USA > Pennsylvania > Franklin County > Waynesboro > Waynesboro : the history of a settlement in the county formerly called Cumberland, but later Franklin, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in its beginnings, to its centennial period, and to the close of the present century > Part 16
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General Pleasanton, with the remaining cavalry force, was ordered to take the road by Cavetown, Harmon's Gap. and Mechanicsville, and cut off the retreat of the enemy, should they make for any of the fords below the position of the main army. His orders were to pursue them with the utmost rapidity, not to spare his men or horses, and to destroy, or capture them, if possible.
Gen. Pleasanton.
General Crook, at that time commanding Cox's divi- Gen. Crook. sion at Hancock, en route for Western Virginia, was ordered to halt, place his men in cars, and remain in readi- ness to move to any point above. should the enemy re- turn in that direction, keeping his scouts well out on all the roads leading from the direction of Chambersburg to the Upper Potomac.
The other commanders between Hancock and Har- per's Ferry were instructed to keep a vigilant watch upon all the fords, so as to prevent the escape of the Confeder- ates within these limits.
General Burnside was ordered to send two brigades to the Monocacy crossing, there to remain in cars, with steam up, ready to move to any point on the railroad to which Stuart might be aiming. While Colonel Rush, at Frederick, was directed to keep his lancers scouting on the approaches from Chambersburg, so as to give timely notice to the commander of the two brigades at the Monocacy crossing.
General Stoneman, whose headquarters were then at Poolesville, occupying with his division the different fords on the river below the mouth of the Monocacy, was directed to keep his cavalry well out on the approaches from the direction of Frederick, so as to give him time to mass his troops at any point where the enemy might attempt to cross the Potomac in his vicinity. He was informed of General Pleasanton's movements.
Gen. Burnside.
Gen. Stoneman.
216
WAYNESBORO.
CHAPTER IX.
How the news of Stuart's escape was received at the Capital.
After the orders were given for covering all the fords upon the river it was not thought possible for Stuart to recross, and General Mcclellan believed that the capture or destruction of his entire force was perfectly certain, and so reported to headquarters at Washington. but when he subsequently notified General Halleck that the raid had been successfully accomplished. he attributed the result to the deficiency of the Federal cavalry service. How this report was received at the capital is plainly in- dicated in the telegram which was sent by General Hal- leck in reply :
October 14th.
"The President has read your telegram, and directs me to suggest that if the enemy had more occupation south of the river, his cavalry would not be so likely to make raids north of it."
Who was to blame, it boots not here to inquire-'tis a long story-
"Time is the old Justice that examines all offenders."
CHAPTER X.
IN WAR TIMES .- Part III.
WHEN THE UNION WAS PRESERVED : PENNSYLVANIA'S SCOURG-
ING. HER BAPTISM OF FIRE. THE WAR WITH SPAIN.
O cessation of the turmoil and apprehensive expec- CHAPTER X. tancy which characterized the previous year came to the war-enthralled people of the southern border of Pennsylvania with the year of grace, eighteen hundred and sixty-three. Rumors of the purpose of the enemy to invade their homes were born with the springtide, and had fruition in the early summer in the preliminary move- ments of the Confederate chieftain in his daring plan to transfer the operations of the summer's campaign from Virginia to the soil of Pennsylvania.
LEE'S INVASION. 1863.
There is little doubt that, wooed by the siren song of A Siren Song. the Southern press, voicing the radical phase of Southern popular opinion, General Lee planned his Northern cam- paign at variance with his better judgment.
It was in the glare and hurry of the broad noon of the war. The country-side of southern Pennsylvania lay beautiful as a picture ; the air full of the sweet fragrance of grasses and flowers: the mountains enwrapped in shad- owy mist, a veil, as it were, to shield them from the June sunshine. The broad meadows were golden with the harvest already ripe for the sickle, and, brooding over all, a dreamy silence as "of the Sabbath afternoon." Men in suspense knew not what a day might bring forth, and had put aside their usual occupations to counsel with their neighbors.
Such was the Eden into which the starving legions of the South marched from their desolated home country.
The Promised Land.
(14)
218
WAYNESBORO.
CHAPTER X.
Situation of the opposing armies.
Like the outlay in a gigantie game of chess, the armies of Hooker and Lee lay, watchful of each other's every movement, with the respective capitals of the opposing sections of the country as the chief objective points to be defended : the Southern capital, at this particular time, apparently in check.
