York County author and wargamer Scott Mingus explores south-central Pennsylvania's rich Civil War heritage. He has written several books, including Human Interest Stories of the Gettysburg Campaign, Volumes 1 and 2, and Human Interest Stories from Antietam. They are available at Borders, as well as from amazon.com and other Internet retailers. He can be reached at scottmingus@yahoo.com
Mickey Kraft sent me a press release today. She encourages area Civil War buffs to Join the Lancaster Civil War Round Table on October 4, 2008, for a full day of exploration in Gettysburg, featuring several well known guides and tour leaders.
Finish reading 'Lancaster CWRT news release - Gettysburg tour' »
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As I write this, I am sitting in a hotel in southern Ohio on a temporary business assignment. This area, Ross County, is rife with Native American lore and legend, and the town, Chillicothe, was once a bustling chief town of the Shawnee Nation. Legendary war chief Tecumseh is a popular figure in these parts, and there is a well attended outdoor drama remembering his exploits and life.
In some respects, this area during the Civil War was similar to York County. Both counties provided significant numbers of troops for the Union Army; both were comprised primarily of people of Germanic and Scotch-Irish heritage. Farming was still king, and the county seats were beginning to develop a strong industrial base. There were still vestiges of Native American culture and people scattered in the rural areas, and some of these men also joined the army to fight under Old Glory.
Finish reading 'A Native American serves the Union' »A few years ago, York County author and blogger Jim McClure and I briefly discussed a fellow by the name of John A. Wilson, who is thought to be the last black Civil War veteran from York County to have been laid to rest. I started digging into this man, researching what Jim had found and searching for a little more information. Not only was "Quil" Wilson the last surviving black ACW veteran, he was among the youngest men to take up arms against the Confederates during the Gettysburg Campaign, when he served as an unpaid volunteer manning the trenches defending Wrightsville against the Confederate brigade of Brig. Gen. John B. Gordon. There are no specific records of Wilson's individual service at Wrightsville, but his small company was noted by the Lancaster Examiner and Herald as having "fought bravely."
Finish reading 'John Aquilla Wilson - Civil War veteran' »
25mm wargaming figures from the collection of a wargaming friend from Erie, Pennsylvania.
Background post: An unexpected visit to York
One of the most colorful Civil War regiments from the Keystone State was the 155th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, a unit known for its late war colorful "zouave" uniform (loosely modeled after similar uniforms worn in the French Army). These men and boys from Pittsburgh saw their first combat at the Battle of Antietam, and a few of their casualties were transported to the U.S. Army Military Hospital in York for treatment of their injuries. As mentioned in the background post, teenaged private Franklin Gilmore of the 155th was an emergency patient at that hospital in 1864.
Finish reading '155th Pennsylvania Infantry' »
It was the hot summer of 1968. My parents decided to take a family vacation to Pennsylvania, a state I had never visited. We packed our suitcases in my Dad's cream-colored Ford Falcon and headed across Ohio through Wheeling WV and into the Keystone State. After hours of driving, we stopped at Chambersburg's Travelodge for the night. I could barely sleep, knowing that tomorrow I would see fabled Gettysburg for the first time! Vision of statues and monuments danced in my head, and I had prepared for this almost spiritual experience by reading and re-reading all my copies of Civil War Times Illustrated and every ACW book in the local East Fultonham, Ohio, branch of John McIntyre Library.
In the morning, Dad drove eastward from Chambersburg across South Mountain and approached Gettysburg in the early morning fog. My heart leaped...
Finish reading 'Memory lane - first Gettysburg visit' »
An engraving of Richard S. Ewell before his hairline significantly receded.
