Few events in Lancaster County’s history brought the reality of the Civil War closer to home than the Gettysburg Campaign of 1863. For Marietta residents, the war was no longer a distant conflict hundreds of miles away. Confederate forces had entered Pennsylvania, nearby communities west of the Susquehanna River were reporting military movements, and rumors spread that the fighting—or even Confederate occupation—could soon reach Lancaster County itself. Families prepared to leave, local leaders organized, and residents waited anxiously for news from the armies gathering to the west.
Among those who experienced those uncertain days was Barr Spangler, the Marietta merchant whose remarkable 100-year life stretched from the early nineteenth century into the modern age. Nearly fifty years later, Spangler recorded his memories of the Gettysburg Campaign while writing about Marietta’s history for the town’s centennial celebration. His recollections offer a rare firsthand account of what it meant for a small Lancaster County community to live through the fear and uncertainty of General Lee’s invasion of Pennsylvania.
By the summer of 1863, Spangler was already one of Marietta’s most recognizable citizens. Born in the town in 1822, he had built a successful career as a merchant and was active in civic, religious, and political affairs. He had relationships with prominent reformers throughout Pennsylvania, including Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, and had become involved in Union political causes before the war. During the conflict, he remained in Marietta, contributing to the community not as a soldier but through public service and local leadership. He signed up for the draft, but never served.
Marietta’s location made the events of 1863 especially significant. Located along the Susquehanna River, the town sat directly opposite York County, an area that Confederate troops entered during General Robert E. Lee’s invasion of Pennsylvania. The river served as an important geographical boundary, but in the summer of 1863, it also represented a source of anxiety. Residents did not know that Confederate forces would never cross the Susquehanna. As reports arrived from the opposite bank, many believed Lancaster County’s eastern shore communities could soon find themselves directly threatened.
The Gettysburg Campaign affected far more than the small town of Gettysburg itself in early July. As Lee’s army moved into Pennsylvania in June 1863, Confederate troops occupied towns, seized supplies, and spread uncertainty throughout south-central Pennsylvania. In York County, Confederate forces moved toward the Susquehanna River, creating concern among communities that feared the invasion could continue eastward.
James C. Landis, in A Community in Crisis, identified the troops remembered by Spangler as belonging to the brigade of Confederate General John B. Gordon. Gordon’s regiments passed through Hellam and moved toward the area near Glatz’s Ferry, where the road connected with the turnpike. Although the Confederate Army never crossed the river into Marietta, the movement of troops on the opposite shore was enough to create fear throughout the community.
For Marietta residents, information arrived through travelers, neighbors, and rumors rather than official military reports. The sound of nearby cannons was their communication. In an era before modern communication, communities often learned about the movements of armies through whoever happened to arrive with news. A single report could quickly change the mood of an entire town.
Spangler later remembered one such moment during the campaign. Writing decades afterward, he recalled that “some persons came over the river at noon and reported the turnpike swarming with rebels.” The report reflected the uncertainty facing residents who knew Confederate troops were nearby but had little way to determine exactly where they were moving or what would happen next.
The danger created different fears for different community members. For many white residents, Confederate occupation threatened property, businesses, and personal safety. For Black residents, the danger was even greater. Confederate troops operating during the Gettysburg Campaign captured free African Americans in Pennsylvania and forced many into slavery, creating widespread fear among Black communities throughout the region.
Spangler remembered seeing this fear firsthand in Marietta. Describing the reaction of local residents, he wrote that “people packed cotton trunks, especially the colored people, who feared enslavement, and all hastened northward.” His brief observation provides an important reminder that the Gettysburg Campaign was not only a military event but also a crisis that directly affected the lives and freedom of Pennsylvania’s Black population.
The movement of African American families away from the area was part of a broader response throughout south-central Pennsylvania. As Confederate troops advanced through the region, many families attempted to move farther north, seeking safety from the possibility of capture. For those who had achieved freedom in Pennsylvania, the arrival of the Confederate Army represented the possibility that slavery could once again become a reality.
Not everyone left Marietta. Spangler remained in the community throughout the crisis, continuing the same pattern of civic involvement that defined much of his life. Although he did not serve in the military, he remained involved in efforts supporting the Union cause and assisting those affected by the war.
Barr’s wartime activities reflected the responsibilities many local leaders assumed during the conflict. In January 1864, the Lancaster County Commissioners appointed Spangler to a relief committee established to assist families affected by the war. The committee helped widows, mothers, minors, and others seeking assistance connected with soldiers’ service and military pensions. Notices published in county newspapers promised that those entitled to assistance would receive “prompt and faithful attention” when applying for support. The work continued as the war entered its final years. In August 1864, Spangler served as vice president of a county-wide meeting in Lancaster organized to raise volunteers to fulfill the county’s military quota under President Abraham Lincoln’s latest call for troops.
For several days in that summer of 1863, Marietta existed in a state of uncertainty, separated from one of the largest battles in American history only by distance and the Susquehanna River. The residents could not see Gettysburg from their homes, but they knew a major battle was taking place. As the fighting intensified, the sounds of artillery traveled across the countryside, reaching communities far beyond the battlefield itself. For those in Marietta, the distant cannon fire became a reminder that the outcome of the nation’s future was being decided only miles away.