A change of base.
The sudden movement of Lee's forces, and their con- centration at Culpepper Court House, changed the whole existing situation. By no means ignorant of the growing purpose of the South to make a diversion towards Wash- ington, or northward, for the purpose of relieving the Southern capital, the leaders of the Federal army, at the capital and in the field, were on the alert for every move- ment.
Engagements at Brandy Station and vicinity.
With the first indication of Lee's change of base, a Federal cavalry reconnoissance in force was made for the purpose of ascertaining the extent of the Confederate movement, and the engagements with the enemy at Brandy Station and vicinity were the result; a result which both sides claimed as victory; the Confederates, upon the one hand, citing the retreat of the Federal forces and their material losses, and the Federals. upon the other hand, the valuable information gained of the enemy's numbers, position and purpose, and the actual change in his plan of future operations, caused by the partial demor- alization of his cavalry forces in these engagements.
Whether it was Lee's original purpose to make his ad- vance northward east of the mountains, with the ultimate purpose of an attack upon the Federal capital, and as a preliminary step in that plan to cut the Baltimore and Ohio railroad at a point between Washington and the Army of the Potomac, and thus to seriously interfere with Hooker's lines of communication with Washington, or whether it was his intention from the outset to invade Pennsylvania through the Cumberland Valley and take a defensive position in the heart of the enemy's country.
Speculative ques- tions.
219
IN WAR TIMES.
are speculative questions to which little of interest at- taches now, but in the discussion of which certain am- bitious military leaders were much interested at the time.
In the vision of the general-in-chief at Washington, phantom armies of the South were continually on the march for Washington, and there was no unexpected movement of the Army of Northern Virginia which did not, in his mind, portend an instant, or remote purpose, on part of the Confederate commander-in-chief to visit the Federal capital, and thereby to cause a sudden change from the speculative and theoretical side of warfare, in vogue there, to the intensely practical side as seen in the front.
Whether it is susceptible of proof or not that the Fed- eral cavalry attack upon a portion of Lee's army, at the inception of his movement northward, caused him to abandon his original plan, it was evidently most gratifying at the time to the ambition of certain officials, high in Federal authority, to believe that it was the supreme strategy and skill of the Federal military leaders which compelled, with knowledge and magnificent foresight, Lee's advance through the Cumberland Valley to his un- doing at Gettysburg.
In the aftermath of the war, however, this latter view of the event was not so popular at Washington. When the people of the Cumberland Valley, despoiled and ut- terly ruined by the invasion, and the incidents thereto, came, asking relief, there was no longer in official quar- ters any reference to the "magnificent military sagacity" which purposely laid open the Cumberland Valley "as a trap to ensnare the rebels," nor any mention of "the sub- stantial reward of a grateful nation," which, after Gettys- burg, were such common phrases upon the lips of men in authority, but, per contra, the patriotic people of the Valley were frigidly informed that their extreme disaster was simply "an accident of war," and their demand for re-
CHAPTER X.
The feeling at Washington.
A once pleasing Federal belief.
A change of Federal views.
220
WAYNESBORO.
CHAPTER X.
wronged people.
imbursement of losses "a gigantic steal." The necessity for bolstering up military reputations no longer existing this shamelessly ill-treated people asked. at the close of the war, and have continued to ask even unto this day, in vain for nothing more than is rightfully due them, and that which a selfish government unrighteously withholds.
An untenable posi- tion.
If the Cumberland Valley of Pennsylvania was de- spoiled by the direct purpose of the Federal government. who can indicate the standpoint from which the past and present attitude of the government toward the people of that Valley is defensible ?
The Invasion a fact.
No matter what the original, no matter what the ulti- mate purpose of Lee was, when he turned northward, the fact remains that the invasion of southern Pennsylvania with his mighty army, and all that it meant, was soon fait accompli.
Effect on the North.
The approach of the invaders fanned the smoldering embers of excitement among the people into a mighty flame, which swept northward as speeds the prairie fire fanned by the wind. Fear, followed by consternation. fell upon the capital city of the Commonwealth.
"From south to east and west and north, The messengers rode fast, Till every town and hamlet Had heard the trumpet's blast."
Military situation in Pennsylvania.
Who can fittingly describe the situation? The policy at Washington had drawn upon the military resources of Pennsylvania until the flower of her citizenship was in battle line far from home. Even the pride of the State. the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps, which had been express- ly enlisted for border protection, was shackled to service under the general government elsewhere. A call from Washington for long-time troops to fill up the ranks of the Army of the Potomac, decimated by the severe ser- vice at Chancellorsville and Fredericksburg. was pending.
