August 2009 Archives

Thursday September 3, 2009 from 7:30pm - 9:00pm
Maple Shade Barn
35 Greenbriar Lane
Dillsburg, Pennsylvania 17019

Civil War author and tour guide Scott L. Mingus, Sr. presents a PowerPoint presentation on Confederate Major General J.E.B. Stuart's controversial ride through western York County to Dillsburg while the Battle of Gettysburg raged to the west. The talk is FREE and open to the public!

Sponsored by the Northern York County Historical and Preservation Society.

Mingus will have copies of his latest book, Gettysburg Glimpses: True Stories from the Battlefield available for purchase and autographs.

On July 1, 1863, concurrent with the afternoon fighting on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, more than 5,000 Confederate cavalrymen passed through Carroll Township in northwestern York County, Pennsylvania. They were commanded by Major General J.E.B. Stuart, who was marching toward Carlisle and a hoped for rendezvous with the infantry of Ewell's Corps. Stuart, hoping to get some definitive word on the location of the Army of Northern Virginia, sent out various scouting parties.

He also sent out foragers, scouring the countryside for horses, mules, and supplies. They were hard to come by in this largely rural region. A previous raid by Rebel cavalry under Brig. Gen. Albert G. Jenkins had taken some of the horses, while hundreds of other animals had been taken to safety or hidden in the woods. A half dozen or so Carroll Township farmers had taken their horses down to Warrington Township to supposed safety on the imposing heights of Round Top mountain, but the Southerners had already found them. Several men had hidden their horses in the thick woods owned by John Cook on a farm off today's Route 74 just north of the township line; they were among the first horses discovered and seized by Stuart's column as it entered Carroll Township.

The Rebels weren't finished.

This impressive line of artillery is in Willard Park on the grounds of the Washington Navy Yard. While most of the tubes were made on-site at the Naval Foundry and sent to Union Navy ships or land installations, the one second from the right served the Confederacy during the Civil War.

According to WIkipedia, the Washington Navy Yard is the oldest shore establishment of the U.S. Navy and currently serves as a ceremonial and administrative center, home to the Chief of Naval Operations. It is headquarters for the Naval Historical Center, the Department of Naval History, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps, Naval Reactors, Marine Corps Institute, and numerous other naval commands.The Washington Navy Yard was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, and designated a National Historic Landmark on May 11, 1976. nearly 400,000 people visit the U.S. Navy Museum annually.

During the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln frequently was a guest in this house, which served as the headquarters for Admiral John A. Dahlgren, the commandant of the Washington Navy Yard. Lincoln spent a fair amount of time at the Navy Yard awaiting telegraphed reports from the battlefield, which came in to the Navy's telegraph station. The commandant's house is still in use and is among the oldest continuously occupied buildings on any U.S. Navy installation.

One of my sons recently took me on a day trip to Washington D.C. for my birthday. We spent a rain-soaked afternoon touring the grounds of the Washington Navy Yard, which features FREE admission to the very nice Navy Museum as well as to the USS Barry, a Vietnam-era U.S. Navy destroyer that has been preserved as a floating museum. The Navy Yard's attractions are open until 5 PM most days and are well worth a lengthy visit. After the game, Tom and I took in the Washington Nationals - Milwaukee Brewers baseball game before hitting the Metro for the trip back to the Greenbelt parking lot and the subsequent drive back to our home in north-central York County, Pennsylvania.

The Navy Museum and grounds of the Washington Navy Yard are filled with relics and artifacts of interest to the Civil War buff, including naval artillery pieces from both the Union and Confederate navies, personal property of famed sailors such as Admiral David G. Farragut of Mobile Bay fame, models of Civil War ships, dioramas, ship's bells, paintings, and other interesting things to see, view, or read.

Obviously the Civil War is only one small part of the Navy's collection. There are displays from nearly every major war (and some minor ones such as Tripoli). The original mast and sniper's nest from the USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides") is a major highlight of the museum's displays.

Here are a few more photos of Civil War-related material from the collection of the U.S. Navy Museum.

Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer, a native of New Rumley in my native Ohio, remains one of the most colorful (and controversial) figures in American military history. Vilified by many for his stunning defeat at Little Bighorn, a fight that became immortal as "Custer's Last Stand," Custer was a lightning rod for adoration as well as hatred. Perhaps more books have been written about him than any other Western Indian fighter, and many also cover his extensive Civil War history where he rose from an obscure lieutenant to a renown major general in just three short years.

Custer's first battle as a brigadier general was here in York County, Pennsylvania, where he led his Michigan Brigade at the Battle of Hanover, where his men first became acquainted with the "boy general" in action. That same day, some of Custer's men traveled through southwestern York County and up into downtown York.

Here is this little known account of some of Custer's Wolverines visiting "Little York." It is adapted from Pennsylvania-born author Eric J. Wittenberg's interesting book Under Custer's Command: The Civil War Journal of James Henry Avery.

Jonathan Stayer, the head of the reference section of the Pennsylvania State Archives, is a long-time follower of the Cannonball blog and and even longer enthusiast for the history of York County. He asked if I would be willing to publish a list of those men in York County who declared themselves conscientious objectors and were exempted from military service during the Civil War.

The decision to make such a declaration was not taken lightly, either by the young men who took that position or by the government. According to Jonathan, "Among the instructions was a directive to secure an oath or affirmation from those seeking exemption for conscientious scruples based upon a provision in the State Constitution. Article VI, Section 2, of the 1838 Constitution, in effect at the time of the Civil War, stated that "those who conscientiously scruple to bear arms shall not be compelled to do so, but shall pay equivalent for service."
In some instances, the depositions show the age and the occupation of the objector...

The largest numbers of depositions were taken in the counties with traditionally large Quaker or Mennonite populations such as Lancaster, Bucks, Chester, Philadelphia and Montgomery-with 667 in Lancaster County alone. Since most of them came from religious backgrounds that prohibited taking oaths as well as performing military service, many of the documents indicate that the person "affirmed" his conscientious scruples.

Pennsylvania's records of Civil War conscientious objectors are unique. So far as is known, Pennsylvania is the only Northern state to have an extant file of depositions of men who refused military service on the basis of their religious convictions."

Although not in the top five counties in terms of numbers, York County had its share of men who were conscientious objectors.

Here is the continuation of the listing.

If anyone is aware of York County soldiers whose names are missing from this listing, please contact me or leave a comment.

Thanks!

Pennsylvania Volunteers of the Civil War is one of my favorite websites. I use it often as a reference site, as it contains a lot of useful information, including the text of Samuel Bates' classic History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, as well as the corresponding card file of the vast majority of Keystoners who served in the Union Army during the war. The webmaster also includes a list of soldiers hailing from York County, Pennsylvania, who served in the officially mustered units, as well as several independent companies. Biographies of several men are included in the website, as well as other pertinent information of value to the local researcher.

Even more impressive is a database at the York County Heritage Trust contributed by author and researcher Dennis Brandt, who compiled every known Civil War soldier from York County. For more information, please see the YCHT webpage.

Headstone of Private Ovid Stahl in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Hanover, Pennsylvania.

Ovid Stahl, a native of York, Pennsylvania, was an eighteen-year-old private in Company I of the 26th Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia, a company that was recruited in southern York County and included volunteers from several townships, as well as from Carroll County, Maryland. After being organized in Hanover and trained briefly near Harrisburg, the emergency regiment served in the Gettysburg Campaign. It was the largest military unit trying to defend Gettysburg the last week of June 1863 against the invading Confederates - the division of Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early.

The schoolboys and sales clerks of the 26th PVM had only been in uniform for three days when they met the veterans of the Army of Northern Virginia on the hills west of Gettysburg along Marsh Creek and then along Goldenville Road near the Henry Witmer farm. The site of the skirmish of Witmer Farm (and the red brick Witmer farmhouse) is still in pristine condition just east of the intersection of Goldenville and Table Rock roads about 3.5 miles northeast of Gettysburg. Many of the boys would be captured on Witmer's rolling farmland, rounded up by the pursuing 17th Virginia Cavalry. In all, 175 militiamen would become prisoners of war out of the 743 men in the new regiment.

