History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 75

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

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"I will have it," he said. "If it is not furnished me nor a definite promise made for its collection, I will destroy the car shops and the railroad buildings, for I have discovered that cars have recently been made at this place for the Yankee govern- ment."

Before this conference had

Horse ended, the door bell rang, and a

Returned. farmer was admitted, who said, "I want to see the General. My horse was taken by one of your men up the turnpike. It was the best animal I ever owned. My wife and daughter can drive him. He was our family horse and I want him back. Will you let me have him?" asked the man with earnest words.

"It was General Gordon who got your horse, and if you see him, probably he will give the animal back."

The interruption caused by Threatens the Mennonite clergyman call-

Car Shops. ing at the Small residence, did not prevent General Early

"I have determined to burn the shops." And then he left the house, followed by the Burgess. They walked together out East Market Street to Duke. While on the way, Mr. Small said,

"Those shops are built of wood. If you set fire to them you might burn the town, and you entered into an agreement not to destroy private property."

"Then call out your fire department to protect the homes and other buildings."

Orders were immediately given for the As he stood in the parlor talking to the burgess, a clatter was heard on the pavement outside, caused by the dropping of a carbine. General Early grew nervous and quickly Laurel, Vigilant and Union Fire companies to move toward the railroad station. Some Confederate troops aided in drawing the fire engines and the three companies took looked out through the blinds, for he position in the vicinity of the car shops. A thought an attempt was being made to detachment of about thirty men, under Cap- enter the house and make him a prisoner. tain Wilson, of North Carolina, had already When these fears were allayed, he contin- been sent to the railroad with orders to put

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THE CIVIL WAR

the torch to some cars. As General Early sage that Captain Johnson bore as he and the Chief Burgess moved down Duke rode down Duke Street. Early saw him approach. He apprehended the purpose of the courier's arrival. He walked a distance away to meet Captain Johnson, received and read the message apparently without any concern. Then he returned to the group of citizens, and addressing Philip A. Small, said, Street, a delegation of prominent citizens followed close behind them. The incidents that transpired at the station are best told in the following abstract from a letter writ- ten to the writer by General Early, in 1898: "After examining the locality, I was satis- fied that neither the car factories nor the depot could be burned without setting fire "I will consider your proposition tonight, and report to you later." to a number of houses near them, some of which were of wood, and I determined not He feared the draught or bill on an east- ern city would be of no avail. Then he called the Chief Burgess to one side, and said, to burn, but thought I would make a fur- ther effort to. get the balance of the $100,000. So I took a seat in the railroad depot, which was filled with a large number "I have decided not to burn the shops and this depot, for I believe it would endanger the safety of a considerable part of the town." of boxes containing goods that had never been opened, and said, to the mayor, 'If you will pay me the balance of the $100,000, I have called for, I will not burn these car factories and this depot.'

"He replied: 'General, I would do so very willingly, but the fact is, we have raised all the money we could raise in town and a good deal of it has been contributed in small sums.'

"Just then the leading merchant of the town (Philip A. Small) stepped up and said, " 'General, if you will not burn this depot or its contents, and the shops, I will give you my bill for $50,000 on Philadelphia, to be paid, whatever may be the result of the war.' '"

Orders

While this incident was taking place, Captain Eliott Johnson, an

from aide on the staff of General Ewell,

Ewell. came riding rapidly up West Mar- ket Street, his horse all covered with foam. He halted in front of the Cen- tral Hotel, and asked for Early.

"His headquarters are in the Court House, but he is down at the railroad station now," said a bystander.

Then the despatch bearer put the spurs to his horse and dashed down Duke Street. He had important news to convey to Early, the commander of the Second division of Ewell's corps. On the evening of June 28, General Lee, then at Chambersburg, had received the news that the Army of the Potomac was approaching Frederick, Mary- land. This news decided the events of the four succeeding days. Lee sent a despatch bearer with all possible haste to Ewell at Carlisle. It was Lee's mes-

The squad of Confederate soldiers which had preceded Early to the shops and the railroad station, had applied the torch to some cars belonging to the railroad com- pany. These were burned, but there was no other destruction of property. There was one car of lumber for a Presbyterian church. When the captain of this squad was told for what purpose the lumber was designed, he refused to burn the car, be- cause he belonged to the Presbyterian church, and later in life was a ruling elder of the First Presbyterian church at Dur- ham, North Carolina, where, in 1898, he told the writer the incidents relating to the destruction of the cars at the York station. The message which Early read

