M.A. Kleen

As advanced units of the Union and Confederate armies clashed north of Gettysburg, Confederate cavalry under Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart were trapped east of the Union army, and Stuart’s exhausted troopers fought several skirmishes to cut their way back to Robert E. Lee’s army. Stuart mistakenly believed that Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell’s Second Corps was still west of Harrisburg, so he rode with Brig. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee’s brigade, numbering 1,957 men, north toward Carlisle. Maj. Gen. William “Baldy” Smith got there first with 2,700 New York and Pennsylvania militia. Fitzhugh Lee sent his younger brother with a message to Smith: surrender the town or be shelled into submission. Smith replied: “Shell away and be damned.” Stuart set up his artillery and sent another ultimatum, but Smith refused to surrender. For over three hours, Confederate artillery shelled the town, and Confederate soldiers set fire to the Carlisle Barracks, then a cavalry depot and former Cavalry School of Practice. At around midnight, Stuart received word that fighting had broke out around Gettysburg and he withdrew. The “Siege of Carlisle” resulted in 12 Union and approximately two Confederate troops wounded and several buildings damaged or destroyed.