Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-12-04
Ehrntttg Glrat

graph the dedication this week of the
new edifice of the Camp Curtin Meth
odist congregation at Sixth and Whar-
ton streets is an event of more than
local significance. The church Is u
memorial on the ground occupied by
the great mobilization camp of the
War of the Rebellion and will prob
ably be pointed out for some years to
come as the marker of the historic
locality. Camp Curtin played big
part in the lives of many men fifty
two or ffty-three years ago and has
really never been given its proper a
place in Pennsylvania history. 1t gets
bare mention, sometimes not as much
as Camp Alger or Camp Meade of the
Spanish War days. For years there
has been an effort to get an adequate
memorial of the site now being rapid
ly covered with houses, but the city
has waited for the State and the State
has waited for the county and so ON.
Harrisburg has q memorial shaft Sons
of Pennsylvania who served in the
bellion monument, both general in
object. Except for streets named
Camp and Curtin and a school build
ing, on which, by the way, an organ
ization of patriotic women placed
marker, there has been no public
recognition of this spot of great in
terest within Us limits. 1t has re-
mained for the uptown congregation
to give the city, the State and the
country memorial
On the subject of markers there
has been considerably written in this
column the last three or four years
and If Philadelphia, Lancaster, Allen
town and other cities think enough
of their historic places to put up tab
lets it does appear strange that Har-
risburg, so rich In spots of interest to
the Commonwealth has not gone to
the trouble to preserve even memories.
Until DR.. Thomas Lynch Montgomery,
the State Librarian, induced the State
Historical Commission to erect the
marker at the site of John Harris
Ferry this community had little more
than tradition about its genesis. If
the city council or the Dauphin County
Historical Society or some of the
patriotic societies could name COM
mittees to identify from old records
and mark through their funds the
interesting places the State would be
talking about us from historic stand
point as much as it's observing peo-
pie do for the treatment of our River
Front and municipal officials for the
material improvements we have Sc
cured.
In two wars Harrisburg was an
objective point for the purpose of
cutting the country in two. The Brit
ish had it's mind to march up the Sus-
quehanna in 1914 and what the Con-
| federates planned is shown by the
real high water mark of the Rebel
lion at Camp Hill, which is not mark
ed either, except by cannon ball
| embedded in a house. The entrench-
mcnts at Fort Washington, among the
few remaining in the State in the
shape they were left, are still privately
owned and those of us who "stormed"
them in mimic fights years ago prob
ably wonder why the place is not
marked and why it is not park.
It may be of interest to recount
here a few of the events of Pennsyl-
vania and national history in which
this place has had part. 1t was the
first place fortified on the Susque-
hanna, if John Harris stockade can
where the councils were held to keep
neighboring Indians quiet in the
French and Indian war and it was the
place where provincial troops were
modified for distribution to Carlisle
and the Cumberland Valley and up
the Juniata and Susquehanna in those
troublous days. 1t was a meeting
place for men who demanded Inde-
| pendence a year before it was de-
clared. 1t was the place of organiZa-
tion of one of the first companies of
soldiers to appear before Quebec and
the blood of it's men stained the SHOWS
when Arnold attacked. 1t was the
place where supplies were gathered
for part of Sullivan's army that
chastised the Indians. 1t was a mobil-
ization point in the Whisky Insurrec-
ton. 1t sent thirteen companies into
the War of 1912 and men camped in
the Riverside Parks until they moved
on to York and Baltimore. 1t was a
gathering point for Mexican war SOL
diers, some of whom barracked where
the Telegraph building now stands and
it was the place where the First De-
tenders mobilized to go to Washing
ton. And it was the site of Camp
Curtin with all its memories, while
rifle pits in it's River Front parks and
trenches on the hills just over the
Susquehanna reveal what significance
was attached to Harrisburg in war
| time.
SO much for the events in struggles
for preservation in which this city has
taken a part. There are many other
incidents connected with the history
of Harrisburg which are of more
than purely local interest. Certain
towns in New England, for example,
note long series of direct connection
with stirring times by monuments and
tablets and much writing. In the west
they put up buildings to mark historic
spots and monuments to Indian
chiefs who tomahawked people and
burned homes. In the Southern
States they tell you of historic Incl
dents of the neighborhood as soon as
you take off your coat and settle down
in an easy chair or as soon as you
start out for ride. Perhaps, us Har-
risburgers come within that category
| of folks mentioned by the late Gov
ernor Pennypacker who like to pay
some one to come from somewhere
else to tell them about their own
homes.