The Shippensburg Civil War Trail (brochure at the link, map shown below) was developed by the Shippensburg Historical Society. The text for each stop is summarized from the brochure. I drove to Stop 14 separate from the other stops. From Stop 5 to 13 is about a mile.

Stop 1- Battle of Shippensburg (King and Earl Streets)- Text from the marker- “The first major military engagement in Cumberland County during the Civil War took place in Shippensburg in the week leading up to the Battle of Gettysburg. As the action moved close to Shippensburg many in the town climbed onto their rooftops to observe the fight and to avoid being mistaken for a soldier. Confederate Brigadier General Albert Jenkins and his cavalry arrived in Shippensburg on the afternoon of June 23, 1863. Around 2 p.m. Captain William Boyd and his Union cavalry moved along Main Street, now King Street, under pressure from the Confederate forces, and by 3 p.m. the Confederates were in possession of the entire town. After clearing Shippensburg of Union cavalry, Jenkins’ troops scavenged the town for supplies. They found the tannery and home of William McLean and set about looking for any finished leather. McLean had hidden his leather in the false bottoms of his tanning vats, which the Confederates never found. Jenkins’ troops also visited a grist mill which was on the north side of town where they seized an estimated $30,000 worth of flour and grain. The Confederates camped in and near Shippensburg from June 23-27, when they began to move towards Carlisle.”

Stop 2- The Sherman “Union” House (King and Earl Streets). On this site once stood the three-story Union House Hotel. In June 1863, as the Rebel army approached, the hotel’s proprietors worried that their business would draw the invaders’ wrath. They hired painters to whitewash the hotel’s sign and renamed it the “Sherman House.” The plan succeeded and the hotel survived the Confederate occupation. The building burned down in 1960.

Stop 3- General Samuel Sturgis House (20 West King Street). This was the childhood home of Samuel Sturgis who was born in Shippensburg in 1822 and graduated from West Point in 1846. At the Battle of Antietam, it was men under his command who finally took Burnside’s Bridge after numerous futile attempts, changing the course of the battle.

Stop 4- Shippensburg Historical Society (52 West King Street). According to the brochure the Society has a rich collection of artifacts on local Civil War history that it displays throughout the summer months. Unfortunately, the second floor was undergoing renovation when I visited, which is where the Civil War collection is housed.

Stop 5- McLean House and Tannery (80 West King Street). This brick house was the home of William and Jane McLean. Their extensive tannery occupied the fields behind the house along the Branch Creek. To protect his leather from Confederate foragers, McLean installed false bottoms
on the tanning vats where he hid his finished hides. The Confederates never discovered his valuable stockpile of finished leather. McLean’s son, corporal George McLean, died on December 21, 1862, from a gunshot wound sustained at the Battle of Fredericksburg.

Stop 6- McPherson and Cox Hardware (35 West King). This building was also a hardware store at the time of the Civil War. As the Confederate army approached, John and Martha McPherson placed their store’s most valuable merchandise in their fireplaces and hid the openings with
wallpaper. When the Confederates arrived, they “purchased” most of the store’s inventory but never discovered the precious items concealed in the McPhersons’ fireplaces.

Stop 7- J.C. Altick Drugstore (9 West King Street). In June 1863, Confederate surgeons plundered drugs and medical supplies from J.C. Altick’s apothecary that operated from this storefront, acquiring precious materials that were scarce in the wartime South.

Stop 8- Confederate Headquarters (1 West King Street). On June 24, 1863, General Albert G. Jenkins established his headquarters on this site. General Jenkins initially demanded payment of $1,800 for the community’s safety, but later agreed to have residents provide food and feed to his troops.

Stop 9- Cumberland Valley Railroad (Earl Street). In the 1860s, the Cumberland Valley Railroad ran down Earl Street and provided the main rail link between Harrisburg and Hagerstown, MD. It transported critical ammunition to the Union forces at Antietam in 1862. In June 1863, Captain Boyd’s 1st N.Y. Cavalry detrained the CVRR in Shippensburg to delay the Confederate advance up the valley.

Stop 10- Home of Captain James Kelso (110 East King Street). This building was the home of James Kelso, captain of Company D of the 130th Pennsylvania Volunteers raised in the Shippensburg area. They saw heavy fighting at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. Kelso’s home was looted during the Confederate occupation of Shippensburg.

Stop 11- God’s Little Acre (129 North Prince Street). There are two Shippensburg Civil War veterans buried in this cemetery: Jesse Fry and Richard D. Moore. There are 324 other Civil War veterans at rest in Shippensburg area cemeteries.

Stop 12- Widow Agle’s House (340 East King Street). This small building was constructed as a “widow’s cabin” by the family of Jacob Agle who was killed in action in Georgia in 1863. His widow, Regina Waltrick Agle, lived here with her three children until her death in 1898. She received a small federal widow’s pension, and also supported her family by taking in sewing.

Stop 13- Locust Grove Cemetery (111-119 North Queen Street). On this site stood Shippensburg’s first African American church and the community’s African-American burial ground. Twenty-six black Civil War veterans are buried in this cemetery, including eight men who were born and raised in
Shippensburg. A separate brochure on this site is available at this link.

An excellent description of each soldier buried below can be found in the cemetery brochure in the link above.

Stop 14- Indian Head (Dykeman) Spring (Dykeman Road). On June 25, 1863, General Junius Daniel’s 2,294 Confederate troops encamped here at this spring-fed pond. Over the next two days, the Confederate force in Shippensburg grew to over 15,700—almost nine times the town’s 1,800 residents. The Rebel troops left on June 27, marching to and capturing Carlisle. Mechanicsburg was captured on June 28. From June 28-30, they fought skirmishes at Oyster’s Point in Camp Hill and Sporting Hill in Hampden Township, coming within three miles of Harrisburg. The Confederate forces then were recalled to Gettysburg where 37% of the Army of Northern Virginia would be killed, wounded, or declared missing in action.