On April 18, 1861, The First Defenders, volunteer soldiers from the region, were en route to defend the nation's capital when they ran into a pro-Confederate mob in Baltimore, Md.
Among them was Nicholas Biddle, Pottsville, a servant of Capt. James Wren. In the clash, Biddle was hit in the head with a brick and he became known locally as the first person to shed blood in the Civil War.
To mark the anniversary and the dawn of the War Between the States, the Schuylkill County Historical Society in Pottsville will unveil its reorganized Civil War Exhibit in April.
"We're planning on having a really formal opening, a fundraiser, sometime in April. We don't have a specific date yet. April 18 wouldn't be a bad date. But the Block of Art starts on April 19. But we might decide to tie into that somehow," society President David Derbes said Friday.
The society's headquarters at 305 N. Centre St., built in 1863, was initially the Female Grammar School. It eventually became The Centre Street Elementary School and it served children in kindergarten through fourth grades in the 1970s. It closed in 1982 when area elementary schools consolidated into the John S. Clarke Elementary Center. In 2001, it became the society's headquarters, according to Derbes.
Schuylkill County has a unique Civil War heritage. It's home to Biddle as well as Col. Henry Pleasants, commander of the 48th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, one of the heroes at the Battle of the Crater.
The society's Civil War Exhibit is on the second floor. When it was introduced in December 2006, it was simply a collection of more than 600 relics from the era in cases. Since then, the collection grew to more than 1,000 items, Derbes said.
Derbes said the society decided to reorganize the room in early 2012 in an effort to "make a story out of it."
On Friday, Derbes explained how items will be arranged in a "timeline" format.
"It starts April 1861 and goes all the way around the room to April 1865," Derbes said.
It starts with The First Defenders.
Derbes said a description of those volunteers will be on the wall. A draft of it was taped there Friday.
"In April of 1861, five companies of men answered Abraham Lincoln's call-to-arms for 75,000 volunteer troops," the draft begins. "Two of those five companies - the National Light Infantry and the Washington Artillery - were organized in Schuylkill County and sent 263 men to respond to the rebellion."
The timeline will include local ties to other notable events, like The Second Battle of Bull Run fought in August 1862.
"Two of our units were in there," Derbes said.
Among the society's collection of artifacts related to the Civil War include a pewter pocket flask, swords, bayonets, rifles, cartridge boxes and pouches and a family photo album.
On Thursday, Michael Cavanaugh, Bethlehem, Lehigh County, author of the 1989 book "The Petersburg Campaign: The Battle of the Crater," donated an oil painting to the society. It's a portrait of a Civil War soldier from Schuylkill County, Pvt. Thomas Holleran.
The conflict between the Union Government and 11 Southern Confederate slave states, the American Civil War lasted from 1861 to 1865. It resulted in 364,511 Union and 133,821 Confederate deaths, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
About 10,000 county soldiers served in the Civil War and about 1,000 died in the fight, according to J. Stuart "Stu" Richards, Orwigsburg, a member of the society and author of history books. They include "A History of Company C, 50th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteer Infantry Regiment: From the Camp, the Battlefield and the Prison Pen, 1861-65," published by History Press in 2006.
In a related matter, the society will be sponsoring a bus trip to the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg on March 9. Tickets are $37 each. Reservations must be made by Feb. 22. For more information, call the society at 570-622-7540, according to the society's website.