At 8:00 a.m. on June 30, the head of Gen. H. Judson Kilpatrick's Union Cavalry Division halted on Frederick Street outside community leader Jacob Wirt's home, formerly on the site of the Hanover Theater, and Kilpatrick went inside to receive information on Confederate troop movements and study a map of the area. After Reverend William K. Zieber of Emmanuel Reformed Church learned that the Union cavalrymen were hungry, he encouraged townspeople to feed them, and for nearly two hours Union regiments passed through Hanover as men, women, and children brought bread, pretzels, pies, cakes, milk, coffee, and beer. About 10:00 a.m., while Kilpatrick was several miles north on Abbottstown Road, units of the 5th New York Cavalry Regiment stood there and the main body assembled in and around Center Square. As Union soldiers received Hanover's hospitality, a Confederate artillery shell burst over town from the south, and Major John Hammond of the 5th New York rode to Center Square to urge citizens to shelter in their basements. Reverend Zieber heard Hammond warn that fighting would soon come to the streets. Union Gen. George A. Custer slept in the Wirt house on the evening of June 30, while that night Kilpatrick stayed on the second floor of the nearby Central Hotel on the northwest corner of the square. Joanna Thomas later recalled taking bread and apple butter to the square to help feed tired and hungry soldiers, seeing the square full of townspeople with baskets of food, hearing that General Stuart and his cavalry were coming, being told by Kilpatrick to leave the street because fighting was about to begin, and then running home as Confederate cavalry entered town and a bullet struck a rain spout and grazed her dress. Ervin M. Fitz also recalled his mother, Carrie Moul Fitz, saying that many families baked cakes, bread, and pies for Union soldiers passing through town, and he remembered Miss Sally Winebrenner giving a young lieutenant a large cake as he thanked her and kissed her hand.

Photo: Cosmos Mariner

Photo: Tiffany Smith

Photo: Anonymous

Photo: Courtesy Hanover Public Library

Photo: Courtesy Hanover Area Historical Society

Photo: Cosmos Mariner

Pennville, Pennsylvania · USA