The Harmon Farm at Gettysburg - July 1, 1863

good morning everyone welcome back to our virtual programming for the hundred and fifty seventh anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg my name is Christopher Gwen I'm one of the Rangers here at Gettysburg National Military Park and we're so thankful that you're watching along following us as we Chronicle the one hundred and fifty seventh anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg today we're at a really unique location on the battlefield one that most visitors don't get to access and it's the historic Harmon farm on the first days battlefield in 2011 this property was transferred to the National Park Service and it's really one of the hidden gems of Gettysburg National Military Park in part because it has so many layers of history here there's the pre battle story there's of course the battle story but also this site helps us get a bit of an insight into the development of the Battlefield Park it's early memorialization and I'm here with a great friend of Gettysburg National Military Park Andrew Dalton Andrew Dalton is director of Adams County Historical Society and he has a really intimate connection with this particular property so Andrew can you tell us a little bit about Adams County Historical Society and also your connection to the Harmon farm yeah so I grew up just a just a few hundred yards from here actually it's a beautiful property we're so fortunate that the National Park Service has preserved it and I am now fortunate to be the executive director of a CHS Adams County Historical Society we are kind of the communities archives and education center for all things Adams County and Gettysburg History we have a collection of over 1 million historic items dating all the way back to dinosaur footprints and then everything you could imagine through the Battle of Gettysburg up through the Eisenhower era and beyond and one of our really prized collections is the civilian accounts of the Battle of Gettysburg we have over 300 original accounts left by civilians letters diaries newspaper articles where these these local citizens are recounting incredible events some horrendous things that happen to them one of which we're going to talk about and that's the story of the Harmon family they live here on this property so just to kind of set the stage for our viewers we're here at the Harmon farm we're just west of Willoughby run so through this kind of thick scrub we'd eventually get to that that that run and just be on it of course as Herbst woods one of the famous locations on the Gettysburg battlefield and behind you all it behind the camera our relatively open fields that would have in 1863 belonged to the Harmon family is that correct Andrew can you tell us a little bit about who was living here at the time of the battle and then what they experienced as the battle kind of unfolded yeah so there was a really beautiful two-story brick house along what is now Old Mill Road which is a few hundred yards to my left it was built in 1830 by a Reverend Charles G McLean he and his wife actually happened to be the aunt and uncle of Stonewall Jackson's first wife Eleanor Junkin the famous Confederate General so there's a tie at a Stonewall Jackson with the early history of this property which is kind of interesting I think but during the Civil War the the house was occupied by a 16 year old girl and amelia harmon and she lived there with her aunt Rachel it was the two women rachel was married but her husband had left with the horses before the battle which was very common for a lot of the civilians to get their horses out of the way of the Confederate Army as it moved through southern Pennsylvania so the harm and women are there on the morning of July 1st on this beautiful farm which is about a little over 100 acres and like Chris said the farms today part of Gettysburg National Military Park you can come out and enjoy it but Chris maybe you could set up the events of the morning of July 1st and then we can talk more about what these women witnessed absolutely and I hope you have caught some of our earlier videos today we had one that began early in the morning at what's called the first shot marker the first shot house by Ranger Shannon Walsh and she kind of laid out the initial clashes of the Battle of Gettysburg so just to get everybody caught up on June 30th 1863 Union cavalry led by brigadier general John Buford as well as Confederate infantry led by a general named Johnston Pettigrew would basically arrive in the town of Gettysburg at almost the same moment John Buford and his Calvary men they're not expecting to see Confederate infantry Pettigrew and his North Carolinians as they enter the town of Gettysburg along the Chambersburg pike they're not expecting to run into Union cavalry and he'll actually stop his command and head back to cash town a few miles west of Gettysburg where he reports to his division and ultimately his corps commander general ap Hill that he has spotted elements of the Union Army of the Potomac in Gettysburg and the next morning those Confederates will decide to return to the community to return to the town down the Chambersburg Road which is just north of where we're standing right now basically conducting a reconnaissance in force what is going on in the town of Gettysburg who are those Union troopers and meanwhile John Buford that Union cavalry commander he's decided to use the terrain west of Gettysburg the rolling hills and ridges to try to delay those Confederates as long as possible so a delaying action he has a little under 2,000 troopers he's gonna fight them dismounted he'll put up his initial stand on on Belmont Ridge and then Herridge again trying to delay those Confederates as long as he possibly can and really he's hoping to buy enough time for Union infantry of the 1st Army Corps the better part of 10,000 men led by Major General John Fulton Reynolds to march and to arrive in Gettysburg and take over the situation so again he's simply trying to buy time and that's really what he's able to do those Union Calvary Mandalay the Confederates