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North Cavalry Battlefield July 2, 1863 Gettysburg Campaign
Civil War Battlefields - James O. Phelps - Panoramics
360* Panoramics @ Gallery 30, Gettysburg, PA
In Memory of Those who Fought and
Died for
Our Freedom. "These
Dead Shall Not Have Died in Vain." ~ President Lincoln ~
| RT 394 & Hunterstown Road |
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| New Custer Memorial, dedicated July 2, 2008 |
"We stopped at the new Hunterstown Memorial to General Custer and the Battle of Hunterstown.
I must
say I had never heard of the battle before. I now believe this highly overlooked battle was a major part of the reason the Union held on to
victory during that hard fought 2nd day. Another 2100 rebel troops attacking East Cemetary Ridge surely would have turned the tide
and
the day would have belonged to the Confederacy! I shudder to think what America would be like today if the Battle of Huntertsown had not been fought." ~
Harold D. Sausser, July 6, 2013
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| Co-Founders: Roger & Laurie Harding |
"Too
often, places that matter to us can be lost in a heartbeat — sometimes even before we realize they will be missed. The
best way to save a place that matters is to call attention to it and value it before it is endangered."
National Trust for Historic Places
Battlefield Panoramics - James O. Phelps
| The Felty Farm/ North Cavalry Battlefield |
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| by Edwin L. Green, Williamsburg, VA. |
"General George Armstrong Custer
is an unsung hero of the Battle of Gettysburg, for without his gallant charges, the Confederates would have broken through
the Union resistance. Critics often cite his high casualty rate in the battle as poor performance. General Custer knew the
Rebel advance had to be stopped at all costs. He didn’t order his men into a known high casualty fight. He LED
them. I wonder how many armchair quarterbacks would have changed seats with him?" "CusterLives!" Website Quote
“The [Civil] war “proved Custer was simply the greatest
cavalry tactician of the Union Army, perhaps the greatest of either army North or South. The fame and rewards he gained were more than earned by not just his boldness and
courage but his military acuity.”
Stephen Budiansky
| Unveiled by GBC&VB on 7/2/09 |
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| Located at The Historic Tate Farm |
Shown
in picture: Background
...Steve Alexander as Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer, Michigan Wolverines, John Volhken, & Dan Dunn Author, Frank Meredith, GBC&VB's Norris
Flowers, Authors, J D Petruzzi, Mike Nugent, & Steve Stanley, Artist, Jared Frederick, GNP Ranger, Troy Harman Actors & Living Historians, Mrs. Julia Dent Grant with General Ulysses S. Grant, Lenwood Sloan & PA Museum's Living
Historians
| Our Thanks to Bob McIlhenny & Fred Kammerer! |
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| ~ 2013 ~ |
Did You Know...
Hunterstown, formerly called Woodstock,
is one of the oldest towns in the country.
It was settled in the mid 1700's by David Hunter,
a Revolutionary War soldier,
for whom the
town was named. In fact, because
he had been training militia here in Hunterstown, Lord Dunmore, Govenor of the colonies in Williamsburg, put a bounty on David Hunter's head, "dead or alive"... To this very day, no one knows where David Hunter is buried.
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Hunterstown,
Pennsylvania
July 2, 1863
Known by historians
as "North Cavalry Field,"
Hunterstown was recently recognized by the National
Parks Service (Sept. '06) as part of the Gettysburg Campaign.
Unfortunately,
the site is extremely vulnerable
to development and is still unprotected.
"And though Hunterstown is a new
addition (2006), Lawhon said there is still work to do to help preserve the land within the boundaries of the Gettysburg National Military Park."
... Evening Sun quote
Battle History...
Will Hutchison's Thoughts ....
Books on the Battle of Hunterstown...
Michigan Cavalry & George Armstrong Custer
"A
major Alton (Illinois) developer, Charles Hunter, was one of Alton's best known Underground Railroad conductors. His Hunterstown area, founded in the 1830's, had many free Blacks as residents, some of whom were escaped slaves.
