January 2008 Archives

Typical interior of a small country store

Boredom. Routine. Monotony... By June 1863, the Army of Northern Virginia had spent more than half a year relatively idle in its camps since the Battle of Fredericksburg, with the exception of the flurry of activity in May at Chancellorsville. As the soldiers headed northward for the summer campaign, they passed through dozens of small towns in Virginia, with most of the businesses barren from the hardships of the war. When the troops got to Pennsylvania, soldiers marveled at the well-stocked stores and shops, and there are scores, if not hundreds, of surviving letters and diaries that discuss individual Confederates' shopping sprees.

York County was no exception. While the soldiers were often gleeful at the rare chance to leisurely shop for whatever goods they needed, the local merchants were not at all happy about the situation.

Background post - Yorktown Square: York has produced its fair share of high-ranking naval officers.

Many leading Civil War generals who were quite famous in the 19th Century have slipped into obscurity, and today are only remembered by hard-core Civil War buffs. Ignored by the popular media, their contributions are largely forgotten. One such man was Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin, a York native who rose by the autumn of 1862 to be one of the most powerful men in the Army of the Potomac, and yet, by the time of the Gettysburg Campaign, was an backdrop to the unfolding action.

General Franklin is the subject of an excellent book published in 2002 by another York native, Dr. Mark Snell, the chair of Shepherd University's Civil War Studies program. This outstanding biography, From First to Last: The Life of William B. Franklin, brings Franklin's contributions (and failures) back to life for the modern reader.

Background post - Fire on the Conewago!

During the Civil War, the railroad tracks of the Northern Central crossed over the Conewago Creek near York Haven on a pair of single span wooden bridges. If these bridges could be destroyed, direct rail access from Baltimore to Harrisburg would be severed. Major General Darius Couch, commander of the Department of the Susquehanna, ordered part of the 20th Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia to safeguard the twin bridges against any Rebel attack. The Philadelphia-raised regiment had only been in the service for a few days when it was taken by train to York County and marched to to its various assignments. Little did they know, the Confederates were indeed coming for those bridges.

A few years ago, Rhode Island author Brent Nosworthy wrote an article for an early issue of my wargaming newsletter. He and I struck up a friendship, and I helped a little with his excellent book, Bloody Crucible of Courage: Fighting Methods and Combat Experience of the Civil War. Brent was kind enough to ask my counsel on a few matters for his new book Roll Call to Destiny: The Soldier’s Eye View of Civil War Battles, which will be in print in a couple of months.

Background posts: A Quaker in Gray, York Fairgrounds during the Civil War

Isaac Erwin Avery was the 34-year-old colonel of the 6th North Carolina State Troops during the Gettysburg Campaign. With the wounding of Brigadier General Robert F. Hoke at Chancellorville in May, Avery had assumed temporary command of the North Carolina Brigade in Major General Jubal Early's veteran division. He and his men camped in downtown York on Sunday, June 28, 1863, split between the U.S. Army Hospital on Penn Common, the York Farigrounds, and the market houses in Center Square. Unknown to Colonel Avery, it would be his last Sunday on earth, for the bachelor would be mortally wounded on Thursday, July 2 in an attack on Cemetery Hill at Gettysburg. Two of his brothers would also perish in the war, an additional tragedy for his anguished parents, who had seen 6 of their 16 children die in infancy or childhood.

For the most part, Avery's men adored him. Private John J. English of Company E of the 6th NCST wrote a letter to his aunt and uncle on July 9 during the Confederate army's retreat. In it, the young Confederate infantryman honored his fallen colonel, as well as commenting on the women of Pennsylvania that he had met, including presumably the ladies of York.

Issue # 38 of The Gettysburg Magazine is now on sale. Published twice a year, the advertisement-free magazine always features several very good articles on the Gettysburg Campaign. Publisher / owner Andy Turner was kind enough to publish an article in the July issue that I wrote concerning Jubal Early's division and its occupancy of York in June 1863. My new article in the January issue is about J.E.B. Stuart's ridge through western York County, focused on his brief stay in Dover.

Here is the table of contents for Issue #38, which is sold at various bookshops in Gettysburg.