the Confederates have to deploy they have to form battle lines that takes a lot of time Buford stubbornly contests those Confederates as they begin to advance towards Gettysburg and really across the harmon farm property if we were here early morning July 1st 1863 we might see those Union cavalry men falling back and hot on their heels would have been a brigade of Tennessee and Alabama infantryman Confederates led by a man named James Archer James archers a brigadier general in the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia throughout most of the morning his men have been driving back these Union cavalry men he's thinking one more big push and he might actually see the spires of the town of Gettysburg he might actually drive those Union troopers back but at the last moment about 10:00 10:30 in the morning Union infantry finally arrived on the battlefield and again these are men of the first Army Corps in particular these were men of the famous iron Brigade a brigade of Midwesterners men from Michigan men from Indiana men from Wisconsin some of the best fighters in the Union Army of the Potomac and now all of a sudden Archer who's been facing cavalry from most of the morning now finds himself confronting some of the best soldiers some of the best infantryman that the Union Army has archers men would have crossed literally right over the land that we're standing on right now they would have pushed past Willoughby run through the trees behind me through herps woods and it would be close to that spot that they did encounter soldiers of the second Wisconsin and John Fulton Reynolds himself as he's leading these men into battle Reynolds will be killed he's been on the field maybe thirty minutes before he's hit by a Confederate bullet the men of the iron Brigade particularly the men of the second Wisconsin launched essentially a charge through the woods behind me and across Willoughby run they drive back archers men and in one of the famous episodes of the battle Archer himself is captured by a Union infantryman named Patrick Maloney of the second Wisconsin and Archer becomes the first Confederate General in the Army of Northern Virginia to be captured by the enemy so the initial stages of battle here on the Harmon farm were actually a success for the Union Army Archer is captured Confederates have been driven back but at the same time this is happening and as there's a lull in the the battle during the midday period there's some brutal skirmishing that will take place across the hartmann property itself Tikku the harmon farm and house and for that I'm hoping Andrew you can fill us in a little bit on that episode of the battle yeah so to point out again archers captured Westar will be run on this property just a few hundred yards behind us probably not even think that much after archers captured as Chris said both armies kind of reinforced their lines on the battlefield there's a woodlot directly behind the camera in later years it was called the Springs hotel woods and that would be a location where the Confederates would form their line of battle in preparation for an attack in the afternoon of July 1st and the Union line would then develop on McPherson's Ridge across Willoughby run behind me and the Union troops along the Pearson's Ridge sent out their skirmishers across Willoughby run and then you have Confederates Kerman series sent out as well what happens is the Confederate skirmishers gain the high ground near what we're near where the hartmann buildings are we're located along Old Mill Road those Confederates begin to fire across where Obi's run at McPherson's Ridge causing a lot of trouble for the Union soldiers deployed along the ridge it's at this point that a company of New Yorkers from the 80th New York infantry is sent across Willoughby's run they charge up the hill on their several men killed and wounded during this encounter and they charge up to the house now by this point amelia harmon and her aunt had been watching the battle unfold from their window they saw the soldiers deploying they saw this cavalry action earlier in the morning but really it doesn't hit home until they hear pounding on the door fists and guns and the Union soldiers are yelling open or will break down the doors and so those women they come down the stairs from the second-story windows they open the door a flood of they described him as powder blackened blue coats they rush into the house and then dispersed out to the various windows of the house where they begin sharp shooting at Confederates who were deployed in the wood line behind the camera which is on the base of what is called hers Ridge so you have a Confederate line and then you have Union skirmishers at the Harmon house and the Union skirmishers start doing exactly what the Confederates had been doing to them they're firing at those lines and really harassing the Confederates so then they during this low there's their soldiers killed at the harmon house others wounded taken back across the creek it's a very bloody encounter for skirmishing and the afternoon really develops when the Confederate attacks begin the Confederates get the order to advance once again in force two entire divisions of Confederates come out of the woods behind the camera heats division which has seen action in the morning then behind them a fresh division of Confederates commanded by a general Dorsey Pender so these two divisions move forward and all of a sudden at the Harmon house things get quiet and Amelia Harman at this point she and her aunt are in the basement and they're not sure what's going on everything's become quiet and all of a sudden the sharp shooting from the windows above has stopped and all of a sudden what they see when they look out the cellar windows is a line of Confederate feet the Confederate infantry moving across the fields and they're not sure what to do and before too long they see Confederates knocking at their door and barging in and what they find is the Confederates have started to light the house on fire they look out the window they see their barn is already on fire so there's this