In the beginning…
All brave young men wanted to go.
Including George Snowden, a twenty-one-year-old lawyer from Franklin, Pennsylvania.
In 1862, the new Civil War was an adventure that beckoned.
It promised travel, comradeship, excitement.
And, if you returned home, public adulation.
[No one appreciated the scale of the carnage that was to come.]
In 1862, the governor of Pennsylvania called for the formation of voluntary infantry companies.
Those men who recruited forty or more enlistees willing to fight under them would become their unit’s captain.
And this is what young George hoped to do, despite his lack of military experience.
He’d be a captain!
But George’s parents opposed his plan.
From George’s diary:
July 9, 1862
The Pittsburgh Post this morning contains the Governor’s order in relation to recruiting.
A man who can raise 40 to 60 men may be a Capt…
I went to see Sam Plumer.
He has no doubt that [my friend] Friely and I can recruit enough men to make me a Capt. and him a Lt.
Asked him to talk to my folks about my going, to tell them the reasonableness and necessity of it and that if I go now I may get a commission.
Said he would talk to them.
Went down to see Hedgwick to get him to talk to them, but he said for me not to go, and if I do so, I will get to swearing, drinking, etc.
It was a danger.
I talked to Whitaker about it.
He doesn’t want me hurt but will if it comes in his way try to induce them to consent.
I haven’t yet broken the music to our folks – fear to do so for there will be a scene.
July 10, 1862
“Sam Plumer mentioned the matter to Father.
At dinner [our noon meal] there was a solemn scene.
[My brother] Gust wasn’t there.
Father advised me not to go.
Mother and Jennie used stronger arguments, they cried, but I resisted in my resolution to go if I can raise the men.
At supper the ‘war question’ came up.
Gust is decidedly opposed to my going.
He said you have no reason for going.
I said I have and gave them.
July 14, 1862
I have asked some men to go with me [and form a company of enlisted men] but have not met with success.
I am and look so young that I do not wonder at men not wishing to enlist under me.
With the opposition at home and my friends against my going, and with no success at all yet, I am nearly discouraged and ready to give it up.
July 17, 1862
“Sam Plumer sat on our steps awhile talking to Jennie, Father and myself.
He had a letter from Tom which he kindly allowed me to read.
Tom is at Yorktown with 4 corps of the 4th Cavalry.
He never expects to see home again and advises Sam and I and indeed all his friends to stay at home and away from danger and war.
I am not surprised at his stating that all the [anti-secession] Unionism in the South is all moon-shine.
Poor Tom has ‘the blues’ dreadfully bad.
September 2, 1862
I met Hedrich on the court house steps.
He advises me not to go to war, and… he promised me a [law] partnership.
Too late.
[George has found a company willing to take him on as a first lieutenant.]
September 2, 1862
I made preparations and about half past nine hitched up [my horse] Bett and drove alone up the river...where I met the company in wagons preceded by a martial band.
Mr. Johnson with a flag got into my buggy and we headed the procession.
We had only gone a short distance when we were met by the Franklin [city] delegation in wagons and on horseback.
I went into the street and bade Evans and Dale goodbye.
I went home and kissed Jennie and Mother a last farewell.
Mother, with a full heart, and tearful eyes, said, ‘If we never meet here again, I hope we will meet in heaven.’
I hope so, too.
Father never said a word.
George took part in the battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg.
He finally achieved his dream of becoming a captain in 1864.
He lived through it all and died in 1932, at the age of 91.
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I’ll see you tomorrow.
— Brenda
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