Battle of Carlisle The Battle of Carlisle was an American Civil War skirmish in Pennsylvania on the same day as the Battle of Gettysburg , First Day . Stuart ' s Confederate cavalry briefly engaged Union militia under Maj . Gen . William F . " Baldy " Smith at Carlisle and set fire to the Carlisle Barracks . Stuart ' s cavalry withdrew and arrived at the Battle of Gettysburg , Second Day , to the annoyance and concern of Gen . Robert E . Lee . Background . After Carlisle was settled in 1741 , the Carlisle Barracks military post was established nearby in 1757 and had an antebellum United States Army Cavalry School ( e . g . , Captain Stoneman ’ s four companies had a Civil War encampment at Horner ’ s Mill on May 6 , 1861 . ) By June 1863 the barrack ' s cavalry had been " withdrawn to Harrisburg " . At the end of the month , Confederate troops of Lt . Gen . Richard S . Ewell ' s Second Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia a few days earlier . On June 27 , 1863 , Ewell stopped at Carlisle en route to Harrisburg and requisitioned supplies , forage , and food from the populace . Ewell , as well as some of his officers , had been stationed at the Carlisle Barracks prior to the Civil War when they were still members of the United States Army . He paused in Carlisle while sending his cavalry under Brig . Gen . Albert G . Jenkins towards the Susquehanna River and Harrisburg . After resting much of his infantry overnight , Ewell moved northward in his quest to seize the state capital . After the Confederates left in response to an order from Lee to concentrate near Gettysburg , Carlisle had been reoccupied by Baldy Smith and a small contingent of New York and Pennsylvania militia from the Department of the Susquehanna , dispatched by the department commander , Maj . Gen . Darius N . Couch . The 32nd and 33rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia , Landis ' s Philadelphia militia artillery battery , and a company of the 1st New York Cavalry formed Smith ' s force . Stuart ' s raid . During the early evening of July 1 , Stuart led two brigades of cavalry , at the end of their raid into Maryland and Pennsylvania , to Carlisle to look for supplies and to attempt to ascertain the whereabouts of Ewell ' s troops . A third brigade , under Wade Hampton , remained behind in York County to guard a train of 125 captured Federal supply wagons . Instead of finding Ewell , Stuart encountered Smith ' s militiamen . Despite having a large numerical advantage , Stuart ' s troopers were too exhausted from a month of campaigning to attack the town outright , and Stuart initially feared that the enemy troops were veterans from the Army of the Potomac . After learning that Smith ' s men were only militia , Stuart sent Maj . Gen . Fitzhugh Lee into Carlisle with a white flag , telling Smith to either evacuate the town or clear out the women and children . Smith replied that he had already done the latter , and refused to surrender . Stuart ' s horse artillery under Captain James Breathed then began bombarding the town . After shelling Carlisle for several hours , Stuart received word that fighting had broken out to the southwest at Gettysburg between the main armies . Unable to take the town by force , Stuart disengaged , having ordered his troops to set on fire the Carlisle Barracks . Stuart ' s troops started moving towards the fighting at Gettysburg about 1 : 00 am on July 2 , 1863 . In addition to minimal Union and Confederate casualties , a lumber yard and the town gas works were destroyed after being set fire . However , Stuart ' s delay at Carlisle impacted his ability to rendezvous with Lee ' s main army .