In Lieu of a Draft: A History of the 153Rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment

Contents

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

EPILOGUE

ABBREVIATIONS

USED IN NOTES

NOTES

In loving memory of my parents.

"Let no man of any kind ever dare to say one word

against the 153rd Pennsylvania Volunteers."

Major John Frederick Frueauff

July 8, 1863

PREFACE

The 150th anniversary of the Civil War has generated renewed interest in a conflict that forever changed the history of the United States. As a lifetime resident of Northampton County and a Civil War aficionado, the history of the 153rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment is of particular interest to me. This nine month regiment of volunteers was entirely recruited in Northampton County, in lieu of an impending draft by the state. The county was settled by many families of German heritage, who for the most part were Democratic in their politics. The 153rd was a microcosm of Northampton County, heavily Democratic, but among its ranks were Republicans, who vigorously supported the Lincoln Administration. Republicans fought for a Union free of sectionalism and slavery, while Northern Democrats desired to preserve the Union as it was. During the long days and nights spent in winter quarters, the officers and men of the 153rd had ample time to express their political views and frustrations with the direction the war was taking, especially after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.

This book is not intended to be a detailed study of the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, both of which the 153rd played a unique role in; I leave that to the professional historians. It does however, offer new insight into the day to day affairs of the regiment’s officers and men, and renders what I believe to be a good accounting of their engagements in the aforesaid battles.

I wish to thank the staff of the Sigal Museum, especially Jane Moyer, Librarian and Andria Zaia, Curator of Collections and Archives for their gracious cooperation. The Sigal Museum is a true gem in our midst, preserving the history of Northampton County. I would also like to thank Richard Epstein, former owner of Easton’s Quadrant Bookmart, for introducing me many years ago to a rare book on the 153rd by Ethan Allen Weaver. This is where my journey began. Most importantly, I wish to thank my wife, Justine, who encouraged me to pursue a dream by reminding me of a famous quote from Abraham Lincoln: Half-finished work generally proves to be labor lost.

If one of your ancestors served in this regiment, I encourage you to share their story. People are actively researching their civil war ancestors. With the emergence of countless genealogical websites, the mysteries of the past can be unlocked with a few keystrokes.

Finally, I wish to acknowledge my great, great paternal grandfather, David Lovenstein, a Prussian immigrant, who worked as a telegrapher for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in Preston County, Virginia. During the famous Jones-Imboden Raid into western Virginia, on Sunday, April 26, 1863, David telegraphed an alarm to other stations down the line, incurring the wrath of Confederate Colonel A. W. Harmon, 12th Virginia Cavalry. Though the raid proved very destructive to the railroad, it failed to keep western Virginia in the Confederacy. The new state of West Virginia was born that year. David’s descendants worked for the railroads, eventually settling in Northampton County.

Since many soldiers used creative spelling and sometimes little or no punctuation, I have taken the liberty to correct these mistakes for an easier read.

Lochard H. Lovenstein

Easton, Pa.

INTRODUCTION

On June 6, 1908 the survivors of the 153rd Pennsylvania Regiment held a reunion at Nazareth, Pennsylvania. Noah Dietrich, the President of the Regimental Association, steered the agenda toward approving for publication a more complete history of their regiment and selecting one of their own as historian. They chose Rev. William R. Kiefer, who had served as a drummer boy in Company F. An Advisory Board composed of Jacob Dachrodt, William Rader and Dr. William Crawford was assigned to assist Kiefer in this arduous task. ¹ Newton Heston Mack, Secretary of the Association, and member of the Publishing Committee, had been hard at work for several years, compiling a complete roster of the regiment.²

The History of the 153rd Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was completed in 1909 and published by The Easton Press of the Chemical Publishing Company. In the introduction, William M. Shultz, former sergeant in Company A, wrote: Many incidents of an instructive and entertaining nature must of necessity be omitted, owing to the death of those who could have vouched for the accuracy of the same.³ And in his inceptive chapter, Kiefer admitted that many incidents recorded in diaries had to be omitted, because they dealt with certain personal matters, offensive to some of the survivors, but which admittedly would otherwise have added relish to the stories. Kiefer also had to exclude material he felt was heavily tainted with odium cast upon certain officers and written in such partisan style that the reader would find it unacceptable.⁴ Given all these constraints, Kiefer had to be more censor than historian. Although he included many interesting eyewitness accounts in his book, they suffer from being disjointed. It is only when they are weaved into a general narrative that a much more interesting story emerges.

