Wrightsville: September 2007 Archives

G. O. Haller, courtesy of USAMHI.

Several York Countians played important roles in the Civil War, the majority supporting the Union side, but with a few serving as officers in the Confederate army. Most of these men and women have receded into obscurity in today's consciousness, but in the mid-1860s were well known and prominent. In the months to come in the Cannonball blog, I will introduce you to a few of these 19th Century personalities and provide resources for further study should you desire to dive a little deeper into these folks' lives.

One of these long ago celebrities was Granville Owen Haller, a York native who became a postbellum leading citizen in Seattle, Washington. A fashionable and intelligent man who loved the challenge of chess, Haller had a checkered military career that reached its apex during the first two years of the Civil War. The Gettysburg Campaign would be his final active service.

So, who was Granville Haller, and why was he important to York County during the Civil War?

During much of the Gettysburg Campaign, postmasters and mail carriers throughout south-central Pennsylvania feared they would be specifically targeted by oncoming Confederate forces. Paranoia swept the region, and there are dozens of stories about postmasters who hid their mail and parcels to avoid them being lost to the Rebs, and many Federal employees fled to avoid capture. Did they really have to fear the Confederates or was it merely mass hysteria?

The answer appears to be a resounding yes, in many cases, to both questions. As Richard Ewell's Second Army Corps entered Pennsylvania in late June of 1863, they did target post offices and Federal installations. Chambersburg's postmaster fled to Harrisburg, taking his mailbags with him, but the postmasters of Fairfield and Greencastle were not so fortunate. They were indeed captured and eventually taken into Virginia as prisoners of war, spending considerable time in Confederate jails. Postmaster David Beuhler of Gettysburg packed his most valuable government property into a valise and headed for Hanover in the train. One of his mail carriers, fleeing down Baltimore Pike, inadvertantly dropped a mail bag in Anna Garlach's yard, but she secreted it so the Rebels would not take it. Harrisburg's postmaster eventually fled, as did many other Federal employees.

What about York County's post offices?