Emigsville: 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 aerial photograph of the modern York Flour Mills, Inc. is courtesy of Microsoft Virtual Earth, and shows the location of one of the old P.A. & S. Small mills nestled between the railroad and the Codorus Creek. In 1863, the railroad line was the Northern Central's tracks that led from Baltimore to Harrisburg, and Confederate troops camped in and around the mill yard. Armed guards made sure no one broke into the mill.

Earlier in the war, thousands of Union soldiers crossed by the landmark mill on troop trains headed south to join what became the Army of the Potomac.

Philip Albright Small and his brother Samuel were among the leading citizens of York, Pennsylvania, during the mid-19th century. They inherited mills, land, and wealth from their industrious father, George Small, who built the original mill on the Codorus Creek in Manchester Township. They owned comfortable homes in downtown York, were well respected by most of the citizenry, and well networked within both the social and business fabric of York County and the region.

During the Gettysburg Campaign, the Small brothers were also known to the invading Confederate army. In fact, their mills were a particular target for Major General Jubal A. Early.

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).

The Myers grist mill was one of several similar establishments that once dotted the banks of the Codorus Creek north of York, Pennsylvania. The old mill is in excellent condition today, and is privately owned. It is next to the York Heritage Rail Trail and Locust Lane Park off of Emig Mill Road in Manchester Township.

In late June 1863, this peaceful setting was the site of a break-in and robbery. The perpetrators were infantrymen from the famed (and much feared) "Louisiana Tigers" of veteran Brigadier General Harry Thompson Hays of New Orleans.