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Higgins Fought On

Did you know? Four of the ten companies in the 125th Pennsylvania came out of Huntingdon County.

The 125th was raised in July and the first part of August 1862, a nine month regiment, under authority Governor Curtin gave to Lieutenant Colonel Jacob Higgins of Blair County. Four companies were raised in Huntingdon County and six in Blair.

The Huntingdon County companies were Company C under Captain William W. Wallace, Company F under Captain John J. Lawrence, Company H under Captain Henry H. Gregg, and Company I under Captain William F. Thomas. Lawrence was promoted to major when the regiment organized, and Lieutenant William H. Simpson took over Company F.

They organized at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg on August 16, 1862, and left for Washington the same day.

The regiment mustered out on May 18, 1863. The nine months were up and the men went home.

Higgins did not stay home. In February 1864 the Twenty second Pennsylvania Cavalry organized, and he was its colonel.

Four companies of this county's men, and a colonel who went back in.

From the record

Passages about this subject, quoted from county histories now in the public domain. Each one names the book and the position in the text so it can be checked. Spelling is as printed.

What were known as the "Emergency Troops" were called out in 1862 and 1863 by Governor Curtin to repel the Confederate invasions of Maryland and Pennsylvania. In the Third emergency regiment Company E was from Juniata county. Companies F and G from Huntingdon, and men from the valley counties were in some of the other companies. Mifflin county furnished two companies , A and C , to the Fourth emergency regiment, and in the Sixth, Perry county furnished Companies D and I. When it was rumored in the summer of 1863 that the Confederates contemplated the destruction of the Pennsylvania railroad in the vicinity of Mount Union, the Eighteenth militia was called out to protect the road. Companies I and K, commanded respectively by Captain William C. Laird and Captain John Deitrick, were from Juniata county ; Companies D and E, commanded by Captain A. Wolverton, were from Mifflin and Snyder counties. Independent companies were also organized in Mifflin county under command of Captains A. Johnston, William Mann, J. Captain Johnston's company garrisoned the block-house at Mount Union and defended the roads to the southward, and Captain Mann's company served as mounted scouts in Fulton county.John W. Jordan, ed., History of the Juniata Valley and Its People (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing, 1913) · character 676,566 of the scanned text
What the fact check changed. THE POST'S CENTRAL PREMISE IS WRONG. It calls Jacob Higgins "a Huntingdon County officer." Africa 1883 says, twice and unambiguously, that he was from Blair County: "authority from Governor Curtin to Lieut.-Col. Jacob Higgins, of Blair County, to recruit a nine months' regiment." This matters more than a normal date error because the entire reason the post exists is to claim him as ours. He is not ours. What IS ours, and what the post never mentions, is that four of the regiment's ten companies were raised in Huntingdon County, with named captains. That is the real local story and it is stronger than the one that was queued. ERROR 2: "He IMMEDIATELY re-enlisted, taking command of the 22nd Pennsylvania Cavalry." The 125th mustered out May 18, 1863. The Twenty second Cavalry organized in February 1864, with Higgins as colonel. That is roughly nine months later, not immediate. The word is cut. ERROR 3: "While most soldiers went home after their service ended" is an unsourced scope claim resting on the word "most." Cut. The rewrite says only that this regiment's men went home when their nine months were up, which is what the muster-out record shows. ERROR 4: "to continue fighting until the war ended in 1865" is not asserted in the rewrite. Africa follows the Twenty second through 1864 engagements but the check did not read a statement that Higgins personally served to the end of the war, so the post stops where the source stops. ERROR 5, minor: the post writes "Jacob C. Higgins." Africa gives him no middle initial anywhere the check found. The initial may well be right in other records, but since the check did not open one, the rewrite uses the name the source uses. CORRECT IN THE ORIGINAL: the nine month enlistment, the May 1863 end date (May 18, 1863 exactly), and the move to the 22nd Pennsylvania Cavalry. CAUTION FOR A FUTURE POST: Captain Henry H. Gregg of Company H here is not the same man as the Gregg in the HUNTINGDON HERO post corrected in batch 000, who was the cavalry officer at East Cavalry Field. Do not merge them.

Sources

  1. History of Huntingdon and Blair Counties, Pennsylvania, Military, War of the Rebellion, The One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Regiment, J. Simpson Africa / Louis H. Everts, Philadelphia (1883)
  2. History of Huntingdon and Blair Counties, Pennsylvania, 125th Regiment field and staff roster, J. Simpson Africa / Louis H. Everts, Philadelphia (1883)
  3. History of Huntingdon and Blair Counties, Pennsylvania, the Twenty-second Cavalry, J. Simpson Africa / Louis H. Everts, Philadelphia (1883)

Checked 2026-08-01 · County history, independently fact checked

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