Andrew Bentz Smith was a young saddle maker from northwestern York County who answered Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin’s call to arms in mid-1861. He traveled to the nearest town, Wellsville, and enlisted on September 19, 1861, at the age of 21 as a corporal in Company H of the 87th Pennsylvania Infantry. In mid-winter 1863, his regiment was stationed in the Winchester, Virginia, region as part of the Eighth Corps division of Maj. Gen. Robert H. Milroy, an Indiana attorney turned soldier.
Milroy’s heavy-handedness toward the civilians of the area earned him unmitigated hatred from Winchester’s pro-Southern women, including the “devil diarists,” whose anti-Union sentiments later became legendary. As spring approached, Smith received his first promotion, being elevated to First Sergeant on March 12.
In mid-June, the Confederate Second Corps crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains and entered the scenic Shenandoah Valley, unbeknown to Milroy’s men. The 87th was among the troops garrisoning the town and surrounding regions, and some of the York County boys, including Andrew Smith, were deployed at Bunker Hill, a village not far from WInchester.
On June 13, trouble came for the regiment and for young Andrew…

Confederate forces under Major General Robert E. Rodes passed through Bunker Hill and easily brushed aside the overwhelmingly outnumbered Union garrison. Sergeant Smith was among those men who were snapped up by the veteran Rebels. Within a few days, he had been taken to Richmond and incarcerated in Libby Prison, most likely on June 15. Three days later, he was moved with the other non-coms to the prison camp on Belle Isle in the middle of the broad James River. Smith was finally paroled and sent to an exchange camp at Annapolis before rejoining his regiment.
Smith received his second promotion of the war on November 16, 1863, accepting a commission as a first lieutenant. it meant a pay grade increase and more responsibilities. Things were looking up for the young officer, despite lingering affects from a leg wound that caused him to limp badly. However, 1864 would see the unexpected and sudden end of his career.
On February 13, Lieutenant Andrew B. Smith was cashiered from the army and dishonorably discharged, forfeiting his commission and pay. He was accused and convicted of “misbehavior before the enemy,” in the Battle of Payne’s Farm at Locust Grove, Virginia, back in November 1863. He had been ordered by the regiment’s colonel to rally his men after they broke and ran. In a series of misadventures in which he claimed to have become lost, Smith wound up being two days late in rejoining the regiment. Retribution was swift, and he was arrested. He tried to resign, but that request was denied and he was brought up on formal charges of misbehavior before the enemy.
Smith returned to Pennsylvania to resume his saddle business. He moved to Adams County where he farmed near East Berlin. He later married and raised three children, but an old war injury plagued him and eventually his leg was amputated in early June 1875. It was too late. He died June 27 in Adams County and was buried in Red Mount Cemetery on York Street in Wellsville.
In a tragic consequence, his widow could not afford to maintain the household following Smith’s death, and she was forced to place her children in a public orphanage to be raised by strangers. Their old home still exists on Anthony Road; it is now the East Berlin Fish & Game Club.
For much more on the unfortunate A. B. Smith, see Dennis Brandt’s excellent book on the 87th Pennsylvania, From Home Guard to Heroes.Smith’s story is engrossing, as he was one of the few York County officers to be court-martialed for dereliction of duty during the Civil War.

Joseph Menges lived on this prosperous York County, PA farm during the Civil War. The Franklin Township farmer filed a damage claim for $225 citing the loss of two horses to “Stuart’s Cavalry” during the 1863 Gettysburg Campaign). He lost a 14-yr-old gray horse and a 4-yr-old bay mare taken despite being “concealed in an out-of-the-way place” on his 125-acre farm. The losses occured on July 2, making it quite probable that the Confederates were from Brigadier General Wade Hampton‘s brigade of J.E.B. Stuart‘s cavalry division.
In the decade following the Civil War more than 700 different residents of York County, Pennsylvania, filed damage claims resulting from the Gettysburg Campaign. The vast majority of these so-called “border claims” asked for compensation for losses incurred to the invading Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, although a few dozen were from citizens whose property or horses were seized by either the Pennsylvania Emergency Militia that was defending the county or the Union Army of the Potomac, parts of which passed through southwestern York County on June 30 and July 1.

To file a damage claim, the resident had to file a sworn deposition as to what the Rebels or Yankees took, some estimation of value, and whatever information or specifics would help establish that the property was indeed owned by the claimant. Claims range from horses (more than 1,100 in total were taken from York County, the majority by J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry) to such esoteric items as a buffalo robe stolen by one of Brigadier General John B. Gordon‘s command during the Confederate occupation of Wrightsville.
I read through each and every York County claim microfilmed in the Pennsylvania State Archives in Harrisburg and took extensive notes. I then created a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet listing the claimant, township, post office or place of residence, claim amount, number of horses or mules, and some accounting of what was taken. I also included which Rebel command likely took the personal property or animals (in a few cases, the residents were clearly mistaken as to which Rebels were the perpetrators).
Hanover historian John T. Krepps helped me by adding the Federal claims, many of which were from the Battle of Hanover, and Lila Fourhman-Schaull at the York County Heritage Trust drove the effort to get this spreadsheet transformed into a searchable database that all interested persons could use as a research tool to see if their ancestors were victimized by the Rebels.
The damage claims database is now available on-line at the website of the York County Heritage Trust.
Please keep in mind that this is a work in progress. I still have to add those claims from people who lived in York County when the thefts occurred, but filed their claims in neighboring counties (I have started searching the Cumberland County claims and already have found a handful of York residents. There certainly are several more yet to be added). Also, note that many Yorkers failed to file claims (they had insurance and received their money from that funding source, or they simply did not want the both of traveling to York, Dover, Dillsburg, or Wrightsville to file a claim, or they had passed away or simply did not want the hassle or bother).
The State Archives house the damage claims from York, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, and Fulton counties. The claims from Adams County are housed in the Lutheran Theological Seminary at the Adams County Historical Society. I have used them in the past, and I thank Timothy H. Smith for his considerate assistance in helping me locate pertinent claims related to Gordon’s brigade and Lt. Col. Elijah V. White‘s cavalry during the June 26, 1863, first Confederate occupation of Gettysburg.

York County author, historian, and Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide John T. Krepps recently posted a comment on Cannonball wanting to know if anyone had ever compiled a complete list of all the Confederate regiments and battalions known to have visited York County during the 1863 Gettysburg Campaign. That inquiry led me to take a quick look at Busey & Martin’s classic book Regimental Strengths & Losses at Gettysburg (1982 edition), in which the authors have painstakingly researched the best estimates as to the exact number of soldiers per unit in both opposing armies.
Using that source and others, approximately 11,000 Rebel soldiers marched or rode through York County. Note that this total is only the combatants, and does not include countless teamsters, personal servants, slaves, cooks, scouts, and others who are not on the actual muster rolls of the regiments or batteries.
Dover Township perhaps saw the most individual Rebels within its borders, as most CSA forces at one point or another passed through or camped there.
Here is a list of Confederate units that are known to have been in York County, with the major townships they visited (in a few cases, roving patrols reached other townships not listed, but not the main body of troops). I have also included the number of men in each regiment or battery as listed by Busey & Martin.

Early’s Division (Paradise, Jackson, Dover, West Manchester, Manchester, York, Spring Garden (later split into Springettsbury), Hellam)

EARLY’S DIVISION (16 guns / 5,743 men)
Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early
Hays’ Brigade (1,372)
Brig. Gen. Harry T. Hays
5th Louisiana – Maj. Alexander Hart; Capt. Thomas H. Briscoe (209)
6th Louisiana – Lieut. Col. Joseph Hanlon (232)
7th Louisiana – Col. Davidson B. Penn (248)
8th Louisiana – Col. Trevanion D. Lewis (314)
9th Louisiana – Col. Leroy A. Stafford (366)
Smith’s Brigade (835)
Brig. Gen. William “Extra Billy” Smith
31st Virginia – Col. John S. Hoffman (280)
49th Virginia – Lieut. Col. J. Catlett Gibson (280)
52nd Virginia – Lieut. Col. James H. Skinner (271)
Hoke’s Brigade (1,305)
Col. Isaac E. Avery
6th North Carolina – Maj. S. McD. Tate (533)
21st North Carolina – Col. William W. Kirkland (454)
57th North Carolina – Col. Archibald C. Godwin (316)
Gordon’s Brigade (1,912)
Brig. Gen. John B. Gordon
13th Georgia – Col. James M. Smith (336)
26th Georgia – Col. Edmund N. Atkinson (333)
31st Georgia – Col. Clement A. Evans (269)
38th Georgia – Capt. William L. McLeod (343)
60th Georgia – Capt. Waters B. Jones (318)
61st Georgia – Col. John H. Lamar (307)
Artillery (16 guns / 307 men)
Lieut. Col. Hilary P. Jones
Charlottesville (Virginia) Battery – Capt. James McD. Carrington (4-12 pdr Napoleons, 75)
Richmond “Courtney” (Virginia) Battlery – Capt. William A. Tanner (4-3″ Rifles, 95)
Louisiana Guard Battery – Capt. Charles A. Green (2-3″ Rifles, 2-10 pdr parrotts, 64)
Staunton (Virginia) Artillery – Capt. Asher W. Garber (4-12 pdr Napoleons, 64)
Elements of Jones’ Brigade (detached and serving with J. B. Gordon’s command)
35th Battalion, Virginia Cavalry – Lt. Col. Elijah V. White (262) (Heidelberg, Manheim, West Manheim, Codorus, North Codorus, Springfield, Jackson, West Manchester, York, Springettsbury, Hellam, Lower Windsor)
Elements of Jenkins’ Brigade (detached and serving with Early’s command)
17th Virginia Cavalry – Col. William H. French (274) (North Codorus, Jackson, West Manchester, York, Spring Garden (later split into Springettsbury), Hellam, Dover, Conewago, Manchester)

Stuart’s Division (Heidelberg, Hanover, Manheim, West Manheim, Codorus, North Codorus, West Manchester, Manchester, Dover, Conewago, Warrington, Washington, Carroll, Franklin; at least one patrol was in Newberry Township stealing horses).

