Research team that developed the first commercially successful self idc in u. S. Postage stamp. He has written 20 civil war and underground railroad books. Of generalgraphy william extra billy smith won multiple awards, including dr. James i robertson juniors literary prize for confederate history. He has also written several articles for the gettysburg magazine as well as other historical publications. Scott and his wife debbie reside in north pennsylvania. Scott. Scott thanks for coming today. Roles to talk about the of the railroads here in pennsylvania. I have written three books on the three railroads that ran between maryland and pennsylvania during the civil war. They were respectively from east to west, the philadelphia wilmington and baltimore railroads which ran through those three key cities, the north and central rail right which ran from harrisburg down to baltimore and the third key railroad that ran between maryland and pennsylvania during the civil war. The Cumberland Valley railroad is going to be the subject of our talk today. All three of those railroads were targeted by the Confederate Army during the civil war multiple times. That as well as the northern central had bridges burn your baltimore both in 1861, again in 1864, and in 1863, there were attempts on the northern central ridges as well. 31 of them were destroyed in york county, penciling you. Perhaps no road and pennsylvania saw as many confederate incursions or as many attacks as the Cumberland Valley railroad, and the title of our book, targeted tracks. This is the route of the Cumberland Valley. The Cumberland Valley railroad ran during the civil war years from carisbrooke, pennsylvania down to chambersburg. Subsidiary during the later war owned by the philadelphia. For the purpose of our talk, will be consisting of the entire line of the Franklin Railroad and the cd r r that ran from hagerstown north to the susquehanna river. Is aprs president gentleman named fred watts. Frederick watts is important in the history of Pennsylvania State university. Fred watts was one of the leading proponents of agricultural education in the United States and is recognized in some quarters as the father of Pennsylvania State university. Long before that, he was the father of the Cumberland Valley railroad. He was one of the early proponents to get this railroad built. He then served on the board of directors and later served as the president of the railroad during the civil war and for several decades oath and after. Frederick watts had a vision to turn the Cumberland Valley from a small Regional Railroad into something that would be nationally important. Entreedid he know his into the National Scene would be the Confederate Army and the publicity his railroad would get. Cvrably the first time the plays any role in what becomes the conflict between the north and the south is during john browns raid on Harpers Ferry in 1862. Most of the raiders, including john brennan himself, arrived on the Cumberland Valley railroad having traveled through harrisburg. They set up their headquarters in downtown chambersburg. Ironically, at the boardinghouse that was owned by the widow of of abolition governors pennsylvania, governor joseph witmer. Mary witmers boardinghouse would see numerous people going throughout the summer of 1850 nine, including john brown. Frederick watts Frederick Douglass would come on the railroad as well. He would meet with john brown. On some accounts, john brown tried to sweettalk Frederick Douglass into physically enjoy physically joining the attack on Harpers Ferry. He does not do it. About the year, the summer in particular, brown and his cohorts are bringing in large stick large shipments of goods on the Cumberland Valley railroad. He calls himself dr. Isaac smith. He has been telling the good people of the Cumberland Valley and he is a minor miner he has been looking for iron or lines and he has been bringing back supplies to the railroad on things like pigs and axis, when in reality they were muskets and pikes. They would use the Cumberland Valley railroad to go down to maryland, and he would set up his headquarters on the kennedy farm, and in the october of 1859, john brown and his men would raid. Some of the raiders come back to the Cumberland Valley and tried to catch the railroad to get out of the valley. A number of them are going to be captured near the Cumberland Valley railroad station in scotland, pennsylvania, where some of the raiders are getting captured. One of the raiders managed to escape on the railroad and wound up all the way in york, pennsylvania, where members of the underground railroad would smuggle a free back a free black all the way to toronto, canada at that point. This railroad has got somewhat of a starcrossed background. There is a lot of National Publicity as for the role, some of the members of the railroad are investigated as collaborators. Did they get involved with brown or not . No charges would stick. Toleads to speculation as the railroads overall loyalty. Judge watts himself tends to be a middleoftheroad person. As war begins and the clouds of war start with the election of abraham lincoln, secession in a number of states, and war breaks out in april of 1861 following the confederate bombardment of fort sumter. Judge watts goes to a political rally in carlisle, and he is in favor of the compromises that are trying to hold the union together, perhaps allowing the south to keep slavery. His son is the most vocal person against the compromises, and he wants immediate this is a quick snapshot of a small Regional Railroad. They do not have a lot of hardware and equipment. This is a one track railroad. This railroad moves a lot of freight. Coalcularly in or, timber, things of that nature. Railroad has some