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Only 16 of the names listed by Bates as members of Company I can be found in the Allegheny alumni register. Given the flow of students in and out of the institution over its three terms per year, this is not surprising. In those days, the names of enrollees were printed in the College bulletin during the summer months before the ensuing academic year. Thus students who subsequently enrolled in January or March and later enlisted for three years might not have been named in any of the College catalogues and therefore missed inclusion in the alumni directory. Maybe, too, when the group initially formed in April, interested friends and locals were invited in and, because departure was considered imminent and examinations and studies nearly irrelevant, these individuals were informally considered members of the College community. Yet another explanation may be linked with a volunteer’s letter, cited by Getchell, which reported that on the initial trip to Pittsburgh word was received that some members would be sent home, as only 77 could be accepted into the rank and file.37
As was the case almost a century and a half ago, it is still impossible to tell how many Alleghenians, whether faculty, alumni, undergraduate members of Company I, or student members of other units, died within the hot gates of the Civil War. Bates lists 16 of the 20 June group as killed in battle, and this number does not include Sion Smith, who died of illness, or young Ami Trace, who joined on the 30th of June and fell at Gaines Mill. But Smith indicated the total was significantly higher, and Chadwick noted that 23 had already been buried after two years of fighting.38 Another source (circa 1907), who served a number of years on the Methodist Board of Control for the College, states that 28 of the initial College Volunteers were buried in the South–a figure that probably included both battle deaths and disease mortalities.39 If Chadwick’s and Getchell’s estimates regarding the initial enrollees are accepted, then perhaps over half of the student patriots died. It is an astonishingly high mortality rate. Incidentally, one out of the original 78 deserted at Gettysburg, but there is no indication he was an Allegheny student.
The
College Volunteers’ battle flag did return to the campus. It is the
most sacred of the institution's early memorabilia. In keeping with the tradition
of the times, the names of the 19 infernos in which it flew were stenciled
upon its stripes. Company I fought in every major battle of the Army of the
Potomac during the Company's three years of existence, save for that of Chancellorsville
in May 1863.40 The
banner was displayed on the centennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth in 1909,
again the following year when the College's Civil War monument was dedicated,
and finally on the College's own centennial in 1915. Since then, it has been
in storage, a long-forgotten but precious relic only recently found and identified
in 2000 by College Historian Jonathan E. Helmreich.
The banner was in fairly good condition, in part because its long storage in remote cabinets protected it from the deteriorating effects of light. Unlike many Civil War flags, especially Confederate battle flags, it has stayed in one piece, never cut into fragmentary souvenirs. The white of the stripes was a dark gray. Among streaks of grease or oil, other stains were evident, including dark spots turning to rust colors at their edges, the tell-tale signs of blood. Several shrapnel and bullet holes gaped, as did the right-angle tears of bayonet or saber cuts. At some point the banner must have been partially ripped from its standard, for along the pole edge can be seen how the canton was torn and then roughly sewn together by over-lapping the material, thus warping the flag’s rectangular shape. Both hand and machine stitching may now be found on the flag. Analysis suggests that repair sewing took place primarily on two early occasions, perhaps during the war and immediately thereafter. Some of the larger tears have been sewn in careful stitching, as if mended by a seamstress; others were darned in rough and hurried stitches; still more were left open. The acrid smell of gunpowder and campfire smoke lingered in the fabric to the point that they could still be faintly detected.
Since its rediscovery, the flag has been treated by Textile Preservation Associates, Inc. of Keedysville, Maryland. It was unveiled in its new frame at the College alumni luncheon on 1 June 2002; plans have been launched for its permanent display though this must be strictly limited in duration and lighting to protect the material from decay.
Who bore the Allegheny Company flag in battle and on the march? No one knows for sure. To carry the colors was a great honor. No doubt several persons performed the task; some of these may well have paid the full price, for the flag was not only the rallying point for the Company but also a prime target of enemy marksmen. Bates connects only one person with the Allegheny flag: George L. Beach, part of the original muster, who was promoted to Sergeant of the Color Guard in November 1862. He had previously been wounded at Gaines Mill and would be wounded again at Fredericksburg. Perhaps the first color bearer was Adam Nutt ’61, listed by Getchell as an ensign when the volunteers left for Pittsburgh, but his name is not on Bates’s official roster.
Those
who rallied around this particular flag were not the only Alleghenians who
fought in the War. Many graduate alumni and former students, such as William
McKinley, served in a variety of units. Sylvester H. Birdsall of the class
of 1860 joined Company K of the 150th regiment of the Pennsylvania volunteers
and was part of the guard for President Abraham Lincoln. He then organized
and captained the first company of African-American soldiers in the District
of Columbia. Not all the undergraduates who enlisted while students at Allegheny
served in Company I. John W. Phillips ’60, David T. McKay ’62,
and James W. Smith, ’60 led recruitment from the Meadville area in
the summer of 1862 of Company B, 18th Pennsylvania Calvary, 163rd Regiment,
and were joined by two more of their college mates; local papers referred
to this unit as the “College Cavalry.” Fourteen or more Allegheny
students joined other companies recruited in the Meadville area during the
war. Still others joined units from their own regions. Captains Nelson, Armstrong
Thomas ’62, and Marcus Horton ’63 of Ohio regiments died fighting
along the Chickamauga River in May 1863, and J. H. Lefever ’61 died
there on the last day of the great Battle of the Chickamauga of September
1863. The first three were Northerners, but on which side was Lefever? Gordon Batelle'40, the eloquent Methodist Episcopal preacher who defended his church and the cause of the Union in a dividing Virginia, died in October 1962 of typhoid while serving as chaplain to the 1st regiment of Virginia volunteers. Among
the highest ranking Allegheny graduates in the war was career officer Brigadier
General Alexander Hays, slain in the battle of the Wilderness. F. Alsor Jones ’57
in 1864 gained the rank of brigadier general with the 6th Maryland Volunteers,
as did A. B. McCalmont ’43 and F. A. Bartleson ’63, who served
with other volunteer contingents. Alfred Pearson ’56 of the Pennsylvania
Volunteers became a major general in March 1865.41
