The Confederate March to Gettysburg and the Cashtown Inn: Gettysburg 158 Live!

hey good morning everybody i'm chris white with the american battlefield trust we have gary edelman behind the camera and this is one of our first videos that's covering the 158th anniversary of the battle of gettysburg but we're not standing in gettysburg we're actually standing about seven miles down the road at the beautiful macha metropolis that is cashtown pennsylvania uh cashtown most of you are probably aware of what cash down is from the movie gettysburg when you see robert e lee coming down to meet ap hill for all about 30 seconds they stand in the middle of the road pointing out in off towards gettysburg hill with his hat kind of uh shading him from the sun like we have today and robert e lee heading off towards gettysburg and off towards destiny there for july 1st through 3rd but cashtown is an interesting place and let's bring the armies up here into pennsylvania um let's let's go from the 50 000 feet down to the 500 feet so cashtown behind me that's the cashtown inn that's what probably makes the most famous uh portion here during the gettysburg campaign this will be the headquarters for a brief time of ap hill you'll see john and bowden here robert e lee through here henry heath johnston pettigrew you'll see a slew of confederate officers coming through cash down as well as nearly two-thirds of the confederate infantry will come right down this road behind me towards gettysburg uh marching off towards the hamlet of gettysburg so cash town itself the cash down in is founded in 1797 the story goes the reason why it is cash town is because uh the in owner would only accept cash you wouldn't accept credit and there's also a toll house here because this was a toll road and you could only pay in cash uh so that's the the story that comes from here but cashdown's a small town here in 1863. now the confederates come here for the first time actually in 1862. they come here during jeb stewart's ride around george mcclellan in october the confederates will come riding down through the cashtown gap which is just over my right shoulder and this would have been the road that would have led you in towards gettysburg so we would have had confederates up here into this area in october of 1862. if you read the papers uh throughout the civil war because we're so close to the mason-dixon line you're going to hear a lot about rebels coming across the border on more than one occasion does it always happen no but it happens for sure in october of 1862 they come back in july of 1863 june and july then they'll be here in uh 1864 just down the road in franklin county for the chambersburg burning that took place in july of 1864 so there's a lot that actually happens near cash down and in cashtown but to get up here we have the two armies they have been facing off against one another at the battles of fredericksburg and chancellorsville in december 1862 may of 1863 respectively after the victory at chancellorsville for the confederacy robert e lee is going to ride south to richmond actually ride the train south to richmond he's going to meet with jefferson davis and he's going to propose a push north into maryland and finally up into pennsylvania this is going to start happening on may 15 may 16 1863 the same day stonewall jackson's being buried in lexington virginia so lee is not out in lexington burying his uh subordinate he is in richmond he's working on the next campaign to make a long story short many things are happening here in 1863 there's a siege going on or about to take place in vicksburg ulysses s grant is fighting battles near champion hill he's fighting battles at raymond he's he's crossed at bruinsburg and now he's going to take jackson mississippi that capital we have a siege that will take place down at port gibson louisiana and now we're going to have this push here uh with robert e lee heading up north eventually we'll have what's called the tolahoma campaign taking place in middle tennessee there's a lot of moving parts and robert e lee knows that if he doesn't get his army moving that his army might be broken up and sent to other parts of the confederacy so he gets as many confederates as he can together nearly 80 000 men and he starts pushing north he starts on june 3rd of 1863 the confederates will start moving away from what's called corbin virginia if you've ever been down route 2 and 17 south of fredericksburg don't blink because you've gone through corbyn virginia it's on the way down to where stonewall jackson passed away the confederates will then slip out towards culprit courthouse where we'll have the great battle at brandy station on june 9 1863 that great cavalry action horsemen on horsemen and then eventually the confederate army of northern virginia will slip into the shenandoah valley and start moving towards winchester we'll have the battles of second winchester take place we'll have the battle of martinsburg confederate victories under richard yule who seems to be doing well you'll you'll second core will eventually cross the potomac river across the mason-dixon line go into franklin county pennsylvania the next county over from adams where we're standing and start making his way towards us along the way his quartermasters men like john harmon will start to take maps and they will start to take books ledger books out of the county courthouses to see who owns what to see where they can send off raiding parties to go and try to collect supplies now robert e lee's general orders number 72 is not the pillage around here but there are many things that are confiscated by the confederate army so the confederate army will actually eventually come in behind us along what was their moder what was the modern road an academized road leading in through cash down towards gettysburg this will uh this is just one road over from modern day route 30 which will carry you in from chambersburg to gettysburg if you've ever approached the town from the west and on june 26th we're going to start to see of 1863 we'll see the head of jubal early lee's battle man his divisions start marching down through here john brown gordon's brigade of virginians