Civilians: September 2009 Archives

Cincinnati Daily Gazette, August 2, 1877. Courtesy of NewsinHistory.com

Sunday, June 28, 1863, was a bitter day for the residents of York, Pennsylvania. More than 1,000 Confederate soldiers from North Carolina occupied the town, with a couple thousand more in the environs. Virginians encamped along George Street on the Henry King and Thomas Schall farms in what is now North York with some troops stationed farther up the road toward Emigsville. The fabled Louisiana Tigers sat astride the hills and farms along the Codorus Creek near the site of today's Harley Davidson factory. Artillery crowned the hills north and south of town. And, to make matters worse, division commander Major General Jubal A. Early ransomed York for $100,000. Door-to-door solicitation failed to gather the requested cash, and Early began negotiating how York would pay the rest of its debt. A courier from his superior officer interrupted General Early's deliberations with the town fathers.

Years later, the former general was still trying to collect the debt, somewhat tongue-in-cheek perhaps, but tinged with the bitterness of losing the war and failing to collect the full amount of a ransom he believed the civic authorities has fully agreed to pay.

Salt Lake City Tribune, April 23, 1881.

York County Heritage Trust sanctioned Civil War tour guide Scott L. Mingus, Sr. stands in front of the historic Strickler farmhouse off the Lincoln Highway near Wrightsville, Pennsylvania. Confederates under Brig. Gen. John B. Gordon deployed near this farm for their attack on the Union earthworks protecting the crossing over the Susquehanna River about a mile from this spot.

Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide Bobby Housch is a school teacher in Hanover PA when he's not guiding tourists around the sprawling battlefield. A couple of weeks ago, he and I spent a pleasant Sunday afternoon filming a series of a dozen or so short video clips covering the June 28, 1863, Civil War skirmish at Wrightsville, Pennsylvania. The fight was the second largest military encounter in York County during the war, behind the Battle of Hanover.

Part 1 of the multi-part Wrightsville tour series is now on-line for your viewing pleasure at Bobby's very popular blog, Gettysburg Daily. In the weeks to come, he will post the rest of the videos, which include stops at Bair's Mill, the Union skirmish line, the line of the Confederate advance through the picturesque George D. Ebert farm, the riverfront and canal, the "heroine of the Susquehanna" feeds breakfast to the Rebels, and the African-American cemetery in neighboring Columbia.

Viewing these videos and reading my book Flames Beyond Gettysburg: The Gordon Expedition, June 1863 should give you a good grasp of the strategic importance of the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge, deemed so important by the Confederate high command that Robert E. Lee sent one of his finest divisions to go take it by force.

April 2008 political rally in York, Pennsylvania, for Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY). York Daily Record - Jason Plotkin

York, Pennsylvania, received some national publicity for its efforts last year to recover city funds from the failed Hillary Clinton presidential candidacy as reimbursement for police and protective services when she was downtown for a political rally and speech on a public street.

However, this was certainly not the first time that York officials had pursued getting money back for civic expenditures caused by outside visitors to the town.

Back in 1863, another famous nationally known figure paid a visit to York. Not as politically ambitious as Senator Clinton, Confederate Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early brought his own gun-toting entourage with him, a group far larger (and more dangerous) that Clinton's bodyguards and the York police that provided crowd control and security. Whereas Clinton's visit was in peace, Early's was to ransom the town for money and supplies (he collected $28,610 in tribute money collected by door-to-door solicitation). Early theatened to burn down the town's railroad station and associated rail yard structures, as well as nearby privately owned factories that manufactured rail cars and other supplies to the industry.

In March 1865, the city fathers took matters into their own hands in an effort to refill the coffers, sending a delegation down to Baltimore, Maryland, to meet with the Board of Directors for the Northern Central Railway Company. They asked for the exorbitant sum of $40,000 to cover expenses said to have been incurred by the town in protecting railroad property during the Gettysburg Campaign in 1863 (Early was not thwarted by anything the town provided in the way of protective services, but rather by his concern that a railroad fire might spread to the greater part of the town).

