Chapter 8
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Pennsylvania’s Role
in the CivilWar
D
uring theCivilWar, thehumanand
natural resources of Pennsylvania
were very important for the North.
More than 360,000 soldiers served in the
army from our state. This included 8,600
African-American troops. There were
14,000men who served in the navy. Ships
were built in the port of Philadelphia.
Miners sent coal by the railroads to the
industries thatmadeweapons and supplies.
The railroads of Pennsylvania moved
thousands of troops and supplies. Much of
the food needed to feed the troops came
fromour farms. TheCivilWar launched the
real beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
Most of the fighting during theCivilWar
occurred on Southern soil. However, more
than any other Northern state, the fighting
was brought toPennsylvania. The Southern
army sent raiding parties into southern
parts of Pennsylvania. The town of
Chambersburg
suffered greatly from
these raids. In 1862, the town was raided
and1,000horseswere stolen. In1864,most
of the town was burned because citizens
would not pay the Southern raiders
$100,000 in gold.
The Gettysburg Address
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a
new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that “all men are
created equal.”
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any
nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great
battlefield of that war.We come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place for
thosewho died here, that the nationmight live. Thiswemay, in all propriety do. But,
in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow,
this ground— The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed
it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long
remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.
It is rather for us, the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining
before us— that, from these honoreddead, we take increaseddevotion to that cause
for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion— that we here highly
resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation shall have a new birth
of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people shall not
perish from the earth.