STUART’S DIVISION (6 guns / ~5195 men)
Maj. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart
Hampton’s Brigade (1,978)
Brig. Gen. Wade Hampton III
1st North Carolina Cavalry – Col. Laurence S. Baker (461)
1st South Carolina Cavalry – Lt. Col. John D. Twiggs / Maj. William Walker (383)
2nd South Carolina Cavalry – Maj. Thomas J. Lipscomb (209)
Cobb’s (Georgia) Legion – Col. Pierce B.M. Young (373)
Jeff. Davis Legion (Mississippi) Col. J. Frederick Waring (278)
Phillips (Georgia) Legion – Lieut. Col. William W. Rich (269)
Fitz. Lee’s Brigade (1,814)
Brig. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee
1st Virginia Cavalry – Col. James H. Drake (350)
2nd Virginia Cavalry – Col. Thomas T. Munford (350)
3rd Virginia Cavalry – Col. Thomas H. Owen (436)
4th Virginia Cavalry – Col. Williams C. Wickham (616)
5th Virginia Cavalry – Col. Thomas L. Rosser (170)
W. H. F. “Rooney” Lee’s Brigade (1,328)
Col. John R. Chambliss, Jr.
2nd North Carolina Cavalry – Lieut. Col. William H. F. Payne, Capt. William A. Graham (163)
9th Virginia Cavalry – Col. Richard L. T. Beale (556)
10th Virginia Cavalry – Col. J. Lucius Davis (267)
13th Virginia Cavalry – Maj. Joseph Gillette (338)
Horse Artillery (6 guns / ~75 men)
1st Stuart Horse Artillery – Capt. James W. Breathed
2nd Stuart Horse Artillery – Capt. William M. McGregor

Jenkins’ Mounted Infantry (Monaghan, Carroll, Franklin, Warrington, Washington, Dover)
Jenkins’ Brigade (1,330 men)
Brig. Gen. Albert G. Jenkins
14th Virginia Cavalry – Maj. Benjamin F. Eakle (301) – see note
16th Virginia Cavalry – Col. Milton J. Ferguson (301)
34th Battalion, Virginia Cavalry – Lt. Col. Vincent A. Witcher (274) – see note
36th Battalion, Virginia Cavalry – Capt. Cornelius T. Smith (142) – see note
Note: Only the 16th Virginia is known for sure to have been in York County, although there is some evidence that patrols from the rest of Jenkins’ regiments may have also been in the county at one point or another.
So, the grand total is 17 different regiments of Confederate infantry (Early’s other three regiments had been left in the Shenandoah Valley following the Second Battle of Winchester), 6 artillery batteries (including two of horse artillery), and at least 18 regiments or battalions of cavalry.
Please share your family’s oral traditions and history about your ancestors’ interactions with the Confederates. All stories will be eligible for a drawing for a special prize in the spring – a selection of autographed Civil War books! Send your stories via e-mail to scottmingus@yahoo.com

The interior of a reproduced 19th century general store in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. During the Civil War’s Gettysburg Campaign, dozens of similar small dry goods stores in York County, Pennsylvania, were raided by Confederate soldiers, including the Smith store in Wellsville.
On Monday, June 29, 1863, Major James H. Nounnan‘s battalion of the 16th Virginia Cavalry was particularly active in Warrington Township in northwestern York County, raiding farms for horses, forage, and supplies. Some accounts suggest that the Rebels were accompanied by a young black man, perhaps a servant or slave, who demonstrated an uncanny ability to ferret out the hiding places where York Countians had secreted their horses. Scores of farmers and residents later filed damage claims that delineate the Rebel’s thievery, which in some cases was “paid for” with worthless Confederate currency or bank drafts on the Rebel government that would be redeemable after the war in case of a Southern victory.
In the afternoon, the Rebels reached Wellsville, a small village near Doe Run in central Warrington Township. Here, the commander ordered a brief rest halt while the town was searched for additional supplies and horses. The prime target was the town’s general store, owned by a man named William R. Smith.
Smith would later file one of the most extensive damage claims of any York County merchant, citing his massive losses to the Virginia horsemen.

Smith had locked his store as reports spread of the oncoming Confederate cavalry. However, his lock proved to be of little resistance, as Rebels broke into the store and began carrying out armloads of dry goods, food, and supplies, as well as alcohol, a favorite beverage of the hard riding mountain boys. In the meantime, Major Nounnan turned the battalion’s tired horses loose to graze in a large field owned by Smith in back of the store.
William Smith’s damage claim suggests the magnitude of what the Rebels took that Monday afternoon. He lost three full barrels of fresh home-distilled York County rye whiskey (a total of126 gallons!), twenty gallons of brandy, ten gallons of ginger brandy, ten gallons of wine, five gallons of old rye whiskey, and five gallons of cherry brandy. Nounnan’s boys would be well liquored for several days as a result of their massive haul in Smith’s store.
The Rebels did not stop with the booze. They began picking the store shelves clean. Smith reported losing 30 pairs of new shoes and 2 pairs of nice leather boots, as well as 25 hats. He lost large quantities of notions, 40 pounds of tobacco, a box of pocket knives, and several sets of knives, forks, and spoons. Cloth was also a popular item among the raiders, who took10 yards of calico, bolts of cassimere and variouscottonades, 50 yards of muslin and 50 yards of other cloth.
All of the groceries were carried out of the store as well.
The Rebels cavalrymen took care of their mounts as well, stealing a dozen new horse brushes and a dozen curry combs. They also filled wagons with 20 bushels of corn, 125 bushels of oats, and 3 bushels of a mixture of grains. Meanwhile, the hungry horses were devouring or trampling six acres of timothy grass as they grazed for perhaps an hour or more while their riders terrorized the town.
Once the Rebels left town, Smith surveyed the damage. His neighbor and customer David Spangler visited the store on the morning of June 30 and found “nearly all the goods had been taken out.” After the war, Bill Smith filed a damage claim for $1180, an extraordinary sum for a small town country merchant. Of the nearly three dozen businessmen in York County who filed border claims with the state government, Smith’s ranks third, trailing only two very large downtown York establishments, Valentine Erney‘s store and N. Lehmayer & Son. The largest York County damage claim was a Federal claim filed by Wrightsville hotel owner Henry Hantz, whose losses in alcohol alone were staggering and whose Union Hotel was used as Federal headquarters for the 27th Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia during the week before the Skirmish of Wrightsville.
In part 8, we will look at more of the damage claims from Warrington and Dover townships caused by the Jenkins Raid.
For my series of blog posts on Jenkins’ Raid, please visit these links:
Part 1: Context and historical setting
Part 2: The approach on Mechanicsburg
Part 3: Major Nounnan’s patrol enters York County
Part 4: A Sabbath in Dillsburg
Part 5: Monday Morning in Carroll Township
Part 6: Rebels Raid Warrington Township
Part 7: The Raiders reach Wellsville
Part 8: To Dover and the Return toward Cumberland County
Part 9: The Raiders reach Franklin Township

Modern view of Conewago Creek just west of the old Detter’s Mill (Emig’s Mill during the Civil War). Just out of view is the creek’s confluence with Bermudian Creek. A Rebel raiding party operated in this region during the Gettysburg Campaign stealing horses. A black man operating with them was murdered by a sextet of irate York County farmers.
As the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia invaded south-central Pennsylvania, there were numerous accounts of bushwhacking where armed civilians fired potshots at the passing columns of infantry and cavalry, or at individual stragglers who had dropped out or lagged behind the main bodies. Colonel Clement A. Evans of the 31st Georgia wrote to his wife that the bushwhackers had a useful side effect – the fear of them kept his men from straggling.
In a few cases, the snipers were successful, as there are a few documented cases of Confederate fatalities caused by these ambushes. In some other instances, the killings were not as planned out, and were reactionary, more of a provoked manslaughter charge in legal terms than a deliberate ambush planned in advance. For example, angry residents in McConnellsburg, acting on the spur of the moment, seized two Rebel stragglers and shot them in revenge for thefts in that region.
Here in York County, there are two known killings of Confederates – one of a Louisiana Tiger near Big Mount and the other of a black man associated with the Southern cavalry who was gunned down in southern Warrington Township near Detter’s Mill.

York County author Dennis W. Brandt researched the murder of the black man for his fine book From Home Guard to Hometown Heroes: the 87th Pennsylvania (a must for your York County-related Civil War library). He studied old newspaper accounts, as well as court records and typescripted interviews with participants to piece together the details of this long ago incident during the Gettysburg Campaign.
Here is a synopsis of the key events based upon Dennis’s account.
In the early summer of 1863, Confederate cavalrymen raided south-central Pennsylvania operating in advance of lengthy columns of infantry who were marching toward Harrisburg and York. These advance raiders began seizing horses, provisions, food and supplies in northwestern York County on June 27 (see my recent series of nine posts on the Jenkins Raid). Scores of residents of Carroll, Warrington, Washington, and Franklin townships were victims of these patrols and more than 100 horses had been taken.
When General Jenkins’ roughly 250 men departed on June 29 into Cumberland County to rejoin their brigade, York Countians breathed a sigh of relief, expecting that the worst had passed.
It hadn’t.
On July 1, more than 5,000 Confederate cavalrymen passed through the same region when Major General J.E.B. Stuart‘s veteran division rode from Dover toward Carlisle via Dillsburg. nearly 600 more horses were taken from northwestern York County. Warrington Township was hit particularly hard, with nearly a quarter of the farms along the main roads known to have been raided. Residents were angry at this interruption of their lives and the blatant theft of their horses and mules just as the summer harvest neared. Tempers were short, and some residents were looking for revenge.
Dennis’s research (and that of Jim McClure for his interesting book East of Gettysburg) indicate that at least one Rebel raiding party, likely Jenkins’ party on June 27-29, was accompanied by a black man, either a slave or a servant who may have accompanied the troops on the expedition to Pennsylvania. The black man was adept at ferreting out the secret places where York Countians had hidden their horses. Ravines, hollows, woodlots, mountains — it made no difference, as this man became widely known in a short period for his skill in horse thievery. He also had a sharp sarcastic tongue, as he often insulted his victims as he rode away with their horses.
Perhaps he had wandered away from the column when it departed, or for some reason had stayed behind in York County. Author and newspaperman Jim McClure writes that someone had seen the black man with the Rebel raiders atop a horse belonging to George Emig. One of the Confederates inquired, “Well Jim, did you get that horse?” “Yes,” came the reply from the man, “and he’s a good one too.” [George B. Emig files claims that Jenkins' Rebels took two horses from him on June 29, a 6-yr-old bay and a 4-yr-old black mare.]
A civilian happened to overhear the conversation. A couple of days later, he spotted “Jim” still in Warrington Township and advised him to leave.
He didn’t.
His ill-advised decision would cost him his life.
In early July, reports circulated that the black man was still in the area, so on July 3, a group of six armed Warrington Township residents went looking for him. The group included Jeremiah M. Spahr, a soldier from the 87th Pennsylvania who had walked back to his home following the stunning Union defeat at the Second Battle of Winchester three weeks ago. Also in the group was Wellsville businessman William R. Smith, whose crossroads store had been cleaned out by the Rebels on June 29.
Two others were Spahr’s brothers, Lewis and Henry. Jeremiah Spahr carried his military-issue rifle; the others likely had firearms as well. My research had revealed that eight different members of the Spahr family lost horses to the Rebels over a five-day period, so the family likely was brimming with hostility and angst over the thievery. They had lost a collective total of thirteen horses, crippling the family’s ability to bring in their crops. The final two men in the lynch mob were Levi Reiver and Lewis Reater, neither of whom filed post-war claims for losses incurred to the Rebels, but they may have also have been victims of the horse thief.
The Warrington men were angry and bitter, and their judgment was clouded by the memories of the perceived atrocities committed by the soldiers and their black guide. They located their quarry near the confluence of Big Conewago and Bermudian creeks on southern Warrington Township. After some verbal sparring, Jeremiah Spahr leveled his Springfield Rifle and murdered the horse thief. Race may have played a role, but as Dennis Brandt points out, any errant Rebel thief, white or black, was likely to have been killed by the angry mob.
The group of killers hid the body under some brush alongside the road. They went home and resumed their lives. However, at the subsequent coroner’s inquest, two prominent Wellsville men, John E. Wells and David Cadwalader, pushed for the six to be arrested. It took several years for a grand jury to be convened, and after what appeared to have been a sham of an investigation, the charges were dismissed.
The Spahr brothers, Smith, Reiver and Reater were free men.
I am not aware of the location of the murder victim’s grave. If anyone knows where it is, please let me know so I may post a photograph in a future blog entry.