A couple of the men and boys from southern York County were with the 26th PVM's commissary guard in downtown Gettysburg while their comrades were routed at Witmer Farm. They ended up back in Hanover before heading to York late on Friday night hours after the debacle at Witmer Farm. They wound up in Wrightsville and helped defend the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge on Sunday, June 28.

Among those men fortunate enough to have escaped being swept up by the Rebel cavalry at Witmer Farm was 18-year-old Ovid Stahl.

This impressive old stone mansion in downtown Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, has a storied history, once serving as a hotel and tavern. During the June 28 - 29, 1863, occupation of the town by a Confederate expeditionary force under Brig. Gen. John B. Gordon, the house was threatened by flaming embers from the conflagration that was engulfing the nearby Columbia-Wrightsville covered bridge. Rebel soldiers from an unidentified regiment labored to pass water uphill from the Susquehanna and Tide Water Canal to help douse the flickering flames on the roof of this house, as well as several others in the immediate hilltop vicinity. They were successful in stopping the spread of the fire that eventually destroyed most of the lower riverfront portions of Wrightsville.

There are several accounts left behind by the Rebels of their efforts to save the private homes of Wrightsville. Some Confederates later grumbled about obeying these orders, preferring instead to have watched the town burn down in retribution for Union atrocities committed at Darien, Georgia (events depicted in the movie Glory). One embittered soldier from the Darien vicinity later commented that if he ever got back to Wrightsville, this time he would personally torch the town.

Author Janet L. Bucklew will be speaking about her new book on Dr. Henry Janes at the York Emporium at 7:00 PM on Friday, September 4.

For the September "First Friday" celebration in downtown York, the York Emporium is hosting a talk/book signing by Janet L. Bucklew, historian and former seasonal ranger at the battlefield in Gettysburg. She has just completed research into primary sources and published a new work on Dr. Henry Janes, a surgeon/volunteer who was at the battle. Her talk is scheduled to take place on Friday, September 4 at 7:00 PM. It is free and open to the public, and light refreshments will be served.

Details and a little more info can be found on the York Emporium's webpage for the event.

The York Emporium is one of the finest used book stores in the region, and is located at 343 W. Market Street (the old Lincoln Highway) in York, Pennsylvania.

This impressive headstone in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Hanover, Pennsylvania, commemorates the brief life of one of York County's many Civil War veterans, Major William Slyder Diller of the 76th Pennsylvania Volunteers, also known as the "Keystone Zouaves". During his three years in the Union Army, Diller saw action in several significant engagements in Virginia, Georgia and South Carolina, including participating in the unsuccessful attacks on Fort Wagner (made famous in modern times through the Denzel Washington / Morgan Freeman movie Glory).

So, who was William Diller?

William Smith (September 6, 1797 - May 18, 1887) was a lawyer, U.S. and Confederate congressman, two-time Governor of Virginia and one of the oldest Confederate generals in the Civil War.

In the early 1831, Smith received a Federal contract from the administration of President Andrew Jackson to develop and oversee mail routes between Washington D.C. and the capital of Georgia, Milledgeville. On his own initiative, he set up numerous side routes, which generated extra income. A subsequent investigation revealed his shenanigans, and he became widely known as "Extra Billy." During the Gettysburg Campaign, he commanded the Virginia brigade led earlier in the war by his divisional commander, Major General Jubal A. Early. He left two of his five regiments back in Winchester, Virginia, to help process and guard thousands of Union prisoners after the Second Battle of Winchester.

General Smith was known for his unorthodox field uniform, which often included a tall beaver hat and a blue cotton umbrella. Personally brave, although requiring close supervision on the battlefield, Smith had a penchant for making loud speeches.One of these orations has become fairly common in Gettysburg Campaign overviews, appearing in several leading secondary sources that are among the best-selling tomes on the battle. An artillery major named Robert Stiles wrote a post-war account of "Extra Billy" Smith making a spectacle in downtown York, Pennsylvania, as Early's division first occupied the town. Stiles, whose battery (Carrington's Courtney Battery) camped in the old York Fairgrounds, was certainly in the column of troops that entered York.

