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.
