Gettysburg: The Last Invasion by Allen C. Guelzo

Author:Allen C. Guelzo [Guelzo, Allen C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Tags: Non-Fiction, History
ISBN: 9780385349642
Google: i5u1P0Fq4GYC
Amazon: B00A9ET69I
Barnesnoble: B00A9ET69I
Goodreads: 16156168
Publisher: Knopf
Published: 2013-05-14T07:00:00+00:00

For those civilians left in the town, the experience of Confederate occupation followed no consistent or predictable theme. The rebel soldiers were not shy about helping themselves to the stockrooms of Gettysburg’s stores, although (unlike Jubal Early’s earlier foray on June 26th) the looting was as much about asserting a sense of power as it was from a prescribed agenda of occupation. Joseph Polley of the 4th Texas let himself into a store “on the main street of the little town” and discovered “a lot of … cloth gaiters such as ladies wear.” Even though he had “as little idea what I wanted them for” as he might for a “grindstone,” he “selected a pair of No. 3’s and brought them away.” If they served no other purpose, they could be sold to the sutlers for spot cash. Deserted houses and stores were considered fair game for breaking and entering, and several members of the 33rd Virginia’s pioneer detail helped themselves to a “large farmhouse,” where they found “several barrels of flour, a smokehouse full of bacon, a springhouse full of milk and butter,” and even a table set “with the dishes on it … If we did not live well for two days,” one of the detail smirked, “I don’t know a good thing when I see it.” Army bureaucracy also asserted itself: the press of the Republican Star and Banner was used to print a fresh supply of blank army forms. At least Daniel Klingel had the acid satisfaction of returning to his farm and finding the rebels who had broken into his house to make off with a pan and some flour all dead, sitting around what had been their fire. “They had a pan, with a portion of cake remaining in the pan, showing that the explosion of a shell had killed the four men while they were enjoying their meal.”31

But not even houses whose occupants had stubbornly decided to stay and hold on to their property were free from threats and theft. From their cellar, Leander Warren and his mother heard “several Confederates in our kitchen going through the cupboard. They took everything there was to eat, leaving us with almost nothing.” Confederates “stole everything eatable” around Alexander Cobean’s farm, “took all the cured meat and killed the cattle in the fields for fresh meat.” Horatio Watkins, who had taken shelter with several fellow students in the cellar of a house, heard “some of the wandering rebels” try to break into the cellar. When he tried to persuade them that there was nothing there worth their effort, “one of the band” popped out with the old pickpocket’s ploy, What time is it? Watkins knew what he wanted: Four o’clock. No, the rebel replied, What time of your watch? It’s broken, Watkins countered again. Let me see it, the rebel demanded, and finally Watkins had to bring out his watch, which the rebel promptly appropriated. One part of the population in which the rebels showed an entirely different interest was the handful of Gettysburg’s blacks who had stayed in the town.

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