HISTORY OF THE LOGAN GUARDS AND
THE 46TH PENNSYLVANIA VOLUNTEER INFANTRY

COURTESY OF GEORGE BRADLEY, HISTORIAN

The Logan Guards was a militia unit organized in 1858 in Lewistown, Pennsylvania. It gained fame in late April 1861, when President Lincoln issued an urgent appeal for troops to protect Washington in response to the firing by rebels on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. The Logan Guards and four other companies of Pennsylvania militia were the first troops to arrive in the nation’s capital. They marched out of Lewistown listening to William Hopper, a lone fifer, play “The Girl I Left Behind Me”. Will Hopper died of wounds received at Chancellorsville. The 106 members of the Logan Guards, mostly new recruits, armed with only 34 muskets, and no ammunition, bluffed their way through hostile crowds in Baltimore on their way to protect President Lincoln. Medals were later struck to honor these “First Defenders”.

As militia men, the Logan Guard served only ninety days. In August 1861, in response to calls for troops to serve three years, many of the Logan Guard organized a new company under the command of future Brevet Brigadier General J. Ard Mathews. Still calling themselves the Logan Guards, upon arriving in Harrisburg, the new company was designated as Company A of the 46th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry and left for the war on September 16, 1861.

The 46th Pennsylvania Voluntary Infantry Regiment was recruited from throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. One company came from Beaver County, another from Bethlehem, and two came from the recently settled Potter County. Another was raised in Pittsburgh and the rest came from healthy small cities like Harrisburg, Reading, Scranton, Shamokin, and Lewistown. The regiment re-enlisted in 1864, although only one quarter of the men who started out with it were still in its ranks when they were finally discharged on July 16, 1865.  

In 1861, every regiment brought with it a band, providing the music that kept men in step while on the march. Many of the musicians acted as buglers and issued calls which regulated Army life. The officers of the 46th Pennsylvania recruited as its musical arm as a whole unit and enlisted the entire community band from Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, led by Richard Stanley, Principle Musician. One of the new recruits from the Birdsboro Community Band played an Eb Clarinet. This made the 46th PA Band unique in that it was one of the few, if not the only, Regimental Brass Band with a woodwind instrument.

They accompanied the regiment through all of its early campaigns while it did guard along the Potomac, marched through the Shenandoah Valley in the spring of 1862, during and after the first Battle of Winchester, and on its second campaign into central Virginia during the summer of 1862. The band made news in June 1862 when it serenaded the troops under Major General Nathaniel Banks as they re-crossed the Potomac River to begin their second campaign. When not engaged in making music, band members served as stretcher-bearers and surgeon assistants. Their services were never more needed than they were on August 9, 1862, when outside Culpepper, Virginia, the 46th Pennsylvania and other regiments in its brigade were severely mauled during the Battle of Cedar Mountain where then Major J. Ard Mathews nearly lost his right arm. One week later, in an effort to lighten the load, which the Army had to carry while on the move, the regimental bands were discharged from the service. Numerous members of the 46th Regiment Band went on to serve in brigade bands which were then organized. The 46th PA Volunteer Infantry went on to fight to the end of the war on many battlefields, some famous and some not. The 46th accompanied Sherman on his march to the sea. The 46th Regiment paid the price of admission for its place among Fox’s  “Fighting 300” regiments.

Our Reenactment Unit, known as the 46th PA Regiment Band (Logan Guard) formed in December 1995 by a group of musicians from the Altoona area. It is our desire to honor the Logan Guards Militia from Lewistown, the 46th PA Voluntary Infantry Regiment, and the musicians from the Birdsboro Community Band who enlisted together and maintained the morale of the troops with their music throughout the war.