However, was Extra Billy there to make the rambling speech that Stiles claimed he did in his classic 1904 book Four Years Under Marse Robert? So many talented authors, many of them quite well known in Civil War circles, take this somewhat questionable account as fact.

Here is Stiles' rather colorful account of the Virginian's pause in York:

Back in November of 1907, the citizens of Dover, Pennsylvania, commissioned a copper-plated cast iron plaque commemorating the July 1, 1863, raid by Major General J.E.B. Stuart's Confederate cavalry on the town and its environs during the Gettysburg Campaign. That plaque was later moved to the Dover Fire Hall when it was built and is now on one side of a small rectangular brick pillar, along with an old fire bell and a flag pole.

The Stuart marker was one of the earliest memorials to the events surrounding Stuart's Ride unveiled in southern Pennsylvania, and it remembers the suffering of the residents of that day while their small town was occupied by three full brigades of Rebel cavalry, concurrent with the opening of the Battle of Gettysburg some 30 miles to the southwest.

During the June 30, 1863, Battle of Hanover, Pennsylvania, Confederate horse artillery deployed on a low hill just off the Littlestown-Frederick Road southwest of Hanover. The guns were unlimbered, loaded, and aimed at a distant target - mounted Union cavalry along Frederick Street at the outskirts of the town. The lanyard was pulled and the gun discharged, hurling its iron shell toward the horsemen.

It missed its intended target.

Instead of striking the enemy troopers, the shell found a much different target - a house occupied by terrified civilians.

Dr. Charlie Fennell poses by a monument on Culp's Hill at Gettysburg National Military Park. A professor at Harrisburg Area Community College in Gettysburg, Dr. Fennell is one of the recognized experts on that portion of the Battle of Gettysburg. A long-time friend of the York Civil War Round Table, he will present a talk at the upcoming CWRT meeting on the July 1, 1863, fighting on Oak Ridge in Gettysburg and then will lead a battle walk / field study on the same topic in mid-September.

Photo from Gettysburg Daily, the most informative Gettysburg blog currently on the Internet, and a good friend of this Cannonball blog.

One of the most entertaining public speakers and educators in this general area will be the featured speaker at the August 19, 2009, monthly meeting of the York Civil War Round Table in historic York, Pennsylvania. Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide, Dr. Charles C. Fennell, Jr., will present what promises to be a great presentation, "Confederate Disaster on Oak Ridge: The Demise of Brig. Gen. Alfred Iverson's Brigade on July 1, 1863 at Gettysburg."

The topic of the night will focus on Confederate Brig. Gen. Alfred Iverson's North Carolina Brigade, which included the 5th, the 12th, the 20th and the 23rd North Carolina. They were in Maj. Gen. Robert Rodes' division of the Army of Northern Virginia's Second Corps (commanded by Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell).

The presentation is FREE and open to the public! Charlie will unleash his high energy, charismatic style at 7:00 PM on August 19 at the York County Heritage Trust at 250 E. Market Street in downtown York, Pennsylvania. Parking is free; the area is well lit and safe, and the camaraderie and Civil War discussion both educational and fun!

See you there!!

On Monday, June 29, 1863, Col. William H. French's 17th Virginia Cavalry ranged throughout Dover Township and West Manchester Township in west-central York County, Pennsylvania, while foraging for horses, mules, and supplies. One patrol of the "Night Hawk Rangers" canvassed the region around the York Turnpike / Bairs Road / Wolf's Church area (today's commercial strip on U.S. Route 30 immediately west of the intersection with Route 462 Lincoln Highway).

Shown is 39-year-old farmer Henry S. Stambaugh's house, which is still in excellent condition despite being more than 150 years old. The Stambaugh name is still quite common in York County, and several members of the family filed damage claims with the state following the Civil War. Like the other victims of the Rebel raiders, they had to provide sworn testimony as to what was taken from their farms and include eyewitness depositions if available as to the thievery and/or testimony as to the known value of the horses lost. In several cases, neighboring farmers provided affidavits concerning how much the stolen horses would have been worth on the retail market had they been sold.

