A worn grave marker notes the burial place of William A. Loomis (1842-1900) at the Fairview Cemetery, Altoona, Blair County, Pennsylvania.
At the grave is a G.A.R. star-flag holder. During the Civil War, Loomis served in the 192nd Pennsylvania Infantry, Company H, as a Private, and according to the Pension Index Card from Fold3, he also served in Company F of the 195th Pennsylvania Infantry. He collected a pension until his death, which occurred on 4 September 1900, and after his death his widow collected benefits.
William A. Loomis was born in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania on 27 December 1842. He is the same William Loomis who appears in the list of Halifax area Civil War veterans.
After the war, William Loomis openly supported the white supremacist views of Heister Clymer by signing a call for denial of equal rights to African Americans, both those who were previously slaves and those who were previously freemen. The statement was published in the Harrisburg Patriot of 24 July 1866 and included his name, regiment, company and rank.
Heister Clymer was a white supremacist candidate for Pennsylvania Governor on the Democratic Party ticket in 1866, and was previously profiled here on 22 June 2020.
The call for a meeting of Union Soldiers was printed in the Harrisburg Patriot, 24 July 1866, along with an up-to-date list of Clymer supporters who openly supported Heister Clymer‘s white supremacist views and wanted to deny “negro equality and suffrage” even to those who had been free men before the war.
The undersigned honorably discharged Union soldiers, believing that we battled in the late war for the Union of these States, and had successfully maintained it, view with alarm the persistent efforts of radical men who seem determine, practically to destroy the Union we went forth to save. They would have the community believe that Union soldiers are willing to give up in the hour of victory the great object to which their sacrifices and toll and blood were given….
Therefore we unite in requesting all the honorably discharged officer, soldiers and seamen of Dauphin County who favor the wise and constitutional policy of President Johnson, who oppose the doctrine of negro equality and suffrage, and desire the election of the Hon. Hiester Clymer, to meet in Mass Convention at the Democratic Club Room, Walnut Street, below Third, Harrisburg, at 7 1/2 o’clock, on the evening of the 25 July 1866, for the purpose of electing fourteen delegates to the Convention of Union Soldiers, which is to assemble in this city [Harrisburg] on Wednesday, 1 August 1866.
The Dauphin County veterans who signed the racist petition calling for the meeting were from a variety of regiments and social levels. Included in the list were some residents of Upper Dauphin County, the area north of Peter’s Mountain – all of which is included in the geographic area of the Lykens Valley Blog.
William A. Loomis was only one of many honorably discharged Union soldiers who openly supported the white supremacist gubernatorial campaign of Heister Clymer in 1866. The full list of those with a connection to Upper Dauphin County was presented here on 23 June 2020. See:
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First published on the Civil War Blog, 11 November 2019.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.