As Major General J.E.B. Stuart's division of three brigades of Confederate cavalry departed Dover, Pennsylvania, on July 1, 1863, patrols fanned out in a wide swath to acquire fresh horses. More than 700 horses are known to have been taken in York County alone by Stuart's men, and another 500 by other Rebel troops that criss-crossed the county. Among Stuart's early victims as his troops left Dover was farmer Jacob Spangler, who owned this impressive characteristic red barn that still sits alongside Fox Run (not very far from two of my kids' houses in Dover Township). He lost a ten-year-old bay mare and a six-year-old black horse taken from his stable.
The Spangler clan was the hardest hit family in all of York County, as seventeen different men by that surname reported losing horses or trade goods to the Confederate raiders! In total, the Spanglers lost thirty horses, not to mention the contents of Charles Spangler's West Manchester Township store. Many of the Spanglers lived along Carlisle Road, the path that Stuart's column took to reach Dillsburg and then Carlisle. Fathers, sons, brothers, cousins, uncles - the interrelated group took a serious financial loss in terms of lost horseflesh right at the important summer harvest time.
