{"id":262,"date":"2010-09-07T15:20:35","date_gmt":"2010-09-07T19:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/cwblog\/?p=262"},"modified":"2010-09-07T15:20:35","modified_gmt":"2010-09-07T19:20:35","slug":"skirmish-at-oyster-point-june-1863","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/cwblog\/2010\/09\/07\/skirmish-at-oyster-point-june-1863\/","title":{"rendered":"Skirmish at Oyster Point (June 1863)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/node\/17310\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-3218\" title=\"William Farrah Smith\" src=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/files\/2010\/09\/HD_smithWF-251x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"251\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The skirmish at Oyster Point was a small engagement that took place in late June 1863 in <a href=\"http:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/node\/33375\" target=\"_blank\">Camp Hill<\/a>, Pennsylvania between Confederate forces under General <a href=\"http:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/node\/5976\" target=\"_blank\">Albert G. Jenkins<\/a>\u2019 command and Union militia from New York under General <a href=\"http:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/node\/17310\" target=\"_blank\">William F. Smith\u2019s<\/a> command. After Confederates entered <a href=\"http:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/node\/9260\" target=\"_blank\">Mechanicsburg<\/a>, General Jenkins set up artillery and sent Virginia cavalry in pursuit of Union militia who had been in the town. At Oyster Point the Confederates encountered two militia regiments from New York and Landis\u2019 Philadelphia Battery of Light Artillery. Later that day General Jenkins ordered his force to withdraw to the <a href=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/2010\/08\/29\/rupp-house-mechanicsburg-pa\/\" target=\"_blank\">Rupp House<\/a> in Mechanicsburg. Confederates returned on June 29, but they were unable to dislodge the Union militia. The <a href=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/2010\/08\/17\/battle-of-sporting-hill-june-30-1863\/\" target=\"_blank\">Battle of Sporting Hill<\/a> took place on the following day as Confederates left Mechanicsburg and marched towards Gettysburg.\u00a0As a veteran who served with the 22nd New York Regiment <a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=OqJDAAAAIAAJ&amp;dq=oyster%20point%201863&amp;pg=PA196#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=true  \" target=\"_blank\">recalled<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">While this skirmish was of no particular account in itself, it is really historic. It was at the furthest northern point which was reached by the invaders, and marks the crest of the wave of the invasion of Pennsylvania. The retreat of the Confederate force there commenced did not end until the Potomac was crossed. The success obtained must be largely ascribed to the gallant conduct of Landis\u2019 Battery,&#8230;.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A historical marker is located at the intersection of 31st Street and Market Streets in Camp Hill. You can read more about this battle in an essay on <a href=\" http:\/\/explorepahistory.com\/hmarker.php?markerId=712\" target=\"_blank\">ExplorePAhistory.com<\/a>, Robert Grant Crist\u2019s article \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/dpubs.libraries.psu.edu\/DPubS?service=UI&amp;version=1.0&amp;verb=Display&amp;handle=psu.ph\/1141403362\" target=\"_blank\">Highwater 1863: The Confederate Approach to Harrisburg<\/a>\u201d (<em>Pennsylvania History<\/em> 1963), and in Wilbur Sturtevant Nye\u2019s <em>Here Come The Rebels!<\/em> (1965).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The skirmish at Oyster Point was a small engagement that took place in late June 1863 in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania between Confederate forces under General Albert G. Jenkins\u2019 command and Union militia from New York under General William F. Smith\u2019s command. After Confederates entered Mechanicsburg, General Jenkins set up artillery and sent Virginia cavalry in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[3991,195],"class_list":["post-262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civil-war-1861-1865","tag-camp-hill","tag-mechanisburg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/cwblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/cwblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/cwblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/cwblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/cwblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/cwblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/cwblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262\/revisions\/263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/cwblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/cwblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/cwblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}