History of Cumberland and Adams counties, Pennsylvania. Containing history of the counties, their townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc.; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc, Part 129

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Publisher: W. Taylor
Number of Pages: 1280

USA > Pennsylvania > Adams County > History of Cumberland and Adams counties, Pennsylvania. Containing history of the counties, their townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc.; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc > Part 129
USA > Pennsylvania > Cumberland County > History of Cumberland and Adams counties, Pennsylvania. Containing history of the counties, their townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc.; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc > Part 129

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Gen. David B. Birney sworn. In reference to councils at Meade's head- quarters, and referring to a council of Saturday night after the battle he said: " In this council it was suggested that the enemy were making a flank move- mont, and would probably try to interpose between us and Washington. At this council, Saturday night, it was decided to remain twenty-four hours longer in our position, and that Gen. Sedgwick, who had come up with fresh troops, whose troops had not been in the fight, should be sent with his corps to find out as to the enemy's right, and as to their position on our extremo left, to see whether they were still in position. I was also ordered to send out a re- connoisance at daylight (Sunday) to ascertain the position of the enemy. 1 did so carly Sunday morning, and reported that the enemy were in full retreat."

In answer to a question, he said of the Saturday night council: "There were several, I think, voted on Saturday night for retiring to another posi- *

* * It was a matter of some doubt in the council on Saturday night whether we should remain or retire; but it was finally decided to remain there twenty-four hours longer before we made any retrogrado movement. It was decided not to make any aggressive movement, but simply to await developments."

Gen. G. K. Warren testified: " On the evening of the 4th of July, there was a discussion of the question whether we should move right after the enemy through the mountains or move toward Frederick; that question was not decided, for the reason that we did not know enough about the enemy, and to have gone off the battle-field before the enemy did would have been giving up the victory to them. And then if the enemy had gone, it was a question which way to go after him. To go right after him was a good way in one respect; but then we had to get all our provisions from Frederick." In another place he said: "We commenced the pursuit with the Sixth Corps on the 5th of July, and on the 6th a large portion of the army moved toward Emmittsburg, and all that was left followed the next day. On July 7 the headquarters were at Frederick. On the 8th of July headquarters were at Middleton, and nearly all the army was concentrated in the neighborhood of that place and South Mountain. On the 9th of July headquarters were at South Mountain House, and the advance of the army at Boonsboro and Rohrers- ville; on the 10th of July the headquarters, Antietam Creck," etc., etc.

It should have properly been previously stated that Meade's testimony fully showed that he ordered Sickles to form, resting his right on Hancock's left and perfecting the line along Cemetery Ridge to Round Top, and instead of his doing this he took a position from a half to three-quarters of a mile in advance of Hancock's line, and this forced the opening of the second day's fight at that point.

Gen. Butterfield, chief of staff, testified that at the council of the 4th of July. Gen. Meade propounded four questions, as follows: First, "Shall this army remain here?" Second, " If we remain here, shall we assume the offen sive?" Third. "Do you deem it expedient to move toward Williamsport through Emmittsburg?" Fourth, "Shall we pursue the enemy, if he is re- treating. on the direct line of retreat?" Those in favor of remaining in Gettys- burg were Birney, Sedgwick. Sykes, Hays and Warren; opposed: Newton, Pleasouton and Slocum; doubtful, Howard.

tion *

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HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY.

Gen. Sedgwick testified among other matters, in answering a question if any effort was made by Meade, after Pickett's repulse, to assume the offensive against the enemy: "My impression," he said, "is that Gen. Sykes was or- dered to send out a strong reconnoitering party to ascertain if the enemy were retreating, or if he could force them to retreat. * I was pres- ent with Gen. Sykes when he gave the order, and was present when the troops returned. They met the enemy in considerable force, which checked them, and forced their return."

Gen. Seth Williams, assistant adjutant-general of the Army of the Poto- mac, when asked what time on the third day of the battle it became known the enemy was retreating, replied that he " did not think it was exactly known at all during that day that the enemy was actually retreating. The enemy had fallen back to the woods, from which he emerged when he made the attack. I do not think it was until the next morning and along in the forenoon that we were certain he had abandoned his position."

NUMERICAL STRENGTH OF THE TWO ARMIES.

