Gettysburg Campaign
Snake Spring Township, Bedford County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Entrenchments still visible by the roadsides were prepared in June, 1863, by militia under Col. J.C. Higgins against threatened Confederate attack toward the railroad at Altoona. The march of troops toward Gettysburg on June 30 - July 1 ended the danger and the need for these defenses.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
In June 1863, as Robert E. Lee's army pushed north into Pennsylvania, militia under Colonel J.C. Higgins dug the entrenchments still traceable along these roadsides to guard the vital railroad at Altoona against a feared Confederate thrust. The threat never materialized: as the armies converged on Gettysburg at the end of June, the danger passed and the earthworks were never tested. They remain a quiet trace of the anxiety that gripped the Pennsylvania countryside that summer.
Why it matters
These unused defenses capture the wide reach of the Gettysburg Campaign, when the Civil War came home to Northern communities scrambling to protect their railroads and towns.
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Related people
- · J.C. Higgins
Related events
- · Gettysburg Campaign
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Fulton County
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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
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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.
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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.