(This is the first of two columns focusing on the surrender of York to the Confederates in late June 1863 – a pivotal moment in York County’s story. Civil War historian Scott Mingus served as a resource for this piece. Part II will be published on July 21.)
Randy Drais raised a poignant question at the end of a York Civil War Roundtable about the 1863 surrender of York to the Confederates.
Drais, respected operator of BattleofGettysburgBuff.com, wondered how many of the town’s leaders responsible for the surrender actually provided money to pay off the Confederates after they marched into York and requisitioned currency, food and supplies.
I told Drais I had never dug into that question, which came at the end of my 2023 roundtable presentation that touched on the surrender. But several times since, Scott Mingus and I compared two lists of York residents who attempted to pay down the $100,000 requisition levied by Confederate division commander Jubal Early. One list was published in the York Gazette in 1865, and another unsourced inventory appeared as part of a paper by Raymond E. Klein of Franklin & Marshall College.
For now, the short answer to Drais’ question: The names of the two town leaders most responsible for the surrender, Democratic Chief Burgess David Small and budding businessman A.B. Farquhar, did not appear on either list.
Yes, the two key players who traveled behind enemy lines with the goal of lessening the odds of damage to the town did not appear to pay the money rebel generals said would guarantee that they would do no damage.
Scott and I will discuss our findings and other issues about the surrender of York as part of the York County History Center-sponsored, activity-packed Civil War Day starting at 10 a.m., July 20 at Penn Park.
How to respond to raiders?
Let’s back up a bit to give more context about the surrender of York in late June 1863 in the tense days before the Battle of Gettysburg.
As part of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Pennsylvania campaign that summer, Early’s division of about 6,600 men crossed York County’s western border on June 27.
Though warned for days of the rebel approach, the town’s fathers, an unelected Committee of Safety, was in a quandary about how to respond to Early’s raid. Farquhar offered a solution. He had ridden out to meet the Confederates in the Antietam campaign a year earlier, telling Gen. Fitzhugh Lee that he had a business to protect and asked about the intentions of the invaders. Fitz Lee told Farquhar that York wasn’t in their game plan.
A year later, Farquhar offered that he again would enter the raiders’ lines and seek an agreement that York would offer no resistance if the Confederates would do the town no damage. The committee of leading York residents balked, but Farquhar left without authorization, directing his carriage westward, and met Confederate Brig. Gen. John B. Gordon in Abbottstown about 15 miles away. There, he cut a preliminary deal.
He returned, and the committee, some not happy, was presented with a new decision. Should they ride out a second time to formalize what they viewed as a surrender? What if the Confederates discovered that Farquhar’s deal was unauthorized?
Meanwhile, Union military commander Granville Haller moved a small force to York’s western outskirts to protect the town against any Confederate movements. He later wrote that tactic was not appreciated by the Committee of Safety. Then Farquhar returned from his meeting with Gordon saying that the deal called for no resistance would be offered in exchange for the protection of private property.
With a deal for non-resistance on the table, Haller moved his 350 men east to the bridgehead at Wrightsville. A delegation of Farquhar, Small and three others traveled 10 miles in the opposite direction where they found Gordon in a farmhouse in the village of Farmers. There, they surrendered York.
That act of civilians seeking out the enemy in a theater of war, trumping any military action, was viewed by some as dishonorable at the time — and remains controversial today.
In the face of overwhelming numbers, many towns in the Confederate line or march were forced to surrender and directed to fulfill a requisition or extortion demand against the threat of destruction of property.
Mingus found in researching his and Eric Wittenberg’s recent best-selling Civil War book “If We are Striking for Pennsylvania” that York was the only Northern town whose leaders traveled through enemy lines to seek a surrender. And other towns were undefended and faced overwhelming forces and hefty requisitions.
In many cases, the chief burgesses, federally appointed postmasters (including York’s) and other senior officials fled, many leaving the decisions to others. In Hanover and other towns, the committee members or townspeople simply stood in their squares, awaiting the arrival of the soldiers.
Carlisle’s situation represents the closest comparable to York — and it’s not that close. When Carlisle faced Robert Rhodes’ Confederate division on June 27, Union cavalry initially defended the town, an option open to York but not taken. The assistant burgess then rode to Carlisle’s outskirts carrying a white flag and informed the Confederates that the town was undefended and no further resistance would be made.
