Gettysburg Campaign: February 2009 Archives

Cassandra Morris Small was a 34-year-old single woman living with her parents, wealthy industrialist Philip A. Small and his wife, in a house on E. Market Street across from the Yorktowne Hotel. She wrote at lest three letters to a cousin that provide some of the most compelling insight into Yorker's emotions during Major General Jubal A. Early's occupation of the town during late June 1863.

I offer her first letter on this Cannonball blog; to read the other two, please visit historian and journalist Jim McClure's excellent web pages on local history found on the York Daily Record's website.

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.

The old Weigle grist mill is shown in this February 2009 photograph by SLM. During the 1863 Gettysburg Campaign, Confederates raided the region numerous times, taking horses from the miller and nearby farmers. In the early 21st century, this old mill housed a very nice country gifts and antiques shop, and I visited the place several times. A tattoo parlor now occupies the structure.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Weigle family was prominent in Dover Township and what later became West Manchester Township. Martin Weigle emigrated from Germany in the 1730s and built a small stone grist mill about 1739 along the Little Conewago Creek on the road from York to Dover (today's Route 74). When local Indians came to investigate, he gave them home-made whiskey and they then helped dig the millrace.

For years, his family maintained ownership of the mill. After the American Revolution, the family member who operated the mill was not very patriotic toward the new government and was censured several times for questionable remarks. In the next few decades, a 2.5-story larger mill (the one pictured) was constructed several hundred yards from the old stone mill.

By 1863, another revolution in America was in full swing, and Rebels swarmed over the Weiglestown, Dover, and Shiloh region, taking horses and mules.

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.

Dale Gallon is among my favorite Civil War artists. One of the most prolific of the modern generation of ACW artists, Gallon maintains an impressive gallery and retail store in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on Steinwehr Avenue. Limited edition art prints of the painting shown above may be purchased there either framed or unframed. Gallon's visually interesting work shows newly appointed Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer in his first battle action after being promoted from captain. His Wolverines of Company E, 6th Michigan Cavalry are armed with 7-shot Spencer Repeating Rifles and are deployed as skirmishers in a lush field near Hanover, in southwestern York County, Pennsylvania. The action depicted is from the afternoon fighting at the June 30, 1863, Battle of Hanover.

Gallon is not the only famous painter to depict York County Civil War subjects.

The Meisenhelter / Meisenhelder family was one of the more prominent families in Dover and Conewago townships during the 19th century. The private family cemetery is dotted with the names of men and women who played a key role in the agricultural economy of the region during the Civil War years. Descendants still live in the area, and many of the old farmsteads still exist, including two on Bull Road that I will discuss briefly in today's Cannonball blog entry.

These folks were prime targets of Confederate raiding parties, as Bull Road was (and is) a quick route for people to get from northern York County to York without using Carlisle Road (State Route 74). Four members of the large family are known to have lost horses to the Southern foragers.

On the evening of June 30, 1863, Confederate Major General James Ewell Brown Stuart was leading his weary column of more than 4,000 cavalrymen northeasterly away from the site of the Battle of Hanover. His destination? The prosperous town of York, where he expected to link up with the infantry of the Army of Northern Virginia following his daring ride around the Union Army of the Potomac.

History records that he and his staff paused at John E. Zeigler's place to convene a conference of his leading officers, and decided to head toward New Salem (and eventually, Dover, where he still hoped to locate the trail of Early's movements).

But exactly which Zeigler property did Jeb Stuart use for his temporary headquarters? There were a couple of possible sites.

On June 28, 1863, nearly 3,500 Confederate soldiers of three brigades of Major General Jubal A. Early's division marched past this sturdy brick farmhouse on Davidsburg Road in Dover Township. Discipline was tight in the ranks, and no one broke ranks to raid the farmhouses along the way. Early's Division followed Davidsburg Road to Carlisle Road (today's Route 74) at Weigelstown and then headed on country roads eastward to George Street (then the Harrisburg Pike).

There is no record if the owner of the farmhouse, John F. Bowersox, was home as Early's road-weary column tramped past his home.

For Mr. Bowersox, his troubles were only beginning...

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.

This house along South Salem Church Road in Dover Township, York County, Pennsylvania, was once a three-story grist mill owned by wealthy miller George B. Emig. The historic mill closed in the 20th century and was heavily renovated to be used as private housing, with the top two floors and roof removed and a new roof put in place. The old mill equipment is long gone, although traces of the mill creek and race may still be seen along the Little Conewago Creek.

Emig's Mill was visited on multiple times during the Gettysburg Campaign by Confederate cavalrymen. Here are at three of those stories...

This old red brick Manchester Township farmhouse was owned by Dr. Adam Eisenhart during the American Civil War. Located on Stillmeadow Lane near Susquehanna Trail, it is now the property of Stillmeadow Church of the Nazarene (where Debi and I attend). Known as the Sprenkle House for a post-Civil War owner, the old Eisenhart house has been heavily modified and now serves as the church's office complex as well as the home to New Beginnings counseling services.

Eisenhart lost an 8-yr-old dark sorrel mare that he estimated to have been fifteen hands high. It was taken from his stable in his barn. The horse was taken on Monday, June 29, by Col. William H. French's 17th Virginia Cavalry. Eisenhart filed a claim with the government to recover his $200 loss.

The Knights of the Golden Circle was a secret organization during the Civil War years that was sympathetic to the Confederate cause. Members were supposedly involved in plots to invade Mexico for the South, as well as to incite unrest in the North. They were strongest above the Mason-Dixon Line in southern Ohio and Indiana, where the Copperhead movement had gained significant traction.

There were no known actual cells within York County, Pennsylvania, during the Civil War, but did not stop some enterprising shysters from New York from exploiting their name during the Gettysburg Campaign.

As I continue my series on old grist mills raided by the Confederate cavalry and infantry during the Gettysburg Campaign, today I turn my attention to William Dubs' grist mill, which sat along Codorus Creek which was dammed up by Glatfelter to create Lake Marburg (the Marburg designation came from a small hamlet that is now underwater). Dubs' mill was a local gathering spot for farmers in the region, who would bring their grain to be ground into flour.

At one time, scores of grist mills dotted the land along most larger creeks in York County, Pennsylvania. Many of these buildings are still in existence as private homes, storage buildings, or other uses, but unfortunately, a large number of old mills have been razed over the years since the decline of smaller private flour mills in favor of national brands.

Among those mills now long gone was the David B. Sprenkle mill near New Salem. He was particularly hit hard by elements of J.E.B. Stuart's Confederate cavalry in the early evening of June 30, 1863, when at least one group of Rebels paused from their northward trek toward Dover to take what they wanted from Spenkle's flour mill, stable, and country store.

The Civil War-era Loucks Mill along the Codorus Creek north of York, Pennsylvania, was destroyed in a fire in 1864 and was replaced by a larger facility. This old postcard shows the location of the mill and mill dam.

This 1938 aerial photograph shows the Codorus Creek to the left center, with Loucks Road running east-west and Loucks Mill Road and Sherman Street intersecting it from the south. Zachariah K. Loucks and Henry I. Loucks co-owned a large grist mill along the Codorus which was operated and managed by the Small brothers. The Loucks family also owned other mills and properties, including a chop mill along Mill Creek off of today's Loucks Mill Road.

Land owned by Z. K. Loucks and nearby property owned by Samuel Hively were the campsites of the First Louisiana Brigade, the much feared "Louisiana Tigers" of Harry T. Hays. This brigade's reputation for unruliness was so great that Jubal Early during the Gettysburg Campaign never allowed them to camp in a town - they were always kept on the outskirts.