August 2007 Archives

The 27th Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia was hastily raised in the mountainous region northwest of Harrisburg to serve for "the duration of the present emergency" during Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania in June 1863. The regiment was filled with starry-eyed volunteers who eagerly wanted to defend the commonwealth from the oncoming Rebels. Some were former soldiers whose original terms of enlistment had expired, but most had no previous military experience.

Comprised heavily of coal miners, teenaged boys, store clerks, and small independent farmers, the regiment was organized and mustered into service in Harrisburg at Camp Curtin. The men were loaded into railroad cars and taken to Columbia, along the Susquehanna River in Lancaster County. They pitched tents and set up a campsite in a meadow overlooking the river, and began constructing defenses west of Wrightsville to guard the long covered bridge. On June 28, they fought a small skirmish with elements of John B. Gordon's Confederate brigade, suffering less than a dozen casualties, with no fatalities.

The cost of war can be measured in property damage, political fallout, financial spending, but, most of all, in the human toll on both the victims and their families. Here is just one story from among the men who defended the imposing bridge between York County and Lancaster County.

A recent York Town Square blog entry by Jim McClure regarding the Howard Tunnel prompted me to write about the venerable tunnel's Civil War history. Jim tells a little about the overall history of this impressive passageway, through which the Northern Central Railway ran during the war years.

Courtesy of the York Daily Record and fellow blogger Jim McClure's entry on the York Town Blog.

Major General Jubal A. Early led a powerful division of Confederate infantry, artillery, and scattered cavalry elements into York County in late June 1863. Early's first evening in York was a rather memorable one for the crusty officer Robert E. Lee called "my bad old boy."

On March 5 and June 4, 1885, two decades after the war, from his home in Lynchburg, Virginia, an elderly Early penned a pair of letters to York County historian George Prowell relating his encounter with one of the local ladies of German extraction - an old woman from Big Mount who showed him some old-fashioned York County hospitality.

On June 28, 1863, a veteran Confederate division under Major General Jubal Early entered York County with the goal of driving off local militia defenders and holding York for ransom. Near Weiglestown, Early dispatched Colonel William French with most of the 17th Virginia Cavalry on a mission across Manchester Township. His objective? Seize and burn the twin railroad bridges over Conewago Creek near York Haven. Their destruction would severely hamper traffic between Baltimore and Harrisburg on the Northern Central Railway.

Unknown to Early, the Yankees had, several days before, dispatched nearly a thousand fresh soldiers to York County to guard important bridges, the Howard Tunnel, and key supply routes. They were commanded by Colonel William Thomas (a wealthy Philadelphia businessman and Republican politician who was a personal friend of Abe Lincoln). Most of Thomas's men worked for him in the Customs House and Port of Philadelphia, but all were equipped with the latest in rifled muskets. The cavalrymen had pistols and sabers, with an occasional carbine. A clash of arms loomed, and the unsuspecting Confederate cavalrymen would be outnumbered and outgunned.

During the early days of the rebellion, the border state of Maryland was divided in loyalty, with almost as many Southern sympathizers as Unionists in places. The Federal government moved quickly to maintain control, arresting large numbers of openly secessionist leaders. Smuggling became an avid vocation, as clandestine Rebel sympathizers developed clever ways of moving war materials, weapons, ammunition, and goods into Virginia for distribution to the Confederate armies.

During the Civil War, Penn Park was the site of a regionally important U.S. Army Hospital, a sprawling complex of multiple wards, outbuildings, support structures, and a mortuary. A relief map depicting the camp's general layout can be seen on a marker on the park's northern edge along the sidewalk bordering Princess Street. Hundreds of wounded soldiers from Antietam and Fredericksburg occupied the beds over the winter of 1862-63, and a fair number of them were still in the hospital during the June-July 1863 Gettysburg Campaign. They had been joined by injured and ill soldiers from other battles.

