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.

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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.

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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...

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Robert E. Lee,
General Orders, No. 73

Headquarters, Army of Northern Virginia
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania
June 27, 1863

The commanding general has observed with marked satisfaction the conduct of the troops on the march, and confidently anticipates results commensurate with the high spirit they have manifested.

No troops could have displayed greater fortitude or better performed the arduous marches of the past ten days.

Their conduct in other respects has with few exceptions been in keeping with their character as soldiers, and entitles them to approbation and praise.

There have however been instances of forgetfulness on the part of some, that they have in keeping the yet unsullied reputation of the army, and that the duties expected of us by civilization and Christianity are not less obligatory in the country of the enemy than in our own.

The commanding general considers that no greater disgrace could befall the army, and through it our whole people, than the perpetration of the barbarous outrages upon the unarmed, and defenceless [sic] and the wanton destruction of private property that have marked the course of the enemy in our own country.

Such proceedings not only degrade the perpetrators and all connected with them, but are subversive of the discipline and efficiency of the army, and destructive of the ends of our present movement.

It must be remembered that we make war only upon armed men, and that we cannot take vengeance for the wrongs our people have suffered without lowering ourselves in the eyes of all whose abhorrence has been excited by the atrocities of our enemies, and offending against Him to whom vengeance belongeth, without whose favor and support our efforts must all prove in vain.

The commanding general therefore earnestly exhorts the troops to abstain with most scrupulous care from unnecessary or wanton injury to private property, and he enjoins upon all officers to arrest and bring to summary punishment all who shall in any way offend against the orders on this subject.

R. E. Lee
General

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SOURCE: Clifford Dowdey, editor, The Wartime Papers of R. E. Lee (New York: Bramhall House, 1961), pages 533-534.

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Last night at York's Patriot Days celebration panel discussion at the York County Heritage Trust, four authors with York ties along with author and newspapermen Jim McClure briefly discussed whether York should have surrendered to Maj. Gen. Jubal Anderson Early of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. There was no military reason to defend York, and the army did what it felt was prudent tactically to withdraw to the Susquehanna River, which they had been ordered to defend. The key issue was the controversial decision of York's leaders to seek out the Rebels and negotiate for the safety of the town, as act some Yorkers of that day felt was treasonous, while others strongly believed it saved the town from destruction.

One important point brought up by the panelists was that Jubal Early would likely have been court-martialled had he wantonly torched a Northern town against Robert E. Lee's orders. Targets of military value such as warehouses, railroads, bridges, telegraphs, etc. were allowable, but private property was not to be touched. Lee has issued very stern (for him) orders regarding his men's behavior, and it is incomprehensible to me that a major general, one of Lee's personal acquaintances and most trusted fighters, would have taken such a daring risk. True, Early had burned Congressman Thaddeus Stevens' Caledonia Iron Works, but Early had rationalized that this was fair game in retaliation for Stevens' open encouragment of the destruction of property in the South.

Here is the text of Lee's General Orders #72, which governed the behavior of his troops while in Pennsylvania. Read them, and you decide if Jubal Early would have been in trouble had he burned down York...

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I used to work for a couple of decades for office products and self-adhesive labelstock giant Avery Dennison when I lived in the greater Cleveland area. One of their largest factories was in Fort Wayne, Indiana, a town I frequented on many business trips to run trials there or to meet with paper suppliers. Fort Wayne is also the home of the Lincoln Life Insurance Company, which for many years has managed an excellent museum on the life of the 16th President, Abraham Lincoln.

Recently, the insurance company announced plans to close the Lincoln Museum on June 30 and they are trying to give away the collection. It's a great little museum and an outstanding collection of documents and artifacts, and, to me, it's the passing of an era for Fort Wayne. The curators are trying to find a suitable institution or group that will exhibit the collection in a larger and better venue, hopefully in time for the Lincoln celebrations that are coming up in a couple of years.

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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.

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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.

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Among the many damage claims filed after the Civil War by York Countians are depositions regarding thievery of the Confederate soldiers. York resident William Ross reported that, on July 1, 1863, a squad of Rebel cavalry rode up to his farm, escorting a train of empty supply wagons. When the "Johnnies" departed, the wagons were now filled with 75 bushels of corn and other items taken from Ross's farm.

Dover resident Mary Roth had been visited a day earlier by William A. French's 17th Virginia Cavalry, which served under Major General Jubal A. Early. Confederate troopers confiscated 40 pairs of horseshoes and 50 pounds of horseshoe nails, as well as stealing 9 bushels of coal.

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For you Cannonball readers that may not be aware, there are some excellent on-line resources available from The Guilder Lehrman Institute of American History. The organization is sponsoring a temporary exhibit at the new Gettysburg Visitors Center at Gettysburg National Military Park, displaying several dozen "Letters from the War" in their gallery. Many are poignant and illuminating, shedding some light on the lifestyles of the average Civil War soldier.

Complete text of those letters can be found on-line at their website, which also features complete transcripts of many other epistles. Website visitors may listen to several audio versions of selected stories and other documents from the Battle of Gettysburg and other ACW events and campaigns. Also, they make available webcasts and podcasts from a number of leading contemporary ACW historians, professors, and lecturers.

The site is interesting and well worth bookmarking for future repeated visits.

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