A new book about Great-Grandpa Peter from Allen Boyer

Allen Boyer has written a new book about Great-grandpa Peter's life and experience in the Civil War. He weaves in descriptions of the war, the hard times, and Peter Boyer's experiences in the Union Cavalry using Peter's own letters. It is a very nice read and very informative.

Allen is willing to share the manuscript with anybody who would like to read it. He or I can email it to you -- just ask. We thought it best not to post the whole manuscript to a public place, but here's a taste just to get you hooked. The title is "What Peter Saw".

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Peter Boyer was a teenager. He lived in the mountains of South Central Pennsylvania near a small town called Brickerville. As a boy, he enjoyed playing in the woods with his brothers and spying on any animals that passed by. While most children grew up with toys to occupy their time, Peter occupied his time with nature.
One of four brothers, Peter grew up in a family that worked hard. Peter’s father owned a shoe shop where he repaired shoes for other people in the community. Peter’s home was surrounded by unspoiled land where he and his family were able to plant and grow beans, potatoes and other vegetables that could be canned for the winter. His parents expected Peter and his brothers to help around the house. One of the jobs Peter and his brothers did involved walking around the woods and to gather twigs. The small branches would be used by their mother to start and maintain a fire in their home for preparing meals. Water was also located outside their home. Every morning Peter or one of his brothers was expected to carry buckets of water in from a near by creek or spring, even during the winter.

In addition to doing chores around the house, Peter and his brothers also helped with raising crops. Potatoes, corn and beans were some of the things they would help to plant and harvest. While living off the land was hard work, it was a peaceful existence. It was a life of give and take between the Boyers and nature. For every ear of corn or every potato the land would produce, Peter and his family would care for the land so it was ready for the following season’s harvest.

The Boyer family had developed a quiet harmony with nature. A harmony of working and caring for the land and taking what the land gave them in return. However, the harmony of Peter’s life would soon be interrupted. It would interrupted by events far from Peter’s home.

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Rather than be drafted, Peter thought it would be a good idea to enlist in the Union army. When he signed up he learned he was making a three year commitment to serve. He also learned he would be paid ten dollars a month. From those ten dollars, Peter would usually send some home to his family. Eventually Peter was placed with the 17^th Pennsylvania Cavalry. It was one of the three Cavalry regiments being formed at the request of President Lincoln.

Peter traveled to Camp Simmons, a military camp located near Harrisburg, the state capital of Pennsylvania. Growing up, Peter was comfortable on a horse and took great pride in writing home about his success in basic training for the cavalry.

I passed my examination bully and when I rode my horse I went over the rail the first jump like nothing. I like soldiering first rate and am glad I enlisted.

It would be one of many letters that Peter would write home. Most soldiers weren’t as fortunate as Peter. There were many challenges for a soldier to write home. One problem for a soldier was finding a spare piece of paper to write on. Loose paper was not a common thing to find on the battlefield, which made writing home difficult to do. Another challenge to writing home was postage stamps. Being able to find stamps was one thing, paying three cents a stamp was sometimes a bit costly for a soldier earning ten dollars a month. In one letter home Peter wrote:

If you write again send me some postage stamps. I am out of stamps and out of money too.

While a lack of stamps and paper could keep a soldier from writing home, the biggest obstacle for a soldier to communicate with family was lack of an education.

A lot of the young men involved in the war were not well educated. In those days, school was only held five or six months out of the calendar year. A good many young men came from rural settings where an education was less important than helping the family with daily tasks. If a soldier was from a farming background, an education was less valued than helping to bring in crops, feed animals, or help the family work the land. As a result, a good number of soldiers were not educated enough to write. They would often have to seek out fellow soldiers who were better educated and could write letters for them.

Peter Boyer was able to write most of his own letters. As a young boy Peter had educated himself by using his brothers’ books from school. He also developed an interest in other countries and in other time periods. Because of his education, Peter may have even written some letters for other soldiers in his cavalry unit. He may have also read letters for soldiers who couldn’t read.

During his time at Camp Simmons, Peter experienced a fairly straight forward process for being trained as a cavalry soldier. When they arrived for cavalry training, a typical Union soldier came with little experience riding horses. Some Union soldiers grew up on farms and came with some riding skills, but most did not. Some recruits were lumberman, some were mechanics, some came from backgrounds that didn’t require the use of horses. Because of this lack of experience, cavalry training would begin with the basics. Soldiers were given instructions on how to groom and care for their horses in the field. How to ride a horse was also part of their training. Once basic riding skills were mastered, soldiers were then taught how to fight while riding a horse.

Most cavalry soldiers were provided with a sword or bayonet to use. Combat training was very limited. Sometimes during training, soldiers were asked to ride towards a target and practice chopping at it with their sword. They were also drilled in how to handle a sword when not riding a horse.

Peter enjoyed his time training as a soldier. However, not all of the men at Camp Simmons were as happy. While at camp, Peter saw the arrival of a group of young men who were drafted into service. Watching them arrive in camp, Peter could tell that the men weren’t happy to be there.

There came 360 drafted men on our camp last night. They were pretty near all down hearted and mad. They even talked of running or breaking through the guard.