| Pennsylvania (Adams County), Gettysburg — Prelude To Gettysburg / Gettysburg Showdown |
| | Prelude to Gettysburg One of the great debates of our Country's history and legacy is what scholars call "the two Civil Wars": the first a matter of campaigns, generals, and troop movements and the second focusing on the ways that the great conflict affected the daily rhythms of life on farms, and in communities. Regardless, Gettysburg was the site of the largest battle ever fought on American soil and it involved a great deal more than the resources of one single, famous town. In six . . . — Map (db m11746) |
| Pennsylvania (Cumberland County), Carlisle — Prelude to Gettysburg |
| | One of the great debates of our Country's history and legacy is what scholars call "the two Civil Wars": the first a matter of campaigns, generals, and troop movements and the second focusing on the ways that the great conflict affected the daily rhythms of life on farms, and in communities. Regardless, Gettysburg was the site of the largest battle ever fought on American soil and it involved a great deal more than the resources of one single, famous town. In six counties near Gettysburg, . . . — Map (db m16090) |
| Pennsylvania (Franklin County), Chambersburg — Abolitionist John Brown Boards in Chambersburg |
| | Preparing for the raid on Harpers Ferry arsenal, John Brown came to Chambersburg in the summer of 1859 wearing a beard as a disguise and using the alias of Isaac Smith. He took up residence at Mary Ritner’s boarding house on East King Street, professing to be a developer of iron mines in Maryland and Virginia. Mining implements consigned to Smith and Sons soon arrived at warehouses in town. They were actually firearms, ammunition, and pikes with which Brown wished to arm the many Blacks who he . . . — Map (db m18531) |
| Pennsylvania (Franklin County), Chambersburg — The Burning of Chambersburg |
| | During the Gettysburg campaign, Confederate troops were restrained, under orders, from destroying non-government property. By the time of the Rebels’ next raid into the North, however, the policy had changed. On July 30, 1864, Brigadier General John McCausland and 2,800 Confederate cavalrymen entered Chambersburg and demanded $100,000 in gold or $500,000 in greenbacks. The residents of Chambersburg failed to raise the ransom, and McCausland ordered his men to burn the town. Flames destroyed . . . — Map (db m18532) |
| Pennsylvania (Franklin County), Chambersburg — The Greatest Sacrifice |
| | The price of war is devastation. Franklin County paid the price when its county seat, Chambersburg, was burned to the ground in 1864. Invaded in 1862, 1863, and 1864 by Confederate forces, Franklin County has the distinction of suffering more Southern incursions than any other area north of the mason-Dixon line. The first Union soldier to fall in Pennsylvania died in Greencastle. John Brown planned his raid on Harpers Ferry in Chambersburg, and twelve year old Hetty Zeilinger guided four . . . — Map (db m18629) |
| Pennsylvania (Franklin County), Mercersburg — Ambush at Mercersburg |
| | On July 3, 1863, three Confederate riders in Mercersburg’s town square were ambushed by two Union stragglers. Bullets passed through Private J.W. Alban, killing him and also the horse of the rider beside him. The third man quickly galloped out of town.
