Confederate soldiers help save Pennsylvania City & “Treat them much better than their own [Yankee] men”

-

This is the extraordinary story of southern American/Confederate soldiers trying to save homes and stores in a northern town in Pennsylvania after Yankees burned a nearby bridge. Confederates had entered Pennyslvania primarily to pressure politicians in Washington DC to end the war. These stories are an interesting stark contrast to the many stories of Yankees burning southern towns during their conquest (list found below). Unlike Yankee orders, Confederates were operating under an order from Lee not to destroy private property.

This historical marker in Wrightsville, Pennsylvania explains how the town caught fire after northern Yankees burned the bridge. After Gordon's Confederates failed to save the bridge, they went to work trying to save the town. Read the marker for an interesting story of how one of the women responded.

Just up this street are the guns with the marker: "these guns presented by US Government mark Wrightsville as the farthest point east reached by the Confederate forces June 28, 1863 during the Civil War."

This town is located right between York and Lancaster, Pennsylvania (about a 1/2 hr drive west of Philadelphia) at this map coordinates: (40°01'30.2N 76°32'01.8W)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

ADDITIONAL READING:

Confederates save Pennsylvania town:
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=31818

Confederates save Pennyslvania town from fire started by Yankees:
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=31807

Buildings Confederates saved in Pennsylvania are still there today:
https://yorkblog.com/cannonball/confederates-labored-to-save-b/

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
ABOUT THE BRIDGE:

Yankees burned the Wrightsville-Columbia bridge over the Susquehanna River on June 28, 1863, just a week before the battle of Gettysburg. At 5,620 ft long, it had the distinction of being the world's longest covered bridge. The wood and stone structure had 27 piers, a carriageway, walkway, and two towpaths. At this location, the river, a mile wide, made a formidable military barrier both during the American Revolution and also during the uncivil War. In 1777, when the British occupied Philadelphia, the Continental Congress had retreated west across it to the safety of York, where its members signed the Articles of Confederation. Since then, an impressive bridge had been completed over the river in 1834.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

NORTHERNERS TREATED BETTER BY CONFEDERATES THAN THEIR OWN YANKEE TROOPS

“In the Northern newspapers an account was given by a mill owner of Pennsylvania, of a conversation with Gen. Lee, in which occurred the following: "It is not that we love the Pennsylvanians," observed Lee, "that we refuse to let our men engage in plundering private citizens. We could not otherwise keep up the morale of the army. A rigid discipline must be maintained, or the men would be worthless."
- Edward Alfred Pollard. The Early Life, Campaigns, and Public Services of Robert E. Lee

A northern mill-owner in Pennsylvania shared his disgust of Yankee troops, "I must say that they [Confederates] acted like gentlemen, and, their cause aside, I would rather have forty thousand rebels quartered on my premises than one thousand Union troops. The Colonel of one of the New York regiments (militia) drove his horse into the engine-room of my mill, a place which must be kept as clean as a parlour; the men broke all the locks, and denied every apartment from basement to garret. Yet all this time I have been quartering sick Federal officers at my house, and my new hotel is thrown open to the men to sleep in, free of charge."
- Edward Alfred Pollard. The Early Life, Campaigns, and Public Services of Robert E. Lee

“The behavior of the men since we entered Pennsylvania had been most exemplary. At McConnellsburg there had been one breach of General Lee's orders, but that was the solitary exception. I find this note, "Our division has not burned a fence rail since we have been in Pennsylvania," and also this, "The people were frightened to death, and only asked us to spare their lives and not burn their houses. But finding us so quiet and orderly, they became calm and said we treated them much better than their own men."
McKim, Randolph H. (Randolph Harrison), 1842-1920.

