Background
As Robert E. Lee moved his Army of Northern Virginia northward in June 1863 through the Shenandoah Valley towards Pennsylvania, portions of his cavalry under J.E.B. Stuart slipped eastward across the path of the Union Army of the Potomac. A series of raids in eastern Maryland netted prisoners and supplies, as well as disrupting Federal communications and telegraph lines. However, Stuart was not in position to effectively screen Lee's advance or to provide intelligence on the movements of the Federal army. As Stuart headed north in an effort to link with Lee, Union cavalry commander Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton, riding towards Pennsylvania to the west of Stuart, ordered his divisions to fan out across a wide swath, keeping an eye out for Confederates.
Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick's division was on the Union right flank. The majority of his men passed through Hanover early in the morning of June 30, pausing briefly for refreshments and to receive the greetings of the jubilant townspeople. Their town had been raided three days before by Confederate Lt. Col. Elijah V. White's cavalry, attached to Maj. Gen. Jubal Early's division that had occupied York County. White's Virginians and Marylanders had followed the railroad to Hanover from nearby Gettysburg, and taken horses, food, supplies, clothing, shoes, and other desired items from the townspeople, often paying with valueless Confederate money or drafts on the Confederate government. White's raiders had destroyed the area's telegraph wires, cutting off communications with the outside world, before sacking the nearby Hanover Junction train station. The unexpected arrival of Kilpatrick's column was a pleasant surprise to the residents of Hanover, who warmly greeted the Union troopers with food and drink.
Most of Kilpatrick's men remounted and passed through town, heading northward through the nearby Pigeon Hills towards Abbottstown. He left behind a small rear guard force to picket the roads south and west of Hanover. In the meantime, Stuart had left his billet at Shriver's Corner, Maryland, and was proceeding northward across the Mason-Dixon Line into Pennsylvania. Hearing that Federal cavalry had been spotted near his intended destination, Littlestown, Pennsylvania, he instead turned towards Hanover in adjacent York County. His progress was slowed considerably by a cumbersome train of over 125 heavily laden supply wagons that he had captured near Rockville, Maryland. In addition, he had skirmished with Delaware cavalry on June 29 at Westminster, Maryland, further delaying him.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Hanover
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“Pilate with his question “What is truth?” is gladly trotted out these days as an advocate of Christ, so as to arouse the suspicion that everything known and knowable is an illusion and to erect the cross upon that gruesome background of the impossibility of knowledge.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)