Philadelphia Historic Streets Index

This index, part of PhillyHistory.org, if you're working on fiction or non-fiction that touches on the City, or if your just curious about when your street got its name or what it may have been named previously, is an invaluable resource. 

75th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers

The 75th PA's monument at Gettysburg. This unit, recruited in Philadelphhia, was nearly all German immigrants. It lost 111 men killed, wounded, captured and missing at Gettysburg. Earlier 50 of its number drowned in a raft mishap crossing the Shenandoah in pursuit of Stonewall Jackson. Some of its recruits will make an appearance in Shot Tower.

New Ironsides

A photograph of USS New Ironsides, a masted steamer frigate, built in Philadelphia in 1862 by Merrick & Sons. Their foundry was at Fifth Street and Washington Avenue. This was the first seagoing ironclad in the US Navy, and though it was a year or so behind Britain's HMS Warrior (video), it can be regarded as predecessor to US battleships of the recent 20th century era and perhaps of the modern day missile frigates, it being, after all, itself a frigate.

 According to the nicely illustrated Ships of the Civil War, 1861-1865 by Kevin Dougherty, the short-lived New Ironsides saw its share of action, which included suffering damage from a spar torpedo attack at Charleston. A spar torpedo can be thought of as a bomb on a stick.

 New Ironsides came back to the city for refit, saw more action at Hampton Roads, was decommishioned in 1865 here in Philadelphia then was destroyed by a fire in 1866.

Factor's Walk

Fascinating. I had no idea Factor's Walk existed until yesterday. It was the locus of Savannah's cotton commerce in the 19th Century. The locale has found me and my factor, a character floating in the ether for decades, has found a home. The Internet may have earned an acknowledgement.

Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon

From May 1861, soldiers passing through Philadelphia to and from the South would be welcomed at the Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon, which stood in a donated factory at Washington Avenue and Swanson Street. There they would receive a full meal, and, if needed, medical attention at the hospital next door.


On short notice the Saloon could seat 1,200 to 1,500, an entire full-strength regiment or multiple depleted ones, and it served over a million meals during the war, while receiving no funding from city, state or federal authorities. It was entirely an effort of the citizens of Philadelphia.

Soon after, later in May, a second such establishment opened nearby on Otsego Street (Water Street) called the Cooper Shop Volunteer Refreshment Saloon.

The image above is from a page that has an entry of the Freeman Colby Diary at Live Free and Draw, done comic-style. The Refreshment Saloon makes an appearance on that page. If you want to start the delightful journal from the beginning go here.

Troops from New York and north rode the Camden and Amboy Railway, crossed the Delaware on the Kaign Avenue Ferry to its station at Washington Ave, then marched the short distance to the saloons for their refreshment. The Colby Diary mentions that this was the first food provided since starting out.

Then they rode the horsecar lines (the tracks are visible in the photo  above) or marched west on Washington to Broad Street and the huge station for the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Then onto trains south.

 

And it wasn't only Union troops who benefited from the Refreshment Saloons. Confederate prisoners of war also came through on the way to their "lodgings" at Fort Mifflin.