Gettysburg Campaign
Camp Hill, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Farthest advance of a body of Confederate troops toward Harrisburg. Southern units under General A.G. Jenkins of Ewell's Corps reached Oyster Point on June 28, 1863. On the next day defending militia faced them here in a skirmish in which both sides suffered casualties.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
In the last days of June 1863, as Robert E. Lee's army pushed north, Confederate cavalry under General Albert G. Jenkins probed toward the Pennsylvania capital at Harrisburg. Oyster Point, near present-day Camp Hill, marked the high-water mark of that advance before local militia met the Southerners in a sharp skirmish on June 29. Within days the Confederate tide would recede toward the fields of Gettysburg.
Why it matters
This quiet suburban ground is the closest a Confederate army ever came to seizing a Northern state capital, a reminder of how far the war reached into the loyal North.
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Related people
- · Albert G. Jenkins
- · Richard S. Ewell
Related events
- · Gettysburg Campaign
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
White Hall Soldiers' Orphan School
Camp Hill, PA
In the years after the Civil War, Pennsylvania established a network of Soldiers' Orphan Schools to shelter and educate the children of Union soldiers who had died or been disabled in the conflict. White Hall was one of these institutions, blending classroom learning with vocational training. Decades later its former students — who called themselves the 'Sixteeners' — returned to honor the school that raised them, erecting this marker in 1926.
Fort Couch
Lemoyne, PA · est. 1953
In June 1863, as Robert E. Lee's army drove north toward the Susquehanna in the campaign that ended at Gettysburg, panicked authorities threw up earthworks on Hummel's Heights to shield the state capital at Harrisburg. Named for General Darius Couch, commander of the Department of the Susquehanna, these breastworks were part of a hasty defensive line manned by militia and emergency troops. The expected Confederate assault on Harrisburg never fell, as Lee recalled his forces to concentrate at Gettysburg.
Fort Couch
Lemoyne, PA · est. 1947
In the tense summer of 1863, as Robert E. Lee's army pushed north, defenders threw up earthen breastworks here to guard the approaches to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania's capital and a vital rail and supply hub. On June 29, Confederate scouts probed toward these works but pulled back, and days later the campaign's decisive fighting erupted at Gettysburg instead. These humble earthworks mark the farthest reach of the Southern advance on the Susquehanna.
Gettysburg Campaign
Hampden Township, PA · est. 1997
As Robert E. Lee's army pushed deep into Pennsylvania in the summer of 1863, its advance reached almost to the state capital before turning back toward a small town called Gettysburg. Here at Sporting Hill on June 30, hastily mustered New York militia and a Philadelphia battery clashed with Confederate cavalry probing the defenses of Harrisburg. It was the northernmost fighting of the entire campaign, and the graycoats soon withdrew toward Carlisle, leaving their dead behind.