Public Program | Civil War: The Homefront in Pennsylvania’s Coal Region

Posted on by Jake Wynn

I’m thrilled to be joining the Anthracite Heritage Month programming for 2026, the 50th anniversary of the annual commemoration.

Civil War: The Homefront in Pennsylvania’s Coal Region

Honey Brook Colliery in the 1860s

Alvernia University Pottsville CollegeTowne | 500 Progress Ave, Pottsville, PA 17901

Thursday, January 15 | 6PM

FREE

In the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania, the Civil War unfolded far from the front lines, yet touched every colliery, town, and household.

Anthracite coal from the Coal Region powered the U.S. Navy, fired Northern factories, and kept the Union war machine moving – making these patch towns and villages as vital as any battlefield.

Historical illustration depicting coal miners at work underground, with several miners using picks and shovels. A horse is also visible, likely used for hauling materials.
Miners at work in the 1860s in Schuylkill County, PA

Yet while sons and neighbors marched off to fight for the Union, unrest simmered at home. Antiwar politics surged through mining villages. Draft resistance flared. State and federal troops occupied communities not only to enforce conscription, but to suppress strikes and labor organizing as wartime profits flooded the region.

A group of Union soldiers posed in uniform during the Civil War, holding rifles and appearing in a military formation.
Troops like these members of the Veteran Reserve Corps of the US Army occupied the Coal Region from 1863 to 1865

This program explores the Coal Region’s divided home front – where patriotism, profit, coercion, and class conflict collided beneath the shadow of the coal breaker and the American flag.

This program is part of the 2026 Anthracite Heritage Month programs.

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