As Chambersburg burned, General William Averell was camped north of Greencastle about 8 miles south of Chambersburg at the Fleming House (shown below). He and his men had returned there about 8:00 PM the night before from fighting Confederate cavalry in Hagerstown. Averell’s men mounted up to intercept the Rebels, but he initially headed in the wrong direction, east toward Greenwood, because this was the route Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart took after his raid of the region in 1862.

When his scouts informed him that the raiders were traveling west on the Loudon Road he reversed direction and rode through Chambersburg about 2:00 PM witnessing the mass destruction first hand. McCausland with Johnson’s brigade in the lead rode through St. Thomas and Fort Loudon arriving in McConnellsburg between 3:00 and 5:00 PM. In Fort Loudon at the Stegner Hill Cemetery is the grave of an unknown Confederate soldier killed by a civilian in retaliation for the raid. He stopped to have his horse reshot at the local blacksmith because it threw a shoe. The blacksmith, a Union veteran, smashed his skull with a hammer. Another officer was killed in St. Thomas.

The Rebels went into camp in McConnellsburg. McCausland is thought to have set up his camp east of town, while General Bradley Johnson was south of town at the Patterson Farm. This would be the last Confederate bivouac on Pennsylvania soil (July 30-31). The pictures below were taken in McConnellsburg.

Upon entering the town McCausland cut the telegraph wires and destroyed the telegraph equipment. However, the telegraph operator, 15 year old Thomas Sloan, had hidden an extra set of instruments in a judge’s home. Averell used the repaired line to telegraph General Benjamin Franklin Kelley at Cumberland for help to stop an anticipated crossing of the Potomac near Hancock. McCausland demanded 2,600 rations or he would burn the town. The townspeople provided what they could, their homes and stores were plundered, but the town was not burned.

On July 31 at 1:00 PM the invaders arrived in Hancock. While there McCausland threatened to burn the town if they did not pay $30,000 and provide 5,000 cooked rations, a large demand for a town of only 700 people. General Bradley Johnson, a Maryland native, advised the townspeople to provide what they could and then got into a heated argument with McCausland over the demands. Their argument was interrupted by Averell’s arrival to the northeast of the town. An ironclad train was brought up to support the cavalry and it fired two rounds from its mounted cannons before it was hit twice by counter fire damaging its firebox and smokestack and it left the scene. After pushing the Rebels out of Hancock, Averell did not pursue them further. He had already lost 300 horses on the 20 mile chase from McConnellsburg to Hancock.

McCausland headed west on the National Road toward Cumberland. The city was at the terminus of the C&O Canal and also an important stop on the B&O Railroad with railroad repair shops and hundreds of boxcars. The Confederates moved west through Flintstone toward Cumberland. The marker below is just off Interstate 68 between Hancock and Cumberland.

The Union commander at Cumberland, General Benjamin Franklin Kelley, had about 3,000 men, but they were 100-day units that would muster out soon, the 152nd, 153rd, and 156th OH. Detachments were sent out to block the roads from Hancock. The mayor urged formation of a militia for the city’s defense and about 200 men volunteered under the command of Brigadier General Charles Thruston. At about 3:00 AM on August 1st the Confederates stopped to rest on Polish Mountain. They resumed their march at sunrise. By noon they were near Flintstone, 12 miles from the city. The 153rd OH was sent to Oldtown under Colonel Israel Stough to block the ford across the Potomac, that left Kelley with about 2,500 troops to defend the city. They were a combination of stragglers, citizens and 100-day troops, but he had 9 guns to McCausland’s four. A map of the upcoming battle is shown below from a Civil War Trails marker. Kelley sent the 156th OH under Colonel Caleb Marker, parts of the 11th VA and his artillery to the Evitts Creek Valley about two and a half miles east of the city. His men dug in along the high ground along the National Road overlooking Folck’s Mill. The 152nd OH were kept in reserve.

Around 3:00 PM several companies of McCausland’s Brigade crossed the covered bridge over Evitts Creek.

The Federals opened fire forcing them to seek cover around the bridge, mill and surrounding buildings. Both sides deployed their guns, snipers, and skirmishers with neither gaining an advantage. Markers interpreting the action here and pictures are shown below.

