Lincoln: January 2009 Archives

My battlefield tramping partner admires the bust of President Abraham Lincoln in the memorial garden at Hanover Junction, Pennsylvania. This monument will be formally dedicated on February 12, 2009.

Linda from the Hanover Junction preservation group (and the Red Lion historical association) mentioned to me during the recent York CWRT meeting that the Lincoln monument at Hanover Junction will be dedicated at 1:30 PM on February 12, which marks the 200th anniversary of the birth in rural Kentucky of Honest Abe. The Hanover Junction museum / old train depot will be open from 1:00 PM until 7:00 PM for visitation and refreshments. A birthday cake will be served after the dedication. Lincoln changed trains at Hanover Junction before and after his dedication remarks at the Gettysburg National Cemetery - remarks that became immortal as the Gettysburg Address.

The event is free and open to the public.

See you there?

The final section of the Hanover Branch Railroad roughly paralleled Green Valley Road to its intersection with Junction Road, and turned easterly at that point to follow Junction Road into Hanover Junction. On June 27, 1863, Elijah White's Confederate cavalry rode toward the junction using this road and tracks.

Reader Bob Resig submitted this photo of the old trace of the Hanover Branch Railroad along Junction Road.

After leaving Jefferson Station in southern York County, Pennsylvania, the Hanover Branch Railroad's tracks headed northeasterly toward the Cold Spring Station. Very little remains of the roadbed in this stretch, because it has been heavily farmed over the past 145 years since Abraham Lincoln's train departed Jefferson Station for Hanover Junction and his return train to Baltimore and then Washington, D.C. However, there are a few vestiges remaining, including the piers of bridges burned on June 27, 1863, by Lt. Col. Elijah V. White's 35th Battalion, Virginia Cavalry during its mission to wreck the HBRR and the Hanover Junction rail yard.

Cannonball reader Bob Resig sent in a series of photographs tracing Elijah V. White's route from what later became Valley Junction in southern York County, Pennsylvania, to Hanover Junction. This historic trace was once the Hanover Branch Railroad's right of way, and President Abraham Lincoln rode through here twice before and after his Gettysburg Address.

Bob's photo shows the old roadbed as it bends through the Civil War-era Miller farm. Some of White's Comanches may have followed the tracks northeasterly to a nearby bridge, while others took what is today's Park Road south down to Sinsheim road before turning toward Jefferson.

Let's retrace the historic route of the HBRR, nestled in scenery little changed from when Honest Abe rode these rails. I have intermixed Bob Resig's photos with some aerial photos from Yahoo.com, as these satellite photographs still show much of the original trace of the Hanover Branch Railroad.

All aboard!

October 15, 1863 public notice by Gettysburg attorney David Wills seeking proposals for the removal of the dead on the Gettysburg Battlefield.

"After the battle, Gettysburg became a vast hospital and morgue: dead and wounded soldiers outnumbered civilians eleven to one," - so begins the Battle's Aftermath exhibit at the David Wills House, opening February 12, 2009, in downtown Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, as part of Gettysburg National Military Park.

Here is the text of today's press release: