The 26th Emergency Regiment met the advance of Gordon’s brigade of
Early’s Division of Ewell’s Corps in their advance into Gettysburg.
Company A consisted of students of the Lutheran Theological Seminary,
Pennsylvania (now Gettysburg) College, and citizens of the town. H. M.
M. Richards, of Company A gives the following sketch of the services of
the regiment:
“Upon the first indication of an invasion of Pennsylvania, the 26th
Regiment, P. V. M., was organized and mustered into the United States
service at Harrisburg, under the command of Colonel W. W. Jennings of
that city. Company A of this regiment, to which I belonged, was composed
of students from the Lutheran Theological Seminary and the Pennsylvania
College at Gettysburg, and of citizens of the town; one other company
came from Hanover, but a few miles distant.
“On June 23rd we left Harrisburg for Gettysburg, to be used, I believe,
as riflemen among the hills at or near Cashtown. A railroad accident
prevented this plan from being carried out, and kept us from reaching
Gettysburg until the 26th, by which time General Early had reached
Cashtown. In accordance with orders received from Major Granville O.
Haller, acting aide-de-camp to General Couch, commanding the Department
of the Susquehanna, we were marched out on the Chambersburg Pike at 10
A.M., June 26th, for a distance of about three and a half miles,
accompanied by Major Robert Bell, who commanded a troop of horse, also
raised, I understand, in Gettysburg. Having halted, our colonel,
accompanied by Major Bell, rode to the brow of an elevation and there
saw General Early’s troops a few miles distant.
“We, a few hundred men at most, were in the toils; what should be done?
We would gladly have marched to join the Army of the Potomac, under
Meade, but where was it? Our colonel, left to his own resources, wisely
decided to make an effort to return to Harrisburg, and immediately
struck off from the pike, the Confederates capturing many of our
rear-guard after a sharp skirmish, and sending their cavalry in pursuit
of us. These later overtook us in the afternoon at Witmer’s house, about
four and a half miles from Gettysburg on the Carlisle Road, where, after
an engagement, they were repulsed with some loss. After many
vicissitudes, we finally reached Harrisburg, having marched 54 out of 60
consecutive hours, with a loss of some 200 men.
“It should be added that Gettysburg, small town as it was, had already
furnished its quota to the army. Moreover, on the first day of the
battle, hundreds of the unfortunate men of Reynolds’s gallant corps were
secreted, sheltered, fed, and aided in every way by the men and women of
the town.”