Battle of Hanover Oak Witness Tree Deluxe Executive Pen

On June 30, 1863, the day before the three-day Battle of Gettysburg, three brigades of Confederate Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry engaged newly promoted Brig. Gen. H. Judson Kilpatrick’s Union cavalry in and around Hanover, Pennsylvania.  Located 12 miles southeast of Gettysburg, what became known as the Battle of Hanover was the result of an unplanned meeting between the two sides.  Stuart was searching for elements of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, last known to him to have been in York County somewhere near the Susquehanna River.  He was to rendezvous with Lee’s army to report on the movements of Union forces.  The Battle of Hanover, coupled with the previous day’s fighting at Westminster, Maryland, delayed Stuart to the point where he did not locate the Confederates he sought.  Fighting raged in the streets of Hanover and in the fields to the south and east of the town. 
Ultimately, Kilpatrick prevailed, and Stuart moved his troops east through the area where Codorus State Park now sits and then onto York-New Salem.  He would finally halt at Dover, Pennsylvania, nearly 20 miles from Gettysburg, rendering his troops ineffective for providing not only its firepower, but critical intelligence about Union troop movements.  During the Civil War, cavalry was the ‘eyes and ears’ of their armies.  Had Kilpatrick not redirected Stuart as he did, the Battle of Gettysburg may have had a different outcome.