Results tagged “Hanover” from Cannonball

Mt. Olivet Cemetery sprawls on a hilltop southeast of Hanover, Pennsylvania in extreme southern York County. During the Civil War, it was of course much smaller than today, and the heights became a platform for Confederate horse artillery during the June 30, 1863 Battle of Hanover. Following the war, the graveyard became the final resting place for many of the Civil War veterans of the Hanover region, and a stroll through the cemetery grounds yields dozens of headstones for these veterans.

Among those men buried in Mr. Olivet is Samuel Fitz, whose story can be pieced together from studying the rosters of Pennsylvania Civil War soldiers. The typical image of a Civil War soldier conjures up images of heroic charges across farm fields while bullets whistle past and shells explode overhead. For many soldiers, this indeed was the case. For tens of thousands of others, including Hanover's Sam Fitz, their military service was much more mundane and tedious.

In 1863, this brick building in downtown Hanover, Pennsylvania, was the Central Hotel. It served as the nerve center for Union cavalry under Brigadier General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick during and after the Battle of Hanover.

Thousands of cars and trucks pass through downtown Hanover, Pennsylvania, each day, often creating a traffic jam that can back up the queue at the various signals. Patience is a must for the modern traveler visiting this historic town, as similar to the nearby town of Gettysburg, a network of roads converge in Hanover conveying traffic into downtown.

That network of roads led to the June 30, 1863, unplanned collision between Major General J.E.B. Stuart's Confederate cavalrymen coming up from Maryland and a column of Federal troopers from H. Judson Kilpatrick's division.

Like the modern traffic flow, the point of congestion and contention was the intersection of the roads in downtown Hanover.

"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.

Hanover, Pennsylvania telegraph operator Daniel Trone heard on Saturday June 27, 1863 that Confederate cavalry was in the neighborhood, so he hid his equipment in a loft and left two broken sets on a table in his office as decoys before fleeing. He made it out the back door of his office just as members of the 35th Battalion, Virginia Cavalry (later famed as "White's Comanches") entered the front door.

Trone finally returned home after the Battle of Hanover. Upon visiting his office, he discovered that Rebel cavalrymen had smashed his decoy telegraph equipment, but they did not find the good set in the loft. Trone retrieved his hidden equipment, and for the next two days telegraphed information about the Gettysburg battle in an exclusive arrangement with the New York Tribune and its reporter A. H. Byington. Abraham Lincoln received his first news of the battle from reports that Trone sent to New York through Washington. Much of the news telegraphed to the major northeastern cities concerning the Battle of Gettysburg was done by Trone.

Headstone of Private Ovid Stahl in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Hanover, Pennsylvania.

Ovid Stahl, a native of York, Pennsylvania, was an eighteen-year-old private in Company I of the 26th Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia, a company that was recruited in southern York County and included volunteers from several townships, as well as from Carroll County, Maryland. After being organized in Hanover and trained briefly near Harrisburg, the emergency regiment served in the Gettysburg Campaign. It was the largest military unit trying to defend Gettysburg the last week of June 1863 against the invading Confederates - the division of Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early.

The schoolboys and sales clerks of the 26th PVM had only been in uniform for three days when they met the veterans of the Army of Northern Virginia on the hills west of Gettysburg along Marsh Creek and then along Goldenville Road near the Henry Witmer farm. The site of the skirmish of Witmer Farm (and the red brick Witmer farmhouse) is still in pristine condition just east of the intersection of Goldenville and Table Rock roads about 3.5 miles northeast of Gettysburg. Many of the boys would be captured on Witmer's rolling farmland, rounded up by the pursuing 17th Virginia Cavalry. In all, 175 militiamen would become prisoners of war out of the 743 men in the new regiment.

A couple of the men and boys from southern York County were with the 26th PVM's commissary guard in downtown Gettysburg while their comrades were routed at Witmer Farm. They ended up back in Hanover before heading to York late on Friday night hours after the debacle at Witmer Farm. They wound up in Wrightsville and helped defend the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge on Sunday, June 28.

Among those men fortunate enough to have escaped being swept up by the Rebel cavalry at Witmer Farm was 18-year-old Ovid Stahl.