will be coming our of georgians will be coming down through here when they're fired upon by four men some bushwhackers and they actually mortally wound one of those georgians and the georgians scattered to try to find these bushwhackers but they never do allegedly a man named henry hahn in 1879 will die of a broken heart because he's the man who's supposedly shot one of these confederates took a long time for that guilt to set in it sounds like but the confederates will press down through cash down and they will go towards gettysburg eventually entering the town that same day but along the way they're going to run into william jennings and his 26th pennsylvania emergency militia not to be confused with the 26 pennsylvania infantry who fought here will also have an independent command of cavalry under the the command of robert bell the adams county cavalry eventually gets folded into the 21st pennsylvania cav we'll have other units into this area but nothing of quality for the union uh we'll have a guy named darius couch or darius couch depending on how you pronounce his name depending who you are up in harrisburg trying to pull in all this militia from new york he'll be pulling a missed militia from pennsylvania the new yorkers said the pennsylvanians would raise the prices on them and charge them a dollar for a for a loaf of bread or a dollar for a pound of meat which are exorbitant prices and they're coming here to help save these pennsylvanians but these georgians who come down through here they're going to have no pity on the on the folks here in cashtown and gettysburg in fact jubal early will push aside the 26 pennsylvania emergency militia along the banks of marsh creek men 743 of them will scatter to the wind heading off towards harrisburg and early will eventually go into town into gettysburg where he'll ransom the town collect supplies move on towards york and eventually up towards the susquehanna towards the state capital of harrisburg now fast forward a few more days june 29th of 1863 coming right into the cashtonian will be ap hill and his third army corps roughly 17 000 men strong ap hill is a new corps commander within the army northern virginia as is richard yule and what they're going to do is start bringing the confederate army the head of it down this road they'll arrive here on june 29th and on june 30th he's going to send a reconnaissance in force commanded by a guy named johnston pettigrew a north carolinian allegedly the smartest man in the confederacy he went to the university of north carolina at chapel hill so if you're a duke person you don't think he's the smartest person the confederacy probably but pettigrew's gonna move down the road with three regiments eventually pick up a fourth the 54th virginia and move into gettysburg he's going to make it to about seminary ridge when he sees or hears drums he claims but what he starts to see are organized groups of men shadowing him those would be john buford's horsemen 2400 or so troopers in gettysburg pedigree will not engage will actually fall back towards cash town and report to henry heath his division commander of virginian and a distant relative of robert e lee and he will report to ap hill of what happened out in front hill and heath will decide to send a another reconnaissance into gettysburg the next day on july 1st and that's how we'll have the battle of gettysburg start to take place here now this road's important behind us because this is where the bulk of the confederate army will arrive we'll also have another third of the confederate army infantry that's second core told to come down from the harrisburg area remember we had juvenile early move through here eventually we'll have other confederate second core troops move through this area up towards harrisburg they think they're going to take the capital and then robert e lee says no we need to concentrate we need to bring our army back together because the union army has disengaged from the fredericksburg line under the command of joe hooker joe hooker has screened or kind of shadowed of the confederate army he's blocked their access to washington dc and baltimore but then he's going to lose his job george gordon maid will take over on june 28th of 63 and meade's the one who's starting to send troops union troops into pennsylvania so lee decides that he needs to bring his army together somewhere and he decides it'll be here at cash town so he tells his men come here to cash down why are we gonna come here to cash down it's not because of the opulent inn that's behind us it's because he wants to make sure that he can protect his supply line which is running up from richmond out to staunton down the shenandoah valley or up the shenandoah valley depending on what part of the valley you're from oh man if you make mistakes in the valley people just destroy you and they're going to tell you it was stanton stanton staunton this that it's going to move up they're going to move up the valley across the potomac and then eventually across the mason-dixon line so this is going to be his supply line his communication line with jefferson davis the president of the confederacy so he wants to make sure that he keeps that open he also wants to make sure that if he needs to fall back those mountains will make a perfect place to to fall back put up a defensive line and allow the union army to attack him whatever the aggressor lee is going to start bringing troops in from the north of gettysburg that'll be richard yule's second core about 20 000 men strong he'll tell them they can either congregate at gettysburg or cash town now on june 30th yule says i'll come to cashtown but then on july 1st he hears the sounds of the guns and he sends two of his divisions down towards gettysburg and those will be robert rhodes division who comes up on oak ridge around noon and then jubal early's division making their second foray to gettysburg a third division is actually coming down the black gap road and that is commanded by edward allegheny johnson johnson is going to make a circuitous route from the harrisburg area down to scotland pennsylvania and then down what is modern day route 30 and then eventually old route 30. what