Readers ask about Civil War unit, Great Wagon Road
Love getting questions from readers.
In fact, I wrote a York Sunday News column exploring some recent queries.
Now, we get a couple more: …
Joe Nihen, morse73@ptd.net, is researching the 208 Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.
The Civil War unit held a reunion in York on March 25, 1891.
If newspapers covered the event, this should be an easy find because the York County Heritage Trust has microfilm from at least two newspapers – perhaps three – from that era. Having an exact date helps propel research.
But if you have any other information on the unit or this reunion, please contact Joe or comment below.
Patty Mountjoy, pamountjoy@earthlink.net, is interested in the Great Wagon Road, which ran from Germantown through York and Hanover before entering the Shenadoah Valley at Harper’s Ferry.
This was the route taken by Germans, English, Scotch-Irish, Moravians after disembarking from their long Atlantic voyages in the 1700s and explains why large pockets of such pioneers settled in Virginia, Tennesse, North Carolina, where the road ended.
Just something to watch, though. There’s controversy whether the bulk of pioneers crossed the Susquehanna River at Harrisburg and then entered then passed through the Cumberland Valley to the Shenadoah.
Patty was most interested in where the roads crossed the rivers from Lancaster to York and the Potomac into Virginia.
I suggested James G. Leyburn’s “The Scotch-Irish: A Social History.” If you have other information contact Patty or comment below.
