M.A. Kleen

This iron furnace along present-day U.S. Route 30 between the towns of Chambersburg and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania was once owned by abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens, a U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania and leader of the Radical Republican political faction. He was instrumental in passage of the Confiscation Act of 1861, which authorized the federal government to seize property of individuals rebelling against the United States, including their slaves. When Confederate Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early’s Division occupied Franklin and Adams counties on June 26, 1863, he ordered the destruction of the Caledonia Furnace. Not only did it supply the Union war effort with iron, but it was a stand-in for their hated enemy, Congressman Stevens, as well. Though the long-term effect of its destruction was negligible.