York received $2,500 from the Northern Central.

General Early's percentage of getting what he wanted from York was far higher than York's subsequent percentage from the railroad.

Baltimore Sun, March 23, 1865. Courtesy of NewsInHistory.com

August 28, 1862, started out as a quiet day for the citizens of Wrightsville, Pennsylvania. People went to work at the bustling factories along the riverbank or shopped in the stores that lined Hellam Street. People idly gossiped or discussed the news of the day, because the newspapers brimmed with the latest war news from down in distant Virginia, where names such as Jubal Early were becoming prominent. However, in a startling portent of General Early's unforeseeable official visit to Wrightsville less than a year later, dark plumes of smoke filled the might sky and flames reflected off the Susquehanna River. By nightfall, much of the riverfront section along Front Street was engulfed in one of the most significant fires in the town's history.

However, this major event largely remains forgotten today, especially in the wake of the subsequent fire less than a year later on June 28, 1863, when much of the same vicinity was again consumed by a significant conflagration, this one ignited by flaming embers from the burning Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge. In the 1862 fire, the fire fighters were Wrightsville and Columbia volunteers; in 1863, they were the Georgia Volunteers (Confederate infantry, that is).

Philadelphia Public Ledger, September 2, 1862. Image courtesy of NewsInHistory.com.

Many of the same businessmen mentioned in this article would be filing damage claims after the war for the destruction of their property caused by the 1863 bridge inferno. A few never recovered from the double destruction.

The old Clear Spring Mill in Franklin Township in York County, Pennsylvania, was targeted by passing Confederate troops during the Gettysburg Campaign.

July 1, 1863 was a momentous day for northwestern York County, Pennsylvania. More than 600 horses were stolen by the 5,500-man Confederate cavalry division of Major General J.E.B. Stuart as it passed through the region between Dover and Dillsburg (following parts of today's route 74 and several parallel routes). Stuart had left one brigade under Brigadier General Wade Hampton III behind at Dillsburg and had taken two other brigades into Cumberland County, where he attacked the Union defenders of Carlisle. Late in the night, he received orders to march to Gettysburg, where the Army of Northern Virginia was engaged with the Union Army of the Potomac in a great battle. Stuart relayed orders back to Hampton, who roused his veteran troopers and had them on the road southwesterly by 1-2 AM.

Their path first took them through Franklin Township in northwestern York County.

It would not be a good night and early morning for the residents of the region. Hampton's weary men, though exhausted by the grueling, sleepness night march that one cavalryman deemed the worst march of the war, had enough energy to canvass the township and steal every good horse that could be found.

They also paused to raid the village of Clear Spring, Pennsylvania, as they plodded toward Gettysburg...

...where the old mill was among the businesses and farms raided. (Photo from Art and Donna Bert's excellent website for the award-winning restored mill).

Concurrent with the Confederate movement by John McCausland's brigade of cavalry into Franklin County and Chambersburg, fears spread throughout Adams and York counties that the raiders would turn eastward, as had the Rebels in late June of 1863 en route to the Susquehanna River.

Here is an article from the July 16, 1864 issue of the Columbia Spy which illustrates the typical fear that was again gripping the region. For the second time in 12 months, merchants packed up their inventories, residents began taking horses out of Adams and York counties, and refugees clogged the turnpike through York to the river. Now, because the toll bridge that had burn down June 28, 1863, had not yet been rebuilt, a series of small steam-powered ferries carried the fleeing populace into Lancaster County (for a fee, of course).

It was all a false alarm. No Confederates entered York County.

The ferry boat owners were the big winners.

Here's the short article...

The verbiage of this article echoes the fears of 1863. Luckily for the war-weary population, this was the last time that York Countians were in the potential path of Confederate raiders.

1852 image of the old train station in downtown York, Pennsylvania. From fellow York Daily Record blogger Jim McClure's York Town Square blog.

