Long-time Cannonball reader Doug Gibboney is a Civil War buff and an active member of the Harrisburg Civil War Round Table. He lives on an historic farm raided by J.E.B. Stuart's cavalrymen during the evening march from Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, to Carlisle on July 1, 1863 concurrent with the Battle of Gettysburg. Doug sent me these photos he thought our readers might enjoy. It shows one of the few documented and marked witness trees from when the Confederates came through York and Cumberland counties. While there are scores of other such witness trees, this one may be among the oldest.
Doug writes, "This 300-year-old American sycamore is on Old Stone House Road in Monroe Township, Cumberland County. It was already 150-years-old when J.E.B. Stuart and his Rebel cavalry came past on July 1st, 1863. The tree stands just west of Route 74, the York Road, which Stuart's men used on their approach to Carlisle."
