Company "F": The Ninth's Crawford County Connection

by Jeff Sherry

While we of the reactivated Ninth Pennsylvania Reserves portray "The Pittsburgh Rifles," Company "A," we are all aware of the other nine companies that made up the original regiment and some of our members have ancestors who served in those companies. The sole company not raised in Southwestern Pennsylvania was "The Meadville Volunteers" or Company "F," raised in Crawford County in Northwestern Pennsylvania in the spring of 1861. With a growing number of members joining the unit from Crawford County, as well as a couple of veterans residing there, it seems time to say a few words about our northern brethren of the original Ninth.

"The Meadville Volunteers," raised in the county seat of Crawford County in the weeks following Ft. Sumter, was originally commanded by Captain Henry C. Johnson. Johnson had hoped to join "The Erie Regiment" under Colonel John McLane, a ninety day regiment whose enlistment would expire before being mustered into Federal service. McLane would go on to organize the Eighty-third Pennsylvania. An agent was sent to Harrisburg on behalf of Johnson's company, hoping to obtain an order making it a part of McLane's unit, only to find when he returned that "The Erie Regiment" had all the men it needed. Shortly thereafter, Johnson resigned and command of "The Meadville Volunteers" went to Captain Samuel Bernard Dick. Captain S. B. Dick was the son of a prominent Meadville merchant and banker General John Dick. The elder Dick had served as a judge, captain of a local fire company (a volunteer fire company in Meadville still bears his name), a trustee of Allegheny College, and was elected to Congress in 1852. John Dick was also commissioned in the Pennsylvania Militia in the 1820s and rose to the rank of General by 1831. Samuel Dick was born in Meadville on October 23, 1831 and attended private schools and college in Meadville, presumably Allegheny College, but left college before graduating in order to go into banking with his father and uncle.

Dick's company traveled to Camp Wright near Pittsburgh where it became Company "F" of the Ninth Pennsylvania Reserves (Thirty-eight Regiment P.V.I.) on June 28, 1861, and mustered into Federal service on July 28. "The Meadville Volunteers," now Company "F," were the first soldiers from Crawford County to enlist, and along with Company "I" of the Tenth Reserves, "The Allegtheny College Volunteers," the first to be mustered into Federal service. The men of Company "F" fought along side the rest of the Ninth Pennsylvania Reserves in all the campaigns of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps until being mustered out with the regiment in May of 1864 after the expiration of its three year enlistment. The history of the regiment is well known, but a few points involving Company "F" deserve notice here. In his report on the action at Dranesville on December 20, 1861, General George McCall, then commanding the Pennsylvania Reserves, made special note of the service of not only Colonel C. F. Jackson, commanding the Ninth Reserves, but specifically the services of Captain Dick of Company "F" and Captain Robert Galway of Company "D". Captain Dick was severaly wounded at Dranesville and returned home to recover, rejoining the regiment in time to take part in the campaigns of 1862.

At the June 30, 1862 Battle of New Market Crossroads (Glendale), the Ninth Reserves charged to recapture the guns of Captain James H. Cooper's Battery "B," First Penna. Light Artillery lost in an earlier Confederate attack. In this charge, Sgt. William F. Gallagher of Company "F" captured the colors of the Tenth Alabama and killed the color bearer, presenting the flag to General McCall. It should be noted, however, that rosters of the Ninth Pennsylvania Reserves report that Sergeant Gallagher deserted on January 1, 1863, but returned on January 16. No mention is made of any consequences of the desertion and Gallagher mustered out with regiment in May 1864. Also, at New Market Crossroads, William Tawney of the "The Allegheny College Volunteers," Company "I" of the Tenth Reserves, captured a Confederate flag and picked up the colors of the Seventh Reserves which were left on the field and carried them both to safety.

At Antietam, it was Captain Dick who commanded the Ninth Reserves, Colonel Robert Anderson having been promoted to brigade command. General George Meade and John Reynolds, both brigade commanders in the original organization of the Pennsylvania Reserves, and Joseph Hooker who commanded the First Army Corps, of which the Ninth was a part until 1863, all recommended Dick for promotion to Brigadier General. However, continued ill health brought on by the Dranesville wound and exposure, compelled him to resign his commission in March 1863 on the advice of his surgeon. Dick would return briefly to the army during Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania in the summer of 1863 at the request of Governor Curtin, organizing all state militia west of the Alleghenies. He returned to private life in Meadville at the expiration of his term of service where he was active in the Masonic order and Republican politics, being elected to the Electoral College that gave Lincoln his second term. He also served as Mayor of Meadville in 1870 and was elected to one term in Congress.

