The Department of the Susquehanna was a military department created by the United States War Department during the Gettysburg Campaign of the American Civil War. Its goal was to protect the state capital and the southern portions of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and to deny the Confederate army passage across the vital Susquehanna River.
On June 9, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln, responding to Robert E. Lee's impending invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania, called for 100,000 volunteers from Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio to help repel the invasion, with only about 33,000 recruits answering his call. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton ordered the creation of two military departments, the Departments of the Susequehanna and Monongahela, to organize these militia and defend the state of Pennsylvania. The Department of the Susquehanna consisted of all troops east of Johnstown and the Laurel Highlands, and it was initially headquartered at Chambersburg. It was placed under the command of Major General Darius N. Couch, who had formerly commanded II Corps, Army of the Potomac.
As the Confederates entered the Cumberland Valley, Couch moved his headquarters to Harrisburg. Militia from New York and New Jersey arrived in the capital to provide manpower while the newly raised Pennsylvania emergency militia drilled at Camp Curtin. New York troops serving under the Department of the Susquehanna were first engaged in a skirmish with Confederate cavalry under Albert G. Jenkins at Greencastle on June 20, losing one man killed (considered the first casualty of the Gettysburg Campaign on Northern soil). The New Yorkers eventually retired to Harrisburg, allowing Jenkins to occupy Chambersburg.
Couch ordered that no Confederate unit was to be allowed to cross the Susquehanna River. He authorized the construction of earthworks and fortifications near Lemoyne to defend Harrisburg and its river bridges. He assigned William F. "Baldy" Smith to defend the state capital. Couch designated his aide-de-camp, Major Granville O. Haller, as the sector commander to defend Adams and York counties, with regional headquarters in Gettysburg. Couch sent out three regiments of state emergency militia to Haller's assistance, with the 26th Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia (P.V.M.) sent to Gettysburg, the 20th P.V.M. to York County, and the 27th P.V.M. to Columbia to defend the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge, a vital crossing over the Susquehanna.
On June 26, 1863, advancing Confederates under Jubal Early and John Brown Gordon routed Haller's militia at Gettysburg and occupied the borough. Haller retired to York, which surrendered on June 28, becoming the largest Northern town to fall during the Civil War. Prior to the Confederate occupation, Haller removed his troops to Wrightsville, where in obedience to Couch's orders, Haller ordered the covered bridge burned to prevent Confederate passage into Lancaster County.
The troops of the department assigned to General Smith took part in skirmishes against elements of Richard S. Ewell's corps in Cumberland County at Sporting Hill on June 30 and against J.E.B. Stuart at Carlisle on July 1. Couch dispatched Smith's men, along with many of Haller's, to help George G. Meade pursue Robert E. Lee's retreating Army of Northern Virginia. The Department of the Susquehanna remained operational following the conclusion of the campaign, although many of the militia were sent home.
With the threat repelled, Couch moved his headquarters back to Chambersburg, and the department played an administrative role the rest of the year, providing militia to help clean up the Gettysburg Battlefield and assisting in the military preparations for the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery and Lincoln's visit, which resulted in the Gettysburg Address.
In January 1864, Couch responded with troops to rumors that a band of disgruntled constituents planned to prevent the inauguration of Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin. In March, with rumors rife of yet another raid, Couch made preparations to again defend the state. However, it was not until late July when the Confederates again arrived in Pennsylvania, when John McCausland raided and burned Chambersburg. Couch was again engaged in sending out 100-day volunteers, militia and Federal troops to repel the enemy. In September, the department dispatched troops to various locations to help oversee the military draft.
The following month, the department again responded to a threatened Confederate border raid. Philip H. Sheridan's subsequent victories in the Valley Campaigns of 1864 finally removed any further threats. On April 6, 1864, the Department of the Monongahela was incorporated into the department. [1] On December 1, 1864, the Department of the Susquehanna was renamed as the Department of Pennsylvania. [2]
Chambersburg is a borough in and the county seat of Franklin County, in the South Central region of Pennsylvania, United States. It is in the Cumberland Valley, which is part of the Great Appalachian Valley, and 13 miles (21 km) north of Maryland and the Mason-Dixon line and 52 miles (84 km) southwest of Harrisburg, the state capital. According to the United States Census Bureau, Chambersburg's 2020 population was 21,903. When combined with the surrounding Greene, Hamilton, and Guilford Townships, the population of Greater Chambersburg is 52,273 people. The Chambersburg, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes surrounding Franklin County, and in 2010 included 149,618 people.
Darius Nash Couch was an American soldier, businessman, and naturalist. He served as a career U.S. Army officer during the Mexican–American War, the Second Seminole War, and as a general officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The Gettysburg campaign was a military invasion of Pennsylvania by the main Confederate army under General Robert E. Lee in summer 1863. It was the first time during the war the Confederate Army attempted a full-scale invasion of a free state. The Union won a decisive victory at Gettysburg, July 1–3, with heavy casualties on both sides. Lee managed to escape back to Virginia with most of his army. It was a turning point in the American Civil War, with Lee increasingly pushed back toward Richmond until his surrender in April 1865. The Union Army of the Potomac was commanded by Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker and then by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade.
The Battle of Carlisle was an American Civil War skirmish fought in Pennsylvania on the same day as the Battle of Gettysburg, First Day. Stuart's Confederate cavalry briefly engaged Union militia under Maj. Gen. William F. "Baldy" Smith at Carlisle and set fire to the Carlisle Barracks. Stuart's cavalry withdrew and arrived at the Battle of Gettysburg, Second Day, to the annoyance and concern of Gen. Robert E. Lee.