When the Count de Paris wrote his "Civil War in America," he had had access to the official reports of Lee and Meade and the files in the War De- partment. Gen. Doubleday, in his "Chancellorsville and Getttysburg," indorses the Count de Paris' account of the Gettysburg battle as correct sub- stantially throughout, especially in its statistics. In speaking upon this point the Count says: "The strength of the two armies has given rise to lively discus- sions. The returns, used at the North and South in similar forms, have been increased by some and reduced by others at their own pleasure. These returns were under three heads: The first represented the total number of officers and soldiers inscribed on the rolls, whether absent or present; the second repre- sented those present on active duty, comprising all men who were in the field- hospitals and under arrest, or detached on special service; the third contained the real number of combatants present under arms. The first head, therefore, was quite fictitious; the second mentioned the number of men to be fed in the army, including non-combatants; the third, the effective force that could be brought on the battle-field. The latter number is evidently the most impor- tant to know, but, as we have observed, it varied greatly, for a long march in a week of bad weather was sufficient to fill the hospitals: In ordinary times it was from twelve to eighteen per cent less than under the second head. It did not always represent exactly the precise number of combatants; in fact, when, after a long march, the stragglers did not answer to roll-call, they were not immediately set down as deserters, which would have caused them to lose a por- tion of their pay, a few days' grace was granted to them, and the result was that thousands of soldiers, separated from their commands, followed the army at a distance, unable to take part in any battle, and yet figuring on the returns as able-bodied combatants."

He then estimates from this source a diminution of our army of 13,000 men. These are, however, but estimates, and one man has as much right to form estimates as another. The Count makes the showing so very reasonable that we accept it as conclusive. They are the necessary concomitants of moving armies, illustrated by the experience of soldiers in all wars, and there- fore are properly a part of the considerations to be taken in the estimates. But he returns to official statistics, leaving the domain of estimates, and again we quote his words: "The Army of the Potomac, without French's division, which had not gone beyond Frederick, numbered on its returns on the 30th of

June, 167,251 men. * * * simply presenting the figures that have

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HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY.

been given us, which we believe to be as near the truth as possible. The Army of Northern Virginia (rebel), on May 31, 1863, contained an effective force of 88, 754 officers and soldiers present, 74.468 of whom were under arms. " * * *

We have transposed the words of the Count solely to place the two state- ments, for the easier understanding of the reader, side by side. Of each of the armies, he then gives the following details: "More than 21,000" [of the Army of the Potomac] "were on detached service, and nearly 28,000 in the hospitals. The number of men present with their corps was 112,988, and that of men under arms, 99.475; but this last figure included those doing duty at headquarters, who formed a total of 2,750 men who could not be counted among the combatants. Stanard's and Lockwood's brigades having brought Meade a reinforcement of about 5,000 men on the 1st of July, the effective forces borne on the returns may be stated as follows:

Troops taking no part in battle. 3,750

Artillery

Cavalry. 10,500

7,000

Infantry

85,500

Total.

And 352 pieces of artillery.

.105,750

"The artillery and infantry, which were alone seriously engaged, even at the battle of Gettysburg, form, therefore, a total of about 91,000 men, and 327 pieces of cannon, Meade having left twenty-five heavy guns in reserve at Westminster. But, in order to ascertain the real number of combatants that the Union General could bring into line, it is proper to deduct from 3,000 to 4,000 left as additional guards near the supply trains, the batteries remaining at Westminster, and for all men detached on extra duty, and from 4,000 to 5,000 for the stragglers entered on the returns. The latter were more numerous on account of the fact that, the returns having only been prepared at the end of July, those who joined the army after the battle were entered as being present; so that the rolls only represent the number of those absent without leave at the totally insignificant figure of 3,292. This deduction makes the effective forces of Meade amount to from 82,000 to 84,000 men.