This book documents the daily chores of camp life and the long hours spent waiting to engage the enemy. Historian James I. Robertson, Jr. has noted that soldiers spent more time in camp than on marches and in battle combined.⁵ It also presents the uncensored story and explores the deep political divisions within the regiment. The battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg are told through the eyes of the 153rd regiment as only they could have seen and experienced them. Kiefer himself stated that: A great battle over long and complicated lines over ground of varied configuration and many natural impediments, and as is sometimes the case, fought at night, cannot be faithfully and accurately described by any one man, but must depend on the reports of many. Every effort has been made to present this story as a chronological narrative of their service.

A brief history of the principal sources for this book will give a clearer picture how the printed history of the regiment unfolded.

Soldier Correspondents

The earliest published material about the 153rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment came from soldier correspondents, who sent frequent reports to newspapers such as the Easton Argus, the Easton Sentinel, the Daily Evening Express and the Correspondent and Democrat, a German newspaper owned by Josiah Cole. The Easton Argus had its origins with the 1826 merger of the Pennsylvania Argus, published by Jacob Weygendt Jr. and the Easton Gazette, owned by Samuel Innes. Innes called his new paper the Democrat and Argus, which he published until his death in 1841. His father and brother ran the paper until 1844, when it was purchased by William H. Hutter, nephew of Andrew H. Reeder of Easton, the first territorial governor of Kansas. Governor Reeder’s wife was Fredericka Amelia Hutter, the daughter of Colonel Christian Jacob Hutter. From its inception the Argus had a strong Democratic base, extolling the virtues of Jacksonian Democracy, as did its predecessor, the Pennsylvania Argus.⁶

Colonel Christian Jacob Hutter, a German immigrant, founded the Northampton Correspondent in 1806. This paper eventually became the Easton Sentinel. Hutter’s son-in-law, Frederick William Muller, sold the Sentinel to Abraham Henry Senseman in 1839. Senseman then sold the paper to James M. Porter in 1841. Daniel H. Neiman purchased the Sentinel on December 19, 1851.⁷

In November 1862, Major John Frederick Frueauff of the 153rd Pa. Volunteers stated the following in a letter to his parents: "We have in our regiment several newspaper correspondents of whom I have read several letters and some good ones. Bachschmid our Sergeant Major writes German for the Correspondent and Democrat. His letters are I think the best written and most interesting. Mr. Simmers a private and the Clerk of the Adjutant writes for the Argus and some unknown for the Sentinel." ⁸

Beginning in September 1862, The Argus had published a column entitled From Our Regiment, written by a correspondent identifying himself as W.S. We know from Frueauff’s remarks cited above that this correspondent was William Simmers of Upper Mount Bethel. I have therefore chosen to cite Simmers for all letters submitted to the Argus by W.S. William Simmers began his service as a private in Company K. He was later promoted to Sergeant Major and then Second Lieutenant.

Lieutenant William Simmers

Lieutenant Paul Bachschmid

William Simmers and Paul Bachschmid

Williams Simmers was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1831. He served as a second mate on a slave ship sailing from Africa to the West Indies. After settling in Richmond, Northampton County, he learned the skills of a tanner, dabbled in teaching and worked as a bookkeeper for the Glanz and Kuebler Brewery. He also had experience as a former reporter. In February 1862, Simmers’s wife, Levina, passed away leaving him a widower at the age of thirty-two.

When Sergeant Major Simmers was promoted to Second Lieutenant of Company G in January 1863, Major John Frederick Frueauff wrote the following to his parents: The correspondent is not loyal as he believes that in the end the South will be gloriously victorious.

Paul Bachschmid, born in Leutkirch, Germany in 1818, immigrated to America in 1852. He began his service in the 153rd as Sergeant Major and was later promoted to Second Lieutenant of Company E. ⁹

Sergeant William M. Schultz

Sgt. William M. Schultz

Another correspondent for the Argus was Sergeant William Schultz of Company A, who used the pseudonym Right of the Line. Schultz most likely assumed the duties of correspondent following Simmers’ promotion to Second Lieutenant of Company G, or shortly after Simmers became ill.

