The Bucktail Regiment was a renowned Civil War fighting unit.  More than six decades after the end of the war, the unit was recognized in the name of Route 120, between St. Marys and Emporium, PA.  At that time, the first days of the organization of this unit were recounted in a local newspaper.

McKean County Democrat (Smethport, PA), Thursday, August 19, 1926

Stirring Days When Civil War “Bucktails” Organized Here

The article below, taken from the history of the “Bucktails,” one of the thirteen regiments in the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps during the Civil War, is of timely interest in connection with the opening of the “Bucktail Trail” between Emporium and St. Marys named in honor of this regiment.

In Pennsylvania the excitement was intense.  Almost uniformly the Northerners had refused to believe that the South would resort to force, considering its belligerent declarations as mere blusterings.  But with the actual insult to the flag the North realized that force must be met by force, and even before President Lincoln issued his call for volunteers the temper of the people had begun to make itself felt.

Thomas Leiper Kane, resident of the northern part of the State, who had been active in abolitionist circles, wrote to Governor Curtin offering his services to raise a company of men in McKean, Elk and Cameron counties.  After considerable correspondence Kane received a telegram on April 15^th, 1860, authorizing him to raise a company, and he immediately started for the northern section of the state, and on the morning of April 17^th he reached Smethport and issued a call for volunteers.

Kane immediately began his canvass of McKean, Elk and Cameron counties.  Selecting his lieutenants for the work of recruiting with admirable discrimination, he established his headquarters on horseback, went from town to town and village to village until from these three counties three companies were recruited that were to form the nucleus of the future Bucktail regiment.

At the Court House at Smethport on the evening of the 18^th, at a meeting presided over by the Hon. B. D. Hamlin, Colonel Kane was introduced and made an address in which he reviewed the incidents of the last few days, read the proclamation of President Lincoln calling for volunteers and announced that he had been commissioned by Governor Curtin to raise a spree of one hundred volunteers.  He stated his belief that the organization of an effective was the best preventative of war, and his hopes that the rallying of the people might result in the resumption of harmony without the shedding of blood.  Suitable resolutions were passed, looking towards the support of the projects of Colonel Kane, and the latter resumed his work of organizing his company.

The men from Elk County formed themselves into the “Elk County Rifles.”  Kane had reached Benezett, in the southern portion of the county, on April 18^th [1860].  At that place the leading lumberman was Mr. Cabe Winslow, who, with the assistance of his nephew, Thomas B. Winslow, and John A. Wolfe, succeeded in gathering together, within twenty-four hours after Colonel Kane’s appearance, 109 men and boys.  These men came from the lumber camps, chiefly in the vicinity of Ridgway and St. Marys, and were notified to assemble at Benezett, which they did.

In Cameron County, John A. Eldred, assisted by C. H. Sage and A. H. Boynton, with headquarters established at the Emporium House, was laboring to collect a company and secured among his first recruits William B. Jenkins, Smith E. Guthrie and George Fine.  The company became known as the “Cameron County Rifles,” or “Wild Cats” and the citizens of the vicinity, taking pride in the growing organization, did what they could to assist in the work of recruiting, Mr. and Mrs. Hitchcock being particularly prominent in securing and presenting to the company some necessary donations.

The men from McKean County formed themselves into the “McKean County Rifles.”  William T. Blanchard, who shortly before, while assisting in the promotion and construction of the Bradford and Pittsburg Railroad, had met Colonel Kane, was in New York on the 18^th of April [1860].  Aroused by the firing upon Fort Sumter, he in company with James Welch, of Bradford, McKean County, immediately left for Bradford.  Arriving at Bradford on the evening of the 19^th, upon leaving the train, Blanchard found a crowd of persons assembled at the station among whom was James M. Blair, the Sheriff of McKean County, who bore a letter addressed to him from Colonel Kane, requesting the help of his co-operation and expressing a wish that he sign his name at the head of the muster role of the company to be raised in McKean County.  Blanchard threw himself enthusiastically into the work, established his headquarters at Bradford, and collecting by the evening of the 21^st [April 1860], 34 men went with them to Smethport.  At the latter place he found that Frank Bell and Bruce B. Rice had collected 22 more men, and thus when the two detachments were united McKean County had 67 men upon her roll.

Upon the arrival of the McKean County Rifles at Smethport, Kane pressed Blanchard into service as his secretary and some days were occupied in the sending and receiving of dispatches.  The men in the three companies were drawn from sparsely settled districts, practically destitute of telegraphic connections, and Kane could only get or keep in touch with his various lieutenants by means of messengers on horseback.

