June and July of this year mark the 150th anniversary of the Confederate invasion of the North, culminating in the epic battle of Gettysburg, which arguably stands as the turning point of the American Civil War. For this reason, it seems fitting to talk about Harrisburg’s role during the war, especially its importance as a strategic focal point of the Gettysburg campaign.
Harrisburg numbered close to 15,000 permanent residents in 1863, but it was already an important transportation hub and river crossing, with three railroad and one wagon bridge spanning the river in the immediate vicinity. In addition, it was the closest Union capital city to the Mason Dixon line.
So, it was a primary focus of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Confederate invasion of 1862, which ended at the battle of Antietam. It again became Lee’s objective in early summer of 1863. Despite the unsuccessful invasion of 1862, Harrisburg was still under-defended by the following year, especially surprising since Camp Curtin, the North’s largest mustering camp for soldiers, was in the city. There seemed to be little worry that Lee’s troops could ever penetrate so far into northern territory.
When news of Lee’s advance came, Gen. Darius Couch, commander of the Department of the Susquehanna, hired laborers to dig trenches and build several small forts along the western side of the Susquehanna at Lemoyne and Camp Hill in an attempt to keep the Confederates from gaining access to the bridges that led to the city.
On June 28, Union troops under Maj. Granville Haller and Col. Jacob Frick burned the bridge crossing the river downstream at Wrightsville, and, the next day, Confederate and Union troops skirmished in Camp Hill and attacked the earthen-built forts outside of Harrisburg. On June 30, a skirmish between Confederate cavalry under Gen. Albert Jenkins and Union militia at Sporting Hill became the northern-most battle of the Civil War. On the evening of June 29, Lee issued orders for all of his troops to concentrate around Cashtown in Adams County.
Gen. Richard Ewell had already formulated a plan of attack after probing the Harrisburg defenses and most likely would have begun assaulting Harrisburg in force on June 30 or July 1. Had the city been truly assaulted by a large Confederate force, all the bridges crossing the Susquehanna, including the first Rockville bridge, Northern Central bridge, Cumberland Valley railroad bridge and Camelback bridge would have been burned and troops on the West Shore evacuated into Harrisburg.
Fortunately, Lee’s orders saved the state capital from the bleak prospects of burning bridges, being shelled and possibly surrendering to overwhelming Confederate numbers. However, Lee’s orders were not so favorable for the small south-central town of Gettysburg, where 150,000 men fought for three days, culminating in the most famous battle of the American Civil War. Given a few more days to plan and attack, Harrisburg’s Civil War history might have been a vastly different story.
Jason Wilson is a historian for the Capitol Preservation Committee.
