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“Consternation Was Depicted On All Their Countenances”: Gettysburg’S African American Community And Confederate Invasion, Brian D. Johnson
“Consternation Was Depicted On All Their Countenances”: Gettysburg’S African American Community And Confederate Invasion, Brian D. Johnson
The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History
On June 15, 1863, Albert Jenkins’s Confederate cavalry brigade became the first of Lee’s men to enter the North when it crossed the Potomac River and headed for Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Lee had issued strict orders forbidding his men to damage or confiscate private property unless it was a requisition made for necessary supplies, and overseen by authorized Confederate staff. Jenkins’s men half-heartedly obeyed, and scoured the area for anything valuable, including African Americans, fugitive or legally free, who might be sold into slavery. One horrified Chambersburg resident watched local blacks attempt to hide in cornfields only to have troopers chase …
The Storm Breaks: Gettysburg’S African-American Community During The Battle, Brian D. Johnson
The Storm Breaks: Gettysburg’S African-American Community During The Battle, Brian D. Johnson
The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History
By late June 1863, though rebel troops had already occupied Gettysburg briefly, the threat to the borough grew still more ominous. Rebel troops had cut the town’s railroad lifeline to the north by destroying a bridge across Rock Creek, and convinced the local telegraph operator to flee with his equipment. The new isolation from news accentuated scattered reports of large forces, rebel and federal, approaching the borough from all directions. When federal cavalry arrived on June 30 to take up defensive positions west of town, Gettysburg residents sensed a looming battle. [excerpt]
Calm Before The Storm: Gettysburg’S African-American Community Before The Battle, Brian D. Johnson
Calm Before The Storm: Gettysburg’S African-American Community Before The Battle, Brian D. Johnson
The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History
African-Americans have always been a part of Gettysburg’s community fabric. Slaves belonging to Samuel Gettys, the area’s first settler, arrived as early as 1762 to build one of the first local taverns. Samuel’s son James, who founded Gettysburg in 1786, also owned slaves, including Sydney O’Brien. After her owner’s death, O’Brien obtained her freedom, and in purchasing a small lot along South Washington Street helped establish the borough’s African-American neighborhood. The free black community continued to grow over the first decades of the nineteenth century as Pennsylvania’s policy of gradual emancipation effectively ended slavery in the state by the 1840s. …