He was also the only landowner who allowed Elijah Lovejoy to live on his property. "
To read more...
| National Trust's "This Place Matters" |
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| Members of Hunterstown Historical Society/Tate Farm |
To View the Historic Village of Hunterstown...
| Mrs. Linda Cleveland |
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| HHS 2010 "Historian of the Year" |
HUNTERSTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA "A
small but significantly Historical Village" Hunterstown, Pennsylvania
is located on Route 394 one mile east of the Hunterstown Exchange of Route U.S. 15 North of Gettysburg. After the American Indians made their trade routes west of the Susquehanna River through
this area, immigrants started to settle along their trails. Many were Scotch-Irish. The Penn proprietors of the land through
this area, which is now Hunterstown, granted Michael Drumgold a warrant for 100 acres on June 8, 1749. In October the same
year surveyor Thomas Cookson laid out a total of 182 acres for Drumgold. It was on October 8, 1760 Michael and Margaret Drumgold
sold this land to David Hunter. On March 14, 1764 the Penn heirs awarded Hunter a patent deed for the 182 acres granting him
the full and complete title he desired to establish a village. On
April 2, 1764 David Hunter gave William Galbreath a deed for the first lot "situate in the town of "Straban"
as it was called then. Later it was referred to as "Woodstock". As lots were sold, small log homes were built. Later
weather-board and brick dwellings appeared. As the year 1800
was drawing nigh the village was appropriately named after its founder and called Hunterstown. A county seat was being sought
for the new county of Adams and Hunterstown vied for that status. It was centrally located as far as population in the county
and it was located on "The Great Road" from York to Pittsburgh by the way of "Black’s Gap". The
town of Gettysburg received the final honor as County Seat. One
special landmark in Hunterstown is the Historic Tate Farm and Blacksmith Shop. In October 1794 President George Washington
had the occasion to stop here. Because of the taxation put on liquor, many in western Pennsylvania were rebelling and decided
they were not going to abide by the law. President Washington called up troops from four states and he himself went by carriage
and horseback to review the troops, 15,000 strong, in Carlisle and Bedford and planned how they were to quell what was called
the Whiskey Rebellion. This was accomplished without any major fight. On returning to Philadelphia, the capitol at that time,
a horse in the President’s party threw a shoe and they stopped in Hunterstown at the Tate Farm blacksmith shop near
Beaver Dam Creek to have it shod. Just fields away from
the Tate Farm is the Felty and Gilbert Farms where Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer’s Cavalry under the direction
of Brigadier General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick met in battle with General Wade Hampton’s Division of J.E.B. Stuart’s
Cavalry on July 2, 1863. This battle, now referred to as North Cavalry Field, is viewed as having a significant bearing on
the remainder of the Battle of Gettysburg. Here Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer set a "trap" for the enemy
in which he narrowly escaped losing his own life. Kilpatrick reported 32 dead and wounded of his division of some 3,500. The
confederates suffered around 100 casualties in the fighting of 2,000 involved. In the center of Hunterstown is the Grass Hotel built before the Civil War. The hotel served as temporary
Union headquarters for Brig. General Judson Kilpatrick during the battle of Hunterstown and afterwards served as a hospital
for the north and south. A number of officers died here. The
Great Conewago Presbyterian Church was organized in 1740. They met in a log structure until a fieldstone church was built
in 1787. It is still in use today. It also served as a hospital during the Civil War. The adjacent cemetery contains gravesites
of Revolutionary War soldiers and Civil War veterans along with generations of local inhabitants. In 1885 the Galloway Brothers opened a copper mine just north of the village. After several
years it closed and the township used the copper/gold bearing rock for the streets and roads. So they claimed "the roads
were paved in gold." The mine was opened once again by the Reliance Mining and Milling Company of Arizona in 1905. Although
it was not hugely successful it employed 20 local men working "around the clock." The mine was abandoned in 1916.
Through
the 19th and 20th century the village had a two-room country school and a Methodist Church on the main
street, both are still existing but not used today. Among
the early inhabitants of the village were a doctor, undertaker, watchmaker, shoemaker, carpenter, tailor, and wagon maker.
