On July 1, 1863, concurrent with the afternoon fighting on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, more than 5,000 Confederate cavalrymen passed through Carroll Township in northwestern York County, Pennsylvania. They were commanded by Major General J.E.B. Stuart, who was marching toward Carlisle and a hoped for rendezvous with the infantry of Ewell's Corps. Stuart, hoping to get some definitive word on the location of the Army of Northern Virginia, sent out various scouting parties.
He also sent out foragers, scouring the countryside for horses, mules, and supplies. They were hard to come by in this largely rural region. A previous raid by Rebel cavalry under Brig. Gen. Albert G. Jenkins had taken some of the horses, while hundreds of other animals had been taken to safety or hidden in the woods. A half dozen or so Carroll Township farmers had taken their horses down to Warrington Township to supposed safety on the imposing heights of Round Top mountain, but the Southerners had already found them. Several men had hidden their horses in the thick woods owned by John Cook on a farm off today's Route 74 just north of the township line; they were among the first horses discovered and seized by Stuart's column as it entered Carroll Township.
The Rebels weren't finished.