This impressive headstone in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Hanover, Pennsylvania, commemorates the brief life of one of York County's many Civil War veterans, Major William Slyder Diller of the 76th Pennsylvania Volunteers, also known as the "Keystone Zouaves". During his three years in the Union Army, Diller saw action in several significant engagements in Virginia, Georgia and South Carolina, including participating in the unsuccessful attacks on Fort Wagner (made famous in modern times through the Denzel Washington / Morgan Freeman movie Glory).

So, who was William Diller?

During the June 30, 1863, Battle of Hanover, Pennsylvania, Confederate horse artillery deployed on a low hill just off the Littlestown-Frederick Road southwest of Hanover. The guns were unlimbered, loaded, and aimed at a distant target - mounted Union cavalry along Frederick Street at the outskirts of the town. The lanyard was pulled and the gun discharged, hurling its iron shell toward the horsemen.

It missed its intended target.

Instead of striking the enemy troopers, the shell found a much different target - a house occupied by terrified civilians.

Downtown Hanover, Pennsylvania, has several Civil War markers and memorials along its main streets and in the traffic square, including a series of battle-related wayside markers erected a few years ago. Perhaps the most impressive (and most well known historically) is this well crafted bronze statue entitled "The Picket." It depicts one of Brig. Gen. H. Judson Kilpatrick's Union troopers who fought at the June 30, 1863, Battle of Hanover in southwestern York County.

For many years, this large equestrian statue was the focal point of the town square, as well as a large fountain (similar to what still graces downtown Chambersburg's very nice traffic circle). At some point, the town fathers decided to abandon the circle and go with a more traditional crossroads intersection, and The Picket and his later companion "Mike" the bronze dog were relegated to a corner where it is out of the way (and out of the mind and vision) of most passersby.

In my research for another unrelated Civil War topic, I stumbled onto a couple of old accounts of the installation of this memorial, as well as two nearby Army of the Potomac plaques.

Here are those snippets from a pair of old books:

This old photograph is courtesy of theunfinishedwork.com, a website for a recent fictional book on the Gettysburg Campaign by Hanover native Frank Meredith. His well crafted novel includes the Battle of Hanover on June 30, 1863, and other York and Adams county venues.

The picture from the Hanover Historical Society shows an old, deteriorating rail car of the long defunct Hanover Branch Railroad, which was operational through the latter half of the 19th century into the early part of the 20th. Tradition suggests this is the exact car that Hanover Branch Railroad president A. W. Eichelberger deployed as the private car for President Abraham Lincoln and his traveling party during their trip to and from Baltimore to Gettysburg for the dedication ceremony of the National Cemetery in mid-November 1863. The director's car was eventually scrapped, according to some local sources.

Lincoln's party included his friend from his Illinois days, Ward Hill Lamon, who was serving as his personal bodyguard and advisor. Also in the party were members of his staff, including his private secretary John G. Nicolay, adviser John Hay, and a bevy of reporters and politicians, including Secretary of War Edwin McM. Stanton and Secretary of State William H. Seward.

Many of you know I have a special fondness for human interest stories from the Gettysburg Campaign. Some of it stems from old family stories passed down from my paternal great-great-uncles who fought in the 7th West Virginia at Antietam and Gettysburg, or from my maternal great-great-grandfathers who fought in various Ohio regiments, mostly in the Western Theater. My father was born in 1914, and as a young lad, he heard many tales (perhaps exaggerated, but unfortunately not documentable) from the aged Civil War vets who lived in his home of Athens County, Ohio.

I am now n the process of writing a new Civil War book manuscript for Ten Roads Publishing entitled Gettysburg Glimpses 2: More Stories from the Gettysburg Campaign. I have been perusing old newspapers, books, journals, letters, etc. for fresh stories that have seldom been used (if at all) since they were written by the eyewitnesses in the 19th century. Some of these anecdotes take place here in south-central Pennsylvania, including a few interesting ones from that I found in Harrisburg in the state damage claims. There are also some fascinating incidents from this area that appear in the regimental histories of troops that passed through here en route to Gettysburg.

Here's one story from I particularly like, as it includes alleged dialogue between the soldiers and an unnamed Hanover area farmer. Was he one of the very men mentioned by Licensed Battlefield Guide John T. Krepps in an earlier post on the Union V Corps' movements through the region, perhaps even Jesse Keller, on whose Adams County farm Ayres' Division camped?

