The Cow on the Tracks: How One Small Mishap Changed the Gettysburg Campaign

On the afternoon of June 24,1863, 700 men of the 26th Pennsylvania Emergency Regiment were steaming towards Gettysburg.  They had been ordered to the mountains west of Gettysburg as a blocking force against a possible Rebel invasion of the county.  As luck would have it, an elderly woman was driving her cow on a railroad bridge crossing a gully over Swift Run, east of town at the same time.  Suddenly, an unscheduled train carrying the 26th Pennsylvania appeared.  Although the woman was able to reach safety, the cow was struck and killed, derailing the locomotive and sending several cars over the embankment.  As a result, the 26th Pennsylvania never reached its assigned destination.  Join Timothy H. Smith as he discusses how a cow on the tracks may have altered the course of the Gettysburg Campaign.

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