Lee's had been sent by General Lee,

Message. at Chambersburg, to General Ewell's headquarters, at Car- lisle, a distance of thirty-three miles. Soon after its arrival there, Ewell sent the mes- sage through Dillsburg and Dover to York, a distance of thirty-six miles. It reached here about 6 o'clock in the evening of June 29. The following is a copy of the des- patch :

Chambersburg, June 28, 1863, 7:30 A. M. Lieut. Gen. R. S. Ewell,

Commanding Corps :

General: I wrote you last night, stating that General Hooker was reported to have crossed the Potomac, and is advancing by way of Middletown, the head of his column being at that point in Frederick County. I directed you in that letter to move your forces to this point. If you have not already progressed on the road, and if you have no good reason against it, I desire you to move in the direction of Gettysburg, via Heidlers- burg, where you will have turnpike most of the way,

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

and you can thus join your other divisions to Early's, which is east of the mountains. I think it preferable to keep on the east side of the mountains. When you come to Heidlersburg, you can either move directly on Gettysburg or turn down to Cashtown. Your trains and heavy artillery you can send, if you think proper, on the road to Chambersburg. But if the roads which your troops take are good, they had better follow you.

R. E. LEE. General.

General Early then under- stood the situation of affairs.

Marches Toward He sent a courier to Wrights-

Gettysburg. ville ordering Gordon's bri-

gade to fall back at once to York, and he returned up Duke Street, ac- companied by the Chief Burgess, but he concealed the import of the message he had received. He went to his headquarters, and immediately issued orders to brigade commanders to prepare to fall back toward Gettysburg.

At the same time he had printed the fol- lowing address, only a few copies of which were circulated through town :

To the Citizens of York :-

I have abstained from burning the railroad buildings and car shops of your town because, after examination, I am satisfied the safety of the town would be en- dangered; and, acting in the spirit of humanity, which has ever characterized my government and its military authorities, I do not desire to involve the innocent in the same punishment with the guilty. Had I applied the torch without regard to consequences I would have pursued a course that would have been fully vin- dicated as an act of just retaliation for the many authorized acts of barbarity perpertrated by your own army upon our soil. But we do not war upon women and children, and I trust the treatment you have met with at the hands of my soldiers will open your eyes to the monstrous iniquity of the war waged by your government upon the people of the Confederate States, and that you will make an effort to shake off the revolting tyranny under which it is apparent to all you are yourselves groaning.

J. A. EARLY, Major General C. S. A.

The day that Lee sent this despatch, the Army of the Potomac had changed its com- manders. Meade had taken the place of Hooker.

Early remained quietly at his hotel. His brigade commanders and their subordinate officers slept very little that night, for they were laying plans to countermarch at a given signal. The soldiers in camp at Loucks' Mill, on the Public Common and the Fair Grounds were ordered to prepare for the march soon after midnight. The people of York knew nothing of the orders that had been issued, and when they arose

the next morning they found that Confed- erate guards no longer stood in front of the public places. The entire division was on its way out the Carlisle road towards Weiglestown. It turned to the left at the State road and halted for dinner a few hundred yards beyond Davidsburg.

General Early and his staff were among the last to leave York. It was about 7 o'clock in the morning, mounted on his horse, that he and his aides left Centre Square and moved out West Market Street, following the line of march. When they reached Davidsburg, he ordered the village inn-keeper to prepare twenty dinners for himself, his brigadier-generals and the members of his staff. The local incidents relating to this historic dinner are found in the history of Dover Township in this volume. Just as they were preparing to leave the hotel, they heard the roar of can- non at Hanover, where the cavalry engage- ment had opened.

At 2 o'clock, June 30, Early took up the march and moved westward through East Berlin and encamped for the night near Heidlersburg. On the second day of the battle, his division occupied the extreme left of the Confederate line. In the charge on Cemetery Ridge, the brigade commanded by General Hays was demora- lized and lost heavily. Early's entire loss was 1, 188; 150 killed, 806 wounded, and 226 missing.

General Early's division was composed of four brigades and belonged to the Second Army Corps, commanded by General Rich- ard S. Ewell.

Hay's Brigade-Brigadier General H. S. Hays, commanding; Fifth Louisiana Regi- ment, Colonel Henry Forno; Sixth Louis- iana Regiment, Colonel William Mona- ghan; Seventh Louisiana Regiment, Colo- nel D. B. Penn; Eighth Louisiana Regi- ment, Colonel Henry B. Kelley; Ninth Louisiana Regiment. Colonel A. L. Staf- ford.

