Recently in Revolutionary War Category

Tray of items found at one level in one hole of dig

Many thousands of artifacts were found during the recent archaeological dig at the Schultz House, items such as pieces of pottery and dishes, bottle glass and window glass, animal bones, coal, bricks, mortar, plaster and nails--lots and lots of nails. Even a few Native American items were found. I didn't get to participate in the dig, but I was privileged to be one of the volunteers that spent nearly two weeks cleaning and marking the artifacts. Archaeologist Steve Warfel will spend the winter cataloging the artifacts and present a report to Historic York, Inc., the owner of the house, in the spring. The items will be placed with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, also the custodian of the items found in the 1979 limited dig that identified part of the prisoner of war camp.

The four+ acres on which the Schultz House sits was part of the whole tract of 280 acres owned by David Brubaker during the Revolutionary War. Camp Security was located on about 40 acres of the same tract.

It was somewhat disappointing not to find any military-related artifacts, as Camp Security was just across the field. Maybe we shouldn't be too surprised though. The Shultz House is said to have been a tavern during the Revolutionary period. Even if it was frequented by the guards, they may not have left much behind in the immediate vicinity of the house. The prisoners themselves would have been expected to stay close by the camp. The ones confined in the stockade, which still has not been located, wouldn't have had a choice. The others, those with more freedom, still needed permission to move about.

Still, the importance of the dig was twofold. First, the Schultz House is at least 245 years old. As a historic house, it is significant enough to warrant exploration. Secondly, there was no way to know if any military artifacts were there without doing a dig. To me, that underscores the importance of further exploration of other parts of the original 280 acres. My hope is that owners of the two large remaining tracts, known as the Wiest farm and the Rowe farm, someday give permission for further archaeological exploration.

Click the links below for more on Camp Security's history.

Documenting Camp Security.

Another clue to Camp Security.

Camp Security prisoner numbers hard to pin down.

See below for more photos.

Lewis Miller drawings of James Smith, Sr. and James Smith, Jr.

In my recent York Sunday News column I addressed how little we know about York's signer of the Declaration of Independence, James Smith.

There are even differences among the few illustrations we have of what Smith may or may not have looked like. The images shown here, original watercolors by Lewis Miller and copies of later engravings, are from the York County Heritage Trust collections. Why are there two distinct types of images? My theory is that the Signer, Colonel James Smith, was sometimes confused with his son, Captain James Smith.

York folk artist Lewis Miller would have been familiar with both men. Granted, he was only 10 when James Smith Sr. died, but judging by other verified contemporary likenesses, Miller had a phenomenal memory and the ability to capture the image of persons and scenes that he saw when he was quite young. Later artists and engravers may have even based their images, which have been repeated many times in books and on the internet, on Miller drawings, but did they get the right Smith? There are a couple of other supposed images of Smith--I'll post them later.

Engravings of James Smith, but which one?

Students from grades three through twelve are invited to enter the Third Annual Articles of Confederation Essay Contest, sponsored by the York Daily Record/York Sunday News and York County Heritage Trust. They can write on James Smith or any of the other delegates, the Articles of Confederation or what it would be like to live in York during 1777-78 when Continental Congress was meeting here. The deadline is October 16 and cash awards will be given. Click here for more information or email education@yorkheritage.org.

See below for my York Sunday News column on James Smith:

The 280 acres on which Camp Security was located is highlighted in yellow.

I am glad to see that there is going to be an archaeological dig this summer at the Schultz house, which was the original pre-Revolutionary house on the land that David Brubaker owned during the Revolutionary War. Camp Security was located on part of David Brubaker's 280 acres from 1781 to 1783. It is located in present-day Springettsbury Township, but it would have been part of Hellam Township at that time.

Historic York, Inc. presently owns the house and the four+ acres on which it stands. True, four+ acres is a fraction of the property in Brubaker's time, but it is a start, or restart, into exploring the only undeveloped site of an American Revolutionary War prison camp. (There were previously two limited digs done on another part of the original acreage.)

Masthead of a York-printed Pennsylvania Gazette.

The Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper is an extremely important source of information on the Revolutionary War era. Besides carrying general news of the war, the Gazette disseminated official proceedings of Continental Congress. The publishers, Hall and Sellers, were also authorized by Congress to issue broadsides of acts and to print U.S. currency.

Congress fled Philadelphia, just ahead of British occupation, and ended up meeting in York, starting on September 30, 1777. Congress was soon frustrated by the lack of a handy printing press.

A lottery, to help finance the American Revolutionary War, was held by the Second Continental Congress while they met in York. The Pennsylvania Gazette, also printed in York during that time, published several ads concerning lost lottery tickets.

Click here for more information on the York-printed Pennsylvania Gazette.

Philip Jacob King placed the ad below in the May 23, 1778 Pennsylvania Gazette. I suppose the newspaper notice was akin to cancelling your credit card when it is lost or stolen.

Camp Security was probably similar to this Charlottesville, Virginia Revolutionary War prisoner-of-war camp. Some of Camp Security's prisoners were previously detained at the Charlottesville camp.