An Argus article on April 15, 1863 stated the paper hadn’t heard from its correspondent. Schultz, who was later captured at Chancellorsville on May 2, 1863, didn’t correspond to the Argus until after his parole from Libby Prison, when he apologized to the paper for not having written sooner!

Quartermaster S. Holland Knowles

Quartermaster Samuel Holland Knowles

I believe the unknown correspondent who wrote to the Sentinel, that Major Frueuaff referred to in his letter of November 1862, was Quartermaster S. Holland Knowles. Using the pseudonym Mars, this correspondent railed against the Black Republicans and their abolitionist agenda. After the war, Captain Owen Rice noted that Knowles’ pet antipathy was the Negro, citing an anecdote that occurred at Aquia Landing, a union supply depot. When an inebriated Knowles was introduced to Captain Frederick Stowe—son of Harriet Beecher Stowe, famous author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin—he greeted Stowe with the following insult: Ah yes, young man; heard of your respected mother—used to be in the millinery business,—made flowers out of negro’s wool.¹⁰

Information provided by Knowles’ sister, Mrs. George H. Bender, prompted the regiment’s historian, William R. Kiefer to write: "Comrade Knowles was of a literary turn and was a regular contributor to the daily papers (italics added) . . . Knowles, a staunch Democrat, scion of W. H. Knowles, Superintendent of the Lehigh and Navigation Coal Company, received an excellent education at Rev. John Vandeveer’s Academy in Easton. He was well liked and often referred to as the universal favorite of the regiment."¹¹ The Easton Sentinel described Knowles as energetic, active and full of life, with a heart above the ordinary size.

Northampton, another correspondent, wrote regularly to the Daily Evening Express, published by William L. Davis. Some of Northampton’s articles contained quotations from Shakespeare, obviously the mark of a literary man. His reports covered subjects dear to a quartermaster’s heart. He complained about shoe shortages and Yankee speculators. He even exhorted people back home to send fresh provisions to the men. The Daily Evening Express also received letters from Phoenix and Truth.

It is interesting to note that since Knowles’ sister claimed her brother wrote to more than one paper, it is possible that Northampton, Phoenix and Truth were all pseudonyms used by the quartermaster. Why Phoenix asked were free blacks getting paid more than soldiers? Why couldn’t the government let the blacks fend for themselves? It almost appears that when Knowles wore his quartermaster uniform, he spoke as Northampton, but when he wrote as Mars or Phoenix, he took off that uniform and became Knowles, the partisan Democrat, a man who clearly made no attempt to conceal his prejudices toward blacks. When Democrats gained more seats in Congress during the fall elections of 1862, Mars gloated! Truth represented Knowles the soldier, who lambasted detractors back home for casting aspersions on Glanz and his regiment. If Knowles wasn’t the man who penned these articles, he certainly had a great deal in common with whomever did write them.

Simmers and Bachschmid

Write History of the 153rd

September 10, 1863 an advertisement appeared in the Easton Argus announcing that: Messers Simmers and Bachschmid intend, in the course of a week to ten days, to publish in pamphlet form a history of the regiment. As only a limited number of copies will be printed, we would advise the late members and friends of the regiment to look out for the book in order to secure a copy. Daniel H. Neiman of The Easton Sentinel printed the fifty-two page pamphlet, which Simmers and Bachschmid entitled: The Volunteer’s Manual or Ten Months with the 153rd Penn. Volunteers subtitled Being a Concise Narrative of The Most Important Events in the History of the Regiment. It is interesting to note that the first history of the 153rd was written by a Democrat (Simmers) and a Republican (Bachschmid).

Ethan Allen Weaver’s Memorial to His Father

On July 11, 1885, a Lafayette graduate named Ethan Allen Weaver—son of Sergeant Henry Weaver of Company A—penned the following correspondence to John B. Bachelder, noted historian on the Battle of Gettysburg: I am preparing for my own pleasure and not for publication or reproduction, a memorial album of the 153rd of which my father was a member. My album will consist of the printed history of the regiment, mounted on the pages of the album with illustrations of views along the routes of travel, autographs and autographed letters and likenesses of officers, etc.¹²

Ethan Allen Weaver collected material on his father’s regiment for almost a quarter of a century. Kiefer credited Ethan Allen Weaver with supplying many of the photographic negatives used in his book, The History of the 153rd Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. In appreciation for Weaver’s efforts in helping to preserve the 153rd’s history, Edwin S. Glanz, son of Charles Glanz,—colonel of the 153rd—presented Weaver with a fragment of the regiment’s battle torn flag.¹³

Ethan entitled the album: 153rd Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, 1862, 1863, A Memorial to William Henry Weaver, Sergeant of Company A. This unique album is in the possession of the Northampton Historical and Genealogical Society of Easton. It consists of four volumes of correspondence and newspaper clippings about the regiment.

