Yankees: June 2008 Archives

Sunday dawned bright and early on June 28. Most townspeople in York went about their daily routines, including dressing nicely for worship, strolling the sidewalks, and visiting friends and relatives. While church was in progress at St. Paul's Lutheran, the vanguard of the Confederate division of Jubal Early marched into York, preceded by the pioneer corps and advance pickets from the 31st Georgia. Rebels hauled down the large flag in the Center Square, as well as a smaller one from a nearby shop. York was now under Confederate control. The lead brigade, the Georgians of John Gordon, moved on to Wrightsville, while Jubal Early ringed York with artillery and established a series of camps.

Maj. Gen. Jubal Early's veteran Confederate division, one of the hardest fighting units in the Army of Northern Virginia, departs from camps near Mummasburg, Gettysburg, and Hunterstown and heads eastward toward the prize they had been ordered by Richard S. Ewell to capture - the prosperous town of York. Early's main column - 3/4 of his artillery, all but one company of the 17th Virginia Cavalry, and the brigades of Ike Avery and Extra Billy Smith trudged from Mummasburg toward Hunterstown, picking up the Louisiana Tigers en route. John Gordon's Georgians left the Wolf farm just east of Gettysburg and marched out the turnpike (today's U.S. 30). It would be a leisurely march for these two columns this day, one that would end at Big Mount and Farmers, respectively.

It was the third column that would create the military excitement on this day - White's Comanches which had terrorized much of northern Maryland and had earned a reputation for lightning raids on Union supply lines. Now, their war whoops would be heard in southwestern York County...

York during the American Civil War era was an attractive, prosperous town, one that almost universally brought compliments from the soldiers that passed through it. For at least one soldier, the charms of the town offered another opportunity that was too good to pass up - the chance to slip away from the Union army and desert.

An 1861 woodcut of the Confederate Stars and Bars fluttering over the Marshall House hotel in Alexandria, Virginia. Two years later, a later version of the Confederate banner floated in the breeze over York, Pennsylvania, the largest town in the North to be occupied by the Rebels during the Civil War.

This Wednesday night, June 25, the York County Heritage Trust and the York Civil War Roundtable will co-host a Civil War panel discussion on the occupation of York during the Gettysburg Campaign. As part of the city-sponsored Patriot Days, this event has been evolving for several months, but has now been finalized. A panel of four speakers will join moderator Jim McClure of the York Daily Record to present a series of brief talks on various aspects of the town, its people and buildings, its defenders, and its uninvited guests from Dixie.

The panel discussion is free of charge, and will be at YCHT's auditorium at 250 E. Market Street in downtown York at 7:00 p.m.. Parking is also free. This presentation deals with a very interesting and controversial subject, one that elicits numerous opinions.

The Battle of Hanover, June 30, 1863, is believed to have been the largest battle ever fought in what is now York County, although it is conceivable there may have been larger quarrels among Native Americans that were not recorded. Hanover was a significant par tof the Gettysburg Campaign, in that the scrap delayed J.E.B. Stuart for nearly a day, and forced him to swing further eastward than originally planned. It is entirely possible that the engagement directly led to Stuart failing ti intersect the troops of Jubal Early as they withdrew from York westward toward Adams County.

Hanover marked a Civil War rarity - open cavalry fighting on a large scale in the streets of a town. The majority of large cavalry fights occured in open areas, where the space and terrain enabled the mass manuevering of large bodies of mounted men. Hanover was a swirling fight that reached the very heart of the town. Here is one incident from the hand-to-hand, close order fighting as recorded by one of the Union participants...

A typical church service hosted by an army chaplain while in the field during the Civil War. Courtesy of the U.S. Army Military History Institute.

The American Civil War marked a significant number of new advancements in military procedures, weaponry, logistics, tactics, and training. One new idea, that at first was highly controversial and met with many skeptics, was the commissioning into the service a large group of military chaplains, many of which were designated for particular regiments or brigades. The idea of combining the profession of preacher with that of military officer was not universally greeted.

Among those men of the cloth quietly toiling to provide spiritual guidance and direction to the Union troops was an unnamed chaplain assigned to the United States Army Hospital just south of downtown York on Penn Commons. At times discouraged by the naysayers, by the spring of 1863, he was seeing positive results from his labors. Little did he know that his work would be temporarily halted by the coming of the Confederate division of Jubal Early in late June...