A while back, I posted an account of the 118th Pennsylvania Infantry of the Union V Corps entering southwestern York County on July 1, 1863. They were among a seemingly endless series of armed troops to pass through the region over a 5-day period, finishing with a portion of the First Troop, Philadelphia City Cavalry which approached Hanover from York on July 5. They passed through Spring Grove (then Spring Forge) according to the battalion historian, but did not make it all the way to Hanover as far as I know.

We are blessed in York County today to have several local men and women serving as Licensed Battlefield Guides at the nearby Gettysburg National Military Park, including Larry Wallace, Bobby Housch, and John Krepps of the Hanover area. I have been on some of Larry's battlewalks in the past. The Hanover contingent, and all LBGs, are experienced and well trained, and I recommend the services of an LBG if you are interested in a solid tour of the Gettysburg battlefield. Guided tours may be reserved in advance through the National Park Service at the new Gettysburg Visitors Center.

John Krepps has consolidated nearly all of the available information on the June 30, 1863, battle of Hanover in his excellent recent book, A Strong and Sudden Onslaught: The Cavalry Action at Hanover, Pennsylvania. A faithful reader of Cannonball, he was kind enough to offer some deeper insight in the route the 118th Pennsylvania, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the 20th Maine, and the rest of the V Corps used to reach the Hanover area, as well as his best estimation of the roads they used and the places they camped. I will post some photos of these areas in some upcoming blog entries.

For now, here are John's scholarly and well researched comments on the V Corps at Hanover.

July 1, 1863, saw the opening actions of the Battle of Gettysburg in nearby Adams County, Pennsylvania. However, even while the artillery roared and musketry crackled from the fields and woods north and west of Gettysburg, thousands of troops from both armies were hustling to reach the scene.

Late in the afternoon the 146th New York Volunteer Infantry reached the picturesque town of Hanover, Pennsylvania. Near the crossroads were lying the bloated carcasses of half a dozen cavalry horses, slain in the brief skirmish between Judson Kilpatrick's and J.E.B. Stuart's cavalrymen the previous day. Close to the road, near the scene of the main cavalry fighting, stood an old farmhouse, at the gate of which was an old-fashioned pump and horse trough. The pump handle was in constant motion, as the weary, foot-sore soldiers flocked around it to quench their thirst with the delicious water that flowed into the mossy trough.

What follows is the memory of a veteran of the regiment, perhaps a bit fanciful, but it makes for a good human interest story...

Background post: The Union V Corps visits southwestern York County (account of the 118th Pennsylvania near Hanover)

I am up in upstate Maine on business this week (after a very active Civil War weekend in York County, PA). The weather is lousy (chilly, drizzle, fog), but the people are friendly and the scenery beautiful, particularly along the coast. Maine during the Civil War provided significant numbers of sailors to the Union Navy, as well as several regiments of infantry, a little cavalry, and some artillery. Perhaps the most famous (at least today to the modern casual Civil War buff) is the 20th Maine Infantry, which gained recognition from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Killer Angels and the later Ted Turner financed movie, Gettysburg. Commanding colonel Joshua "Don't Call Me Lawrence" Chamberlain's image to most people is the face of actor Jeff Daniels, who also portrayed the colonel in the prequel Gods and Generals.

But, what is the connection between the venerable Chamberlain, his regiment of woodsmen, fishermen, and townspeople from Maine, and York County, PA?

On July 1, 1863, the Union V Corps under Maj. Gen. George Sykes marched through extreme southwestern township, coming up from Maryland on the Hanover-Westminster Road (the same road used on June 30 by J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry to approach Hanover from Westminster). Much of the general area just a couple of days before had seen maneuvering of troops during what became the Battle of Hanover.

The V Corps camped on several farms near Hanover, but they did not stay very long (perhaps three hours, according to Hanover expert and Licensed Battlefield Guide John Krepps). By 7 PM, they were on the march for Gettysburg, having been ordered to move in that direction as the battle raged. Shortly after Sykes' men, including Chamberlain and the Maine boys, tramped through York County, the regiment entered Adams County, where their unknown destiny would take them to Little Round Top, where many would die or be wounded, and the rest achieve everlasting fame as one of the chief stops on the modern tourist route.

As soon as my photos I took today in Brewer, Maine, are developed of the mock "Little Round Top" hilltop memorial to Chamberlain and the 20th, I will post them here on Cannonball.

