Snyder Family 2016 - Person Sheet
NameSteve French 
Notes for Steve French
Steve French, a West Virginia history teacher, has published “Imboden’s Brigade in the Gettysburg Campaign.” Journal photo by Tricia Lynn Strader.
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HEDGESVILLE - Although much has been written about the Gettysburg campaign during the American Civil War, little was known of Confederate General John D. Imboden's activities commanding 1,300 to 1,400 men in food procurement, cavalry battles and covered retreats. General Robert E. Lee entrusted him with the 17-mile-long evacuation of 10,000 wounded from Gettysburg to the Potomac River crossing at Williamsport, Md. The distance - 42 miles.
Local West Virginia history teacher and Civil War author Steve French has completed 14 years of research to release "Imboden's Brigade in the Gettysburg Campaign." French's book is the first full-scale account of Imboden's brigade during the period in summer 1863.
The work includes first-hand accounts from Civil War era books, newspaper accounts, town records, diaries and family recollections and memoirs. It's well documented with an extensive bibliography.
Article Photos
Steve French, a West Virginia history teacher, has published “Imboden’s Brigade in the Gettysburg Campaign.” Journal photo by Tricia Lynn Strader.
French says he first became interested in Imboden when he heard historian Ed Bearss mention Imboden at a Cumberland Valley Civil War Roundtable talk about Lee's advance on Pennsylvania. French says he wanted to write about Imboden because he was looking for something new about the Battle of Gettysburg and because much of the activity took place around the Eastern Panhandle where he grew up.
"I was always interested in the Civil War, but really began to research it in the 1990s," he says. "I teach West Virginia history and the two subjects intertwine quite a bit."
The task wouldn't be easy. General John Imboden did not leave a diary or write many letters about the month leading up to and following the Battle of Gettysburg - at least none French could find. "Imboden always wrote reports, but one on this never surfaced. Maybe it was destroyed when Richmond burned or when the headquarter's wagon was lost at the end of the war," French says.
He started tracking information down and "plugging it away until I'd find what I was looking for," he says. He did find a diary from Imboden's brother Frank Imboden. "I used Captain Frank Imboden's diary and a number of other first-hand sources including local newspaper accounts of the raid. I talked to Imboden's great-great grandson and corresponded with other descendants of people who were in the story including the family of famed World War II General George S. Patton. Patton's step grandfather Col. George Hugh Smith rode with Imboden."
Part of the reason the book took 14 years of research was because he had to travel along the route that includes Cumberland, Oldtown, Hancock and Williamsport, Md., as well as Bath (Berkeley Springs), Great Cacapon, Alpine Station, Bloomery, Paw Paw, Romney, Moorefield, Falling Waters and French's hometown of Hedgesville. Not to mention Mercersburg, McConnellsburg, Needmore, Greencastle, Chambersburg and, of course, Gettysburg, Pa.
Imboden's group of raiders roamed all through this territory. Originally Imboden's brigade was ordered north into the Allegheny foothills to Hardy and Hampshire counties, to threaten the B&O Railroad and occupy the attention of Union troops guarding the line. Later, Lee suggested they cross the Potomac into portions of western Maryland and southern Pennsylvania. They engaged in skirmishes and bought cattle and sheep.
French says the whole purpose of the Gettysburg campaign was not to fight the Union Army, but to feed the Confederate Army and collect supplies. The army was starving. Civilians were not to be harmed. But Imboden's brigade did confiscate equipment wagons, clothing, hats, shoes, salt and bacon, French says.
That turned up interesting information. "Pennsylvania farmers and merchants made claims for losses suffered by Imboden's men," French says.
Imboden's men arrived in Gettysburg on July 3, not long before Pickett's Charge. Therefore, they did not participate. Only four civilians were killed in the entire Gettysburg campaign, but some 52,000 soldiers - about 28,000 Confederate and 24,000 Union - were killed, wounded or captured in the three days. Sometime after midnight on July 4, General Lee ordered the brigadier to prepare for the mass evacuation of the Confederate wounded back into Virginia.
