M.A. Kleen

As the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia crossed the Maryland border into Pennsylvania, alarm bells rang throughout the countryside. The 26th Pennsylvania Emergency Militia heeded the call. Numbering 743 officers and men and commanded by Col. William W. Jennings, 24, it consisted mostly of teenage boys and old men. It arrived in Gettysburg on the morning of June 26, 1863, at the same time Confederate Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early’s Division was marching in their direction from Chambersburg. In the early afternoon, the 35th Virginia Cavalry Battalion charged down the Chambersburg Pike and met the 26th Pennsylvania Militia near Marsh Creek. The untrained volunteers fled. Later that afternoon, the 26th PA re-assembled north of Gettysburg along Goldenville Road near Bayly’s Hill. The 17th Virginia Cavalry, however, discovered their whereabouts and attacked. The short skirmish resulted in a few casualties on both sides, but the Confederates captured 175 men. Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early personally scolded the prisoners, saying “You boys ought to be home with your mothers and not out in the fields where it is dangerous and you might get hurt!”