Corbit's Charge
by Ed Wonilowicz

The Gettysburg campaign was in full swing on June 29, 1863 as a novice cavalry regiment camped on the old commons of Westminster.  Already, thousands of confederates foraged in Pennsylvania, as the Union army responded by crossing the Potomac and converging on Frederick in their wake.  Something big was going to happen, but where?  Perhaps the men of the First Delaware Cavalry in Westminster heard rumors of these movements, but they couldn’t have expected that garrison duty in another sleepy town would give them a place in history.  But just down the roads to the south, a storm was brewing.  J.E.B. Stuart and the cavalry division of the Army of Northern Virginia had orders to link up with the right of the confederate advance, already in York County, Pennsylvania.  Stuart had expected another glorious ride around the yankees, but this was 1863.  He had found the blue soldiers everywhere, and cavalry, which had once flown, was now full of fight.  Still he smelled success, and he brought along wagons captured at Rockville as a prize for General Lee.  He saw no threat from the town of Westminster. 

When Stuart’s vanguard rode into town, however, it met Captain Charles Corbit of the Delaware cavalry along with 90 brave men.  It would have been natural for the inexperienced union troops to retreat in front of Stuart’s 5000 strong, but instead, they engaged the rebels in a hot little fight at the junction of Main Street and the Washington Road.  Pistols fired, sabers flashed and horses screamed and whirled.  When it was over, the yankees were forced from the field, but Stuart counted two dead, and more wounded. 

The exhausted rebels camped that evening strung out along the Baltimore Pike between Westminster and Union Mills.  Another delay had fallen on Stuart’s column, and the link up with friendly infantry must have seemed no closer.  A small band of undistinguished Delaware cavalry on the streets of Westminster had contributed to disrupting this critical linkage, and the fight must be counted as a contributing factor to the eventual confederate defeat at Gettysburg. 

Each June, along with other living history groups in the area, the Pipe Creek Civil War Round Table commemorates the tragedy of war in our streets and honors those who fell. Click here for details