History's Headlines: That Man Herman Haupt

Frank Whelan CWRT Board Member
WFMZ.com
Aug 5, 2023

Anybody who knows anything about Civil War history knows the big names: Lincoln, Lee, Grant, Sherman. How about Herman Haupt? Now before you go, “Herman who?” it is worth giving Haupt more just than a passing glance. Without this Pennsylvania German born engineer, master railroad builder and organizing genius, the Union would have had a much tougher time winning the Civil War. Facing terrific odds, with much of the interference coming from generals on his side of the Mason-Dixon line, he managed to lay track and build bridges that carried the troops and supplies to the battlefields rapidly, which in many cases led to their victories. Haupt’s intimate knowledge of how railroad systems worked and how to make them do so efficiently was something few people of his time outside perhaps Charles Ellet and John Roebling could grasp.

Herman Haupt (1817-1905) was born in Philadelphia. His great grandfather Sebastian at age 23 arrived from the Palatinate with 349 other immigrants on Captain Walter Sterling’s ship Glasgow on September 9, 1738. A maker of barrels and casks by trade, he married a widow, Mary Castleberry.

Haupt’s grandfather Johann married the daughter of a prosperous Huguenot family and moved to Durham Township, Bucks County where he established a flax mill to produce linseed oil. Herman’s father Jacob moved back to Philadelphia worked as a clerk and eventually with his brother-in-law invested in ships that engaged in the China trade. Profitable for a time the quasi-war with Revolutionary France led to the destruction of many of their ships. Jacob tried again on his own, acquiring a fleet of merchant ships. Misfortune followed again with the outbreak of the War of 1812 with the British fleet, blocking the approaches to the Delaware River, capturing of all his ships. So, he reverted to other forms of trade. After 40 years as a bachelor, he married Margaretta Wiall Haupt. His second son, Herman, was born in 1817 in Philadelphia.

When Herman Haupt was 12 years old, his father died. As a youngster he worked to pay his way through school. In 1831 President Andrew Jackson appointed the 14-year-old Haupt to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He graduated from the academy as a second lieutenant in the 3rd U.S Infantry. In 1838 in Gettysburg, he married Ann Cecelia (Celia) Keller, with whom he was to have seven sons and four daughters.

He resigned from the Army and as an engineer surveyed, among others, the Norristown and Allentown Railroad. In 1839 Haupt patented a bridge design called the Haupt Truss. One in Altoona and another in Ardmore remain.

For about seven years Haupt was a professor of mathematics at what is now Gettysburg College. While there he met J. Edgar Thomson of the Pennsylvania Railroad who hired Haupt as a construction engineer and later general superintendent. Together they designed the famous Horseshoe Curve, the rail route over the Allegheny Mountains to Pittsburgh that thrilled generations of travelers and is now a National Historic Landmark.

In the 1850s, Haupt was chief engineer for the Pennsylvania Railroad and, ironically, the Southern Railroad of Mississippi. His last major project before the war was the Hoosac Tunnel project through the Berkshires in western Massachusetts. The 35-year-old Haupt invented his own machinery to plow through the Hoosac Mountain. Unfortunately, a rival railroad lobbied the state legislature to deny state funds for the project, forcing Haupt into bankruptcy after he had drilled 4,250 feet into the mountain. It was completed after the war by other engineers.

The use of railroads in warfare was not totally unknown. In 1859 French troops under the emperor Napoleon III showed how they, along with the telegraph, could be used efficiently to move troops against Austria in the so-called Austro-Sardinian War that year. But American generals were untried in this new method of warfare. Fortunately, with Abraham Lincoln as president the Union had a leader who understood the value of railroads. He had served for many years as a lawyer and lobbyist for the Illinois Central and other railroads, winning several significant cases for them. For one case Lincoln requested a fee of $10,000, the largest legal fee ever paid up to that time. One official balked, saying “even Daniel Webster would not have asked this much.” They did eventually pay it, Lincoln using part of it to fund his Senate campaign against Stephen Douglas. According to one source in 1860 Lincoln had been offered the presidency of the New York Central Railroad with a salary of $100,000 a year, an offer which he declined.