The Confederate forces entered the town where the chief burgess met them in the square. Surrender was never discussed.
Three days later, the Confederates were now in Gettysburg, and the town was occupied by friendly Union forces. They were faced with a surrender demand from Confederate cavalry commander Jeb Stuart, not yet in contact with forces in Gettysburg. To which Union commander William “Baldy” Smith replied, “Shell away and be damned.” Stuart, indeed, shelled away and caused little damage.
Carlisle celebrates this moment to this day, particularly on its 160th anniversary in 2023. There was no 160th observance of the Confederate occupation in York city in 2023.
Surprised by derision
Back in York, the controversy surrounding the decision to enter enemy lines was not lost on some in the town.
Farquhar expressed surprise upon returning to town after some time with the medical service after the Battle of Gettysburg: “... I had no sooner passed into the town than I noticed people pointing at me and jeering, calling me rebel.”
And in David Small’s obituary in 1885, the writer noted that Small and the committee “incurred the displeasure of a number of our people by visiting invading forces of General Early some distance west of York … .”
James Latimer, a young Republican attorney, thought the Confederates upped the ante because of York’s willingness to negotiate. He wrote shortly after the invasion: “I do not believe such large requisitions would have been made had not the Boro’ Authorities behaved so sheepishly in regard to the surrender.”
That requisition came the morning after the surrender. Early and his 6,600 men marched into town and its outskirts, took down the American flag atop its Centre Square flagpole and called a meeting in the East Market Street courthouse. There, Early ordered a $100,000 requisition and demanded large amounts of food and supplies.
The Committee of Safety assigned collectors to various parts of the borough to garner funds from this town of 8,600: Charles A. Morris, Jere Carl and Israel Laucks, among others.
This brings us to a deeper look at Drais’ question.
Who gave? And who didn’t?
Assessing the two often conflicting lists, we learn:
P.A. and Samuel Small, the town’s leading businessmen, gave $752 according to one list and $2,502 per the other. Thomas White, one of the delegation to Farmers, provided $145. Col. George Hay, the sole military man in the Farmers group likely paid; a Mrs. George Hay is listed at $300. William Latimer Small of the Farmers delegation is listed at $25.
But the names of David Small and A.B. Farquhar, the two remaining members of the Farmers delegation, did not appear on the list. In Farquhar’s case, it’s possible he did not live in York. But as he had made clear to all, he owned a factory in town. Perhaps Small, also publisher of the staunchly Democrat, anti-Lincoln York Gazette believed he had provided in-kind services, printing a handbill for Early and other such jobs.
It’s likely that some noteworthy people gave using the names of others. Historian Charles Glatfelter has noted that Catherine Miller paid the collectors $1,000. The next year, she married into the wealthy family of tobacconist — cigarmaker — William Danner, a requisition collector whose name does not appear on either list.
It’s also possible that some leaders simply refused to pay. Committee member Thomas Cochrane’s name is missing from both lists, and the Gazette pointed out in publishing the list in 1865 that this owner of the competing York Republican was among the biggest critics of the surrender. James Latimer, the Republican who thought the borough authorities had acted “so sheepishly,” later reported that he “very foolishly” gave $100 to the solicitors, a decision he regretted.
Having said all this, it’s not a good look in a bad situation for Small and Farquhar to sit it out when others paid the Confederates for fear that the raiders roaming their streets would damage their town.
Some Yorkers tagged Farquhar as “the man who had sold York,” according to his own autobiography. That is true, and it also appears that he never paid for the protection against damage that he had negotiated at the cost of the town’s honor.
Lessons from the past
So that’s the long answer to Drais’ short question.
But why does it all matter, in the first place? And what lessons does this pivotal moment in York County’s past offer to us today?
For now, the short answer is plenty.
We’ll address that next week in part two.
Sources: Scott Mingus’ “Flames Beyond Gettysburg,” James McClure’s “East of Gettysburg,” A.B. Farquhar’s “First Million the Hardest,” and Granville Haller’s memoir of memorial services, YDR files.
Jim McClure is a retired editor of the York Daily Record and has authored or co-authored nine books on York County history. Reach him at jimmcclure21@outlook.com.
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