Other places: September 2007 Archives

Neighborhood and country stores in the 19th Century were important gathering places where locals could exchange gossip, catch up on the latest news, exchange pleasantries with family and friends, and make general small talk. Often, the most popular place in these shops was the old cracker barrel, which seemed to be an accepted place for social interactions. The modern "Cracker Barrel" country restaurant chain attempts to evoke the memories of the old cracker barrel as the gathering place for travellers and visitors.

Back in the tumultous summer of 1863, one young York County shopkeeper learned the hard way about hanging around the cracker barrel.

Confederate cavalryman; adapted from Taber, Battles and Leaders.

Numerous small skirmishes and engagements occurred throughout York County during the Gettysburg Campaign. In the vast majority of these fights, a few shots were exchanged and both sides rode away, with few, if any, casualties resulting from the encounter. It has been estimated that there were over 10,000 such minor fights in the Civil War, with most being too small to be remembered except for casual mention in local newspapers or diaries / journals from townspeople or eyewitnesses. Very few of these engagements had any strategic importance, and more were relatively long-distance exchange of gunfire from patrols, pickets, scouts, and other small parties of soldiers.

York County saw its fair share of these minor skirmishes. Here is the story of one such now long-forgotten encounter, one that foreshadowed the large Battle of Gettysburg, as it was among the first contact points between the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the Federal Army of the Potomac.