But the railroad system in America was still made up of several small lines that did not always connect. This was borne out in the case of Allentown’s First Defenders in their attempt to get to Washington in 1861. In Harrisburg they boarded trains of the Northern Central Railroad. But since there was no through railroad to Washington the troops were forced through a mob of successionists to cross Baltimore, where they were attacked. If Maryland had seceded, the nation’s capital would have been totally cut off. The situation was even worse in the South. Most railroads were regional lines which were not connected to each other. With some exceptions there were few railroads willing to work with the Confederate government in organizing to support the southern cause. Although Jefferson Davis had been U.S. Secretary of War in the 1850s, it was almost impossible to overcome the rivalry between the various railroads.

On January 11, 1862, Edward Stanton, also a former railroad attorney who had taken part in a case with Lincoln, replaced Simon Cameron as Secretary of War. That April, he found himself with a serious problem. A vital bridge over the Potomac Creek in a 100-foot-deep chasm had been destroyed by Confederate raiders. Troops were needed to support General McClellan’s siege of Richmond. General McDowell refused to move them without a supply line. That ruined bridge had to be replaced. Haupt left Stanton’s office with the rank of colonel and started to work.

First Haupt organized the supplies he would need. Then he got the 45 soldiers assigned to him and organized into teams. The weather was miserable, cold, and rainy. He had no carpenters, insufficient tools, and no timbers with which to build. Yet Haupt worked out in his mind what he had to do and worked with what he had. “Somehow,” writes Civil War railroad historian George Edgar Turner, “men who worked alongside Haupt became imbued with his passion for doing the impossible and, despite the danger, there remained a few willing to risk their lives.” Eighty feet in the air, Haupt walked across the bridge and was convinced it would hold. An engine was slowly pulled across with ropes and it did not quiver.

On May 23, exactly one month after his first talk with Stanton, Haupt met Lincoln and members of his cabinet and accompanied them in a train over the reconstructed bridge. Afterwards Lincoln had this to say:

“I have seen the most remarkable structure human eyes ever rested upon. That man Haupt has built a bridge across Potomac Creek 400 feet long and nearly 100 feet high, over which loaded trains are running every hour and, upon my word gentlemen, there is nothing in it but beanpoles and cornstalks.”

Alas for all the work Haupt and his men put into it, the siege of Richmond was a bust. But it certainly showed Haupt’s abilities and there was a lot more ahead. The genius that he was, Haupt had little patience for small-minded officers. An example of this took place on August 22, 1862. The Second Battle of Bull Run was about to occur. General John Pope needed troops. And it was up to Haupt, who had command of every U.S. military railroad in the East, to see that he got them. But now four trains had suddenly disappeared. Hours later a conductor arrived to say that they had been seized by Union General Samuel Sturgis. Sturgis (1822-1889), a cavalryman by training, was born in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. His first command was with the 1st Dragoons in the Mexican War. He was to have many commands during the Civil War and after. In the 1870s Sturgis was commander of the 7th Cavalry. He was in St. Louis on a recruiting mission when one of his sons James, an officer with the 7th, was killed with Custer at the Little Big Horn. A son and grandson served in the military as officers during World Wars I and II. As sometimes happens with generals, Sturgis had more than a touch of self-importance. Several photographs of the day show him, ala Napoleon, with his arm tucked inside his uniform.

Sending a message to General Henry Halleck, Haupt raced four miles up to Sturgis’ headquarters. “Well!” said Sturgis, ”I am glad you have come for I have just sent a guard to your office to put you under arrest for disobedience of orders in failing to transport my command.” Haupt said, fine: as far as he was concerned, he would happy to crawl into a corner and get some sleep but Sturgis must understand he was assuming “a very grave responsibility; the trains were loaded with wounded; the surgeons and ambulances were waiting for them at the depot; the engines would soon be out of wood and water and serious delays would be caused in forwarding troops to General Pope.”

