Cannonball

Emily Bliss Souder was among the scores of people rushing to the Gettysburg battlefield to assist with the wounded. She and several companions arrived in Baltimore on Monday afternoon, July 13, but missed the last train to Hanover Junction. They explored the city and called on acquaintances. At 7:30 the next morning, the group left for Hanover Junction, reaching the intersection at 11:00 a.m. She eventually made it to Gettysburg, where she helped tend the wounded for a couple of weeks. She wrote several letters from the field hospitals, some of which mentioned her brief stays in York County.

Mrs. Souder wrote about Hanover Junction, “A car is stationed on the track, where lemonade, bread and butter, pies, etc. are dispensed to poor wounded soldiers—a real place of refreshment. We waited at the Junction till half-past seven in the evening. The heat was most oppressive, and there was no shelter worth mentioning. Many persons, returning from Gettysburg, were waiting also; some to go to Baltimore, others to take the Harrisburg train through York. It was here that the Rebels destroyed the bridges, tearing up the rails and burning the cars. The road is now guarded at this point by a company of soldiers. As we sat waiting in the car, hour after hour, some of them were sitting on the embankment, cleaning their muskets and singing, “Who will care for mother now?” That picture will always rise up before my mental vision whenever I hear that song.
Finally, in the evening, the train pulled out to the west through Hanover into Adams County. She added, “We had a wearisome ride to Gettysburg, crowded to suffocation, and when it became dark there was no light in the cars, except that which was furnished by a candle which I had put in my carpetbag by way of precaution.”