incredible struggle that then takes place between the Harmon women and these Confederates trying to convince them not to burn the house they stomp on the flame they yell at the Confederates they plead with them don't burn the house you know we had nothing to do with this and so the Confederates decide well we're ordered to we have to burn it they send the women out and the women are out in the midst of this incredible battle not sure what to do they head back toward her Ridge and they actually have to pass through the Confederate lines so there's this incredible dramatic scene taking place right outside the Harmon house I think when you come out to a site like this today I mean it's so beautiful it's so pastoral and peaceful the the the scene that Andrews just described one of the things I think is really difficult for us to envision is just the scene of devastation and destruction that would have been across this property and the afternoon of July 1st 1863 with the Harmon farm ablaze with the wounded and dead littering the battlefield and then of course Andrew mentioned that afternoon Confederate attack involving two Confederate divisions Heath's division and behind Heath Pender's division and this will set the stage for one of the epic regimental fights of the American Civil War Between the 26 North Carolina and the men of the 24th Michigan of the iron Brigade the 26th North Carolina was the largest Confederate regiment in the Army of Northern Virginia nearly 800 men they were commanded on July 1st 1863 by a young Colonel barely in his 20s named H K burg when and the men of the 26th North Carolina on the afternoon of July 1st would have literally passed right past where we're standing right now from behind the camera passed Andrew and I across Willoughby run and it's their they'll run into the Union infantryman of the 24th Michigan led by Colonel Henry Monroe maura rather and again this is one of the epic regimental battles of the American Civil War where at times these two units only only a couple dozen yards apart our dueling back and forth in this storm of lead and iron now ultimately burg when that young Colonel would be killed the men of the 24th Michigan would ultimately to give away and Confederates would follow up that that victory by driving those Union defenders from herps woods and then ultimately attacking them in their position on seminary Ridge which we will cover in a later video and again as the the fighting dies down on July 1st it's really difficult for us to imagine what the once peaceful Harmon Farm property would have looked like there would have been graves all over the the property there would have been wounded being tended to and eventually this property would would transition from a battlefield to a place where early memorialization efforts are going to take place where the tourist industry in Gettysburg is going to take root and just to give a little context of that before I turn it over to Andrew I think it's important to mention that not long after the Battle of Gettysburg the citizens of the community begin to preserve the battlefield they create an organization called the Gettysburg battlefield Memorial Association to begin to preserve bits of the battlefield landscape as a monument as a memorial to the Union men that fought here and over time over years visitors veterans family members start to return to Gettysburg to see where this epic battle was fought and here on the harmon farm property again the early tourist industry is going to take root and for that I wonder if ander you could fill us in a little bit on the hotel that's gonna be be placed here so what like many other of the residents and property owners in Gettysburg them as crops were destroyed his orchard was destroyed his house and barn unlike many other structures this is one of the only places where a house and barn were actually burned during the course of the fighting so Emanuel Harmons looking for four ways to gain off of this tremendous loss and one of them is by advertising the water from a spring on his property as medicinal and we're actually standing just a few feet from this historic spring it's a little bit off on the side and buried in the brush but in 1865 the water was analyzed for the first time and this was part of a craze that was taking over the the nation as well as other portions of the world mineral water and mineral springs resorts and so by 1868 into 1869 of the spring had gained so much popularity that they constructed a hotel on this proper known as the Gettysburg Springs hotel the hotel stood until 1917 and for the many years that it was here it was one of the premiere locations for veterans reunions for gatherings of tourists there was a cupola that was an observatory for the battlefield on top of this massive four-story hotel so the springs hotel is an example that early effort where you see commercialization and preservation kind of mixing and there were many nights where you could visit the hotel and you could walk up to the porch and talk to generals like Daniel sickles and James Longstreet who would just be sitting in rocking chairs on the large veranda porch talking to the visitors and explaining their part in the Battle of Gettysburg in 2011 as we mentioned earlier this property was acquired by the National Park Service and this is such a wonderful example of a place where you can go to see all of these different layers of history all of these different chapters of the Gettysburg story and we're so grateful to the Adams County Historical Society and Andrew Dalton for taking us out here and showing us a little bit of this this story on the anniversary of the battle thank you for watching please keep tuned to our Facebook live channel throughout the day as additional videos will be posted and as always thanks for tagging along we appreciate it

Channel: Adams County Historical Society at Gettysburg

Views: 2,104

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Battle of Gettysburg, Civil War, Gettysburg, Adams County

Id: oiTGhOponaQ

Length: 16min 47sec (1007 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 02 2020