Fulton County
McConnellsburg, Fulton County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Formed April 19, 1850 out of Bedford County. Named for steamboat inventor Robert Fulton. Scene of Confederacy's first casualties in the Gettysburg Campaign, and its last campsite (1864) in Pennsylvania. McConnellsburg, county seat, incorporated 1814.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Established from Bedford County in 1850, Fulton County honors Robert Fulton, the Pennsylvania-born pioneer of the steamboat. Its seat, McConnellsburg, was incorporated in 1814 in the ridges of south-central Pennsylvania. During the Civil War the county saw the first casualties of the Confederacy's Gettysburg Campaign, and in 1864 it hosted the last Confederate campsite on Pennsylvania soil.
Why it matters
Named for an inventor who transformed American transportation and touched by the Confederacy's high-water march north, Fulton County links industrial progress to the war that tested the nation.
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Related people
- · Robert Fulton
Related events
- · Gettysburg Campaign
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Sachs Covered Bridge
Freedom Township, PA · est. 1997
David S. Stoner raised Sachs Covered Bridge across Marsh Creek in 1852, using the elegant lattice-truss design patented by Connecticut architect Ithiel Town to span 100 feet of water. Little more than a decade later, both Union and Confederate soldiers crossed its planks during the 1863 Gettysburg Campaign, giving the quiet farm bridge a place in one of the war's most famous chapters. Retired from traffic after 1968 and battered by a 1996 flood, it was lovingly restored by Adams County as a scenic landmark.
Gettysburg Campaign
Ayr Township, PA · est. 1947
This corner of the Cumberland Valley changed hands repeatedly during the 1863 invasion, occupied three times by Confederate columns pushing north. General Albert G. Jenkins' cavalry came first on June 19, followed by General George H. Steuart's troops in late June and, after a brief skirmish with Union forces, General John D. Imboden's command on June 29. Each passage marked the shifting tide of Lee's campaign.
Last Confederate Bivouac
Ayr Township, PA · est. 2021
In the summer of 1864, Confederate cavalry under General Bradley T. Johnson camped on this ground on July 31, just after McCausland's raiders had burned Chambersburg in retaliation for Union destruction in the Shenandoah Valley. They proved to be the last Confederate troops ever to camp on Pennsylvania soil. Union cavalry under General William W. Averell gave chase and routed the raiders a week later at the Battle of Moorefield in West Virginia.
Gettysburg Campaign
Ayr Township, PA · est. 2021
As Robert E. Lee's army pushed into Pennsylvania in June 1863, Confederate raiding parties fanned out into Fulton County to seize horses, livestock, and supplies. On June 29, troopers of the 1st New York Cavalry struck one such party, killing two enemy soldiers, wounding several, and capturing 32 men including their captain. The two Confederate dead were buried here by local residents.