The Battle of Hanover took place on June 30, 1863, in Hanover in southwestern York County, Pennsylvania, as part of the Gettysburg campaign of the American Civil War.
Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's Confederate cavalry, which was riding north to get around the Union Army of the Potomac, attacked a Federal cavalry regiment, driving it through the streets of Hanover. Brig. Gen. Elon Farnsworth's brigade arrived and counterattacked, routing the Confederate vanguard and nearly capturing Stuart himself. Stuart soon counterattacked. Reinforced by Brig. Gen. George A. Custer's Michigan Brigade, Farnsworth held his ground, and a stalemate ensued. Stuart was forced to continue north and east to get around the Union cavalry, further delaying his attempt to rejoin Robert E. Lee's army, which was then concentrating at Cashtown Gap west of Gettysburg.
As Robert E. Lee moved his Army of Northern Virginia northward in June 1863 through the Shenandoah Valley toward 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, disrupting Federal communications and telegraph lines. However, Stuart was not able to effectively screen Lee's advance or provide intelligence on the movements of the Federal army. As Stuart headed north intending to link with Lee, Union cavalry commander Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton, riding toward 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. Most 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 toward 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 toward Hanover in adjacent York County. His progress was slowed considerably by a cumbersome train of over 125 heavily laden supply wagons he had captured near Rockville, Maryland. In addition, he had skirmished with Delaware cavalry on June 29 at Westminster, Maryland, further delaying him.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
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