Civil War in Pennsylvania

To many, Pennsylvania’s major contribution to the Civil War was the battle of Gettysburg; the best-known battle of the war, the war’s turning point, the bloodiest battle of the war, whatever one associates with Gettysburg, it is the primary historical touch point for Pennsylvania during the Civil War.

However, Pennsylvania was more than just the home state of the battle most closely associated with the Civil War. Unlike it’s neighboring state’s Pennsylvania’s support for the Union was almost unanimous; the state provided an enormous number of soldiers, supplies, and leaders to the Union cause. More than 360,000 Union soldiers hailed from Pennsylvania, and many of the Union’s most celebrated military leaders, including generals George Meade and Montgomery C. Meigs, were from Pennsylvania.

The importance of Pennsylvania to the Union war effort was not lost on the Confederacy, and the occupation of Pennsylvania was foremost on Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s mind for the first half of the war. The celebrated battle at Gettysburg was, in fact, the culmination of a long Confederate campaign in Pennsylvania, one that produced a number of other smaller battles and skirmishes.

One of the reasons that Pennsylvania was so prominent to both the North and the South was the fact that the state provided much of the artillery for the Federal army, including guns, rifles, ammunition, and even naval vessels and cannons. Lee knew that capturing the Phoenixville Iron Company and the Frankford Arsenal, both located in Pennsylvania, would literally disarm the Union, at least until other means of obtaining weapons could be found.

While the Confederate army never occupied Pennsylvania on any wide scale, they made their presence felt throughout the southern part of the state. Those citizens who lived between the border and Gettysburg often found themselves at odds with the Confederate army, and despite the fact that Lee admonished his troops to treat the citizens well and minimize the effects of the occupation on civilians, the occupation nevertheless resulted all too often in looting, ransoming, and burning throughout this area of Pennsylvania.

The largest Confederate presence in Pennsylvania was felt in the town of York, which was occupied and ransomed by the Confederate Army. The largest city in the north to be occupied by Confederate troops, York was the unwilling host to Confederate General Jubal Early and his men, who took supplies of clothing, shoes, and food from the citizens, in addition to nearly $30,000 in cash before being ordered out of the town by Robert E. Lee.

While Gettysburg was the high point of military action in Pennsylvania, it was not the end of the skirmishes and battles there. In 1864, a cavalry raid resulted in the city of Chambersburg being devastated by fire, and other action continued sporadically throughout the state until the end of the war.

Pennsylvania’s place in the history of the American Civil War is unique among other states involved, even those that were home to more military endeavors. As one of the few northern states to be occupied by Confederate troops, Pennsylvanians felt the brunt of the war more keenly than most other northern states, and the state’s importance to the war is testament to this fact.