History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 73

Author: Prowell, George R.
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1372

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THE CIVIL WAR

40I

The Union line was in position on the summit a horse-shoe

The Second Day. of shaped ridge. From flank to flank was nowhere more than a mile and a quarter and the troops could be moved to any part of their line behind a protecting ridge. The Confederates held a line on the exterior side of this ridge and their entire line was in full view of the signal stations of the Union army. These conditions enabled the Union commanders to anticipate the places where the Confed- erates intended to attack and gave them time to always concentrate the greater number of troops at the point of attack. The topography of the field suggested the tactics that should be employed in the bat- tle. On the morning of July 2d, General Sickles, with the Third Corps, had been as- signed a position in the main line to the north of Little Round Top, but this position being commanded by the higher ground, a mile to the west, Sickles marched Humph- reys' division to the Emmittsburg road and extended Birney's division eastward from the Emmittsburg road to Little Round Top. General Meade did not approve of this, but, as Longstreet almost immediately attacked, Sickles was directed to hold his position. Though Sickles was reinforced by two . divisions of the Fifth Corps and Caldwell's division of the Second Corps, all these forces were pressed back to the Union line and Longstreet only ceased his attacks when the firm front presented by tlre Sixth Corps and a charge of the Pennsylvania Re- serves, left no hope of final success. Mean- while, General Warren, seeing the enemy advancing to seize Little Round Top, and knowing that, if occupied by the Confed- erates with artillery, the entire Union line would be rendered untenable, brought rein- forcements, which, after a most desperate and bloody contest, drove the Confederates back into the valley. In this encounter the Union Generals Vincent and Weed were mortally wounded. Lee had ordered Hill and Ewell to make an attack with their corps in concert with Longstreet, but Hill began his attack on the Union center after Longstreet had ceased. Hill actually pene- trated the Union line, but was driven out with heavy loss by Hancock's troops and a division of the First Corps under Double- day. Somewhat later, Ewell made an

attack upon Howard's Eleventh Corps posted on Cemetery Hill and captured sev- eral batteries, but with the assistance of Carroll's brigade of the Second Corps (sent by Hancock) Howard's troops re-captured the batteries and drove back the Confed- erates. At a later hour, Ewell attacked Culp's Hill and gained possession of the vacated entrenchments of Geary's and Rogers' divisions. As it was now quite dark, the Confederates made no further advance.

Early on the forenoon of July 3, the

The Twelfth Corps, having returned

Third from the left flank, the Confeder-

Day. ates, after a hard contest, were

driven back to

their former position. The numerous attacks on the main line of the Union army on the second day having all been unsuccessful, Lee de- termined to make another attempt on the third day upon the Union center. Long- street was ordered to make a powerful at- tack with Pickett's, Pender's and half of Trimble's divisions, supported by parts of Anderson's division, and Stuart, who had arrived with his cavalry, was to create a diversion in favor of Longstreet's assault by attacking Gregg's Union cavalry on the Union right flank. To further support these movements, 135 Confederate guns were placed in position, so as to concentrate their fire on the Union center and disperse the forces assembled there. Under this ter- rific fire many Union artillerymen were killed and wounded by bursting shells and exploding caissons. As the Union com- manders anticipated that a storming attack of Confederate infantry would follow, they saved their ammunition and replaced damaged batteries by fresh ones. As

Longstreet's assaulting column advanced, the Union artillery swept the plain. But undeterred, the Confederates marched on and struck Gibbon's division of Hancock's Second Corps, by whom and by Double- day's division of the First Corps, they were repulsed and driven back to their own lines. Stuart's flank attack on Gregg was checked and he was forced to retreat. At the same time, Farnsworth's and Meredith's brigades of Union cavalry made an attack on Long- street's right flank that prevented that officer from sending additional troops to support Pickett's assault. Thus ended this great battle.

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

Back to Virginia. The next day, July 4, Lee drew back his flanks and that night began his retreat to Williams- port, Maryland. The Union cavalry and the Sixth Corps attacked the retreating Confederates, but were unable to bring Lee to a stand before he had placed his army behind a strongly intrenched line

manded a division under General Franklin at the battle of Antietam. Later he com- manded the Second Corps in the Army of the Potomac. General Couch took up his headquarters at Harrisburg and in that city assisted in organizing the Pennsylvania Emergency troops to aid in resisting the advance of the Confederate army under on the banks of the Potomac. There Lee Lee, into the State of Pennsylvania. remained until the Potomac, swollen by high water, began to subside, when, on the night of July 4, he crossed the river and the Gettysburg campaign came to an end. The Union loss

was 3,072 killed, 14,497 wounded, 5,434 missing, total, 23,003.

