Chambersburg

Chambersburg, PA · est. 1973

In late June 1863, as the Army of Northern Virginia pushed deep into Pennsylvania, General Robert E. Lee made his headquarters in a grove near Chambersburg. From here, between June 26 and 30, he issued the orders concentrating his scattered forces toward Gettysburg—setting in motion the campaign's climactic collision. The quiet woods became a pivotal command post on the road to the war's most famous battle.

Guilford Township, PA · est. 1948

In late June 1863, Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had pushed deep into Pennsylvania, and Lee himself made Chambersburg his headquarters. Learning that Union forces had crossed the Potomac and were closing in, he ordered his scattered corps to concentrate near Cashtown and marched out of the city along this road. Within days those converging armies would collide a few miles east at Gettysburg.

Chambersburg, PA · est. 2002

Consecrated in 1844, this Chambersburg burial ground was established by a Jewish Holy Burial Society so that the area's small but growing Jewish community could bury its dead according to Jewish law. It stands as the first Jewish cemetery west of Philadelphia, opened during the wave of mid-19th-century migration that carried Jewish families inland from the coast. Among those interred is Isaac Burgauer, remembered as the only Southern Jewish soldier who fell at Gettysburg to rest in a Northern Jewish cemetery.

Chambersburg, PA · est. 1964

Raised in 1823-1824 as the Cumberland Valley was settling into the young republic, this hall was built expressly for Masonic fellowship and has served that purpose ever since — a rare continuity for an early American fraternal lodge. Its most dramatic hour came in July 1864, when Confederate cavalry put much of Chambersburg to the torch after the town refused to pay a ransom, yet this building was left standing amid the ruins.