Colonel Richard L. T. Beale commanded the 9th Virginia Cavalry during the Gettysburg Campaign. The veteran regiment was a part of Chambliss’s Brigade in J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry division.
In his memoirs, he wrote an interesting account of the regiment’s time in York County, Pennsylvania, beginning with the march to Hanover northward from Union Mills in Carroll County, Maryland.
“The march was resumed at dawn next morning. An order detailing a squad of men and an officer from each regiment to collect horses for our dismounted men satisfied us that we had passed from Maryland, and had entered the State of William Penn, whose armed sons we had so often seen upon the soil of our native Virginia. The time had come to pay back in some measure the misdeeds of men who, with sword and fire, had made our homesteads heaps of ruin, and, in many instances, left our wives and children not a horse, nor cow, nor sheep, nor hog, nor living fowl of any kind.
Soon a country store was reached and trooper after trooper escaping from the ranks quickly filled it with Confederates, who, without asking the price, were proceeding to help themselves to any and every article they needed or fancied. The first field officer, however, who discovered what was going on, rode quietly up and cleared the store, compelling the men to put back what they had taken, and posted a guard to remain until the command had passed.”
The identification of the shopkeeper is unknown, but he was likely in business somewhere along the Westminster Pike.
Colonel Beale then described the Battle of Hanover from his perspective.

“Our march was towards Hanover, but before reaching it we learned the enemy in large force occupied the place. On nearing the town the column halted for some time before attacking. Close beside the road was a house, and our attention was attracted by the screams of children. The Colonel of the regiment rode in, and found a little boy and girl clinging to their mother’s skirts, who seemed herself to think that death was upon her. He assured her that she was safe and need not fear, and, taking from his saddle pocket a knife and fork, gave them to the little boy, leaving him quiet, and the family seemingly astonished at any words of kindness from a “rebel.”
Our ranks were now closed up. and, descending from the hills, we moved in column of fours along the plain directly upon the town. The Thirteenth Regiment was in front, followed by two squadrons of the Ninth. We were on the main ‘pike. The Second North Carolina moved upon a road to our left, which we supposed entered the town on the side opposite to us. We could see none of our other troops. When getting within about three hundred yards of the edge of the town a squadron of the enemy advanced slowly up the road in our front. The Major commanding the Thirteenth Regiment [Joseph E. Gillette], seeming to hesitate. Lieutenant [James] Pollard was ordered to the front with his squadron to charge the enemy. This was gallantly done, and the Federals, breaking, ran back into Hanover, followed by our whole force. The enemy’s troops must have been raw levies, as the side of the ‘pike was strewn with splendid pistols dropped by them as they ran. The author dismounted and picked up two, and leisurely surveyed the scene, supposing the town captured.
Some of our men in charge of ambulances and prisoners, were soon met, however, and then the whole body of them came retreating, some through the fields and others on the road. The enemy followed our retreating troops — a body in the road, and several squadrons on our right. Those in the road advanced in column of sections. Some of our men, rallying, charged clown the road, driving these back. We could see no organized force of Confederates in the field to our right as we returned. General Stuart was in this field as the enemy swept over it. Our men in the road opened fire on them, and as soon as the fence could be broken down, a small party charged with the sabre. The mounted Federals retreated behind a line of dismounted men, who now advanced, extending across our front and as far to the right as we could see.
The author’s command had now dwindled to a handful, and he rode back to collect the scattered men. General [Colonel at the time] Chambliss, commanding the brigade, was met and told that General Stuart had been seen surrounded, and was probably captured. He then ordered the writer to go rapidly to the wagons on the hills and to collect all the men that could be found, reform them, and march them back. To our great joy, we met General Stuart, smiling as ever, and found a line of dismounted skirmishers was forming to meet that of the enemy. Company I, of the Ninth Regiment, under Captain [John A.] Billingsley, formed the left of this line, and a heavy skirmish fire was maintained across the fields, our men yielding only as they were forced back by a fire on their flanks. We at length occupied a fine position on the hills, and our troops were posted to contest seriously any attack by the enemy. As our skirmishers approached this line of hills, the enemy’s pursuit was less vigorously pressed, however, and before sunset we were marching northward on roads leading to the right of Hanover.
The loss of our three squadrons in the engagement at Hanover was about twenty, including Captain Billingsley. Most of this loss was in prisoners.
We again marched all night, halting once for an hour or more at Dover, to catch a little rest, and to parole our prisoners, now numbering about six hundred. The march continued the following day, and a good many prisoners were taken, being chiefly men going to rejoin their regiments. Among them was a young surgeon, travelling with a span of line horses, handsome buggy, and colored servant. His surprise at being halted by our picket was manifest. His handsome buggy was brought to Virginia.
Nightfall found us in the vicinity of Carlisle, where we expected to find our infantry, behind whose sheltering muskets we hoped to find one night of sweet sleep. Painful was the intelligence that this hope must be deferred to some more convenient time and place, as our infantry had retired to Gettysburg, and the enemy occupied Carlisle.”
Source: Beale, Richard L. T., History of the Ninth Virginia Cavalry, in the war between the states.(Richmond: B. F. Johnson Publishing Company, 1899), pp. 82-84.

Thousands of dusty Confederate cavalrymen from Virginia passed this old farm near Wellsville, Pennsylvania, on the afternoon of June 30, 1863, during the Gettysburg Campaign. The veteran brigade of Brig. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, accompanied by famed Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, earlier rode through Wellsville, where the men sang merrily and serenaded the amused citizens. Still in a jovial mood, no doubt, the column slowly trotted past this farm, owned then by 30-year-old Jacob Brenneman and his wife Elizabeth (Berkheimer). Patrols peeled off in various directions, searching for horses (foragers found a large number less than a mile north of the Brenneman farm on the adjoining property of Jonathan C. Griest on the west side of Fickes Road). That’s State Route 74 on the left.

Jake Brenneman apparently was more fortunate than his victimized neighbors. He filed no damage claims after the war, suggesting that he likely had taken his horses into hiding or had escorted them to safety in Harrisburg or Columbia. Most of the other farmers along Fitz Lee’s path indeed claimed the loss of at least one horse. It is highly likely that Rebels searched the Brenneman barn / stable but came away empty.
The farm dated from the early 1800s when Edward Wells purchased the property (his family was the namesake of nearby Wellsville). The first Methodist religious services in the Wellsville vicinity were held starting in 1830 in this farmhouse, as well as nearby dwellings of Abraham Harman and Mrs. Wolgemuth before the Methodists found a place of worship in an old wooden one-room schoolhouse located a half-mile northwest of Wellsville. Edward Wells moved to Lafayette, Indiana, in 1834 and sold the property to Martin B. and Elizabeth (Asper) Brenneman, who in turn transferred it to their son Jacob.
Jake’s father Martin was not as fortunate. He had moved to a farm near Kralltown, where Rebel raiders (likely from Wade Hampton’s brigade) during the wee hours of July 1 visited his farm as they rode down toward Gettysburg. He lost a 7-year-old bay-colored horse valued at $125, plus a halter worth $2.
Jacob Brenneman was born June 12, 1833, in Warrington Township. He married Elizabeth Berkheimer about 1856. Among their children was H. C. Brenneman, who was five years old when the Rebels disrupted the family in the early summer of 1863. H. C. grew up to become the long-time principal of the old York High School.

Jim McClure and I are co-writing what should be a very interesting and entertaining book entitled Civil War Voices from York County, Pa.: Remembering the Rebellion and the Gettysburg Campaign. The book is due out in April from Colecraft Books of Orrtanna, PA (owned and operated by long-time Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide Phil Cole).
We have been collecting dozens of human interest stories, anecdotes, incidents, oral traditions, and similar accounts, both written and those memories handed down through the generations beginning with the eyewitnesses. Scores of York countians have responded with some fascinating new material.
In addition, several folks have submitted previously unknown Civil War letters from soldiers in a wide spectrum of regiments and locations, ranging from a complete 1864 diary from a Yorker stationed in Fort Monroe, Virginia, to a letter from a Winterstown native serving in an Ohio regiment at the Battle of Honey Hill in South Carolina. Among the highlights is a diary from a soldier imprisoned at the infamous Andersonville prison camp in Georgia, including a description of the execution of six fellow Union soldiers for murder and thievery.