"Lee chose Imboden's brigade because they had not been engaged in battle and were available for the assignment," says French, "and they were already guarding part of the army's wagon train."
French says at 4 p.m., Imboden ordered the first wagons of the 17-mile-long train to start the climb from Cashtown to the top of South Mountain. But they did find a fight. Despite surprise attacks by the Union cavalry even now at Greencastle and Cunningham Crossroad (Cearfoss today), attacks by local civilians and torrential rains (three inches), Imboden got most of the wagons to the crossing at Williamsport, Md.
A Confederate pontoon bridge and part of the brigade at Falling Waters had been destroyed by the Union. Slowed by high waters from fording the river, Imboden formed a patchwork command from available men. On July 6 at Williamsport, they beat back an attack by veteran Union cavalry in an artillery fight punctuated by skirmishes between dismounted cavalry and Imboden's men.
French says this is nicknamed the Wagoner's Fight because Imboden armed wagon drivers and walking wounded. Later, part of the brigade marched 4,000 captured Union to Staunton, Va., while the rest guarded the left of the Confederate line until the waters receded and the army crossed back into Virginia.
One of the hardest pieces of information to find, French says, was a picture of Cunningham Crossroads. "It took more than a year. No historical society or library had one," he says. "Finally, a friend of mine contacted a local barber there who had an old photo."
Easiest to find were Imboden's two later magazine accounts of the retreat from Gettysburg, about eight years after the battle.
In pre-war Virginia, John D. Imboden was a Staunton businessman. The brigade was created to go into the mountains of western Virginia to collect livestock and fight Union troops and loyalists. Imboden's war record was good, but toward the end he became ill and Col. George Smith replaced him. After the war, Imboden was a mining speculator. He was married five times.
French has written more than 60 articles on the Civil War for various magazines. He wrote "The Jones-Imboden Raid Against the B & O Railroad at Rowlesburg, Virginia," and edited "Four Years Along the Tilhance: The Diary of Elisha Manor."
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HEDGESVILLE - Although much has been written about the Gettysburg campaign during the American Civil War, little was known of Confederate General John D. Imboden's activities commanding 1,300 to 1,400 men in food procurement, cavalry battles and covered retreats. General Robert E. Lee entrusted him with the 17-mile-long evacuation of 10,000 wounded from Gettysburg to the Potomac River crossing at Williamsport, Md. The distance - 42 miles.
Local West Virginia history teacher and Civil War author Steve French has completed 14 years of research to release "Imboden's Brigade in the Gettysburg Campaign." French's book is the first full-scale account of Imboden's brigade during the period in summer 1863.
The work includes first-hand accounts from Civil War era books, newspaper accounts, town records, diaries and family recollections and memoirs. It's well documented with an extensive bibliography.
Article Photos
Steve French, a West Virginia history teacher, has published “Imboden’s Brigade in the Gettysburg Campaign.” Journal photo by Tricia Lynn Strader.
French says he first became interested in Imboden when he heard historian Ed Bearss mention Imboden at a Cumberland Valley Civil War Roundtable talk about Lee's advance on Pennsylvania. French says he wanted to write about Imboden because he was looking for something new about the Battle of Gettysburg and because much of the activity took place around the Eastern Panhandle where he grew up.
"I was always interested in the Civil War, but really began to research it in the 1990s," he says. "I teach West Virginia history and the two subjects intertwine quite a bit."
The task wouldn't be easy. General John Imboden did not leave a diary or write many letters about the month leading up to and following the Battle of Gettysburg - at least none French could find. "Imboden always wrote reports, but one on this never surfaced. Maybe it was destroyed when Richmond burned or when the headquarter's wagon was lost at the end of the war," French says.
