From Bucktails to Battleships: Wartime Heroes of the Route 6 Corridor

Long before it was a scenic drive, Route 6 was a recruiting ground. Over a century and a half, the towns along the corridor sent sharpshooters to the Civil War, sailors to the Great Lakes, and one of the first women in American history to put on a military uniform. Their stories, and a train wreck that still ranks among the deadliest accidents of the Civil War, are why this stretch of highway carries the name it does today.

"We Have Met the Enemy, and They Are Ours": Perry's Fleet at Erie

By 1813, the War of 1812 had turned badly for the United States on the Great Lakes, and the British controlled Lake Erie. Master Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry arrived in Erie that March to oversee construction of an American fleet, using timber cut straight from the surrounding forest. Perry needed 700 sailors to man his ships and received barely a fraction of that, and when his superior, Commodore Isaac Chauncey, dismissed his complaints, Perry went over his head directly to the Secretary of the Navy, a move that infuriated Chauncey but got results. According to the Erie Maritime Museum, when Perry's flagship Lawrence was battered beyond use at the Battle of Lake Erie on September 10, 1813, he rowed through gunfire to transfer his command to the Niagara and pressed the attack. Within fifteen minutes the British squadron surrendered. That evening, Perry sent his superior officer a note that became one of the most quoted lines in American military history: "We have met the enemy and they are ours."

A faithful reconstruction of the Niagara is homeported today at the Erie Maritime Museum, administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

The Bucktails: Lumberjacks Who Became Legends

When Lincoln called for volunteers in 1861, Thomas L. Kane began recruiting in the rugged "Wildcat District" of Elk, McKean, Tioga, and Cameron counties. The men who answered, mostly lumberjacks, raftsmen, and farmers, pinned deer tails to their caps as a badge of honor before marching to Camp Curtin. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the unit was formally designated the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves and, once mustered into federal service, the 42nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, though everyone simply called them the Bucktails. Prized as sharpshooters, they fought in most of the war's major engagements, including Antietam, Gettysburg, and the Wilderness, before completing their service on May 31, 1864.

The Great Shohola Train Wreck

Northern Pennsylvania saw no major battles of the Civil War, but on July 15, 1864, it suffered one of the war's deadliest accidents away from any battlefield. A train carrying more than 800 Confederate prisoners of war toward a new camp in Elmira, New York, collided head on with a loaded coal train on a single track west of the small village of Shohola. Guard Frank Evans later described the moment of impact: the two locomotives were thrown skyward, he wrote, "like giants grappling." The historical marker placed at the site puts the toll at 48 prisoners and 17 Union guards killed, though other tallies of the dead run higher. Residents of Shohola and nearby Barryville, New York, cared for the wounded regardless of which uniform they wore. The dead were buried together near the tracks until 1911, when they were moved to Woodlawn National Cemetery in Elmira.

"You May Fire When Ready, Gridley!"

Charles Vernon Gridley was not, as is sometimes claimed, an Erie native. He was stationed there aboard the USS Michigan in the 1870s and married into a prominent Erie family, and it was enough to make the city claim him as one of its own. In 1898, as commander of the flagship Olympia, Gridley received Admiral George Dewey's famous order at the Battle of Manila Bay, immortalizing his name in one of the best known lines of American naval history. According to the Hagen History Center, Gridley died of illness just weeks after the battle and is buried in Erie's Lakeside Cemetery, where a monument built partly from metal salvaged off the wreck of the USS Maine still stands in the city park that bears his name.

Sailor: Loretto Perfectus Walsh's First Enlistment

On March 21, 1917, just over two weeks before the United States entered World War I, Loretto Perfectus Walsh of Olyphant became the first woman to enlist in the U.S. Navy and the first woman to serve as a Chief Petty Officer in any branch of the armed forces. As detailed by Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine, her enlistment inspired hundreds of other women to follow within weeks. She served as a Chief Yeoman in Philadelphia and was discharged in 1919. A Pennsylvania historical marker honoring her was dedicated in her hometown of Olyphant on Veterans Day, 1995.

A Highway Named for an Army

The Grand Army of the Republic, founded in 1866 for Union veterans, grew into one of the most powerful political and civic organizations in the country, with more than 400,000 members by 1890. In 1934, its allied Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War began lobbying to name a transcontinental highway in honor of the organization, and Route 6, which by then stretched coast to coast, was the obvious choice. According to the Federal Highway Administration's official history, Massachusetts became the first state to adopt the name in 1937, and Pennsylvania followed within the following decade. Every soldier and sailor in this post, from Perry's outnumbered crew to the Bucktails to Loretto Walsh, is part of the reason this road carries a soldier's name across northern Pennsylvania today.

Finding This History Along Route 6 Today

The reconstructed Niagara and Gridley's monument are both in Erie, on the corridor's western end. The Bucktail story is remembered throughout the old Wildcat District and at Bucktail State Park Natural Area along Route 120. The Shohola marker sits a short drive from the corridor's eastern stretch near Milford and Hawley, and the Loretto Perfectus Walsh marker is in Olyphant, near Scranton.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Route 6 called the Grand Army of the Republic Highway?

The name honors Union veterans of the Civil War. The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War campaigned starting in 1934 to name the transcontinental U.S. Route 6 after the Grand Army of the Republic, the era's largest Union veterans' organization. Massachusetts adopted the name first in 1937, and Pennsylvania followed within the next decade.

Was Charles Vernon Gridley from Erie, Pennsylvania?

No. Gridley was born in Indiana and was not an Erie native, though he was stationed there early in his career and married into an Erie family. He is buried in Erie's Lakeside Cemetery, and the city named Gridley Park in his honor.

What was the Shohola train wreck?

On July 15, 1864, a train carrying Confederate prisoners of war to a camp in Elmira, New York collided head on with a coal train near Shohola, Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania historical marker at the site records 48 prisoners and 17 Union guards killed, making it one of the deadliest accidents of the Civil War.

Who was the first woman to enlist in the U.S. Navy?

Loretto Perfectus Walsh of Olyphant, Pennsylvania, enlisted on March 21, 1917, becoming the first woman to serve in the U.S. armed forces in a non-nursing role. A Pennsylvania historical marker in Olyphant commemorates her.

Who were the Bucktails?

The Bucktails, officially the 42nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, were a Civil War regiment recruited largely from lumberjacks and farmers in McKean, Elk, Tioga, and Cameron counties. Known for their marksmanship and the deer tails pinned to their caps, they fought in many of the war's major battles.