While at Smethport the insignia by which the future regiment came to be known was adopted.  Opposite the Court House, where Kane had his headquarters was a butcher shop and one day James Landragan, who had enlisted in the McKean County Rifles, noticed a deer’s hide hanging outside.  Crossing the street, he pulled out his knife, cut off the tail and stuck it in his cap.  Upon his return to headquarters, Kane noticed his headgear seized upon the idea suggested and instantly announced that the force he was recruiting should be known as “Bucktails.”  Without waiting a minute all who were around headquarters rushed over to the butcher shop, knives were produced, the hide cut into strips resembling tails, and the strips mounted in the caps of the men.

On the afternoon of the 22^nd [April 1860] Kane administered the oath required by the Government to those who had signed the muster roll.  On the morning of the 23^rd, breakfast was served at the Benezett House at 6:00 A. M., after which the men were assembled in the court room to receive their first military instructions from Kane.  At 8:00 A. M. they were marched and filed in the street fronting the Benezett House, where Kane proposed three cheers for the Hon. Byron D. Hamlin, President of the first Union meeting held in McKean County since the attempt to dissolve the Union, which were given with a will.  Short appropriate speeches were made by the Hon. Mr. Hamlin and by the Hon. N. E. Eldred of Wayne County, after which three cheers were called for and given for the McKean County Rifles, three for Colonel Kane and three for the Stars and Stripes which hung in front of the hotel.

About 9:00 A. M. the command “Forward, march” was given.  The march was a long one.  The column headed across the mountains to Cameron Station, in Cameron County, on the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad, twenty-eight miles away.  Each man carried his own rifle, ammunition and a coat and a blanket, nor did the organization include a Quartermaster to furnish wagons to carry extra baggage.  At Cameron they found the Cameron County Rifles drawn up in true military style by Captain John A. Eldred, waiting to receive them.  The people of Cameron had also turned out to meet them; torches were produced and the line came to a halt outside of a hotel on the outskirts of the town.  Colonel Kane, who had secured and put on one of the naval coats, with brass buttons, belonging to Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, now mounted an old dry goods box and as the troops came to a standstill they presented arms to him.  Speeches were made, patriotic songs sung and anvil cannons fired.  Recruits were added to both companies, while the townspeople saw to it that none went hungry.

On the morning of the 24^th [April 1860] the march was resumed to the Sinnemahoning Creek.  Shortly before the creek was reached the McKean County Rifles were presented with a flag that had been made by hand.  Though not a silk one, it was cherished as the first flag acquired by the future regiment.  At the creek the two companies were joined by the Elk County Rifles, who, in accordance with orders received by them, had proceeded to that point, and also by a few men from Tioga County, who had been recruited for the company of Alanson E. Niles, the main body of which had already left for Harrisburg.  The three companies then marched to Sackett’s Saw Mills, a short distance above the junction of the Sinnemahoning and the West Branch of the Susquehanna.

Here Colonel Kane had decided to purchase lumber and make rafts on which the men could float down the river towards Harrisburg.  Each man contributed to the buying of the lumber according to his resources, nor was the bill light, as the lumber company did not permit patriotism to interfere to any great extent with its business interests.

Four rafts were constructed of rough pine boards, 16 feet long by 10 or 12 inches wide by 7/8 inch thick.  Each raft was composed of six platforms, each about 16 feet square, made of six layers of boards laid crosswise and fastened together with withes, making the dimensions of each raft about 60 [?] feet by 15 feet.  On one of the rafts the thickness of one of the platforms was increased to seven layers, and on this platform Colonel Kane’s horse “Old Glencoe” was placed.  At one end of each of the rafts a large sweep or rudder was also constructed to assist the steersman in guiding the raft.

The river below the Sinnemahoning Creek passes through gorges and canyons and is honeycombed with rapids, the currents in many places attaining a speed of ten miles an hour.  Boarding the rafts on the morning of the 27^th [April 1860], the three hundred and fifteen men started for the State capitol.  A short mast was erected on one of the rafts.  To it was attached a flag, and the top of the mast was surmounted by a bucktail.  The swiftness of the current and the rocks and rapids of the river made the journey a memorable one.  Despite the experience of the steersmen and their knowledge of raftsmanship, time and again the heavily loaded rafts grounded on the rocks, compelling the men to slip overboard into the cold water and by sheer strength lift the rafts over the obstructions.  Toward sunset, some four miles above Rattlesnake Falls in deep water, the four rafts were massed together and the Bucktails, though soaked to the skin, thankful that they had succeeded in shooting the rapids, celebrated the event by singing with all their power the “Star Spangled Banner.”  At Rattlesnake Falls a stop was made for the night, the people of the place doing everything within their power to provide shelter.  The next morning the Bucktails were carried on the railroad to Lock Haven.

From Lock Haven they went to Harrisburg and by the early part of the fall regiments were organized and later entered into the bloody strife of the Civil War, in the history of which the glory of the Bucktails stands out pre-eminently as one of valor and unusual service.