Civil War (1861-1865) – Page 2

Captain William E. Miller

Captain Miller’s Medal of Honor (1963)

Merrill F. Hummel’s essay discusses Captain William E. Miller’s Medal of Honor, which he received as a result of his actions during the Battle of Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. Miller lived in Carlisle on North Hanover Street and served in the Third Pennsylvania Calvary during the Civil War. Hummel includes Miller’s account of his actions during the battle, which are from a letter he wrote to his brother on July 7, 1863. Miller received his Medal of Honor on July 21, 1897. After the war, Miller returned to Carlisle and helped establish the Captain Colwell Post No. 201 of the Grand Army of the Republic. He also joined the Historical Association of Cumberland County and wrote an article in 1902 about the Confederates in Carlisle during the Civil War, which is available on Library Divided.

This essay has been posted online with permission from the Cumberland County Historical Society.

Fitzhugh Lee

D. W. Thompson, Fitzhugh Lee Returns, and Returns (Carlisle, PA: Hamilton Library Association, 1963).

D. W. Thompson’s essay discusses Confederate General Fitzhugh Lee’s connection with Carlisle, Pennsylvania. General Lee was stationed at Carlisle Barracks before the Civil War, returned as a Confederate general who shelled the town in the summer of 1863, and came back again in 1896 to speak at the Carlisle Indian School. As Thompson explains, Superintendent Richard Henry Pratt invited Lee and Union General Oliver Otis Howard “to show that North and South were united with East and West in a common life, hope, and allegiance.” Yet some Carlisle residents believed that Pratt should not have invited Lee. As an editorial in the Carlisle Herald argued, “it was a mistake not because [Lee] was a rebel but because he did a disgraceful and unsoldierly thing that can not be justified.” This essay also has several related documents, including transcripts of two letters that Lee wrote and excerpts from newspaper articles.

This essay has been posted online with permission from the Cumberland County Historical Society.

Category: Civil War (1861-1865)

“Captain Miller’s Medal of Honor”

“Fitzhugh Lee Returns, and Returns”