Pennsylvania Militia Take on Virginia Troopers Before Gettysburg

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]Hey all, Ron here from Military Images Magazine with a new episode of Life on the Civil War Research Trail.

[00:00:09]I want to take you to a battalion of veteran Confederate cavalry from Virginia and Maryland riding along the pristine Pennsylvania countryside on the morning of Saturday, June 27th, 1863.

[00:00:26]Roughly 200 saber strong, battleh hardened and accustomed to living in camp and on campaign, these great troopers advanced towards a place called Hanover Junction was part of an intricate rail and telegraph network that linked two big northern cities together. The rest of the union, Baltimore and Washington DC.

[00:00:52]Meanwhile, an equal number of hastily recruited militia men prepared to meet them. These soldiers belong to the 20th Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia, one of the many emergency regiments hastily organized over a period of a few weeks as Confederate forces poured across the Keystone state border. The 20th had been formed in Philadelphia and was known as the Customhouse Regiment for the number of employees who served in the ranks.

[00:01:25]These men were clerks and office workers. Most had little or no military experience. And yet here they were preparing to meet the sons of the South.

[00:01:38]However, at least one of the Pennians proved an exception. He's pictured here.

[00:01:44]Captain Edwin S. Lychens was the only son of a Philadelphia broker and his wife. They had done well. Lychens served as a first lieutenant in the Keystone State's 115th Infantry that had been organized the year before in early 1862 for three years.

[00:02:04]They eventually left for the front lines of Virginia with the West Pointer in command, Robert Patterson, and they brought a motto with them. Never retreat from the sword.

[00:02:16]Lychans, well, he didn't last long with the regiment. After 10 months, during which he participated in the second battle of Bull Run, he turned in his resignation. The reason was clear, straightforward. He wrote without elaboration, I do not feel competent to fill my position with some courage in that. His resignation was promptly accepted.

[00:02:42]What exactly made him walk away from his leadership position is unclear other than the fact that he felt he wasn't able to handle the duties. A contributing factor may have been a whirlwind romance and that involved a young woman in Camden, New Jersey. It's an early 1862. The Philadelphiaians had a first encampment there and Lyens met Josephine Dodd. She was the daughter of a local carpenter. The couple wed on May 30th, 1862, the day before Lychens and the rest of the 115th broke camp and left town for the South.

[00:03:26]Evidence suggests the marriage caused a little tension in the Lykan's household.

[00:03:32]The marriage was not announced in a Philadelphia newspaper until the spring of 1863, months after it occurred, and Lyens's father later described his son as unmarried.

[00:03:46]Now, after his resignation in 1862, he returned to Philadelphia.

[00:03:54]He might have remained there for the rest of the war. He had done his duty.

[00:04:00]Maybe not as well as he thought he might have, but he he did his best in 10 months. But then came the emergency mobilization of state troops prompted by the movement of General Roberty Lee's army into Pennsylvania. And by mid June 1863, Lyens was back in uniform.

[00:04:21]A three company battalion from the 20th, including now Captain Lychens and his command, were dispatched to protect Hanover Junction, right in the path of the Confederate Sabers.

[00:04:37]The Philadelphiaians in the 20th were under the command of Lieutenant Colonel William H. Sickless, to my knowledge, no relation to General Dan Sickls, who would distinguish himself days later at Kettisburg.

[00:04:52]William H. Sickless had most recently served a month-long stint that was back in September of 1862 during another mobilization during Roberty Le's first invasion of the North, the one that ended at Antidum.

[00:05:08]Now, Lieutenant Colonel Sickls, Captain Lyens, and the rest of the battalion arrived at Hanover Junction on June 22nd and set up camp on various farms near the Northern Central Railway, one of the targets. They were short. 5 days later on June 27th, that Saturday, they formed a skirmish line along those railroad tracks and they waited and waited as the cavalry men headed in their direction.

[00:05:40]Those enemy cavalry men, those 200 troopers, they were under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Elijah White. His nickname was LE. It's a native Marylander, had been educated in the north. He and his men had distinguished themselves at Brandy Station where they rode into action with a frenzy battlecry.

