Proposed Tour To Highlight Gettysburg Cavalry Actions
By Deborah Fitts
July 2004 GETTYSBURG, Pa.

Fans of Civil War cavalry action will be rooting for a proposal by the Civil War Preservation Trust to create a driving tour of cavalry action centered around Gettysburg.

"These are aspects of the Gettysburg Campaign that have been overlooked," said Civil War cavalry authority Eric Wittenberg. "They may have been secondary to the infantry fight, but we're trying to give people the opportunity to see these more obscure sites that were very important to the overall campaign."

The cavalry actions extend from Greencastle, Md., on June 22, 1863, as the armies moved northward, to Monterey, Pa., on July 5, two days after the battle, as the Confederate army retreated back toward the Potomac River, harassed by Union cavalry.

The tour would be an extensive jaunt, ranging from the shores of the Susquehanna River at Harrisburg to Carlisle, Chambersburg, Hunterstown, York and Fairfield. The site most distant from Gettysburg would be McConnellsburg, 60 miles west, where New York troopers skirmished with Confederates under Gen. John Imboden on July 1.

"These sites," Wittenberg said, "demonstrate just how far from the main battlefield at Gettysburg the two sides were contesting Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania."

Wittenberg, who has authored 10 books and many articles on cavalry operations, said he will help to write the tour brochure. He predicted it could take a year and a half to complete the project.

The proposed tour is the brainchild of the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT). Spokesman Jim Campi noted that the Trust has been working since 2002 to preserve cavalry fields near Gettysburg with first-time use of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm and Ranchland Protection Program.

Campi said the Trust has successfully argued for use of the money to encourage tourism in rural communities through protection of Civil War cavalry sites. He credited Wittenberg for supplying the historical knowledge of the actions, and Gettysburg's Dean Shultz, who has long advocated protection of Civil War battlefield land, as "one of the first who brought our attention to places like Fairfield and Hunterstown."

Shultz hailed the project as a worthy one, and noted that the CWPT has already produced a map of the tour. He pointed out that drawing attention to the scenes of action near Gettysburg should help boost preservation.

Earlier this year the Trust employed the Farm and Ranchland Protection Program when it joined with other organizations to preserve 45 acres at East Cavalry Field, the Shea Farm, through an easement costing $93,950. A total of $56,200 came from the farm program. And in 2002 the Trust secured $92,000 from the program to acquire an easement on the 114-acre Weikert Farm at Fairfield, where cavalrymen fought on July 3, 1863.

The "ultimate goal," Campi said, was to secure more farmland conservation easements on other cavalry battlefields and connect the sites to form the driving tour.

The Trust already has driving tours of the Second Manassas Campaign and the Gettysburg Campaign, thanks to federal grant money from the American Battlefield Protection Program.

Campi said if there is money available, some of the Gettysburg-related cavalry sites would have signage. Also, some of the sites may have preserved land while others may not.

The main vehicle of the proposed tour, Campi said, would be a brochure to guide travelers along the route.

"This is a long-term project," he said. "Our focus is land protection." Besides Fairfield and East Cavalry Field, "we're working on something at Hunterstown. This is important to help tell the story of Gettysburg. Cavalry tends to attract people. They're fascinated by that arm of the service."