Charles Kann has created a very interesting new website that might be of interest to those Cannonball readers who enjoy contributing to wiki-style sites. Entitled Encounter at Gettysburg, the fledgling website, once completed, should be a very useful resource for battlefield visitors.

Eventually, Kann hopes to have all the major monuments listed, with photographs, background information, and, perhaps of most value, scalable Google maps giving the approximate location of the monument (standard view, satellite view, or hybrid view).

One of the previously misidentified photographs

Background post: New photo of Lincoln at Gettysburg Address

Museums and archives around the country contains millions of documents, photographs, recordings, files, and other historic material. Some of these are in modern, environmentally-controlled atmospheres such as the $7.5 million dollar storage area Pennsylvania is constructing at the State Library. Others are kept in poorly controlled office, library or warehouse space, where humidity and temperature swings are deteriorating the collections.

At times, these historic collections are so large that no one is really sure what they contain, especially if they are misidentified with the wrong captions. Such was the recent case of some Lincoln-related photos at the Library of Congress. A sharp-eyed researcher found "new" photos of Lincoln's Second Inauguration (March 4, 1865).

Harper's Weekly woodcut of an 1865 train wreck in Connecticut.

On July 18, 1863, the 23rd New York Militia passed through York, enroute from Baltimore to Harrisburg, where they would catch another series of trains to take them home to Brooklyn. In a previous post, I mentioned their relaxing train ride through scenic southern York County, and their impression of the somewhat greedy street vendors of the borough of York. A little adventure lay ahead of the big city boys as their train steamed through the farmland of northeastern York County.

Photograph by Tom Mingus of the York CWRT

The York Civil War Round Table meets at 7:00 p.m. on the third Wednesday of every month (except December) at the York County Heritage Trust's headquarters building at 250 East Market Street in York. Parking and admission are free. A basket will be passed at each meeting to collect free-will donations to help defray the speaker's expenses. There are no dues or other fees to be a member of this CWRT!

Mark these 2008 dates on your calendar and try to attend these informative and interesting presentations and/or battlewalks!

During the early part of the Gettysburg Campaign, militia troops from New York and New Jersey were sent to Harrisburg to help defend the city. These soldiers arrived via a variety of trains from diverse garrisons throughout the East Coast. Following the Battle of Gettysburg, many of them marched into Maryland in pursuit of Robert E. Lee's army before being ordered to return home. On Saturday, July 18, the 23rd New York State National Guard entrained at Baltimore on the Northern Central Railway and headed northward through Maryland and southern York County. The regiment, almost entirely city boys from Brooklyn and New York City, would pause for a rest break at York's train station.

Private John Lockwood left his impressions of that day.

George Fox, an early leader in the Religious Society of Friends (the Quakers)

During the Gettysburg Campaign, several hundred York Countians were victimized by Confederate raiders, losing such diverse dry goods as buffalo robes, women's bonnets, and hairpins, as well as liquor, crops, livestock, mules, supplies, and most of all, horses. Often, these acquisitions were accompanied by a legitimate military requisition, backed with CSA currency or government promissory notes (or in gold or greenbacks if the recipient was lucky). However, in far too many other cases, marauders, deserters, and thugs simply took what they wanted. At least one Confederate soldier was appalled by the wanton thievery he witnessed.

Lt. Gen. Richard Stoddard Ewell, CSA

Several Confederate soldiers in the Gettysburg Campaign had family or personal ties to this region. It was not uncommon in the mid-19th century for people to move around quite a bit, despite the lengthy transportation requirements of the day. As a result, they often knew folks in other towns, and letter writing became an art form. York was typical – several citizens had extensively traveled through Maryland and Virginia; many had attended school with people from the South; and some had antebellum military connections with the Rebels.

In a recent post, I mentioned the cryptic comments from Confederate records in the Louisiana State Archives that a soldier from that state was "supposed to have been killed by the citizens of Penn." In scanning through old CSA letters, diaries, journals, etc. from men in the Gettysburg Campaign, I have found dozens of accounts of Keystoners hiding in out-of-the-way places to take potshots at passing columns of troops, and one account of two Rebel stragglers being apprehended by McConnellsville residents and murdered.

