Chambersburg's First Time

Confederate Major General J E B Stuart’s cavalry raided the town of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania and tried to burn railroad bridges October 11^th 1862.

On October 9^th 1862 Confederate Major General J E B Stuart headed north from Virginia with about 1800 cavalry.  As they moved north, Stuart was gathering intelligence on Union General George B McClellan’s Army of the Potomac, as well as cutting supply lines.  On the evening of October 10^th 1862 Stuart and his men road into the town of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.  Chambersburg was a Union army supply and railroad center.  The local bureaucrats fled the town, as Stuart took over.

On the morning of October 11^th 1862 the Confederates cut telegraph lines, seized supplies and horse and destroyed pretty much everything else.  They moved on about five miles north to demolish the railroad bridge that crossed the Conococheague Creek, but found the steel structure to be more than they had planned for.  Stuart and his men began the trip back to Virginia in the afternoon.

Traveling through Emmitsburg, Maryland, Stuart moved south using back lanes to avoid Union troops in Fredrick, Maryland.  He crossed the Potomac River on October 12^th 1862.  Stuart’s three day raid had lasted 130 miles, and cost the north $250,000.  He returned south with 1,200 horses, 500 guns, and numerous local officials that had been captured.  The Confederates only had one wounded, and two missing men.