fairly interesting stock. One is the pioneer. It is one of the most powerful locomotives. By the time of the civil war, it is clearly outdated. It is designed more for passenger service. The railroad does not have a lot of heavy freight. The first unit to leave the Cumberland Valley is artillery. They have enthusiasm. They will take off and head on these right Yellow Railroad cars. It took its most powerful and it took them into harrisburg. They merely become infantry. This is the harrisburg station that they went to. It housed four different railroads. It was one of the few railroad stations in the north that actually handled many different railroads. At times, the station was quite active. That reminded people to get on the right train. A lot of the early traffic in the Cumberland Valley is distinctly related to the civil war. Will go down in history as one of the very first railroads ever used to liberally by the military. In 1861, thomas jackson, later known as stonewall jackson, he lingers for a while. He will be superseded by Joseph Johnson, who arrives to take command of the Confederate Forces at Harpers Ferry. The yankees do not like this. Concern thatt of it is fairly easy to launch an invasion from the north. That is something people in pennsylvania are worried about. They are bordering slaves straight. There is significant insurgency in harrisburg. Perhaps the commonwealth as well as its vital railroads will be part of the confederacy. They start recruiting pennsylvanian soldiers and moving them into chambersburg. As a launching point for potential first run into Harpers Ferry. The Cumberland Valley railroad will start bringing significant of Union Volunteers into chambersburg. It becomes the Assembly Point for what is later the army of the shenandoah. He is assigned command of all of these volunteers. He comes out and a brightly protect railroad car into chambersburg with the band playing. Having a parade on a sunday was not something you did. There was a very conservative town. This guy shows up with marching bands and a military escort. He tells people that they are going out to virginia. He manages to get the troops organized. Is forblem with that those of you familiar with bull run of the first manassas campaign, is number one role for all of these volunteers, their goal is to keep Joseph Johnson bottled up inside the qandil and Cumberland Valley. It is a task patterson fails miserably. Johnson is able to get his troops to ride the rails into manassas junction, and we all know the story. His men will arrive in time to correct the balance of the first battle of manassas and lead to a confederate victory. Everyone realizes the war will not be over so quickly. You have all kinds of problems, and now they started raising troops for three years, one year, different terms of service, and the Cumberland Valley railroad brings the first group of boys home and start shipping the larger groups out of the Cumberland Valley back into harrisburg to be recruited. Fastforward forward to 1862 from all those rumors, the confederates are going to come to harrisburg from a finally start coming true. Rumors abound that the Confederate Army is marching on pennsylvania, late august, early september, 1862. The governor of pennsylvania, republican, a close friend of the president of the United States abraham lincoln, he says we need troops. He calls out the Pennsylvania State militia. Pennsylvania has a standing militia before the war, but in general the prerogative is a cloud to activate the National Guard and raise these men into regiments to respond to emergencies. They werent allowed to leave the commonwealth borders. It was only for the defense of pennsylvanians that you could activate this militia. They are going to get thousands of these new state militiamen and the Cumberland Valley railroad will be pressed into service to bring them to chambersburg. By the why, general patterson left in an unmarked car without a military escort and was out of town in the middle of a nondescript business day. The new officer in 1862 was john fulton reynolds. Reynolds takes command, very militarylike, arrives on a train with troops into chambersburg, no pomp and circumstance, very businesslike. Reynolds takes charge of the Pennsylvania State militia. The militia men will serve throughout the antietam campaign. They are not ever going to see combat, for which reynolds is somewhat grateful, not quite sure how the men will do, confides to his sister in a letter, his doubts about the quality of the Pennsylvania State militia. Nevertheless, the militia ends up moving back through the cvrr. By the way, the Cumberland Valley ran through downtown chambersburg, downtown greencastle, through mechanicsburg, downtown shippensburg. The major hotels and businesses lined the Railroad Tracks. It is the main streets and most of these towns, and these boys and their soldier uniforms are thrilled because the townspeople, particular the pretty girls of the Cumberland Valley, turn out lavishly to cheer these men. At one point, they go by the female academy, to which one soldier says, i think we need to stop the train right here and make this our camp the rest of the war. Well, they will obviously not stop at the female academy. You can see what these young men in blue are it is all really good at that point in time. Well, just a few weeks later, another problem occurs. By the way this is his letter to his sister basically saying there is nothing in the valley that will stop the rebels. If the rebels want to come to harrisburg come in fact, we have a problem. Now, just a few weeks, a few days after reynolds makes the declaration, on the day after the battle of antietam, perhaps the cvrrs finest moment in the civil war. General mcclellan is out of ammunition and