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.

Background posts:
In the Footsteps of J.E.B. Stuart: Rebels Ride from Hanover, Part 1
In the Footsteps of J.E.B. Stuart: Rebels Ride from Hanover, Part 2

As the advance elements of Maj. Gen. James E. B. Stuart's Confederate cavalry rode away from the Battle of Hanover in southwestern York County, Pennsylvania, they used a variety of roads to head toward Jefferson, a crossroads hamlet where Stuart would pause, set up artillery, and regroup. Thanks to research by Hanover author and Licensed Battlefield Guide John T. Krepps, we have a strong indication of the roads Stuart used and the various farms along the way that his men raided for horses and/or supplies. These findings originally appeared in the Holiday 2003 issue of Blue & Gray magazine.

In the last post, Stuart's column, likely Fitzhugh Lee's brigade, turned off the Baltimore Pike onto Fuhrman Mill Road, which in 1863 was a winding, hilly dirt road that served as a transportation artery for a variety of farms in the area. Many of the Keystone farmers would find Rebels riding around their barnyards and stables, hunting for horses.

Background post: Rebels Ride from Hanover, Part 1

As some of J.E.B. Stuart's Confederate cavalrymen escorted 125 captured Union supply wagons across Fairview Road south of Hanover, Pennsylvania, following the Battle of Hanover, outriders and foraging patrols frequently raided the barns and stables along the way in an effort to locate and procure fresh horses. Dozens of farmers in West Manheim Township were victimized, some to the point where they would have difficulty bringing in their harvest that summer. Among the early victims was Edward Becker, who lived off Fairview Road and Beck Mill Road. He lost a horse he valued at $100.

He would not be alone in his anger at the passing Rebels...

The Joseph Arnold farm south of Hanover, Pennsylvania, was astride Fairview Road, one of the main routes for the Confederate cavalry to leave the area during the Battle of Hanover.

It was the hot, humid afternoon of Tuesday, June 30, 1863. For several hours, the roar of artillery had echoed off of the many ridges, hills, and low mountains in southern York County, Pennsylvania. Residents stood on their porches listening to the cacophony and wondered about the angry sound of war. For the citizens of Hanover, tucked in the extreme southwestern part of the county, the noise was even more deafening, as shells whirled through the air above them as opposing gunners on hills north and south of town dueled, with the houses and businesses and people caught in the middle.

Realizing that he was unable to drive off the Yankee defenders, who had received considerable reinforcements since morning, Major General J.E.B. Stuart decided to withdraw toward York, where reports indicated he would rendezvous with the easternmost elements of the Army of Northern Virginia, the division of Jubal A. Early. During the afternoon, while artillery shells still burst over Hanover, Stuart began pulling out, conceding the town and its crossroads to the Yankees.

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.

More than 700 York County residents suffered losses to the passing armies during the Gettysburg Campaign. In a few cases, they were victimized more than once, and at times to both the Union and Confederate forces. One such multiple unfortunate was wealthy Hanover merchant and land owner Josiah W. Gitt, whose properties were in the wrong places at the wrong times.

The Hanover Branch Railroad's station house at Hanover Junction, Pennsylvania, has been restored to approximate its 1863 appearance.

Background post: The Hanover Junction cavalry countermarch, an account of William Miller of the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry.

Among the Union cavalry troops in David M. Gregg's division who visited Hanover Junction on July 1, 1863, was the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry, also known as the 60th Pennsylvania regiment. One of the earliest cavalry regiments to be mustered from the commonwealth, it was recruited during the spring and summer of 1861, under the direction of Colonel William H. Young. It was initially known as Young's Light Kentucky Cavalry. Companies A, C, F, K and M were recruited in Philadelphia, with the majority of the rest of the men from Chester, Clinton, Allegheny, Delaware, and Schuylkill counties. Company D wasn't from Pennsylvania at all; it had been recruited in Washington D.C. from residents of the District of Columbia.

A few years after the war, the regimental historian briefly discussed the troopers' activities in southwestern York County. This is one of the very few accounts that mentions the Union vanguard encountering stragglers from J.E.B. Stuart's Confederate column and capturing them at Hanover Junction. Other stragglers from Stuart's column had reached Gettysburg on July 1, where they were spotted by Jubal Early's men.