221
IN WAR TIMES.
and preparations were being made for a draft, when the CHAPTER X.
invasion occurred.
That the proper defense of his State was a Herculean task imposed upon Pennsylvania's governor, Andrew G. Curtin, the sequel proves.
The operations about Winchester, which followed the earlier engage- ments about Brandy Station, and re- sulted in the demoralization of the Gov. ANDREW G CURTIN. Federal forces there under General Milroy and sent Mc- Reynolds' wagon train in panic-stricken flight northward through the Cumberland Valley, brought the people of that section to a realizing sense of the situation.
It was Saturday evening, and all the towns along the June 13-15. valley were in a ferment of excitement. Sunday was a day of suspense, but on Monday was enacted a scene June 15th. along the great highway from the Maryland line to Har- risburg which beggars description, and still lives in the iremory of every one who witnessed it. Certain, now, of the approach of the Southern army, and in dread as to the detail of its purpose, the farmers for miles around, Refugees. taking with them their horses and mules, and, in many instances, their live stock of other description, made a grand exodus from their homes to places of safety be- yond the reach of the invaders. Following closely in the wake of the farmer came the affrighted multitude of "contrabands"-negroes; men, women and children- from the southern border of Pennsylvania, from Mary- land, and even from Virginia, hastening northward with indeterminate purposes, and carrying their household gods with them. The climax of confusion, how- A routed wagon train. ever, was reached when these bands of refugees were suddenly overtaken and nearly overwhelmed by Mc- Reynolds' routed and fleeing wagon train, numbering fully
Situation in the Cumberland Valley.
June 10-13, 1863.
222
WAYNESBORO.
CHAPTER X.
fifty wagons and a scattered cavalry guard, which, in its mad career, had marked its route so far northward, with wrecked wagons, exhausted horses and mules, and an oc- casional contraband driver overcome with heat and fear.
When these frightened teamsters reached Chambers- burg they were checked in their precipitous flight by a few cool-headed men, and, after stopping long enough to realize the absurdity of their conduct. and to understand that they were creating a useless panic among the people, they proceeded in a more orderly manner in the direction of Carlisle.
The advance guard of Lee's army.
Monday, June 15th, evening.
June 16th.
The cavalry command of Brigadier General Albert G. Jenkins was the advance guard of Lee's army. Advan- cing from Hagerstown, it entered Pennsylvania by way of Greencastle and Chambersburg. These forces held possession of the last-named place for several days, and. besides his foraging operations in the neighborhood, Jenkins destroyed the bridge spanning the Conoco- cheague creek at Scotland, on the line of the Cumberland Valley railroad, thus giving the first disabling stroke to that important means of communication between Harris- burg and the southern border of the State.
A backward move- ment.
Waynesboro visited.
June 21st.
At length Jenkins, menaced rather more by reports of advancing Federal troops than by the material forces themselves, withdrew his command to the vicinity of Greencastle, and from that point despatched again his bands of raiders in every direction. The Waynesboro section did not escape. The raiders paid a Sunday visit to the town, and it was only the hurried nature of the enemy's call which then saved the inhabitants from seri- ous loss. Reconnoitering eastward, Jenkins' scouts fell in with the Federal troops at or near Monterey Pass, where a slight engagement took place.
Note 51.
The General Ad- vance. June 22d.
Having placed the different commands of his army un- der marching orders, Lee was now ready for the general
223
IN WAR TIMES.
advance into Pennsylvania. The movement in chief of the Southern army, which resulted in its final concentra- tion for battle at Gettysburg, was in the direction of Car- lisle and Harrisburg by the way of Chambersburg. The advance, as before stated, was Jenkins' cavalry ; then fol- lowed the Second Army Corps, Lieutenant General Rich- ard S Ewell commanding. From this corps was detached the First Division, under command of Major General Jubal A. Early, for a movement eastward and along the base of the South Mountain. It was this manoeuvre and the retreat of the Confederate army from Gettysburg which brought the town of Waynesboro within the base of military operations, and gave her citizens no insignificant experience in actual warfare.
