The Union Strikes Back - A Heart of Hanover Trail Stop - Hanover, PA - U.S. Civil War Sites on Waymarking.com

The Square is Liberated
On June 30, 1863, as the Confederates surged toward the railroad tracks on Abbottstown Road (present-day Broadway), the Union regrouped for fierce counter-attacks.

Union Major John Hammond re-formed the 5th New York Cavalry in the Commons, publicly owned land around the old rail depot. He then directed his 400 New York cavalrymen through side streets to ambush Confederates on the Hanover Square. Hammond led the charge with drawn sabers.

Meanwhile, newly appointed 24-year-old Union General Elon Farnsworth ordered troops of the 1st Vermont and 1st West Virginia into action. A few Union companies of the 18th Pennsylvania regrouped and also aided in the counter-attacks.

Along dirt alleys and streets, Farnsworth and Hammond unleashed a sudden and strong onslaught to liberate the Square and push Confederates back down Frederick Street and into side streets and surrounding fields. Scattered debris, dead horses, and fallen soldiers littered the downtown.

After hearing bursting artillery shells at the beginning of the battle, Union General H. Judson Kilpatrick raced his command some six miles from near Abbottstown back to town to help block any further Confederate advance. Kilpatrick was just 27-years-old.

As the Union reclaimed the square for good, Kilpatrick ordered troops, with the help of citizens, to barricade streets with barrels, farm wagons, dry goods boxes and other materials to provide cover.

In the afternoon, Kilpatrick established his headquarters on the square at the Central Hotel, whose second floor afforded him a good view of the terrain. He stayed there that night.

After a prolonged afternoon standoff, around 2 p.m., the gray tide of Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart's forces receded south from town through backroads and farms to Fuhrman Mill Road before heading east to Jefferson, York New Salem, Dover, and ultimately north to Carlisle, 30 miles from Gettysburg.

"Remember boys that we are on the free soil of Old Pennsylvania, with Stars and Stripes to cheer us on to battle. We will drive the Rebels off her soil."
—Union Maj. Charles Capehart

"[H]ad there been no Yankees behind us we might have maintained ourselves until relieved, or escaped… however, they poured out from every street. My command was cut in two."
—Confederate Lt. Col. William H.F. Payne

A Main Street Hanover and Heart of Hanover Trails Marker

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