Eberhart, Gilbert R. "Something Further About the Bucktails," National Tribune, May 1, 1884

To the Editor NATIONAL TRIBUNE:

In your issue of April 17, in the "Question Squad" column, it is stated that Richard A. Tooker, of company G, Kane Rifles (42d Pennsylvania volunteers), claims the regiment was never sworn into the United State service. In reply thereto I can only say that I do not know whether any formal oath was ever administered to the members of the organization or not, but the State law under which the Pennsylvania Reserves were organized provided that the division should be at any and all times subject to a call from the President; hence, when they were sworn into the State service they at the same time swore they would enter the United States service when called on to do so. And I must add that Comrade Tooker is in error when he says half the regiment never got any pay for the services rendered in West Virginia. The organization of the Bucktails began as early as April 13, 1861, and Colonel Thomas kane’s commission as Colonel and his muster-in to service was dated May 12, 1861, and Colonel Biddle’s muster-in dated May 20, 1861, and Colonel Kane’s election as Lieut.-Col June 13, 1861. Captain Hugh M’Donald’s muster-in is dated May 29, 1861, as, was Sergeant Tooker’s, and those of nearly all the original members of company G. A part of that company was mustered in July, 27, 1861, which latter date is the one on which or near which the greater portion of the division was sworn into the United States service pro forma. The Bucktails did not join or actually become a part of the Pennsylvania Reserves until they joined the division at Tennallytown about the 1^st of October, 1861. The term of service for the Bucktails, as well as of all the other regiments in the Pennsylvania Reserves was computed from the date of their enrollment in the State service, and they were paid from such date. If any have failed to receive pay for any service in West Virginia or elsewhere, they have no one to blame but themselves. It is true that many were first paid by the United States only from the date of actual muster into the United States service, but provision was afterwards made to pay all from date of enlistment; and if Comrade Tooker or any of the famous Bucktails (Kane Rifles) has not yet received his pay, he has only to make proper application and he will receive every penny to which he is entitled---pay, bounty and clothing. So late as 1878, when the writer was a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature, he had the pleasure of urging the passage and voting for a bill making an appropriation of $10,000. To pay claims prior to January 1, 1878, for just such services as Comrade Tooker refers to; and as it curiously happened I was not long afterwards informed by the Auditor general of Pennsylvania that he was ready to pay a claim I had filed in 1868, and which I may say, in order to relieve myself from the charge of any personal or pecuniary motive in urging the pasage of the appropriation bill, I had entirely forgotten that I had not been already paid for my own term of service.

I may add, further, that the Bucktails were mustered out of their first tem of (three years) service at Harrisburg, June 11, 1864, which fact is conclusive proof that the United States authorities recognized their term as dating not later than June 11, 1861 and this added to the other fact that the regiment did not leave West Virginia to join the division until October 1, 1861, and that between these dates it was under the control of the War Department and under the direct command of Generals Patterson, Banks, and other United States officers, all shows that Comrade Tooker’s memory is at fault.

GILBERT L. Eberhart., New Brighton, PA