The tiny hamlet of Hanover Junction in southern York County is perhaps best known today as a stop on the Rail Trail, with restrooms, parking, and shade. During the Civil War, it played an important role as both a railroad and telegraph interchange. A telegraphy school produced several well trained young operators who fanned out to other area telegraph offices, spreading the new form of communication. During the Gettysburg Campaign, these stations would provide an important linkage to relay messages to Federal commanders in Washington, Baltimore, York, and Harrisburg. Two railroads intersected at Hanover Junction, the north-south running Northern Central Railway and the east-west Hanover Branch Railroad. A cavalry raid in June 1863 temporarily suspended both telegraph and rail service.

Recently, local service organizations have undertaken a campaign to place some old Civil War-era cannons at Hanover Junction as a memorial. These vintage gun tubes used to adorn Penn Park in York. Here is an e-mail from Ivan Frantz, the secretary of the PDC, announcing the new Hanover Junction monument.

Historians, preservationists, history buffs and military strategists applaud it. Environmentalists and so-called "tree-huggers" abhor it. Perhaps nothing in recent times at the Gettysburg National Military Park (with the possible exception of the demolition of the National Tower a decade ago) has sparked more controversy than the recent tree-cutting. The National Park Service is in the midst of a multi-year project to restore parts of the battlefield to some semblance of their appearance in 1863 when the U.S. Army battled forces from the Confederate States of America on the hills and pastures surrounding Gettysburg. The sounds of chain saws and logging trucks now boom out over fields where cannons and muskets once roared.

The 19th annual Lancaster County Historical Society's Civil War Weekend will be held September 14, 15, and 16, 2007, on the grounds of the society. This year's featured speaker is author Tom Huntington, who will present a talk on the new Pennsylvania Civil War Trails program, evidence of which can be seen in York with the heritage plaques.

September 14 at 4:30 p.m. Regional History Colloquium: Tom Huntington, "Pennsylvania's Civil War Trails." Huntington will discuss his new book on Pennsylvania's Civil War Trails. Mr. Huntington will be available to sign copies and refreshments will be served at 4 p.m.

A Civil War encampment will be held September 15-16, with reenactors, living historians, and period music.

All events are at the Lancaster County Historical Society, 230 N. President Ave., 717-392-4633

During the few days in the early summer of 1863 that the Confederate army passed through Pennsylvania, many residents of Franklin, Adams, and York counties had a chance to interact with some of the Confederacy's most colorful characters (and among the best fighters) - the fabled "Louisiana Tigers." Recruited from the docks, saloons, and alleyways of New Orleans, as well as in nearby regions, the Tigers boasted an array of nationalities and personalities, although hard-drinking Irishmen and charismatic Cajuns were prevalent in their ranks. By the Gettysburg Campaign, their reputation for wildness has preceded them. They proved at times to be unruly and rowdy, and their division commander, Jubal Early, often camped them outside of town to reduce the risk of trouble. During the occupancy of Gettysburg on June 26 - 27, they were on Oak Hill, yet a few managed to make it into Gettysburg to brawl with locals at an Irish drinking house on Baltimore Pike. At York, they were camped north of town along the Codorus Creek - not far from today's Harley-Davidson factory. Here's one story from their short sojourn in York.

Confederates from the Army of Northern Virginia passed through York County in waves in the early summer of 1863. The first incursion, rather minor, involved patrols from Albert Jenkins' western Virginia brigade. Jenkins, an antebellum U.S. Congressman, sent detachments of partisan or "wild cat" cavalry into extreme northwestern York County. Crusty old veteran Jubal Early led his powerful division of four infantry brigades, several artillery batteries, and a couple regiments / battalions of cavalry directly towards York on June 27. J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry division roamed western York County on June 30 and July 1, fighting a battle at Hanover and minor skirmishes at Jefferson and Dover. One of his cavalrymen left this description of York County and its residents:

Welcome to the new blog for Civil War related topics as they concern York County and the immediate area! Over time, I will be featuring anecdotes, true stories, original accounts from participants, and other materials concerning this area during the American Civil War. Readers who wish to contribute stories or information may contact me at my e-mail address.

York County played an important role in the Gettysburg Campaign. As I researched my manuscript regarding John Gordon's brigade and their time here, I found dozens of nice accounts of the area, its people, and its farms from Confederate and Union sources. I will share some of these on these blog entries periodically.