Lincoln: June 2009 Archives

Dawn Roser of the Codorus Valley Area Historical Society unveils the newest Pennsylvania state historical marker, this one in the historic center square of Jefferson in southern York County. The CVAHS and the borough of Jefferson's combined efforts led to the installation of this marker, which commemorates the three separate times within a week in the early summer of 1863 that the town and the surrounding region were victimized by passing combatants during the Civil War.

The color guard of the 16th Pennsylvania Infantry reenactment group was among the participants in the hour-long ceremony, which occurred on the 146th anniversary of the first Confederate raid on Jefferson. On June 27, 1863, 250 troopers from Maryland and Virginia that comprised the 35th Battalion, Virginia Cavalry rode into the square. Commanded by Lt. Col. Elijah V. White (whose descendant attended the ceremony and spent some time talking with me about her ancestors in that battalion), the Confederates raided the region for horses. One trooper spotted a little girl along the square and handed her a brooch he had stolen from a Hanover jeweler that the Rebels had chased into the countryside before robbing him.

Photo of a page of resolutions passed in September 1863 condemning President Lincoln and his war policies. These were a result of a convention of leading peace Democrats and Copperheads in downtown York, Pennsylvania.

1863 was perhaps the most momentous year of York's history, at least from a military perspective. More than 10,000 Confederate soldiers marched or rode through the county shortly before the Battle of Gettysburg, inflaming the passions of both the pro-Union and pro-Confederate (or Copperhead) elements of the county. York resident Cassandra Morris Small, part of a large prosperous family of merchants and millers, had a few observations on the local Copperheads in a letter she wrote in July.

"Our next neighbor has proved himself a Secessionist! We all liked him and his family so much before. We couldn't believe it -- but then he proved himself one. He entertained the officers all the time. His sister (Mary Campbell's friend) waved her handkerchief to them, until our clergyman rushed to her and stopped her, saying, "If you have no respect for yourself, have some for the people you live among." Now we have nothing to do with them; but only think that after his numerous entertainments, an officer deliberately walked through his office and through the yard to the stable and took his horse. Oh, we have many such persons, but nobody speaks to them... though real Southerners are more bearable than these traitors."

Barely three months after the Confederate invasion of York Country, the Copperhead element of York hosted a convention in the town. Among the resolutions was a letter drafted by the attendees and delivered to President Abraham Lincoln. The secretary of the convention would officially ratify the resolutions in February of the following year.