Union Mills "Shining lights" - Union Mills, MD - Civil War Discovery Trail Sites on Waymarking.com

Union Mills "Shining lights"— Gettysburg Campaign —At daybreak on June 30, 1863, Gen. J. E. B. Stuart arrived here from his bivouac at the Orendorff farm north of Westminster. He then gathered his brigade commanders to discuss Union Gen. Judson H. Kilpatrick’s cavalry division, which was encamped seven miles north at Littlestown but had been reported marching east toward Hanover.

Southern sympathizer William Shriver, whose slave-owning brother Andrew K. Shriver lived across the Littlestown Turnpike and supported the Union, invited Stuart to have breakfast with his family. William, who opposed slavery had six sons in the Confederate army. Shriver’s daughter Sally later wrote, “Our table [was] surrounded by so many shining lights—Majors, Colonels, Captains, Doctors, and to crown all, those two noble Generals (Fitzhugh) Lee and Stuart who sang ‘If you want to be a bully boy, join the cavalry’.” Stuart asked sixteen year old T. Herbert Shriver to act as a guide on the roads to Hanover. In exchange, he said, he would sponsor him to the Virginia Military Institute (the next year, Cadet Shriver fought in the May 15 Battle of New Market).

After breakfast, the Confederates set off toward Hanover. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee’s brigade took the Littlestown Turnpike and screened the left flank of Col. John R. Chambliss’ brigade on Old Hanover Road. Gen Wade Hampton’s brigade followed Chambliss and guarded a captured Union wagon train.

Type of site: Transportation Route or Facility Address: 3311 Littlestown Pike Marker is in park next to the Miller’s House Westminster, MD USA 21158 Admission Charged: No Charge Website: [Web Link] Phone Number: Not listed Driving Directions: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   08/19/2021 Don.Morfe visited it 05/03/2020 Searcher28 visited it

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