Font Resize(Editor's note: The following is adapted from remarks at a panel discussion last week at the York County Heritage Trust on the topic of the Confederate occupation of York in 1863.)
This evening may be historic.
In the 1960s, a reporter was putting together material for a 100th anniversary story of the occupation of York.
She queried a local library about York's surrender and was emphatically informed that the town did not, in fact, surrender.
This community self-consciousness about the surrender began thawing by the 125th anniversary in 1988 when a good-natured re-enactment took place.
After the Jubal Early re-enactor demanded the keys to the city, Mayor William Althaus said: Heck no. Or
Just in the past five years, there's been a renaissance by York-based and outside-the-county historians actively studying York County in the Civil War. Perhaps a dozen books have dealt with that topic.
So, a panel at a city event on such a long-simmering topic as the occupation of York is rare, if not unprecedented, and long overdue.
Gen. Robert E. Lee hoped to achieve many things in the Confederate campaign into Pennsylvania in 1863.
He sought to capture a prize -- Harrisburg, a northern capital -- and thus at least force the war's opponents in the North to push for a negotiated peace.
His troops would forage from Pennsylvania's lush farms and, thus, move bootprints away from the trampled fields of Virginia.
And he hoped to draw out the Union Army from the Washington, D.C., region with the hope of a pitched battle on northern soil.
So his men headed north in the spring of 1863, Gen. Richard Ewell's corps in the lead.
That unit entered Pennsylvania in three prongs.
Robert Rhodes' division reached Carlisle to front Harrisburg. Gen. Edward Johnson's division camped in Shippensburg.
And Gen. Jubal Early's more than 6,000 soldiers and detached troops headed through York County to burn
Similarly, Early entered York County in three prongs on Saturday, June 27.
His main column marched through East Berlin on roads to Weigelstown and then to York.
White's Comanches, a mounted column, took a southern route through Hanover to Hanover Junction.
John B. Gordon's brigade marched down the main pike -- present-day Route 30.
That day began a two-plus-day period in which Gen. Jubal Early's division simply overwhelmed largely undefended York County.
That night, Gordon, headquartered 10 miles from York in Farmers and ready to enter York the next day, learned that York's fathers wanted a meeting to consummate a surrender deal forged earlier by young businessman A.B. Farquhar.
The surrender agreement was shaped this way: York's citizens wouldn't put up any resistance if the rebels would not burn the town or harm its citizens.
So the Confederates entered York on June 28, 1863, and soon extorted shoes, hats, food and money from residents.
Gordon's brigade rode on to Wrightsville, with revised orders.
Union resistance had been so light that he would attempt to capture the Susquehanna River bridge. But Union forces, whose original mission was to defend the bridge, torched the mile-long covered structure to stop the rebel advance.
After about 40 hours in York, Lee recalled Early's division, which countermarched to Gettysburg. There, some units sustained heavy casualties -- more than 30 percent -- in fighting on Cemetery Hill.
Immediately, controversy began surrounding the surrender: The pro-surrender position held that York sustained no loss of life and little property damage.
The anti-surrender contingent vigorously disagreed: There was, indeed, damage. York's ill-advised decision cost the town its honor.
The current debate over the surrender of York is healthy, as is any study of historical decisions that have lasting impact.
As the years passed after the war, the community and York's students of history lapsed into silence on the occupation. York-area folks preferred to discuss and promote considerable achievements in the American Revolution and World War II.
In the past two decades, the community has warmed to the Civil War era.
But the decades-long sensitivity about the surrender has obscured many of York County's Civil War milestones.
There has been talk of another forum -- perhaps a daylong symposium -- to study Civil War generals who were in York County -- Early, Gordon, Jeb Stuart, George Armstrong Custer, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and William B. Franklin.
And that forum could also study the depths of the entire York-area Civil War story -- which is very much one of great sacrifice. That story would explore:
--- About 6,200 York County men served in the Union Army, and hundreds undoubtedly lost their lives in battle or from disease.
--- A massive Civil War hospital on Penn Park was the destination point for 14,000 soldiers in blue. Hospital staff also treated rebel soldiers.
--- Nurses and other medical workers from York traveled to Gettysburg to provide wagonloads of medical supplies and food for the wounded.
--- Tens of thousands of raw recruits bivouacked and trained at the old York Fairgrounds. Local residents provided food and shelter for scores of these recruits as well as patients at the military hospital.
Eye-witness Cassandra Small wrote that the occupation of York is a matter never to be forgotten.
Looks like the community is finally taking her at her word.
James McClure is editor of the York Daily Record/Sunday News. He has written five books on York County history. To contact him, call 771-2000, or e-mail jem@ydr.com.
TO READ
A sampling of publications since 2000 that touch, in full or in part, on York County in the Civil War era:
--- Dennis W. Brandt's "From Home Guards to Heroes, The 87th Pennsylvania and Its Civil War Community."
--- Scott Mingus' "Human Interest Stories of the Gettysburg Campaign, Volume I & II." Mingus also has written the forthcoming book "Flames Beyond Gettysburg: The Gordon Expedition," a micro-study of the Confederation occupation of York County.
--- George A. Rummel's "Calvary on the Roads to Gettysburg, Kirkpatrick at Hanover and Hunterstown."
--- Eric J. Wittenberg and J. David Petruzzi's "Plenty of Blame to Go Around, Jeb Stuart's Controversial Ride to Gettysburg."
--- Scott Butcher's "Civil War Walking Tour."
--- Lila Fourhman Shaull's "A Walking Tour of Civil War-Era residents at Prospect Hill Cemetery, York, Pa."
--- Mark Snell's "From First to Last, The Life of Major General William B. Franklin."
--- James McClure's "East of Gettysburg, A Gray Shadow Crosses York County, Pa." and "Almost Forgotten, A Glimpse of Black History in York County, Pa."
--- John V. Jezierski's "Enterprising Images, The Goodridge Brothers, African-American Photographers, 1847-1922."
--- June Lloyd's "Faith and Family, Pennsylvania German Heritage in York County Area Fraktur."
Also, Mingus, Butcher, Lloyd and McClure regularly post on Civil War topics at www.yorkblog.com. For a pro/con on the surrender of York, click here. For more on the Civil War in York County, click here.
ON THE BLOG
Pro/Con: Was York's surrender justified? Read more at York Town Square blog.
