Emmitsburg was not only important to the cavalry operations of the
Union army, but it also served as an important role in communications
and observing battle maneuvers in Gettysburg. Indian Lookout was a
very important landmark during the battle of Gettysburg for the Union
army. It served Union officers who could see the positions of the
armies on the battlefield. It also served as a communication center
via dispatches and telegraph for the Union army.
The Signal Corps used Jacks Mountain, Indian Lookout on the Catoctin
Mountain, Emmitsburg and Monterey Pass and South Mountain during the
Civil War. Due to the communication and observation advantages both
the Union and Confederate armies needed to obtain and protect their
positions using mountain gaps and overlooks.
Using the highest point in the Emmitsburg area, Indian Lookout
became a landmark. This area, situated near Mount Saint Mary's College
held the most spectacular view of the battle of Gettysburg. A letter
reprinted on March 25, 1976 from the Emmitsburg Chronicle by a
gentleman known only as A.J.B. wrote about the Battle of Gettysburg as
seen from Indian Lookout directly behind Emmitsburg. There he writes
about the battle as he saw it: “I should spare some of that talk for
describing the battle of Gettysburg as seen by us from Indian Lookout.
Truly we are at that place (Indian Lookout) almost the whole time
during the three days battle. We had plenty of glasses viz telescopes,
spy, and opera glasses. We had a clear view of the field and could see
so as to make the men in their lines, attending cannon, the cannon
themselves, making charges, officers riding along about their lines,
and in a word the whole scene was spread out to our view.”
“We could distinctly observe the changes in the position of the
armies: sometimes one army would slowly give way, but seeming to
dispute every inch of ground with as much energy and determination as
if the fate of the Nation depended on its holding or yielding its
position again rallying and driving the foe headlong before it for
some distance. When the retreating body either reinforced some fresh
troops or perhaps reinforced with courage, the battle would become
terrific.”
Emmitsburg resident George T. Humerick was sixteen years old when
the Civil War broke out. During the first day of the battle of
Gettysburg, he witnesses the flags waving from the top of the
mountains west of town. He went up to what is known as the old Wagaman
farm and came upon seven signal corpsmen taking signals from the
Gettysburg battlefield. The signal from Gettysburg read: "General
Reynolds was killed and they are pressing us hard.” Mr. Humerick, the
first civilian to hear of the death, spread the news through the
valley. It was by means of the signal corps that the Union forces at
Gettysburg kept in contact with Washington, D. C. From atop the
mountain here the signal was relayed to Sugar Loaf Mountain, below the
city of Frederick, and from there to Washington.
An article
reprinted in 1951 from the Emmitsburg Chronicle gave a sharp
description of the Union cavalry and signal corps that was stationed
at Emmitsburg during the time of the battle of Gettysburg: “Small
flags waved and dipped from the tower of the old Lutheran Church, used
as a signal station by the army. Bearers of dispatches and squads of
cavalry dashed madly through the town. The long roll of drums and the
blood-stirring bugle calls filled the air; the fields were alive with
soldiers. To the untrained eye it looked like a great mob, but it was
not a mob in any sense, for in a very short time the men fell into
orderly lines and in full marching swing, pressed forward across the
fields toward Gettysburg, towards victory and also many of them toward
death."
