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Recruiting poster for the 130th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, which was raised in York County in the southern tier of the Commonwealth bordering the Mason-Dixon line. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, which has this original broadside poster. One wonders if the paper used by the printer came from Spring Forge paper mill now owned by Glatfeler, or one of the small paper mills along the Codorus Creek in the town of York?

Following the prolonged casualties suffered by the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsula Campaign and with manpower reduced in many other Union armies, the War Department needed more troops. In response to this call to arms, recruiting began in earnest across the North and some states and communities offered bounties and bonuses to attract volunteers for the war effort.

In York County, these enticements totaled a whopping $115, a significant amount of cash that for many laborers and clerks amounted to three or four months pay. Levi Maish, a 24-year-old school teacher in Manchester Township and York, was among the leading citizens actively involved in the recruiting efforts, forming a company that he would be commissioned to lead as its captain. Born in Conewago Township, Maish would steadily rise in rank and be promoted to colonel in early winter. Surviving the war, he became a prominent Democratic lawyer and four-term U.S. Congressman. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

The Lancaster Civil War Round Table will welcome Dick Simpson as their speaker on Thursday, November 12, 2009. A native of Vermont, Dick will be speaking about the 2nd Vermont Regiment at Gettysburg. He will, in period costume, be taking the role of his great-grandfather, Aaron Willey, who at the age of 74 in 1913, will tell of his travels with the 15th Regiment, 2nd Vermont Brigade, on the road to Gettysburg.

Simpson is a frequent Civil War speaker and lecturer, and is also a living historian portraying Vermont's war-time governor, Frederick Holbrook. He is also active in raising funds for various battlefield preservation efforts. He is retired from a position as Vice President of Graphic Design for InterContinental Hotels.

The Lancaster Civil War Round Table will meet at the Lititz Public Library located at 651 Kissel Hill Road at 7:00pm. These programs are free and open to the public. For more information, call Micky at 392-4976.

lancastercivilwarroundtable@gmail.com
www.community.lancasteronline.com/lancastercwrt/

During the week before the Battle of Gettysburg, the attention of the Union Department of the Susquehanna's commander, Major General Darius N. Couch, was on protecting vital railroad bridges and other transport and communications routes in south-central Pennsylvania between Harrisburg and the Mason-Dixon Line. Among his particular areas of interest were the bridges on the Northern Central Railway in York County.

Couch dispatched the newly raised 20th Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia under Colonel William B. Thomas to protect the NCR. Thomas, one of the earliest backers of the Republican Party in Pennsylvania, was a political ally of President Lincoln and through patronage had received the coveted and influential post or Port Collector of Philadelphia, in charge of the Customs House and the tax revenue collection. He raised a regiment of nearly 1,000 emergency militiamen in mid-June 1863 and obtained arms and uniforms from the state at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg before entraining for York County.

Colonel Thomas made his headquarters in a hotel in downtown York and scattered his men in an 18-mile line on several farms from York Haven in northern York County down past Seitzville well to the south. Their positions can be determined from a study of York County Border Claims in Harrisburg and from the records of known troop movements.

Several companies were assigned to patrol the railroads south of York, including protecting bridges near Reynolds Mill, Hanover Junction, and Glen Rock, as well as the Howard Tunnel. Lt. Colonel William H. Sickles set up a campsite on the sprawling Jacob Bowman farm along today's state route 616 south of Hanover Junction at a place later known as Larue.

Here are some photos of the general area, as well as a description of the damage claim of farmer Bowman...

My cousin's daughter sent me this cool old family portrait taken in the decade or so after the Civil War. This is the Barnhill clan, and the seated woman is my great-great-grandmother, Eliza Jane (Keegan) Barnhill. My great-grandmother Susan Barnhill Brown is in the second row. I had never seen this photograph before, and I am thrilled to see this connection with my family's rich Civil War heritage.

My great-great uncle Aaron Barnhill is on the right wearing a GAR medal. He was a "hundred days" man, serving in Company C of the 141st Ohio in the summer of 1864 when President Lincoln called for volunteers for three months to guard bridges, railroad lines, supply depots, etc. to free up the veteran troops for the all out push that summer (Grant in the Overland Campaign / Siege of Petersburg and Sherman in the Atlanta Campaign).

I had many ancestors in the Civil War on both side of my family. Among Dad's ancestors were Aaron Barnhill shown above, as well as Dad's great uncles the Chambers boys from the 7th West Virginia who fought at Antietam and Gettysburg. My mother's grandfather John D. Sisson was in the 51st Ohio and fought at the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House).

If you have photos of your Civil War ancestors (particularly if they are in uniform or wearing GAR medals or similar post-war shots), please send me an electronic copy and I will include them in future blog posts in this new "Our Civil War Heritage" series.

Mt. Olivet Cemetery sprawls on a hilltop southeast of Hanover, Pennsylvania in extreme southern York County. During the Civil War, it was of course much smaller than today, and the heights became a platform for Confederate horse artillery during the June 30, 1863 Battle of Hanover. Following the war, the graveyard became the final resting place for many of the Civil War veterans of the Hanover region, and a stroll through the cemetery grounds yields dozens of headstones for these veterans.