He started tracking information down and "plugging it away until I'd find what I was looking for," he says. He did find a diary from Imboden's brother Frank Imboden. "I used Captain Frank Imboden's diary and a number of other first-hand sources including local newspaper accounts of the raid. I talked to Imboden's great-great grandson and corresponded with other descendants of people who were in the story including the family of famed World War II General George S. Patton. Patton's step grandfather Col. George Hugh Smith rode with Imboden."
Part of the reason the book took 14 years of research was because he had to travel along the route that includes Cumberland, Oldtown, Hancock and Williamsport, Md., as well as Bath (Berkeley Springs), Great Cacapon, Alpine Station, Bloomery, Paw Paw, Romney, Moorefield, Falling Waters and French's hometown of Hedgesville. Not to mention Mercersburg, McConnellsburg, Needmore, Greencastle, Chambersburg and, of course, Gettysburg, Pa.
Imboden's group of raiders roamed all through this territory. Originally Imboden's brigade was ordered north into the Allegheny foothills to Hardy and Hampshire counties, to threaten the B&O Railroad and occupy the attention of Union troops guarding the line. Later, Lee suggested they cross the Potomac into portions of western Maryland and southern Pennsylvania. They engaged in skirmishes and bought cattle and sheep.
French says the whole purpose of the Gettysburg campaign was not to fight the Union Army, but to feed the Confederate Army and collect supplies. The army was starving. Civilians were not to be harmed. But Imboden's brigade did confiscate equipment wagons, clothing, hats, shoes, salt and bacon, French says.
That turned up interesting information. "Pennsylvania farmers and merchants made claims for losses suffered by Imboden's men," French says.
Imboden's men arrived in Gettysburg on July 3, not long before Pickett's Charge. Therefore, they did not participate. Only four civilians were killed in the entire Gettysburg campaign, but some 52,000 soldiers - about 28,000 Confederate and 24,000 Union - were killed, wounded or captured in the three days. Sometime after midnight on July 4, General Lee ordered the brigadier to prepare for the mass evacuation of the Confederate wounded back into Virginia.
"Lee chose Imboden's brigade because they had not been engaged in battle and were available for the assignment," says French, "and they were already guarding part of the army's wagon train."
French says at 4 p.m., Imboden ordered the first wagons of the 17-mile-long train to start the climb from Cashtown to the top of South Mountain. But they did find a fight. Despite surprise attacks by the Union cavalry even now at Greencastle and Cunningham Crossroad (Cearfoss today), attacks by local civilians and torrential rains (three inches), Imboden got most of the wagons to the crossing at Williamsport, Md.
A Confederate pontoon bridge and part of the brigade at Falling Waters had been destroyed by the Union. Slowed by high waters from fording the river, Imboden formed a patchwork command from available men. On July 6 at Williamsport, they beat back an attack by veteran Union cavalry in an artillery fight punctuated by skirmishes between dismounted cavalry and Imboden's men.
French says this is nicknamed the Wagoner's Fight because Imboden armed wagon drivers and walking wounded. Later, part of the brigade marched 4,000 captured Union to Staunton, Va., while the rest guarded the left of the Confederate line until the waters receded and the army crossed back into Virginia.
One of the hardest pieces of information to find, French says, was a picture of Cunningham Crossroads. "It took more than a year. No historical society or library had one," he says. "Finally, a friend of mine contacted a local barber there who had an old photo."
Easiest to find were Imboden's two later magazine accounts of the retreat from Gettysburg, about eight years after the battle.
In pre-war Virginia, John D. Imboden was a Staunton businessman. The brigade was created to go into the mountains of western Virginia to collect livestock and fight Union troops and loyalists. Imboden's war record was good, but toward the end he became ill and Col. George Smith replaced him. After the war, Imboden was a mining speculator. He was married five times.
French has written more than 60 articles on the Civil War for various magazines. He wrote "The Jones-Imboden Raid Against the B & O Railroad at Rowlesburg, Virginia," and edited "Four Years Along the Tilhance: The Diary of Elisha Manor."