By the early summer of 1863, the name Richard Stoddard Ewell was well known within North America. The balding and somewhat eccentric Ewell had received considerable press as a brigadier general for his service during the Peninsular Campaign, and had survived a bad wound at the Battle of Groveton that cost him a leg. Promoted to command of a corps in the Army of Northern Virginia in May 1863, his men had won a smashing and decisive victory only a few weeks later at the Second Battle of Winchester. By late June, Ewell was approaching Harrisburg with two-thirds of his force, while a division under Jubal Early threatened York.
York was a place quite familiar to "Old Baldy," for he had visited the town before the war, and an older brother, Benjamin, had moved to York in the late 1830s to accept a position as assistant engineer of the Baltimore & Susquehanna Railroad. The former West Point professor had subsequently married a York woman.
Finish reading 'A future Rebel commander visits York' »
Historian Tim Smith of the Adams County Historical Society will be the guest speaker at this month's CWRT meeting in York.
Background post: 2008 speaker schedule - York CWRT
The monthly meeting of the York Civil War Round Table will feature author, historian, and Licensed Battlefield Guide Timothy H. Smith as the special guest speaker. He is speaking on his latest book, Farms at Gettysburg: The Fields of Battle: Selected Images From the Adams County Historical Society. Tim has a PowerPoint presentation, and he will interject, when appropriate, information about the Gettysburg civilians.
The meeting will be Wednesday evening, July 16, 2008, at 7:00 p.m. in the auditorium of the York County Heritage Trust's headquarters at 250 E. Market Street in downtown York. Parking and admission are free. Why not come and hear one of the most entertaining and knowledgeable Civil War experts in the region?
Finish reading 'July meeting - York Civil War Round Table' »
Rebels wearily slog through the rain during their retreat following the Battle of Gettysburg.
York Countians could breathe a sigh of relief after the Rebels departed. While there had indeed been considerable damage to the railroads and telegraph lines, as well as thousands of horses and mules seized, the damage was rather light compared with Franklin and Adams counties, and part of Cumberland. A reporter from the Lancaster Daily Herald trailed the two armies after they crossed the Mason-Dixon Line, and he left a graphic account of the destruction he witnessed in the southern part of Franklin County. He wrote from Greencastle on July 8, 1863,...
Finish reading 'The cost of the Rebel Invasion - Part 4' »
An early 20th century view of the replacement bridge and the immediate area where several railroad buildings had burned down in 1863 as an indirect result of the Rebel invasion. Out of view to the right of this scene would have been the vicinity of the old industrial complex and warehouses that were also destroyed on June 28, 1863.
While Columbia Bank officials lamented the loss of their cash cow, the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge, after a six-hour blaze that entirely destroyed it, many residents of Wrightsville watched in horror as embers from the burning bridge were carried by the wind into the buildings along the York County riverbank. Soon, several structures were on fire, and, in one of the Civil War's more amazing acts of humanity and compassion, Confederate officers ordered their men to form a bucket bridge to dip water from the canal and river. Hand-over-hand, the Georgia infantrymen passed the heavy buckets to the end of the line, where the water was thrown onto the most threatened buildings, many of which were saved by this act of heroism from the Rebel invaders. The irony? Some of the Georgians hailed from Darien, Georgia, a town torched a few weeks before by Union troops, including black soldiers from Columbia, Pennsylvania, across the river from Wrightsville.
Finish reading 'The cost of the Rebel invasion - Part 3' »I was signing several of my Civil War human interest books yesterday at the Gettysburg Gift Center, and the table I was using was directly across from that of Rebecca Marie. She is a very talented crafter / artisan who creates lavish pieces of costume jewelry from the Victorian period. These ornate and exquisite works of art are quite nice and a fine addition to those reenactors / living historians who want to bedazzle their partners at Victorian teas or balls.
Becky's nicely crafted work is available in the Gettysburg Gift Center, as well as on-line at their website / Internet store. She has always had a love of jewelry, especially antique pieces, and has been quoted as saying, "I felt I needed my own creative outlet, and jewelry seemed to be the perfect choice. My goal is to make jewelry that has the look of age, but is affordable to everyone."
