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Hanover Junction as it appeared in 1863.
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Hanover Junction as it appeared in 1863.

Credit: Library of Congress

Hanover Junction, Pennsylvania, located just north of Harrisburg, was a crucial link in the rail line between Baltimore and the Pennsylvania Railroad, the major east-west railroad in the north. Disruption of rail traffic supplying the Union army from Washington could be the difference between victory and defeat. So on June 27, 1863, Lieutenant Colonel Elijah White and his "Comanches" of the 35th Virginia Cavalry Battalion burned the railroad bridges and tore up track at Hanover Junction.

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