During the 1830’s John C. Studebaker, a blacksmith, and his skilled employees built conestoga-type wagons in a shop
between Hunterstown and Heidlersburg. He ventured to Ohio and then to South Bend Indiana to have the largest company for manufacturing
wagons and carriages and later through his descendants the Studebaker automobile. Over the years Hunterstown had many small country stores, a post office, creamery, fruit-packing house, millinery
shop, gun club and horse race track. As many as ten families made chairs as early as 1830’s into the early 1900’s.
It once had a military guard unit and a baseball team. The village currently has two churches, a dog kennel and grooming establishment,
a horse-boarding farm with lesson programs, a childcare center, a tea room, go-cart track, car body shop, transmission shop,
and vintage car shop. Hunterstown, population 100, a village
rich in history where the desire of its people is to restore and preserve what it now has to share with others. Here you can’t
help but feel the heart beat of the past and imagine those who walked and rode these once dusty roads. You may hear the distant
toll of the school bell, the happy sounds of children at play or music from the old church pump organ. You may hear the hoof
beats of the cavalry approaching or the sound of the artillery that echoed over the village. Memories linger of the mournful
groans of the injured and dying in the fields and makeshift hospitals and the prayers of the faithful as they gave their last
full measure here.Hunterstown, Pennsylvania – A quaint little village with A story to tell! Linda K. Cleveland Straban Historical
Reflections Historian – Hunterstown Historical Society Revised - 2009
Local and National Contacts...
Civil War Preservation Trust
Congressman Scott Perry 717-334-3430
State Representative
Dan
Moul
717-334-3010
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2/8/2009
Hunterstown Flag Raising and Dedication
Bernard Gilliland speech Given at Hunterstown Flag
Dedication Ceremony November 11, 2008 Veteran’s Day "It is an honor to be here today and to be a part of a program designed
to pay tribute to our nations veterans and to dedicate this staff that will be used for generations to fly our nation’s
flag. We are especially proud to honor those veterans who are
from here in Adams County. Many of those veterans were there in the very beginning, during the American Revolutionary War,
and are buried right here in Hunterstown. At the Great Conewago church cemetery, just a stones throw from here, are the remains
of over 38 Revolutionary War soldiers who pledged their fortunes, their honor and their lives to the cause of freedom and
to what would become the United States of America. The cemetery
is especially meaningful to me because many of my family members are buried there, including my Gr/Gr Gr Gr Grandfather, William
Gilliland, who was a Lt. Col. in the Pa. Militia during the Rev. War and Maj. Gen. during the war of 1812. He was also the
very first postmaster in Adams Co, the first Associate Judge and a State Senator during the very early years of our country. The strong character, values and sense of patriotism that was born and bred into the early
pioneers did not end here in Adams County. Many of these pioneers moved on to new frontiers, taking their values and love
of country with them. One of those was the Gr.Gr. Grandson of
Maj. Gen. William Gilliland, his name was George Harold Gilliland. He was a veteran of WW1. He was a chaplain with the American
Legion and in the 1950’s thought it would be a good idea to add the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance.
The original Pledge was written by Francis Bellamy way back
in 1892. There were many programs for school children that year because it was the 400th anniversary of the discovery
of the new world. Bellamy wrote the Pledge while he was editor of The Youths Companion, a publication that was widely
distributed to the nation’s schools throughout the country. There
were several changes made along the way to today’s Pledge. For example, in 1923 "my flag" was replaced with
"The flag of the United States". In 1942, right in
the middle of WWII, the Pledge received official recognition by Congress and the Pledge was formally included into the U.
