Excitement Stirs as Cove Men Band Together

Johnny Reb crossed the south eastern end of Pennsylvania, eager to engage troopers from the north in any level of battle in the hopes they would soon see southern victory of the Civil War and the right to indicate the terms of any peace agreement.

It was the summer of 1863 and the confederates were meeting with no resistance to their northern forays despite their destroying public property and made off with supplies at will, Civil War historian Cloyd Neely recorded in a document he authored using stories of Civil War soldiers of the Duncansville area.

Enforcements were in place at key locations.

The intention of keeping the southern troops away from the supply rich Morrisons Cove farms, the iron furnaces and the Altoona shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) resulted in the enforcements and a federal call for troops was heard and being responded to by local men, young and old.

“On Monday last week our usually quiet town was thrown into quite a stir of excitement,” it was written in Neely’s account. “It was occasioned by the almost simultaneous proclamation of the president and the state executive for 50,000 troops from this state, to meet and repel a force of rebel Calvary known then to be marching on our state,” it was reported.

The source was the Saturday, June 27, statement published in the Hollidaysburg & Altoona Blair County Whig.

“Meetings were immediately set and measures taken to raise large body of men. It was at this point the PRR dispatched a body of laborers, armed with picks, shovels to erect fortifications in the various gaps in the mountains to hinder their advance,” the Whig reported.

On Tuesday, three companies of infantry and one of Calvary from Hollidaysburg and two other companies were raised and moved forward.

The next day another company left Hollidaysburg for “the scene of combat.”

The Whig report asserted that almost every village in Blair County sent one or more companies.

The hesitation of the troops evidenced in the past had evaporated and the soldiers took seriously the threat from the south to capture the state of Pennsylvania.

Morrisons Cove native, Col. Jacob C. Higgins was made commander of the whole force.

The book, “Minute Men of the Cove,” authored by Milton V. Burgess, listed the leaders and volunteers who showed up to fight.

From Williamsburg, 75 men joined the ranks while nearly 250 men came from Hollidaysburg. It was 38 men from Duncansville and 50 from Newry.

East Freedom sent 100 men and 80 men came from the Sarah Furnace of Claysburg.

Yellow Springs area sent 20 men while Tyrone was represented by 20 men and Logan Valley sent 79 men.

Cambria County including nearby Gallitzin was responsible for 590 soldiers and 40 took up arms from no locality mentioned.

Further swelling the number of soldiers by 400 was the PRR blacksmith shops.