Without Benefit of Muster

Before Biddle's brigade was ordered back to Pennsylvania, the colonel became fearful that he was being assigned duty which he would not relish. After Bull Run McClellan was called to Washington. General W. S. Rosecrans was then placed in command of the Department of the Ohio, which included the Army of Occupation Western Virginia. Not knowing that Biddle and his Bucktails were still state militia only, one of Rosecrans’ first acts in his snew capacity was to assign Biddle to the command of the newly created Cheat River District. This was an area in which the fighting was about over. Biddle wanted to stay with the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps, which, it appeared, would be assigned to the army in front of Washington. Occupation duty did not appeal to the colonel and he immediately wired Governor Curtin. No doubt Biddle was very happy that he and his outfit had not yet been mustered into Federal service. The order of Rosencrans was without effect. and shortly Biddle received orders to come back to Camp Curtin.
The Bucktails and the Fifth Pennsylvania Reserves had not been offered to the Federal government because Curtin did nor want the Reserve Corps broken up by piecemeal muster. He had become rather proud of his Pennsylvania Volunteer Reserve Corps. It had been organized at a time when Washington would not accept any more regiments. It

was financed by the state on borrowed money. General McCall had been working hard to whip the Corps into shape. The Reserve Corps gave Pennsylvania fifteen regiments which the governor wanted to see mustered into Federal service as a division under the command of General McCall. By the end of July the situation was such that Curtin could realize his rather unique objective.[1]
Even before Bull Run, Washington had been clamoring for Pennsylvania regiments. After Bull Run, with the expiration of the three-months enlistments, the War Department needed men so desperately that it was willing to make an exception to its policy of muster by regiment. Washington would take the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps intact. Andy Curtin had won his point. He was happy, and so were the Pennsylvania Reserves. [2]
Arriving back at Cam Curtin on the last day of July, the Bucktails found the place crowded and changed. New units of recruits had arrived, several regiments of the Reserve Corps had already been shipped out, and the three-months men, with the memory of Manassas still vivid, were streaming in, homeward bound. Additional clothing was issued and the question of weapons came up again. This seemed to be worrying everyone from the governor down to the last private. Curtin bitterly complained to the War Department over its handling of the issue of arms. As for the men in the ranks, the Bucktails were divided in opinion, except that they wanted no more Harpers Ferry muskets. Some wanted Minies. Others did not. One hot August day a single company was marched down to the arsenal near the capitol to receive guns. Handed Minies, they refused them. Their captain let them get away with it, and marched them back to camp. Finally, some companies got Enfields and others

Springfields. Both makes were muzzle-loaders, and the men sever ceased to argue their respective merits.
      The authorized strength of a company had been increased from 7 to 1 . Some of the Bucktail captains obtained leave to go home and recruit. Captain Niles of Company E came back with fifty-two would-be Bucktails.
        To the newly arrived “strawfeet” at Camp Curtin, the Bucktail Regiment was a veteran outfit. The few weeks which the rifle regiment had spent south of the Mason Dixon Line gave it a special status in the eyes of the newcomers. The men rather enjoyed the envious, admiring glances shot their way by the new inductees. One evening the Bucktails staged a demonstration of their newly acquired military skill. Heralded in advance quite a crowd of civilians as well as soldiers turned out to see the Kane Rifle Regiment (Thirteenth Pennsylvania Reserves), soon to become the Forty-Second of the Line. The Camp Curtin parade ground was hard and smooth. The evening was cool. Each captain had made certain that ever man in his company had the last touch of spit and polish. Down the field marched the regiment, a bucktail waving from every cap. The movements were carried out with a precision which surprised the men themselves. Colonel Biddle put them through the manual of arms. With the-command, "Order arms," the blow of eight hundred guns' butts on the hard. ground "was so like the report of a six-pounder" that the spectators, soldiers, an civilians alike broke into cheers. These were the boys from the Wildcat District who made up the greater part of what had been considered these most unmanageable outfit in the Reserve Corps. They had come quite a way since April. Biddle was proud; Kane was proud the Bucktails were proud.[3]
   The Bucktails' stay at Camp Curtin this time was short.

