“If I Get Home Safe”: William C. White’s Experiences in the American Civil War

An example of White’s penmanship.⁸

The vastness of Civil War scholarship raises questions such as how to narrow the source base and how far back in the literature to explore. In terms of this paper, the most recent applicable work comes from Gary W. Gallagher’s The Union War, which was published in 2011.⁹ Gallagher resurrects the notion that men truly fought for “Union,” which he believes is an idea that has been lost on historians. As a companion piece to his seminal work, The Confederate War, Gallagher pushes scholarship in new directions and attempts to spark historiographical debate. Gallagher asserts that Northern men, much like White, could fight for Union while disavowing emancipation.

Paul A. Cimbala discusses soldiers’ ideals in Soldiers North and South: The Everyday Experiences of Men Who Fought America’s Civil War, which was published in 2010.¹⁰ Cimbala intricately details the lives of Union and Confederate soldiers in nine essays that cover topics such as “Daily Camp Life,” “Approaching Battle,” and “Engaging the Enemy.” With an emphasis on ordinary soldiers, Cimbala shows that men, North and South, faced similar circumstances. Namely, bad food, distaste for company drill, frightening battlefield experiences, and a home front they deemed not loyal. Cimbala describes what life at the front and in camp would have been like for White. Randall M. Miller provides another important Civil War account in Religion and the American Civil War. Miller’s essay, “Catholic Religion, Irish Ethnicity, and the Civil War,” asserts that religious belief was essential to the development of Irish-American identity.¹¹ As a part of a larger collection of essays, this argument places Catholicism within the spectrum of religious belief in the Civil War era. Miller claims that Irish-Catholic men felt deep religious devotion, attended mass when it was offered, and sought absolution before going into battle.

James M. McPherson also discusses the religious beliefs of soldiers in his classic work, For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War.¹² Published in 1998, For Cause and Comrades has become a crucial work for understanding Civil War soldiers’ motivations. McPherson claims that soldiers on both sides joined the ranks for “cause” which was defined by Victorian ideas of duty to one’s family and country. While they may have joined for cause, McPherson asserts that what made men actually fight when in battle was the protection of their “comrades.” The bonds of friendship and camaraderie built during long marches, harsh conditions, and battle were the reasons why men fought so hard in the Civil War. While McPherson aptly describes the majority of Civil War soldiers, White’s motivations do not neatly fit within his framework. Furthermore, McPherson is in conversation with Gerald F. Linderman’s Embattled Courage: The Experience of Combat in the American Civil War, which was published in 1987.¹³ Linderman posits a more critical view of individual motivations. In fact, he draws a distinction between the volunteers of 1861 and 1862, and the conscripts and bounty-induced men of 1863 to 1865. Linderman believes that the earliest recruits fought out of courage and for the defense of their country. Later recruits fought for their own financial gain or were simply forced to fight after being drafted. Linderman presents a fuller framework than McPherson for understanding White’s, and many other Irish-Catholic Philadelphians’, service. Yet neither Linderman nor McPherson provides the perfect formula for understanding Irish-Catholic Philadelphians.

As a result, the inclusion of specialized histories becomes necessary to complete the picture of William White’s war experiences. Daniel R. Biddle and Murray Dubin’s Tasting Freedom: Octavius Catto and the Battle for Equality in Civil War America, published in 2010, outlines African-Americans’ fight for equality in Philadelphia.¹⁴ Biddle and Dubin center their work on Octavius Catto, an African-American activist and teacher, and how the struggles in his life paralleled those of African-Americans generally. In developing their argument, Biddle and Dubin recreate pre-war Philadelphia and dedicate an entire chapter to Irish-Catholic Philadelphians.¹⁵ Overall, Biddle and Dubin highlight racial tensions in Philadelphia and show the social environment into which White was born.