This historic marker was installed last year as part of the Pennsylvania Civil War Trails program. It commemorates the efforts by Georgia Confederate soldiers under Brig. Gen. John B. Gordon to extinguish a series of fires in downtown Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, caused by flaming embers from the burning Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge. That conflagration occurred on Sunday evening, June 28, 1863, during the Gettysburg Campaign when Union militia set fire to the bridge after crossing it into Lancaster County; their goal was to deny its usage to the Army of Northern Virginia.

As the fire from the massive mile-and-a-quarter long covered bridge spread westward with the prevailing winds from a rainstorm, Wrightsville's citizens and merchants produced buckets, pails, tubs, pitchers, and anything else suitable to carry water up from the Susquehanna River and/or the adjacent Susquehanna and Tide Water Canal. A bucket brigade of Rebel infantrymen helped save individual homes and businesses and helped arrest the fires that were burning out of control in the Westphalia district of Wrightsville and in the industrial section north of Hellam Street.

In this Cannonball blog entry, let's look at just a few of the buildings the Confederates labored to save. Their efforts paid off, as the structures are still intact 146 years after the inferno that destroyed many adjacent or nearby buildings such as the post office, a millinery and store, apartments, houses, a lumberyard, and other factories.

The monument to York County's 87th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers is on Araby Church Road (or the old Georgetown Pike) on the battlefield of Monocacy. Large sections of the battlefield have been preserved by the National Park Service and other entities, although the Pennsylvania memorial is surrounded on three sides by private property.

The entrance to the new (opened in 2007) Visitors Center at Monocacy National Battlefield. This is on the Urbanna Pike just 3 miles south of I-70 near Frederick, Maryland. It's about an hour and a half from York, PA. This past Saturday, my son Tom and grandson Tristan spent the day at Gettysburg and Monocacy on a beautiful day. There is no admission charge to the park or to the museum / visitors center.

Bond certificate issued by the Northern Central Railway in 1917, not too many years after its long-time employee and chief engineer George Small retired from its service. He piloted the last train out of York, Pennsylvania, before elements of Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia occupied and ransomed the town.

With the threat of the Confederate infantry forces marching through south-central Pennsylvania the last week of week, the various railroads in the region began moving their rolling stock and locomotives to safety across the Susquehanna to Harrisburg or Philadelphia. Here in York County, the Northern Central Railway was still in the process of transporting its trains to Lancaster County and on to Philly when Major General Jubal Early's troops entered York County. Some of its rail cars (many of which were built in York) were still down by the Maryland line as Rebel cavalry began threatening the NCR's infrastructure. Railroad officials knew that the Confederates would destroy the bridges and cripple the route, as the Rebs had done to the Cumberland Valley Railroad a few days earlier.

For one York railroad engineer, Walnut Street resident George Small, the arrival of the Rebels coincided with a mad dash he was making to get the last of the NCR's cars to Philadelphia.

Here is his story, as told by the York Dispatch in 1905 (courtesy of the library of the York County Heritage Trust; many thanks to Ray Kinard of the Codorus Valley Historical Society for calling my attention to a transcription donated to the library early in the 20th century).

Downtown Hanover, Pennsylvania, has several Civil War markers and memorials along its main streets and in the traffic square, including a series of battle-related wayside markers erected a few years ago. Perhaps the most impressive (and most well known historically) is this well crafted bronze statue entitled "The Picket." It depicts one of Brig. Gen. H. Judson Kilpatrick's Union troopers who fought at the June 30, 1863, Battle of Hanover in southwestern York County.

For many years, this large equestrian statue was the focal point of the town square, as well as a large fountain (similar to what still graces downtown Chambersburg's very nice traffic circle). At some point, the town fathers decided to abandon the circle and go with a more traditional crossroads intersection, and The Picket and his later companion "Mike" the bronze dog were relegated to a corner where it is out of the way (and out of the mind and vision) of most passersby.

In my research for another unrelated Civil War topic, I stumbled onto a couple of old accounts of the installation of this memorial, as well as two nearby Army of the Potomac plaques.

