He is an ohio native, graduate of miami university. While working for avery dennison, he was part of the team that set up the first commercially successful selfadhesive postage stamp. He has written 20 books. His biography won multiple awards, including the a prize for confederate history. He has written several articles for the gettysburg magazine and other historical publications. Scott and his wife debby reside in north pennsylvania. Scott . Welcome. Scott thanks for coming today. I want to talk about the railroads in pennsylvania. I have written three books on the railroads. They were from east to west, the philadelphiawilmington baltimore railroad. The northern central railway, harrisburg to baltimore. The third key railroad that ran between maryland and pennsylvania during the civil war. The Cumberland Valley railroad will be the subject of our talk today. All three railroads were targeted by the army during the civil war. Two had their bridges burned near baltimore from 1861, 1864. 1863, there were attacks on the northern central bridges. 31 destroyed in york county, pennsylvania. No rep. Dent pennsylvania saw as many incursions or attacks as the Cumberland Valley railroad, hence the title of our book, targeted track. The Cumberland Valley railroad ran during the civil war years from harrisburg, pennsylvania to chambersburg. There it met the Franklin Railroad, a subsidiary, later owned by the Cumberland Valley railroad. The cvrr will be consisting of the entire line of the Franklin Railroad that ran from hagerstown north to the susquehanna river. The cvrrs president s agenda named frederick watts. He is important in the history of Pennsylvania State university. He was one of the leading proponents of agricultural education in the United States, and it is recognized that the father Pennsylvania State university. Before that, he was the father of the Cumberland Valley railroad. One of the early proponents to get the railroad built. He served on the board of directors, and later as the president of the railroad during the civil war. Frederick watts had a vision to turn the Cumberland Valley from a small, Regional Railroad to something of national importance. Little did he know that his entre was the Confederate Army and the publicity has railroad would get. Probably the first time the cvrr plays any role in the conflict between north and south is during john browns raid on Harpers Ferry in 1862. Most of the raiders arrive on the Cumberland Valley railroad, having traveled to harrisburg. They set up their headquarters in downtown chambersburg. Ironically in a boardinghouse owned by a widow of one of the abolitionist governors of pennsylvania. That was governor joseph wittner. The boardinghouse would see numerous people coming and going throughout the summer of 1859, including john brown. Frederick douglass would come on the railroad as well. He would meet with john brown. Some accounts suggest john brown tried to sweettalk Frederick Douglass into joining the attack on Harpers Ferry. Doesnt do it, of course. Throughout the summer in particular, brown and others are bringing in large shipments of goods on the Cumberland Valley railroad. He calls himself dr. Isaac smith. He is looking for possible ion ore mines. Hes bringing in pix, axes, when in reality they are muskets and pikes. They were used to go down to maryland and set up headquarters at the farm, and then in october 1859, john brown and his men will raid. Some of the raiders come back to the Cumberland Valley and tried to catch the river to get out of the valley. Some of them will be captured nearly Cumberland Valley railroad station, were some of the raiders are captured. One will manage to escape on the railroad and end up in north pennsylvania, where members of the underground railroad will smuggle a free black to toronto in canada at that point. This railroad, the cvrr comp has a starcrossed background. It gained a lot of National Publicity for the role. Some of the members are investigated as collaborators. Charges are never brought, but it leads to speculation. Judge watts tends to be a middleoftheroad person. As the clouds of four start with start withds of war the election of abraham lincoln, the secession of states, then war breaks out in april 1861, following the confederate bombardment of fort sumter. Judge watts goes to a political rally in carlisle and is in favor of the compromises that are trying to hold the union together, perhaps allowing the south to keep slavery. He is the most vocal person against it in once immediate and he wants immediate abolition and immediate war against the south. The Cumberland Valley sees they will become a critical part of the war effort. This is a quick snapshot, a small, Regional Railroad. They dont have a lot of hardware and equipment, 12 locomotives, four baggage cars, 79 freight cars. This is a one track railroad through the heart of the Cumberland Valley. For those in the audience, the Cumberland Valley is the name applied to the Shenandoah Valley in southern pennsylvania. The Cumberland Valley is very important, and this railroad moves a lot of freight, particularly iron ore, timber, coal back into harrisburg for distribution around the country. This railroad has some interesting pieces of Rolling Stock, one of which is the pioneer, one of the most powerful locomotives built in 1851. By the time of the civil war, it is outdated. It is a lightweight locomotive designed for passenger service. The railroad does not have a lot of heavy freight locomotives. Typically they can handle no more than a fourcar passenger train, and some maximum speeds. They add two more by the time the war begins. They believe it will be a short war. A lot of these people are thinking we will win the war in 90 days, so throughout the valley, they will show up in places like carlisle, chambersburg, and then they will congregate at the cvrr station and brought by train to harrisburg. The chambers artillery they dont have cannons, but they have enthusiasm. They will head on these bright yellow distinctive railroad cars. The cvrr took its most powerful locomotive into harrisburg. The artillerymen Forma Company they form a company of the second pennsylvania. This is the harrisburg station, one of the few in the north that handled many different railroads. The northern central came in here from baltimore through york, as did the Pennsylvania Railroad that ran eastwest to pittsburgh to philadelphia, and the Cumberland Valley railroad. At times, the station was hectic. There are lots of accounts of people getting on the wrong train because you have four distinctly different railroads serving it. The Cumberland Valley would remind people to get on the yellow cars. That will remind you to get on the right train. A lot of the early traffic through the Cumberland Valley is distinctly related to the civil war. The cvrr will go down in history as one of the very first railroads ever used by the military of the United States to move troops into position. In 1861, Stonewall Jackson has taken Harpers Ferry. He will be superseded by Joseph Johnson, who takes command of the Confederate Forces at Harpers Ferry. The yankees dont like this because there is a lot of concern that Harpers Ferry, it is easy to launch an invasion into the north, particularly pennsylvania. That is something pennsylvanians are worried about early in the war from because they are bordered by slave state maryland and slave state virginia, which at the start of the war, neither are aligned with the confederacy, but there is significant concern in harrisburg that perhaps the commonwealth and its railroads will end up being targeted by confederates. They decided to go on the offense and started recruiting pennsylvania soldiers and moving them into chambersburg as a launching point for a potential thrust in towards Harpers Ferry. They will go after the confederates before the confederates can come after him. The Cumberland Valley railroad will bring significant quantities, thousands, fresh, untrained Union Volunteers into chambersburg. Chambersburg becomes the Assembly Point for what later is going to be called the army of the shenandoah, robert patterson, an elderly gentleman who was a veteran of the war of 1812 is assigned command of these volunteers. He comes down in a brightly bedecked railroad car into chambersburg with the band playing, has a parade on sunday night, which wasnt something you didnt chambersburg, you did in chambersburg, pennsylvania. It was a very conservative town. This guy shows up with marching bands and military escorts on a decked out train and assumes command of the troops in chambersburg and tells people that we are going on to virginia. Patterson within a few days after the arrival manages to get the troops, organized and begins to move the troops out. The problem with that is there is one person in his way. For those familiar with the manassasor First Campaign will know that pattersons number one role in all these volunteers, mostly pennsylvanians, but other states as well, their goal is to keep Joseph Johnson bottled up inside the Cumberland Valley, or Shenandoah Valley in this case. 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. Johnsons men will arrive in time to correct the balance of the first battle of manassas and lead to a confederate victory. Everybody 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 call out 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 pennsylvania 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 last general the 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 irving 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 are 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. Of the two, the more vulnerable 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