Warrington Township: April 2009 Archives

Mount Top is a tiny hamlet tucked in northwestern York County, Pennsylvania, not far from Dillsburg. Today, it's a whistle stop, as cars blow through the place on State Route 74. Few if any of the passersby are aware (or care) that they are traveling the same route as parts of Major General J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry during the Gettysburg Campaign of the American Civil War.

On the late afternoon of July 1, 1863, a long line of Confederate cavalrymen passed through this hilltop community en route to Dillsburg from their campsite at Dover. In command of this column was veteran Brigadier General Fitzhugh Lee, one of the South's better cavaliers. He led his own brigade of Virginia horse soldiers, as well as another Virginia brigade under Colonel John R. Chambliss, Jr. Perhaps 2,500 soldiers rode through Mount Top, and foraging patrols scoured the countryside in all directions, rounding up horses and mules, as well as seizing supplies and food of material value to the Old Dominion saddle soldiers.

Shortly after leaving Dover, Pennsylvania, in the early afternoon of July 1, 1863, Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia divided his cavalry force into two wings. One group, consisting of the brigades of Brig. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee and Col. John R. Chambliss, Jr., rode through Harmony Grove and Wellsville to reach the rendezvous point at Dillsburg. The other wing, under Stuart's direct control, was the brigade of South Carolina planter Wade Hampton III and a lengthy and slow-moving train of 125 captured Union supply wagons. It headed up the Carlisle Road aka Old State Road (parts of which are today's Route 74) through the crossroads at Rossville.

Over my Christmas break from my duties as a scientist at a paper company, I have made a detailed analysis of the movements of Hampton's force, and it's very clear that he sent out patrols that ranged as far east as four miles from the main column, which kicked up a massive cloud of dust on the Carlisle Road that could be seen for miles according to eyewitnesses.

Before arriving in Rossville, At least one large column of Hampton's troopers rode up Bull Road, scouring the area for horses and mules.

Confederate Brigadier General Fitzhugh Lee led his brigade of Virginia cavaliers into the village of Wellsville in Warrington Township in northwestern York County, Pennsylvania, on the afternoon of July 1, 1863. Lee's men were tired and exhausted from their grueling ride northward through the county following the Battle of Hanover the previous day, and many of his men later recalled how they dozed off and slept in the saddle as their horses plodded along in the lengthy column. However, by the time the column reached Wellsville, spirits had been raised, and the Rebels broke out into song, serenading the Keystone civilians with Southern martial airs.

It must have been quite a scene.