Battle of Hanover

Battle of Hanover. Hanover's Healing Touch. (preface) , After a stunning victory at Chancellorsville in May 1863, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee led the Army of Northern Virginia through Pennsylvania, marching east to threaten Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. The Army of the Potomac marched north from the nation's capital, searching for Lee. On July 1, 3, the armies collided at Gettysburg, in one of the pivotal battles of the Civil War. Three days later, after a bloody defeat, Confederates began retreating to Virginia., By sunset on June 30, 1863, the Battle of Hanover had ended. The stench of death rose in the steamy air from the corpses and horse carcasses strewn about the streets. Local physicians and Good Samaritans cared for sixty or more wounded soldiers in Center Square at the Concert Hall and later at Marion Hall, northeast of the square off present-day York Street., When it opened a few days later as a makeshift hospital, the Pleasant Hill Hotel admitted forty-two patients who were still recovering. The hotel, which served as a private academy, stood on the grass to your left. After the Battle of Gettysburg, the United States government rented the building between July 10 and August 15, 1863, as an official army hospital. Trains carried the Gettysburg wounded through Hanover; 12,000 to 14,000 patients were dispatched to Baltimore, York, Philadelphia, and Harrisburg. About 150 remained here in Hanover for long-term treatment., Dr. Perin Gardner, 1st West Virginia Cavalry, the surgeon in charge of the hospital, reported on its condition: "Every desired comfort is furnished in great abundance, and every luxury, with which this country abounds in great profusion, is supplied by the sympathetic people, and administered to the suffering wounded by devoted women. A heartier response to the calls of humanity never came from a more generous people than we have witnessed here.", (captions) , Women nursing the wounded, Harper's Weekly, Sept. 6, 1862 , Pleasant Hill Hotel, ca. 1850 Courtesy Hanover Area Historical Society