"We were now in the enemy's country, and getting our supplies entirely from the country people. These supplies were taken from mills, storehouses, and the farmers, under a regular system ordered by General Lee, and with a due regard to the wants of the inhabitants themselves, certificates [money] being given in all cases. There was no marauding, or indiscriminating plundering, but all such acts were expressly forbidden and prohibited effectually." – Excerpt from Historical Marker on Maryland/Pennsylvania border quoting Confederate General, Jubal A Early

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
FULL STORY OF MARY REWALT’S REACTION TO CONFEDERATES SAVING HER HOME:

Excerpts from: https://yorkblog.com/cannonball/confederates-labored-to-save-b/

“A bucket brigade of Rebel [Confederate] infantrymen helped save individual homes and businesses and helped arrest the fires that were burning out of control in the Westphalia district of Wrightsville and in the industrial section north of Hellam Street. Let’s look at just a few of the buildings the Confederates labored to save. Their efforts paid off, as the structures are still intact 146 years after the inferno that destroyed many adjacent or nearby buildings…

Mary Jane Rewalt ought out General Gordon during the chaotic excitement that Sunday night and pleaded with him to save her father’s house. Gordon ordered his men to do so, and through “tireless labor” they managed to save the building, although some nearby buildings did burn down. In appreciation, Mary Jane, whose husband Luther Rewalt was a surgeon in the Union army serving in the South, invited Gordon and his staff officers to have breakfast with her in this house.

The next morning, Gordon arrived promptly. In his words, “There was one point especially at which my soldiers combated the fire’s progress with immense energy, and with great difficulty saved an attractive home from burning. It chanced to be the home of one of the most superb women it was my fortune to meet during the four years of war. She was Mrs. L. L. Rewalt, to whom I refer in my lecture, The Last Days of the Confederacy, as the heroine of the Susquehanna.

I met Mrs. Rewalt the morning after the fire had been checked. She had witnessed the furious combat with the flames around her home, and was unwilling that those men should depart without receiving some token of appreciation from her. She was not wealthy, and could not entertain my whole command, but she was blessed with an abundance of those far nobler riches of brain and heart which are the essential glories of exalted womanhood. Accompanied by an attendant, and at a late hour of the night, she sought me, in the confusion which followed the destructive fire, to express her gratitude to the soldiers of my command and to inquire how long we would remain in Wrightsville. On learning that the village would be relieved of our presence at an early hour the following morning, she insisted that I should bring with me to breakfast at her house as many as could find places in her dining-room. She would take no excuse, not even the nervous condition in which the excitement of the previous hours had left her.

At a bountifully supplied table in the early morning sat this modest, cultured woman, surrounded by soldiers in their worn, gray uniforms. The welcome she gave us was so gracious, she was so self-possessed, so calm and kind, that I found myself in an inquiring state of mind as to whether her sympathies were with the Northern or Southern side in the pending war. Cautiously, but with sufficient clearness to indicate to her my object, I ventured some remarks which she could not well ignore and which she instantly saw were intended to evoke some declaration upon the subject. She was too brave to evade it, too self-poised to be confused by it, and too firmly fixed in her convictions to hesitate as to the answer. With no one present except Confederate soldiers who were her guests, she replied, without a quiver in her voice, but with womanly gentleness: ‘General Gordon, I fully comprehend you, and it is due to myself that I candidly tell you that I am a Union woman. I cannot afford to be misunderstood, nor to have you misinterpret this simple courtesy. You and your soldiers last night saved my home from burning, and I was unwilling that you should go away without receiving some token of my appreciation. I must tell you, however, that, with my assent and approval, my husband is a soldier in the Union army, and my constant prayer to Heaven is that our cause may triumph and the Union be saved.’

No Confederate left that room without a feeling of profound respect, of unqualified admiration, for that brave and worthy woman. No Southern soldier, no true Southern man, who reads this account will fail to render to her a like tribute of appreciation. The spirit of every high-souled Southerner was made to thrill over and over again at the evidence around him of the more than Spartan courage, the self-sacrifices and devotion, of Southern women, at every stage and through every trial of the war, as from first to last, they hurried to the front, their brothers and fathers, their husbands and sons. No Southern man can ever forget the words of cheer that came from these heroic women’s lips, and their encouragement to hope and fight on in the midst of despair.”

