Yankees: July 2008 Archives

As I write this, I am sitting in a hotel in southern Ohio on a temporary business assignment. This area, Ross County, is rife with Native American lore and legend, and the town, Chillicothe, was once a bustling chief town of the Shawnee Nation. Legendary war chief Tecumseh is a popular figure in these parts, and there is a well attended outdoor drama remembering his exploits and life.

In some respects, this area during the Civil War was similar to York County. Both counties provided significant numbers of troops for the Union Army; both were comprised primarily of people of Germanic and Scotch-Irish heritage. Farming was still king, and the county seats were beginning to develop a strong industrial base. There were still vestiges of Native American culture and people scattered in the rural areas, and some of these men also joined the army to fight under Old Glory.

A few years ago, York County author and blogger Jim McClure and I briefly discussed a fellow by the name of John A. Wilson, who is thought to be the last black Civil War veteran from York County to have been laid to rest. I started digging into this man, researching what Jim had found and searching for a little more information. Not only was "Quil" Wilson the last surviving black ACW veteran, he was among the youngest men to take up arms against the Confederates during the Gettysburg Campaign, when he served as an unpaid volunteer manning the trenches defending Wrightsville against the Confederate brigade of Brig. Gen. John B. Gordon. There are no specific records of Wilson's individual service at Wrightsville, but his small company was noted by the Lancaster Examiner and Herald as having "fought bravely."

25mm wargaming figures from the collection of a wargaming friend from Erie, Pennsylvania.

Background post: An unexpected visit to York

One of the most colorful Civil War regiments from the Keystone State was the 155th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, a unit known for its late war colorful "zouave" uniform (loosely modeled after similar uniforms worn in the French Army). These men and boys from Pittsburgh saw their first combat at the Battle of Antietam, and a few of their casualties were transported to the U.S. Army Military Hospital in York for treatment of their injuries. As mentioned in the background post, teenaged private Franklin Gilmore of the 155th was an emergency patient at that hospital in 1864.

Several descendants of Michigan Brigade soldiers and other interested persons donated money to acquire a small piece of land at Hunterstown and erect one of the country's newest Civil War monuments. This marble slab and bronze relief is dedicated to Brig. Gen. George Armstrong Custer, who led the Michigan Brigade (the "Michigan Wolverines") into action at Hunterstown against the troops of Wade Hampton III of the Confederate cavalry during the Gettysburg Campaign.

Veteran National Park Service Ranger and author Troy Harman speaks to an enthusiastic crowd during his outstanding battlewalk of the seldom visited, seldom discussed fight on Brinkerhoff's Ridge along Hanover Road (Route 116) between the main Gettysburg Battlefield and East Cavalry Field.

Huge crowds attended today's first two battlewalks on this the 145th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. National Park Service Ranger Eric Campbell leads a two-hour walking tour of Cemetery Ridge examining the actions and movements of Union Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock during the second day of the battle.