12-04-2025
The 48th and 96th PA regiments trained on Pottsville's Lawton's Hill for the Civil War
My grandparents, Nathan and Domenica Borga DePauli, had a farmette on the Route 61 side of Lawton's Hill until after World War II.
In fact, their house was demolished to make way for the new Route 61 in the early 1950s — I'm pretty sure the road opened in 1952.
Anyway, my mother, Josephine DePauli Devlin, used to tell us how as a child she remembered the KKK burning crosses atop Lawton's Hill, around where Nativity BVM High School is now located, or maybe the old WPAM radio station.
That's pretty ironic considering Lawton's Hill was used as a training ground and campsite for troops headed for the Civil War.
In fact, two Union Army units — the 48th and 96th regiments — trained on Lawton's Hill, one of seven hills on which Pottsville, like Rome, is built.
The 48th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment, sometimes called the 'Schuylkill' regiment, was recruited in Schuylkill County in August and September 1861 — about five months after the war started.
At the Second Battle of Petersburg in 1864, two members of the 48th Regiment earned the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military decoration. Robert Reid, Co. G, of Pottsville, captured a Confederate flag, and Patrick H. Monaghan, Co. F, of Minersville, re-captured a Union Battle flag.
The 48th, however, is best known for its role in the Battle of the Crater in June 1864. Under direction of Lt. Col. Henry Pleasants, miners from Schuylkill County dug a tunnel under a battlefield and planted 8,000 pounds of gunpowder under a Confederate encampment. The explosion made a huge crater, thus giving the battle its name.
On Nov. 6, 1861, Gov. Andrew Curtin came to Pottsville to present the 96th Regiment its colors.
The governor and his staff stayed at the American House hotel on North Centre Street, and the 96th marched from Lawton's Hill to the hotel to receive its battle flag.
Centre Street was blocked by a large crowd that turned out to witness the ceremony.
'I cannot but remember that it was in this town and county,' Curtin said, 'that when the first proclamation by the president for troops was issued, men rushed and were the first to reach the threatened Capital.'
The governor's reference was to Pres. Abraham Lincoln's call for 75,000 militia volunteers on April 15, 1861, following the bombardment of Fort Sumter – the start of the Civil War.
The First Defenders – two units from Pottsville and one each from Allentown, Reading and Lewistown – were among the first to respond to Lincoln's call to arms.
The Washington Artillerists and National Light Artillery of Pottsville were joined by the Ringgold Light Artillery of Reading, the Allen Rifles of Allentown and the Logan Guards of Lewistown in a three-month deployment.
In presenting the 96th Regimental flag, Curtin said, 'I am here today, recognizing you as a regiment of Pennsylvania volunteers about to go into service of the country, to present to you this beautiful standard. I deliver to you the honor of the state. I deliver this flag to you today, that all of you to all coming generations may declare that the nation shall be of 34 stars, not one less.'
The 96th flag had the Pennsylvania coat of arms — a shield crested by a bald eagle flanked by horses — on a field of 34 stars.
On the eve of the Civil War, the United States had 34 states – 19 free and 15 slave states.
In his address, Curtin continued: 'You look for the last time, many of you, on this beautiful country. You see for the last time, the places of your homes, where you were born and passed the days of your childhood. And yet it is a sweet consolation for me that, if you fall, you fall fighting for the matchless Constitution under which we have grown.'
The governor was cheered following his speech, and the band broke out in the Star-Spangled Banner, the national anthem.
The 96th Regiment marched back to its encampment on Lawton's Hill and, the following day, boarded a train for Washington by way of Sunbury and Harrisburg.
The 96th planted the flag presented by Gov. Curtin on the Confederate works at Spotsylvania, Virginia.
By the way, Pottsville's seven hills are: Lawton's, Greenwood, Bunker, Guinea, Forest, Cottage and Mount Hope. Rome's are: Palatine, Aventine, Capitoline, Caelian, Esquiline, Viminal and Quirinal.
