Cannonball reader and Harrisburg CWRT member Doug Gibboney of Cumberland County was kind enough to send me a couple of photos of his house and barn, which were among the hundreds of Pennsylvania homesteads visited by the Confederate cavalry of J.E.B. Stuart in late June / early July of 1863.
Doug writes, "The house is on Rt. 74, Monroe Twp., Cumberland County. It was built in 1813 by the Young family. They still owned the house when Jeb Stuart and his boys rode by on the late afternoon and early evening of July 1. According to oral history, the Young family fled upon the Rebs' approach, taking with them as much as they could. Upon their return, they found a young horse in the barn when apparently had been stolen down the road and could no longer keep up. It became the daughter's saddle horse.
The house can be found on the map Jed Hotchkiss prepared for the C.S. invasion."
Here is the Civil War-era barn on the old Young farm on S.R. 74, York Road. Confederate troopers left a young horse in the barn. Perhaps it had been taken by Stuart's column during its passage through northwestern York County, as we have damage claims from a handful of farmers in that area who reported losing 2-year-old horses to the passing Rebels. Doug wrote, "No doubt the Rebs drank from the well and searched the house for food as they rode past on the late afternoon of July 1."
The next time I am at the State Archives in Harrisburg, I will check and see what the Confederates may have taken from the Young farm, if anything.
Doug adds that he will send me "a photo of the 300-year-old American sycamore just off Rt. 74 on Old Stone House Road which witnessed the Rebs ride by." A lot of attention is paid to so-called "witness trees" at Gettysburg, which were alive during the battle. Much less has been written on witness trees for other aspects of the Gettysburg Campaign.
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