1. Old Courthouse

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Associated with some of the nation’s most important Underground Railroad episodes, the Old Courthouse served as Cumberland County’s primary government building from 1846 to 1962.

2. Dickinson College

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Reopened under Methodist leadership in 1833, Dickinson College produced some of the era’s leading figures, including a president and Supreme Court chief justice.

3. Historical Society

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Residents and soldiers from the Cumberland Valley left a rich collection of letters, documents and artifacts about combat and the home front now available at the Historical Society.

4. Army Barracks

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During the 1863 Gettysburg Campaign, Confederate troops occupied parts of the Cumberland Valley and burned down the Army Barracks, which were eventually rebuilt as the Carlisle Indian School.

5. Lincoln Cemetery

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Now known as Memorial Park, the former Lincoln Cemetery contains the remains of many local black Union Army veterans, even though most of the headstones have been removed.

6. Bentz House

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Noted abolitionist Frederick Douglass spoke in Carlisle in 1872 but the local hotel segregated him from white guests in the dining room, offering a sad reminder of the "unfinished work" of the Civil War era.

What is “augmented reality”?

Augmented Reality (AR) is a term for a new technology that allows you to enhance or augment the reality you see through cameras in GPS-enabled smartphones or tablet computers by streaming text, images, audio, and video.

How to install the Layar App and open the Civil War Carlisle layer

• Go to the app store (iphone) or the market (android) and search for Layar
• Install and run the Layar app
• Scroll down the Layar home screen and select the City Tours category
• Then find the Civil War Carlisle layer, select it and select Launch

• Or you can scan this QR code with a bar code scanner app

Maximize your experience by using AR at Historic wayside markers or by purchasing tickets for a guided tour at the Visitors Center on High Street.

Click the image to download a PDF version of the tour map and brochure

Richard J. Coyer, ed., “Carlisle Barracks—1854-1855: From the Letters of Lt. Thomas W. Sweeny, 2nd Infantry,” Cumberland County History 16 (1999): 100-115.

This article contains nine letters to Ellen Sweeny about Lt. Sweeny’s experiences and acquaintances at the Carlisle Barracks. Editor Richard J. Coyer introduces the letters with a biographical sketch of Sweeny, including details about his military service from the Mexican War through Reconstruction. This article includes extensive notes where Coyer indentifies figures and provides context for Sweeny’s letters.

This essay has been posted online with permission from the Cumberland County Historical Society.

Harrisburg, PA

Richard L. Dahlen, “Harrisburg’s Civil War Patriot and Union: Its Conciliatory Viewpoint Collapses,” Cumberland County History 15 (1998): 115-127.

Richard L. Dahlen’s essay explores the shifts and eventual “collapse” of the Harrisburg (PA) Patriot and Union’s editorial stance during the Civil War. As the editors were “staunchly Democratic,” Dahlen explains that “[they] printed dispatches calculated to prove that the Republican administration’s military performance was a failure.” In addition, the Patriot and Union supported George McClellan in the 1864 election based on the idea that he would quickly end the war if elected. Yet by September 1864 the editors faced a crisis as events seemed to prove that their positions were wrong. The Union army won several key victories and McClellan rejected the idea of a truce. The paper’s “credibility [was] shattered,” as Dahlen notes. The “collapse” of a prominent Democratic newspaper had an important impact on the results of 1864 election. As Dahlen argues, “the Patriot and Union helped drag the famous General George Brinton McClellan down.”

This essay has been posted online with permission from the Cumberland County Historical Society.

William E. Miller, Local History: Troops Occupying Carlisle, July, 1863 (Carlisle, PA: Hamilton Library Association, 1902).

William E. Miller’s essay offers an overview of the events surrounding the Confederates’ occupation of Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1863. Miller describes in detail the Confederate advance through Pennsylvania in June 1863 and provides the order of battle for Confederate General Richard S. Ewell’s second corps. In addition, the essay includes an article (“Came Near Being Hung: What Happened to Two Cumberland Countians in the Rebel Invasion”) that was originally published in the Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer.

James W. Sullivan, Boyhood Memories of the Civil War 1861-’65: Invasion of Carlisle (Carlisle, PA: Hamilton Library Association, 1933).