As stated above, with members of the Ninth Pennsylvania Reserves coming from many locations, it is ironic that a number of our members should come from a county so far removed from the Pittsburgh area, as with the original Ninth! I myself was unaware of this when I joined the unit in 1992, but find it a most satisfying coincidence. I recently discovered the headstone of Private James H. Davison of Company "F" in a small cemetery less than quarter mile from my home. Regardless of the company or regiment they served with or which state or part of a state they hailed from, we can all take pride in the service rendered by the "Boys of 61."

The following from Bates, History of Crawford County, Pennsylvania, p. 1147:

JAMES H. DAVISON (deceased) was born in New Jersey, September 7, 1822, and is a son of William and Susan (Dillentosh) Davison, who settled in Woodcock Township, this county, in 1825, locating on the farm now owned by John George, Jr., which they cleared and improved. James H., our subject, was a shoe-maker by trade, but generally followed agricultural pursuits. He was united in marriage, January 22, 1855, with Mary M., daughter of David and Catherine (Carr) Hunter, who were among the early settlers of this township. To this union were born five children: William H., Catherine (deceased), Robert G., Dora D. (deceased) and Eliza J. (deceased). Mr. Davison, during the war of the Rebellion, enlisted in 1862 in the Ninth Pennsylvania Reserves, and died in the hospital of typhoid pneumonia, November 11, 1862, after two months' service. For many years he had been a member of the Presbyterian Church at Woodcock. In politics he was a Republican.

The photograph was taken when some members of the 9th visited the family cemetery after the Strong Vincent dedication in 1997.

Another Crawford County connection in Bates, History of Crawford County, Pennsylvania, pp. 729-730:
COL. SAMUEL BERNARD DICK, banker, Meadville, third son of Hon. John and Jane A. (Torbett) Dick, was born in Meadville, October 26, 1836, and received all the advantages of the best private schools and colleges at home, but left college to enter into business before he took his degree. He was engaged with his father and uncle in the banking business at the breaking-out of the war of the Rebellion, and he at once tendered his services to Gov. Curtin, and was commissioned Captain of the Meadville Volunteers, the first company of troops organized in Crawford County. The company went into camp at Pittsburgh, and on the organization of the far-famed Pennsylvania Reserve Corps, in May, joined that organization, and his company became known as Company F, Ninth Regiment Pennsylvania Reserve Corps Immediately following the first battle of Bull Run, the regiment and division were ordered to Washington, and sworn into the service of the United States for three years' service, and became the right wing of the Army of the Potomac. On the 20th of December, 1861, at Dranesville, Va., Capt. Dick was severely wounded while leading Gen. Ord's advance in that engagement. He returned home, but on the opening of the spring of 1862, although he had not entirely recovered from his wound, he rejoined his company, and participated with them in all the battles of the Army of the Potomac, under Gen. McClellan, commanding his regiment at South Mountain and Antietam. For gallant and meritorious action, while commanding his regiment, he was recommended by Gens. Mead, Reynolds, and Hooker for promotion to the rank of a Brigadier-General, but continued ill health resulting from exposure and wounds, compelled his return home on sick leave, where he remained until the first of March, 1863, when, under the advice of the surgeon in charge, he was reluctantly compelled to resign his commission.
When Gen. Lee's army moved northward into Pennsylvania in the summer of 1863, Gov. Curtin telegraphed Capt. Dick to come immediately to Harrisburg, and requested him to take charge of the organization and mustering into service of all the State troops west of the Allegheny Mountains, and at the urgent request of the Secretary of War took command of the Fifth Regiment Pennsylvania Militia, and proceeded to New Creek, Va., where he assumed command of all the forces at that point, relieving Gen. Kelly. At the expiration of this service, he returned to private life, and resumed the banking business in Meadville, in which he is still engaged, and is now the head of the firm of J. R. Dick & Co., which had been organized in 1850. In 1864 Col. Dick was elected a member of the Electoral College of Pennsylvania which cast the vote of the State for Lincoln's re-election.

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