Stuart's raid portrayed in painting

Reprinted from the Morning Hearald
August 13, 2001

By RICHARD F. BELISLE / Staff Writer, Waynesboro

MERCERSBURG, Pa. - When Gen. J.E.B. Stuart ravaged
Mercersburg on Oct. 10, 1862, during a brief plundering raid
through Franklin County, he could never have imagined that
Mercersburg would one day want to honor his dastardly
deed.

That's exactly what's going to occur on Oct. 11 and 12, 2002,
nearly 140 years to the day that Stuart led 1,800 of his
cavalry troopers through Mercersburg on what would become
one of the most successful and lucrative raids into Yankee
territory during the Civil War.

It has also become the subject of a 42-by-23-inch painting of
the raid by New York artist Ron Lesser. It was commissioned
by Jerry Ross, 57, of Fort Loudon Road, whose family farm
was in the path of Stuart's raid.

Ross paid Lesser more than $10,000 for the painting, which
depicts Stuart and his men passing through his family farm.
He plans to leave the painting in his will to the Fendrick
Library in Mercersburg.

Prints will be made and sold with all profits going to the town
library, Ross said.

He's looking for sponsors for two more paintings to be done
by Lesser. One would show Stuart's men on the public
square intimidating the locals with cannons and the other
would show Stuart leaving Mercersburg.

Stuart's 24-hour foray into Pennsylvania came less than a
month after the Battle of Antietam. Confederate Gen. Robert
E. Lee's army had crossed the Potomac River back into
Virginia.

Lee, needing to know if Union Gen. George B. McClellan
was preparing to pursue him, sent Stuart's cavalry north to
investigate.

Stuart made a big circle around the Union army by crossing
into Maryland at McCoy's Ferry, moving up Blair's Valley
Road into Montgomery Township, Pa., into Mercersburg and
eventually into Chambersburg, Pa., where there was a lightly
defended, but major Union Army depot.

Ross said he learned about Stuart's raid in "General J.E.B.
Stuart's Raid Through Mercersburg," written by Mercersburg
author John V. Thompson IV in 1996 and in other articles.

While Mercersburg claims fame for being the birthplace of the
James Buchanan, the nation's 15th president, Ross thinks
the community should capitalize historically on Stuart's
surprise raid as well.

Ross helped to form a local committee that is planning a
140th anniversary celebration of the raid for next year. He'd
like Lesser's paintings to be a focal point of the celebration.
The event would include Civil War battle reenactments and
an encampment.

Ross and his brother inherited the family farm.

Work on its two-story brick farmhouse was started in the early
1830s, he said. David Seibert Smith, Ross's
great-great-grandfather, bought the farm around 1860, he
said.

Ross said Stuart's cavalry came into Mercersburg on a route
that took them between Pa. 75 and Corner Road, now called
Park Street.

According to Thompson's history, the Confederacy was
desperate for supplies and equipment. Stuart's men took
more than 600 pairs of shoes and boots from a local
Mercersburg store, along with more than 600 horses that they
had rounded up from area farms.

Thompson's book said the Rebels left cattle and other
livestock because the troops were moving too fast. The book
also said that Lee ordered Stuart not to plunder in Maryland
because of southern sympathizers there. He also told Stuart
to pay civilians with Confederate scrip for what was taken,
but that any military supplies were his for the taking, Ross
said.

© 2001 THE HERALD-MAIL COMPANY

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