Civil war talk focuses on history from the bottom up – Observer-Reporter

Brian Charltons talk at the Rostraver Township Historical Society uses a small picture to look at a much larger one.

[I] talk on the lives of the residents in the Mon Valley during the Civil War to tell the story of that much broader subject, Charlton said. I like to call it history from the bottom up.

In his talk hosted by Rostraver Township Historical Society March 8, he discussed Mon Valley residents such as Charles Fell Anderson and Samuel Harvey and covered other Civil War-era residents in the area from Mon City to Beallsville.

[I] discuss how Anderson and Harvey both came to join the Ringgold Calvary, in stories more circuitous than most, he said.

The Ringgold Calvary itself got a good deal of attention in the talk. Named for Major Samuel Ringgold, a hero of the Mexican War killed at the battle of Palo Alto, the calvary formed in 1847 at the onset of the Mexican War. It continued through 1865 when the Civil War ended.

Probably the only people from the Mexican War more famous than Ringgold were Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie and General Winfield Scott, Charlton said. There are over two dozen towns, counties and school districts across the U.S. named after Ringgold.

The speaker also mentioned two songs written about Ringgold and traditionally plans to sing a section of one of them, The Death of Major Ringgold.

One of the soldiers to join the calvary, Adam Wickersham, owned property in the Monongahela area on which Eldora Park was eventually built. Wickersham was the only one to serve during the entire existence of the calvary. He mustered with Company A at the National Hotel in Beallsville in June 1861, then marched on to Grafton, Virginia, now West Virginia.

He is one of the soldiers most written about, Charlton said. Wickersham joined the calvary at the age of 16, never swore nor drank and was considered one of the toughest in Company A.

Charlton uses newspaper accounts, biographies and memoirs to research his talk, like that of Joseph Abell, who lived in Charleroi and suffered from a wound that never healed and PTSD. Sadly, he ended up taking his own life.

Another soldier, William Harvey Crago, became a bugler in the Ringgold Calvary and, after the war, returned to the Carmichaels area to become a farmer. According to Charlton, he eventually went blind but still managed to keep bees and manage the family farm.

Charlton, a now-retired social science and history teacher for the Belle Vernon School District, is also a member of the Donora Historical Society. The Society has such great archives that Im now able to talk on 18 different subjects everything from Stan Musial and Cement City to the 1948 Killer Smog Disaster and the African-American and religious experiences in the area.

His March 8 talk was the fourth time Charlton has addressed members of the Rostraver Township Historical Society, the last being an October talk on the 1948 Smog Disaster.

Several years ago, he spoke on the circuit of the Carnegie Library System when he talked at each branch library. Hes also presented at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Pittsburgh.

As to the Rostraver Township Historical Society, it was founded in 1995 and has a current membership of around 300 members. Annual dues are $20, with family memberships offered at $25 and lifetime memberships at $300.

Meetings are held the second Thursday of the month, usually with a speaker included, except in December when a special presentation on the anniversary of the Darr Mine Disaster takes place.

The Darr Mine Disaster [of Dec. 19, 1907] is the largest mine disaster in the state of Pennsylvania, where 239 miners died, said John Hepple, president.

For more information on the society, contact 724-396-4599.

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Civil war talk focuses on history from the bottom up - Observer-Reporter