After two days of probing Harrisburg’s defenses, Confederate General Albert G. Jenkins expected Lieutenant General Richard Ewell’s two infantry divisions in Carlisle, about 15,000 men, to march on the state capital on June 30, 1863, but Robert E. Lee instead ordered Ewell to turn back and join other Confederate forces near Gettysburg. Unaware of that change, Jenkins withdrew west to Silver Spring Creek and waited, while Union General Darius Couch, informed of Ewell’s new course, sent General John Ewen and his inexperienced 1,400 New York State National Guardsmen to probe for and possibly cut off Jenkins. Early that afternoon, Union cavalry clashed with Jenkins’ outer pickets, and, panicking when he learned Ewell was no longer supporting him, Jenkins sent his largest regiment of about 500 men to Carlisle to protect his retreat and ordered Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Witcher with about 300 men and two cannons to hold the enemy in check at all hazards. When Ewen’s force reached Sporting Hill around 3:30 p.m. on June 30, 50 Confederates in Moses Eberly’s barn opened fire while Witcher’s main body stood behind them in Gleim’s grove. Ewen shifted two companies into nearby woods and then deployed his full brigade on both sides of the Carlisle Pike, where several men, including a drummer boy, were wounded. Witcher’s men held on until a Philadelphia artillery unit under Captain Henry Landis arrived, corrected an initial mistake in loading its gun, and struck the barn with its first shot, forcing the Confederates to evacuate it; after a brief artillery duel they withdrew from the field. About 16 dead Virginians were left behind, Witcher took 20 to 30 wounded away with him, some of whom died in retreat, and Ewen’s New Yorkers suffered 11 slight wounds but no deaths.
