Raid, Murder, and Retribution: The Destruction of the Weldon Railroad, December 1864
The Weldon Railroad was one of the last important supply lines for Robert E. Lee's Confederate army besieged around Richmond and Petersburg during the last winter of the Civil War. In December 1864, Union commanders U.S. Grant and George Meade ordered a massive raid of over 20,000 men to destroy the railroad all the way to the North Carolina border.
What began as a straightforward military strike by troops (including this region's 83rd PA Volunteers), deteriorated into a vicious foray against the local civilian population, fueled by copious amounts of confiscated whiskey. This was followed by brutal retaliatory murders of isolated Union stragglers. The malicious cycle then escalated into the burning of wide swaths of civilian homes and the wanton destruction of foodstuffs. It was war at its most brutal level.
Historian George Deutsch will explore this little-known action, often from the point of view of local Erie soldiers who participated in the raid.
George Deutsch, B.S., Executive Director, Emeritus, of the Erie County Historical Society/Hagen History Center is a leader in historical preservation and multiple public history projects. In 2022, he concluded a five-year, $11 Million, building and exhibit construction project for the History Center. He has co-founded several historical organizations related to the Civil War and the War of 1812 in his hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania, including the Flagship Niagara League, which played a central role in reconstructing the U.S. Brig Niagara and creating the Erie Maritime Museum. He has taught history courses at the Chautauqua Institution in New York since 2005 and has lectured on both political and historical topics at Erie’s Jefferson Educational Society since 2010. For 30 years he has given numerous presentations on Civil War history across seven states and Washington, D.C. In 2023, Deutsch finished a three-year term on the Historical Marker Committee for the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office. He continues to serve as a representative for the America250PA Commission. He has been published in numerous journals and also served as a consultant to National Geographic magazine for its Civil War sesquicentennial issue. Deutsch was honored twice by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and received the Local History Award in 2003 from the Erie County Historical Society. He earned a degree in history from Mercyhurst University and was also educated at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He is currently writing a new book on the famous Civil War regiment, the 83rd Pennsylvania Infantry from northwestern Pennsylvania.
