The LeTort Spring Run and the U.S. Civil War

The LeTort Spring Run and the U.S. Civil War. . , The U.S. Civil War played out part of its tumultuous history along the banks of the LeTort Spring Run during the summer of 1863. While many in the North initially expected a quick and decisive victory, by June of 1863 bloody battles had raged for over two years. Moreover, the Rebel army had crossed the Mason-Dixon Line into Union territory. Following a Southern victory at Chancellorsville, the Confederacy's invasion of Northern territory was designed to allow the Rebel army the opportunity to feed off of extensive Northern farmland, giving war-torn Virginia a much-needed reprieve and forcing the Union to consider peace talks in the face of a growing threat to Northern cities., The two great armies moved towards the unsuspecting town of Gettysburg. Outlying units converged in various Central Pennsylvania locations, with the Rebelarmy spread from Chambersburg to Carlisle to the Harrisburg area along the Susquehanna River. Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry fought Federal cavalry regiment to a stalemate in Hanover, while Lieut. Gen. Jubal Early forced York to pay a $100,000 ransom and relinquish supplies. In Franklin County Brig. Gen. Albert G. Jenkins occupied Chambersburg, burning railroad structures and warehouses as well as the bridge at Scotland, and the Skirmish of Sporting Hill on June 30 in Camp Hill would be the northernmost engagement of the war., As the two armies converged on Central Pennsylvania, outliers of both would visit the LeTort Spring Run. On June 27, a Confederate brigade commanded by Gen. Robert E. Rodes, consisting of the 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 26th Alabama regiments, bivouacked for three days along the LeTort after being ordered to picket duty along the Mt. Holly Pike. Later that day two detachments of Brig. Gen. Albert G. Jenkins' cavalry passed through the center of an undefended Carlisle Borough, where they bivouacked on the Dickinson College campus and occupied the Barracks., On July 1, a Union militia force under Gen. William F. "Baldy" Smith arrived on the banks of the LeTort somewhere in Middlesex Township where Smith watered his horse and briefly stationed his troops before leading them into Carlisle. The presence of Smith's troops would prove to be a shock to Stuart's mounted scouts who still believed the borough to be undefended. Cavalry and batteries of Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee appeared at the intersection of York and Trindle roads soon after. Smith's militia and Stuart's Cavalry established skirmish lines along opposite banks of the LeTort in the town's southeastern corner. The subsequent standoff between Lee's and Smith's forces resulted in the shelling of the town, a siege that saw 134 rounds of artillery damage buildings throughout Carlisle, including the courthouse., Lee withdrew early the following morning upon receiving orders from his uncle Gen. Robert E. Lee. The Battle of Gettysburg had begun and the presence of his troops was urgently required. The barracks and the gasworks were burned as they departed. Lee's force would arrive only to participate in the battle's final day., As both Union and Confederate forces followed the LeTort to Carlisle, Stuart's engagement with Smith's men waylaid the Rebel force so as to delay the vital participation of his scouts, cavalry, and artillery in the Battle of Gettysburg. While the war would continue for two more bloody years, the Union's costly victory halted the Rebel's northward advance – a momentous turn from which the Southern army would never fully recover.