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Keystone Yankees
By Bill Barrante, Watertown
I enjoyed very much Ben Warner's article about the Connecticut men who served with Pennsylvania's 28th Infantry Division in the Korean War era [Swamp Yankees in the Pennsylvania National Guard, November 9]. Mr. Warner served with the 109th Infantry, the old 13th Pennsylvania. This is interesting because another regiment in the Pennsylvania National Guard, the 109th Field Artillery, was constituted in 1775 as the 24th Regiment in the Connecticut Militia.
The 24th Connecticut was organized in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania, which was then claimed by Connecticut. The Nutmeg State also had claims in Ohio (the "Western Reserve"). After the Revolutionary War, the states on the Atlantic Ocean that had western land claims, like Connecticut and Virginia, gave them up. The militia of the Wyoming Valley then became part of the Pennsylvania Militia.
The Wyoming Valley militia served during the War of 1812 as the 35th Pennsylvania, and was later known as the Wyoming Valley Battalion or Regiment. Two companies, the Wyoming Artillerists and the Wyoming Yagers, served in the Mexican War with the 1st Pennsylvania Volunteers. The Wyoming Valley militia served in the Civil War as the 8th and 143rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and in the War with Spain as the 9th Pennsylvania Volunteers. In 1916 it was converted to field artillery as the 3rd Pennsylvania Field Artillery, and the following year it became the 109th Field Artillery.
In both world wars and the Korean War, the National Guard divisions were often supplemented with men from other states. That is how Ben Warner ended up in a Keystone State regiment.
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