Rick
Wiggins has been conducting an annual Symposium in Columbia for seven
years about Columbia native son, Union Civil War General Thomas
Welsh. Each year, the event has drawn scores of Columbians and
area residents interested in their local history. This year's
event is jointly sponsored by the Columbia Historic Preservation
Society (CHiPS) and the Columbia Public Library and will take place
at 1 p.m. on Saturday, October 19 at the Columbia Historic
Preservation Society, 19-21 North Second Street.
The
program includes a visit by Capt. Henry A. Haines from Maytown (who
served under Welsh in the 45th Regiment, and is portrayed by
re-enactor Glenn Bachert), as well as the little-known story of the
deployment of the 45th to the Sea Islands of South Carolina, where
they encountered thousands of suddenly abandoned Island slaves
(termed "contrabands" because they were not yet officially
recognized as being free). This story is particularly
interesting because suddenly their military mission came face to face
with evolving Federal policies and a humanitarian crisis of profound
significance. The speaker, author Mike Coker, is coming in from
Charleston, South Carolina specifically for this event. Still
another presentation will draw from the diary of Capt. Emanuel Roath
of Marietta to explore the myriad roles and duties of Civil War
officers during the vast majority of the time - i.e., the time when
they were not actually
leading their troops in battle.
Thomas
Welsh was a Columbia native and civic leader who recruited and led a
large number of boys from Columbia and the surrounding towns in the
Civil War, and who remains a Columbia favorite son to this day.
He first served in the Mexican War, where he was wounded in the leg,
and returned home as a local hero. At the start of the Civil
War, he raised in Columbia one of the first companies of volunteers
raised in Lancaster County, later became Colonel of the 45th PA
Regiment, and then went on to become a Brigadier General before he
died of malaria contracted at Vicksburg in 1863. His family
remained prominent in Columbia through the first part of the 20th
century.
CHiPS
and the Columbia Library have been conducting this Symposium since
2007. From the beginning, it has been one of the most popular
programs put on by either organization, drawing between 50 and 75
interested residents each year. In addition, it has brought to
light nearly two
dozen previously unknown documents about Welsh, his family, and the
Civil-War-era Columbia region. The Proceedings of the Symposium
are transcribed and distributed to area libraries, schools, and
historical societies.
