Fear had long since given way to nonchalance. Constant alarms that “The Rebels are coming” had wearied the residents of Franklin County, Pennsylvania, to the point that by mid-October 1862, most gave little credence to the once-concerning reports. In the county seat, Chambersburg, the major annoyance since early September was the seemingly constant movement of trainloads of Brig. Gen. John F. Reynolds’s newly-organized state militia regiments. They were headed from Harrisburg through the Cumberland Valley to the Maryland border in response to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s invasion. Now, in October, with Lee’s withdrawal into Virginia after the battle of Antietam, the noisy, bothersome trains were bringing the emergency men back to Harrisburg to be mustered out of the service.
Stuart’s Chambersburg Raid
Lee, realizing the strategic value of the Cumberland Valley Railroad, ordered Brig. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart to take most of his cavalry into Chambersburg to disrupt the railroad, destroy a nearby bridge, and gather “all information of the position, force and probable intention of the enemy.” Stuart was also to take any state or Federal officials as hostages to be used in the future to trade for Confederate political prisoners.