Saturday, June 27, 1863, was one of the most momentous days in the history of York, Pennsylvania. Confederate troops were encamped in several locations in the western part of the county, specifically at Spring Forge, Farmers, and Big Mount. Cavalry raiders had looted Hanover and stolen horses and whiskey from scores of farmers in southwestern York County before sacking the Hanover Junction rail yard. Union militia guarding the vital railroad bridges at York Haven in northeastern York County spotted distant Confederate scouts, a signal that the vital railroad bridges were certain to attract further attention on the morrow.

More enemy troops were just across the northern border in Cumberland County and would arrive in York County on Sunday, concurrent with the eastward sweep through the heart of the county and on to the banks of the Susquehanna River in multiple locations.

All throughout the day, a throng of refugees passed through York en route to Wrightsville and passage across the mile-and-a-quarter long toll bridge to presumed safety in Lancaster County and points farther east.

In downtown York in the late afternoon, the scene at the N.C.R.'s rail station was compelling and, at times, chaotic, as crowds clamored to board what would be the last train out of town before the Rebels came.

One quick-thinking Philadelphia reporter climbed up on a nearby rail car to get a better view as the train steamed into York after making a hasty escape from Hanover Junction, where it had been chased by pistol-firing Rebels.

Here is his long-forgotten account of that chaotic late Saturday afternoon as the troops of Major Granville O. Haller sought to maintain order and decorum.

The old adage was in play: "Women and children first!"

This old hilltop barn sits alongside York Road between Dover and Dillsburg, Pennsylvania. Thousands of cars drive past it every day, with almost none knowing (or caring I presume) about its historical significance.

Back in 1863, more than 1,000 Confederate cavalrymen under Brigadier General Wade Hampton III of South Carolina slowly rode past this massive wooden edifice in the mid-afternoon of Tuesday, July 1, 1863. They were escorting a captured Union wagon train of 125 loaded supply wagons, each pulled by a brace of mules. Another 250 or so extra mules were being herded behind the column (Stuart had cut the mulepower in half to shorten his column's length, although it also cut its speed). Also in the entourage was fabled Confederate cavalry Major General J.E.B. Stuart, who was likely the biggest star in the galaxy of Rebel generals who visited York County that summer.

The barn sat on the farm of Aaron Firestone, who very much rued Stuart's ride past his farm, for a patrol peeled off the column and rode into the farmyard, with mischief on their minds.

A view of the northwestern corner of the main intersection in Dover, Pennsylvania. In the 19th century, the town (and surrounding township) had a significant population of citizens with German heritage, including a Mrs. Forscht, who owned the white house.

The sturdy red brick building was the office of Dr. John Ahl, which was the Confederates' business office during their half-day stay in Dover on July 1, 1863. Here, Brig. Gen. Wade Hampton fired off dispatches via couriers, and later supervised the parole of 230 Yankees, including 21 men captured at the Battle of Hanover. Ahl's house was a beehive of activity, with a long line of Union prisoners lining the pavement awaiting their turn to sign the papers that promised they would not take up arms again until they were properly exchanged. They would be sent down into York, where they would be generously fed by the citizenry.

Dr. Ahl never filed any border claim for any damage to his property or theft, so it would appear that Hampton and his staff kept a tight rein on their men (and on the prisoners who paraded before them).

Who was Dr. John Ahl?

Hanover, Pennsylvania telegraph operator Daniel Trone heard on Saturday June 27, 1863 that Confederate cavalry was in the neighborhood, so he hid his equipment in a loft and left two broken sets on a table in his office as decoys before fleeing. He made it out the back door of his office just as members of the 35th Battalion, Virginia Cavalry (later famed as "White's Comanches") entered the front door.

Trone finally returned home after the Battle of Hanover. Upon visiting his office, he discovered that Rebel cavalrymen had smashed his decoy telegraph equipment, but they did not find the good set in the loft. Trone retrieved his hidden equipment, and for the next two days telegraphed information about the Gettysburg battle in an exclusive arrangement with the New York Tribune and its reporter A. H. Byington. Abraham Lincoln received his first news of the battle from reports that Trone sent to New York through Washington. Much of the news telegraphed to the major northeastern cities concerning the Battle of Gettysburg was done by Trone.