"Lee's forces, during June, were increased by the return of a certain num- ber of sick, and those who had been wounded at Chancellorsville, by the arri- val of recruits, the result of the conscription law, and by the addition of four brigades-two of infantry under Pettigrew and Davis, one of cavalry under Jenkins, and one of mixed troops under Imboden. The first was nearly 4,000 strong, that of Davis consisting of four regiments, which were not borne on the returns of May 31, although two of them had formerly belonged to the enemy, numbering about 2, 200 men; the other two contained each about the same effective force. The increase of artillery amounted to fifteen batteries, comprising sixty-two pieces of cannon and about 800 men. On the other hand this effective force was diminishod, first, by the absence of Carn's brig- ade of Pickett's division, and one regiment of Pettigrew's brigade left at Han- over Junction, and three regiments of Early's division left at Winchester-say about 3,500 men; then by the loss sustained in the battles of Fleetwood, Win- chester and Aldie, amounting to 1,400 men; finally, by the admission to the hospitals of men unable to bear the fatigue of the long marches which the army had to make, and the absence of those who, voluntarily or otherwise, re- mained behind during these marches. It is difficult to reckon precisely the

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HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY.

number of the disabled, of stragglers and of deserters that the army had lost during the month of June. Private information and the comparison of some figures lead us to believe that it was not very large, and did not exceed 5 per cent of the effective force of the army-say 3,750 men in all. We can therefore estimate the diminution of the army at about 3, 700 men on the one hand, and its increase, on the other hand, by the addition of three brigades and some artillery, at 7,000. We believe that the difference of 1. 700 between these two figures must be lessened at least from 1,000 to 1,200 by the return of the sick and wounded and the arrival of a number of conscripts; that, con- sequently, the Army of Northern Virginia arrived on the battle-field of Gettys- burg with about 5,000 combatants more than it had on the 31st of May, 1863 -that is to say, in the neighborhood of 80,000 men. As we have done in re- gard to the Federal Army, in order to find out the amount of the force really assembled on the battle field, we will deduct the number of mounted men, which was increased by Jenkins' and Imboden's forces, and reduced in the same proportion,* making about 12,000 men; and we may conclude that, during the first three days of July, 1863, Lee brought from 68,000 to 69,000 men and 250 gunst against the 82,000 or 84,000 Unionists with 300 guns col- lected on this battle-field. Meade had, therefore, from 14,000 to 15,000 men more than his adversary, a superiority which, unfortunately for him, he was nnable to turn to advantage.

" The losses on both sides were nearly equal, and enormous for the number of combatants engaged, for they amounted to 27 per cent on the side of the Federals, and more than 36 per cent for the Confederates. Upon this point. also, the official reports are precise. The Federals lost 2,834 killed, 13,709 wounded, and 6,645 prisoners-23. 186 men in all; the Confederates lost 2,625 killed. 12,599 wounded, and 7,464 missing-22,728 in all; which, with the 300 men killed or wounded in the cavalry on the 2d or 3d, foot up their total losses at a little more than 23,000 men; that is to say, precisely the same number as those of their adversaries. These figures, however, do not yet convey a correct idea of the injury the two armies had inflicted upon each other in these bloody battles. Thus, while the Federal reports acknowledge only 2,834 killed, the reports made by the hospitals bear evidence to the burial of 3,575 Union corpses; the number of dead in the Army of the Potomac may be estimated at about 4,000, 1,000 or 1,100 having died of their wounds. On the other hand, Meade has 13,621 Confederate prisoners; but, as there are 7,262 wounded among them, there only remain 6,359 able-bodied men. The number of 7,464, reckoned by Lee as the number of men missing, must there- fore represent, besides these able-bodied prisoners, most of the men seriously wounded during the attack made by Pickett and Heth, and abandoned on the battle-field. We must therefore estimate the number of Confederates wounded at more than 13,600. It is reasonable to suppose that, after the combat, the number of their dead increased more rapidly for a few days than in the Union Army."

EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BATTLE.

No portion of the Northern States suffered equally with this part of Penn- sylvania, or to speak more clearly, with Adams County, in the late war. It was on the part of the people of this county, more than even any other county in the State-all sacrifices, losses, suffering, the general destruction of proper-

*Twelve hundred cavalrymen lost in the battles of Fleetwood, Aldie, Upperville, and Hanover; 200 maimed and sick.

+These figures relate to the guns actually nn the battle-field, deducting those attached to Stuart's command on the one hand, and to Pleasonton's on the other.