While in Hereford, England in July 1932, J. W. Sullivan writes a letter to a family friend and recalls his experiences in Carlisle, Pennsylvania during the Civil War and other related topics. Before the war Sullivan notes that political tensions were high. “From my earliest years I was accustomed to hearing among our neighbors the high notes of political arguing,” as Sullivan explains. Sullivan was 13 when Confederates attacked Fort Sumter in April 1861 and he provides an overview of what happened in Carlisle during the war as well as how the community reacted to news from the front. In addition, Sullivan offers a detailed account of the Confederate shelling of Carlisle in 1860. Sullivan also reflects on the ways that Americans commemorated the Civil War, including visiting Gettysburg and the establishment of the Grand Army of the Republic.

Charles Gilbert Beetem, Experiences of a West Ward Boy (Carlisle, PA: Hamilton Library Association, 1963).

Charles Gilbert Beetem’s article discusses James W. Sullivan’s recollection of the Confederate Invasion of Carlisle. (Sullivan’s original account was published in 1933 and has also been posted on Library Divided). Even though “there was far more action around the Public Square and in Carlisle’s eastern parts,” Beetem notes that this account from someone who lived in the West Ward remains an “interesting” story. Beetem includes excerpts from Sullivan’s letter and provides additional information about people and events in Sullivan’s account.

Robert Grant Crist, Confederate Invasion of the West Shore – 1863 (Carlisle, PA: Hamilton Library Association, 1963).

Robert Grant Crist provides a detailed overview of the Confederate advance in June 1863 to the West Shore of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. His article ends with the Confederate withdrawal from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania on June 30. While “Harrisburg was safe,” Crist notes that “the storm was about to break in Adams County.” Crist uses a wide range of materials to write his account, from Pennslyvania nad New York newspapers to solders’ letters and the Official Records. His essay also includes several photographs and maps.

George M. Diffenderfer, Notes on Rebel Routes and Artillery (Carlisle, PA: Hamilton Library Association, 1963).

George M. Diffenderfer’s essay discusses several questions about Confederate artillery units that participated in the shelling of Carlisle on July 1, 1863. After explaining why Confederates shelled the town, Diffenderfer reviews military records to determine how many cannons were involved, the location of artillery during the bombardment, and the number of times that Confederate artillery fired.

Milton E. Flower, Wednesday, July 1st 1863 (Carlisle, PA: Hamilton Library Association, 1963).

Milton E. Flower’s short essay offers a relatively concise overview of the events that took place in Carlisle on July 1, 1863.

James D. Flower, “Physical Remains of the Confederate Invasion of 1863,” Cumberland County History 15 (1998): 73-78.

Even though Confederates invaded Pennsylvania in 1863, James D. Flower explains that one can still find physical remains from that event today. Flower describes several places in Carlisle that were damaged when Confederates shelled the town as well as the remains of two defensive fortifications (Fort Couch and Fort Washington). The essay includes photographs of these locations.

Simpson K. Donavin, “The Invasion: Rebel Occupancy of Carlisle, 1863,” Cumberland County History 15 (1998): 34-50.

Simpson K. Donavin’s account of the Confederate’s operation in Carlisle, Pennsylvania was originally published in July 1863 in three local papers (American Volunteer ; Carlisle Herald ; Carlisle American). As Confederates approached Shippensburg, Carlisle residents began to realize that General Robert E. Lee’s advance was a major operation. “The threats so often made by the Southern papers were to assume reality, and the States of Maryland and Pennsylvania were indeed to be made the battle-field,” as Donavin explained. As Confederates entered Carlisle on June 27, 1863, Donavin recalled that “every man carried his gun to a position to use it on the instant with his hand on the hammer.” Donavin described in detail what happened between this initial encounter and the Confederate shelling of the town on July 1, 1863. Historians have been unable to figure out many details about Donavin’s life before or after this article appeared in July 1863. This essay also includes several photographs.

Barbara Houston, “Narrow Escapes: Two Original Accounts of Civil War Shells in the Hands of Carlisle Civilians After the War,” Cumberland County History 24 (2007): 48-52.

Barbara Houston’s article includes two accounts of Carlisle residents’ encounters with unexploded artillery shells after the Civil War. Frank Wetzel recalled one incident that involved a Civil War veteran who worked at his father’s shop on North Bedford Street. In addition, an article from the Carlisle (PA) Herald described what happened at a house on South Hanover Street in May 1868 after a conical shell was accidentally “shoveled into a bucket of coal and from thence carried to the cook stove where the contents of the bucket were thrown upon the fire.”

These essays have been posted online with permission from the Cumberland County Historical Society.

