Civil War Pittsburgh

08/29/2026

The handwritten eulogy for Col. Frederick Collier, who commanded the 139th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry during the War of the Rebellion.

As mentioned by the author of Collier’s eulogy, and veteran of Knap’s Independent Battery, David T. Watson, Collier and his men buried the dead on the battlefield of Second Bull Run just days after the late August 1862 fight.

Here, in September, the men of the 139th “received their first lesson of the horrors of war,” which they would not soon forget.

08/26/2026

During the early 20th century, Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville neighborhood saw a spurt of growth around the then-decaying Allegheny Arsenal. Nearly half a century earlier, it was the site of the largest home-front disaster of the Civil War, with 78 lives lost during three separate explosions on September 17, 1862.

In an effort to memorialize those killed in the explosion, the Ladies of the G.A.R., in partnership with the Lawrenceville Board of Trade, planned to erect a granite monument on the park grounds. The project was to be funded by the sale of commemorative bronze medals which were cast from a decommissioned Civil War cannon. Unfortunately these tokens did not sell as planned, and the project never came to fruition.

Through the actions of these organizations, as well as explosion survivors, however, a bronze plaque was placed at the Arsenal grounds in 1913. This memorial can now be found in the entranceway to nearby Arsenal Middle School.

08/23/2026

From our friend John Banks' Civil War blog!

08/21/2026

A carte de visite of Frederick Pettit, 100th Pennsylvania Infantry “Roundheads,” who was killed on July 9, 1864, shortly after writing a letter to his sister in western Pennsylvania. According to his commanding officer, Pettit was reading when he was struck in the head by a Confederate bullet.

His letters were later published in William Gavin’s “Infantryman Pettit,” the last of which he noted his promotion to Corporal in Company C of the regiment, as well as the monotonous nature of life in the trenches.

“Send me some papers and whatever reading matter you can,” he said to his sister. “We get very lonesome lying in the ditches with nothing to do but watch the rebels.”

08/18/2026

The Allegheny Market House stood for 103 years in what was once Allegheny City, just across the river from downtown Pittsburgh.

Constructed between June 1862 and March 1863, the market consisted of 76 butcher stalls as well as 125 produce stalls, and remained in use until its demolition in 1966. Shortly after opening, the Pittsburgh Gazette celebrated the occasion:

“As a whole we think our neighbors across the river have quite eclipsed us in the matter of providing for the public convenience an elegant, convenient and commodious market house, which must needs produce a very handsome addition to the city revenues... We rejoice with them in the successful completion of a work of such magnificence in the midst of these war times."

Image: Allegheny Market House, ca. 1870

(Condon Collection)

08/11/2026

This program, published for the 1892 Pennsylvania Grand Army of the Republic gathering in Pittsburgh and Allegheny, was distributed at Pittsburgh’s Old City Hall the night of February 25, as Union veterans assembled for an “Evening Campfire.”

Among the speakers that evening was former Pennsylvania Department Commander Chill W. Hazzard of Monongahela City, who, during the late war served on the staff of General Samuel Crawford.

Hazzard’s address, which came during the latter part of Reconstruction, emphasized the importance of the Grand Army of the Republic in stating “...since Louisiana has made the birthday of Jeff Davis a holiday, and as long as they deify a traitor and make him in the South on a par with Washington, there is great need for the G.A.R.”

08/11/2026

From our friends at the Sharon Historical Society!

Did you know a Sharon man led the 76th Pennsylvania Infantry (called the “Keystone Zouaves”) during the American Civil War?

Organized in Harrisburg under Colonel John M. Power on October 18, 1861, the 76th Pennsylvania Infantry, nicknamed the “Keystone Zouaves,” recruited soldiers from Lawrence, Mercer, Blair, York, Bedford, Westmoreland, Luzerne, Beaver, Allegheny, and Schuylkill counties. Company B was recruited in Mercer County, with a number of the men coming from the Shenango Valley area.

At the helm of the regiment was the honorable
Colonel DeWitt Clinton Strawbridge of Mercer County, who enrolled in the service on September 24, 1861. When Colonel Power resigned in August 1862, Strawbridge was promoted from captain of Company B to colonel of the entire regiment. He resigned in late November 1863. Colonel D. C. Strawbridge resigned due to injuries he had received while in service, which were incurable. Over the summer and fall of 1864, his health improved and he enlisted as adjutant of the 17th Kansas Infantry for five months until the war ended.

But Colonel Strawbridge’s decorated service record began when he enlisted with the 19th Ohio Volunteers in April 1861. By July, he was promoted to first sergeant and participated in the decisive campaign in West Virginia, under General McClellan and Rosecrans, which ended with the battle at Rich Mountain. Due to his faithful duty, he was promoted to captain of the 76th Pennsylvania Infantry. Under his term as colonel, he led his regiment at Pocotaligo, South Carolina, and was commended for his good judgement by General O. M. Mitchell, chief commander. He also led his men at Fort Pulaski, the battle on James Island, and his regiment stormed and took the batteries of the southern part of Morris Island. There, Colonel Strawbridge caught the attention and approval of General George Crockett Strong. When the Union assaulted Fort Wagner, Colonel Strawbridge and his men were there. Having suffered many casualties, the regiment was reduced to two companies, which were sent by General Quincy A. Gilmore to take charge of Hilton Head, where Strawbridge was placed in command of the brigade.

After the war, in 1868, Colonel Strawbridge founded a private bank in Sharon, which later became McDowell National Bank. Colonel DeWitt Clinton Strawbridge, a decorated Civil War veteran, was recalled as “a well-groomed, aristocratic-looking man, the son of David Strawbridge, one of two brothers who settled in Sharon about 1843.” His father was a pioneering coal mine owner in the Shenango Valley.

Read more in one of our newest books. Get a copy HERE: https://sharonhistoricalsociety.com/shop/civil-war-era-in-the-shenango-valley

08/08/2026

On July 26, 1863 John Hunt Morgan was captured in Salineville, Ohio after a raid through Union territory, along with 364 of his men. It was the furthest that any uniformed Confederate forces penetrated US lines during the entirety of the war.

Pictured here are members of Morgan’s command detained at Western Penitentiary in Allegheny City; now the site of the National Aviary in Pittsburgh’s North Side. Those Confederate prisoners confined within the penitentiary’s walls remained there until March 1864.

08/07/2026

From our friends at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum!

08/05/2026

Pictured is an unidentified African American veteran and member of Col. John Patterson Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Post 151 in Pittsburgh’s South Side.

The building where this integrated Grand Army Post held their meetings can still be seen from East Carson Street.

Note the cast-iron “G.A.R.” still visible on the building’s facade.