On August 8 they were ordered to Sandy Hook. Maryland on the Potomac opposite Harpers Ferry. The Second Pennsylvania Reserves had already been ordered there. It would be a temporary assignment for these two outfits prior to the collection of all the regiments of the Reserve Corps as a division of McClellan's army in front of Washington. On the trip to Sandy Hook a change of stations in Baltimore was necessary. Colonel Biddle, remembering the experience of the Sixth Massachusetts when it changed trains in Baltimore in April, ordered the men to empty their guns before tile march from station to station. The colonel wanted to avoid trouble. The men also remembered the April incident of the Massa- chusetts troops and deliberated failed to comply with the order. There was no trouble, and on the evening of the 9th the Bucktails joined the Second Reserves at Sandy Hook. The Bucktails' stay at Sandy Hook was also short. The men were confined to camp. Captain Holland, of Company A, wrote home that this was tough on "the wildcat rovers." There was no fresh meat and no soft bread.
On a rainy August 17 the two regiments were pulled out of Sandy Hook and set on the road, the men knew not where. The rain continued and the roads be a "a perfect salve." Tents had been left behind and the men had to sleep in the open. It took until August 21 to reach Hyattstown, Maryland. Here the Bucktails drew the unpeasant duty of mounting guard over a part of the Nineteenth New York Regiment. The Nineteenth was in practical mutiny. They supposed they were three-months men and expected to be mustered out on August 22. However, the state law contained a provision for Federal muster for a two-year period. The men of the New York regiment had apparently overlooked this in their zeal to join up the previous spring. The entire matter was not handled very diplomatically, and the

Bucktails found themselves guarding a couple of hundred mutineers from their neighboring state. the matter finally righted itself, although it fell to the lot of the Bucktail Company A to conduct twenty-three holdouts to Fort Monroe, were they remained in the brig for several months.[4]
      On August 29 the regiments moved to near Darnestown. The wet spell had continued, and the march was made in mud sometimes ankle deep . Three weeks were spent near Darnestown. The camp was in a grove of fine oaks and "clean as a parlor." The men named it Camp Union. For a while at least they were assured of soft bread. Each company made a large stone bake oven. When in camp seven or eight men would mess together. The soldiers were becoming more adept at camp cookery. Their proficiency at supplementing army rations was also on the increase. Nearby potato patches and cornfields were subject to surreptitious visitations.
      Drilling continued, and life, in spite of the camp's pleasant location, again became monotonous. General Nathaniel P. Banks, under whose command the brigade had been temporarily placed, appeared for an inspection. The Bucktails and the Second were beginning to wonder whether they were ever going to catch up with the other regiments of the Reserve Corps.
      The reunion finally took place on September 25. Camp Tenally was located in the northwestern part of the District of Columbia near the Chain Bridge. It was nearly twenty five miles from Camp Union. The two regiments made it in one day. The Bucktails were glad to be back with the Reserve Corps, although they ad arrived too late to see Lincoln and General McClellan. A few days before, the President and the commander of the Army of the Potomac had appeared for a review, and Governor Curtin had come down from Harrisburg to present regimental flags. [5]

The Pennsvlvania Reserve Corps, now a division of the Army of the Potomac, with McCall in command, was divided into three brigades. The Bucktails were in the Second Brigade along with the Fourth, Third Seventh, Eleventh, and Second Reserves. Their brigadier was George Gordon Meade.
The Bucktails had arrived at Tenally dead broke. The state had paid them up to their first leaving Camp Curtin, and there had been no pay since. The story made the rounds of the regiment that a paymaster in a wagon loaded with gold and drawn by six balky mules was coming out from Washington. On October 7 he arrived. There was, however, a technicality. The Bucktails had never been mustered into Federal service! The paymaster explained that this could easily be cured. He would send for a mustering officer at once, but the muster would date from the time it was made. When this bit of intelligence was communicated to Colonel Biddle, his reaction was what might be expected from any good officer who well knows how important pay is to his men. Said the little colonel, everyone knew his outfit had been to all intent and purpose in the Federal service for over three months. If the paymaster persisted in his technical position, Biddle would march his First Rifle Regiment back to Harrisburg. Apparently everyone finally agreed that even for the Army it was all rather silly. Someone came up with the suggestion of a muster by the Secretary of War without date. This was done and soon hundreds of Bucktails were seen "running from the sutlers' stands to their tents with a roll of ginger bread in one and and a pound of cheese in the other." This was the Bucktails' only muster. Their brigadier never considered them mustered. Several years later when Meade had been elevated to the command of the Army of the Potomac he would write to the War Department: "One

