Colonel James Cameron, First Pennsylvania Officer Killed in Civil War July 21, 1861

It may not be generally known that the first officer of his rank to be killed in the Civil War was none other than Colonel James Cameron, who commanded the Seventy-ninth New York Highlanders, yet was a native of Lancaster County, Pa., a resident of this State, and a brother of the distinguished General Simon Cameron.

The Cameron family in America is of fighting stock, descendants of the Camerons of Scotland, who shared their fortunes with the disastrous Charles Edward, whose star of hope went down on the bloody field of Culloden. Donald Cameron, their great-grandfather, was a participant in that memorable battle, and having escaped the carnage made his way to America, arriving here about 1746. He afterward fought under the gallant Wolfe upon the heights of Abraham at Quebec.

On his mother’s side, Colonel James Cameron was descended from Conrad Pfoutz, one of those sturdy German Protestants, whose faith no terrors could conquer. An exile from his native land for conscience sake, he sought the western wilds, and was for a time the companion of that famous Indian fighter, Captain Samuel Brady, the history of whose life is more captivating than romance.

James Cameron was born at Maytown, Lancaster County, March 1, 1801, and spent his boyhood there. He was apprenticed to his older brother, Simon, in the printing trade, and as early as 1827 he became associated with John Brandon in the publication of the “Lycoming Gazette,” at Williamsport, but only for a short time, as the business was not successful, and in December of that year the paper was sold to William F. Packer, who later became Governor of Pennsylvania.

James Cameron returned to Lancaster County and in 1829 obtained 499control of “The Political Sentinel,” which he published for a few years only. In 1839 he was appointed superintendent of motive power on the Columbia Railroad, succeeding Andrew Mehaffy. In 1843 he was appointed Deputy Attorney General of the Mayor’s Court, at Lancaster, succeeding S. Humes Porter.

Thus we find he worked his way through various steps from an orphan in poverty to a position of distinction in business and society.

When the Northern Central Railroad was constructed he held an official position under the management with headquarters at Sunbury. It was about this time that he purchased a magnificent farm along the beautiful Susquehanna River, just below the borough of Milton.

James Cameron was also stung with the political bee which seemed to hunt Cameron victims for many years in Pennsylvania. In 1856 he sought a seat in Congress, but was defeated for the Democratic nomination.

When the Civil War broke out he was called to the command of the Seventy-ninth New York Regiment of Volunteers, known as the “Highlanders,” and he marched at the head of his command on the ever-memorable advance on Bull Run.

He repeatedly rallied his men, who seemed paralyzed at the reverse, and none of his men felt this more than the brave colonel. He dropped his sword from his hand as he stared at the retreating mass of troops. Some of his command were still firing, when one of his lieutenants rushed forward to receive orders about the wounded soldiers. The colonel turned suddenly towards him, when at that instant a minnie bullet pierced his heart and he fell without uttering a word.

After the death of Colonel Cameron the rout became complete and the army fell back in great confusion on Washington.

Colonel Cameron’s body with hundreds of others, was left on the field and afterwards buried in a trench. Through the efforts of his brother, General Simon Cameron, then Secretary of War in President Lincoln’s Cabinet, his grave was located and his body identified by the peculiar buckskin shirt he wore, and was removed from the place of its rude burial. The remains were taken to Lewisburg and reinterred with the military honors due such a hero. Colonel Cameron left a wife, but no issue.

Colonel Cameron was the first soldier from Northumberland County to lose his life in the war. He was the first officer of his rank in the Union Army and the first officer from Pennsylvania to fall in battle in the Civil War.

The Northumberland County Soldiers’ Monument Memorial Association was organized May 25, 1872, and incorporated August 5, following.

On July 4, 1872, a site at the eastern end of Market square in Sunbury, was marked out by Judge Alexander Jordan and General 500Simon Cameron, and from that time plans were perfected for the erection of a memorial which should do justice to the boys from “Old Mother Northumberland” who had made the supreme sacrifice in that greatest of all civil wars in the world’s history.

The cornerstone was laid May 30, 1874, with a great Masonic ceremony. Robert L. Muench, of Harrisburg, district deputy grand master, acting for the grand master, was in charge of the exercises, assisted by Maclay C. Gearhart, Henry Y. Fryling, James M. McDevitt, Jacob R. Cressinger and William Hoover, the elective officers of Lodge No. 22, Free and Accepted Masons, of Sunbury.

There were many distinguished members of the order in attendance, hundreds of veterans of the Civil War, including a large delegation of the Seventy-ninth New York Cameronian Volunteers and thousands of citizens from Sunbury and the nearby towns.

The monument itself is an imposing shaft, resting upon a pedestal elevated upon a mound. At the outer edge are mounted four cannon used in the Civil War.

This shaft is surmounted by a lifesize statue in granite, of the gallant Colonel Cameron. It represents him clad in his military uniform and standing “at ease.” A tablet in one of the panels bears this inscription:

“James Cameron, of Northumberland County, Colonel of the Seventy-ninth New York Cameronian Volunteers. Fell at the head of his regiment at the Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, aged sixty-one years.