[00:06:00]They're later known as Whites Comanches.

[00:06:03]It was officially designated for Confederate Army recording purposes as the 35th Battalion of Virginia Cavalry.

[00:06:12]Now, White's battalion comprised part of a 2,000man expeditionary force under the command of Brigadier General John B. Gordon. They were charged with the seizure and destruction of critical railroads and bridge crossings, infrastructure along the Sesuana River, and the capture of the city of York.

[00:06:35]After they arrived at Hanover Junction early that afternoon on June 27th, White's battalion advanced with that signature warp towards the 20th very thin skirmish line. White decided against a full-fledged attack and instead skirmished with the militia, but just for a short time, Captain Lyens and his comrades put up a token resistance and then they fell back to arise about a mile away.

[00:07:05]Lies White then turned his attention to destroying the junction. They tore up the railroad track and smashed the telegraph office. Baltimore authorities reported that telegraphic communications ceased about half past noon that day.

[00:07:22]The riders also burned rolling stock and a nearby railroad bridge over Creek.

[00:07:30]Meanwhile, Captain Lyens and his company along with Lieutenant Colonel Sickles and the rest of the battalion joined other militia that fallback position now at Writesville. That was the next day, June 28th. Confederate forces advanced on the town and the battalion. Well, they broke and fled in a panic. It didn't go well for the 20th. According to one after action report filed by an aid to the commander of the district of the Suscuana, he wrote, "I regret to have to add that the conduct of sickles and two companies of the 20th Pennsylvania militia deserves investigation.

[00:08:09]It has been represented to me that the lieutenant colonel and some 15 or 20 of his men have unnecessarily but deliberately surrendered to the Confederate troops. Some of the men threw away their arms and the two companies without authority hurried away, straggling along the road to Lancaster and filling the country with alarming reports.

[00:08:31]Sickless and 18 other men were captured and briefly held prisoner.

[00:08:36]Sickless. Well, he was a scapegoat who received blame for the battalion's embarrassing performance. I was cashiered.

[00:08:45]No record that I found mentions lychans in connection with this sorted affair.

[00:08:51]Didn't get assigned any of the wrongdoing. But what was left of the 20th? Well, they rounded up their scattered forces in time to participate on guard duty during the Battle of Gettsburg. Just days later, LE White's battalion, they engaged in limited action at Gettysburg. They helped hold off Union cavalry during that withdrawal of General Lee's defeated army back into Virginia.

[00:09:17]Lyens mustered out with the rest of the 20th in August of 1863 after the existing emergency was declared over.

[00:09:27]But he wasn't quite done being a soldier. In January 1864, he enlisted, this time as a private in the 132nd New York Infantry, and he joined its veterans on relatively quiet duty in North Carolina. why he took a drop in rank and why he wanted to stay in the army.

[00:09:49]Not exactly sure, but maybe he still had something to prove. Maybe he still wanted to serve. Maybe he still had those patriotic impulses.

[00:09:58]Whatever motivated him, he remained on duty this time until June of 1865.

[00:10:04]The war was over now. And the 132nd, well, they mustered out and disbanded.

[00:10:09]Lyens then transfers. He's still not done. He transfers to the 99th New York Infantry and he reports to division headquarters for an assignment in the agitant general's office, a desk job.

[00:10:24]This was, by the way, the fourth regiment in which he served during the war, but this time it would be his last.

[00:10:33]barely into his new assignment. He fell ill with typhoid fever and succumbed to its effects. On July 20th, 1865, his body was buried near the Post Hospital at Greensboro in North Carolina.

[00:10:50]Back home in Philadelphia, Josephine Josephine Lyens was left a childless widow at age 21. 5 years later she remarried and lived until 1927.

[00:11:04]Just two years after Lyens's death, his remains were disinterred and returned to Philadelphia and interred in the Oddfellow Cemetery and then later on in the 1800s, the body was moved again, this time to the Philadelphia National Cemetery.

[00:11:24]So, thanks for listening. We'll see you on the next episode of Life on the Civil War research trail.