Battle of Fairfield, PA Page5 | ||
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(2007) View of the Fairfield-Orrtanna Road (modern day Carrolls Tract rd.) looking south towards Fairfield. Union resistance quickly collapsed as the overwhelmed Union troopers were captured in masses. Those lucky enough to escape the saber dashed for safety toward Fairfield. By now, the 6th U.S. was completely routed, its remaining elements fleeing with Confederates in hot pursuit. Paulding attempted to escape on his horse, but encountered difficulties created by the terrain: "Finding it impossible to get away with my horse I left him between a ditch and a fence both impassable and climbing the fence took it on foot through the field pursued by half a dozen of the enemy's mounted men. They were soon on each side of me & being much blown by hard running & seeing no possibility of escape I surrendered to a man who was vociferously demanding my surrender & who at once robbed me of my field glass." Paulding was taken to the rear, where his journey to Richmond's infamous Libby Prison began. Arriving at the Marshall house, he found a number the regiment's officers lying wounded, including Starr |
(2007) Enlarge Entering Fairfield from the intersection of Carrolls Tract road and Fairfield road. The Confederates pursued the routed Yankees for about three miles, through the streets of the town to the entrance to Fairfield Gap, where they gave up the chase. The remnants of the 6th U.S. fled to Emmittsburg, Md., where its exhausted survivors found the rest of the reserve brigade |
When the Battle of Gettysburg was over, the Confederate Army retreated west through Fairfield. It was reported that the line of wounded in Lee's army stretched over fourteen miles. Lee also had to contend with moving nearly four thousand prisoners. The trains of Ewells three divisions alone were nearly twenty miles long including all of the plunder and forage collected in nearly two weeks of campaigning in Maryland and Pennsylvania To illustrate the immense amount of forage collected in Pennsylvania, Imbodens (who took the route thru Cashtown) and Harmans trains together were more than fifty-seven miles long when stretched out on the roads. Hills corps was next along the Fairfield road followed by Longstreets corps, when Ewells corps filed into the march Lees troops stretched nearly seventeen miles, although only six of his nine divisions were under way. Nearly all of the buildings in Fairfield were turned into hospitals and Lee and his officers stopped to eat at the Fairfield Inn, which is still operated at as a small hotel and restaurant to this day |
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(2007) Fairfield,
PA In the area of this farm at the entrance to Fairfield from Carroll's Tract Road was a Confederate field hospital |
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