This sturdy brick house on Front Street was also saved by the Rebels, as were a few other nearby structures. However, much of the immediate neighborhood was devastated and needed to be rebuilt after the cleanup of the ruined buildings. A huge lumberyard and an iron foundry were among the factories destroyed in this region along the river north of Hellam Street.

A block south of the house shown above is the historic Wrightsville House, an old tavern that was popular well before the Civil War. Some accounts suggest that Confederate soldiers climbed onto the roof to help pass water to douse flaming embers that kept blowing onto the flammable shingles.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
LIST OF TOWNS BURNED BY CONFEDERATE ARMY:
1. Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, July 30, 1864

LIST OF TOWNS BURNED BY UNION/YANKEE ARMY:
1. Osceola, Missouri, burned to the ground, September 24, 1861
2. Dayton, Missouri, burned, January 1 to 3, 1862
3. Frenchburg, Virgina (later West Virginia), burned, January 5, 1862
4. Columbus, Missouri, burned, reported on January 13, 1862
5. Bentonville, Arkansas, partly burned, February 23, 1862
6. North Carolina, burned, February 20, 1862
7. Bluffton, South Carolina, burned, reported June 6, 1863
8. Baton Rouge, Louisiana, burned, August 5 & 21, 1862
9. Donaldsonville, Louisiana, partly burned, August 10, 1862
10. Athens, Alabama, partly burned, August 30, 1862
11. Prentiss, Mississippi, burned, September 14, 1862
12. Randolph, Tennessee, burned, September 26, 1862
13. Elm Grove and Hopefield, Arkansas, burned, October 18, 1862
14. Bledsoe's Landing, Arkansas, burned, October 21, 1862
15. Hamblin's, Arkansas, burned, October 21, 1862
16. Napoleon, Arkansas, partly burned, January 17, 1863
17. Mound City, Arkansas, partly burned, January 13, 1863
18. Clifton, Tennessee, burned, February 20, 1863
19. Hopefield, Arkansas, burned, February 21, 1863
20. Celina, Tennessee, burned, April 19, 1863
21. Hernando, Mississippi, partly burned, April 21, 1863
22. Greenville, Mississippi, burned, May 6, 1863
23. Jackson, Mississippi, mostly burned, May 15, 1863
24. Austin, Mississippi, burned, May 23, 1863
25. Darien, Georgia, burned, June 11, 1863
26. Eunice, Arkansas, burned, June 14, 1863
27. Gaines Landing, Arkansas, burned, June 15, 1863
28. Richmond, Louisiana, burned, June 15, 1863
29. Sibley, Missouri, burned June 28, 1863
30. Donaldsonville, Louisiana, destroyed and burned, June 28, 1863
31. Columbus, Tennessee, burned, reported February 10, 1864
32. Meridian, Mississippi, destroyed, February 3 to March 6, 1864
33. Campti, Louisiuana, burned, April 16, 1864
34. Washington, North Carolina, sacked and burned, April 20, 1864
35. Grand Ecore, Louisiana, burned, April 21, 1864
36. Cloutierville, Louisiana, burned, April 25, 1864
37. Bolivar, Mississippi, burned, May 5, 1864
38. Alexandria, Louisiana, burned, May 13, 1864
39. Hallowell's Landing, Alabama, burned, reported May 14, 1864
40. Newtown, Virginia, ordered to be burned, ordered May 30, 1864
41. Ripley, Mississippi, burned, July 8, 1864
42. Harrisburg, Mississippi, burned, July 14, 1864
43. Oxford, Mississippi, burned, August 22, 1864
44. Rome, Georgia, partly burned, November 11, 1864
45. Atlanta, Georgia, burned, November 15, 1864
46. Camden Point, Missouri, burned, July 14, 1864
47. Kendal's Grist-Mill, Arkansas, burned, September 3, 1864
48. Shenandoah Valley, devastated, reported October 1, 1864 by Sheridan
49. Griswoldville, Georgia, burned, November 21, 1864
50. Guntersville, Alabama, burned January 15, 1865
51. Somerville, Alabama, burned, January 17, 1865
52. McPhersonville, South Carolina, burned, January 30, 1865
53. Lawtonville, South Carolina, burned, February 7, 1865
54. Barnwell, South Carolina, burned, reported February 9, 1865
55. Orangeburg, South Carolina, burned, February 12, 1865
56. Columbia, South Carolina, burned, reported February 17, 1865
57. Winnsborough, South Carolina, pillaged and partly burned, February 21, 1865
58. Tuscaloosa, Alabama, burned, April 4, 1865