Diaries

Weaver corresponded to many of the regiment’s survivors requesting their diaries and testimonials for transcription. Only a few members responded. Shortly before his death in 1901, the Reverend Philip Melick, the regiment’s chaplain, reluctantly loaned his diary to Weaver for transcription, but warned him it contained too much personal information.¹⁴

On September 23, 1903, while perusing through an old book store in Easton, Ethan Weaver discovered the original diary of Private Stryker A. Wallace of Company G. Wallace was mentioned frequently in Reverend Philip Melick’s diary—both men were originally from Upper Mount Bethel in Northampton County. Ethan paid the Negro proprietor fifteen cents for the diary. After transcribing it, Ethan located Wallace in Chicago, Illinois, where he served as pastor of a Presbyterian church. One can only imagine the excitement Rev. Wallace felt when Weaver returned his diary to him. The reverend had given it up for lost long ago.

Private Francis Stofflet sent Weaver a copy of his diary on March 27, 1906. Stofflet had the diary published in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1905 and entitled it: A Soldier’s Diary From September 21, 1862 To July 24, 1863, War of the Rebellion, Member Co. D, 153rd Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, Assigned to the Army of the Potomac. Stofflet was born on a farm in Stockertown, Northampton County, on February 22, 1841. His father Levi married Anna E. Meyers and the couple had twelve children, Francis being the eighth born.¹⁵

When Rev. William R. Kiefer sent Weaver a copy of his diary, he accompanied it with a letter explaining that he had entrusted the original to his son, a physician residing in Ramsey, New Jersey. The doctor gave the diary to his nurse to transcribe. She bungled the work badly lamented Kiefer to Weaver. The diary has no journalistic or literary merit, wrote Kiefer, just the plain old record of our itinerary, which served him as a guide while recounting the history of the regiment. Transcriptions for all of the above diaries can be found in the Marx Room of the Easton Public Library.

Private Reuben Ruch of Company F provided a vivid, eyewitness account of the regiment’s march to Gettysburg and the ensuing battle. His narrative—the longest of all cited in Kiefer’s book (37 pages)—appears to have been written after the war. Excerpts from Ruch’s narrative have appeared in numerous books on Gettysburg written by some of its most renowned historians. Ruch lived on a farm in Lehigh County and ran away to enlist in the Northampton regiment.¹⁶

Reuben F. Ruch

A photograph of Ruch taken during the war captures an unassuming nineteen year old, clean shaven, hair neatly combed, attired in an open frock coat with vest underneath, holding a kepi in his right hand, and resting his left hand on the back of a chair. This is hardly the image of a warrior, but representative of many young men, who left their farms to fight for a cause.

The diary of Corporal Calvin S. Heller of Company G is in the possession of the United States Army Military Institute at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Heller was illiterate, but he still managed to document the daily experiences of camp life. Corporal Rudolph Rossel of Company B, who served as an ambulance driver in the regiment, also wrote a diary. The original is on display at the Lee Headquarters Museum in Gettysburg. Other diaries, written by members of the 153rd, occasionally surface on the Internet. In 2009 The Rail Splitter offered in its auction, the diary of Private Simon Smith, which it estimated would fetch $1,000 or more.

Owen Rice’s Paper on Chancellorsville

In 1885 H. C. Sherick and Company of Cincinnati, Ohio printed a thirty-eight page pamphlet entitled: Afield with the Eleventh Corps at Chancellorsville, a speech addressed to the Ohio Chapter of the Loyal Legion of the United States by Owen Rice, former captain of Company A. The speech countered unjust accusations of cowardliness levied against the Eleventh Corps after its rout at Chancellorsville. Composed predominantly of German immigrants and their decedents, the corps became the frequent scapegoat toward which the xenophobia of the time was directed.