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HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY.

ty and the total prostration of business, with no compensating advantages. Gettysburg saw its business of various kinds, where the patient labor of years and years had been expended and prosperous business built up, literally wiped out. as we might wipe off a slate with a wet sponge. Adams was a border coun- ty, and in addition to this, it was the open gateway for invasion of the State by the rebels. It lay in the natural highway of a foe tempted to invade this great and rich commonwealth, and it now seems like a strange oversight in the Government that not even a rendezvous, a soldier's hospital or any other nu- clens of the great army was ever established here. All around us were more or less of these in all the other counties, but nothing was here where it was palpably a necessity. A proper action in this respect would have saved the North, especially the State and the people of the county, incalculable losses and sufferings. Here should have been the great rendezvous for all those loose ends of our great armies; the 100-day men, the 90-day men, the convales- cing. the new recruits, the point of rendezvous for the discharged. and all the other thousands of shreds and floating and passing remnants that, if kept part- ly collected here, would have been notice to the enemy that no lone awkward squads had better venture near. These regular and natural movements of our army would have gone a long way toward fortifying this great and inviting gateway to the enemy. It might have prevented all invasion of the North, and certainly it would have checked and turned away those daring cavalry raids of Stuart that were such a grievous infliction upon the people of the county. The enemy would see the gate open and not a soul on guard. The inviting fields and the splendid horses in every stable, and the toothsome viands in every lar- der, were a sufficient temptation to a badly mounted, tired and hungry troop- er. and very naturally he invited himself to the feast prepared for him.

For three years during the five years of bloody contention, Adams County was virtually a part of the seat of war. Actually invaded three times, and eventually the Waterloo of the great Southern Army, where the horrid issues culminated much as it did with the "Little Corporal" whose destiny was burned up in the flames that destroyed Waterloo. In 1862 Stuart circled our army in his first great northern raid, and his entire command passed up through the western part of this county. They made casy stages for them- selves through this part of their route. Flying squads and scattered troopers, in squads of half a dozen to 100 or 200, were free to pry into every nook and cranny of the county; there was literally nothing to obstruct their way or even compel them to caution. Now here, now there, they apparently were at every farm-house for their regular meals, and riding, eating and swapping horses was their jolly pastime. Except the great scare inflicted upon the people these bold raiders did no great harm. They ate many a farmer's smoke-house and cellar literally bare, and left many a broken-down scrub horse in the stall where had stood the farmer's sleek and favored family pets; yet these were trivial affairs. But it opened the people's eyes to the position they were in; it was a real confirmation of the disturbing rumors that for some time would pass over the county, telling that the enemy was heading this way with bloody in- tent upon the quiet and unarmed people. Just as these rumors had begun to be regarded as idle and foolish talk, and sober people began to feel that there was no danger, then came Stuart and his cavalry, and showed the people how helpless and wholly unprotected they were. The partially restored confidence was at once gone, and it could not return until the war was over and the ene- my had ceased to exist as an organization.

This first actual invasion, added to the disturbing rumors that for a year had passed around, completely prostrated all business in the county. The com-

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HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY.

mencement of open hostilities struck a blow at every manufacturing business in the county that had then just commenced to grow and prosper and that promised brightly for the future, because it cut off all Southern trade, the very markets upon which our people in some respects wholly relied, and it brought no compensating business or trade from any other direction. Gettysburg was just then rapidly growing in importance, especially its chair and carriage fac- tories were developing into great industries. There were probably 200 skilled workmen here at the commencement of the war, engaged in the making of carriages and buggies alone. Here was the timber in boundless quantities and unsurpassed, and already had the concerns such a foothold that they would have kept pace with the demands of the country in improved machinery and enlargement of their works, and firmly held their position and well filled the limitless demands that have been supplied ever since from other points. So completely were all these factories destroyed that now there is not even the old tumble-down and decaying buildings left to mark the spot where they stood. Every vestige has disappeared.

The great invasion of Lee's army is a part of the general history of our country. It was more than a passage through the country. A great army of the enemy came a settler, temporarily, within the borders of the county. Their coming brought a greater army of our own forces. Before either army got away, the devastation all over the county was complete. The enemy had re- spected private property, it is true, to a degree, perhaps, never before known by an armed force in the enemy's country. But soldiers, either friends or en- emies, will forage more or less, and when they are hungry (and a good soldier is always ravenous for at least a change in his camp diet) will devour the sub- stance of the country where they may happen to be; when not fighting they are eating and wasting. Their march is destruction, more or less, in any ag- ricultural country.

