Shippensburg’s Civil War Trail
When you think of Pennsylvania’s role in the Civil War, you probably think of Gettysburg…but what you may not realize is that the town of Shippensburg also has a very rich Civil War history. In fact, the Shippensburg Historical Society has created a brochure of fourteen significant sites all within walking distance of downtown Shippensburg. My name is Caden and I will be telling you about each place on Shippensburg’s Civil War trail.
The Battle of Shippensburg
On the sunny afternoon of June 24th, 1863, gunfire echoed down King Street. The sounds of gunshots and beating horse hooves signaled the retreat of Captain William Boyd’s 1st New York Calvary from the advancing Confederate Calvary of General Albert G. Jenkins. Less than an hour later the Rebel army of the South was in control of the town. Shippensburg’s population of approximately 2,000 would be occupied for the next three days by 15,000-20,000 experienced Confederate soldiers whose sights were set on Harrisburg, Pennsylvania’s state capital.
The Sherman “Union” House Hotel
The day before the battle of Shippensburg, the owners of the Union House Hotel quickly arranged for painters to whitewash their business’s sign. They feared the advancing Confederates would take offense to the reference of the Yankee army and would burn and destroy their hotel. While there is no historical documentation to explain the significance of the replacement name, the plan was successful and the building survived the Confederate invasion.
General Samuel Sturgis’s House
Born in Shippensburg in 1822, General Samuel Sturgis was the grandson of a watchmaker whose shop was located along East King Street and the son of a Shippensburg Justice of the Peace. He is believed to have been the first Shippensburg resident to be named to West Point Military Academy, where he graduated in 1846. Sturgis was quickly promoted throughout the ranks of the United States Calvary. Under his command at the Battle of Antietam, Union troops took control of Burnside’s Bridge, an important turning point in the battle.
The Shippensburg Historical Society
Founded in 1945, the Shippensburg Historical Society is located in the Stewart House, one of Shippensburg’s most historic homes. The society works to collect and preserve the history of Shippensburg, making the legacy of the town available to the public. Every summer the Shippensburg Historical Society hosts an exhibit on the area’s rich Civil War history.
The McLean House & Tannery
Roughly six months after his son, corporal George McLean, died of a gunshot wound at the Battle of Fredericksburg, tanner William McLean joined other Shippensburg store owners at a meeting with Confederate General Albert G. Jenkins. While the General was requesting supplies and rations from the store owners in an apparent attempt to avoid the need to plunder, the tanner had already taken preventive measures of his own…installing false bottoms on the tanning vats located behind his house. William McLean also hid finished hides under corncobs and firewood in his woodshed. His valuable supply of finished leather was never discovered by the Confederates.
McPherson & Cox Hardware Store
On the night before the Confederate army arrived in Shippensburg, hardware store owners John McPherson and his wife Martha hid their most valuable inventory in the fireplaces throughout their house. Wallpapering over the fireplace openings, their belongings remained safely hidden from the invading army. Most of the McPhersons’ merchandise that was not hidden was later bought by the Confederate army with Confederate Scrip, a currency that was virtually worthless. The McPherson family continued running their business through 1903, and the building is the oldest continually operating hardware store in Pennsylvania.
J.C. Altick Drugstore
When the Confederate army occupied Shippensburg, they plundered medicine and supplies from the J.C. Altick Drugstore. These medical provisions were very valuable and were hard to find in the southern states during the Civil War.
Confederate Headquarters
From June 23rd through the 27th, the Confederate army camped in and near Shippensburg. General Albert G. Jenkins set up his Confederate headquarters at the location that is now the intersection of Earl and King Streets. At first General Jenkins requested $1,800 to insure the safety of Shippensburg and its residents, but later compromised this demand in exchange for having the townspeople provide food for both the soldiers and their horses.
The Cumberland Valley Railroad
Beginning in the 1830’s the Cumberland Valley Railroad provided transportation for people and supplies between Harrisburg and Hagerstown, Maryland. The railroad tracks ran down the center of present day Earl Street. The Union Army relied on the Cumberland Valley Railroad to quickly transport ammunition to its troops during the Civil War, although the railroad suffered damaged during the Confederate invasion of 1863. Just south of Shippensburg, the Cumberland Valley Railroad’s Scotland Bridge was destroyed.
Home of Captain James Kelso
In 1862 Captain James Kelso left behind his wife Jane and his eight children to serve as an officer in the Union Army. Captain Kelso enlisted approximately 100 Shippensburg men who would become Company D of the 130th Pennsylvania Volunteers. Over the next nine months eight of these men would die, including George McLean, the son of local tanner William McLean. One month before the Confederate invasion Captain Kelso and the surviving members of Company D would return home to Shippensburg. While the Captain’s house was ransacked, he and his family were left unharmed.
God’s Little Acre
Throughout Shippensburg there are 326 Civil War veterans buried, including Jesse Fry and Richard D. Moore who are buried at God’s Little Acre. This small cemetery is located on North Prince Street, behind the Vigilant Hose Company, and dates back to 1733. The plaque outside the cemetery reads, “Dedicated to the Patriots and Pioneers who sleep in this, God’s acre”.
Widow Agle’s House
In August of 1861, Shippensburg resident Jacob Agle volunteered for service in the 9th Pennsylvania Calvary where he served for over two years before being shot through the chest. He died while charging a Confederate line in Lafayette, Georgia leaving his wife Regina and their three young sons to survive on their own. The Widow Agle, one of approximately 200,000 women who lost their husbands during the Civil War, supported her family through sewing and tailoring in the log cabin her husband’s brothers had built to house the widow and her sons. Two years after her husband’s death she was able to receive a monthly federal widow’s pension of $8.00. She sent two of her sons to the White Hall Soldiers’ Orphans School in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania while she remained living in the home until her death in 1898.
Locust Grove Cemetery
This area of Shippensburg was the location of the town’s first African American church, established in the 1830s. The next decade, Edward Shippen Burd granted this land to Shippensburg’s African American community, where it was the area’s only public cemetery available to them for the next hundred years. It is the burial ground of both slaves and free blacks and is the final resting place of African American veterans from the Civil War thru the Vietnam War. There are twenty-six Civil War soldiers buried in the Locust Grove Cemetery.
Indian Head Springs, “Dykeman Springs”
This area of Shippensburg was named Indian Head Springs for the Delaware Indians who were discovered there in 1730. One hundred and thirty-three years later it would become the encampment of over 15,000 Confederate soldiers, under General Junius Daniel. These troops left Shippensburg on June 27th, heading towards Harrisburg. They changed course near Carlisle to head towards the town of Gettysburg and only a week later nearly half of them had been killed or wounded in battle.