This is a friendly reminder that Chuck Teague will be speaking at the upcoming January meeting of the York Civil War Round Table (formerly the White Rose CWRT). For details, click here.

See you there? I will have a few copies of my new Gettysburg book to autograph for anyone who has not yet purchased a copy.

The Louisiana Tigers left the Willoughby Run / Oak Hill area northwest of Gettysburg on June 27, 1863, and marched through East Berlin into western York County, finally camping late that afternoon near Big Mount. The roads were "exceedingly muddy," and scores of men straggled in the slop and mire. A few never rejoined the ranks, taking the opportunity to slip away and desert. An old book has a cryptic entry for Private Charles Brown of the 8th Louisiana, who was "supposed to have been killed by the citizens of Penn[sylvania]."

I spent much of yesterday at the new Gettysburg Research Room of the Adams County Historical Society, which has digitized much of its collection, as well as the files of the Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guides. The reading room is not yet finished and certainly lacks amenities (the Lutheran Seminary is more than a century and a half old and wasn't built with the 21st Century researcher in mind), but the ease of use is incredible. Keyword searches make browsing through massive amounts of files a breeze.

Here's a relatively fresh account of a visit to York by officers of the Charlottesville Artillery.

Several accounts exist that indicate or suggest that Robert E. Lee had given considerable thought to making York his place of concentration should the Federal army pursue him northward. One can only imagine what might have happened should that event have occurred, and the Federal Army of the Potomac have tried to attack Lee on the hills and ridges south and west of York. Confederate artillery crowning the bastion of Webb's Hill? Pickett's men in a defensive posture guarding the western approaches from Gettysburg? The decisive Confederate victory that Lee dreamed of happening here in York? Millions of visitors a year and way too many tourist traps in York, while Gettysburg remains as just another obscure Pennsylvania county seat? The Battle of York????

Licensed Battlefield Guide and well regarded writer and researcher Timothy H. Smith will present what should be a fascinating talk on "The Gettysburg Civilians" this upcoming Tuesday evening, January 8, at 7:30 p.m. in the Valentine Auditorium of the Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary. Take Route 30 through downtown Gettysburg and turn left as you crest Seminary Ridge (opposite the Lee's Headquarters museum / Appalachian Brewing Company). Parking and admission are free.

Why not make an evening of it and have a relaxing dinner in Gettysburg, drive around the battlefield to see the most recent tree cuttings, and then learn more about the residents and farmers during the summer campaign of 1863?

I took some much needed vacation time over the Christmas holiday, a welcome break from my rather heavy business travel schedule. Among the many activities that I enjoyed, I spent some time at the U.S. Army Military History Institute near Carlisle. A short drive up Route 74 for me, the library (Army Heritage & Education Center or AHEC) has moved in the past couple of years from Carlisle Barracks to a stand-alone campus south of Carlisle not far from the new Target store. The complex is already interesting, and will be even more impressive if the funding comes through for the planned new army museum next door to the library.

Thomas L. Kane, US Volunteers

Elements of the Union Army occasionally camped in York County for varying periods of time. Usually, the troops were passing through the region and stopped for an extended rest break while awaiting orders to march elsewhere. One such regiment was the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves (also known as the 42nd Infantry Regiment), filled with woodsmen and lumbermen from the mountains of western Pennsylvania. The men wore the white tails of deer in their caps and became known as the "Bucktails."

They were under the command of Colonel Thomas L. Kane. Before the war, the Philadelphia native had been an influential friend of the controversial Mormons and helped mediate an end to the Utah War in 1858. Colonel Kane and his Bucktails spent time in the autumn of 1862 in Shrewsbury in southern York County, where they were accused of wanton destruction of private property.

In mid-1862, George W. Welsh was a 21-year-year-old butcher living in the rural village of York Sulphur Springs (later shortened to York Springs) in Adams County. He decided to join the army and, on October 8, enlisted in the 127th Pennsylvania Infantry, a nine-months’ regiment. He was mustered in five days later as a private in Company I. The colonel of the regiment was William W. Jennings, later the sheriff of Dauphin County and a wealthy industrialist.