Owen Rice was born in Lititz, Pennsylvania, a small Moravian community north of Lancaster, on October 6, 1836. His father Edward had studied in the theological seminary at Nazareth before deciding to become a physician, and was considered at the time, the most learned man in the Moravian Church. Unfortunately Edward died at the early age of 36, while treating the sick, during a smallpox epidemic in Catasauqua, Pennsylvania. Rice began his education, as did his father, by attending Nazareth Hall, a Moravian school. He then attended the Theological Seminary. But instead of pursuing a career in medicine, Rice decided to teach at Nazareth Hall. It was Rice who would issue a dire warning at Chancellorsville of an impending attack, a warning that would go unheeded by his superiors. This warning, had it been taken seriously—along with others—could have prevented the disaster that ultimately befell the Army of the Potomac.¹⁷

On July 1, 1911, nearly a year and a half after Kiefer’s book was published, Ethan Allen Weaver authored Owen Rice, Christian, Scholar and Patriot. Weaver had three hundred copies privately printed in Germantown, Pennsylvania. This unique book contains a genealogy and biography of Captain Rice and includes original pamphlets from Afield with the Eleventh Corps at Chancellorsville and The Volunteers Manual or Ten Months with the 153rd Penn. Volunteers, also a 1907 reprint of The Volunteers Manual. One copy is in the possession of the author.

For the fiftieth anniversary of the battle of Chancellorsville, Weaver reprinted excerpts from the diaries of Melick, Stofflet and his father in an article published in the May 6, 1913 edition of the Easton Free Press entitled "A Week Fifty Years Ago Memorable To Eastonians."

Professor Coddington and the Bachelder Papers

On January 28, 1949, Edward B. Coddington—a Lafayette Professor—

read a paper before the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society entitled "Role of the 153rd Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry In The Civil War, 1862 To 1863." Coddington later authored The Gettysburg Campaign, A Study In Command. Today it is considered by many historians to be one of the best works on the battle of Gettysburg.

While researching his book in the late 1950’s, Coddington made an important discovery. The New Hampshire Historical Society was in possession of the Bachelder Papers, a rich source of eyewitness accounts sent to Bachelder by survivors of Gettysburg. Among these papers were two letters written by lieutenants J. Clyde Millar and William Beidelman of the 153rd. Also included in Bachelder Papers were letters written by Captain R. Bruce Ricketts. Ricketts was highly critical of the Eleventh Corps’s performance at Gettysburg. On July 2, 1863, he commanded Batteries F and G, First Pennsylvania Light Artillery, placed on Cemetery Hill behind the 153rd. Nearly three years after the battle of Gettysburg, Ricketts wrote: I am particularly anxious to give… my testimony with regard to the conduct of the Eleventh Corps, desiring to correct the miserable incorrect statements of reporters at the time, and the action of Congress since, (in its vote of thanks to General Howard). I am very much afraid that history will give that corps credit for, what it never did at Gettysburg, fighting.¹⁸

John Badger Bachelder, a New Hampshire native an artist, moved to Reading, Pennsylvania in 1850, where he became principal of what later became known as the Pennsylvania Military Institute. He resigned as principal in 1853 and returned to New Hampshire to research the Battle of Bunker Hill, so he could create an accurate depiction of the battle. The Civil War presented the artist an opportunity to accompany the Army of the Potomac. After the Battle of Gettysburg, Bachelder interviewed many witnesses and compiled voluminous notes and sketches making him the most important historian of the Battle of Gettysburg in Nineteenth Century America.¹⁹

Freddie’s War

Freddie’s War, The Civil War Letters of John Frederick Frueauff, Edited by Daniel R. Gilbert, Sr. appeared in 2006. The Frueauff Papers were presented to Moravian College in 1994 by the Frueauff Foundation. The papers are a remarkable record of Frueauff’s experiences as a lieutenant in the First Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry and then as major in the 153rd. Frueauff’s insights with respect to his fellow officers are entertaining and amusing. Since the Frueuaff Papers contained no letters written by Frueauff from Gettysburg, or mentioning his participation in the battle, Gilbert speculated that either Frueauff was absent from the battle, or another letter or letters documenting his presence there, existed elsewhere. The latter assumption proved to be correct. Frueauff wrote a letter to his father on July 8, 1863 describing his astonishment at not being shot or killed at Gettysburg. This letter was published on July 22, 1863 in the Northampton County Journal.