"At York they were kept in huts newly constructed, also surrounded by a high stockade, and were also strictly guarded. At a little distance from, but in sight of, our men's huts, upon a rising ground were situated a number of huts occupied by soldiers of General Burgoyne's army, also prisoners of war, but without stockade or guard. Our men named their own camp " Security," and the other camp " Indulgence."

Exactly where were the camps described above by General Samuel Graham, one of the British troops surrendered at Yorktown? How far did they extend? We don't really know, and we will never know if more thorough archaeological investigation is not done on the site, the whole of which we now call Camp Security.

Upon returning recently from a trip to Florida to visit relatives, I discovered that there was a new proposal for development at the site of Camp Security, this time on both the Weist and Rowe parcels.

After catching up on the newspaper articles, I reread the archaeology reports produced in 1979 and 2000. The 1979 study, funded by Springettsbury Township and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, with participation of Historic York, Inc. and others, was more extensive than the 2000 archaeological survey done for the developer who owns the Wiest tract. As a result of these surveys, some features have been identified and artifacts have been found.

Those excavations and samplings are a start, but there are clearly more questions to be answered. Where was the stockade? Where was the cemetery? We have clues from contemporary reports and documents and passed down stories. Even after extensive documentary research, researchers don't agree on locations. Clearly, more definitive archaeological studies need to be done.

I was present at the October 11, 2001 meeting when Dr. Brent Glass, then Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, offered to do extensive archaeology on the site the following summer, at no cost to the developer. That offer was turned down. Once houses and condos are built on Camp Security, this last remaining American Revolution prisoner of war camp, it will be too late. Let's hope something substantial is done before time runs out.

For a concise history of Camp Security, see below for my previous York Sunday News column.

Some of the artifacts from the 1979 exploration are on display at the Pennsylvania State Museum.

Numerous newspaper stories on Camp Security and threatened development can be found by doing a search at www.InYork.com.

Copies of the archaeological reports, contemporary accounts, modern papers and much more on Camp Security are contained in file 16140 at the York County Heritage Trust Library/Archives. There is a nominal daily fee for non-members of the Trust. (It is a large file, so allow plenty of time for in depth perusal.)

Click below for links to more blogs on Camp Security.

Prisoner numbers hard to pin down.

Another clue.

Endangered site.

Marker replaced with new text.

New excavations at Schultz House near Camp Security.

Congratulations to the students who participated in the recent essay contest sponsored by the York Daily Record/Sunday News and the York County Heritage Trust.

It was my pleasure to help judge the entries. All the students who entered, as well as their teachers and parents who encouraged them, are to be commended for taking time to dig into national history with a local twist.

The students in grades 6-8 and 9-12 were to write a letter home as if they were one of the delegates to Continental Congress meeting in York in 1777-78. They could tell about the problems of living in York Town as well as the heavy challenges they faced in molding one nation out of 13 diverse colonies.

Those in grades 3-5 could choose to write a biography of one of the delegates who served here.

See below for links to the winning essays as well as a link to the Library of Congress online transcriptions to the original Letters of Congress.

First National Thanksgiving Marker, East Market Street, York

Have you passed by the marker above, tucked into a mini-park in downtown York, PA, and wondered about the story behind it?

The marker reads: "THE FIRST NATIONAL THANKSGIVING WAS PROCLAIMED FROM YORK BY THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS ON NOVEMBER 1, 1777 TO BE CELEBRATED ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18. IT WAS WRITTEN BY SAM ADAMS OF MASSACHUSETTES, 'THE FATHER OF THE REVOLUTION,' WHO ADVOCATED FOR THE FIRST TIME 'ONE PUBLIC DAY OF THANKSGIVING' FOR ALL OF THE STATES AFTER THE BATTLE OF SARATOGA 'THAT WITH ONE HEART AND ONE VOICE THE GOOD PEOPLE MAY EXPRESS THE GRATEFUL FEELINGS OF THEIR HEARTS.' BY VARIOUS HISTORICAL AND PATRIOTIC SOCIETIES AND THE NATIONAL THANKSGIVING FOUNDATION."

Researching history is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. You take little odd-shaped pieces and try to fit them together to create a complete picture.

Along with others, I have been gathering information for years on Camp Security, where British prisoners of war were detained from 1781 to 1783.

Click here for background on Camp Security.

The camp was located on part of David Brubaker's 280 acres, about four and a half miles east of York in the area of Stony Brook. That land has been subdivided since, with the two largest remaining parcels known as the Wiest and Rowe properties.

Some previously untapped sources have recently come to light.

If you are reading this, you are probably interested in York County history and know that York was the capital of the United States from the end of September 1777 through June 1778. The Revolutionary War was in full swing, and the British were occupying Philadelphia, which had been the capital of the new nation.

Congress moved west and settled in York for the duration, putting nearly a hundred miles, including the mile-wide Susquehanna River, between them and British General Howe and his troops.

It seems that many Americans of the time, when they heard Congress was meeting in York, said "York? Where's that?" John Adams wrote wife Abigail that he had to take a circuitous route of 180 miles to avoid the British on his way to York, which he estimated was not more than 88 miles from Philadelphia.

Abigail was confused and wrote James Lovell, friend of both Adamses who was also serving in Congress at York, for clarification. She said that John said they were 88 miles from Philadelphia, but she didn't know which way. Were they closer to Boston or further away? Lovell drew her a map.