Physical Remains of the Confederate Invasion of 1863

The Confederate invasion of Cumberland County in June and July of 1863 has left marks remaining to be seen 135 years later. All who are familiar with Robert G. Crist's pamphlet on the "Confederate Invasion of the West Shore-1863”¹ know of the effort to fortify the higher points of Hummel Hill at Bridgeport (later Lemoyne). Its purpose was to defend the approaches to the bridges over the Susquehanna River to the State capital of Harrisburg, in anticipation of an attack by Confederate troops already in the Valley.² Major General Darius Nash Couch,³ newly designated commander of the hastily created Department of the Susquehanna, ordered a fort to be constructed; trees were felled and earth trenches dug on the highest point of the hill, nearest to and looking down on the Susquehanna and the approaches to it. The earth works so erected were designated "Fort Washington." At a second high point on the hill, west of Fort Washington, at a point believed to be necessary to protect that fort, other breastworks were dug and designated "Fort Couch" in honor of the commander.⁴

Never tested in combat, as feared invasion of the State capital was called off to meet the threat to Meade's army at Gettysburg,⁵ the trenches were quickly abandoned, and houses of an expanding borough of Lemoyne have long since covered most of the hill. The borough owned land on top of the hill at Eighth Street, between Ohio and Indiana Avenues. Part was in use for a water tower, but another part remained to be overgrown by trees and vines, the receptacle for trash and debris of all kinds, an unsightly spot in a neighborhood of fine houses with splendid views of the Susquehanna and the Susquehanna Water Gap.

One of those living nearby in the 1950's was Mrs. Fred E. Bentley, chairman of the Garden Division of the Lemoyne Civic Club. Mrs. Bentley was aware that this informal dump was a part of the former Fort Couch and, accordingly, in 1952, she sought help from state officials to clean it up and cause it to be preserved and properly marked. Informed that the state had no funds for the project, she took her proposed project to the Civic Club, then under the leadership of Mrs. Raymond W. Sawyer, Jr.⁶ The Club took the restoration on and saw it completed. Through the effort of its Garden Division of the Club and the borough of Lemoyne, the tract was cleaned up. Undergrowth and some trees were removed;⁷ grass, evergreens, spring bulbs, and climbing roses were planted, and the whole tract, bounded by Indiana and Ohio avenues on the north and south and Eighth Street and West Park avenue on the east and west, was newly enclosed with split rail and post fencing.⁸

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