I will be speaking at the Greater Dover Historical Society at 7:00 PM on March 19, 2009, on Confederate general Jubal Early's march through Dover Township and J.E.B. Stuart's subsequent march through the township and Dover Borough. The meeting will be at Calvary Lutheran Church, which is nestled in between Civil War houses.
Making extensive use of the York County Border Claims and records, I will discuss the various Confederate campsites in and around Dover, and will touch on several farmers, merchants, and millers in the area whose personal property was taken by the Rebels. Colonel William French's 17th Virginia Cavalry was particularly active in Dover Township over a three-day period and racked up more than 100 horses by themselves.
That was an impressive feat for a single regiment that stripped a lot of horses away from Stuart's three brigades which camped around Dover the day after French headed west with Early's Division. So many current Dover Township residents' ancestors were raided by the Rebels, with local names such as Daron, Spangler, Bentzel, Leckrone, Meisenhelder, and more than 200 others being hit by the Southern visitors.
I am scheduling upcoming talks on East Berlin in the Gettysburg Campaign for the East Berlin Historical Preservation Society and one in Emigsville for the Emigsville Heritage Project. I will speak on the Columbia-Wrightsville bridge burning and the raid on Hanover Junction at the York CWRT meeting in March, and am lining up numerous other talks in the Mid-Atlantic region following the debut of Flames Beyond Gettysburg: The Gordon Expedition, June 1863 (it's now printed and awaiting the release of funds from the publisher to the printer so it can be shipped! Let's hope it hits the shelves shortly).