Hoke's Brigade-Colonel J. E. Avery, commanding (General R. F. Hoke being absent, wounded) ; Fifth North Carolina Regiment, Colonel J. E. Avery: Twenty- first North Carolina Regiment, Colonel W. WV. Kirkland; Fifty-fourth North Carolina Regiment, Colonel J. C. T. McDowell ; Fifty-seventh North Carolina Regiment,

415

THE CIVIL WAR

Colonel A. C. Goodwin; First North Caro- lina Battalion, Major R. H. Wharton.

Smith's. Brigade-Brigadier General Wil- tain Bell's cavalry company from Adams liam Smith, commanding; Thirteenth Vir- ginia Regiment, Colonel J. E. B. Terrill; Thirty-first Virginia Regiment, Colonel In his report to his government, of the Gettysburg campaign, written August 10, 1863, General Gordon says : John S. Hoffman; Forty-ninth Virginia Regiment, Colonel Gibson; Fifty-second Virginia Regiment, Colonel Skinner; Fifty- "We moved by the direct pike to eighth Virginia Regiment, Colonel F. H. Gordon's Wrightsville, on the Susque- Board.

Gordon's Brigade-Brigadier General John B. Gordon, commanding; Thirteenth Georgia Regiment, Colonel J. M. Smith; trenched, but without artillery. A line of skirmishers was sent to make a demonstra- tion in front of these works, while I moved to the right by a circuitous route with three regiments, in order to turn these works, and, if possible, gain the enemy's rear, cut Twenty-sixth Georgia Regiment, Colonel E. N. Atkinson; Thirty-first Georgia Regi- ment, Colonel C. A. Evans; Thirty-eighth Georgia Regiment, Major J. D. Matthews; Sixtieth Georgia Regiment, Colonel W. H. Stiles : Sixty-first Georgia Regiment, Colo- off his retreat, and seize the bridge. This nel J. H. Lamar.

GORDON AT WRIGHTSVILLE.

General John B. Gordon, commanding a Georgia brigade of 2,800 men, halted about four hours, two miles east of York, along the turnpike, on Sunday, June 28. Colonel White's battalion of cavalry had joined the brigade on the morning of the same day, six miles west of York, after returning from Hanover Junction, where they destroyed the railroad bridges. Tanner's battery of four guns belonged to the same brigade. About 2 o'clock in the afternoon, Gordon renewed his march on the way to Wrights- ville. In obedience to the orders of Gen- eral Couch, with headquarters at Harris- burg, Major Haller, in command at Wrightsville, had begun to erect earth works a short distance west of the borough. march of 20 miles and the skirmish with Some negroes had helped to dig the rifle pits.

Haller had received orders to resist the approach of the enemy

Union

Troops. and defend the bridge at all haz- checked.

ards. His entire force to do this

Twentieth Emergency Regiment, about 400 men, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Sickles, who had been guarding the railroad bridges below York before the enemy occu- pied that town ; the Twenty-seventh Emer- gency Regiment, from Pottsville and vici- Early's nity, about 800 men, commanded by Colo- nel Jacob Frick ; a body of 200 convalescent

soldiers from the United States Hospital at York : the City Troop of Philadelphia, Cap- County and vicinity, and the Patapsco Guards, from York.

Report. hanna. At this point I found a body of Pennsylvania militia, re- ported to be e 1,200 men, strongly in-

I found impracticable, and, placing in posi- tion the battery under my command, opened on the works, and by a few well- aimed shots and the advance of my lines, caused this force to retreat precipitately, with the loss of about twenty prisoners, in- cluding one lieutenant colonel (Sickles, of the Twentieth Emergency Regiment). I had no means of ascertaining the enemy's number of killed and wounded; one dead was left on the field. Our loss, one wounded.

"In his retreat across the bridge, the enemy fired it about midway with the most inflammable materials. Every effort was made to extinguish this fire and save the bridge, but it was impossible. From this the town was fired, and, notwithstanding the excessive fatigue of the men from the the enemy, I formed my brigade in line around the burning buildings, and resisted the progress of the flames until they were

"Leaving Wrightsville on the morning important work, numbered less than 1,800 of the 29th, I sent the cavalry under my men. It included one battalion of the command to burn all the bridges (fourteen in number) on the railroad leading to York. to which place I marched my brigade and rejoined the division, from which we had been separated since June 26."