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Here is a snippet from this upcoming book:
“Charles W. Kline, 15-year-old hired hand, worked on the farm of William Smyser at the Five-Mile House, west of York on the turnpike to Gettysburg. It was a good job for the youth, paying $36 a year.
On Sunday morning, June 28, word came that Confederate soldiers were moving toward York, confiscating horses along the way. Smyser asked young Kline to take his five horses to safety across the Susquehanna River. He strapped $650 in cash around the lad’s waist.
Charlie hitched two of the horses to a farm wagon and tied the other three behind it. He loaded about 15 bags of corn and oats and headed toward Columbia. They arrived in late afternoon, not realizing that a significant Confederate force was just behind them.
They waited in line to cross the river on the old toll bridge and finally arrived at Chickies Rock in the early evening. Following the Battle of Gettysburg, Kline’s team pulled him back to West Manchester Township, and the youth returned the horses and money to his employer.
A year later, when he reached the age of 16, Charlie enlisted in the 200th Pennsylvania Infantry. He participated in the Siege of Petersburg and took part in the battles of Fort Steadman, Dutch Gap, and Butler’s Point.
He would witness the surrender of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House.”
Copyright 2010, Scott L. Mingus, Sr. and James McClure. All rights reserved.
There are more than a hundred similar stories and personal remembrances from soldiers and civilians in the upcoming book, covering a wide range of topics — railroad stories, descriptions of battles, soldiers’ camp life, life on the home front, views on slavery and emancipation, eyewitness opinions of Abraham Lincoln and U.S. Grant, reaction to the Lincoln Assassination, and so much more. Most of the information is brand new and has not previously been published.
Watch this blog, as well as Jim McClure’s Yorktown Square blog, for further updates. This book had been endorsed by the PA Civil War 150 committee and the York County Heritage Trust and the cover will carry their logos.

As the 150th Anniversary of the American Civil War approaches in 2011, author James McClure and I have been collecting, editing, and assembling more than 100 human interest stories from York County, Pennsylvania, from the Civil War era. For many years I have wanted to capture the memories of those residents of this region who actually knew and talked with Civil War veterans and/or the civilians whose lives were impacted by the war and the Confederate invasion of south-central Pennsylvania.
Through a collaboration with Jim, with support from the York Daily Record, the York County Heritage Trust, and the PA 150 Civil War committee, this longstanding vision of mine is becoming a reality.

The book will contain an interesting mixture of oral and written reminiscences from the 19th century inhabitants of York County, Pa., many handed down through the years to their descendants and now made available to a wide audience for posterity. We also have uncovered or received dozens of previously unpublished diaries, journals, Civil War letters from the field, and similar first-person accounts that provide a glimpses into the hearts of the soldiers and citizens.
We see the loneliness of a York man serving as a guard at Fort Monroe, Virginia, whose mundane routine is broken by a visit by U.S. Grant and President Lincoln. We see the fear and uncertainty expressed by a worried housewife in Warrington Township as rumors of the impending Confederate invasion reach northwestern York County. We hear the defiance in the voice of a former soldier living near Lewisberry who reports that he is willing to pick up the musket again in defense of his country. We hear the voice of a young York man who helps in the gruesome field hospitals at Gettysburg, an experience that leads him into a career as a physician. We learn from a frightened child how she hides silently in a cherry tree as gray-coated soldiers rode through her parents’ farm. We follow a free black man as he dons the Union blue.
These voices, and nearly two hundred more, are captured in Civil War Voices from York County, Pennsylvania: Remembering the Rebellion and the Gettysburg Campaign. They bring to life what it was like to live in south-central Pennsylvania during America’s most tumultuous period.
Womens’ voices. Black voices. Soldiers’ voices. Correspondents’ voices. Civilian voices. Even childrens’ voices. All are included in this compendium of human interest stories and anecdotes from the Civil War.
The book will be in print in April 2011 from Colecraft Books of Orrtanna, Pennsylvania, which has published three of my previous books of human interest stories from Gettysburg and Antietam.
This new book is the most satisfying one of all.
Watch Jim McClure’s York Town Square blog and this Cannonball blog for more announcements in the months to come.

This historical marker along East Canal Road in Dover, Pennsylvania, commemorates the invasion of this section of York County by Confederate forces under Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart. The controversial Stuart led more than 4,500 Rebel cavalrymen into southwestern York County on June 30, 1863, fighting at the Battle of Hanover and then leading his men through the rolling hills northward through York-New Salem to Dover. The following day, July 1, marked the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg. While the angry sound of artillery reverberated off many of York County’s hills, Stuart wearily headed his troopers northwest from Dover toward Carlisle in the futile hope of connecting with Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell’s corps, which had been in Pennsylvania for several days.

Nationally known author and lecturer Scott L. Mingus, Sr., will present a PowerPoint talk on Stuart’s Ride at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, September 19, 2012, for the monthly meeting of the York Civil War Round Table. The talk will be in the auditorium of the York County Heritage Trust, 250 E. Market Street, York PA. There is no charge, and the public is welcome!

Scott Mingus has been a scientist and executive in the global paper industry for more than 30 years, and is currently leading the R&D efforts as well as the sustainable forestry program and ISO 14001 environmental activities for Glatfelter, $1.6 billion paper company headquartered in York. He studied paper science and engineering at Miami University, and is married with three adult children and four young grandsons. He lives in Manchester Township, York County.

The southeastern Ohio native is the author of ten books on the Civil War; his latest work Gettysburg Glimpses II: More True Stories from the Battlefield is being published by Ten Roads Publishing later this month, with a fresh biography of William “Extra Billy” Smith coming soon afterward from Savas Beatie LLC. He is collaborating with J. David Petruzzi on a new microhistory of the Gettysburg Campaign’s first two weeks, and is currently researching the Second Battle of Winchester for a planned book with Eric J. Wittenberg.

Mingus is a member of the prestigious Legion of Honor for the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society and is a multiple award-winning wargamer and scenario booklet author. His great-great-grandfather was a 15-year-old drummer for the 51st Ohio under General William T. Sherman; other ancestors fought at Antietam and Gettysburg.

This seemingly bucolic illustration from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper for July 14, 1886, shows the modest, somewhat ramshackle homestead of George and Mary (Bell) Squibb in Warrington Township in northwestern York County, Pennsylvania. The Squibbs were modest people, by all accounts thrifty but at the same time generous to others in need. As Quakers, they lived unpretentiously on this 87-acre farm off of Stone Jug Road, even today a rather remote and rarely traveled route other than the locals. It was a dirt lane connecting the public road from Rossville to Lewisberry northward to the public road to Lisbon.

Nestled in the shadow of Round Top (today a local ski resort), the Squibb property abutted one of the wooded foothills, Dare’s Hill (now called Ramsey Hill). George and Mary enjoyed a scenic and expansive view from their porch. Their nearest neighbor’s house was some 500-600 feet away. It was, as it was later described, a “lonely and isolated place.”

By the summer of 1863, the Squibbs were grandparents. However, they had made an enemy of a neighbor, an often drunk poor Irishman named William Donovan. “Irish Bill” held a longstanding grudge against George Squibb, one that festered for years.

However, quarrels among neighbors took a backseat in late June and early July when tens of thousands of Confederate soldiers invaded the region in a two-pronged movement. Two divisions of Richard Ewell’s Second Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia marched on Carlisle and a battalion of their vanguard cavalry dipped south through northwestern York County, while another division under Jubal Early farther to the south occupied York. Farmers scrambled to move their horses to safety, often taking them in between the Rebel forces and hiding the steeds on Round Top and its foothills.

No one could have known that more Rebels were on their way.

J.E.B. Stuart and more than 4,500 cavalrymen, to be specific.

For George Squibb and scores of his neighbors, that meant unexpected trouble.

George S. Squibb’s property is shown in the yellow circle (near today’s 207 Stone Jug Road). It’s immediately south of Dare’s Hill, which is the clear area stretching to the Vanosdal place.

On July 1, word began spreading that the Confederates had marched away from York and Carlisle, and some farmers began taking their hidden horses home. However, dozens remained secreted in the Round Top region, often accompanied by the owners and/or their teenaged relations. No one could have imagined that Confederate foraging parties would begin scouring the region that morning for fresh horses.

Stuart’s men had fought a tiring battle the previous day in Hanover, Pennsylvania, and had then ridden long into the night northerly to Dover. Many cavaliers were asleep in the saddle. They had not received much sleep after their staggered arrival in the wee hours of the early morning, and now they were back on the road. Outriders from Fitzhugh Lee’s brigade, aided in some accounts by a black servant of a Rebel officer who developed quite a reputation for ferreting out hidden horses, began returning to the State Road (today’s York Road) with their captured prizes.

One such patrol rode up Rosstown Road, turned left onto the dusty lane, and headed for George Squibb’s house.

Squibb and his wife Mary did not own much, but they did have a workhorse, a 9-year-old gray mare, which did the plowing and provided transportation into Dillsburg when needed or down to the Warrington Friends Meeting House for their weekly services.

Soon, the aged Quaker had no horse.

Another neighbor, John Grove, later saw a party of armed Rebel soldiers leading the distinctive gray mare past his house on their way to Dillsburg. George Squibb would never see the steed again, a significant blow during the summer harvest season.

The loss of horses throughout the region brought out the best (and worst) in the farmers. Many who had taken their animals to safety or whose farms were too remote to attract Rebel attention pitched in to help their horseless neighbors bring in their harvests of corn, grain, and fodder. Others refused to be bothered, undoubtedly causing resentment and bitterness which lasted for years.

One old score resurfaced — “Irish Bill” Donovan, never wealthy and having invested much of his money in the bottle, was tapped out. Deep in debt, he needed cash to cover several loans.

And, he knew where to find it, at the house of an old enemy about a mile away across Dare’s Hill.

George Squibb’s next unwanted visitors would not be wearing the Confederate gray. And, they weren’t interested in the aged Quaker’s replacement horse.

To be continued in Part 2… click here.

To read part one of this true crime story, click here.

George and Mary Squibb had worshiped at the Warrington Meeting House (shown above in this Scott Mingus photograph) near Wellsville, Pennsylvania, for many years. George was a son Robert Squibb and Joanna Speakman, and the grandson of William Squibb and Sarah Griest, all of whom had been part of the Friends community in York Springs over in Adams County. His parents had been married in the Warrington Church, as had George and Mary Bell.

George’s father Robert Squibb was a veteran of the Revolutionary War. Robert had served in the York County Militia, 5th and 6th Battalions (from 1781 to 1786) with his brother William. Robert died in 1823 and was buried in York Springs.

In 1825 George and Mary had welcomed their first child, a daughter they named Caroline. Little Rebecca Ann came along three years later (the same year that George’s mother died), but she perished at the tender age of three. Another little girl, Maria Jane, was born in 1835 followed a year by their only son, John M. Squibb. By the time of the Civil War they had a granddaughter named Emma living with them. They were considered a “industrious” people who followed “strict economy” with their money, yet they were always willing to lend it out.

As the war ended and 1866 began, the Squibbs were still living their modest, unassuming lives on a somewhat run-down farm on Stone Jug Road. George was now 71 years old; Mary was 67. Their land was relatively unproductive, with its thin topsoil and rocky ground. Yet, they had managed to carve out a good life for themselves, and were known in the community for their generous spirit.