In addition, Jay P. Dolan provides a complete history of Irish-Americans in his 2008 work entitled, The Irish Americans.¹⁶ Dolan sketches the role of Irish men and women in the United States from the 1700s through the election of President John F. Kennedy in 1960. While Dolan writes a broad history, his discussions of the Irish in Philadelphia before and during the Civil War are excellent. Dolan asserts that Philadelphia was the capital of Irish-American identity in the 19^th century and held a posture of political, social, and religious control in Irish America. While Dolan discusses Irish-Americans broadly, Susannah Ural Bruce’s The Harp and the Eagle: Irish-American Volunteers and the Union Army, 1861-1865 solely discusses Irish-Catholic soldiers.¹⁷ The Harp and the Eagle, which was published in 2006, is the most important work on Irish-Catholic soldiers in the Civil War and why those men fought. Bruce asserts that Irish-Catholics had dual, and competing, loyalties to both Ireland and America. Subsequently, Irish-Catholic troops fought for a myriad of reasons including money, Union, and Irish nationalism. While no one reason explains why Irish men fought, Bruce claims that service in the Union Army fostered a new allegiance to the United States. Even though an Irish-American identity would develop slowly, Bruce shows that the process began in the American Civil War. While Bruce discusses Irish-Catholic involvement in war, J. Matthew Gallman’s Receiving Erin’s Children: Philadelphia, Liverpool, and the Irish Famine Migration, 1845-1855 outlines the migratory connections between Philadelphia and Liverpool, England.¹⁸ Receiving Erin’s Children, published in 2000, describes a migration process in which Irish immigrants fled from Ireland to Liverpool to Philadelphia. Gallman provides vivid detail about the living conditions of Philadelphia’s Irish community with a particular emphasis on health, religion, and violence.

William L. Burton also discusses ethnic soldiers and their regiments in Melting Pot Soldiers: The Union’s Ethnic Regiments.¹⁹ Published in 1998, Melting Pot Soldiers details the service of mainly German and Irish regiments in the Civil War. Specifically, Burton looks at Irish soldiers’ hatred of abolitionists and Irish actions at Fredericksburg. Burton also states that while Irish regiments may have seemed united to outsiders, they were in fact riddled with factions. Each faction was looking for advancement and power in post-war America. James Hennesey, S.J. outlines a differing aspect of Irish-Americans’ war experiences in American Catholics: A History of the Roman Catholic Community in the United States.²⁰ Published in 1981, American Catholics is a comprehensive history of Catholics in America from the first Catholic diocese in Baltimore to the early 1980s. While most of Hennesey’s arguments are beyond the scope of this work, he does have a fine chapter on Catholics in the Civil War. Hennesey argues that the Catholic Church remained intact during the war due to an abundance of priests. Also published in 1981 was John Modell’s and Lynn H. Lees’s essay, “The Irish Countryman Urbanized: A Comparative Perspective on the Famine Migration.”²¹ Modell and Lees argue that Philadelphia was a critical point of entry for Irish immigrants. They claim the highly urbanized environment of Philadelphia was markedly different from Ireland and, as a result, immigrants had to adapt to this new lifestyle. Dennis Clark’s The Irish in Philadelphia: Ten Generations of Urban Experience continues this theme and is the only full-length account of the Irish in Philadelphia.²² Published in 1973, The Irish in Philadelphia was an early attempt at uncovering the lost story of Irish Philadelphians. Clark focuses on social aspects such as housing, fraternal clubs, and other Irish causes. Clark’s work is a start to understanding the Irish community of Philadelphia but, more than forty years later, much work remains.

For purposes of brevity, only one or two of the most crucial sources for each of my arguments have been cited. Since Irish-Catholic Philadelphians in the Civil War have not received much scholarly attention, it was vital to read the newest works since each contained newly discovered material. Therefore, only relatively new scholarship ranging from the 1970s to the present has been utilized. In this paper, I argue that Irish-Catholic service in the Union Army was out of devotion to Unionism. This argument is in line with Gary Gallagher’s placement of Unionism at the core of why many Northern soldiers fought. In order to better understand this Unionism, William Burton’s detailed discussions of ethnic regiments have been included. Moreover, Randall Miller provides a framework for understanding Irish-Catholic religious belief. I argue that an Irish brand of Catholicism was vital to keeping men in the field and helping to define what it meant to be Irish-American. Finally, Bruce allows for a detailed discussion of Irish-American identity through her claims that the Irish had competing loyalties. Bruce asserts that Irish-Catholics viewed themselves as both Irish and American. I slightly disagree and argue that a distinct Irish-American identity, which placed America above Ireland, developed during the Civil War era.