After a moment of thought Sturgis replied, “I don’t care for John Pope a pinch of owl dung!” Then a military aide arrived with an order from General Halleck outlining…

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History's Headlines: The King family of Massachusetts, Allentown, and Georgia

BY FRANK WHALEN - CWRT Board Member
July 29, 2023

Published on WFMF.com

On a muggy day in mid-July 1861, while the Union and Confederate armies were preparing to confront each other at the battle of Bull Run, a funeral procession wended its way down the streets of Allentown to what was then Union Cemetery, later Union West End Cemetery. At that time, the then eight-year-old burial ground still bore some resemblance to the community cow pasture it had been for many years. But now it was to be graced by an elegant tomb/monument, decorated with all the Victorian Romantic embellishments that the era most admired in funerary art with a boundary around it. For this was to be the last resting place of Henry King (1790-1861) an attorney, politician, and arguably the most prominent man in Allentown and among the most prominent men in Pennsylvania.

King’s home, in the then fashionable Italianate villa style, was located on the north side of Hamilton Street next to the Lehigh County Courthouse. He lived there with his wife, Mary L. King. They had one child, Henry Lord King, who died in infancy. At King’s passing it became the home of John Dodson Stiles (1822-1896) also an attorney, Lehigh County District Attorney, and lawmaker who represented Lehigh County in Congress and was a delegate to three Democratic conventions: 1856, 1864 and 1868. The Colonial Theater was erected there in the 1920s and an office building occupies the site today. The home was a community showplace that attracted figures of importance in state and national politics. Democratic candidates for the White House such as James Buchanan in 1856 found a consultation with Henry King was not to be overlooked.

When the 25-year-old King rode into Allentown in 1815, perhaps with law books in his saddlebags, he already had a lot of family history behind him. His parents were Daniel King and Hannah Lord. The elder King fought in the American Revolution and was a participant in the Battle of (CLICK HERE TO READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE)

June Meeting - Summary and Photos

TIL DEATH DO US PART: Jim and Gretchen Kennedy presented an interesting program on Victorian Death and Mourning Customs including some personal history. They even brought along a replica coffin and a display of morning objects.

Their program included: Victorian Mourning Customs, Victorian Mourning Jewelry and Stationery, Post-Mortem Photography, Dr. Thomas Holmes, the Father of Embalming, Early Embalming Equipment and Civil War Coffin, David John Kennedy, Private, 148 th PA, Company H

The Round Table also honored Tony Major upon his retirement from leadership.

The regular book raffle was held with proceeeds going the the Taylor Sword Project.

We also drew the names of the yearly preservation raffle winners.

Below are some photos from the evening.

History's Headlines: Daniel Prime: Easton's Man of Glory

from WFMZ’s History’s Headlines
by Frank Whalen - CWRT Board Member
June 3, 2023

It is 1921. In his inaugural address that March, newly elected President Warren G. Harding has promised “not nostrums but normalcy” to an American public exhausted in the aftermath of World War I and the Red Scare of 1919/20. In Tulsa, Oklahoma that June white supremacist mobs attacked the city’s Black neighborhood of Greenwood, burning schools, businesses and churches, leaving at least 100 dead.

That same year in Upper Nazareth, Pennsylvania in the early morning hours of July 18, a 78-year-old Black man- Daniel Prime of Easton- lie dying from a combination of diabetes and a stroke in Northampton County’s almshouse. Prime’s front-page obituary in the next day’s Easton Express suggests that he was a fixture in the river city and well regarded. “DEATH OF DANIEL PRIME; Well-Known Colored Man Was Civil War Veteran,” read the headline.

The Express noted that Prime was born in Easton in 1844, the son of Samuel (1811-1883) and Rachel Prime (1824-1902). Samuel was born in Easton to Daniel (1798-1849) and Mary Prime. Daniel Prime was apparently named after his grandfather. Daniel Prime’s wife Annie (Jefferson) Prime is listed in the 1870 and 1880 census as born in New Jersey and dying in 1900 in Niagara Falls, New York. According to the research of Susan Gothard, librarian at the Easton Public Library’s Marx History Room, the Primes had three children.

