TheDepartment of the Monongahela was a military department created by theUnited States War Department during theGettysburg campaign of theAmerican Civil War.
On June 9, 1863,PresidentAbraham Lincoln, responding toRobert E. Lee's impending invasion ofMaryland andPennsylvania, called for 100,000 volunteers from those two states, as well asWest Virginia andOhio, to help repel the invasion, with only about 33,000 recruits answering his call. TheSecretary of War,Edwin M. Stanton, ordered the creation of two departments to organize thesemilitia and defend Pennsylvania. TheDepartment of the Susquehanna consisted of most of central and eastern Pennsylvania. The Department of the Monongahela consisted of western Pennsylvania, includingJohnstown, theLaurel Highlands, andErie, as well asHancock,Brooke, andOhio counties inWest Virginia, and the Ohio counties ofColumbiana,Jefferson, andBelmont. The headquarters were established inPittsburgh, under the command ofMaj. Gen.William T. H. Brooks, a combat veteran of theUnionArmy of the Potomac.
Brooks energetically set out to defend Pittsburgh, ordering citizens and railroad crews to build an elaborate network of earthworks and fortifications along key routes of approach that any invader might use. He organized home guard units, and sent out scouts looking for signs ofConfederate activity. He established communications linkages with Maj. Gen.Ambrose Burnside, commanding the adjacent Department of the Ohio, as well as the Department of the Susquehanna's Maj. Gen.Darius N. Couch. Pennsylvania GovernorAndrew Curtin sent 10,000 rifles, ammunition, and supplies to Pittsburgh, and Federal troops were hastily diverted to assist in the defense of the river town should it be threatened.
Brooks's fears over a Confederate attack onPittsburgh would prove unfounded, althoughMorgan's Raid through southernOhio caused concern, as didJohn D. Imboden's raid on theBaltimore and Ohio Railroad betweenMartinsburg, West Virginia, andCumberland, Maryland,[1] well southeast of Pittsburgh. Satisfied that Pittsburgh was safe with the repulse ofRobert E. Lee at theBattle of Gettysburg and the capture ofJohn Hunt Morgan following theBattle of Salineville, Brooks sent home the volunteers and militia, and the forts were abandoned.
The department was merged into the Department of the Susquehanna on April 6, 1864.[2] General Brooks returned to active field command, leading a division in theXVIII Corps in theArmy of the James.
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