Late in the evening of June 28. General Early rode down the Report. turnpike and had an interview with General Gordon at Wrights-

416

HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

ville. In his official report, in August, 1863, the west, destroying the railroads and General Early says : canals and returning back again to a place of safety. This project, however, was en- tirely thwarted by the destruction of the bridge, as the river was otherwise impas- sable, being very wide and deep at this point. I therefore ordered General Gordon to move his command back to York next day."

"On arriving at Wrightsville on the banks of the Susquehanna, opposite Co- lumbia, I ascertained from General Gordon that on approaching Wrightsville, in front of the bridge he found a command of militia some 1,200 strong, intrenched, and after endeavoring to move around their flank to cut them off from the bridge (which he was unable to do from want of knowledge of the Bridge Burned. locality) he opened his artillery on the militia, which fled at the bursting of the third shell, and he immediately pursued ; but as his men had marched a little over twenty miles, on a very warm day, the Haller as follows: enemy beat him running. He, however, attempted to cross the bridge, and the head of his column got half way over, but he found the bridge, which had been prepared for the purpose, on fire in the middle. As he had nothing but muskets and rifles, he sent back for buckets to endeavor to arrest the flames, but, before they arrived the fire had progressed so far that it was impossible to check it. He had to return and leave the bridge to its fate.

"This bridge was one mile and an eighth in length, the superstructure being of wood, on stone pillars, and it included in one structure a railroad bridge, a pass way for wagons, and also a tow-path for the canal, which here crosses the Susquehanna. The bridge was entirely consumed, and from it the town of Wrightsville caught fire and several buildings were consumed, but the further progress of the flames was arrested by the exertions of Gordon's men.

His

"I regretted very much the failure to secure this bridge, as, finding

Plan the defenseless condition of the Foiled. country, generally, and the little obstacle likely to be afforded by the militia to our progress, I had determined if I could get possession of the Columbia Bridge, to cross my division over the Sus- quehanna, and cut the Pennsylvania Rail- road, march upon Lancaster, lay that town under contribution and then attack Harris- burg in the rear, while it should be attacked in front by the rest of the corps, relying, in the worst contingency that might happen, upon being able to mount my division from the immense number of horses that had been run across the river, and then move to

The duty of burning the bridge was assigned to Robert Crane, by authority of Major Granville O. Haller, in charge of the Union forces at Columbia. A few days after the burning of the bridge, he reported to Major

"Having received orders from you to em- ploy a force of carpenters and bridge build- ers for the purpose of cutting and throwing a span of the Columbia bridge, crossing the Susquehanna, between the boroughs of Co- lumbia and Wrightsville, I engaged such a force for that purpose.

"Guards were placed upon the bridge during the afternoon and night of Saturday, the 27th instant, up to half past 7 o'clock of Sunday evening, the 28th instant, when the bridge, having been weakened at two points, one of which was the fourth span from Wrightsville (there being twenty- eight spans and the structure a mile and an eighth in length), by the removal of all ex- cepting the arches and a very small portion of the lower chords, the arches were bored and loaded with powder, with fuses at- tached, all ready to apply the match.

"At a given signal by your aide, Major C. McL. Knox, in the presence of and by the approval of Colonel Frick, at about 7:30 o'clock, all the forces having passed over from the borough of Wrightsville, the plank flooring was removed and the match applied to the fuse by John Q. Denny, John Lock- hard, Jacob Rich and Jacob Miller, persons stationed for this purpose. Every charge was perfect and effective.

"The enemy's cavalry and artillery ap- proaching the bridge at the Wrightsville end, Colonel Frick, in order to more effect- ually destroy the connection (the bridge not falling), ordered it be fired, at which time the artillery were playing upon us.

"The following gentlemen: E. K. Smith, Esq., civil engineer; William Fasick, Isaac Ruel, Henry Burgen, John Gilbert, Fred.

.....

INVASION OF PENNSYLVANIA Action at Wrightsville and destruction of the Columbia Railroad Bridge, June 28. 1863

THE ABOVE REPRESENTATION WAS MADE FROM A SKETCH DRAWN AT THE TIME OF THE ACTION

THE CIVIL WAR.