of the regiments, First Pennsylvania Rifles, were never mustered into the U.S. service, but have been held on their muster into the State service, which provided for their transfer to the United States."[6]
      On October 9 McCall's Division became the right of the Army of the Potomac This came about by its being ordered to cross the Potomac and move to Langley, Virginia, some ten miles northwest of Washington. With two days' cooked rations and sixty rounds of ammunition to each man, the division moved out with the Bucktails in advance. The regiments move past the fortifications of Washington and crossed into Virginia by the Chain Bridge. It was the first time that they had all been in one marching train. By the evening of the next day a new camp was being established. It would bear the name Camp Pierpont after Francis H. Pierpont, the loyal governor of Virginia.
      On a fine autumn day, October 19 General McCall's three brigades were pushed west on a reconnaissance. That night t he Bucktails, with the rest of Meade's Brigade, camped at Dranesville, a little village, which, beginning a few weeks later, they would always remember. The next day scouting parties were sent out in all directions. Kane took five companies toward Hunter's Mills. The day passed without incident, except for an example of Bucktail marksmanship almost too good to be believed. Over a half mile away a squadron of Confederate cavalry was sighted. Apparently the cavalry had also seen the Bucktails for they took cover, except for a lone horseman who rode out in front of some trees. Kane ordered three men to pick him off .Three shots rang out almost simultaneously and the gray trooper fell from his horse. He was picked up by his comrades and the Rebels galloped off.[7]
      Shortly after the Bucktails left Dranesville on the morn-

ing of the 21st, over their shoulders they could hear, coming from farther up the Potomac, the sound of cannon. Apparently, at the time, these sounds were not given a second thought by anyone in the column. The division had been ordered back to Langley, and that was where it was going.
      About ten miles up the Potomac from Dranesville a brigade belonging to the division of General Charles P. Stone was completing a crossing from the Maryland side to a little wooded bluff, known as Ball's Bluff. In higher woods back of the bluff was a Confederate force. They had the Union regiments in a desperately dangerous spot and were about to take advantage of it. Few boats were available to the Yankees, and it would have taken hours to re-cross the river. They stood and fought, but they were cut to pieces. Union casualties were about nine hundred, mostly prisoners. Ball's Bluff is listed only as an "engagement," and might have passed as a minor Union debacle to be forgotten as soon as possible. However, among the Northern dead was a volunteer colonel, Edward D. Baker. Baker was also a senator from Oregon, an important man in Washington, and a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln. This called for an investigation. There must be a scapegoat. The result was the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. The scapegoat was General Stone, who was not exactly anti-slavery.
        McCall's Division was involved in Ball's Bluff in a most indirect manner. The day before the fight McClellan had sent Stone a rather vague message. It mentioned McCall at Dranesville and his reconnaissance. It asked Stone to keep an eye on Leesburg to see if McCall’s movements would drive the Southern force out of that vicinity. And it ended with a suggestion that Stone might help by a slight demonstration.” That the order was liberally construed is obvious.
      The business of Ball's Bluff has been mentioned only be-

cause the Bucktails and the other regiments were so near and yet so far from the combat which their young, stout hearts so dearly desired that first fall when the war was still something new. The routine of learning war was interesting, even exciting, during those fine, crisp October days, but the Wildcat Regiment wanted an opportunity to demonstrate what it thought it had learned. The order to withdraw, after it was found out what had taken place a few short miles upstream, was always lamented by the Bucktails. Many years later their regimental historians would seek to show that Stone's brigades were depending on McCall for support, thinking he was still near. The Bucktail historians also suggest that, had the division not been withdrawn, McCall's regiments could have saved the day. The disappointment was not confined to the men alone. Meade and General John F. reynolds, another brigade commander , while both supporting McClellan in his withdrawal order expressed a certain bitterness.[8]