They had recovered from the loss of their work horse to Fitzhugh Lee’s Confederate foragers during the Civil War, but unfortunately, another issue with one of their animals still was unresolved.

A dead cow would spark one of the most sordid incidents in Warrington Township history.

Years ago, back in 1860, one of their cows had somehow broken through a fence and wandered onto the property of “Irish Bill” Donovan, a mean-tempered neighbor who did not take kindly to the bovine incursion. In a rage, perhaps fueled by alcohol, Donovan in what was later described as a “wanton and cruel manner” beat the wandering cow so hard that it later died.

George Squibb, although raised a Quaker, did not tolerate this unlawful destruction of his private property and he filed a lawsuit against Donovan to recover the cost of the dead animal. The court ruled in Squibb’s favor, much to the outrage of Irish Bill. When ordered to pay the money, Donovan made several irate threats that he would have his revenge on Squibb, even if it took him twenty years. For the next six years, he is known to have made at least a dozen very public threats against Squibb. He was alleged to have declared that “as sure as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west and water runs down hill he would have revenge on George Squibb.” In others he said he would have revenge on old George Squibb; that he had sold the bread and meat from his children. He nearly always accompanied these threats by the expression that George Squibb had wronged him.

News accounts later stated that Irish Bill was “an eccentric person, inclined at times to indulge in very violent language and much addicted to drink, but, on the whole, considered harmless by those who knew him best.” He was, however, deeply in debt.

Every one in the area knew that the Squibbs had squirreled away a small amount of cash which he kept in the house. He was in the habit of loaning it out to his friends and neighbors when they were in need. Donovan knew that fact. He also knew that he abhorred his pious Quaker neighbors, whose temperate and pacifist lifestyle contrasted so much from his own. He wanted his money, and his revenge.

The Squibb’s house, situated about 150 yards from the public road, was “an old, dilapidated building, constructed of rough logs, was but one-story high, and no one who was not acquainted with the character and habits of its inmates would have thought for a moment that they were in possession of any money whatever. It contained but two rooms on the ground floor, the one used as a kitchen and sitting room, and the other as a bedchamber.”

It was out of the way, with only a few neighbors.

Its isolation helped fuel Donovan’s impromptu plan to finally get his long-sought payback.

On Saturday, June 16, 1866, Irish Bill reportedly traveled north to Harrisburg. He returned with a stranger, one of two men seen loitering the next day in the general neighborhood where the elderly Quakers and their young granddaughter lived.

The die was cast.

During a dark and violent thunderstorm in the early evening, at the Squibb property at the foot of Dare’s Hill the unsuspecting Quaker family prepared to go to bed and took off their shoes.

It would be their final night on earth.

To be continued in Part 3…

For parts 1 and 2 of this true crime story, click here and here.

On the morning of Monday, June 18, 1866, George Snelbaker needed an auger for some chores. The 24-year-old man lived near his namesake grandfather, George S. Squibb, off of Rosstown Road in northwestern York County, Pennsylvania, in rural Warrington Township. He knew his grandfather had an auger, so he decided to borrow it.

Arriving at his grandparents’ modest homestead  about 10:00 a.m., Snelbaker spotted a figure lying on the front porch. In anguish he rushed forward to find his grandfather prostrated face down in a pool of coagulated blood. He had suffered multiple severe injuries to his head and body, and was almost unrecognizable. Old George Squibb was still alive, but just barely. The Quaker farmer was insensible and unresponsive.

Inside the one-story house lay his wife Mary Squibb, also in desperate condition. She had been horribly beaten and was also insensible. Nearby in the kitchen lay the body of 11-year-old Sarah Emma Seifert (named as Emma Jane Seifert in some accounts), already cold to the touch. She too had been stabbed, beaten, and bruised. The back of the little girl’s head had been crushed; she must have died almost immediately from the traumatic injury which was initially believed to have been caused by some sort of heavy hammer. However, no probable weapon was found discarded on the premises.

George raced home and fetched his parents, and soon they and several neighbors had assembled at the house. It was a gory, ugly scene.

All of the victims were shoeless, indicating that the assaults had likely taken place the previous evening shortly before bedtime. Mr. Squibb had removed his hat, coat, shoes, and stockings which were found laying next to his arm-chair where he was accustomed to placing them in the evenings. His wife had also removed her shoes and stockings, and the little girl had only taken off one shoe and sock before the killers arrived. Because of the differing weapons used and the apparent suddenness of the attack which precluded anyone from sounding the alarm, it was clear that more than one perpetrator was involved in the slayings.

The last people to see the Squibbs hale and hearty had been their brother-in-law Harvey Bell, who was married to Mary’s sister. He had departed about 4:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon before the thunderstorm hit.

George Snelbaker lived with his father Jacob and mother Maria (Squibb) Snelbaker on a farm between Stone Jug Road and Mt. Airy Road.

Someone sounded the alarm (many remote farmers used horns to sound the call for help) and neighbors came over to lend assistance. The focus was on helping Mrs. Squibb, who had suffered three wounds on the right side of the head, one of which produced a slight fracture of her skull. She was carried into her bed and made as comfortable as possible as medical help was summoned. It appeared her blunt force  trauma may have been caused by a “slungshot” (a maritime tool with a heavy round ball attached to a cord; it was a favorite weapon of criminals and street gangs in the 19th century) or perhaps a billy club. Upon arriving, the attending physician, Dr. William P. Nebinger of Lewisberry, entertained little hope of her recovery. Nebinger was no stranger to significant trauma, having recently served in the Civil War as the assistant surgeon of the 56th Pennsylvania Infantry.

Outside on the porch, inspection of the dying George Squibb revealed no less than 14 separate cuts or wounds. Most of the injuries were to the right side of his head, with four wound penetrating his skull to his brain. Three of them were centered in his temple. From the location of the wounds, it was immediately evident that his killer had been left handed, and some observers suggested that the murder weapon was a morticing chisel. Squibb apparently had put up quite a fight for his life. He lingered throughout the day, never regaining consciousness, and he would expire about 12:30 a.m. Monday night.

Newpapers across the region soon trumpeted the murders, assuming that Mrs. Squibb would soon join her husband and granddaughter in death. However, she was a tough old lady and was still alive even as the lurid headlines said otherwise.

Almost immediately speculation arose as to who might have committed the heinous crime. Everyone knew old George had money, and that was the likely motive. A search of the property revealed stashes of cash amounting to some $350. Upon arriving, Maria Snelbaker, the married daughter, estimated that her father had $700 to $800 secreted in various locations. The prevailing theory was that the Squibbs had been brutally assaulted for their money and the thieves had in their haste only discovered a pocketbook containing $200 in a locked bureau drawer and perhaps one or two other small caches.

Attention focused on the two strangers who had been lurking in the neighborhood prior to the thunderstorm. Perhaps they were the killers, but no one knew their identities. Stories circulated as far south as York about a man matching the rough description of one of the strangers; residents had seen him pass through Weigelstown early Monday morning. However, he was not under arrest and the police had no idea of his current whereabouts. He was described as “a rough customer, desperate-looking, and a fit accomplice for such bloody work.” Finding him became a priority.

In the meantime, people gathered at the Squibb farm recalled the litany of threats made by Irish Bill Donovan, and soon he fell under suspicion. On  Tuesday, June 19, the county coroner held an inquest at the Squibb home. One of the jurymen mentioned several names of persons in the area to Mary and asked her to squeeze his hand if one was the killer. During her more lucid moments, she repeatedly squeezed at the mention of William Donovan. Interestingly, folks began to realize that he had not responded to the alarm call on Monday morning, nor had he come over this day as well. He also failed to appear after several neighbors were sent to fetch him. Suspicion grew.

When his place was searched, two vital pieces of circumstantial evidence emerged. One of the neighbors noted that Donovan’s pants had several spots which appeared to be blood, to which the Irishman gave differing explanations. Perhaps more alarming was the discovery  of a hatchet tucked inside a log in his stable. It had been freshly honed, but still exhibited flecks of blood. Donovan immediately denied having it in his possession on the Sunday night of the murders of George Squibb and little Emma. It would later be sent to a chemist in Baltimore to confirm the presence of blood.

Early that Tuesday evening, Irish Bill was taken against his will across Dare’s Hill to the coroner at the Squibb house, who subjected the suspect to an intense interrogation before remanding him to the sheriff for incarceration. Much was made of the fact that he was left-handed.

Photo of Emma Seifert’s gravestone (taken by “Road to Wellsville” and posted on Find-a-Grave on 9/30/14). Note that although reported to be the Squibb’s granddaughter in the media, neither of the daughters married anyone named Seifert.

On Wednesday morning,  a large crowd had gathered in the cemetery of the Warrington Friend Meeting House as little Emma and her grandfather were laid to rest in mid-morning According to news accounts, it “was attended by a vest concourse of the citizens of the neighborhood, among whom the most intense excitement prevails in consequence of the brutal murder that has been perpetrated in their midst.” The entire crowd followed the coffins to their burial spots. Another reporter deemed the ensuing ceremonies as “exceedingly solemn and impressive.”

Meanwhile, efforts were being made to contact Miss Caroline E. Squibb, the unmarried daughter, who was last known to have been living with a Mrs. Street on F Street down in Washington. However, she had recently moved and had not left a forwarding address so notices were placed in the Washington newspapers to help discover her current whereabouts. As such, she missed the funeral of  her father and Emma.

Mary Squibb, despite her fractured skull, was still stubbornly clinging to life. Because of her extreme weakness she could not speak intelligibly. However, she was now conscious and  cognizant, and could recognize her friends and acquaintances when they approached her bedside. When questioned by the coroner’s jury, she repeated squeezing her hand at the mention of William Donovan’s name. When asked about the number of attackers, she squeezed the juryman’s hand twice.

Many speculated that Donovan indeed was the mastermind and one of the actual killers, but others doubted it. A reporter would label him as “an ill-tempered, desperate character” and “the terror of the neighborhood, particularly when under the influence of alcohol, which is often the case.” Although the evidence was circumstantial and Irish Bill denied being present, the coroner’s jury determined that he should stand trial at the August session of the York County Court. He would be held in custody in York until then.

Meanwhile, the search continued in earnest for the two mysterious strangers, as well as for anyone else who possibly may have been involved. Stories emerged that one of the strangers had spent Saturday night at Donovan’s house, and his description soon was being circulated throughout the region.

Dr. Nebinger now entertained slight hopes that Mrs. Squibb might recover, despite the trauma she had suffered to her nervous system. Reporters speculated that if she did manager to recover, she would certainly be able to identify the attackers. Even better, there was a chance she could be in good enough shape to testify to convict Donovan and his accomplice, or exonerate them entirely.

