Colonel E. V. White's cavalry battalion reported to me at
Chambersburg, and was sent to
General Early, then at
Greenwood.
Arriving at
Cashtown,
General Early sent
Gordon's brigade with
White's cavalry direct to
Gettysburg, taking the rest of the division by the
Mummasburg road.
In front of
Gettysburg White charged and routed the Twenty-Sixth regiment
Pennsylvania militia, of whom 175 were taken and paroled.
From
Gettysburg,
Gordon, with
Tanner's battery and
White's cavalry, was sent on the direct road to
York.
General Gordon met the
Mayor and a deputation of citizens, who made a formal surrender of the place.
Pushing on by order of
General Early to
Wrightsville on the
Susquehanna, he found 1,200 militia strongly entrenched but without artillery.
A few shots drove them across the magnificent railroad bridge, a mile and a quarter long, which they burned as they retreated over it. The little town of
Wrightsville caught fire from the bridge, and
General Gordon setting his brigade to work, succeeded in extinguishing the flames.
Yet he is accused by the
Federal press of having set fire to the town.
General Early levied a contribution on the citizens of
York, obtaining among other things $28,600 in
United States currency (the greater part of which was turned over to
Colonel Corley, Chief Q. M. Army of Northern Virginia), 1,000 hats, 1,200 shoes, etc.