Railroads: January 2009 Archives

Confederate forces in June 1863 were quite active in York County, Pennsylvania, trying to destroy the logistics and communications infrastructure. Telegraph lines were a particular target, and telegraph stations were often raided, including those at Hanover and Hanover Junction. Another military objective were the railroad bridges. Upon entering Pennsylvania, Confederate cavalry on June 15 and 16 of that year raided the Cumberland Valley Railroad, which was to become a repeated target over the next two weeks. The Gettysburg Railroad was the next Pennsylvania line to receive damage, when a couple bridges between Gettysburg and New Oxford went up in flames. Finally, on June 28 and June 29, the focus shifted eastward to the Hanover Branch Railroad and the Northern Central Railway.

Among the many bridges torched or otherwise wrecked along the NCR's line was its longest bridge, the 324-foot span over the Codorus Creek near the P.A. & S. Small flour mills.

The John Scott Hotel, seen above in this December 2008 photograph, was among the small cluster of buildings that made up the hamlet of Hanover Junction, Pennsylvania, on June 27, 1863, as the veteran 35th Battalion, Virginia Cavalry approached following the railroad and nearby roads.

The junction was defended by Lt. Col. William Sickles, who was destined to have the worst week of his military career (perhaps of his entire life). Little did he know as the howling Confederates headed toward his line of nervous, inexperienced militia that within days, he would lose Hanover Junction, walk to Wrightsville, be captured there by John B. Gordon's Georgians, be censured by his superiors in the press and public record as a coward, and then break his leg when he fell off a railroad handcar after being paroled by the Rebels. It was certainly a bad few days for the star-crossed officer.

Before his eyes, the Rebel attack unfolded, and his men hit the panic button...

The final section of the Hanover Branch Railroad roughly paralleled Green Valley Road to its intersection with Junction Road, and turned easterly at that point to follow Junction Road into Hanover Junction. On June 27, 1863, Elijah White's Confederate cavalry rode toward the junction using this road and tracks.

Reader Bob Resig submitted this photo of the old trace of the Hanover Branch Railroad along Junction Road.

After leaving Jefferson Station in southern York County, Pennsylvania, the Hanover Branch Railroad's tracks headed northeasterly toward the Cold Spring Station. Very little remains of the roadbed in this stretch, because it has been heavily farmed over the past 145 years since Abraham Lincoln's train departed Jefferson Station for Hanover Junction and his return train to Baltimore and then Washington, D.C. However, there are a few vestiges remaining, including the piers of bridges burned on June 27, 1863, by Lt. Col. Elijah V. White's 35th Battalion, Virginia Cavalry during its mission to wreck the HBRR and the Hanover Junction rail yard.

Cannonball reader Bob Resig sent in a series of photographs tracing Elijah V. White's route from what later became Valley Junction in southern York County, Pennsylvania, to Hanover Junction. This historic trace was once the Hanover Branch Railroad's right of way, and President Abraham Lincoln rode through here twice before and after his Gettysburg Address.

Bob's photo shows the old roadbed as it bends through the Civil War-era Miller farm. Some of White's Comanches may have followed the tracks northeasterly to a nearby bridge, while others took what is today's Park Road south down to Sinsheim road before turning toward Jefferson.

Let's retrace the historic route of the HBRR, nestled in scenery little changed from when Honest Abe rode these rails. I have intermixed Bob Resig's photos with some aerial photos from Yahoo.com, as these satellite photographs still show much of the original trace of the Hanover Branch Railroad.

All aboard!

Previous posts:
The Hanover Branch Railroad - Part 1 of a series
The Hanover Branch Railroad - Part 2
The Hanover Branch Railroad - Part 3

The approximate route of the historic Hanover Branch Railroad can be seen in the above map. The base map, courtesy of Google.com, shows the modern railroad tracks leading from Hanover, Pennsylvania, through Smith's Station to Porters Sideling, where they turn to the south. The existing track bed from Hanover is essentially the same as that of the old HBRR, and Elijah V. White and his raiders would have traveled this route. Undoubtedly some of his roughly 230 men would have followed the tracks themselves from Hanover while their ambulance, forge wagon, ammunition wagon, and a small train of empty supply wagons presumably used local roads that roughly parallel the tracks.

In the next few installments in this series (leading up to the skirmish and sacking of Hanover Junction), we will retrace some of the old HBRR line. Reader Bob Resig has sent in some photos taken a few years ago of some of the embankments of the old HBRR, as well as some piers from the old bridges that White burned (which were rebuilt in the months after the June 27, 1863, cavalry raid.

Citizens and veteran Federal soldiers lounge on the front porch of the Hanover Junction train station in this photograph taken in the spring of 1865. Less than two years before, inexperienced recruits of the 20th Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia may have also stood on the same porch in the days before the Confederate raiders arrived on June 27, 1863. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Previous posts:
The Hanover Branch Railroad - Part 1 of a series
The Hanover Branch Railroad - Part 2

The third week of June brought excitement for the few residents of tiny Hanover Junction, Pennsylvania. A battalion of Union troops, clad in fresh, crisp new blue uniforms and carrying shiny Springfield rifles, marched through nearby Seven Valley and encamped on a hilltop near the camp. Some accounts suggest they had a small bronze cannon with them. Unfortunately, we have no contemporary records of the reception of the locals, nor any surviving letters from residents remarking on the Union occupancy of the Junction, or of the Howard Tunnel to the north. We do have some damage claims from a couple of farmers whose lands were used as campsites for the regiment in various places in the county.

The troops' job was simple -- protect Hanover Junction, the nearby railroad bridges, and the tunnel.

Modern view of Hanover Junction from the approximate line of the Union defensive positions that "protected" the junction in June 1863.

With the rapid development of the railroad industry in the 1840s and 1850s, farmers in rural areas such as southern York County now had a convenient and reasonably priced way to get their produce and goods to markets in larger towns such as Baltimore and Harrisburg, as well as points beyond. Several new railroads were constructed in the county, and work crews were kept quite busy laying out and building the lines. Once the railroad tracks were finished and all the supporting buildings, signage, etc. in place, commercial service began. Small hamlets developed around many of the refueling stops / cargo / passenger stations, and York County maps became dotted with new names such as Hanover Junction, Smith's Station, Porters Sideling, and dozens of other waysides.

Among the new railroads was the Hanover Branch, which ran from Hanover Junction (where it connected with what became the Northern Central) and the bustling town of Hanover. Later, another railroad connected Hanover with Gettysburg to the west.

All three roads became targets of the Confederate raiders in late June 1863, with the vulnerable wooden bridges being particular objects of Rebel attention.

Jefferson Station was located west of Jefferson, Pennsylvania, near the intersection of Krafts Mill Road and Jefferson Road (today's State Route 516). It was a railstop on the Hanover Branch Railroad serving the farmers of the Codorus region. The embankment in the right center marks the old track bed. Photo taken from the top of a hill along Jefferson Road / 516 looking to the southeast.

Click to enlarge the photos.

A Cannonball reader has asked me to do a series of posts on the Hanover Branch Railroad during the Gettysburg Campaign. In the first of these, we will look at the little known Confederate cavalry raid on Jefferson Station, an event not marked by any kind of commemorative historical wayside marker, unlike so many other incidents during "the Late Unpleasantness."