Among those men buried in Mr. Olivet is Samuel Fitz, whose story can be pieced together from studying the rosters of Pennsylvania Civil War soldiers. The typical image of a Civil War soldier conjures up images of heroic charges across farm fields while bullets whistle past and shells explode overhead. For many soldiers, this indeed was the case. For tens of thousands of others, including Hanover's Sam Fitz, their military service was much more mundane and tedious.

Franklin Repository, Mar 9, 1864.

Isaac Fishel was born in Dillsburg in northwestern York County, Pennsylvania. A Lutheran in his religious convictions, he married Leah "Muzzie" Wolf and they eventually raised a family of nine children on his prosperous farm in Carroll Township.

At the age of 28, the general laborer was drafted into Company H of the 166th Pennsylvania Infantry on October 25, 1862, and was formally mustered into service on November 16. Family lore says he deserted from the army and "hid in the mountains" to avoid military service.

He was in the Dillsburg area when J.E.B. Stuart's column came through the region on July 1, 1863, during the Gettysburg Campaign. Unlike many other York Countians who were forced at gunpoint to serve as guides for Stuart's movments, Fishel volunteered his services to Brig. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee's column and helped pilot it to its destination.

Fishel was arrested, tried, and convicted. He was sentenced to be executed, but President Lincoln intervened and pardoned him. He was formally discharged in March 1864 on a surgeon's certificate of disability.

The York Civil War Round Table will feature James A. Hessler at its monthly meeting on October 21, 2009. The topic of the evening will be "Sickles At Gettysburg: The Controversial Civil War General Who Committed Murder, Abandoned Little Round Top, and Declared Himself the Hero of Gettysburg."

No individual who fought at Gettysburg was more controversial, both personally and professionally, than Major General Daniel E. Sickles. By 1863, Sickles was notorious as a disgraced former Congressman who murdered his wife's lover on the streets of Washington and used America's first temporary insanity defense to escape justice. With his political career in ruins, Sickles used his connections with President Lincoln to obtain a prominent command in the Army of the Potomac's Third Corps despite having no military experience. At Gettysburg, he disobeyed orders in one of the most controversial decisions in military history.

Licensed Battlefield Guide James Hessler has written the first balanced, deeply researched, and eminently readable biography of this colorful and wholly unique American icon. Civil War enthusiasts who want to understand General Sickles' tarnished life, Gettysburg's battlefield strategies, the in-fighting within the Army of the Potomac, and the development of today's National Park will find " Sickles at Gettysburg" a must read.

James A. Hessler works in financial services for Bill Me Later, Inc., is a Licensed Battlefield Guide at Gettysburg National Military Park, and has taught Sickles and Gettysburg-related courses at college level. He has published Civil War-related articles, and speaks regularly at Civil War Round Tables. A native of Buffalo, NY, Jim resides in Gettysburg with his wife and children.

The meeting will be held at 7:00 PM on Wednesday evening in the auditorium of the York County Heritage Trust at 250 E. Market Street in downtown York, Pennsylvania. There is no charge for admission and the public is welcome ! Parking is also free.

Historian Roger S. Durham will speak on Sherman's capture of Savannah, Georgia, at the Friday, October 23, meeting of the Harrisburg Civil War Round Table. Entitled "A Great Lion at By: William T. Sherman Storms Fort McAllister," the talk focuses on the final phase of the general's legendary and controversial "March to the Sea" in late 1864. The program will include a "then-and-now" examination of twenty-four historic photographs taken of Sherman's army shortly after the fort's capture.

Mr. Durham is the former director of the Army Heritage Museum in Carlisle. He is the author of six books, including two on Fort McAllister. His latest effort is entitled Carlisle Barracks: A Pictorial History. A Viet Nam veteran, he earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin and his master's degree from Georgia Southern University

The Harrisburg Civil War Round Table meets at the Radisson Penn Harris Hotel & Convention Center, Camp Hill, PA, Camp Hill Bypass @ Routes 11&15. An informal reception starts at 6:00 PM, followed by dinner at 6:30. The cost of dinner is $20.00 and reservations must be made by no later than Tuesday, October 20, by calling 717-938-3706. The program begins at 8:00 PM and is free to the public.

Contact Douglas Gibboney, Publicity Chairperson, for further information @ 717-243-1738.

Heritage Day will be celebrated October 18th at St. John's Franklin Lutheran Church for the community and the three churches comprising Faith United Lutheran Parish near Dillsburg, Pennsylvania. The public is welcome to this celebration.

Among those groups participating in the historic traditional worship service at 10:30 AM will be members of the 11th Pa. Volunteer Fife and Drum Corps from Gettysburg, members of the 42nd Pa. "Bucktails," and others visiting in the Dillsburg area this weekend. In tribute to early members who continued their native language service into the latter 19th century, a portion of the readings will be in German. About 11:30 attendees will gather at the gravesite of some Civil War soldiers for a short memorial service.

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.