The Department of the Monongahela was a military department created by the United States War Department during the Gettysburg Campaign of the American Civil War.
The Pennsylvania Reserves were an infantry division in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Noted for its famous commanders and high casualties, it served in the Eastern Theater, and fought in many important battles, including Antietam and Gettysburg.
Albert Gallatin Jenkins was an American attorney, planter, politician and military officer who fought for the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. He served in the United States Congress and later the First Confederate Congress. After Virginia's secession from the Union, Jenkins raised a company of partisan rangers and rose to become a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army, commanding a brigade of cavalry. Wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg and again during the Confederate defeat at the Battle of Cloyd's Mountain, during which he was captured, Jenkins died just 12 days after his arm was amputated by Union Army surgeons as he was unable to recover. His former home is now operated by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.
During the American Civil War, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania played a critical role in the Union, providing a substantial supply of military personnel, equipment, and leadership to the Federal government. The state raised over 360,000 soldiers for the Federal armies. It served as a significant source of artillery guns, small arms, ammunition, armor for the new revolutionary style of ironclad types of gunboats for the rapidly expanding United States Navy, and food supplies. The Phoenixville Iron Company by itself produced well over 1,000 cannons, and the Frankford Arsenal was a major supply depot.
The Skirmish of Sporting Hill was a relatively small skirmish during the Gettysburg campaign of the American Civil War, taking place on June 30, 1863, at various locations in present-day Camp Hill, East Pennsboro Township and Hampden Township in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. It is known as the northernmost engagement of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War.
The history of Harrisburg, the state capital of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, has played a key role in the development of the nation's industrial history from its origins as a trading outpost to the present. Harrisburg has played a critical role in American history during the Westward Migration, the American Civil War, and the Industrial Revolution. For part of the 19th century, the building of the Pennsylvania Canal and later the Pennsylvania Railroad allowed Harrisburg to become one of the most industrialized cities in the Northeast.
During the American Civil War, Pennsylvania was the second largest state in the Union, and Harrisburg was the state's capital. Located at the intersection of important railroads, Harrisburg proved an important supply and logistics center for the dissemination and transportation of materiel for the Union Army. Tens of thousands of new recruits were mustered into service or drilled at a series of Harrisburg-area United States Army training camps, including the sprawling Camp Curtin. Confederate forces under Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell threatened Harrisburg during the June 1863 Gettysburg Campaign, but were instead called by General Robert E. Lee to return to Gettysburg campaign. Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin ordered local workers to erect a series of forts and earthworks to protect the city, which then had a population of 13,000 residents.
The 35th Virginia Cavalry Battalion, also known as White's Battalion, White's Rebels and the Comanches, was a Confederate cavalry unit during the American Civil War raised by Elijah V. White in Loudoun County, Virginia in the winter of 1861-62. The battalion was initially raised as border guards along the Potomac River below Harpers Ferry but were ultimately mustered into regular service as part of the Laurel Brigade. Despite this, they continued to play a conspicuous role in the ongoing partisan warfare in Loudoun throughout the war. The battalion was particularly notable during the 1863 Gettysburg Campaign, when it played a prominent role in the Battle of Brandy Station and subsequently conducted a series of raids on Union-held railroads and defensive positions in Maryland and Pennsylvania. The 35th was the first Confederate unit to enter Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Joseph Farmer Knipe was a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. His troops won a decisive victory in late 1864 that helped clear Tennessee of Confederates during the Franklin-Nashville Campaign.
Alexander Kelly McClure was an American politician, newspaper editor, and writer from Pennsylvania. He served as a Republican member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1858 to 1859 and 1865 to 1866 as well as a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate for the 18th district in 1861 and the 4th district from 1873 to 1874. He was a prominent supporter, correspondent, and biographer of President Abraham Lincoln. He was the editor of the Franklin Repository newspaper in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania and of the Philadelphia Times. The borough of McClure, Pennsylvania, and the Alexander K. McClure School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, are named in his honor.
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Jacob C. Higgins (1826–1893) was a commander of Pennsylvania troops who participated in both major military conflicts of his time, the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War. Among his Civil War commands, he guided the 125th Pennsylvania Infantry regiment under heavy fire during the Battle of Antietam and likewise during the Battle of Chancellorsville. Following the muster out and return home of the 125th PA, the Gettysburg Campaign sent cavalry under Confederate General John D. Imboden to threaten vital railroad resources at Altoona and iron production facilities in the Juniata River watershed; in response, Emergency Militia was organized by Colonel Higgins and minimized this northwestern incursion.
The Department of Pennsylvania was a large military unit in the Union Army at the outset of the American Civil War. Established on April 27, 1861, its territory consisted of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and all of Maryland not embraced in the Department of Annapolis and the Department of Washington. Its remnants were absorbed into the short-lived Department of the Shenandoah on July 19, 1861, which also absorbed the Department of Maryland on July 25, and on August 24 was merged into the Department of the Potomac.
The 202nd Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment of the Union Army in the American Civil War. Raised in the Harrisburg area and the Coal Region in August and September 1864, the regiment was sent to the Manassas Gap Railroad to guard it against the attacks of Confederate partisan rangers led by John Mosby. Following the Union victory at Battle of Cedar Creek, the regiment helped break up the now unneeded railroad and moved to Alexandria to guard the railroad there. After the end of the war, the regiment served in the Coal Region to suppress labor unrest, and was mustered out in mid-1865.
The 43rd Regiment, Pennsylvania Infantry Militia was a militia infantry regiment called out by Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin for home defense service in the Union Army during the American Civil War from July 6, 1863, to 1865 August 13, 1863.