Prime’s sister, Mrs. Ellen Hubbard, lived at 116 North Green Street in Easton, and another sister, Mary Mebus, lived in Passaic, New Jersey. Other children of Samuel and Rachel Prime listed in the 1860 census were Emma, Virginia, Samuel P., William and Harriet. In 1921, according to the Express, one sister and granddaughter lived in Darby, Pennsylvania and a stepson, Marcus Prime, in Buffalo. Daniel Prime also had numerous nieces and nephews. This information, although it does not confirm it, suggests that Prime’s parents may have been free born and not enslaved Black people. Under Pennsylvania’s Gradual Emancipation Act of 1808 all enslaved people who were slaves that year would remain so till their deaths; their children born that year and thereafter when they reached the age of 28 would be free and their children would be free at birth. So, Daniel Prime, born in 1844, was born free, and not enslaved as some newspaper articles in 1921 later claimed. Some sources claim that Pennsylvania’s law was structured that way at the request of unmarried or widowed poorly paid ministers who felt they could not afford to hire domestic help but could own a slave to fill that role for their lifetimes. It is estimated that the last enslaved person in Pennsylvania died in 1847.

According to the obituary, after the Civil War Prime was employed at a stove store as a tinsmith by Charles W. Meeker. But the Express noted, Prime was also a “born cook” who worked at Harvey G. Seip’s café (a popular spot for local Republicans) and other restaurants around the city and was especially known for his clambakes. He eventually ran a successful catering business. Oysters were a specialty of the café and Prime’s fame spread into Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where he was “often in demand.” The Humane Fire Company No. 1 of Easton made Prime an honorary member, perhaps to ensure they would get his skills for a clambake first. Somewhere along the way in Easton Prime acquired the nickname of “Oakey.”

But perhaps the most interesting part of the obituary to readers today was the following paragraph:

“While working in Massachusetts as a barber during the Civil War he enlisted in a colored regiment and was distinguished by carrying a wounded soldier from his company from the field of battle. The officer died several years ago and remembered Prime in his will with a bequest of $500, but Mr. Prime never got the money.”

54th Massachusetts

The regiment of which Prime was a member was the 54th Massachusetts Colored, one of earliest regiments of its kind and commanded by Col. Robert Gould Shaw, a member of a prominent Boston family. Prime was part of the attack force on the Confederate Fort Wagner, a battery protecting Charleston harbor and the rebel- held Fort Sumter, on July 18th, 1863. Unlike many of his comrades he survived the battle. In 1989 the battle was made into a Hollywood film, Glory, whose stars included Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, and Morgan Freeman.

In 1897 Augustus “Gus” Saint-Gaudens, America’s leading sculptor, depicted Shaw leading the 54th in a bronze relief monument placed on Boston Common. At first the sculptor wanted to create an equestrian statue of Shaw alone, but Shaw’s family and others encouraged him to take a different approach. Saint-Gaudens’ depiction of the Black soldiers, notes the National Park Service, “was a revolutionary concept for the time period.”

Prime enlisted in the 54th Colored Regiment on April 21st, 1863, four months after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was issued. He was not alone. Black men from… CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE STORY

From the Brigade Commander ~ June 2023

As is our custom, our June meeting and lecture will be dedicated to honoring George Seligman, the man most responsible for what we all know today as the Civil War Round Table of Eastern Pa., Inc. Forty-five years later, Round Table members, their guests, and members of the broader Lehigh Valley community continue to enjoy learning opportunities about the American Civil War and working together to make a real difference in the fight to preserve battlefield acreage and artifacts. We owe an awful lot to George ... and to the many other Round Table members who have followed in his fearless footsteps.

While I’m on the subject of preservation, the Board will be convening in August to discuss which of the many deserving preservation efforts our Round Table will support using the funds it accumulated throughout Campaign 45.

One last thing: Don’t forget that we’ve got a field trip planned for mid-June; be sure to take a look inside the June newsletter on page 3 for details.

Bring Home Jonathan K. Taylor’s Sword

Jonathan Taylor was born in Carbon County, on the 21st of April, 1842. He and his family moved to Bethlehem in 1858. When war came on April 12, 1861, he was still a pupil.

