From the Outposts to the Ramparts

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania’s Cecil Clay Papers include an outline of the regimental history that Cecil Clay (1842-1907) intended to publish, along with a fragment of its introduction. My attempt to tell the story that he began has brought me to the places where he and his comrades fought and lived. I have studied their words and those of their colleagues, enemies and others who had reason to write about them. The journey has lasted so much longer than I ever intended.

Clay was not the first man to command the 58th Pennsylvania Volunteers. Rather, he was the nephew of Colonel John Richter Jones, who became the regiment’s first colonel and received much of the credit for raising the organization. Theirs was a family of prominent men who were among the elite of Philadelphia society and a tradition of military service.

As a child and young man, Clay spent time at the home his uncle established in Eaglesmere, Pennsylvania. He was recently graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and had begun a career in Philadelphia, but the events in the summer of 1861 changed the trajectory of both men’s lives.

According to his unfinished manuscript, when he first learned of the First Battle of Manassas in July 1861, Clay was sick in bed, and had it read to him from accounts printed in the papers of the day. In his words, he “cast off his sickness” and immediately wrote a letter to Jones in Eaglesmere, telling him the news and encouraging him to call upon his “well digested military knowledge and known combative disposition” to raise a regiment. The reply came by a telegram in which Jones wrote, “Harrisburg tonight; Washington tomorrow morning.” 

Clay went on to distinguish himself as an officer in his uncle’s regiment, eventually commanding it and earning a brevet promotion to brigadier general of volunteers. He wrote extensively about his experiences and was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1892 for his actions in the assault on Fort Harrison, Virginia. Several newspapers published the articles he wrote and these form some of the content in my manuscript about the 58th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers.

I developed the outline for my manuscript before I learned that Clay had prepared one, but I feel that as Elvis Costello sang, “My Aim is True.” Both Clay and I dedicated chapters to the regiment’s organization, several chapters on its “small wars” service in Virginia and North Carolina, the large battles in which it participated (Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Fort Harrison) and extended service after Appomattox.

My thirty-year pursuit of the 58th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers will complete the work that Cecil Clay began and, I hope, elicit the recognition he sought for his regiment. I look forward to sharing it with you.