S. Flag Code. Congress also established the current practice of rendering the pledge with the –right hand over
the heart. In 1954, George Harold Gilliland, a WWI veteran, was
very active in the ‘back to God’ movement while a Chaplain with the American Legion. In that year he put forth
a resolution to add the words ‘under God’ to the Pledge. The resolution went on to be passed at the National Convention
and was then dispatched to a coalition of American Legion members who had been elected to Congress. The bill to add the words "under God" was passed unanimously by both Houses of
Congress and President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the revised Pledge of Allegiance into law, taking effect on Flag Day, 1954. Today, the wording of the Pledge of Allegiance, as set forth in The US flag Code,
includes the words ‘under God’ as suggested by a descendant of a Hunterstown Veteran. Yet today, there are several well-funded organizations who are attempting to remove those
words from the Pledge. Two years ago, at the urging of the National Headquarters, I joined the American Legion and initiated
a resolution to keep the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. Along
the way, I discovered that every State in the Union recognizes God in their State Constitution and I campaigned to get an
American Legion resolution from all 50 states in support of keeping the words ‘under God’ in the Pledge. The result
was that twenty-six states responded with resolutions and that became a record number of state resolutions in the one hundred
year history of the American Legion. Keeping the words in the pledge is now the official stance of the Legion. Ironically, this story has come full circle. In 1953 George Harold Gilliland originally
conceived of the idea of adding the words "under God" to the pledge of allegiance. 1953 was also the 90th
anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. Abraham Lincoln was from Illinois and Illinois was the birthplace of George Harold
Gilliland. Lincoln state in part of his Gettysburg Address "…that we highly resolve that these dead shall not
have died in vain; that his nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom…".
It is possible that that phrase, as part of an anniversary celebration, helped influence Geo. Harold Gilliland 90 years later
to submit a resolution to add the words "under God" to the pledge of Allegiance. Now, here we are coming full circle again, - from a Revolutionary War and War of 1812 soldier,
William Gilliland, buried just a short distance away, to one of his descendants, a WWI veteran veteran adding the words ‘Under
God’ to the pledge of allegiance to the flag, possibly influenced by a President who made those very words immortal
here in Adams County – to a WWII veteran, whose gravesite I just visited yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery, my
father, James Elmo Gilliland, and to another descendant, a Viet Nam Era Veteran, who is back in Hunterstown, to help dedicate
a staff to hold our nations flag, on November 11, honoring our nations veterans. Thank
you so much for allowing me to be here and to be a part of this special day. Thank
you."
Bernard Gilliland,
Marietta, Georgia
2/6/2009
2008...Another AMAZING year in Hunterstown!
People continue to ask.."What's new in Hunterstown?"
Well...on the
145th Anniversary date of the Battle of Hunterstown,
we saw the dedication of our first monument (as there
will be more)
honoring Norvell Churchill, General Custer, and the Michigan Wolverines.
Almost 70 members of the
Churchill family travelled from all around
the United States to be with us that day! Not to mention all our Michigan
friends who were instrumental in raising the funds for this beautiful monument!
Out THANKS to all the authors,
artists, living historians, public officials,
and friends for their support!
Early in the fall, we had the
great pleasure of meeting the
"Founding Fathers" of Hunterstown...
Ian Hunter and Bernard Gilliland,
10th-generation descendants
of Hunterstown's founders. Dr. Hunter travelled from Ireland
and Bernard
Gilliland drove up from Marietta, Georgia to add
"their story" to our ever-growing history of this amazing
little "hamlet."
Then on Veteran's Day, 11-11-08 at 11:00 am, Hunterstown
raised its first flag
right in the center of town,
honoring all the Veteran's that have served our great nation,
The United States
of America. (more about that on
our new page entitled "Founding Fathers." Once again,
Bernard Gilliland
travelled to be with us here that day and
was the keynote speaker. What an honor!
Our Thanks to Jake King,
Linda Cleveland and Frank Thomas
who spear-headed this event! A special THANKS to Chaplain
Chuck Teague (HGAC)
for his stirring benediction!
A very proud day for all Hunterstown residents!
2008 was a busy year, but 2009
looks like more of the same!
To all our friends and supporters...
THANK YOU very much for you help and your financial
support!
You all play a very important part in telling an important part of our nation's history...
much of
which is being told for the first time!
Hope to see you all again at this year's July 2nd, event!
~ LH
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