----------------------------------------

A meddling Yankee is God’s worst creation; he cannot run his own affairs correctly, but is constantly interfering in the affairs of others, and he is always ready to repent of everyone’s sins, but his own.
—North Carolina newspaper, 1854




















Location: Wrightsville, PA 17368, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jefferson Shields, Black Confederate – Lexington, VA

-
Image
Sharing brief stories of the ignored and forgotten. The following was published in the Nov 1, 1901 issue of the Times Newspaper in Richmond, Virginia about Jeff Shields: Jefferson (Jeff) Shields is a man of rugged character and is a great favorite among the white people, especially the old-soldier element, for Uncle Jeff counts himself one of the followers of the “Lost Cause.” Uncle Jeff entered the Confederate service as cook [and body servant] with his young master, James K. Edmondson, who became colonel of the 27th Virginia Regiment, Stonewall Brigade. Later he was cook for General “Stonewall” Jackson, and of this honor he never tires of talking. After General Jackson’s death, he cooked for General J.E.B. Stuart, then for an officers’ mess until the close of the war. He recalls many incidents of General Jackson’s colored Sunday school, taught here in the Presbyterian lecture-room several years previous to the Civil War. Uncle Jeff. was in General Jackson’s class, and he is t
Read more

Francis Scott Key & the Ironic fate of his Grandchildren – Imprisonment at Fort McHenry and the Star Spangled Banner

-
Image
The irony of Lincoln’s armies attacking and imprisoning many of the grandchildren of our most famous Revolutionary War era Heroes and Founding Fathers (including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, etc) was not lost on the grandson of Francis Scott Key, author of the lyrics of our National anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” His fascinating story of arrest and imprisonment follows along with my photos of famous sites related to Francis Scott Key, his parents, and many of his grandchildren, including Fort McHenry, his birthplace at Terra Rubra, his gravesite in Frederick, Maryland, his grandchildren's graves in Owing Mills, Maryland (north side of Baltimore), the Courthouse he used in Frederick Maryland, etc. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - FRANCIS “FRANK” KEY HOWARD FOUND THE IRONY OF BEING IMPRISONED BY YANKEES AT THE SAME LOCATION THAT HIS GRANDFATHER FRANCIS SCOTT KEY WAS DETAINED BY THE BRITISH 47 YEARS EARLIER. AFTERALL, WHIL
Read more

What the Yankees Did. Burrel Hemphill: loyal slave gave his life than betray a trust

-
Image
During the War Between the States (aka unCivil War), Burrel Hemphill was a slave in the household of the very wealthy bachelor, Robert Hemphill, who had been killed in The Battle of Seven Pines on June 13, 1862. Sherman’s troops had been stealing what they wanted and burning what remained. When they approached the Hemphill estate in February of 1865, they reportedly demanded that Burrell reveal the hiding places of the Hemphill family’s silverware, other valuables and money that had been hidden from them. In an attempt to coerce Burrell to talk, the Yankees tied a rope to his ankles and dragged him up and down the road by a horse, before simultaneously hanging and shooting him. Despite the Yankees best attempts, Burrell died without saying a word. This monument erected in his honor reads, "In memory of Burrel Hemphill, Killed by Union soldiers February 1865. Although a slave, he gave his life rather than betray a trust. He was a member of Hopewell." (More info found in l
Read more