Gettysburg Campaign: The Earthworks That Were Never Needed

In June of eighteen sixty-three, Confederate forces moved north through Pennsylvania and panic spread through the interior. Militia units dug earthworks along the roadsides near here, preparing to defend the critical Pennsylvania Railroad line at Altoona from a feared Confederate thrust.

Traces of those trenches are said to survive beside the road. They were never tested. On June thirtieth and July first, Union forces rushed south toward the crossroads town of Gettysburg, drawing Lee's army into the battle that would become the bloodiest of the war. The Confederate threat to Altoona evaporated overnight. These quiet earthworks, dug in urgency and abandoned in relief, are among the few physical traces of the fear that gripped central Pennsylvania in those days before Gettysburg.