Alas, it was not to be.

Her condition soon deteriorated and on June 25, a week after the assault, Mary Bell Squibb breathed her last. She was buried beside her husband in the Warrington Friends cemetery.

Now, it was a triple homicide.

To be continued in Part 4…

The weathered gravestone of Mary (Bell) and George S. Squibb is shown in this  photograph courtesy of York Countian Jeremy Easton. It is in the southwestern section of the cemetery of the Warrington Friends Meeting House along PA Route 74 near Wellsville, Pa. Note the inscription “The Murdered Family,” which is how the Squibbs unfortunately came to be known.

To read this serial true crime story from the beginning, click here for Part 1.

As news spread throughout the region of the shockingly brutal assaults on George and Mary Squibb and their young granddaughter, residents began casting wary eyes on every stranger which passed through York County, and especially on those bent on crossing the Susquehanna River into Lancaster County or to Harrisburg. While one suspect, William “Irish Bill” Donovan, was safely behind bars, many people believed he could not have committed the hideous crimes without assistance. Mary Squibb had, after all, indicated that two persons were involved in the crime.

The commissioners of York County offered a reward of $300 for the arrest of the murderer or murderers. They soon had plenty of candidates, including a pair of traveling beggars who were arrested in the village of Manheim in Lancaster County on Wednesday afternoon, June 2o, 1866, and interrogated about the slayings.

Did the authorities now have all of the killers in custody?

If so, the community could rest easier knowing they were off the street.

The suspects were quite an odd couple. The man was Charles Wilkins (or Wilkes in several accounts), a 28-year-old immigrant from the Kingdom of Hanover in what is today northern Germany. He at times had used the alias Henry Myers. His traveling companion was a 51-year-old woman born four miles from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, by the name of Martha Ann Pontel (Mary Ann Pontell in some  newspaper accounts).

Wilkins had initially denied to the authorities in Manheim that he had ever been to Rosstown (now Rossville) or the region where the Squibbs lived.

However, a cooperative Pontel told a different tale.

Much different.

She stated that the pair had left the county poor house in Carlisle together and had then had reached the Rosstown area on Saturday the 16th. She claimed she had indeed went to the Squibb house and begged something to eat. She and Wilkins remained in the vicinity all night and well into Sunday. Wilkins insisted on going back to Squibb, but Pontel refused to go with him, saying that  by the time they walked there all of the family would be in bed.

Martha Ann claimed that Wilkins then abused her, struck her, and dragged her along with him to the farm. Arriving about 8 p.m. Wilkins burst the door open and went in, lighting a candle on a nearby table. At that point, Pontel claimed, she ran away but stayed sufficiently nearby to hear screams. About 3:00 a.m. on Monday morning, Wilkins came to her. When she demanded to know what he was doing, he retorted that it was none of her business and violently struck her.

At daylight, Pontel noticed blood on his hands, shirt, and pants. He compelled her to wash the shirt and cut the bloody parts out of his pants and then patch them. For quite time time he persisted in not telling her how the blood came to be on his hands and clothing, but ultimately admitted that he had certainly killed the girl and thought the old man as well, but the old woman would get over her injuries. He had a knife which he said he had used and a hatchet he found in the house. Although Wilkins had no money when they left the Carlisle Poorhouse, Martha Ann saw that he now possessed a five-dollar bill.

The authorities readily believed Pontel. Despite her low standing in life, she had told her story consistently in a straight forward, convincing manner. Was Charles Wilkins the “desperate-looking” stranger who had been spotted on Monday morning traveling through Weigelstown? That would have been on the route described by the beggar woman.

Based upon her information, the officials escorted the couple to the Lancaster jail.

On Friday, June 22, a reporter for the Lancaster Intelligencer newspaper visited the beggar couple in the prison (shown above in this Wikipedia photograph). The first interview was with the immigrant Wilkins in his holding cell. After confirming his name, age, and birthplace, he recounted his travels since leaving the Carlisle Poorhouse with Martha Ann Pontel.

In his version, the couple had traveled south to York on Wednesday June 13, stopping on their way at Dalestown. From York, they headed east across the river to Columbia, arriving on Friday. They continued their journey over the weekend to Manheim where they were arrested. He again denied having ever been to Rosstown.

However, when Martha Ann Pontel met with the newsman, she reiterated and expanded her story which she had previously told to the sheriff. Both she and Wilkins agreed they had left the poorhouse together and journeyed to York County, but she insisted that they had indeed visited the residence of the murder victims, near Rosstown, on Saturday and that she had begged for food. She added quite a few more details, mentioning that the old lady had given her some bread and meat, as well as a new ten-cent scrip with which to buy matches and tobacco.

Pontel told the reporter that she had went out and shared the food with Wilkins and they had then walked on together for some two miles before resting in a barn. While there, a man named John Baker came along and engaged Wilkins in conversation. Something did not seem right, so she urged Wilkins to travel farther. However, he refused, saying that Baker and he were “going to have some fun together.” Baker afterwards left and Pontel did not see him again.

Because of the rain on Sunday, they did not leave the shelter of the barn until evening when Wilkins insisted on returning to the Squibbs’ residence. She repeated the story of being beaten and forced to accompany the German on his errand, as well as all of the other particulars she had earlier told the authorities. She added that after arriving in Manheim on Wednesday, she went to a farmhouse a short distance from town on the Schaefertown Road and begged some meat, all the while under threat from Wilkins that he would kill her if she divulged the story of the killings.

Upon her return to him with the meat, she found Wilkins conversing with some black men to whom he had given his pants. As they told him the latest news on the murders over in York County, he turned quite pale. Martha Ann slipped behind Wilkins and using hand gestures indicated to the men that he was the one who had committed the murders.

After a while, Wilkins and Pontel had moved on to another farmhouse (the home of a farmer named Daniel F. Hamaker) where she begged some potatoes and half a loaf of bread. However, Wilkins became engaged in a heated argument with one of the hired hands. It gave her the opportunity to inform Hamaker that the man with whom she was traveling had committed the murders.

She borrowed a pot and went into the woods with Wilkins, where she washed the meat and pared the potatoes before cooking them. After lunch, the German immigrant fell sound asleep until about 4:00 p.m. when Daniel Hamaker and two other local men, Daniel Shreiner and George Kile, found the vagabond Wilkins lying alongside the road near Hamaker’s house. They arrested the couple and escorted them to David May, the Justice of the Peace, who interrogated them. Manheim constable Josiah Gipple escorted the prisoners down to Lancaster, where they were held at the county prison.

The reporter, like May and the other authorities, readily believed the beggar woman’s account.

All the while, not knowing that Wilkins and Pontel had been arrested, in a jail in York County sat the alleged mastermind, Irish Bill Donovan.

Interestingly, Pontel at no time had mentioned him, or that he had anything at all to do the gruesome slaughter at the Squibb farm.

Could William Donovan actually be an innocent man?

Only time would tell.

To be continued in Part 5…

Sarah Emma Seifert, Mary (Bell) Squibb, and George Squibb lie side by side in the cemetery of Warrington Friends Meeting House. They are known in local history as “The Murdered Family.” But who killed them? (Photo by Scott Mingus, 12/6/14).

To read this serial true crime story from the beginning, click here for Part 1.

William “Irish Bill” Donovan was incarcerated in downtown York. Itinerant beggars Charles Wilkins and Martha Ann Pontel were being held in the Lancaster prison. Yet suspicions lingered that perhaps there was someone else. Both Donovan and Wilkins had proclaimed their innocence; at least there was some circumstantial evidence against Irish Bill. Wilkins was being held only on the word of the beggar woman.

Anxious to collect the $300 reward offered by the York County commissioners, several locals still kept an eye for any suspicious characters roaming the region and kept their ears open at the inns and taverns in case someone under the influence began bragging or talking too much about the slaughter.

By early July, at least ten different men had been arrested and interrogated.  Most were vagrants or travelers passing through the county who were held until they could produce a viable explanation of their reasons for being in the area. By late in the month, only four people (including Irish Bill) were still in custody awaiting the convening of the August session of the York County Court. Martha Ann Pontel and Charles Wilkins had been sent to the York jail, but she was eventually released; her name disappeared from the historical record, and it presumed she resumed her begging.

Public opinion was sharply divided on the issue as to the true killer.

And then yet another new set of suspects appeared on the scene.

 George and Mary Squibb and their granddaughter were murdered on this remote farm back in 1866. None of the original buildings are left.

Rumors had circulated from the beginning about a man which Irish Bill had brought with him from Harrisburg on the day before the killing. On July 24, 1866, authorities in the capital city interviewed one John McGranigan, like Donovan of Gaelic extraction. He had had confessed that he had killed three people and he expected to be executed for his crime.  Hence, he was arrested and and taken down to York to be incarcerated in the same jail as the other four alleged murderers. It was said that he had much earlier made a similar admission, dating from the day of the murders, and McGranigan’s possible role in the sordid event became a parlor topic.

In August, Judge Robert J. Fisher convened a grand jury. Fisher was well known in the York area, having firmly negotiated with invading Confederate Major General Jubal A. Early back in June 1863 when the Rebel commander threatened to burn the courthouse records. He was considered intelligent, firm, and fair in his judicial dealings. After hearing the testimonies and reviewing the evidence, the grand jury found sufficient reason to issue true bills (a form of indictment) against McGranigan, Donovan, and two other men, Edward Boyle and his father John Boyle. Charles Wilkins was never indicted despite Pontel’s earlier statements to the police and to the Lancaster Intelligencer reported. He too, disappeared from the record.

The Boyles were early suspects but had avoided arrest for several weeks. According to news accounts, he tried to implicate others and told the sheriff frequently to arrest the Boyles. He also told the jailor, when the Boyles were finally brought into prison, that they had the right parties now.

Donovan was the first of the quartet of suspects to face a jury trial. Three local lawyers, Pere L. Wickes, James B. Zeigler, and Silas H. Forry, were to represent his interests. Wickes was the lead attorney. Raised in Baltimore, he had been educated at Princeton and was considered as an up-and-coming legal star. He had been admitted to the bar of York County in 1859. In fact, Wickes in the years to come would succeed Fisher as the county judge upon the latter’s retirement. No one seems to have questioned that Wickes as  lead defense attorney was a nephew of Judge Fisher.

The trial of William “Irish Bill” Donovan was held in the York County Courthouse, shown here in this antebellum sketch.

