Major Robert Bell |
Historical Background
Company B of the 21st Pennsylvania Cavalry, known as the "Adams
County Cavalry" during Gettysburg and as "Bell's Cavalry" after
the Campaign, has two monuments, both of which are within 30 yards
of each other on the Baltimore Pike. They are on the east side of
the road and in the area that was known as "McAllister's Field,"
about 200 yards south of Colgrove Avenue and across from Powers
Hill.
The 21st was organized to serve six months, just prior to the
battle, as part of the general militia mobilization to meet the
threat of General Robert E. Lee's invasion of the State. It was
recruited from volunteers who were already at Harrisburg for the
purpose of mustering into a unit, and was made up of a small
nucleus of veterans of the 21st Cavalry as well as militia-trained
youngsters from the immediate boroughs surrounding Gettysburg. The
unit was organized from the counties of Adams, Cumberland,
Chester, Dauphin, Franklin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Mifflin,
Montgomery, Philadelphia, and York. The members were mustered in
at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg, and in Philadelphia, on June 21,
1863. The commander of the Adams County Cavalry was Captain Robert
Bell. On June 24, in Gettysburg, Major Granville O. Haller
officially swore in the unit for State service for a term of six
months. They became Company B of the 21st Pennsylvania Cavalry in
August.
Bell was born in Menallen Township in northern Adams County in
1830, descended from Scots-Irish settlers from the mid-1700's.
Several of his ancestors had served during the Revolution. When
Bell enlisted in his company in June of 1863, he was married to
Abigail King, and was a farmer. He served through the war until
July 1865 and returned to farming, also working as a cashier in
Gettysburg's bank.
A citizen of Adams County, George W. Sandoe, enlisted in the
Adams County Cavalry. However, his service would be short-lived.
On the evening of June 25, 1863, the unit moved into town and
picketed all the roads north, east, and south. Bell was given the
assignment of moving west toward Chambersburg to reconnoiter as
far as Cashtown. They then moved back into Gettysburg after
spotting advanced Confederate Cavalry along the Chambersburg Pike.
They posted videttes throughout the town on the morning of the
26th to cover all approaches. Accompanying Captain Bell was Major
C.M. Knox, adjutant to Major Granville O. Haller, commanding
officer of the District of Susquehanna. On Major Knox's request,
most of Bell's cavalry company pulled back amid light skirmishing
as the 26th Pennsylvania Militia also withdrew. The troopers
successfully covered the flanks of the 26th Militia as that unit
pulled back on the railroad grading through town. As elements of
Confederate General Jubal Early's Division entered the town of
Gettysburg, the first Confederate force to do so during the
Campaign, one of Early's brigadiers, John B. Gordon, sent out
pickets to patrol the roads radiating from the town to the south
and east. In this vicinity were green troopers of the Adams County
Cavalry, who had failed to get the order to pull back. Private
Sandoe was posted on the Baltimore Pike near the Nathaniel
Lightener home, sitting on his horse and talking with Daniel
Lightener, son of Nathaniel. A scrub growth of bushes and trees
blocked the view of Confederate pickets from Colonel Elijah
White's 35th Battalion of Virginia Cavalry from them. The pickets
ordered them to surrender. Sandoe's companions jumped their horses
back over a fence and escaped. As Sandoe tried to do the same
while firing, his horse stumbled and fell. Recovering, Sandoe
spurred the horse, trying to escape, but was shot in the head and
lay dying in the Pike, just two miles from his home. Just six days
after enlisting in the Union Army, and only three days after being
mustered in, Sandoe became the first Union casualty in the
Gettysburg area during the Campaign. Thousands more would follow
him just days later. Sandoe today is interred in the Mount Joy
Church Cemetery in Mount Joy, Adams County, just south of
Gettysburg.
Elizabeth Thorn, caretaker of Gettysburg's Evergreen Cemetery
in her husband's absence, left an account from the trooper of
White's Battalion who shot Sandoe. As the trooper afterward led
Sandoe's horse toward the Cemetery, he was asked about the extra
horse. "Yes," replied the Virginian, "the -- shot at me, but he
did not hit me, and I shot him and blowed him down like nothing,
and here I got his horse and he lays down the pike."
The strength of the Adams County Cavalry was 76. Sandoe was the
one trooper killed, 9 were wounded, and two missing. The troopers
carried Sharps and Burnside carbines, with Colt .44 revolvers.
Monuments Dedicated to the 21st Pennsylvania Cavalry
Both of the monuments are located in the area where Sandoe was
shot and killed. The monument above on the right was erected
first, and is the State Memorial, using state appropriation in the
amount of $1500. Atop the base is a highly polished granite ball
inset with a sculpture of a mount's head. A year later, veterans
of the unit erected the second monument, above left, atop a
cluster of boulders slightly further south on the Pike. Funds for
this monument were raised privately, the motivation likely being
that this would allow officers of the unit to place their names on
this monument (at the time, no names were permitted on
state-appropriated monuments).
The first monument was dedicated on October 5, 1893, and was
sculpted by Edwin Elwell. It is made of Connecticut granite. The
second monument was dedicated on October 4, 1894, containing a
sculpture of a horse's head inside a large horseshoe, and tells
the story of Private Sandoe.
After the battle, in August, Bell's company was made Company B
of the 21st Pennsylvania Cavalry as was detailed as Provost Guard
on the Gettysburg Battlefield. They were ordered to search for
misappropriated government property under the direction of the
quartermaster in town. Bell acted as Provost Marshal at Gettysburg
until at least December, 1863, with his company performing the
duties of military police and sentinels in the town and at Camp
Letterman, the Federal hospital established north of town.