he's going to do is he's going to come into this direction because he has all of the supply wagons all that great booty and plunder that the confederates had captured in pennsylvania he has those and if they have to fall back what mule wants to do is make sure they're on the right side of the mountains the side of the mountains where the union are and they're closest to getting into the cumberland valley which can lead down to the shenandoah valley that's what the plan is unfortunately johnson on july 1st is needed and he's going to come right down this road let's take a walk across the road here gary very carefully you're the american battlefield trust we hope you share this with your friends with your family so this road that you're looking at let's swing this way first sorry about the sun y'all you're looking down towards uh the hamlet of cashtown or the metropolis on july 1st of 1863 because this is actually one of the most populous places in pennsylvania because two-thirds of the confederate army are coming through here as they're moving their way down here on july 1st you notice it's pretty open they're heading off towards gettysburg but if we swing back this way we'll start looking back towards the cashtown pass off in that direction this is a natural choke point having to come through the mountains you're moving your army essentially on one road this is going to be one great big traffic jam why because they run in the confederates run into to john buford's horseman ah cicada it's a brute 10 cicada it is it was attacking vicious um then you have the first core of the union army the potomac arrived so that's going to start stacking us up we're on a single road so this is going to turn into one of the greatest traffic jams that will take place down through cash down and along what is now modern day route 30. it gets so bad that when edward johnson's divisions call to the front they get out of this road and jump into an unfinished railroad cut you may have heard of on the first day of battle in gettysburg and start marching into town that way that's how they're going to get into gettysburg but on july 1st probably one of the most famous scenes will take place either in the cash tone inn or on the road right beside me and that will be when robert e lee arrives into this area he's going to arrive here probably between 10 and 11 o'clock in the morning and as he arrives here he's gonna find out that his new third core commander ap hill is inside of this place sick on a cot as usual this is what the cash down in looks like 1797 as i said and basically ap he'll think about this is going to walk out to his commanding officer and he's going to say you know lee's going to ask you know what's the sound of the guns up ahead and hill's basically going to tell him exactly no you really want to tell your boss that you have now sent an entire division henry heath's division down this road you don't exactly know what's going on you're sick inside of this house or this inn and now what you've done is touched off a battle you've touched off one of the largest battles in american history so that's what happens here robert e lee i want you to think about this throughout the campaign for those of you who don't like james longstreet those of you like to talk about you know what ifs of the battle why doesn't robert e lee listen to his most senior subordinate james longstreet more often if you think about here comes ap hill he doesn't do well here on the first date the second day doesn't do well he also meets robert e lee does with richard yule this night on the evening of july first and you'll and his his subordinates are like whoa we can't attack her in this culp soul sector this is insane but we won't pull our lines back to the other side of the hill or the other side of the town all right you guys can stay there all right hill you did okay and now we have james longstreet under the picture the second command of the army this is not the first go-around for him he has been a core commander for many battles and when longstreet says i don't think this is a good idea all of a sudden lee's like no we have to go around and attack the the union left we have to attack a little round top so think about that for a few minutes you have jeb stewart off on his ride you have ap hill who's not showing off very well you have richard yule who's guys like we don't want to attack but we don't want to move and now you have james longstreet who's also offering up his suggestion of let's not attack on the uni on the union left think about what's happening here with robert e lee as a commander is he frustrated with his other subordinates and he's finally gonna just take it out on long street or you know was long street right was long straight wrong now in long street's mind he's always right but that's beside the point just think about that that's what's gonna happen out here but what you start to run into as well is this large traffic jam and that is something to keep in mind we're gonna have to try to get wagons we have to get men we have to get material into gettysburg for this battle and that is what is going to be lined up here along the cash down in or the cash town road leading into the chambersburg pike leading into gettysburg now the cash down in also or at least in cash down we have a story that comes from henry heath allegedly he's going to talk to his quartermaster henry heath needs a new hat and his quartermaster came through franklin county into adams county he may have got a hat somewhere else he may have got the hat here in cash down but he's gonna give henry heath this new hat cause he says man i need a new hat he gives him this big hat it's too big so you stuff some paper down inside of it he goes riding off onto the battlefield henry heath does and he's rides off on the battlefield on july 1st a spent ball meeting a ball that doesn't have it quite the impact hits that hat hits henry heath and his thick skull amazingly doesn't penetrate but that paper that needed to make that hat a little bit thicker will save henry he's life so think about it the the hat that that may have saved henry he's life we may have came here from cash down now cash down as