Encounter at Hanover
30 June 2026 05:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dime_novel_heroMy family settled in Hanover in the early 18th Century so, in my vacation to the Gettysburg Battlefield, I was required by my own history to visit the ancestral homelands.
Family oral history tells of a pair of Union soldiers who hid in the family barn to observe J.E.B. Stewart’s cavalry as it advanced on Hanover 30 June, 1863. I had read several books on the Battle of Gettysburg and events leading up to it but had never read anything to either confirm or refute this story. It seemed a small historical sidenote and so would not find its way into the main historical narrative. Yet, I kept my eyes open.
An internet search suggested a title and an e-Bay purchase obtained for me a copy of “Encounter at Hanover”, a collection of articles and essays collected by the Hanover Chamber of Commerce (1963). Page 100 contained my answer:
--- From Samuel Althoff’s Narrative of the Cavalry Engagement In Hanover On June 30th, 1863, Record Herald, Hanover, Pa., Saturday, July 1, 1905
And so, it wasn’t two Union soldiers hiding out at the family farm but two local boys. It should not be surprising that in 150 years of retelling, details had changed.
My father and grandfather, keepers of the family history, would have very much liked to have heard this story.
Family oral history tells of a pair of Union soldiers who hid in the family barn to observe J.E.B. Stewart’s cavalry as it advanced on Hanover 30 June, 1863. I had read several books on the Battle of Gettysburg and events leading up to it but had never read anything to either confirm or refute this story. It seemed a small historical sidenote and so would not find its way into the main historical narrative. Yet, I kept my eyes open.
An internet search suggested a title and an e-Bay purchase obtained for me a copy of “Encounter at Hanover”, a collection of articles and essays collected by the Hanover Chamber of Commerce (1963). Page 100 contained my answer:
“A few minutes after ten o’clock, loud yells and shrieks were heard out the Westminster road, one hundred yards from Pennville. The 13th Virginia Cavalry came dashing down the road and just as these mounted men were approaching the rear of Farnsworth’s brigade, they fired a volley from their carbines. This was a signal for the opening of the engagement. It was the 18th Pennsylvania Cavalry, commanded by Major Darlington that received the first attack of the enemy.
“In a few minutes,” says Mr. Forney, “the fields immediately north of the Littlestown road and west of Hanover were filled with mounted soldiers. The Union troops had quickly fallen back through town to the assistance of the rear regiment which had been attacked.”
While the air was filled with yells and shrieks, and the opposing forces were in deadly combat along the Littlestown and Westminster roads, the Forney boys unhitched their horses and hastened with them across the fields toward McSheerystown, while the enemies balls were whistling over their heads. They escaped to the Geiselman farm where they remained until late in the afternoon. Twenty-two dead horses lay along the road between the Forney farm and Keller home on the Westminster road that evening. Mr. Forney helped to drag these dead horses away the following day. When he returned to his home in the evening, three wounded Union soldiers and one Confederate were lying in the front room on the northwest side of his home.”
“In a few minutes,” says Mr. Forney, “the fields immediately north of the Littlestown road and west of Hanover were filled with mounted soldiers. The Union troops had quickly fallen back through town to the assistance of the rear regiment which had been attacked.”
While the air was filled with yells and shrieks, and the opposing forces were in deadly combat along the Littlestown and Westminster roads, the Forney boys unhitched their horses and hastened with them across the fields toward McSheerystown, while the enemies balls were whistling over their heads. They escaped to the Geiselman farm where they remained until late in the afternoon. Twenty-two dead horses lay along the road between the Forney farm and Keller home on the Westminster road that evening. Mr. Forney helped to drag these dead horses away the following day. When he returned to his home in the evening, three wounded Union soldiers and one Confederate were lying in the front room on the northwest side of his home.”
--- From Samuel Althoff’s Narrative of the Cavalry Engagement In Hanover On June 30th, 1863, Record Herald, Hanover, Pa., Saturday, July 1, 1905
And so, it wasn’t two Union soldiers hiding out at the family farm but two local boys. It should not be surprising that in 150 years of retelling, details had changed.
My father and grandfather, keepers of the family history, would have very much liked to have heard this story.