Central Square in1860 - Carlisle, PA

William E. Miller, Civil War Times In Carlisle (Carlisle, PA: Hamilton Library Association, 1931).

Merkel Landis provides an overview of what happened in Carlisle, Pennsylvania during the Civil War. After a review of the political conditions in Carlisle in 1860, Landis describes key events that took place in the town during the Civil War. Landis starts in November 1860 with the election returns and ends with the celebration in Carlisle after General Robert E. Lee surrendered. The essay also includes a number of photographs of people and places in Carlisle during this period.

This essay has been posted online with permission from the Cumberland County Historical Society.

G. A. R. Parade - Washington DC, 1892

Jacob M. Goodyear, The GAR Posts of Cumberland County (Carlisle, PA: Hamilton Library Association, 1951).

After the Civil War, many Union veterans joined the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) and established posts in their communities. Seven posts were set up in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania between 1880 and 1890 and Jacob M. Goodyear provides a short history for each one. Each post, as Goodyear explains, had “its own life story.”

This essay has been posted online with permission from the Cumberland County Historical Society.

Captain William E. Miller

Captain Miller’s Medal of Honor (1963)

Merrill F. Hummel’s essay discusses Captain William E. Miller’s Medal of Honor, which he received as a result of his actions during the Battle of Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. Miller lived in Carlisle on North Hanover Street and served in the Third Pennsylvania Calvary during the Civil War. Hummel includes Miller’s account of his actions during the battle, which are from a letter he wrote to his brother on July 7, 1863. Miller received his Medal of Honor on July 21, 1897. After the war, Miller returned to Carlisle and helped establish the Captain Colwell Post No. 201 of the Grand Army of the Republic. He also joined the Historical Association of Cumberland County and wrote an article in 1902 about the Confederates in Carlisle during the Civil War, which is available on Library Divided.

This essay has been posted online with permission from the Cumberland County Historical Society.

Central Square, Carlisle, PA (1860)

Lenore E. Flower, Women in the War Effort (Carlisle, PA: Hamilton Library Association, 1963).

Lenore E. Flower’s essay discuses the letters that two sisters wrote after Confederates shelled Carlisle on July 1, 1863. “We never dreamed that by evening the Rebel demons would attempt to shell the town, and that too without giving the usual warning,” as seventeen year old Margaret Murray noted in a letter to her brother. In addition, Flower includes a letter that Sara A. Myers wrote to Union General William Farrah Smith’s wife. “I am indebted to the exertions of Gen. Smith and his brave soldiers – I wish I could something for each of them – that I still have a home,” as Myers explained.

This essay has been posted online with permission from the Cumberland County Historical Society.

Fitzhugh Lee

D. W. Thompson, Fitzhugh Lee Returns, and Returns (Carlisle, PA: Hamilton Library Association, 1963).

D. W. Thompson’s essay discusses Confederate General Fitzhugh Lee’s connection with Carlisle, Pennsylvania. General Lee was stationed at Carlisle Barracks before the Civil War, returned as a Confederate general who shelled the town in the summer of 1863, and came back again in 1896 to speak at the Carlisle Indian School. As Thompson explains, Superintendent Richard Henry Pratt invited Lee and Union General Oliver Otis Howard “to show that North and South were united with East and West in a common life, hope, and allegiance.” Yet some Carlisle residents believed that Pratt should not have invited Lee. As an editorial in the Carlisle Herald argued, “it was a mistake not because [Lee] was a rebel but because he did a disgraceful and unsoldierly thing that can not be justified.” This essay also has several related documents, including transcripts of two letters that Lee wrote and excerpts from newspaper articles.

This essay has been posted online with permission from the Cumberland County Historical Society.

Old West, 1860

D. W. Thompson, In Old Bellaire (Carlisle, PA: Hamilton Library Association, 1963).

D. W. Thompson explains Carlisle’s connection to Mary Dillon’s novel In Old Bellaire (1906). While set in the fictional town of Bellaire during the Civil War, Thompson describes how Dillon based her story on people, places, and events in Carlisle. “In Old Bellaire’ will always be the novel about old Carlisle in Civil War days, with allusions to actual local scenes and charters on every page,” as Thompson notes. Dillon’s family lived in Carlisle during the Civil War because her father, Herman Merrills Johnson, was the President of Dickinson College from 1860 to 1868. You can read In Old Bellaire online at the Dickinson College Chronicles Reading Room.

This essay has been posted online with permission from the Cumberland County Historical Society.