orders more from washington. Theyre going to load it up on the b o, take it to baltimore, and transfer it to northern central. The northern central will leave baltimore in the train of ammunition will arrive in hagerstown in four hours and 31 minutes. I cant do that today on the highways with all the traffic. This train loaded with incredibly explosive ammunition careens at speeds up to 54 Miles Per Hour on tracks never designed for cars going more than 40 Miles Per Hour, and the standard working speed for a Freight Train in those days was 20 to 25 Miles Per Hour. You aree doubling that. These cars get so hot they worry about it catching on fire. They have to stop twice and physically cool the train off so it wont catch on fire. Anybody can guess what a boxcar of ammunition would have done in downtown carlisle, pennsylvania . It wouldnt have been pretty. It is a stunning example of mcclellans generalship in those days. He needs ammunition. Even though these railroaders have risked their lives and set a speed record the cvrr has ever will run during the civil war, not a single one of these rounds is fired at the confederates during the maryland campaign, at least up to that point in time. But, it becomes known as the amazing antietam ammunition run. It is the finest hour. It gets a lot of national press. They are really happy. The militia starts coming home. Reynolds starts bringing them back, and the darkest hour for the railroad soon follows. On december 26, heavy fog along the susquehanna river, a train barreling through the fog filled with the 20th volunteer militia from philadelphia smashes into the bridge locomotive called utility and 30 soldiers are killed or permanently maimed. Now the Cumberland Valley is in the press again, but not for a reason they want. It is one of the worst losses of u. S. Soldiers at that point in the civil war on civilian run railroads. That will change. Unfortunately, there will be worst tragedies yet to come. Just watch though, just terrified about the possible legal ramifications for what is going on come and more importantly, the loss of potential lucrative military business. They managed to avoid any kind of legal reality and the cvrr keeps their contract. The cvrr has another problem looming, that is jeb stuart. Just four weeks later after the disaster where the utility is slammed into the train, jeb stuart comes to pennsylvania. What else would he be doing . You can see on the maps on the screen the location of mcclellans army still sitting idle in maryland doing very little. Stuart decides im going to break apart the cvrr, the main supply line that will feed mcclellans army. Other two, the more volatile is the cvrr, so he takes three brigades of calvary and comes across the masondixon line into chambersburg. He ends up wrecking the cvrr at chambersburg. They will destroy the turntable and destroy most of the offices and whatever Rolling Stock is still there, the warehouse is in and around the train station. Chambersburg sees flames on the north side of town for hours and hours and hours as the area immediately around the railroad station burns to the ground. He is going to go on, to turn the bridge that cant be burned. He believes that story and heres the state militia is coming after him, then heres the Union Regulars are coming after him, so he will head towards gettysburg, comes within six miles of gettysburg in october of 1862 before he turned south and heads back into virginia. That raid by stuart alarms the railroads in pennsylvania. They realize exactly how vulnerable they are. They have already lost bridges, now Rolling Stock, and the confederates have proven a wellplanned raid can reach the very heart of some of these northern railroads. Some of the photographs taken of the confederates, they raid the warehouse is first but then burn chambersburg, so Rolling Stock, this is what the town wouldve looked like an 1862, as stewarts men arrived. Governor curtain is alarmed by this, frantically starts dispatching with washington about how candy Cumberland Valley be better protected. 1863, the reverend has another problem. They rebuilt the depot, the warehouse in the turntable, rebuilt just about everything just in time for the gettysburg campaign. In the confederates come back to pennsylvania again. Now instead of jeb stuart, it is jenkins from the western virginia area. He will lead his calvary into chambersburg and they will start raiding the railroads and find out the scotland bridges not made of iron. It is made of wood. We can burn it, and they do. They destroyed the largest bridge southwest of the susquehanna river along the cvrr. Along the way, greencastle the scotland, jenkins and his men are destroying Railroad Tracks, burning railroad buildings. They are working on the small bridges, the small little facilities that lined the tracks as well. They devastate the Franklin Railroad and the cvrr all the way up into the heart of the Cumberland Valley. One more time, they organize a state militia under governor curtins direction. The state militia will start riding the rails to get into position. In the meantime, the cvrr has an influx in ticket sales because refugees for hagerstown from a from the shenandoah valley, refugees from southern pennsylvania are jumping on the trains and trying to put the susquehanna river between him and robert e lee. Ticket sales are quite strong and hundreds and hundreds of refugees, many africanamerican are coming into chambersburg to try to escape the onslaught of the oncoming rebels. Well, the state militia, the Pennsylvania State militia is not very well organized. Governor curtin has asked for 10,000 volunteers from new jersey and new york, so a number of new york standing militia regiments have arrived in harrisburg. The new york state