Ewell's corps, which joined in the general movement northward, consist- ed of the Second Division, commanded by Major General Edward Johnson, and the Third Division, commanded by Major General Robert E. Rodes; with the last-named division in advance, fol- lowing closely Jenkins' cavalry, with which body it made a conjunction at Lieutenant-General RICHARD S. EWELL. Greencastle, completely investing that place, with scouts well advanced northward along the road to Chambers- burg.
A remnant of Milroy's disorganized command, which had been separated from the main body, made its way into Pennsylvania in advance of the approaching Confederates. With it was a detachment of mounted men, which had been separated from their regiment, and which consisted of Company A and Company C of the First New York Cavalry. The first company was under command of Cap- tain Jones, and the other under command of Captain W. H. Boyd. This little force of brave men performed excel- lent service, and participated in many a daring exploit dur-
CHAPTER X.
Ewell's Corps.
Early's Division de- tached.
Composition of Ewell's Corps.
Monday, June 22d.
A brave little band of Union men.
224
WAYNESBORO.
CHAPTER X.
Note 52.
ing the period of invasion. At this particular time, a part of Captain Boyd's command were participants in the first skirmish of the war on free soil, a brief account of which now follows :
The skirmish near Greencastle.
Confederates en- gaged.
Corporal Rihl killed.
Buried with honor.
June 22, 1886.
While Jenkins' men were scouting along the Chambers- burg road, north of Greencastle, Captain Boyd's company of Federal cavalry were scouting southward along the same road. Upon discovering that Federal troops were in their front. Jenkins' scouts fell back upon the main line about three-fourths of a mile from Greencastle, and gave the alarm. A general line of battle was formed by Rodes' Confederate infantry, while the cavalry took up a position. in partial concealment, between the highway and the Cumberland Valley railroad, just in front of the Archibald Fleming residence, which General Ewell afterwards, for a brief space, occupied as his headquarters. The charge of Captain Boyd's men against the retreating Confederate pickets was so bold and precipitate that two of their num- ber. Corporal Rihl and Sergeant Cafferty, were within pistol shot of the concealed enemy before they realized the situation. Corporal Rihl was suddenly killed as he reached the little knoll just in front of the Fleming house, and Sergeant Cafferty, a few rods to the rear, was severely wounded in the leg, but escaped with his retreating com- rades. Corporal Rill was shot through the upper lip, the ball passing through his head. Whether or not the Con- federates met with any loss in this affair is not certainly known. There is no report of the skirmish among the official records, but a story was prevalent at the time that the Confederate loss was two men killed.
The body of Corporal Rihl was roughly interred at the time, and where he fell, but, subsequently received at the hands of the citizens of the locality a more decent burial in the Lutheran graveyard, at Greencastle. Twenty-three years later his body was again disinterred, and re-buried, with the honors of war, on the spot where he fell. Over
HISTORY OF WAYNESBORO.
-
WHERE THE FIRST UNION SOLDIER FELL IN PENNSYLVANIA. CORPORAL RIHL MONUMENT.
1
THE NEW YORK SBLIC LIB. A.
ASTOR. LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.
227
IN WAR TIMES.
his grave, Rihl Post, Grand Army of the Republic, named for him, has caused to be erected a beautiful and imposing granite shaft, in memory of a brave man and to fittingly mark the locality where the first soldier fell on Pennsyl- vania soil in defense of the nation.
CHAPTER X.
A monument erected.
Jenkins' cavalry continued to advance and again took possession of Chambersburg, where they were joined the next day by the Second Army Corps, under Ewell, who, the day following, established his headquarters just north of Chambersburg, while Jenkins' cavalry and Rodes' divi- sion of Ewell's corps proceeded to Carlisle, and thence reconnoitered the valley almost to the Susquehanna river from their camp at New Kingston before meeting with the outposts of the troops defending Harrisburg.
During their occupancy of Chambersburg, the Confed- erates governed the town under the strictest military rules. Their troops, and the citizens as well, when occa- sion demanded, were subjected to discipline. The citi- zens, however, under the circumstances, had no real grounds for complaint of ill-treatment. Military disci- pline was not pleasant, but, on the other hand, it was not wholly ungenerous, for there are many instances of the granting of unusual and unexpected privileges to the citi- zens, even in the way of issuing to them passes to go be- yond the lines upon legitimate errands.
Meanwhile, following Ewell's corps in the general Hill's Corps. irovement northward, came the Third Army Corps, Lieu- June 26th. tenant General Ambrose P. Hill commanding. This body advanced only to Chambersburg, and from that point, after a fateful council of war, in company with the Confed- erate general-in-chief, they were directed eastward, the first step in the general concentration of the army at Gettysburg.
