Results tagged “Elijah V. White” from Cannonball

"The Rebels have come! The Rebels have come!"

As news spread throughout southwestern York County, Pennsylvania, on Saturday afternoon, June 27, 1863, that Confederate cavalry was raiding f arms and stealing horses in the region, hundreds of residents went into their barns, stables, and fields and made preparations to take their horses and livestock to safety. Some hid their animals in out-of-the way woods, ravines, or hollows. Others took to the roads in an attempt to make it to Lancaster County or deeper into rural southern York County, correctly (as it turned out) assuming the Rebels would concentrate their raiding to those towns and farms along the railroad.

This snippet from a period Baltimore newspaper is illustrative of the chaos and migration caused by the raid of Lt. Col. Elijah V. White and the 35th Battalion,Virginia Cavalry.

The scenic Kreutz Creek in Hellam Township, York County, Pennsylvania. This creek roughly parallels the old rail bed of the Northern Central Railway and played a role in the June 28, 1863, Skirmish of Wrightsville. This was the line of approach used by a portion of the 35th Battalion, Virginia Cavalry to screen the movements of three regiments of Georgia infantry under Col. Clement A. Evans.

Cannonball reader Gerry Boehm is a history buff from Berks County, Pennsylvania. He has had a special interest in the June 28, 1863, Skirmish of Wrightsville, a subject that of course has special meaning to me. Gerry is working his way through my recent book, Flames Beyond Gettysburg: The Gordon Expedition, June 1863, which focuses on the expedition of part of Jubal A. Early's Confederate division to seize the mile-and-a-quarter-long covered bridge spanning the Susquehanna River between Wrightsville and Columbia.

Copyright 2007, Scott Mingus and Tom Poston, all rights reserved. Map of the June 28, 1863 skirmish of Wrightsville, Pennsylvania. No reproduction without written permission.

The historic Cashtown Inn has been restored in the past few decades and, under new management since 2006, is a popular dining spot in the foothills of the South Mountain Range west of Gettysburg. Back in the summer of 1863, innkeeper Jacob Mickley was kept quite busy by the repeated passage of Confederate troops, and several leading officers of the Army of Northern Virginia paused at this tavern for refreshment. Prior to the arrival of the Confederates, the building was an outpost for Union cavalry videttes of Maj. Granville Haller. Some accounts suggest a party of four bushwhackers also steeled themselves for the task of sniping at oncoming Rebels by freely imbibing alcohol from Mickley's barroom. Photo courtesy of Dr. Thomas M. Mingus.

While many Pennsylvanians practiced passive resistance when the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia passed through the south-central tier, tens of thousands of others took matters into their own hands. They grabbed their hunting rifles and other weapons and joined informal local militia groups to help defend their hometowns in case the Rebels came near. In the Juniata River region, more than 5,000 civilians (including many former soldiers) took up arms and encamped in the mountain passes. Union authorities derisively called them nothing more than "an army of bushwhackers commanded by ex-officers." Near McKeesport, Pennsylvania, the local militia was so adept at stealing poultry from the area's farmers that they became known as the "Chicken Raiders."

Here in York County, one farmer near the hamlet of Big Mount took matters in his own hands. In circumstances that are not entirely clear, he savagely murdered a foraging Rebel from Louisiana (I document what is known of this incident from official Confederate records in my upcoming book on the Louisiana Tigers from LSU Press).

In Gettysburg, years after the war, the son of one of the local militia leaders gave this brief account of the bushwhacking in that region. Much of the account parallels (and adds to) my narrative of Union Major Granville O. Haller's efforts to organize the defense of Adams and York counties as Major General Jubal A. Early's powerful veteran division approached from the west.

Here is his account... although please note in his old age, the writer has confused some details in his fading memory.

Dawn Roser of the Codorus Valley Area Historical Society unveils the newest Pennsylvania state historical marker, this one in the historic center square of Jefferson in southern York County. The CVAHS and the borough of Jefferson's combined efforts led to the installation of this marker, which commemorates the three separate times within a week in the early summer of 1863 that the town and the surrounding region were victimized by passing combatants during the Civil War.

The color guard of the 16th Pennsylvania Infantry reenactment group was among the participants in the hour-long ceremony, which occurred on the 146th anniversary of the first Confederate raid on Jefferson. On June 27, 1863, 250 troopers from Maryland and Virginia that comprised the 35th Battalion, Virginia Cavalry rode into the square. Commanded by Lt. Col. Elijah V. White (whose descendant attended the ceremony and spent some time talking with me about her ancestors in that battalion), the Confederates raided the region for horses. One trooper spotted a little girl along the square and handed her a brooch he had stolen from a Hanover jeweler that the Rebels had chased into the countryside before robbing him.

Hanover, Pennsylvania, during the American Civil War was a typical Pennsylvania town, with a town square marked by a public market shed where farmers could come to town once a week and sell their produce to townspeople and other shoppers. The sign for A. G. Schmidt's drugstore is on the right of this photograph. Courtesy of the Hanover Historical Society. If I recall correctly, Schmidt's wartime store was in a slightly different location.

June 27, 1863, was a day that the residents of Hanover would never forget. After days of persistent rain the skies brightened and the rain clouds went away. However, the day soon darkened in a different manner as a cloud of Confederate cavalry soon enveloped the regional commercial center. Lt. Col. Elijah V. White led his 200+ band of former partisans into downtown Hanover from Gettysburg, and troopers were soon busy destroying railroad track, severing telegraph wires, searching stables for fresh horses, and patrolling the streets. A handful of fleeing Hanoverians were chased out of town as bullets whizzed by. Several Rebels took the opportunity for a little shopping in downtown stores.

One thirsty officer entered A. G. Schmidt's drug store, hung his sword belt over a desk post, and demanded a pint of whiskey. Schmidt did not sell liquor, but he took an empty medicine bottle across the street to John Irving's hotel and purchased whiskey for the dumbfounded Rebel. Other cavalrymen came in later to buy soap, brushes, and combs for themselves, and several acquired fine-toothed ladies' combs to send home. The officer, still sitting in a chair savoring his whiskey, told Schmidt that he should only accept greenbacks. Schmidt declared that the soldiers could take whatever they really needed and not worry about payment. He did accept a few Confederate bills, keeping them as souvenirs.

Previous posts:
The Hanover Branch Railroad - Part 1 of a series
The Hanover Branch Railroad - Part 2
The Hanover Branch Railroad - Part 3

The approximate route of the historic Hanover Branch Railroad can be seen in the above map. The base map, courtesy of Google.com, shows the modern railroad tracks leading from Hanover, Pennsylvania, through Smith's Station to Porters Sideling, where they turn to the south. The existing track bed from Hanover is essentially the same as that of the old HBRR, and Elijah V. White and his raiders would have traveled this route. Undoubtedly some of his roughly 230 men would have followed the tracks themselves from Hanover while their ambulance, forge wagon, ammunition wagon, and a small train of empty supply wagons presumably used local roads that roughly parallel the tracks.

In the next few installments in this series (leading up to the skirmish and sacking of Hanover Junction), we will retrace some of the old HBRR line. Reader Bob Resig has sent in some photos taken a few years ago of some of the embankments of the old HBRR, as well as some piers from the old bridges that White burned (which were rebuilt in the months after the June 27, 1863, cavalry raid.