Here are those snippets from a pair of old books:

Andrew Bentz Smith was a young saddle maker from northwestern York County who answered Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin's call to arms in mid-1861. He traveled to the nearest town, Wellsville, and enlisted on September 19, 1861, at the age of 21 as a corporal in Company H of the 87th Pennsylvania Infantry. In mid-winter 1863, his regiment was stationed in the Winchester, Virginia, region as part of the Eighth Corps division of Maj. Gen. Robert H. Milroy, an Indiana attorney turned soldier.

Milroy's heavy-handedness toward the civilians of the area earned him unmitigated hatred from Winchester's pro-Southern women, including the "devil diarists," whose anti-Union sentiments later became legendary. As spring approached, Smith received his first promotion, being elevated to First Sergeant on March 12.

In mid-June, the Confederate Second Corps crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains and entered the scenic Shenandoah Valley, unbeknown to Milroy's men. The 87th was among the troops garrisoning the town and surrounding regions, and some of the York County boys, including Andrew Smith, were deployed at Bunker Hill, a village not far from WInchester.

On June 13, trouble came for the regiment and for young Andrew...

I have signed a contract with Ten Roads Publishing to reprint Gettysburg Glimpses: True Stories for the Battlefield and make it more widely available than the previous self-published edition through Xlibris, which will be out-of-print and unavailable shortly. Ten Roads, a new company based in Gettysburg, will handle the distribution and sales of the reissued book. I am quite pleased that the co-owners have seen fit to offer to republish my book, as well as the follow up Gettysburg Glimpses 2: More True Stories from the Battlefield. I look forward to working with them over the years on other projects.

This old photograph is courtesy of theunfinishedwork.com, a website for a recent fictional book on the Gettysburg Campaign by Hanover native Frank Meredith. His well crafted novel includes the Battle of Hanover on June 30, 1863, and other York and Adams county venues.

The picture from the Hanover Historical Society shows an old, deteriorating rail car of the long defunct Hanover Branch Railroad, which was operational through the latter half of the 19th century into the early part of the 20th. Tradition suggests this is the exact car that Hanover Branch Railroad president A. W. Eichelberger deployed as the private car for President Abraham Lincoln and his traveling party during their trip to and from Baltimore to Gettysburg for the dedication ceremony of the National Cemetery in mid-November 1863. The director's car was eventually scrapped, according to some local sources.

Lincoln's party included his friend from his Illinois days, Ward Hill Lamon, who was serving as his personal bodyguard and advisor. Also in the party were members of his staff, including his private secretary John G. Nicolay, adviser John Hay, and a bevy of reporters and politicians, including Secretary of War Edwin McM. Stanton and Secretary of State William H. Seward.

This story is excerpted from my manuscript for Gettysburg Glimpses 2: More True Stories from the Battlefield, being published in early 2010 by Ten Roads Publishing (a new company associated with the American History bookstore in Gettysburg).

A group of volunteer ladies from Lancaster County who termed themselves as the "Patriot Daughters" decided to travel to Gettysburg to offer their services as nurses and relief workers. On the way there, they had encountered several difficulties, including finding suitable transportation across the rain-swollen Susquehanna River because the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge had been burned by retreating Union militia on June 28. They waited in line for hours and finally took their seats on a boat that was ferrying people between the two towns.

As they rode between York and Adams counties, one lady noted, "All around was in the height of summer beauty; the birds sang in the clear morning sky, and the stately hills looked down on orchards laden with their crimson fruit. Though late in the season, the harvest was just yielding to the sickle. All here, was beauty, quietness and peace, whilst all beyond was desolation, destruction and war.

Here we listened to the sweet songs of birds whilst within a few miles, the air was laden with shrieks of the wounded and groans of the dying. We were but a few miles from Gettysburg, when we met the first ambulance. In it was a wounded Captain, who had received permission, (as his home was in Lancaster County), to try and reach there if he could; and although severely wounded, and the motion of the ambulance caused him great pain, still he said he was willing to endure it if he could only get home. He had been in the hands of the enemy until they retreated; they had been very kind to him and, in return, he begged us to take good care of one Reb. I promised him that I would, and the promise was kept."

The Lancaster ladies ministered without prejudice to both fallen Yankee and Confederate.

The Patriot Daughters of Lancaster County, Hospital Scenes after the Battle of Gettysburg. (Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Daily Inquirer, 1864).