417

Bush, A. P. Moore, George W. Green, save the town as they did to save the bridge. Michael Luphart, John B. Bachman, Davis In the absence of fire engines or other ap- Murphy, Westly Upp, Michael Shuman, pliances, the only chance to arrest the Henry Duck, and S. W. Finney, who as- sisted me in this responsible and dangerous work- will please receive my own as well as the most heartfelt thanks of the com- munity, for effecting the object that pre- vented the enemy from crossing the Sus- quehanna at that point."

progress of the flames was to form my men around the burning district, either flank resting on the river's edge, and pass rapidly from hand to hand the pails of water. Thus, and thus only, was the advancing, raging fire met, and at a late hour of the night checked and conquered. There was In his "Reminiscences of the one point especially at which my soldiers combated the fire's progress with immense Dramatic Civil War," published in 1904, Incident. General Gordon refers to a dramatic incident which oc- curred at Wrightsville, while he held pos- session of that town. He says : energy, and with great difficulty saved an attractive home from burning. It chanced to be the home of one of the most superb women it was my fortune to meet during "As my orders were not restricted, except to direct me to cross the Susquehanna, if possible, my immediate object was to move rapidly down a ravine to the river, then along its right bank to the bridge, seize it, and cross to the Columbia side. Once across I intended to mount my men, if practicable, so as to pass rapidly through Lancaster in the direction of Philadelphia, and thus compel General Meade to send a portion of his army to the defence of that city. This programme was defeated, first, by the burning of the bridge, and second, by the imminent prospect of battle near Gettysburg. The Union troops stationed at Wrightsville had, after their retreat across it, fired the bridge which I had hoped to secure, and had then stood in battle line on the opposite shore. With great energy my men labored to save the bridge. I called on the citizens of Wrightsville for buckets and pails, but none were to be found. There was, however, no lack of buckets and pails a little later, when the town was on fire. The bridge might burn, for that incommoded, at the time, only the impatient Confederates, and these Pennsyl- vanians were not in sympathy with my expedition, nor anxious to facilitate the movement of such unwelcome visitors. But when the burning bridge fired the lumber yards on the river's banks, and the burning lumber fired the town, buckets and tubs and pails and pans innumerable came from their hiding-places, until it seemed that, had the whole of Lee's army been present, I could have armed them with these implements to fight the rapidly spreading flames. My the four years of war. She was Mrs. L. L. Rewalt, to whom I refer in my lecture, 'The Last Days of the Confederacy,' as the heroine of the Susquehanna. I met Mrs. Rewalt the next morning after the fire had been checked. She had witnessed the furious combat with the flames around her home, and was unwilling that those men should depart without receiving some token of appreciation from her. She was not wealthy, and could not entertain my whole command, but she was blessed with an abundance of those far nobler riches of brain and heart which are the essential glories of exalted womanhood. Accom- panied by an attendant, and at a late hour of the night, she sought me, in the con- fusion which followed the destructive fire, to express her gratitude to the soldiers of my command and to inquire how long we would remain in Wrightsville. On learning that the village would be relieved of our presence at an early hour the following morning, she insisted that I should bring with me to breakfast at her house as many as could find places in her dining-room. She would take no excuse, not even the nervous condition in which the excitement of the previous hours had left her. At a bountifully supplied table in the early morn- ing sat this modest, cultured woman, sur- rounded by soldiers in their worn, gray uniforms. The welcome she gave us was so gracious, she was so self-possessed, so calm and kind, that I found myself in an inquiring state of mind as to whether her sympathies were with the Northern or Southern side in the pending war. men labored as earnestly and bravely to Cautiously, but with sufficient clearness to

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

indicate to her my object, I ventured some North Carolina, Georgia and Louisiana remarks which she could not well ignore troops, in the Gettysburg campaign. Dur- and which she instantly saw were intended ing the latter part of June, 1864, Lee to evoke some declaration upon the subject. detached him from the Army of Northern She was too brave to evade it, too self- poised to be confused by it, and too firmly fixed in her convictions to hesitate as to the answer. With no one present except Con- federate soldiers, who were her guests, she replied, without a quiver in her voice, but with womanly gentleness : 'General Gordon, I fully comprehend you, and it is due to myself that I candidly tell you that I am .a Union woman. I cannot afford to be mis- understood, nor to have you misinterpret this simple courtesy. You and your sol- diers last night saved my home from burn- ing, and I was unwilling that you should go away without receiving some token of my appreciation. I must tell you, however, that, with my assent and approval, my hus- band is a soldier in the Union army, and my constant prayer to Heaven is that our cause may triumph and the Union be saved.' "No Confederate left that room without a feeling of profound respect and unquali- fied admiration for that brave and worthy woman. No Southern soldier, no true Southern man, who reads this account, will fail to render to her a like tribute of appreci- ation."

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History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 75

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