Donovan’s trial lasted for ten full days. It attracted large crowds every day, reflecting the intense interest taken in the case. Spectators varied in their opinions, but the majority thought that yes indeed, he was one of the killers. When the court clerk read the guilty verdict, Donovan did not flinch. Upon receiving the death penalty, according to a reporter, “he received his sentence with perfect coolness. There was not the slightest change upon his countenance and not a word escaped his lips.” His team of attorneys filed a motion for a new trial, to which Judge Fisher deferred until the other prisoners could be tried. Donovan went back to his cell, the death penalty hanging over him.

In the 1860 U.S. Census of Warrington Township, Donovan (whose name in various accounts is spelled as Donavin, Donavan, and Donovin) was listed as 31 years old, a day laborer worth $300 and Ireland as the birthplace of both he and his wife Ann (also 31). They had two children, William Donovan Jr. and Ellen; both were still under the age of ten as their father was convicted in a court of law by his peers for the brutal murders of the Squibb family.

He continued to protest his innocence. Some observers believed him, thinking him harmless other than his penchant for strong language and even stronger drink.

However, on the evening of his conviction, as he was walking from the Courthouse to the prison, Donovan remarked to the deputy sheriff that “if they would put him on the stand he would let the whole thing out.” He continued to blame the Boyles as the true killers.

Now the county’s attention turned to ferreting out whether his fellow Irishman John McGranigan or the father-son team of John and Edward Boyle were equally guilty.

 To be continued in Part 6…

The 1860 Census of Warrington Township shows Quaker farmer George Squibb, his wife Mary, one of their daughters (Maria Jane) and their granddaughters Sarah Seifert and Mary Jane Myers (the daughters of Caroline Emma Squibb). The old Quaker couple and little Sarah became known in York County, PA as “The Murdered Family” as they were brutally slaughtered in June 1866.

To read this serial true crime story from the beginning, click here for Part 1.

William “Irish Bill” Donovan had been convicted, although his three-man team of lawyers had quickly filed a motion for a new trial. He continued to drop hints that Edward Boyle was the true killer, but he never offered any proof.

In January, York County Judge Robert J. Fisher tried Boyle, his father John, and Harrisburg resident John McGranigan for the triple murders. The jury found Edward Boyle and McGranigan not guilty on all three charges, as well as acquitting John Boyle on charges of killing George Squibb. His trial on the other two indictments was delayed until the next court session in April 1867.

At that time, John Boyle acquitted of the remaining two indictments. However, because of new evidence introduced at the elder Boyle’s trial, the Court ruled that William Donovan should receive a new trial, although he would still be held in custody.

A special court was convened on October 1, 1867, to retry Donovan. Wickes and Zeigler returned as counsel, being augmented this time by a local hero of the Civil War, Levi Maish (shown above in this photo from the author’s collection).

Maish as the lieutenant colonel of the 130th Pennsylvania Infantry had suffered a gruesome wound in his right lung at the 1862 Battle of Antietam. He had survived, but still carried the lead Minie ball in his lung. After the regiment’s colonel Henry Zinn was killed at Fredericksburg, Maish assumed command. He suffered another serious wound to his hip at Chancellorsville and was mustered out of the Union army in May 1863. Blessed with pleasant manners and natural charisma, Maish was widely admired and he was a talented attorney and a two-term state representative.

The prosecution team was District Attorney John W. Bittenger and his assistants George W. McElroy (a former patient at the U.S. Army Hospital in York and a frequent contributor to its newspaper, The Cartridge Box) and H. R. Fisher.

The sensational trial in York’s columned courthouse lasted 15 days and was packed each day with interested onlookers. Much was made of the many public threats Donovan had made against George Squibb seeking vengeance for the lawsuit over the dead cow. The strongest evidence, though circumstantial, against him was the bloody hatchet recovered on his property and his bloody pants. The bodies of the Squibbs had been exhumed and the hatchet compared with marks on the remains. The many one-and-a-qarter inch circular indentations on the Squibbs’ skulls readily matched the ball end of it, but Donovan claimed the hatchet belonged to John Boyle and denied having it in his possession on the Sunday of the murders. The prosecution electrified the audience by introducing old George Squibb’s skull and demonstrating how readily the hatchet matched the injuries.

On Tuesday, October 15, the trial ended and the jury went into deliberations at 1:30 p.m. It did not take long for them to agree on a verdict. Judge Fisher reconvened the court at 5:30, at which time the jury returned guilty verdicts on all three counts. Donovan received the solemn news without any apparent emotion. Once again he was remanded into custody to await sentencing in January 1868.

Sheriff Engles escorted Donovan into court a final time on Monday afternoon, January 13, shortly before 3:00 p.m. for the formal sentencing. Irish Bill stood before Judge Fisher, who asked, “Have you anything to say why sentence of death should not be passed on you?” An emotional Donovan spiritedly protested his innocence and emphatically stated that he had never taken the life of anyone. He also once again denied any knowledge of the crime and did not implicate the Boyles. Fisher invoked the death penalty, noting that this plea of innocence was of no avail as he had twice been tried and convicted despite the able efforts of his defense teams. The time of his execution would be set by the governor of the commonwealth. Donovan would have time for repentance and preparation. After the sentencing, Donovan approached the bench, shook Fisher’s hand cordially, and said, “I will meet you in Heaven.”

In late February former Gettysburg artillery sergeant Abraham Rudisill, now a well known preacher in Harmony Grove, visited Donovan in his cell and gave him some religious reading material. He wrote in his diary that Donovan was to hang on March 31, 1868, the time set by Governor John W. Geary, a former Union general at the battle of Gettysburg.

The day before Donovan’s scheduled execution, he gave his jailer a lengthy story about the hatchet. He claimed that John Boyle had stopped by his house on the Saturday before the murder and asked to borrow a grubbing hoe for his son Edward because he wanted to plant some cabbage plants he had earlier picked up at the Squibb house. However, Donovan was plowing a field and planned to use the hoe himself later, so he asked his wife to lend Boyle the hatchet instead.

On the day after the murder he asked his little son to cut some poles, so he retrieved the hatchet and started sharpening it. He noticed some strange gore on it and asked his son if he had cut the head off of a turkey on Sunday. Because he had heard that the Squibbs had been murdered and because the boy had previously lost another hatchet, young William needed to be very careful with this one. A neighborhood couple, the Duttons, stopped by and Donovan went out to a field with them for some time. Upon returning to his house, he noticed John Boyle engaged on conversation with his wife. When the Duttons and Boyle left soon afterward, Donovan asked his wife what they had been discussing. Ann Donovan replied that Boyle had come to fetch the hatchet because the remaining members of the Squibb family were surely going to search for it. However, no one knew where William Jr. had placed it.

It was the first time Donovan had told this story. He had not introduced it during either of his trials. Now, it was far too late.

The execution would take place inside the jail’s walled courtyard, and the gallows would be six feet shorter than the walls so no one could see the spectacle from the street. A reporter visiting him noted, “It is surprising how quiet and indifferent the prisoner appears. He is not apparently concerned about the terrible doom which is very soon to meet… he still protests his innocence, and grasps at every little ray of hope,” muttering occasionally about “that hatchet.” Donovan added that God has not yet said the word for his execution. According to the reporter, Irish Bill “eats quite heartily and sleeps soundly. He very politely welcomes his acquaintances who call to see him.” Not convinced of the Irishman’s guilt, the reporter closed his story by stating, “Mystery seems to thicken around in this scene, as it approaches its fearful climax.”

On the morning of March 31, nearly two years after the triple murders, William Donovan paid the ultimate price for his years of threatening George Squibb, coupled with the circumstantial evidence of the gore-flecked hatchet and the bloody pants. He was calm on the scaffold, but was praying fervently.

His last words were, “You are hanging an innocent man.”

The trapdoor opened, hurtling Irish Bill into eternity.

EPILOGUE

In late July, the sheriff of Northumberland County, Pa., sent a letter to authorities in York County. A man committed to prison at Sunbury for larceny had asserted to a fellow inmate that he and Donovan were the murderers of the Squibb family and that he himself had killed the little girl. He first told the sheriff that his name was George Mowery from Harrisburg, but at the time of the murder and trial he went by the alias of Edward Boyle. The sheriff had come to find out that Boyle’s true name was Christian K. Spade based upon markings on the prisoner’s body and garments. Mowery/Boyle/Spade boasted that he had been too smart, and had too many friends for the people of York County. York officials started an investigation, but because Boyle had been found innocent in a court of law, they could do nothing.

Later in 1868 John M. Squibb filed a damage claim on behalf of his late father to ask the commonwealth of Pennsylvania for $150 for the price of the gray mare taken back in June 1863 by Fitzhugh Lee’s Confederate cavalrymen. Although the three state commissioners approved the claim, Squibb never got a dime. All the border claims were never paid because of political infighting and later budget cuts.

The Squibbs’ unmarried daughter, Caroline Emma, took ownership of her parent’s farmhouse. When she died in September 1878 at the age of 58, she left some household furnishings to her remaining daughter, Mary Jane Myers. The 87-acre farm and other properties were to be sold and all of the money given to Mary Jane “to make her comfortable.” However, because of the thin, unproductive soil, the dilapidated condition of the house and building, and the triple murders at the site, no one had wanted to buy it. The executor of the estate tried to rent it, but because it was the scene of the Squibb murder, people had an apprehension of evil associated with the place. He deducted from Myers’ payments the cost of repairing the broken down hog pen and sowing clover seed, as well as for auditors’ fees and other miscellaneous items. Finally in 1882, Myers sued to recover the full amount of her money. The judge gave her partial payment in September 1883. The executor eventually found a buyer, and the property on Stone Jug Road passed into other hands. All of the buildings would later be torn down and new ones erected by later owners.

The Squibb murder story passed into the forgotten recesses of York County history.

Sources:

Information for this series of six blog posts on “The Murdered Family” came from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated News, York Pennsylvanian, Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, Stroudsburg Jeffersonian, Gettysburg Republican Compiler, Lancaster Intelligencer, Lancaster Examiner and Herald, Waynesboro Village Record, New York Herald, Adams Star & Sentinel, York Gazette, Harrisburg Telegraph, York Legal Record (Vol. IV, No. 30), the diary of Abraham Rudisill, the York County Civil War Border Claims, and Warrington Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends (Quakers), Bulletin II, Warrington Meeting Chapter Daughters of the American Colonists, 1951.