National Guard, put them on the cvrr trains, and they had south to shippensburg. With chambersburg cut off, shippensburg is the new Central Organization point for the Pennsylvania State militia. You cant get to chambersburg because it is south of the bridge of scotland. They have to walk from shippensburg to scotland, guard bridge crews that are definitely trying to put cvrrs bridge back into place so that the army can use this if they need to. Jenkins hears about the militia boring down the tracks heading towards his position. Jenkins withdraws into west virginia. Actually maryland, sorry. Jenkins moves back into pennsylvania on june 22. The new yorkers now fearing a. Jenkins moves back into pennsylvania on june 22. The new yorkers now fearing infantry is coming with artillery abandon ship and head back to harrisburg, now leaving the Cumberland Valley unprotected. Other than a few scattered calvary units, units of the first new york calvary, for example. There are some local units floating around there. But most of the calvary in these units are not very experienced with the exception of the first new yorkers. They thought the rebels are coming into the Cumberland Valley. Jenkins follows the railroad. They go to mechanicsburg. He will set up shop. Again, the map shows you the Railroad Tracks on the main streets of mechanicsburg, and this is the largest hotel, one of the most Important Hotels in town during the civil war years. That is the railroad hotel, appropriate named, and was also a ticket office. It had the unheardof rooms for women and an indoor powder room for men. And an indoor powder room for men. It had indoor plumbing at least for a while. A very nice hotel. Jenkins takes over the hotel, makes it his personal headquarters and starts selecting new york and pennsylvania and other newspapers that have been brought into the gift shop of the railroad. Jenkins puts his feet on the table and starts collecting yankee intelligence, including we believe statues from harrisburg. While this is going on, behind them comes the rest of the army of northern virginia, including George Pickett bringing up the rear. Picketts men, many of them destined to die or be captured in gettysburg, any of his men will spend the last weeks or days of their free lives or lives entirely wrecking the Cumberland Valley railroad. They will duplicate what stuart was doing in 1862. Long before shermans neckties, these guys are taking rails and heating them over bonfires and letting the rails group so they are not valuable anymore. In some cases, they are wrapping bowties around trees. Picketts men are doing it in 1863 in the Cumberland Valley. They will show up in chambersburg and burn everything. The railroad had already rebuilt all of its facilities here and better than they were before, and now George Pickett has arrived with infantry. These guys do a very thorough job on the Cumberland Valley railroad, particularly on july 1. 156 years ago today, while battles are raging at gettysburg, George Pickett is destroying the Cumberland Valley railroad in chambersburg, pennsylvania. On this very day, the reason for this talk in utility as far as the anniversary celebrations in gettysburg. Pickett has a jolly old time. I outline a lot of this in the book, what his boys are doing as this is going on. In the harrisburg area, especially the west side of the river, the new york state militia is still guarding what is left of the Cumberland Valley railroad. The yankees pretty much control the railroad from camp hill north. Not much. The rebels control the rest of the railroad from mechanicsburg all the way through carlisle, shippensburg, chambersburg, greencastle. 90 of the railroad in confederate hands. This is one of the few drawings done during the campaign that showed the Railroad Tracks of pennsylvania. You can see the 22nd new york state National Guard camping. Also in the sketch is the susquehanna river. Those would be the bridge abutments. On the left is the river running into downtown harrisburg. The state militia is going to take over many of the railroad buildings, including house near bridgeport, and they will convert it into block houses and try to protect the railroad as best they can. The new york state militia barely in the background. My coauthor did this, you can barely see the train. The Cumberland Valley Railroad Still operational, at least in taking troops and refugees who can still make it into union held territory, they are still running trains for a little while. All of that is finished up in the battle of gettysburg is over. Hermann hot appears on the scene. There are 31 railroad ridges that have been destroyed in york county alone. From gettysburg to hanover and hanover junction, many of those have been destroyed as well as the railroad bridges on the spur from york to wrightsville, and the longest railroad bridge in wrightsville has been burned by the Pennsylvania State militia silva noons actually civilians under orders from the militia. The job is to rebuild the railroads. We need to get ammunition income of the wounded out, relief supplies in and they become crucial. He would spend most of his personal time in york county, he would come to the Cumberland Valley on one or two occasions and they would rebuild the railroads. But there is a critical decision, the rebels were supposed to come in 1861 and they didnt. Jeb stuart destroyed much of the chambersburg railroad facilities. Then, jenkins destroyed it. He makes an interesting decision not to rebuild the railroad facilities. They rebuild the tracks, but they dont rebuild the turntables, warehouses, ticket offices, oiling stations until after the war. Its a big decision, because does anybody know what happens in 1864 in chambers big . John mcconnell and shows up on the scene. He