Commander (as he then was) Charles Wilkes, U.S.N. (1798- 1877) travelled through Cumberland County to Harrisburg in August 1844. He described the towns and countryside he passed through, noted institutions like churches and the county jail, and passed ten days in Carlisle, where he was agreeably entertained by the gentry and by officers at Carlisle Barracks. Wilkes had but recently returned from four years in the Pacific Ocean as commander of the United States South Sea Exploring Expedition, and was engaged in preparing the reports of its discoveries and collections. This work engaged him for much of the rest of his life, but was interrupted by periods of active command at sea. Every student of American history has read of "the Trent Affair"-in which Captain Wilkes, in an American ship, stopped a British mail steamer on the high seas, removed two Confederate agents, Mason and Slidell, and thus almost precipitated war between England and the United States in 1861. Although twice court-martialled and twice reprimanded during his career, Wilkes retired in 1866 as a rear admiral. He began to write his autobiography in 1871.
This account of Wilkes' visit to Cumberland County is reprinted from Autobiography of Rear Admiral Charles Wilkes, US. Navy, 1798- 1877, edited by William J. Morgan and others, and published by the Navy History Division, Department of the Navy, Washington, 1978. It appears here with acknowledgment to the Navy History Center and its director, Dr. William S. Dudley.
For the sake of clarity, punctuation has been inserted in a few of Wilkes' long sentences. Capitalization has been made consistent, but spelling, with a few exceptions, has been left unchanged. Notes have been added by the editor of the Journal.
We took the car drawn by horses, an old omnibus body, quite roomy and but few passengers, and made tolerable speed. It was pleasant riding after what we had encountered before. In about two hours we reached Chambersburg, the first town in Penna. It wears quite a different aspect from that of Frederick, which we had left, and shows signs of improvement. It covers a much larger area and has many stores and the population is astir, but the old fashion of town struck us. The streets, some half a dozen, cross each other at right angles, and these are occupied by many wagons. The hotel was established over shops & a long stair case led to the second floor. The attendants were white but had little idea of waiting or what to do for travelers, but we found it clean; & there is nothing to be seen, and the usual incumbrance of hogsheads, boxes, barrels and many any other articles are left on the sidewalks to impede walking & serve to gather the filth which accumulates. The main street is broad, and the houses in its central portion are mostly occupied by lawyers' offices and printing establishments. We met some friends here who were anxious for us to stay a few days, but by night we had used up the town or seen all that would suffice to give us a pretty correct idea of it. Its population was said to be some two thousand, but it seemed to me to be an overestimate of its inhabitants. They look for many advantages from the laying of the railway, which now runs to Carlyle, and on it they have steam traction. The country around is very well cultivated and the crops just being gathered seemed to warrant a large yield.
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