we swing around one more time gary this will turn into the backwater of the army but keep in mind they have a lot going on back here we're gonna have wounded soldiers coming back through this area we're gonna use the bread ovens of the cash down in to feed feed the soldiers we're going to use all the houses that we can to house troops we're going to house any of the wounded that we can and eventually this will be one of the two retreat lines from gettysburg once the battle concludes and on july 4th john bowden is charged with taking charge of the retreat from gettysburg and there's a ward apartment signed right over my shoulder talking a little bit about that and bowden's command will come down through here with the 17-mile wagon train of wounded soldiers as well as uh richard ewell's second floor train remember richard yule's second core trains that's his supply trains that's also gonna be all the booty or a lot of the booty that they s they uh grab here in pennsylvania some of it will be left down near fairfield about eight miles from here and it'll it'll go along the fairfield road some of it will go right along the chambersburg pike another group of men will will go along another route outside of gettysburg and that will i'm sorry outside of fairfield um we'll go down to fairfield road and we'll also have the supply wagons coming down this road this will be um i think i got backwards here this will be the supply wagons of james longstreet ap hill jeb stewart's cab division and then along the fairfield road we'll have the wounded going down along the fairfield road led by john bowden we'll have the 17 miles of wounded and then we'll have richard yule's second core um second quarter supply trains going out in all these wagons from all of the the army all of our our um trains that we have going along we call them trains winning wagon trains if you put them end to end together they would span for roughly 57 miles think about that that is a huge span so we have to move 57 miles of men horses mules along the cashtown uh road along the fairfield road to the south of us modern day route 116 through two mountain passes then across the potomac river and eventually down into virginia so that story of gettysburg started here on july 1st and then we'll keep going through here on july 4th through the 5th as the confederate army retreats off in that direction the union army will come through uh certain parts of the area but most of the union army will move to the south screening the south and the southwest screening washington and baltimore we will have troopers come out into this direction to feel out what's going on horsemen to see what's going on out front but the bulk of the union army will go from whence they came the same way they came onto the battlefield that's the way they will leave confederates do pretty much the same exact thing as they come off here so if we want to take a quick pan around here gary anything to add yes you want to grab the camera from me real quick good good so chris is showing the cash down in we understand it's in an ownership transition we hope before long you'll be able to dine here and you'll be able to stay here and you know be where robert e lee and ap hill and james longstreet were um so hopefully that will happen before long i only wanted to add to lastly just while we're talking about this march it's one thing to say 30 mile march 20 mile march it's coming along this way the soldiers wrote about this they called it even though this might be called gravel improved a turnpike sometimes even academized even though that term wasn't around really yet um because mcadam as far as i know or telford hadn't gotten into a competition yet about which road would be best um macadam won um so in any case uh you know they wrote about it they called it the worst roads that could have been traveled over and they talked about the constant stopping which is worse than straight marching they said a lot of guys actually fell asleep on the march just marching mechanically only to be woken up when they run into the heels of the person in front of them so when you come out to places like this imagine you know the the tram of the soldiers that that's what they wrote about that's what they did for most of the time during the gettysburg campaign not actually fighting um you know lastly what i would say is um you know just remember that whatever unit you have your favorite unit they wrote about coming up here and whatnot we're going to cover the retreat a lot more um on other videos look for a guy in a green shirt and a guy in a blue shirt to be gesticulating one more than the other about some of these things but you know chris told the story about harry heath or with his hat you know there's another simpler story over near chambersburg where a texan simply broke ranks walked up to somebody and grabbed the hat off his head put it on and kept walking the guy you know not wanting to tangle with an entire army just let him and also lastly let me close with my favorite and racist civil war story of all and that is some of these same texans who saw a proud pennsylvania woman with a flag wrapped around her as they marched down from chambersburg to gettysburg and one man broke ranks and said you won't be doing that ma'am excuse my texas accent there she said why i am not afraid of you he's like you misunderstand me um you know it's just that us texans aren't used to seeing that flag wrapped across breastworks without charging and with that you have my racist civil war joke thanks to chris for all this awesome interpretation look for more from the american battlefield trust july 1st through 3rd and then beyond as we cover the retreat and more thank you for watching thanks for sharing and thank you all for supporting battlefield preservation and education you

Channel: American Battlefield Trust

Views: 46,504

Rating: 4.9450746 out of 5

Keywords: American Battlefield Trust, Civil War Trust, Gettysburg, Cashtown, Cash Town, Robert E. Lee, Gettysburg Campaign, Retreat from Gettysburg, Gettysburg Movie, 158th anniversary of gettysburg

Id: NsY0SB8HF20

Length: 23min 8sec (1388 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 30 2021