The Bucktail Rifles of Carbon County and Their Monument

The Monument

In the heart of Jim Thorpe, Carbon County, Pennsylvania, stands a remarkable memorial: the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. Cast in zinc and dedicated in 1886—when the town was still known as Mauch Chunk—the monument honors Carbon County veterans of four major wars: the Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the Civil War.

Among these conflicts, the Civil War left a particularly deep imprint on the county, shaping both its history and its memory.

The Call to Arms

In 1861, as the nation fractured, attorney and civic leader Thomas Kane issued a desperate appeal from his headquarters in Smethport, Pennsylvania:

“Volunteer rifles … who are prepared to take up arms immediately … any man who will bring with him a rifle … come forward … in time to save the flag of the Union there being humbled as it has been at Ft. Sumter.”

Carbon County responded. From Kane's appeal arose the 42nd Regiment, soon nicknamed the "Bucktail Rifles" for the distinct deer tails they wore on their hats. The Bucktails became the first Pennsylvania regiment to enlist for three years’ service, mustering at the state capital on May 15, 1861.

The local History of the Counties of Lehigh and Carbon (1884) praised their sacrifice:

“The record of the Carbon soldiers commands the admiration of the country. From the beginning to the end of the war our gallant sons were at the front. … From Dranesville, in 1861, to the surrender of Johnston's Army in 1865, there was scarcely a battle fought but witnessed the fall of some brave Carbon County soldier. … Three times as many from Carbon County were killed from battle as died of disease."

Lt. Col. Thomas Kane

Public Domain

Kane and the Bucktails

Kane himself became the lieutenant colonel of the regiment. During the Gettysburg Campaign, he gathered crucial intelligence on the movements of Lee's Confederate Army and raced by train and buggy to deliver it to Union command. Soon afterward, however, he resigned his commission.

Honoring the Fallen

The Soldiers and Sailors Monument was erected by Chapman Post No. 61 of the Grand Army of the Republic, named for Capt. Lansford Chapman. At Chancellorsville in May 1863, Chapman was mortally wounded when a bullet pierced his heart and his terrified horse dragged him into Confederate lines. His body was later recovered and returned home, where he was buried on May 27, 1863. 

As a final tribute to men like Chapman, the east face of the monument bears an excerpt from Theodore O’Hara’s poem The Bivouac of the Dead:

"On fame's eternal camping ground
Their silent tens were spread,
And glory guards, with solemn round,
The bivouac of the dead."

Today, the Soldiers and Sailors Monument endures as a solemn reminder of Carbon County's sacrifice—its zinc panels etched with the battles they fought, its poetry preserving the memory of those who never returned.