Parts of two regiments of New York Militia, around eight hundred strong, had been rushed to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in response to the Confederate invasion. Brigadier General Joseph F. Knipe, at home recovering from wounds and malaria, took command and was ordered down the valley by rail to Franklin County to repair the railroad bridge at Scotland that General Jenkins Confederate cavalry had destroyed days before. This they did and the next day camped just south of Chambersburg on the road leading to Hagerstown. (By John Osborne)