The next day, the First Army Corps. Lieutenant Gen- eral James Longstreet commanding, reached Chambers-
Jenkins again ad vances.
Tuesday, June 23. 1863.
June 26-29.
While held by the enemy.
Note 53.
Longstreet's Corps. Saturday, June 27th.
Ad Dres Car Prgade Chambersburg Jun- 23 -1,3
Onder. no -2 Citizen Rende has formes - siow to go after his cours across the franklin Rail Road un direc- ton of Way mesterough; Inswany. and Evening until further anders
By order of
ab Geatting a. Ferienal.
Jest Baute
June 24 1863,
A CONFEDERATE PASS.
229
IN WAR TIMES.
burg, and, with the exception of one division, followed Hill's corps on the march to Gettysburg.
The division of Longstreet's corps which remained be- hind, under command of Major General George E. Pick- ett, were charged with the destruction of the track of the railroad, and the depot and shops. That they did this work thoroughly was patent to all who had opportunity of viewing the dismantled shops and ruined roadbed between Chambersburg and Hagerstown. It was a scene of deso- lation ; the shops and depot buildings could not have been
CHAPTER X.
Destruction of the railroad and rail- road property.
149 11178
READY FOR THE TORCH.
shattered worse by an earthquake. The track was torn up for miles, and, to make destruction certain, pyres of cross ties were erected at intervals along the line, across which the iron rails were laid, and, when the fire was ap- plied, the rails, heated, bent double by their own weight, and were thus rendered wholly useless.
When Lee's purpose to concentrate his army at Gettys- burg was determined, the scattered divisions of Hill's corps, with Jenkins' cavalry, which had been visiting in the enemy's country near the Susquehanna, hastened back
The call to Gettys- burg.
June 30th to July 2nd.
230
WAYNESBORO.
CHAPTER X. Note 54.
toward the great objective point, whither all of the South- ern army, now in Pennsylvania, were tending.
Stuart's cavalry, with forced marches, came northward along the base of the South Mountain, and Imboden's command, withdrawn from its operation in the gaps of the North Mountain, served with Jenkins' cavalry to keep open the line of communication.
It is not the purpose here to follow further the fortunes of this, the main portion, of Lee's army, or to essay any description of the battle of Gettysburg. Later, however. it will appear that the relations of this narrative are more intimate with another portion of the great invading army, the First Division of the Second Army Corps, under com- mand of Major General Jubal A. Early.
Movements of Early's Division.
As before stated. when the general movement of the Southern army into Pennsylvania commenced, with Ewell's Second Army Corps in advance, the first division of this corps under command of Major General Jubal A. Early, was detached and ordered to move eastward, and along the base of the South Mountain, in a general course, almost parallel to that taken by the other divisions of the corps, on the main road through the valley.
Waynesboro in- vaded. Tuesday, June 23d.
Some time before noon, on a day long remembered by the people of Waynesboro, the advance guard of Early's division entered and took possession of their town. Foraging parties had visited them before, but this was the first real occupation of the place by a large and hostile force. The advance of Early's men arrived in the town in the forepart of the day. They took possession of the old town hall, on the Major General JUBAL A. EARLY. square, and orders were at once issued to the citizens for supplies. These orders were promptly obeyed, and, however much against
Early issues his orders.
231
IN WAR TIMES.
their will, the ladies went to baking bread for their urgent CHAPTER I. visitors, and the men busied themselves, however unwill- ingly, in furnishing other supplies demanded.
As a general rule, a strict discipline was maintained among Early's men while in Waynesboro, but many acts of depredation were committed. Stores were visited and relieved of their contents, and certain live stock, whose owners had not been expeditious enough in removing it to places of safety, was promptly appropriated and turned to uses very far foreign to the original purposes of the owners. It was at this time that the office of the "Village Record." the only newspaper of which Waynesboro then boasted, was visited, its sanctum invaded, its press tam- pered with and its type so pied that it was impossible to issue the newspaper then and for some time afterwards.
The citizens of Waynesboro, from the day of Early's arrival until after the battle of Gettysburg, were entirely shut off from all communications with the outside world, except through the Confederate lines, which were occa- sionally, however, broken through by venturesome bodies of Federal cavalry, which paid flying visits and made hasty and sometimes reckless assaults upon the enemy.
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