Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

The collection is without restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

John S. Eyster Civil War Papers, 1861-1907, Accession #11455, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

Gift: Greg Ramos, Weston, Connecticut, December 12, 1998.

Scope and Content Information

This collection, 26 items, 1860-1907, consists of chiefly military and pension records concerning Captain John S. Eyster (ca. 1827-?) of Franklin County, Pennsylvania, Company K, "McClure's Rifles," 12th Regiment Pennsylvania Reserve Corps Volunteers (41st Pennsylvania Regiment). Also present are a few items concerning Private Christian S. Eyster (1853-?) of Alexander Hoore's Company F, 3rd U. S. Cavalry (postwar); Private James McConnell, Company C, 126th Pennsylvania Infantry; and Colonel Henry O. Kent, 17th New Hampshire Infantry Volunteers. Documents including muster rolls, military orders (mostly issued by Colonel John H. Taggart and Major Peter Baldy of the 12th Regiment), accounts, leave requests, and commissions. The collection also contains postwar materials concerning printed invitations, pensions and miscellaneous items.

During Eyster's service (April 5, 1861 to August 23, 1862) the 12th Regiment was organized at Harrisonburg, Pennsylvania, and attached to the 3rd Brigade of McCall's Pennsylvania Reserves Division in the Army of the Potomac. It was on duty at Camp Curtin and Camp McCall (Pennsylvania) and Camp Tennally (Tennallytown, Maryland). The regiment participated in various campaigns in Virginia during 1861-62 including Dranesville (a January 10, 1862 letter describes Eyster as "a faithful and attentive officer" who played an active part in this engagement which occurred December 20, 1861) and the Seven Days. However, there are no other direct references to battle participation in this collection.¹

Most items pertain to John Eyster's Civil War service as captain of Company K, "McClure's Rifles," 12th Regiment Pennsylvania Reserve Corps Volunteers (41st Pennsylvania Regiment) and members of his family. Among these are: Eyster's commission as a first lieutenant (May 7, 1861) signed by Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin (1817-1894); two muster rolls of the regiment (August 10, 1861); orders issued by Brigadier General George A. McCall (1802-1868) concerning camp sanitation and the reporting of any suspicious lights or signals (August 19 & 24, 1861) and Special Orders No. 39, in which to curb sickness among the troops General McCall forbids sutlers and civilians to sell food or drink in the encampment (August 24, 1861); an American Tract Society publication Orders of Generals [George] Washington [August 3, 1776] and [George B.] McClellan [September 6, 1861] regarding respecting the Sabbath (September 6, 1861); a September 1861 account of the pay, subsistence, forage and clothing of a servant, William H. Mong [an African-American?]; a detailed outline of the regiment's daily camp schedule (October 3, 1861); an August 20, 1862, invitation for officers of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps to attend the presentation of a sword to Major General George G. Meade (1815-1872); and, a 1866, a printed invitation to veterans of Twelfth Regiment Pennsylvania Reserves to participate in a Fourth of July parade in Philadelphia.

Occasionally, there are postwar comments on the reverse of some items. A January 31, 1862 account of Company K's savings by Eyster bears on its reverse "You can see how little they had to eat, to save the union and flag"; a leave of absence request, January 10, 1862, for Eyster endorsed by Brigadier General Edward O. C. Ord (1818-1883) bears a brief genealogical note: "Associate Judge from 1823 to 1832 Jacob Eyster/Father of John E./Mother Mary Slagel Eyster."

Also of interest regarding the Eyster family is a ca. 1861 photograph, by E. Woodward of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, of a young man [John S. Eyster?] in a militia uniform and leaning against a bayoneted rifle; a 1874 military discharge certificate, Fort McPherson, Nebraska, for Private Christian S. Eyster (b. 1853), Alexander Hoore's Company F, 3rd U. S. Cavalry and identifying him as a Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, farmer; a 1907 bounty claim form filed by Eyster's widow; and a December 17, 1907 letter from the solicitor for the directors of the poor in Chambersburg to C. W. Eyster, concerning a deed sent to Eyster's sister Fannie; on the reverse: "Leslie this was your Grandfather sword/And you are [entitled] to 360 acres of land through Uncle Christ."

There are a few items apparently unrelated to the Eyster family including 1883 and 1887 pension records of James McConnell, Fort Worth, Texas, formerly a private in Company C, 126th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, a 1860 love letter and poem to Miss Lide McConnell from an unidentified correspondent, and a 1892 U. S. Senate report on a private bill for Colonel Henry O. Kent, 17th New Hampshire Infantry Volunteers [later the 2nd New Hampshire Infantry], asking Congress to order the War Department officially to recognize his wartime rank of colonel.

¹Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion (New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1959), 3:1582-1583; Samuel P. Bates, History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5 (Harrisburg: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869), 1:876-883, 905.