The Confederate loss was 2,592 killed, 12,709 wounded, 5,150 missing, total 20,451.

On the Union side Generals Reynolds, Vincent, Weed, Zook and Farnsworth were killed, and Sickles, Hancock, Doubleday, Gibbon, Barlow, Warren, Butterfield, Gra- ham, Stannard, Paul, Barnes, Brooke and Webb wounded.

Among the Confederates, Generals Arm- istead, Barksdale, Garnett, Pender, Semmes and Pettigrew were killed. Among the wounded were Generals Anderson, Hamp- ton, Jenkins, J. M. Jones, Kemper and Scales.

The battle of Gettysburg ended in a vic- tory to the Union arms. It was the last time that a large Confederate force set foot upon the soil of Pennsylvania. A few days before the battle, in accordance with Lee's orders, General Jubal A. Early, with a division of Ewell's Corps, moved forward through York County. In order to pre- serve the facts of local interest, relating to this eventful period, a detailed account of Early's movement is given.

CHAPTER XXIV CIVIL WAR-Continued

Emergency Troops-Colonel White's Raid -Early's Division at York-Gordon at Wrightsville-Jubal A. Early-John B. Gordon-U. S. Hospital at York.

On the IIth of June, 1863, General D. N. Couch, of the Regular army, was appointed commander of the Department of the Sus- quehanna. He was a native of New York State, a graduate of West Point, who had served in the Seminole war, in Florida, and on the western frontier, and also com-

Hon. Andrew G. Curtin was war gov- ernor of Pennsylvania from 1861 to 1863. when he was re-elected for another term of three years. He was one of the ablest men in the country, then holding the high posi- tion as the chief executive of a state. It was largely through his intelligent efforts and patriotism that this commonwealth sent to the front nearly 366,000 men, during the four years that the war continued. He sat in the executive mansion at Harrisburg in June, 1863, watching, with the closest in- terest, the movement of General Robert E. Lee, with nearly 80,000 men, the flower of the Confederacy, beginning to invade Penn- sylvania. When the southern army was approaching Gettysburg, on June 26, he issued the following proclamation, which was widely distributed throughout the state :

"The enemy is advancing

Governor's in force into Pennsylvania. . Proclamation. He has a strong column within 23 miles of Harris- burg, and other columns are moving by Fulton and Adams Counties, and it can no longer be doubted that a formidable in- vasion of our state is in actual progress. The calls already made for volunteer militia in the exigency have not been met as fully as the crisis requires.

"I, therefore, now issue this, my procla- mation, calling for 60,000 men to come promptly forward to defend the state. They will be mustered into the service of the state for the period of ninety days, but will be required to serve only so much of the period of muster as the safety of our people and honor of our state may require. They will rendezvous at points to be desig- nated in the general orders to be issued this day by the adjutant-general of Pennsyl- vania, which orders will also set forth the details of the arrangement for organization, clothing, subsistence, equipments, and sup- plies."

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THE CIVIL WAR

Emergency Troops. Twentieth, Twenty-sixth

Thirty-third Emergency Regiments were organized in different parts of the state, largely at Harrisburg. There were several independent companies, including one con- taining seventeen veterans of the War of 1812, carrying the tattered flag used by Washington's army in the battle of Tren- ton, in 1776. These Emergency troops were all under the command of General Couch. Some of the regiments were sta- tioned in central and western Pennsylvania. Others were sent up the Cumberland Val- ley to Carlisle. The Twentieth Regiment, under command of Colonel William B. Thomas, was stationed along the Northern Central Railway between Harrisburg and the Maryland line. One detachment of this regiment, under command of Colonel Thomas, on the 27th of June, was sent to guard the bridges across the Conewago Creek at York Haven. Another battalion of the same regiment, under command of Lieutenant Colonel William H. Sickles, was sent to guard the railroad bridges from York to the Maryland line. The story of the approach of General Early's division of the Second Army Corps, under General Richard S. Ewell, as told by the dispatches of the time, show the feeling which per- vaded Pennsylvania at the time of this in- vasion.

General William F. Smith, of Vermont, who had won a good record as a soldier at South Mountain and Antietam in 1862, and later commanded the Eighteenth Army Corps, under Grant, was placed in charge of a division of troops, which rendezvoused at Carlisle, on June 27. He is familiarly known in the history of the Civil War as General "Baldy" Smith. Major Granville O. Haller, a native of York, graduate of West Point, and a soldier who served in the same regiment with General Grant in the Mexican War, was then an aide on the staff of Gen- eral Couch. He was detailed from the staff of his commanding officer, and was sent to Gettysburg, arriving there on June 25.