To understand William White’s war experiences, we must understand his life and the social environment in which he was raised. However, reconstructing White’s life poses some challenges. One such challenge is piecing together his childhood. White’s birth records have been lost, he does not appear in census data until 1880, and he does not speak of his childhood in his letters. After combining information from muster rolls and a pension form dated 1892, entitled “Declaration for an Original Disability Pension,” it seems likely that White was born in 1844.²³ His parents were both born in Ireland and migrated to Philadelphia before the Great Famine of the late 1840s.²⁴ Since White commonly discusses the “12^th Street Boys,” a nickname for his company in the 69^th PA, it is reasonable to assert that White grew up in the Moyamensing section of South Philadelphia.²⁵ While White’s childhood is murky, he comes into clearer focus during the Civil War. The pension form from 1892 lists White’s height as 5 foot 9 inches, his complexion as light, his hair as light, and his eyes as green.²⁶ White joined the 69^th PA on August 19, 1861 for a three year enlistment.²⁷ He was promoted to corporal on February 1, 1862 after just five months’ service and promoted to sergeant one year later on February 1, 1863.²⁸ White was mustered out of the army on August 26, 1864 when his three year enlistment expired.²⁹ Following the war, White disappears from the record until July 1869, when he wrote his parents from Duluth, Minnesota where he was working as a laborer for the Lake Superior and Mississippi Rail Road.³⁰ It is unknown how long White stayed in Minnesota, but by 1880 White was back in Philadelphia working as a trolley car driver.³¹ White never married and did not own a home. Instead, he lived as a boarder in the house of a German immigrant named Anne Gasslein at 1629 Filbert Street from 1880 until at least 1892.³² Documentary evidence for White ends in 1892 so it is impossible to know when and where White died. As a whole, White’s life was typical for an Irish-Catholic Philadelphian. He was born to immigrant parents, worked menial jobs, and rented a room in a boarding house. It was White’s conventional life that makes him fascinating because he allows scholars to begin to understand average Irish-Catholic Philadelphians.

While reconstructing White’s life poses challenges, reconstructing the social environment in which he was raised is much easier. Antebellum Philadelphia was a hotbed of Nativist sentiment. Know-Nothingism had a strong presence in Philadelphia in the 1840s and its heated rhetoric engendered intolerance towards Catholics, particularly Irish-Catholics. Burton describes this prejudice in Philadelphia when he states, “brotherly love was conspicuous by its absence in Philadelphia in the middle of the nineteenth century.”³³ Waves of periodic violence directed towards Irish-Catholics occurred throughout the prewar period, but none were as serious as the Nativist Riots of 1844.³⁴ The riots began at the Nanny Goat Market in Kensington and quickly spread across the city.³⁵ Nativist rioters beat, shot, and stabbed Irishmen and also burned St. Augustine’s, an Irish-Catholic church located at Fourth and Vine.³⁶ The burning of St. Augustine’s indicates that rioters specifically targeted Irish-Catholics. For instance, Bruce states, “Protestants passed several German Catholic churches in rioting in Kensington and left them unscathed, focusing instead on Irish Catholics, whom they viewed as the most impoverished, lazy, and criminal in America.”³⁷ The Nativist Riots of 1844 ended when the militia imposed martial law, but the damage was done and ten people had died.³⁸

