Yankees: November 2009 Archives

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...