York Surrenders to Save City - York, PA - U.S. Civil War Sites on Waymarking.com

To learn more about this program and to view the other interpretives go HERE. The sign is bolted on the concrete. It is twenty-five feet from the Lincoln Highway. There are many of these signs and historic events and places featured along the Lincoln Highway. Although the events portrayed in this interpretive predate the Highway by almost fifty years, this events and all the other which occurred on this stretch of road may be part of the reason this street was part of the Lincoln Highway.

In 1863 York became the largest Northern town occupied by the Confederate Army. The sign reads:

In 1863, York became the largest Northern town occupied by the Confederate Army. The center of one of the richest farming regions in the Union, York was virtually defenseless as the Rebels approached. When Major General Jubal A. Early's Division neared, the mayor and a committee of citizens met them to surrender the city. On June 28, Early moved into the court house and his brigade took over the U.S. Army Hospital on Penn Common, the York Fairgrounds, market sheds, and the mills north of town.

Early wanted supplies for his troops, so he demanded bread, sugar, coffee, molasses, meat, socks, hats, 2,000 pairs of shoes, and $100,000 from the citizens of York. If they failed to meet his demands he threatened to sack the town. The townspeople found most of what he had asked for, except they could scrape together only $26, 600. Early was satisfied and spared the town.

York's leaders had agreed not to resist in return for peaceful occupation. As a result, the Confederates allowed Yorkers to pass freely within the town. The residents interacted regularly with their occupiers, most of whom came from Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, and Louisiana.

Address:
Northeast Quadrant Continental Square
YORK, PA, 17401