After the battle of Gettysburg, and the armies had passed over the hills and away, they left the bloody debris of the great battle-field, the decaying bodies of unburied men and dead horses and a country swept bare of nearly everything, as the heritage of the citizens. And this and the maimed and dying on the hands of the charity of a people, who had really little except their labors to bestow in charity, were all the blessings they left behind them. The crops of the farmers had been indiscriminately destroyed; fences were completely gone. The smoke-houses were empty and so were the barns, and those who did not lose their stock were left with nothing to feed them, and wealthy farmers had to sell their half-starved horses for whatever they could get. So completely were the farm fences destroyed that, we are told, you could start at Gettysburg and ride, following any point of the compass, to any part of the county unobstructed, so far as a farm fence was concerned. These misfortunes have all been remedied, and such losses made good by time and labor. The work of rebuilding was pushed with characteristic industry. But when we referred to irreparable losses we had not these in mind. It was the total destruction of organized industries-these were all driven away, and, it seems, they are never to return. They were all in that young stage of devel- opment that when forced to flee they were never in a condition to care to re- turn. Thus were permanently injured the prosperity and growing wealth of the county.

With the defeat of Lee's grand army and its return to Virginia there was yet not an end to the baneful influences of war here. The country was again invaded, when they burned Chambersburg, and thus new terrors were added to the already gloomy apprehensions of our people. It began to look like

Milliano Bream

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HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY.

utter annihilation impended. People had but little heart to even make a strug- gle to provide for future life. Despair took the place in the perturbed minds of men when long they had hoped against hope. Had not the wheels of all industry stopped before, certainly they would stop now; and be assured they did. The bone and sinew of the county were away in the ranks, filling the great red gaps of battle upon the bloody fields, or wasting away in the coun- try's hospitals.

To all this was the great tax upon the people of providing and caring for the wounded from the bloody battle field of Gettysburg, and then in burying the dead that had been left lying where they fell. Rebel and Union lay rotting in the hot sun side by side. People threw open their private houses; the churches, the schoolhouses, the public halls, and even the barns and stables. rang with the groans and agony of the shot, maimed and mutilated, that filled apparently every place, and still the field of death and agony could yet fur- nish more victims. The churches looked much as though they had been con- vorted into butchers' stalls. The entire community became hospital nurses, cooks, waiters or grave-diggers. In this wide expanse of Christian charity, rebel and Union sufferers were cared for without material distinction. The Government ambulances commenced to carry away from the field their bleed- ing cargoes; soon every wheeled vehicle was at work bearing its loads of bleed- ing agony, filled with its pale sufferers garnered from the field where the can- non, the musket, the rifle and the saber had mowed their hideous swaths in living human ranks. Would these whirling wheels, in their quick trips back and forth as they dumped their loads of sufferers, never stop? What a swollen, great rushing river of agony! Literally half the surface of the entire county was a hospital, and every farm-house, barn, stable, outbuilding, for twenty miles square, was full to overflowing. The beds, the floors, the yards, every- where, were they cared for, and behind them in the lines of battle, in the brush, by the side of the little spring streams where they had so painfully dragged themselves or sometimes been carried by their companions, were the uncollect- ed dead and dying mostly. What a ghastly harvest to gather from the fair and peaceful fields of Adams County. And when the poor bruised and maimed bodies were gathered in this widely extended hospital and laid side by side, what never-to-be-forgotten scenes were there. The pale sufferers, the flushed. feverish and raving maniacs, whose reason had given way as they lay upon the field suffering, and watching the stars, and welcoming the storm and rain, that came like pitying tears from heaven to soften their hardening, blood-clotted clothes, to moisten their horrid wounds and cool the raging fevers of their brows-Union and rebels, sons and fathers and brothers. Here the smooth- cheeked boy, the darling, the pet and hope of home; there the lusty man, yes- terday in the prime of life and strength, in the midst of his suffering and pain turning to the grizzled-haired husband and father lying by his side, and who wanderingly talks of home, and addresses by name the different ones of his family, to feebly minister with his one yet sound hand to this pitiful sufferer, and in this charity for a moment forces himself to forget his own, still perhaps incurable, wounds.

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Author: Publication date: Publisher: W. Taylor Number of Pages: 1280

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher: W. Taylor
Number of Pages: 1280