Colonel Richard P. Roberts
Excerpts from: In Defense of Colonel Richard P. Roberts, Commanding Officer of the Pennsylvania 140th Regiment by Gregory Jason Bell
Roberts, a staunch Republican and a fearless advocate and supporter of the Lincoln administration, was very upset about the South’s secession from the Union. Henry Hice described Roberts as [p]ublic spirited and patriotic in the highest degree, he was earnest, eloquent, and indefatigable in his efforts for the safety and preservation of the Union. On 11 March 1861, Roberts expressed his passionate political sentiments in a letter to a friend in Europe: I love my country, am the descendant of Revolutionary Sires, and am willing to contribute in my small way to maintain its honor, its integrity and its glorious flag, but I have had to stand by and see it trailed in the dust by its enemies. I believe there is a God who presides over the destinies of Nations and of men, who will, as He has heretofore done, preserve the Nation and punish both here and hereafter the men who have labored to destroy it. I have passed a Winter of anguish by day and night, seeing the glorious fabric my Fathers helped to rear, tumbling to pieces around me, with the imps of hell all over it with their sacreligious hands speeding their work. Oh God! I invoke the wrath upon the enemies and destroyers of my country, in the name of the heroes who cemented the fabric, my own ancestors among the number - I invoke it!
Based on these sentiments, no wonder Roberts was, from the very beginning, very involved in the pro-war movement.
A mass-meeting, called the “People’s Meeting,” was held in Beaver, Pennsylvania on 4 February 1861. Supporters of both the outgoing and the incoming federal administrations spoke their minds concerning the national crisis. During that meeting, Samuel B. Wilson, a prominent Democratic attorney, appealed for “moderation and leniency” towards the South. Roberts then took the podium and “presented with fiery eloquence the reasons which the North had for opposing slavery and secession.” After these speeches, the Democrats passed a series of resolutions and then withdrew from the meeting, allowing the Republicans to pass a counter series of resolutions. Then on 22 April of the same year, after the South’s attack on Fort Sumter, another meeting of citizens was held in Beaver. This meeting elected officers who then appointed a committee on resolutions, which included Roberts. He was also elected to the Committee of One Hundred, which was given the purpose of charting a course of action for the county.
Roberts spent the rest of 1861 and the first half of 1862 arguing in support of the Union cause in every district, village and hamlet where “mass meetings, addressed by able and eloquent speakers, were held; pledges of loyalty were renewed; money was freely subscribed.” Then the time for words was over, replaced by a call for action. On 1 July 1862, after the failed Peninsula campaign, President Lincoln requested the states to furnish 300,000 men to the war effort, then one month later he requested an additional 300,000 troops. Within three weeks, Governor Andrew Curtin of Pennsylvania authorized the immediate enlistment of twenty-one new regiments of volunteer infantry which would serve for “three years or during the war.” At a public meeting of over 15,000 people held in Allegheny City three days later, the governor prefaced his appeal for volunteers with these semi-accurate yet dramatic words: “The Peninsula campaign is a failure! The Union armies have not been victorious! They have been driven back to the gates of Washington, notwithstanding all reports to the contrary!”
Roberts did not wait for Governor Curtin to make the official announcement that Pennsylvania would raise regiments. Instead, as soon as Lincoln made the call, Roberts contacted Curtin and obtained permission from the governor to recruit a company in Beaver County. This done, he went about Beaver County actively recruiting. In his diary, Joseph Moody, who signed on, described one such recruiting meeting:
Monday July 18, 1862, in the Presbyterian Church at Hookstown there was a meeting held Presided over by Rev. R. S. Morton ( ) Pastor for the Purposs of raising a ( ) to form a Regiment Col. R. P. Roberts, Revt Marcus Ormond & R. S. Morton, spoke about 75 men signed their names the next night there was a meeting held at Frankfort where 25 men Signed which was called Roberts 2nd Co including the Hookstown Boys.
Roberts also posted the following notice in the local newspaper, the Beaver Argus, on 13 August 1862: “Being authorized to recruit a Company for Three Years or the War, the subscriber will receive recruits at his office in Beaver. All reporting themselves will be subsisted for 20 days, at least, in Beaver. Aug. 6. ’62 R. P. Roberts.” As a result of such recruiting efforts, Roberts ultimately recruited not just one company, but three, each comprising roughly 100 men.
Roberts clearly served as the group’s primary contact with Governor Curtin, a fact that would have great importance in the later election of officers. Notably, the company from Mercer County, which does not border the other three counties but is instead separated from them by Lawrence County, was not part of the original regimental formation but was added weeks later after the companies arrived in Harrisburg.
In summary, evidence suggests that Roberts was passionate for the Union cause and would do anything within his power to defend it, even if it meant leaving his only daughter parentless. Further, taking the unwritten rules of appointments into account, it is apparent that Roberts was the right man to be elevated to the post of colonel. Certainly no member of the regiment had moreknowledge in political or military affairs than Roberts, and no man worked harder towards the formation of the regiment. Finally, within the regiment there was no dispute over Roberts’s appointment, suggesting that at the time, the men, regardless of individual characteristics or county origin, were satisfied with their new leader.
Colonel Roberts was killed at Gettysburg shortly after taking command when General Zook was carried from the field.
“Men of the 140th! Recollect that you are now defending your own soil and are fighting to drive the invader from your own homes and firesides. I shall therefore expect you to conduct yourselves as in the presence of your wives, your sisters, and your sweethearts, and not disgrace the flag you bear or the name of Pennsylvanians.”
--- Colonel Roberts at Gettysburg.
Gravesite of Richard P. Roberts
Beaver Cemetery, Beaver, PA.
Richard P. Roberts, one of nine children of John Roberts and Ruth Dungan, was born on 5 June 1820 on a seventy-acre family farm near Frankfort Springs, Beaver County, Pennsylvania. His parents instilled in him a great pride in his ancestry, for he was the grandson of both a soldier in the American Revolution on one side of the family and an Indian fighter on the other side. They also made sure that he was well educated, probably too much so to be a farmer. Unsurprisingly, in 1845 he abandoned the farm and moved to Beaver, Pennsylvania in order to pursue a career in law. Admitted to the bar on 15 March 1848, he formed a law partnership with Henry Hice. Roberts apparently was a very successful lawyer and was even appointed district attorney of Beaver County. His personal life, on the other hand, was filled with tragedy. He married Caroline Henry of Beaver on 1 May 1851, and they had three children together, but only one of them, Emma J., born in 1854, survived infancy. Then Caroline herself died on 4 February 1862 at the age of 31.