Jonathan enlisted in Co. A, 1st PA Volunteers for 3 months as a private. The unit was mustered in at Harrisburg on April 20th, the day before his 19th birthday & only 8 days after the firing on Charleston’s Fort Sumter. Mustered out on July 27th, Jonathan Taylor came home. 

By the summer of 1862 when President Abraham Lincoln called for more men, young Taylor was among the first to respond. His companions were many of the most gallant young men of Bethlehem. Civil War armies were very democratic and although young, he was brave, patriotic, earnest, and in every respect competent, and was elected to Captain of Company C, 129th Regiment PA Volunteers. As an officer he always enjoyed, not only the respect of his men, but also the confidence of his superiors. He was given a sword, a symbol of authority, to be carried in battle. It’s scabbard was inscribed, “Presented to Jon.thn K. Taylor by his Friends Bethlehem Pa” The regiment was mustered into the Union Army at Harrisburg on August 15.

On December 13, 1862, Taylor and his regiment were with the Army of the Potomac before Mayre’s Heights and participated in the carnage of the Battle of Fredericksburg. Federal forces hurled flesh and bone against fellow Americans behind a stone wall with a sunken road and when the bloody day was over and all assaults by the army had ultimately failed, the 129th had suffered 142 men killed, wounded or missing. One of those was young Taylor who we believe fell carrying his sword. Severely wounded, he suffered and fought one last battle, finally succumbing to his injuries 105 days later on March 28, 1863.

The train bearing his remains arrived in Bethlehem and was greeted by a city in mourning. Businesses were closed, children and adults lined the path to his home. His funeral took place from the residence of his parents on Wednesday, April 1st. All were saddened at the loss of this truly brave and patriotic young officer. As Captain Taylor, was a frequent visitor of the Moravian Church and agreeably to the desire of his bereaved parents, the Moravian cemetery was made his final resting place.   

The Grand Army of the Republic was a Veterans organization formed in 1866. Posts were formed throughout the country by veterans who lived in that community. Many Posts were named for officers of high rank. Bethlehem’s Post 182 became the Jonathan K. Taylor Post. He was the only officer from Bethlehem to die from wounds in battle and it was altogether fitting and proper to honor his service, leadership and ultimate sacrifice. A monument for Post 182, is located in the Rose Garden across the street from Nitschmann Middle School.

A partnership of the GAR Civil War Museum of Philadelphia, Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites, the Bethlehem Area School District & The Civil War Round Table of Eastern PA, Inc. has been formed to bring Jonathan’s sword home. Ownership will pass to the GAR Museum. We need $9000 to acquire to sword where it will be a focal part of a larger display at Bethlehem’s Nitschmann Middle School. Students from all over the district will learn of the local connection to the Civil War & have the opportunity for research projects that go deeper than normal classroom study.

Checks payable to: GAR Museum // In Memo line: “Taylor Sword Fund Donation”

Send to: Taylor Sword Fund c/o GAR Museum
8110 Frankford Ave  Philadelphia, PA 19136

May Meeting ~ Summary and Photos

Ron Kirkwood returned to CWRT with a talk called “Women to the Rescue at the Battle of Gettysburg’s George Spangler Farm.”

He listed regiments with the most wounded being treated at the farm, and noted that the 153rd PA from Easton had third most wounded there. 

He described how some women worked as nurses at the XI Corps hospital at the farm and listened to the dying men talk of their families, gave them water, treated their wounds, wrote letters home for them, held their hands and sang to them as they took their final breath.

He spoke of how others cooked and baked bread and washed filthy and bloody clothes and hospital linens.  

In particular he signed out some women like Nurse Rebecca Lane Pennypacker Price and Mrs Hovvey wife of a hospital surgeon as examples of the dedication and sacrifice they made. 

 Kirkwood is the author of “Too Much for Human Endurance: The George Spangler Farm Hospitals and the Battle of Gettysburg,” which was published in June 2019. Two years ago, he was the tour guide of that farm during our CWRT field trip.

In an interesting highlight, CWRT member Gary Schnell presented Kirkwood with a CMU plaque in honor of their mutual connection to Central Michigan University.

Following his presentation he was presented with a check for the Gettysburg Foundation.

As usual, we held our book raffle for preservation, with the winners shown below.