makes yet another incursion and pennsylvania aimed at chambersburg. The third time in three years chambersburg has been targeted. He is coming under the guise of orders from joe worley. He is upset about the destruction in virginia by david hunter and union troops, and he has made the decision that somebody is going to pay for this. He says you can start ransoming northern towns. They are going to ransom hagerstown. By the time they get to chambersburg, he asks for 100,000 in gold. In 1863, joe worley has ransomed york, pennsylvania for 100,000 in cash and three days worth of supplies, 1000 pairs of shoes. He gets almost all of that. The stunt of ransoming people works. So they ransom chambersburg. The chambersburg citizens are like, they did not bill down york or gettysburg, they did not burn down carlisle. The last two times they were in chambersburg, they only burned down the railroad. We dont have railroad buildings to burn, we are safe. Only 10 miles away is the union regular calvary. Not regular, volunteer calvary. The people of chambersburg tell him to count salt. He says he wasnt kidding and he orders the town torched. The confederate officers protest, he puts them under arrest in extreme cases, and the confederates porch chambersburg. They dont have railroad buildings, but they have the town itself, and they lay waste to it. We have probably seen many pictures of what chambersburg looks like after this devastating raid. The railroad suffers little damage but Railroad Employees are devastated. There are a lot of Railroad Employees who live in and around chambersburg, that is the railroad home before the war. The cvrr is still operational and can still haul refugees out of chambersburg, and they do it. Men and women who have lost their homes, they had no charge, they will call you to harrisburg if you want a fresh start. A lot of residents will ride cvrr a final time and never return to chambersburg. Some do, but many start all over somewhere else. The railroad makes its final shipment of troops into chambersburg, the 201st pennsylvania in two police the town and restore order. 1865, anticipating the war will still last a while, there are two powerful new locomotives but the war ends before they can use them. April 22, the cvrr makes its final contribution to the war. They bring northerners from the Cumberland Valley to carlisle, particularly remember its the same station as the northern central train that is bringing avery and lincolns body from washington, d. C. Of northern the northern central train arrives at the station and the cvrr has already brought in mourners. The final act is to bring soldiers home back to places like chambersburg, some of which only some know their homes are gone. They come back to rebuild with their wives. On behalf of my publisher and the gettysburg heritage center, thank you for your time and attention today, and hopefully you know a little more about one of the three key railroads in pennsylvania that ran between maryland and the commonwealth during the civil war. Thank you for your time and attention. [applause] we have time for a couple of questions, does anybody have anything . Any questions on the railroad . This was a pretty important railroad, the most people dont realize. How many of you that George Pickett spent that time wrecking railroads . Thats one of the revelations that people reading the book have not realize that was his main role for picketts charge, to wreck the railroads. I will turn it back over to tammy. Thank you, we appreciate it, scott. Learn more about the people and events that shaped the civil war and reconstruction every saturday at 6 00 p. M. Only on American History tv here on cspan three. You are watching American History tv, covering history with eyewitness accounts, archival films, lectures and college classrooms, and visits to museums and historic places. All weekend, every weekend on cspan three. The president s, from public affairs, available now in paperback and ebook. President , of every organized by their ranking by noted historians from best to worst. And features perspectives into the lives of our nations chief executive and leadership styles. Visit our website. Learn more about each president and historian featured and order your copy today, wherever books and ebooks are sold. American history tv is on cspan3 every weekend and all of our programs are archived on our website at cspan. Org history. You can watch lectures and college classrooms, towards of historic site, archival films, and see our schedule of upcoming programs. Thats cspan. Org history. Q a, wall street trader turned photojournalist chris are naughty on his book dignity about the plight of those living on the margins of society in america. It was a sunday morning. They werety because all gone. Immediately, her intelligence came right through. We spoke for about an hour, half hour or so. She told me her life. Cliche of, everything wrong that can happen to somebody. Eventually, i asked her what i ask everybody. How do you want me to describe you in one sentence . , im a prostitute, mother of six, and child of god. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspans q and a. Q a. Tv,ext on American History a talk about the 1862 battle of williamsburg in virginia and why it was overshadowed that year by larger and bloodier battles. We will hear why williamsburgs colonial history has long obscured its civil war story. This was part of the emerging civil war blog symposium. Good afternoon. I get the privilege of introducing a good friend. Drew and i have been arguing over the past two days, what i should do in this introduction. I will fill my promise and just read what you sent me. [laughter] it is kind of funny, actually
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