Despite periods of violence, antebellum Philadelphia, as Dolan states, was “the capitol of Irish America.”³⁹ In fact, Modell and Lees point out that Philadelphia in 1850 had the sixth largest population of Irish people in the world.⁴⁰ By 1850, Irish-Catholic Philadelphians represented 18 percent of the city’s population.⁴¹ As a result of this massive influx of immigrants, Irish-Catholic Philadelphians grouped together in ethnic neighborhoods such as Northern Liberties, Kensington, and Southwark.⁴² Dolan describes the living conditions of the Irish in Philadelphia as “not as congested as New York or Boston, but the Irish neighborhoods still housed some of the worst tenements, described by one observer as ‘no better in any respect than pens of cattle.’”⁴³ This heavily populated urban environment was profoundly different from the green fields of Ireland. Philadelphia was an industrial city which Clark describes as “one of the greatest conceivable contrasts to the fields and villages of the Irish countryside.”⁴⁴ Instead of agricultural work, which was common in Ireland, Irish-Catholic Philadelphians worked as laborers, stevedores, and ditch diggers. Biddle and Dubin call this work “donkey labor” and state, “it was common to hear Gaelic on those docks as Irishmen loaded cargo from wagons onto ships and from ships onto wagons.”⁴⁵ Workers were paid menial wages, worked long hours, and often were barred from higher paying jobs.⁴⁶ These harsh conditions caused most Irish-Catholic Philadelphians to live in poverty and under the constant threat of Nativist violence.

Even though Irish-Catholic Philadelphians had difficulties at home, they eagerly filled the ranks of the Union Army at the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861.⁴⁷ White joined the newly created Company I of the 69^th PA, which was carved out of the Second Regiment of the Philadelphia County Militia, following the expiration of Lincoln’s initial call for troops in April 1861.⁴⁸ The 69^th PA was a predominately Irish-Catholic regiment and was led by Colonel Joshua ‘Paddy’ Owens, who was actually Welsh, not Irish.⁴⁹ Bruce claims that the 69^th PA was heavily influenced by the renowned Sixty-Ninth New York Regiment of the Irish Brigade, “right down to their regimental number.”⁵⁰ On August 19, 1861, the 69^th PA was mustered into service with the colors of both the United States and Ireland flying proudly. Bruce highlights the 69^th PA’s colors when she states that they were “edged with gold trim, the green banner bore an image of the old Irish Harp, with its Maid of Erin, on one side and the coat of arms of Pennsylvania on the other.”⁵¹ In fact, White requested that his parents send him “Anthony McDermott’s photographs of the National and Irish flag of our regiment.”⁵² These dual flags were a visual representation of how the 69^th PA understood their identity.

Participation in battle also helped soldiers develop an Irish-American identity. White’s first combat experience came at the Battle of White Oak Swamp on June 30, 1862.⁵³ This engagement was a part of the Seven Days Battles during Major General George McClellan’s Peninsular Campaign. ⁵⁴ The Peninsular Campaign aimed to capture the Confederate capitol of Richmond by landing troops on the Virginia Peninsula. While the Battle of White Oak Swamp was indecisive, the Seven Days Battles were a resounding Confederate victory and caused the Peninsular Campaign to fail. In describing his first combat experience, White was surprised at how he reacted to battle. He writes, “Well I never knew what it was to be in a battle until the battle of White Oak Swamps. I thought a fellow would be skeered out of his wits but instead of that it seemed like play for we would be laughing and talking to each other yelling and firing away.”⁵⁵ Even though White thought battle “seemed like play,” he did constantly discuss how loud and distressing the sound of battle was. White states, “We can sit in our tent and hear the sound of the cannon on this side and in a few seconds the explosion of the shell on the other side.”⁵⁶ The sounds of battle included constant explosions and the sound of men dying, which Cimbala claims created an “aural hell.”⁵⁷ At this point in the war, White confidently boasted of a quick Union victory, supported the Army’s commanders (particularly McClellan), and cheerfully wrote of his experiences in camp. This would all begin to change when White and the 69^th PA entered Sharpsburg, Maryland.

After defeating the Union on the Peninsula, Confederate commander Robert E. Lee pressed his advantage and invaded Maryland. The Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac met at Sharpsburg, and the result was the single bloodiest day of the war. On September 17, 1862, White and the 69^th PA were sent into a tough battle where White was appalled at the bloodshed.⁵⁸ White described the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam as follows: