York: August 2009 Archives

Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer, a native of New Rumley in my native Ohio, remains one of the most colorful (and controversial) figures in American military history. Vilified by many for his stunning defeat at Little Bighorn, a fight that became immortal as "Custer's Last Stand," Custer was a lightning rod for adoration as well as hatred. Perhaps more books have been written about him than any other Western Indian fighter, and many also cover his extensive Civil War history where he rose from an obscure lieutenant to a renown major general in just three short years.

Custer's first battle as a brigadier general was here in York County, Pennsylvania, where he led his Michigan Brigade at the Battle of Hanover, where his men first became acquainted with the "boy general" in action. That same day, some of Custer's men traveled through southwestern York County and up into downtown York.

Here is this little known account of some of Custer's Wolverines visiting "Little York." It is adapted from Pennsylvania-born author Eric J. Wittenberg's interesting book Under Custer's Command: The Civil War Journal of James Henry Avery.

William Smith (September 6, 1797 - May 18, 1887) was a lawyer, U.S. and Confederate congressman, two-time Governor of Virginia and one of the oldest Confederate generals in the Civil War.

In the early 1831, Smith received a Federal contract from the administration of President Andrew Jackson to develop and oversee mail routes between Washington D.C. and the capital of Georgia, Milledgeville. On his own initiative, he set up numerous side routes, which generated extra income. A subsequent investigation revealed his shenanigans, and he became widely known as "Extra Billy." During the Gettysburg Campaign, he commanded the Virginia brigade led earlier in the war by his divisional commander, Major General Jubal A. Early. He left two of his five regiments back in Winchester, Virginia, to help process and guard thousands of Union prisoners after the Second Battle of Winchester.

General Smith was known for his unorthodox field uniform, which often included a tall beaver hat and a blue cotton umbrella. Personally brave, although requiring close supervision on the battlefield, Smith had a penchant for making loud speeches.One of these orations has become fairly common in Gettysburg Campaign overviews, appearing in several leading secondary sources that are among the best-selling tomes on the battle. An artillery major named Robert Stiles wrote a post-war account of "Extra Billy" Smith making a spectacle in downtown York, Pennsylvania, as Early's division first occupied the town. Stiles, whose battery (Carrington's Courtney Battery) camped in the old York Fairgrounds, was certainly in the column of troops that entered York.

However, was Extra Billy there to make the rambling speech that Stiles claimed he did in his classic 1904 book Four Years Under Marse Robert? So many talented authors, many of them quite well known in Civil War circles, take this somewhat questionable account as fact.

Here is Stiles' rather colorful account of the Virginian's pause in York:

Bond certificate issued by the Northern Central Railway in 1917, not too many years after its long-time employee and chief engineer George Small retired from its service. He piloted the last train out of York, Pennsylvania, before elements of Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia occupied and ransomed the town.

With the threat of the Confederate infantry forces marching through south-central Pennsylvania the last week of week, the various railroads in the region began moving their rolling stock and locomotives to safety across the Susquehanna to Harrisburg or Philadelphia. Here in York County, the Northern Central Railway was still in the process of transporting its trains to Lancaster County and on to Philly when Major General Jubal Early's troops entered York County. Some of its rail cars (many of which were built in York) were still down by the Maryland line as Rebel cavalry began threatening the NCR's infrastructure. Railroad officials knew that the Confederates would destroy the bridges and cripple the route, as the Rebs had done to the Cumberland Valley Railroad a few days earlier.

For one York railroad engineer, Walnut Street resident George Small, the arrival of the Rebels coincided with a mad dash he was making to get the last of the NCR's cars to Philadelphia.

Here is his story, as told by the York Dispatch in 1905 (courtesy of the library of the York County Heritage Trust; many thanks to Ray Kinard of the Codorus Valley Historical Society for calling my attention to a transcription donated to the library early in the 20th century).