue of the Kittanning Times) Re-Union of the 78th Regiment The seventy-Eighth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, will hold its next annual reunion at Freeport, on the eighteenth of this month, and Archibald Blakeley, Esq., Chairman Committee, has issued the following circular programme Comrades Charles B. Gillespie and Albert Clawson, of Freeport, have charge of the arrangements for reception and entertainment. They are being generously assisted by the ladies and gentlemen of Freeport and vicinity. There will be no especial programme, parade, or marching, except that on the arrival of the train from Allegheny, at eleven, A.M., the comrades will fall in at the depot and march to the place of reception, where an address of welcome will be delivered by the Burgess of Freeport, and a response on the part of the regiment, by comrade P.P. Mcott(?). Thence a march to the Town Hall, where dinner will be served by the ladies. After dinner the comrades will rest at will, and take any order of exercises or none as they prefer. During this time Company Roll Calls and meetings should be had, and Company business attended to. In the evening the entertainment will se continued under the anspices(?) of the Freeport Post of the G.A.R., at which songs, stories, recitations, short impromptu addresses and personal reminiscences will prevail. Judge Shannon, of Pittsburg, a life long personal friend of the late Colonel William Sirwell, is expected at some time during the day or evening, to deliver an address on the life and services of this distinguished Commander of our old regiment and brigade. A young lady of rare elocutionary powers, a daughter of one of the comrades, has prepared and will speak one or more appropriate pieces, one of which we expect to be the celebrated poem entitled "Thomas at Chickamauga". Generals Sherman, Sheridan, Rosencrans, McCool, Negley, Hambright, Stumbaugh, Rose, Robinson and other eminent soldiers of the Army of the Cumberland have been invited and we confidently expect the attendance of some of them. Our comrades in Freeport, and the citizens of the town and neighborhood are doing all in their power to have a good, wholesome, old fashioned coming together of the men now alive of the Seventy-Eighth regiment who volunteered, marched, tented, b______(?) and fought together for the preservation of the "grandest country and the best government on the face of the earth". Let us all go. There is much important business to be done. It has been suggested by many comrades that a company historian for each company be elected; that a committee be elected as a Regimental Historical Committee; that a complete history of the regiment and of each company be prepared and published with such personal accounts of individual acts of heroism of comrades as they may desire to furnish, and which a committee may approve. It is estimated that it can be put in book form well bound, at a cost of from one to two dollars for each subscriber. Think over this, and any other matter deemed beneficial to our organization, so that we may meet prepared to suggest and act. Round trip tickets at reduced rates have been promised by all the railroads. The day and night meeting will both adjourn by singing "Auld Lang Syne". Let each comrade prepare to start the tune. (This article was taken from the October 22, 1886 issue of the Kittanning Times) Reunion of the Seventy-Eighth Last Tuesday was the day set apart by the surviving members of the gallant Seventy-Eighth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, for their annual reunion, which had been arranged to take place at Freeport. The day was all that could be desired, and all nature seemed to vie with the hospitable ladies of Freeport in giving the boys a good time. Members of the regiment began arriving the night before, and were taken charge of and entertained by members of H. S. Weaver Post paraded over the principal part of the town, ending at the opera house, where they had been ordered to report by the good ladies of Freeport. Here they were welcomed by Burgess J.J. McCormick in the following ringing and appropriate ADDRESS OF WELCOME VETERANS OF THE 78TH P.V. As Burgess it gives me great pleasure to welcome you to our little village; it may be a modest and unostentatious welcome, yet of behalf of my people I can assure you that it is sincere in its motives, and comes from hearts true and patriotic. I am led to believe from the record of your past reunions, that the prime object of your assembling together, is not so much to recount the exploits of war or keep alive the m___(?) spirits or revive resentful sentiments that may have been created by the war, nor for vain glorious boastings, or to awaken sectional _____(?) or hatred, but to cherish and perpetuate the lofty spirit of patriotism and devotion to your country, which animated all loyal hearts during that fearful struggle in which you took a prominent part, in which you suffered, and in which you were finally victorious. These reunions are for the sole purpose of strengthening the ties of friendship had years ago in the camp. on the march and amid the glare of battle, and to re-illume the lamp of patriotism. These meetings surely cannot hurt the feelings of any true American no matter in what section he may live. For all bitterness was buried on an April Sabbath twenty-one years ago, which sealed war's bloody lips when Grant told Lee to keep his bo____(?) for the farmers' work. From the breasts of the boys in blue and from the breasts of the boys in gray was vanished all bitterness and they quaffed the wine of peace and pledged the f____(?) of friends for evermore. These reunions should be gladly welcomed in every city, town and village in the country. Here you should have your orators tell the rising generations why so many men ____ ____(?) to home and all that was near and dear there, why they went on long tiresome marches through dismal swaps, though wilderness, over mountains and along valleys, why so many fought and bled and starved and died. Tell the youth your war has no parallel in history. It was not a war for or against religion ____(?) (Might be a few sentences missing here) _______(?) flowers to bloom over your patriot graves, that every summer morning He will call forth His feathered songsters and bid them sing their sweetest song, and that every winter he will cover them over with a white mantle of the purest snow, in memory of the grand and noble patriotic sacrifices offered by you, when in sincere devotion to country you laid your lives on the altar of the American Republic. Veterans of the 78th Regiment, again I wish you a hearty, thrice hearty welcome. He was responded to by Colonel Blakely and then the old heroes were invited into the opera house, where their dinner awaited them. Up until this time the soldiers had been astonished beyond measure by the hearty welcome shown to them on all aides, by everybody, in the way of spectators, cheers, waving of handkerchiefs, decorations, suspension of the public schools and all public works as well as of business, but when they entered the opera house and seen the large number of tables that looked as though they had been arranged by fairy bands, so beautiful were they, and loadened until they almost have way beneath the weight, with all that could tempt the appetite, it was too much, and many pairs of eyes that would have faced a thousand foes without quivering, were turned aside that the merry eyes of the hostesses might not see the moisture that quickly gathered there and when all were seated the questions as to what they wanted remained unanswered in many cases lest the quavering voice might betray that the stout heart that would march up to the fiery mouthed death dealing cannon without one quicker throb had been touched and touched deeply by this generous preparation by the ladies of Freeport and vicinity as a welcome in the veterans. By and by the boys conquered their feelings, and then ___(?) and repartee passed thick and fast, and many a scene passed through in the days when the nation's life hung in the balance was recalled and told and retold, while the delicious _____(?) vanished as if by magic. But the ladies of Freeport had anticipated this and as one dish was emptied it was removed by ______ ______(?) and replaced with another filled even higher than the former one and all this was done without disturbing or interrupting the flow of merry jokes that was to be heard on all sides. At last the boys in blue were forced to desist from sheer lack of room to put more away, and although almost a quarter of a century ago the whole of Lee's army could not have made them run, they acknowledged (but with heartfelt thanks) that the ladies of Freeport had conquered them, and they b___(?) a hasty retreat only to have their seats taken by a host of others who met with a similar reception. And these affairs continued until late in the afternoon, the troops that were filled retiring, and those ahungered taking their places, but the ladies never wavered, and not until the last hungry mortal was satisfied did they stop to rest. Worthy wives and daughters of brave husbands and fathers. As soon as the first tables had been cleared those who had eaten ______(?) to Ralston's Hall, where a regimental meeting was held. At the meeting Captain _(?)D. Elwood, of Pittsburg, was elected permanent president of the organization, and H.H. Bengough(?), of the same city, was elected permanent MORE TO COME.