The Twenty-sixth Emer-

Twenty-Sixth gency Regiment, Pennsylvania. com- manded by Colonel Wil- liam H. Jennings, had left

When the invasion of Lee's the state capital on the evening of the 24th, army was first anticipated, the were halted on the way by a railroad acci- to dent and reached Gettysburg, by way of Thirty-first inclusive, and York, on the morning of the 26th. Joseph S. Jenkins, of Hanover, who had been severely wounded while commanding a company of the One Hundred and Thirtieth Regiment at the battle of Antietam, was lieutenant colonel of this regiment. Har- vey W. McKnight, who recently retired from the office of president of Pennsylvania College at Gettysburg, was the adjutant. Company A, commanded by Rev. Frederick A. Klinefelter, of York, was largely com- posed of students then attending that insti- tution and the theological seminary. Dr. Edmund W. Meisenhelder, for many years a leading physician of York, and Rev. J. C. Koller, D. D., for thirty years pastor of St. Matthew's Lutheran Church, at Hanover, both served in this company. Company I was recruited by Captain John S. Forrest, at Hanover.

The only other Federal soldiers on June 26, in Gettysburg and vicinity, were the City Troop of Philadelphia, a company of cavalry which had been organized during the Revolution, and at the time of the Con- federate invasion, commanded by Samuel J. Randall, afterward a distinguished lawyer and statesman, and a local company of cav- alry recruited by Captain Robert C. Bell, in Adams County.

It was known to Major Haller, as well as to the authorities at Harrisburg, that the advance of the Confederate army under General Lee, had crossed the Potomac . River at Williamsport, a short distance above Hagerstown, Maryland, but at this juncture Major Haller did not know that 9,000 infantry and nearly 1,000 cavalry had crossed the South Mountains by the Cham- bersburg turnpike and were approaching Gettysburg. On the morning of the 26th, Major Haller sent Jennings' regiment three miles west of the town, while Captain Bell's cavalry acted as scouts to observe the movement of the approaching enemy and report to the commanding officer. The mountains and the valley west of Gettys- burg were veiled in a dense fog, which pre- vented the Union troops from seeing Early and his men moving down the turnpike. Samuel W. Pennypacker, governor of Pennsylvania, was then a college student

404

HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

at Gettysburg. He enlisted as a private in in battle line in the vicinity of Dillsburg. Company F of the Twenty-sixth Regiment. At 2 o'clock on Sunday, June 28, the On September 1, 1892, this regiment Twenty-sixth reached Fort Washington, opposite Harrisburg, with a loss of 176 men captured and all its equipage and supplies. erected a monument at Gettysburg. In his speech delivered at the time of the dedica- tion of this monument, Governor Penny- packer said: "Our regiment marched out the Chambersburg pike to confront the ap- proaching host. The men upon whom this duty was imposed coming from the field, the college and the home, had been in ser- vice just four days ; not long enough to have The following is a muster roll of Com- acquired a knowledge. of the drill, hardly pany I, Twenty-sixth Emergency Regiment : long enough to know their officers."

Jennings had moved his regiment

Met three miles west on the turnpike,

the where he was surprised and

Enemy. driven back by Early's advance. The Thirty-fifth battalion of Vir- ginia cavalry, commanded by Colonel White, came within firing distance and a few shots were exchanged. When the cav- alry dashed upon them, the regiment broke and fell back toward Gettysburg, having lost 170 officers and men, nearly all of whom were paroled the next day. Company B was almost entirely captured and Company I, of Hanover, lost nearly half its number as prisoners, including Captain Forrest. He was marched at the head of the line with some other officers until Gordon's ad- vance reached York, two days later.

A small detachment of the regiment, First after falling back to Gettysburg, had

to a sharp encounter with a part of

Fall. White's cavalry in the streets of the town. About the same time, Cor- poral Sandoe, a member of Bell's cavalry, was shot and killed a short distance below the National Cemetery on the Baltimore turnpike. He was the first victim of the battle of Gettysburg, and a monument marks the spot where he fell. The Twenty- sixth Regiment halted at Hunterstown, four miles northeast of Gettysburg, and was drawn up in line of battle. Here this regi- ment engaged in a sharp conflict with White's cavalry, which was repulsed. The encounter lasted about twenty minutes.

