In a letter to the editor of the Carbondale Advance, Sergeant Peter Vankirk described his autumn of 1861 with the 46th Pennsylvania. Vankirk was a New Jersey native in his late 20s who had moved to the anthracite coal fields in the years before the Civil War and worked as a mason in Luzerne County. Earlier in 1861, he left that trade to join the Coal Region men serving in Company I, 46th Pennsylvania.

Vankirk wrote from Camp Knipe, Maryland, on November 5. In the letter, he described his regiment’s part in the Battle of Ball’s Bluff two weeks earlier, a bloody Union defeat on the Potomac River just outside Leesburg, Virginia that took place on October 21.

He saw the body of Edward Baker, a sitting United States senator who had been killed leading Union troops in the battle. Baker was a longtime friend of President Abraham Lincoln, and his death drew wide public mourning as many saw it as one more tragedy brought on by the escalating war.

“Gen. Baker was much beloved, and his loss is mournfully felt by all,” Vankirk wrote.

The sergeant also recounted an exchange with a Confederate officer captured at Ball’s Bluff. The officer was surprised to learn that the 46th Pennsylvania included men who had voted for John C. Breckinridge in the 1860 presidential election. Breckinridge ran as the candidate of the Southern Democrats, many of whom went on to lead the Confederacy, both in politics and in its military ranks.

Vankirk’s letter offered his own answer:

“The soldiers on our side should be proud of their cause, for it is the cause of Freedom and Republican government. It makes a direct and manly appeal to the patriotism of the soldiers.

I glory in it. I glory in the renown of our Revolutionary ancestors and in the noble example set by Pennsylvania in 1861.

I feel at home everywhere in this great Republic, with Freedom’s soil beneath my feet and Freedom’s Banner, the Stars and Stripes, floating over me.”

From the Carbondale Advance, November 16, 1861

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CAMP KNIPE,

Nov. 5th, 1861.

S. S. BENEDICT—Dear Sir: 

You must excuse me for not writing sooner, as we have been very much engaged since I left Carbondale. We have not yet had an engagement with the enemy, but have been daily drilling and preparing ourselves for one. 

On the evening of Oct. 22d [editors note – this is likely October 20], at 9 o’clock, we received a despatch to aid Gen. Baker at Ball’s Bluff, near Leesburg. We immediately started with two day’s rations, and by 4 o’clock the next morning were at the Ferry, opposite the Bluff, a distance of twenty miles, with our whole regiment, except three that had fallen behind from fatigue.

We were ordered back, and encamped three-fourths of a mile back from the river, where we remained until 7 o’clock that evening. We then marched down to the river to cross over, but were again ordered back. 

During the night the whole of our force were ordered on the Maryland side of the Potomac, where we remained during the day and until 8 o’clock the next morning, when we were ordered to Muddy Branch, fifteen miles below and twenty miles above Washington, where we still remain. 

I saw the remains of Gen. Baker and the rest of our killed and wounded at Ball’s Bluff as they were brought over the river, numbering about 100 in killed and wounded, and about 20 drowned in their hasty retreat.

Gen. Baker was much beloved, and his loss is mournfully felt by all. The traitors lost about 500 to 600 killed and wounded. We took one Lieutenant prisoner, who seemed to be much surprised to learn that we had some Breckinridge Democrats in our ranks.

He said he supposed they were all going to aid the South. He says this is a war of Aristocracy and Wealth against Poverty and Labor. If he is right we see what the rebellion is and what it aims at, and the platform on which the great battle is to be fought.

The soldiers on our side should be proud of their cause, for it is the cause of Freedom and Republican government. It makes a direct and manly appeal to the patriotism of the soldiers. I glory in it.

I glory in the renown of our Revolutionary ancestors and in the noble example set by Pennsylvania in 1861.

I feel at home everywhere in this great Republic, with Freedom’s soil beneath my feet and Freedom’s Banner, the Stars and Stripes, floating over me.

I highly appreciate the receipt of the ADVANCE. The Carbondale boys are all well. I remain yours,

PETER VAN KIRK,

2d Serg’t Co. I, 46th Reg. Pa. Vol., Bank’s Div.

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Read the previous letter from the Letters from War: 1861 series.

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This is part of an ongoing series called “Letters from War: 1861” that will share correspondence written on the front lines during the turbulent first year of the Civil War.

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