The Old Courthouse, rebuilt in 1846 after a massive fire, was associated in the years before the Civil War with some of the nation’s most important Underground Railroad episodes.  In 1847, a young slaveholder from Maryland died while trying to recapture three fugitives outside this building- the first known death of a southerner chasing slaves north of the Mason-Dixon Line.  That same year, abolitionist Daniel Kaufman faced trial for...

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Before the Civil War, Dickinson College students were almost evenly divided by northern and southern origins.  They also had a special interest in the debates over slavery because two famous graduates were partly responsible for the escalating crisis –President James Buchanan (Class of 1809) and Chief Justice Roger B. Taney (Class of 1795). During that era, the school produced many leading national politicians and religious leaders.  Once...

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The Cumberland County Historical Society contains dramatic evidence left by thousands of families in Cumberland County who made deep sacrifices during the Civil War.  Find out about the Colwell Family, for example, through the letters of James, Annie and their young children, and how they argued over the aging Colwell’s unexpected military service and then grieved following his death at the Battle of Antietam.  Or learn about the fate of...

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The Army of Northern Virginia invaded Pennsylvania in June 1863, advancing toward the state capital in Harrisburg. Confederate troops under General Richard Ewell threatened much of the Cumberland Valley.  The U.S. army quickly evacuated the Carlisle Barracks and Confederates then temporarily occupied the town. When General J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry forces reached Carlisle just before the Battle of Gettysburg, they faced unexpected resistance and...

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Black men from Carlisle and throughout the Cumberland Valley served in the Union army between 1863 and 1865 mostly enrolled in the federal regiments of the United States Colored Troops (USCT).  Overall, more than 180,000 blacks served in the federal army.  Confederates never employed blacks as troops but they did use slaves to support their armies, including thousands who came along during the 1863 invasion of Pennsylvania.  About thirty-five...

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Noted orator and former slave Frederick Douglass gave a speech in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on March 2, 1872 at Rheem’s Hall. At the time, Douglass was a Republican appointee serving on a commission examining whether the United States should annex the Caribbean island of Santo Domingo.  While in town, Douglass stayed at a  local hotel called the  Bentz House. Hotel owner George Z. Bentz was a prominent Republican leader, but he still refused to...

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