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Civil War Blog

A project of PA Historian

A Description of the Battlefield at Gettysburg

| July 10, 2013

This account of the battlefield in the days following the fight comes from the Daily Patriot and Union published July 11, 1863.   “The battle field around the quiet town of Gettysburg will be an object of absorbing interest to many of our citizens for weeks to come. We visited the scene of the strife on Thursday […]

Troop Train Wreck on Northern Central Railroad

| July 9, 2013

  -Evening Telegraph, July 11, 1863 Serious Accident.—From the Sunbury American we learn that an accident occurred on the Northern Central Railroad on Monday afternoon, near Port Trevorton. A cow sprang on the track suddenly, from behind a wood pile. The result was, the locomotive was run off the track, the mail and baggage car […]

Six Killed, Many Injured in Train Wreck

| July 8, 2013

By the time of the Civil War, railroads had become a driving force in the country’s economy, specifically in the northern states. Fortunes were built on the back of the new rail systems that popped up. One of these railroads built in the years just before the Civil War broke out was the Northern Central. […]

Lykens Valley Coal Strikes During 1863

| July 7, 2013

The Lykens Valley was mostly known for one major item in the years of the Civil War. Anthracite coal. This hard, stony coal burned hotter and longer than almost every other fuel available at the time, and the Lykens Valley anthracite was considered by many to be the best in the world.  One article, published […]

How Far Was the Battle of Gettysburg Heard?

| July 6, 2013

Multiple stories have been passed down over a century and a half related to the Battle of Gettysburg. The stories go that citizens of Pennsylvania from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia heard the sound of cannon fire from the battle in south-central Pennsylvania. These distances vary from dozens of miles to over a hundred miles distant from […]