The Twenty-sixth Pennsylvania Emer- gency Regiment offered the first resistance to Lee's forces encountered before the coming of the Army of the Potomac. This regiment fired the opening shots of the bat- tle of Gettysburg.

Officers-Captain-John S. Forrest. First Lieuten- ant-John Q. Pfeiffer. Second Lieutenant-Alexander T. Barnes. Sergeants-Joel Henry, William H. Mc- Causland, Howard N. Deitrick, Napoleon B. Carver, Charles Young. Corporals-Josiah Rinehart, Thomas Sneeringer, Henry Schultz, David E. Winebrenner, Henry C. Bucher, Amos F. Klinefelter, Charles T. Kump, Charles W. Thomas.

Privates-William Althoff, Noah Allison, William Bair, William H. Bastress, William F. Baum, William A. Beard, James Blair, John F. Blair, Edward Bol- linger, John Bond, David F. Forney, William G. Forney, Jacob Freet, William Gantz, Jacob Gardner, Martin Graybill, Lewin Heathcote, Martin Hitzel, Addison M. Herman, John J. Hersh, Josiah D. Hersh, Barthabus Himes, John H. Hinkle, Lewis V. Holter, William H. Holter, Washington J. Johnson, Lewis B. Jones, Isaac Jones, William Leader, Isaac Loucks, Henry C. Metz- gar, Jacob H. Michael, Michael D. Myers, William A. Myers, Aaron McLean, Mahlon H. Naill, Hezekiah Ports, Henry H. Pfeiffer, John J. Sanders. George W. Sherman, George E. Sherwood, Henry W. Shriver, William H. Snyder, Eli Snyder, Daniel J. Snyder, Ovid Stahl, George E. Trone, Oliver Trone, Samuel E. Trone, Fabius N. Wagener, Samuel Weigle, John Wil- ling, Calvin Wirt, William C. Wolf. Cornelius Young, Martin Zimmerman.

It was now evident to the authorities at Harrisburg, that Lee's entire army was moving toward the Susquehanna River. The Second Corps, under General Ewell, on the 26th, was moving through Cham- bersburg toward Carlisle. The First Corps, under General Longstreet, and the Third, under Hill, were crossing the Potomac at Williamsport. Three brigades of the Con- federate cavalry corps, in command of Gen- eral J. E. B. Stuart, left Culpepper, Virginia, crossed the Potomac at Rowser's Ford on the night of June 28, and moved northward on the right flank of the Potomac army, reaching Westminster on the 29th, and came in contact with Kilpatrick's cavalry at Hanover on the morning of June 30.

As Early's whole force was approaching Gettysburg, Jennings ordered his regiment to fall back in haste toward Dillsburg. A When Governor Curtin discov- Refugees. ered that the enemy intended to invade Pennsylvania, he ordered detachment of the Seventeenth Virginia cavalry, commanded by Colonel French, and two infantry companies, were drawn up the people in the southern tier of counties

405

THE CIVIL WAR

to remove their horses, cattle and valuable effects east of the Susquehanna for safety and protection. For several days previous to the incidents mentioned above, long trains of wagons loaded with household furniture, as well as women and children, passed down the turnpikes and other public roads, to the ferries and bridges across the Susquehanna. All the banks removed their money deposits and valuable documents to the cities of Philadelphia and New York. In the yard or garden or adjoining orchard of many of the farms and homes through- out the entire area of York and Adams Counties, household treasures were buried in the presence of different members of the family in order that they might afterward be recovered by any one of them.

The condition of affairs in Pennsylvania at this period of our history was exciting in the highest degree. It was known that General Lee, flushed with his victory at Chancellorsville, was moving into Pennsyl- vania with an army of 80,000 men, most of whom were veterans who had fought bravely in many battles in the Old Domin- ion. Some of these soldiers came from the Shenandoah Valley, largely populated by the descendants of the same Scotch-Irish and German emigrants who had settled in York, Adams and Cumberland Counties, about one century before. The logic of events and the condition of circumstances which caused this war, had now brought these sturdy people of the same nation- alities in hostile array, soon to fight one of the greatest battles of history. Just where this conflict should take place, neither Hanover. General Lee, at Chambersburg, on June 28, nor General Meade with his heroic men con- centrating around Frederick, knew. To Lee the battle was still an indefinite picture. In some of his dispatches to General Stuart, his cavalry commander, he had indicated that the great conflict should take place a short distance west of York. In other dis- patches the reader is led to infer that it would be fought somewhere in the Cumber- land Valley. That a battle would soon take place every one knew. General Early, on the morning of June 26, had been sent across the South Mountains west of Get- tysburg for the purpose of keeping Meade's entire army east of the same range of mountains.

