"Cry of foreigner, foreigner..." In the weeks after the Lattimer Massacre, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) responded in print. They deplored the violence and their anti-immigrant rhetoric used to defend the Luzerne County sheriff for murdering 19 unarmed mineworkers. Read their response and their appeal to the nation's workers.
"Now commenced the really grand spectacle." In a letter to a friend in Wilkes-Barre, PA, Sgt. Louis Roth described the Battle of Hatteras Inlet on North Carolina's Outer Banks in August 1861. He described the fighting, the Union victory, and the terrible conditions as follows. Roth also writes a great passage about his regiment's consumption of lager beer, a favorite among the German regiments. Read the full letter.
A father visits his son at war - and ends up behind Union lines in Virginia Peter Byrne came to Washington to check on his son, a lieutenant in the 1st Pennsylvania Light Artillery. He left having crossed into Virginia in a borrowed uniform, stood behind an artillery battery in the pouring rain, and talked his way back across the Chain Bridge using a pass that called him "Colonel." Read the full letter.
A soldier kneels at his young wife's grave - then marches back to war. Luther Dodson's wife Sarah died of tuberculosis at 25, less than a year after their wedding. He came home on leave that August, visited her grave at dusk, and wrote about it in a letter that stands as some of the most moving passages in this entire series. Then he went back to the front. Read the letter.
Martin Byrne arrived in Washington on August 6, 1861 and found a city locked down by mounted police, drilling soldiers, and the weight of a war gone badly wrong. He wrote home to say his health had never been better — and that he'd gained twenty pounds since leaving Carbondale. Read the letter.
New regiments, new volunteers | The Coal Region rebuilds the Union Army after Bull Run | 1861 After the disaster at Bull Run, the Union's three-year recruiting effort reached deep into the anthracite coal fields. Four new companies were forming at Mauch Chunk, a Hazleton coal operator was outfitting a regiment, and the war that everyone thought would be short was quickly escalating. Read the story.
Last month I walked the ground above Krinkelt and Rocherath in Belgium's Ardennes, where the 99th Division held the line in December 1944. The foxholes are still there. So are the shell craters. And so is the story of a Wilkes-Barre soldier who earned a Bronze Star here — and didn't make it home. Read the full story.
When the 8th Pennsylvania's chaplain declared that bad army liquor should warn Civil War soldiers off drinking altogether, the editors of the Luzerne Union had a different takeaway — and used the opportunity to recommend their favorite local distillery. Read the story.
This Harper's Weekly illustration from 1869 shows crowds following the remains of an Avondale victim to his grave. One hundred and ten men and boys died in Pennsylvania's deadliest mine disaster — and the Coal Region came out in force to mourn every one of them, a scene common to the anthracite coal fields since the beginning mining.
"What a terrible thing a battle is..." On July 21, 1861, the Civil War turned truly bloody at Bull Run. A soldier with ties to Pittston was there - among the first onto the field, and the last to leave - and wrote home to describe the retreat, the dead left behind, and the moment the war became something no one could take back. Read the full letter.