The Horseless Confederate fled from the square and into an alley beside Judge Carson’s property (Buchanan house) but was quickly captured by townsfolk. Panic then set in as the townspeople feared reprisals for the ambush. In haste the dead man . . . — Map (db m18533) |
| Pennsylvania (Franklin County), Mercersburg — Steiger House at Mercersburg |
| | Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart, during the first Chambersburg Raid (October 1862), stopped in Mercersburg at Bridgeside, the home of Mr. and Mrs. George Steiger. He intended to use the house as his headquarters while his troops rounded up supplies and civilian hostages from the town. However, Mrs. Steiger informed Stuart that her husband was away on business and that her children had measles. She suggested it might not be safe to enter her home. Stuart complied and settled for having lunch . . . — Map (db m18534) |
| Pennsylvania (York County), Hanover — Destruction of Private Property |
| | During the June 1863 invasion of Pennsylvania, Confederate Lieutenant General James Longstreet explained to English observer Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Freemantle that the army planned to live off Northern land - and its citizens. But they would not kill or destroy wantonly. "He said to me," Freemantle remembered, "that although it might be fair, in just retaliation, to apply the torch, yet that doing so would demoralize the army and ruin its now excellent discipline." On the whole, the . . . — Map (db m22752) |
| Pennsylvania (York County), Hanover — General George Armstrong Custer |
| | George Armstrong Custer was appointed brigadier general on June 29, 1863, and assigned as commander of the Michigan brigade which he led as the Union cavalry entered Hanover on the morning of June 30, 1863. Pastor Zieber stated, "During the charge of the Federal troops driving the enemy out of town, I saw ... men led by General Custer come dashing down Abbotstown Street. They met a squad of the enemy right in front of us, and a sharp encounter took place… [We] had lost all consciousness of . . . — Map (db m22628) |
| Pennsylvania (York County), Hanover — Mother Loses Two Sons to War |
| | Mother Loses Two Sons to War - Within the span of one year, Elizabeth Hoffacker of West Manheim Township received the news of her two sons' deaths in combat during the Civil War. John, 24 years old, was promoted to corporal after being in the army for two months. Riding though Hanover, he was shot and killed instantly upon the first encounter with the Confederates on June 30, 1863. William was mortally wounded at Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia, May 12, 1864. The bodies of both men were . . . — Map (db m22654) |
| Pennsylvania (York County), Hanover — The Battle of Hanover |
| | The engagement fought in Hanover may have had an effect on the outcome of the Battle of Gettysburg. As General Robert E. Lee moved north toward Pennsylvania in June 1863, Major General J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry began to ride around the Union Army and gather information about Federal troop movements while also disrupting their communications and supplies. Then Stuart was to promptly report to Lee.
Along the way Stuart captured a large Union wagon train full of provisions, but it slowed him . . . — Map (db m22694) |
| Pennsylvania (York County), Hanover — Women Tending to Wounded |
| | On June 30, 1863, the quiet little town of Hanover suddenly exploded in gunfire and bloodshed. The Battle of Hanover, fought between Confederate Cavalry led by Major General J.E.B. Stuart and Brigadier General Judson Kilpatrick's Union Cavalry, lasted most of the day. Local doctors rushed to treat fallen soldiers where they lay on narrow streets and sidewalks. After the fighting ended, citizens carted the wounded to makeshift hospitals, including one in a concert hall and the other in a small . . . — Map (db m22748) |
| Pennsylvania (York County), York — "Men who don't often weep wept then" — Prelude to Gettysburg |
| | (Front): Faced with the impossible task of defending an essentially unarmed city against the six thousand battle hardened troops of General Jubal Early, the citizens of York met with the Confederates and negotiated surrender, in and act which was controversial then and remains so today. On June 28th, Confederate General John Brown Gordon' brigade (whose soldiers said their commander's oratory could make them "storm hell" and "put fight into a whipped chicken,") lowered the town's Union . . . — Map (db m22888) |
| Pennsylvania (York County), York — The Underground Railroad and Precursors to War |
| | Among the events in the 1850s that helped drive the nation into civil war, the Christiana Riot put a controversial new law to a bloody test. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 ordered federal officers to arrest suspected runaway slaves; it also threatened imprisonment to anyone aiding a runaway. In 1851, Edward Gorsuch, a Maryland farmer, heard that four of his escaped slaves had been seen in southern Pennsylvania. With an armed posse, Gorsuch arrived at William Parker's Christiana home, where . . . — Map (db m22892) |
| Pennsylvania (York County), York — York surrenders to save city |
| | In 1863, York became the largest Northern town occupied by the Confederate Army. The center of one of the richest farming regions in the Union, York was virtually defenseless as the Rebels approached. When Major General Jubal A. Early neared, the mayor and a committee of citizens met them to surrender the city. On June 28, Early moved into the court house and his brigades took over the U.S. Army Hospital on Penn Common, the York Fairgrounds, market sheds, and the mills north of town. Early . . . — Map (db m22890) |
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