COLONEL WHITE'S RAID.

On the morning of June 27, when Gen- eral Early took up the march from Gettys- burg toward York, he detached from his command the Thirty-fifth battalion of Vir- ginia Cavalry, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel E. V. White. Early moved with his division toward York through East Berlin, while Gordon, with one brigade passed through Abbottstown over the turn- pike. Colonel White and his troopers had performed scouting service in the mountains of West Virginia and the Shenandoah Val- ley during the preceding year. He had re- ceived orders to make a dashing raid to Hanover Junction for the purpose of cut- ting the telegraph wires and burning the railroad bridges at that place and between there and York. This was to be done in order to cut off communication between Harrisburg and Washington. Colonel White left Gettysburg early in the morning and entered McSherrystown about IO

o'clock. Here they halted for a short time in order to find out, if possible, if there were any Federal troops in and around Hanover.

Owing to the conflicting rumors that had been circulated, the citizens of Hanover could not definitely ascertain the move- ments of the enemy. So they were held in suspense until a farmer rode into town call- ing out :

"The enemy will soon be here. They are now in McSherrystown."

A few minutes later the advance

Enter turned into Carlisle Street and began to move toward Centre Square. Three or four mounted men preceded the rest and a few hundred yards back came the entire battalion of Confederates riding four abreast. Their object was first to ascertain if there were any Union soldiers in town. So they moved slowly up Carlisle Street, nearly every man with his finger on the trigger of his carbine, ready for any emergency. In the centre of the column rode Colonel White, a large man of ruddy complexion. Most of the women and children remained in their homes, and looked at the moving enemy through the blinds and curtains at the windows. There was no organized re- sistance to the advancing Confederates and there was no formal surrender of the town

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

by the borough authorities. After placing guards at the ends of all the streets, the entire battalion assembled in Centre Square. Colonel White rode in front of the Central Hotel where he addressed a large crowd of male citizens. He stated that although his soldiers wore faded suits of gray, they were gentlemen fighting for a cause they thought to be right, but would harm no one.

Most of the soldiers then dismounted and went into the different stores to obtain shoes and such clothing as might be of service to them. Some of the stores were robbed of a few articles but the soldiers did not obtain much clothing, because all wear- ing apparel and valuables had been con- cealed or taken away. After remaining in town about an hour, the troopers dashed out York Street toward Jefferson and reached Hanover Junction about 2 o'clock in the afternoon.

Burn Meantime a small squad had been sent along the line of the Bridges. railroad between Hanover and Hanover Junction and destroyed the bridges. What surprised the southern soldier most was to see so many men of military age who had not entered the Union army. Up to this time in the war, the private soldier of the Confederacy was persuaded to believe that the conscript acts of the north had caused nearly all men in the loyal states to join the Union army. These men like all the soldiers under Lee then advancing into Pennsylvania were passing through a land of plenty. The grass had been cut, the hay had been placed in stacks or in barns, and the harvesting of wheat and rye had just begun. This was a busy season to the York County farmers, and some venturesome countrymen had kept their horses at home. Many of them had been made to believe that by joining a secret league, their horses and cattle would be protected from capture by the enemy. Colonel White and his men as well as Stu- art's Cavalry which followed a few days later, exchanged many of their worn out horses for those found in the barns and stables of the well-to-do farmers south and east of Hanover.

Colonel White's battalion reached the Northern Central Railroad at Hanover Junction early in the afternoon and imme- diately put the torch to the bridges and cut

the telegraph wires. During the two days before, Governor Curtin at Harrisburg had been keeping President Lincoln at Wash- ington posted concerning the enemy's movements as nearly as they could be as- certained from couriers who had been sent out from the state capital.

Late in the afternoon of June 27, White's Confederates moved back to Jefferson, then northward to the vicinity of Spring Grove. They encamped for the night on the farm of John Wiest, near the village of Nashville. At this point, Colonel White put himself in communication with General Gordon who had bivouacked for the night at Farmers' Postoffice, a few miles northwest on the Gettysburg turnpike. The following day, he accompanied Gordon on his march to- ward Wrightsville, then returned to a posi- tion two miles east of York, and encamped during the succeeding two days on the farm of John H. Small, meantime destroying the railroad bridges on the line between York and Wrightsville.

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History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 73

Author: Prowell, George R. Publication date: 1907 Publisher: J. H. Beers Number of Pages: 1372

Author: Prowell, George R.
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1372