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Chambersburg’s Only Hope
June 18, 2017 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm EDT
A town perched on the border between Maryland and Pennsylvania had one hope when Confederate raiders threatened to invade…
Historian Avery Lentz will discuss his research into the last ditch defense of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania during the hot summer of 1864 at the Pry House Field Hospital Museum on Sunday, June 18, 2017.
Popular history tells the story that the Union Army failed to provide defenses to the people of Franklin County, Pennsylvania from Confederate attack in late July 1864. However, there were a small group of Union soldiers made a last stand to defend Chambersburg from the Confederate torch. Lieutenant H.T. McLean and his company of 45 men from the 6th U.S. Cavalry Regiment were the only Union soldiers to combat more than 4,800 Confederates under the command of generals John McCausland and Bradley T. Johnson.
Ultimately, Lt. McClean and his men could not hold back numbers and more than 500 buildings in Chambersburg went up in flames on July 30, 1864.
This is a “pay-what-you-please” event. All proceeds go to support the Pry House Field Hospital Museum.
Avery C. Lentz is a Guest Services Assistant and Communications Liaison at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine. He is also a seasonal park historian at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in History, with a concentration and 19th century U.S. history, from Gettysburg College and his Master’s Degree in Applied History from Shippensburg University. He hails from Lycoming County, Pennsylvania and has been an avid student of the American Civil War since an Eighth Grade field trip to Gettysburg sparked his interest in the subject