A couple of years ago, I wrote a series of blog posts (the “In the Footsteps of J.E.B. Stuart” series) on the damage claims York County farmers filed after the Civil War for horses, supplies, and personal goods taken by J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalrymen. Since that time, I have planned to combine some of those blog posts with a well-received article I wrote for Gettysburg Magazine, throwing in some fresh material for good measure. This would be a small booklet which would be a quick and easy read, but would hopefully give the reader a small glimpse into the chaos and calamity Stuart’s men caused for the locals as they headed from Hanover to Carlisle via Dover and Dillsburg.

Over the Easter holiday break, I finally did just that. Taking a break from my manuscript on the Underground Railroad book, I developed a small 48-page booklet on Stuart’s visit to York County which I hope will be of some interest to my readership. If nothing else, I wanted to memorialize this material for future generations.

It is digitally printed, 48 pages, annotated with footnotes, a few maps, and lots of photographs of barns and farms which Stuart’s men are known to have visited in their quest for fresh horses and mules.

“Confederate Calamity: J.E.B. Stuart’s Cavalry Ride Through York County, Pa.”

Like the cover art??? The nice photo is of a typical rural farm located in southern York County.

Here is a link on how to order the new booklet from amazon.com.

On September 1, 2016, the York County History Center will release the first book on the Underground Railroad ever to be published in York. Surprising, considering that from the 1820s through the early Civil War period, York County was a significant pathway for runaway slaves seeking freedom.

The book, titled The Ground Swallowed Them Up: Slavery and the Underground Railroad in York County, Pa., is authored by popular local historian Scott Mingus, and details the networks developed in the movement, including a Quaker system, another one involving free blacks, and a third with several of York’s leading Pennsylvania Germans as conductors.

These conductors smuggled fugitives in railroad cars, wagons, or carriages, or helped them travel on foot or horseback, risking their own freedom in the process. By the Civil War, no slaves or former slaves lived in York County. The last former York County slave was an elderly man on the Forney farm near Hanover, who died in 1841.

Scott Mingus is an Ohio native residing in York, PA. A scientist and executive in the paper industry, he holds patents in self-adhesive postage stamps and bar code labels. He has written 18 Civil War books. His biography of Confederate General William “Extra Billy” Smith was nominated for and won multiple awards, including the Dr. James I. Robertson, Jr. Literary Prize. He also wrote several articles for Gettysburg Magazine. Scott maintains a blog on the Civil War history of York County (www.yorkblog.com/cannonball). He received the 2013 Heritage Profile Award from the York County Heritage Trust for his contributions to local Civil War history.

From the book cover:

When the team of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon surveyed Pennsylvania’s southern edge in the 1760s, they placed York County in the middle of America’s history. They ran a 40-mile state and county line that has indelibly marked where North meets South. It was a border on paper, not a wall of logs and stone, and a steady stream of slaves seeking their liberty flowed through that line from Maryland, Virginia, and points south. Armed slave owners followed these freedom seekers but often found the bondsmen had mysteriously disappeared as if, according to one historian, “the ground had swallowed them up.” Award-winning Civil War historian Scott Mingus tells the compelling story of how the Underground Railroad in York County helped these fugitives find their coveted freedom. It’s a story of an oppressed people’s quest for liberty and about the conductors along their path of York County’s hills and valleys aiding their escape “without public applause or hope of award.”

Many other York County history publications are available on the York County History Center’s website, www.yorkheritage.org.

###

Rossville, in northwestern York County, saw a small skormish in its streets when Union cavalry briefly clashed with J.E.B. Stuart’s rear guard on July 1, 1863, the same day as the opening of the Battle of Gettysburg in the next county to the west. (Scott Mingus photo).

I recently posted a blog entry about a small engagement during the Gettysburg Campaign in Dover Township between Jeb Stuart’s rear guard and a Union reconnaissance patrol that was shadowing his movements through York County. That posting prompted an inquiry about other largely unknown skirmishes or engagements within the county during the Civil War.

It appears that many readers may not be aware that there was hostile gunfire in so many different places across York County, although, other than the battle of Hanover and the skirmish at Wrightsville, casualties were almost non-existent.

I have covered many of these encounters in my various Civil War books that I have written, but I don’t believe I have ever assembled them in one place previously.

So, here goes!

Civil War cannon in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Hanover, PA (Scott Mingus photo).

June 27, 1863 – Hanover Junction: More than 200 troopers of the 35th Battalion, Virginia Cavalry under Lt. Col. Elijah V. White attack a line of Union soldiers and drive them more than a mile to their fortifications on a hilltop overlooking the valley of Codorus Creek and the railroad intersection. The defenders, two companies of the 20th Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia, retreat to Wrightsville and join the defenses there. White heads north through Seven Valleys toward the Howard Tunnel. No known casualties.

June 27, 1863 – Howard Tunnel: “Lige” White’s cavalrymen plan to destroy the tunnel to disrupt the Northern Central Railway, but are easily driven off by a strong detachment of the 20th PVM. The emergency militia regiment, nearly 1,000 strong, had been broken up in small detachments over a 15-mile stretch of the vital Northern Central Railway. That proved to be a mistake, as none were strong enough, other than the men safely ensconced in rifle pits on the sides and top of the tunnel, to make a difference when the Rebels finally arrive. White burns railroad bridges in the vicinity and heads for Spring Forge/Nashville to camp overnight. No known casualties. Word reaches the detachment of the 20th PVM guarding the Black Bridge near York. They withdraw, as do the units posted at the Gut near what was then called New Holland.

June 27, 1863 – York Haven: The 17th Virginia Cavalry, under Col. William Henderson French, attacks and drives off other companies of the 20th PVM under Col. William B. Thomas. After a sharp firefight, the Federals withdraw across the Susquehanna River on flatboats and rowboats. French then burns the RR bridges over the Conewago Creek and returns to his camp near Emigsville. Casualties are minimal. At least one Confederate is shot off of his horse while in the river [I have long speculated that this man could be the unknown Rebel body buried downriver at Accomac].

June 27, 1863 – York: Captain Thaddeus Waldo’s company of the 16th Virginia Cavalry exchanges shots with Union cavalry pickets west of York as they probe the Federal lines. No known casualties. The Yankees, elements of Capt. Robert Bell’s Adams County Cavalry, are a rear guard, allowing the bulk of York’s infantry defenders and Major Granville O. Haller to take the train eastward to Wrightsville. Some of the patients of the U.S. Army Hospital accompany them; the rest march to Wrightsville. Bell’s Cavalry follows to screen the eastward movement to the river.

June 28, 1863 – Wrightsville: More than 1,500 Union troops guard the river. They are a motley force, including the previous defenders of Hanover Junction, two militia cavalry units, a small group of civilian scouts, a home guard company of free black men from the river region, elements of the 87th Pennsylvania fresh off their stunning defeat at Second Winchester, the York U.S. Army General Hospital patients and their guard detail, and parts of three different emergency militia regiments. Confederate Brig. Gen. John B. Gordon leads 2,000 Rebels to Wrightsville and attacks about 5:30 p.m. One of the black home guardsmen is killed and several emergency militiamen are wounded. One of the militiamen suffers a non-fatal heart attack from the excitement and exertion in fleeing across the covered bridge before it is set on fire. Casualties: 1 Union defender killed, 11 men wounded, up to 21 prisoners of war. Confederate, 1 soldier, Pvt. C. C. Smith of Georgia, slightly wounded.

June 30, 1863 – Hanover: In the first serious clash between the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the oncoming Union Army of the Potomac on Pennsylvania soil, cavalrymen battle in the streets of Hanover and in the fields southwest of town. Jeb Stuart’s Rebels are denied northward passage to the York-Gettysburg Turnpike and instead swing northeasterly toward York through Jefferson. Casualties: 215 Union troops, 117 Confederates in the largest military engagement in York County history. Hanover residents bury the bodies in the local cemetery; they are later removed to the new Gettysburg National Cemetery.

June 30, 1863 – Jefferson: Jeb Stuart’s rear guard, elements of Brig. Gen. Wade Hampton’s division, man the hills and roads southwest of Jefferson. A Union reconnaissance patrol following Hampton withdraws after an exchange of gunfire. No known casualties.

July 1, 1863 – Dover: Hampton’s rear guard skirmishes with Lt. A. J. Alexander’s Union recon patrol near Salem Church; the Federals withdraw westward temporarily after a brief engagement. No known casualties.

July 1, 1863 – Rossville: Again, the Federals probe Hampton’s rear guard. Shots are exchanged at the intersection in Rossville. No known casualties. Alexander withdraws again and heads southward to rejoin Judson Kilpatrick’s division near Abbottstown.

There may be others that I have missed, but those are the engagements off the top of my head without consulting my voluminous notes on York’s role in the Gettysburg Campaign.

To learn more about York County’s Civil War history, visit the museum of the York County History Center.

This historical marker along East Canal Road in Dover, Pennsylvania, commemorates the invasion of this section of York County by Confederate forces under Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart. The controversial Stuart led more than 4,500 Rebel cavalrymen into southwestern York County on June 30, 1863, fighting at the Battle of Hanover and then leading his men through the rolling hills northward through York-New Salem to Dover. The following day, July 1, marked the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg. While the angry sound of artillery reverberated off many of York County’s hills, Stuart wearily headed his troopers northwest from Dover toward Carlisle in the futile hope of connecting with Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell’s corps, which had been in Pennsylvania for several days.

Nationally known author and lecturer Scott L. Mingus, Sr., will present a PowerPoint talk on Stuart’s Ride at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, September 19, 2012, for the monthly meeting of the York Civil War Round Table. The talk will be in the auditorium of the York County Heritage Trust, 250 E. Market Street, York PA. There is no charge, and the public is welcome!

Scott Mingus has been a scientist and executive in the global paper industry for more than 30 years, and is currently leading the R&D efforts as well as the sustainable forestry program and ISO 14001 environmental activities for Glatfelter, $1.6 billion paper company headquartered in York. He studied paper science and engineering at Miami University, and is married with three adult children and four young grandsons. He lives in Manchester Township, York County.

The southeastern Ohio native is the author of ten books on the Civil War; his latest work Gettysburg Glimpses II: More True Stories from the Battlefield is being published by Ten Roads Publishing later this month, with a fresh biography of William “Extra Billy” Smith coming soon afterward from Savas Beatie LLC. He is collaborating with J. David Petruzzi on a new microhistory of the Gettysburg Campaign’s first two weeks, and is currently researching the Second Battle of Winchester for a planned book with Eric J. Wittenberg.

Mingus is a member of the prestigious Legion of Honor for the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society and is a multiple award-winning wargamer and scenario booklet author. His great-great-grandfather was a 15-year-old drummer for the 51st Ohio under General William T. Sherman; other ancestors fought at Antietam and Gettysburg.