At the Rose Hill Cemetery is the grave of Brigadier General Charles Thruston. He commanded the approximately 200 Cumberland town volunteers during the battle.

After dark McCausland had a decision to make. He had a force of unknown size that possessed the high ground in front of him and Averell somewhere behind him. McCausland had lost 8 men killed and 30 wounded and he chose to head for the Potomac and West Virginia.

At 11:00 PM the Confederates withdrew toward Oldtown on the Potomac. Gilmor used a local guide at gunpoint to lead him to the river. They traveled via Hinkle Road an obscure, narrow road that crossed a mountain. At 1:00 AM Gilmor’s advanced force was 1.5 miles from the Potomac. After taking fire from Union pickets he waited till dawn to advance further. The ford was guarded by the 153rd OH, about 700 men under Colonel Israel Strough. A little after 5:00 AM Johnson led the 27th VA, and 21st VA in an attack on the Federals, while another group built a bridge across the C&O canal to replace the one destroyed by the Yankees. After a few volleys the Federals fled across the river to Green Springs Station on the West Virginia side. About 100 men took refuge in a block house and the rest took cover behind a railroad embankment on the high ground behind the blockhouse. A marker interprets the action here.

Once again the iron-clad train came up. It had a locomotive in the middle, each end car contained three rifled cannons. In the middle four cars were Company K of the 2nd MD Home Brigade commanded by Captain Peter B. Petrie, a total of 64 men. They would fire through holes in the car. The 8th VA and Gilmor’s 2nd MD made it across the river but were pinned down by the Federals. Gilmor recrossed the river to the Maryland side and persuaded Corporal George McElwee of the Baltimore Light Artillery to move up two guns and shell the train. From Alum Hill McElwee then proceeded to fire four of the most accurate artillery shots in the entire war. The first took out the train’s boiler, the second entered the porthole of one of the end cars taking out a gun and killing three Union soldiers. The final two shells hit the cars containing the infantry causing them all to flee. This caused the men on the railroad embankment to also flee, leaving the less than 100 men in the blockhouse on their own.

The blockhouse proved hard to capture and an initial assault failed. McCausland sent two members of the 2nd MD forward to offer generous surrender terms. The Federals needed to only stack their arms and return to Cumberland, which the 82 men accepted. The Confederates lost 20-25 killed and 40-50 wounded, while the Federals lost 2 killed and 3 wounded. McCausland after destroying the iron-clad car, and the railroad, marched to Springfield nine miles away where he stayed until the 3rd.

McCausland still intent on striking the B&O Railroad decided to attack New Creek (now Keyser) on the railroad. The town was protected by Fort Fuller on a high hill southeast of town, and Fort Piano on top of a steep mountain to the east. It also had an elaborate system of earthworks and blockhouses. Kelley had reinforced the garrison there with the 11th WV infantry increasing its force to more than 1,580 men. At dawn on August 4 McCausland headed there. He arrived about 3:00 PM and ordered Bradley Johnson to take a hill facing Fort Fuller and bombard it but Johnson had only 11 artillery shells left. The Confederates probed the Union fortifications unsuccessfully and broke off the engagement losing 25 dead and about 50 wounded.

McCausland then headed toward Moorefield. He arrived there on the 5th and camped to the north at Oldfields 3 miles north of Moorefield. In the meantime, Averell had retooled and was closing on the Confederates. On the 4th he moved from Hancock to Bath (now Berkeley Springs), on the 5th he was in Springfield by the afternoon, and the next day in Romney at 11:00 AM, 30 miles away from McCausland. After a brief rest he started toward Moorefield. About 6:00 PM his scouts told him the Rebel pickets were 4 miles ahead. He halted his troops to rest and eat with orders to be ready to move out at 1:00 AM.

Next- The Burning of Chambersburg- McCausland Defeated at the Battle of Moorefield- August 7, 1864

Sources

Southern Revenge! Civil War History of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania edited by Ted Alexander

McCausland’s Raid and the Burning of Chambersburg by Ted Alexander Blue and Gray Magazine August 1994.

History and Tour Guide of the Burning of Chambersburg and McCausland’s Raid by Ted Alexander published by Blue and Gray Magazine 2004.