Yankees: February 2009 Archives

G. O. Haller, courtesy of USAMHI.

My friend J. David Petruzzi of Ironclad Publishing passed along a newspaper article from the Gettysburg Star & Sentinel of July 29, 1883. Written by an Adams County, Pennsylvania, man named Daniel D. Gitt, it adds some color and depth to my new book's study of the operations of militia cavalry in the week before the Battle of Gettysburg.

York native Granville O. Haller was a Regular Army veteran, serving as a major in the 7th U.S. Infantry during the Civil War. A pre-war Indian fighter in the Washington Territory, Haller received an assignment to organize the defenses of Adams and York counties during the Confederate invasion of 1863. He called out the local militia and asked for volunteers to join emergency companies. Obtaining Springfield rifles from the state arsenal, he armed the civilians and ordered them to blockade various mountain passes. In York, this effort met with little response, and the vital passes on South Mountain near Dillsburg were never blockaded. However, in Adams County, he had a little more success.

Colonel Jacob G. Frick was one of the most prominent citizens of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, in Schuylkill County, the heart of the coal-mining region. He was a Medal of Honor winner for gallantry in action during the American Civil War, a wealthy businessman, and a civic-minded family man. Frick spent several days here in York County, Pennsylvania, during the 1863 Gettysburg Campaign, and his actions in leading the defense of the mile-long covered bridge over the Susquehanna River at Wrightsville significantly influenced the course of the campaign and thwarted the Confederate crossing of the river into Lancaster County.

Often overlooked by historians, Colonel Frick also played important roles in the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, for which he was later awarded the Medal of Honor.

Who was this man?

Announcing the publication of my latest Civil War book - Gettysburg Glimpses: True Stories from the Battlefield. This new volume contains more than 200 fresh anecdotes, incidents, and human interest stories from the Gettysburg Campaign, including several that relate to York County. The vast majority of these stories have not been in print since the late 19th century.

Read four pages of the book for free at the publisher's website. If you are interested in obtaining a copy after reading these sample stories, you may either order one via the Xlibris website, or send me an e-mail for a personalized autographed copy, which will be shipped in 2 weeks.

This is a companion to my earlier two-volume set Human Interest Stories from the Gettysburg Campaign.

Here is a press released I received from the president of our neighboring group, the Gettysburg Civil War Round Table...

"The oldest professional guide service in America proudly announces its annual autumn seminar. This year we will be presenting the stories of several hard fighting but often-neglected Gettysburg brigades. The weekend includes special in-depth walking tours with experienced battlefield guides, Friday night reception, two breakfasts and two lunches, Saturday night banquet, maps and materials, and more."

Among the guides scheduled to present at this very interesting program is an old friend of the York CWRT - Dr. Charlie Fennell, who, like my oldest son, is an adjunct history professor at a branch campus of Harrisburg Community College.

Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The following text is taken from the governmental website and offers a glimpse into the history of this section of the cemetery.

The local Reformed Church of York, Pennsylvania, chartered Prospect Hill Cemetery in 1849. The first burial in the cemetery took place two years later. Soon after, burials in other local cemeteries began to be re-interred in Prospect Hill, including the remains of Phillip Livingston, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Many prominent local citizens have come to rest in Prospect Hill, and today there are more than 90,000 interments in the 327-acre cemetery.

Prospect Hill Soldiers' Lot is located in section A, lot 689, of the parent cemetery. The exact date of the establishment of the soldiers' lot is unknown, but records indicate that the first burials occurred as early as 1862, and were most likely soldiers who died at the local hospital. Originally located on the west slope of Prospect Hill, the soldiers' lot was later moved to a more favorable location on the eastern slope. There are 161 known and two unknown graves in the soldiers' lot, all without headstones. Alternatively, the names are inscribed on two continuous circular curbs enclosing a central soldiers' monument, with breaks only for the path.

In the years following the Civil War, the citizens of York commissioned sculptor Martin Milmore to create a monument for the soldiers' lot. A local firm, Brashears & Son, provided the stone base. Erected in 1874, the 15-foot bronze figure of a soldier honors Union troops who died in the York area. The sculpture stands atop a square granite base surrounded by four cannons.

For more thoughts (and some excellent photos from November 2008) on the historic Prospect Hill Cemetery, please see Antietam park ranger John Hoptak's blog entry on the 48th Pennsylvania.

This impressive statue stands in the midst of a special circular section of the Prospect Hill Cemetery on North George Street near York, Pennsylvania. Scores of Union soldiers who died at the U.S. Army Military Hospital in downtown York are buried in concentric circles around the statue, and their names are carved into curved flat marble stones. Most are from Pennsylvania or New York regiments, and a fair number of those interred were mortally wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg.

During the Civil War, more than 14,000 wounded or ill men were treated at the military hospital, making it among the largest in Pennsylvania. Many of those who expired at the hospital (or at the train station while awaiting transport to the hospital as in the case of three men critically wounding at Gettysburg) were sent home to their families, but in several cases, either no word came from the family as to the body's disposition, or they could not afford to have their loved one sent home. Hence, the dead ended up in York's main cemetery at the time.