For three days, residents waited without knowing what news would arrive next. The reports coming from the west carried enormous consequences. A Confederate victory could have opened the possibility of further movement eastward, while a Union victory could stop Lee’s invasion and push the Confederate army back south. For communities like Marietta, the outcome of the battle represented not only a military question but also a question of whether their own homes would become part of the conflict.
Nearly fifty years later, Barr Spangler preserved the memory of those days in 1863 when at the time of his experiences, the outcome of the battle still remained unknown. “We knew that a terrible conflict was in progress,” Spangler proclaimed, “for along the river bank the dull sound of cannonading could be heard.” The distance did not prevent the residents of Marietta from feeling connected to the battle unfolding in nearby Adams County. He recalled that by lying on the ground, the sounds became clearer, allowing listeners to hear “the more than a hundred cannon that were raining death wounds upon thousands of struggling foes.”
He also described those days as a period of intense waiting. “For three days of painful suspense we awaited news of the movements of the armies,” he recalled. The phrase captured the uncertainty felt throughout the region as residents waited for information that would determine whether the Confederate advance had been stopped or whether the war would move closer to their own homes. The uncertainty that surrounded Marietta during the Gettysburg Campaign was made more intense by the sounds coming from the battlefield. Again, the distant artillery provided a constant reminder that a major battle was underway in a time when instantaneous reports were not commonplace.
Uncertainty finally ended when word reached the town that the Union Army had won at Gettysburg. Spangler remembered the moment as one of overwhelming relief. “On the third day,” he later wrote, “a message reached us that caused our hearts to leap with joy.” After days of waiting, residents finally knew that the Confederate advance had been stopped.
For Spangler, the meaning of Gettysburg extended beyond military victory. Writing in the years after the war, he connected the Union success to the larger struggle over slavery that had defined the conflict. The news, he recalled, “bore the soul-inspiring word that God, in His justice and infinite goodness, had given us a great victory at Gettysburg, as a reward for the liberating of four million of bondmen.”
Marietta and Lancaster County did not experience a battle within its streets, but its residents still participated in the larger national struggle. They supported soldiers, assisted families affected by the conflict, responded to political movements, and endured the uncertainty created by a Confederate invasion only a short distance away. The community continued to experience the consequences of the war even after the fighting ended. In April 1865, following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, Marietta residents gathered to express their grief and honor the fallen president. Barr Spangler served as secretary of the committee responsible for organizing the meeting and helped prepare resolutions reflecting the community’s response to Lincoln’s death. During the gathering, addresses were delivered honoring Lincoln’s leadership and sacrifice.
When Barr Spangler looked back on his century of life, the days when Confederate troops approached the Susquehanna remained among the memories that stayed with him most clearly. His recollections preserved the experiences of ordinary Marietta residents who faced the uncertainty of invasion without knowing what the next day would bring. Their story was not one of battlefield charges or military strategy, but of waiting, listening, and responding as the events of the Civil War came unexpectedly close to home.
The experience of Marietta during the Gettysburg Campaign demonstrates how deeply the war affected communities throughout Lancaster County. Although no major battle was fought within the county, residents experienced the fear of invasion, the movement of refugees, the uncertainty of military reports, and the constant awareness that the conflict was approaching their own communities. The flight of African American families seeking safety, the efforts to support soldiers and their relatives, and the distant sound of artillery across the Susquehanna all became part of Lancaster County’s Civil War story.
Today, Gettysburg is remembered through its battlefield monuments, military leaders, and famous moments of combat. Yet the campaign was also experienced in places like Marietta, where residents gathered along the Susquehanna River and waited for news from the armies. They did not know whether Confederate troops would cross into Lancaster County or whether the Union victory would stop the invasion. For a brief period in the summer of 1863, the outcome of a national conflict felt very close to home.
Nearly fifty years later, Spangler chose to preserve those memories because he understood their importance. His account allows modern readers to see the Gettysburg Campaign through the eyes of someone who experienced it firsthand, connecting one of the Civil War’s defining campaigns with the history of a small Lancaster County river town. His recollections remind us that history is not found only on famous battlefields. It is also found in the towns and communities that endured uncertainty, supported one another, and watched national events unfold from the banks of the Susquehanna River.
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W. Miller Barbour Lecture Series
The W. Miller Barbour Lecture Series is a public history program organized by Eric Schubert and Abigail Sholes to highlight the life, civil rights activism, and legacy of William Wilbur Miller Barbour (1908–1957). Barbour dedicated his life to advancing racial equality and human rights. A Middletown native and Elizabethtown College graduate, Barbour rose from local roots to become a pioneering civil rights leader, serving with the Urban League in Denver and Los Angeles. Through advocacy, community organizing, and interracial dialogue, he expanded opportunities for African Americans decades before the landmark victories of the 1960s. This presentation explores Barbour’s remarkable journey from central Pennsylvania to the forefront of early civil rights activism and examines the enduring legacy of a forgotten champion for equality.
About the Author
Eric Schubert is a Lancaster-based public historian, forensic genealogist, and board member of the Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County. His work, which focuses on uncovering overlooked histories and preserving community stories, has been featured on Good Morning America, in People, and other national media outlets. He also co-organized the W. Miller Barbour Lecture Series with Abigail Sholes to restore the legacy of the Elizabethtown College alumnus, human rights pioneer, and National Urban League leader.
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