It was one of the toughest times in our nation's history. Thousands of men, Confederate and Yankee, lay wounded on the Gettysburg battlefield. Yet, the tide turned that day at Little Round Top and the Wheatfield.

Men from the Alle-Kiski region fought in many major Civil War battles. But this time, they snatched victory out of the ugly jaws of defeat, indelibly sealing their mark in the War Between The States.

Very little remains in our area today reflecting what these men did. Many AK towns were not even born yet at that point. But when Ft. Sumter was fired upon in 1861 and President Lincoln called for more than 300,000 men to fight, men from all over the Alle-Kiski signed up en mass. Their first stop?

We call it Oakmont, Verona and the Hulton Bridge.

In 1861, however, there were no towns and no bridge--only Hulton's ferry and a train stop called Hulton's Station. That made it a perfect place to build a new military camp. About 10 miles downriver at Lawrenceville, the men gathering at Camp Wilkins were swifly running out of room.

They were moved to the new Hulton site, Camp Wright, eventually home to 4000 men. They came from Allegheny County to form the 9th Regiment Reserves Infantry of the 38th PA Volunteers--"the Pittsburg Rifles."

Others, from the Freeport/Butler area mustered there to form the 78th Regiment PA Volunteer Infantry--"the Gallant 78th." The 78th lost 270 men before its' tour ended in 1864. It distinguished itself in battles at Nashville, Stones River, and Chattanooga (the War Above the Clouds.)

Both the 78th and the 9th fought in Gettysburg, as did another, the 11th Regiment Reserves Infantry (40th Volunteers) who also assembled at Camp Wright.

The men of "The Bloody Eleventh" came from local militias who formed "companies" such as the Indiana National Guard (Saltsburg as well as Indiana,) the Westmoreland Guard (Westmoreland County,) the Washington Blues (Blairsville, Conemaugh Twp.) and the Independent Blues (Apollo,) as well as others from Armstrong, Butler, Cambria, Fayette and Jefferson Counties.

The Independent Blues' Colonel Sam Jackson of Apollo began as a Major and, serving honorably, later became a Brigadier-General.

Jackson led his company (150 men) and later the entire 11th Regiment (all 10 companies) into battles at Gaines Mills, [the second] Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg and Gettysburg, among others.

In 1862 after one year of service, many were captured at Gaines Mills (their first major battle) and released a few months later--only to return to fight again. Out of the nearly 1200 men who were with the 11th at some point, 196 were killed--17%!

An 1889 Civil War writer said, the 11th could "fairly claim the honor of having encountered the hardest fighting in the war." Their story is well documented in "Three Years in the Bloody Eleventh" by Joseph Gibbs.

The regiments weren't the Alle-Kiski region's only contribution to the War Against the Rebellion. Alexander Kelly, born in Saltsburg in 1840, joined the war effort 23 years later and later earned a Medal of Honor. Kelly understood the importance of the regiment's flag as a signal to his troops, but also recognized the dangers of being the flag-bearer (since it made you a target.)

Nevertheless, when the colors fell to the ground, the 5'3" coalminer grabbed the flag and raised it high. In the middle of chaos and incredible peril, Kelly rallied his fellow soldiers. Alexander Kelly, an African-American, was made First Sergeant of his unit, Company F of the 6th U.S. Colored Troop.

There is today a living monument to Alle-Kiski residents like Alexander Kelly and Sam Jackson. Yep, the 40th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers (11th Reserves) and the Gallant 78th are alive and well. Civil War re-enactors, including those from Apollo, Fox Chapel, Freeport and Penn Hills, offer living histories that present authentic camps, drills, and battle lines.

We will be taking a step back into the past as we check out the "Bloody Eleventh" at Plum's Harvest Festival. Vandergrift businessman and re-enactor John Weiland, who pointed me in the right direction and clarified the AK regiments, has arranged for us to look at some authentic Civil War maneuvers. It's all at alle-kiskitoday.com

What the Bloody Eleventh, led by Apollo's Colonel Samuel Jackson, did turned the tables on the Confederates. The Northern defenses were pushed back to Little Round Top to the defenses of the men of the Eleventh. Support was gone. Now the Rebels advanced across the Wheatfield with no resistance.

There, Jackson's commanding officer with whom he'd lost communication, rode up to him and said "Colonel Jackson, you have saved the day; your regiment is worth its weight in gold, sir, its weight in gold." And so they were.

Watch an interview with some modern day Civil War soldiers from our area at: http://www.alle-kiskitoday.com/webcasts/1570