Northampton County and the Civil War

During the Civil War, Northampton County furnished men serving in 16 regiments of infantry including the 1st, 9th, 41st, 46th, 47th, 51st, 54th, 67th, 115th, 129th, 153rd, 174th (drafted), 198th, 202nd, 214th and 215th. Northampton County men also served in the 59th, 64th, 108th and 113th cavalry regiments. They also served in Captain Truman Seymour’s Battery C, 5th U.S. Artillery and in the 5th, 27th, 34th, 38th and 46th Volunteer Militia; as well as in the navy. The 153rd has the distinction of being the only infantry regiment entirely organized and recruited from within Northampton County.²⁰

In this book I occasionally refer to the men in the 153rd as Sons of Northampton, but this is not meant to ignore Northampton men who served in other regiments. Their memory is forever enshrined in the majestic Soldier and Sailor’s Monument in Easton’s Center Square.

The recruitment of the 153rd Pennsylvania Volunteers began in late August of 1862, when Charles Glanz, an Easton businessman, announced he was forming a nine month regiment. Glanz’s regiment departed Easton on September 25 and reported to Camp Curtin in Harrisburg on the morning September 26. In mid-October it was mustered into federal service and assigned to the First Brigade, First Division of the Eleventh Corps, Army of the Potomac.

Our story begins by introducing the three highest ranking officers in the regiment: Colonel Charles Glanz, Lieutenant Colonel Jacob Dachrodt and Major John Frederick Frueauff. In 1861 all three began their military service holding lower ranks in three month regiments.

CHAPTER 1

Three Month Men

Charles Glanz

A photograph, taken of Charles Glanz while colonel of the 153rd Pennsylvania Regiment, reveals a self-confident man, totally at ease with himself. He is seen holding a kepi in his right hand, the hat lightly pressed against his side, his left hand resting upon the hilt of his sword. His mustache is full, but trimmed, and a long beard rests gently upon the top buttons of his frock coat. This is the image of a confident self-made man, an Easton brewer and saloon keeper, who on May 3, 1863, would find himself in a humiliating position at Chancellorsville.

Colonel Charles Glanz

Glanz immigrated to America from Germany in 1845, when he was twenty two years old, with the intention of establishing his own brewery business. His father, Henrich Christian Glanz, was the Registrar and Postmaster for Walkenreid, a respectable position that paid well, allowing Charles to be privately schooled at home. When Charles reached the age of thirteen, he attended Brandenburg College for two years. When he was twenty one, he was appointed a superintendent of the government domain, responsible for 3,400 acres. But Charles wanted to be a brewer in America, so he decided to leave his hometown of Walkenreid, in the Duchy of Brunswick, for Philadelphia, where breweries were abundant. From Philadelphia, Glanz journeyed to Pottsville, the site of the Eagle Brewery (the present day Yuengling Brewery), before finally settling in Easton. In 1848, he married Elizabeth Evans of Williamsburg.

Willabald Kuebler, a German immigrant from Baden, arrived in Easton in 1852. A year later, Glanz formed a partnership with Kuebler to open a brewery. The Glanz and Kuebler Brewery was erected in Easton in 1854. Glanz also owned and operated a saloon.²¹ At its peak, the brewery produced between seven and eight thousand barrels of beer a year.

By 1857 Glanz had become a successful businessman and an ardent Democrat in a predominantly Democratic town and county. His political activities attracted the attention of prominent men in the Buchanan Administration, which led to a presidential appointment as Consul to Stettin on the Baltic. After the Senate confirmed his appointment on January 11, 1858, Glanz departed for his native Germany, but soon was compelled to return, due to the financial downturn historians would label as the Panic of 1857. ²²

On June 6, 1859, Pennsylvania Governor William F. Parker granted Charles a commission as captain in the state militia. Glanz named his militia the Jaegers, German for hunters. Willabald Kuebler, his partner, joined the militia as Quartermaster. Pennsylvania law required militia to assemble and drill at least once a year.

In September 1842, Easton had hosted a Grand Encampment on the south side of the Lehigh, attended by Governor David R. Porter. But as public interest in maintaining the state militia diminished after the Mexican War, militia served more often than not in a ceremonial capacity, participating in parades and funeral processions for veterans. Two notable Easton funerals, held for George Reichardt and John F. Bachman, were attended by militia. Reichardt had served with the 2nd Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers during the War of 1812. Bachman had fought in the Mexican War at the Battle of Chapultepec.