Skip to main content

The Fishing Creek Confederacy Part 1

In the next few posts in this series I hope to tell the story of the Fishing Creek Confederacy and Alvah Russel Rutan.

On August 28, 1861 the first arrests were made.  Roughly 100 men were gathered in a church in Benton, Columbia County, Pennsylvania.  Of the 100 gathered 45 men were arrested and marched to Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania in Columbia County from Benton.  The men did not resist arrest even though they were not given a reason for the arrests.  From Bloomsburg the men were taken by train to Fort Mifflin (below Philadelphia). Once they arrived there they were denied contact with counsel, friends and family.  They were not told who was accusing them or what they were being arrested for.  All of the men who were arrested were Democrats and only one of them had been drafted or were eligible for the draft.

The men were honest, hard working men who believed in God and each other.  They did what they could to meet the draft quota for Columbia County.  During this troubled time political and personal differences led individuals to give false information about their neighbors.  There were rumors started that draft evaders and others against the war had formed an army of their own and built an armed fort on a mountain in Fishing Creek.  The rumors were fueled by both the Democratic and Republican newspapers in Columbia County and the surrounding area.  Soon  these rumors spread and leaders in Harrisburg and Washington sent solders to Columbia County to arrest the draft resisters and anyone else opposed to the war.  After the 45 men were arrested and taken to Fort Mifflin General Caldwallader returned to Columbia County with more soldiers to search for the fort.  Nothing was found.

One of the men arrested was Reverend Alvah Russel Rutan {my husband's 3rd great grandfather}.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

5 Tips to Break Down Your Brick Wall

Originally posted at Lost Tree Project as a guest post February 2019. Eventually we all hit a brick wall.  My first brick wall was with Joseph Thomas {my husband's 3rd great grandfather} I spent months searching.  Brick walls can last weeks to months to years.  Below are some quick tips to help you break through that brick wall. Research another ancestor for a while and then go back to your brick wall .  You will see your brick wall ancestor with new eyes. Use a checklist to see if you missed any records.  {You can find my Evernote Research Checklist in my shared genealogy notebook.} Revisit your research.  Maybe you missed a piece of information in a document.  Maybe something seemed like it wasn't important but now that you have more information you find it is important. Learn something new.  It does not need to be genealogy related.  When you shift your thinking to something else and then go back to the brick

Marine Casualty Card Database

While I was writing Top 10 Blog Posts for 2019 I discovered that my top post was US Marine Casualty Cards from 2014.  Wow!  {There is also an update to the original post here  where I show some more information that was sent to me.}  I went back to read the post and discovered that the links no longer work.  I did a little digging and found a link to the Casualty Card Database at the Marine Corps University website.  At this site you click on the war you want to search and download a searchable spreadsheet.  Once you locate your Marine you send an email to request the card.  There are also links to download information about what the codes mean on the cards. I also found that you can search the U.S. Marine Corps Casualty Index, 1940-1958 , at Ancestry.com.  It gives the casualty date, type, unit, and service number.  There is a link to go to another website from the Ancestry database but that link does not work. {I believe it is the same as the link from my original post

US Marine Casualty Cards

Earlier this week I got my copy of Family Tree Magazine and I was reading an article that led me to  World War II History Network  and from there I found a link to an article about the United States Marine Corp making their casualty cards searchable.  You can find the database at  Casualty Cards Database. Fred Thomas, my husbands great uncle, was in WWII and in the Marines.  I searched the database and found : On the first page it states :  While the cards for World War II through Korea are not classified, however, they can often be very graphic.    Therefore, to maintain the dignity and honor of the Marines, the individual cards will only be released, upon request, on a case by case basis.    To request a card, please send an email to   history.division@usmc.mil   or a request in writting to: United States Marine Corps History Division Attn: Reference Branch 3078 Upshur Avenue Quantico, Virginia 22134 .    I immediately sent an email {about 12:30 am because