page_title: Fishing Creek Confederacy
section_title: Search for the fort
hierarchical_section_title: Fishing Creek Confederacy / Search for the fort
caption_attribution_description: English: George Cadwalader, Union General.
context_page_description: The Fishing Creek Confederacy was an alleged military uprising in northern Columbia County, Pennsylvania and southern Sullivan County, Pennsylvania during the American Civil War. Residents of Columbia County strongly opposed military drafts that were being conducted there, leading to widespread desertion and draft evasion. In a Columbia County draft in July 1863, 618 people were drafted. Of these, approximately 75% evaded the draft. On July 30, 1864, several people rode into northern Columbia County from Luzerne County to search for deserters, and one of the riders was shot. By the summer of 1864, rumors had begun to circulate that these deserters and draft evaders, as well as Confederate sympathizers, had built a fort with cannons on North Mountain, not far from the headwaters of Fishing Creek. This fort was supposedly manned by 500 people. Upon hearing these rumors, 1000 soldiers gathered near Bloomsburg, in Columbia County.
  On August 21, 1864, the soldiers began traveling up Fishing Creek. For the next week, they searched the northern portion of Columbia County for deserters and draft evaders. They were unable to find any, but on August 28 they arrested 100 local citizens.
context_section_description: On August 4, 1864, after rumors of a conspiracy in Columbia County reached Harrisburg and Washington, D.C., a Captain Manville requested that 40 to 45 soldiers be sent to Columbia County to arrest the local deserters and draft evaders. Forty-eight soldiers arrived on August 13 at the Bloomsburg Fairgrounds in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, near the mouth of Fishing Creek. They brought two cannons and a battery of artillery. Two days later, 250 more soldiers arrived in Bloomsburg. Several prominent residents in the county, including United States Senator Charles R. Buckalew, assured the soldiers that there was no opposing armed force within the county. On August 16 Major General Darius Couch arrived to oversee the troops, and another group of soldiers arrived that same day. Colonel John Gosse Freeze delivered a message to the northern part of Columbia County, stating that any draft evaders who reported to Bloomsburg by August 20 would be pardoned. By August 21, there were a thousand soldiers in Columbia County, and they began marching up Fishing Creek to search for the alleged fort. That evening the soldiers made camp at Coleman's Grove near Benton, Pennsylvania.
  While many soldiers were still arriving, the citizens of Benton held a meeting on August 14 to decide whether or not they would resist the soldiers. Many argued against it, but approximately 75 men declared they were prepared to resist any military occupation of their part of Columbia County. These men were led by Jacob Schultz, Samuel Kline, and one person from Orangeville. Kline went south to the town to learn more about the soldiers in Bloomsburg. According to an account by Edward McHenry, the other members of the resistance were told to remain at home until news arrived from Bloomsburg. When the draft evaders discovered that the army coming from Bloomsburg was too strong to defeat, McHenry and 20 other draft evaders in the county escaped to North Mountain.
  Throughout the next week scouts from the army were sent through the northern townships of Columbia County. The scouts failed to find any evidence of a military uprising. They raided hen roosts, cornfields, and pigpens that they encountered. At this point Major General George Cadwalader arrived to take command of the soldiers.
  On August 28, 1864, soldiers surrounded 100 houses in the northern townships of Columbia County and parts of western Luzerne County, including Cambria and New Columbus. One hundred Democrats termed "Copperheads" were arrested and marched to a church in Benton. Forty-five of the prisoners were charged with disloyalty and taken to Fort Mifflin near Philadelphia. Most of these prisoners were 40 years of age or older. Only seven were convicted of the charges, and six were soon pardoned. Most people incarcerated were released within eight months.
  The morning after the arrests the soldiers continued marching north, proceeding 10 miles (16 kilometers) further to the headwaters of Fishing Creek and the base of the mountains in northern Columbia County. From here they marched up the valley of East Branch Fishing Creek to its headwaters. The soldiers extensively searched the mountains of northern Columbia County for half a day, going as far north as the headwaters of East Branch Fishing Creek in southern Sullivan County, where they climbed to the top of North Mountain in three groups. At the headwaters of East Branch Fishing Creek the soldiers turned south again, then headed up West Branch Fishing Creek as far as the Sullivan County line. They found some evidence that people had been in the area, but these appeared to have been hunting or logging camps.
  Eventually, unable to find any evidence of a fort in the area, the soldiers went back down Fishing Creek to Bloomsburg. Dissatisfied with their findings, the soldiers conducted a search of several unfortified homes in northern Columbia County. They captured a number of residents of Sugarloaf Township on August 31, but these were soon released.
caption: Major General George Cadwalader
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