Greencastle Jenny

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Greencastle streets were a stream of steel... And the scared earth muttered and shook to feel... of Longstreet's Corps." Little Jenny runs for "the flag her brothers died for" and waves it at Pickett's men. They cheer her
AUTHOR: Words: Helen Gray Cone (1859-1934) (source: Black Cat Poems) / Music: Bob Zentz
EARLIEST DATE: 1991 (reported date of Bob Zentz tune)
KEYWORDS: soldier patriotic Civilwar
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 1-3, 1863 - Battle of Gettysburg. Many Confederate forces pass through Greencastle, Pennsylvania on their way there
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "Greencastle Jenny" (Piotr-Archive #303, recorded 10/11/2022)
NOTES [662 words]: Yes, this is "Barbara Fritchie," only with a young girl rather than an old woman. Helen Gray Cone was a popular enough poet that Granger's Index to Poetry lists thirteen poems by her, but this isn't one of them. Bob Zentz set it to music; Judy Cook's version (which she recorded commercially as well as giving to Derek Piotr) seems to be a variation on this tune.
There is an element of truth in the song: Greencastle, Pennsylvania is about ten miles roughly south of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, about halfway between Hagerstown, Maryland and Chambersburg. Most of the Confederate troops that went to Gettysburg followed the Hagerstown/Chambersburg route, and many of them, including Longstreet's Corps and Pickett's division of that Corps (the rearguard of the army). approached Gettysburg along the Chambersburg Pike.
Longstreeets Corps was not the first to pass through Greencastle, though. Ewell's Corps had passed through the town on June 20 as the vanguard of the invasion. Indeed, it had fought a skirmish against the 1 NY Cavalry there. Boatner, p. 355, says this resulted in twenty casualties, although it's not clear to whom. Ewell's men also requisitioned many supplies from the town (Coddington, p. 163). It is reported that the bands of Rodes's division played "The Bonnie Blue Flag" as this was going on (Coddington, p. 163). The song claims Longstreet's troops played it also, which is not improbable.
A. P. Hill's Third Corps also passed through the town on the way from Hagerstown to Chambersburg (Freeman, Volume III, p. 73).
The cavalry brigade of Jenkins made Greencastle its base for raiding for several days (Coddington, pp. 161-162).
There was even a small skirmish in the town *during* the Battle of Gettysburg, when Captain Ulric Dahlgren's cavalry squadron reached the town (to a hero's welcome) on July 2, attacked a Confederate mounted unit, capturing three officers, fourteen enlisted men, and a small pack of official letters to Lee's army (Tucker, pp. 312-313). It didn't make any real difference in the battle, but it gave Greencastle something to talk about!
There was also a story about Confederates seizing free Blacks in Pennsylvania to make them slaves -- illegal under Confederate law, but of course Blacks had no way to protest. Some of the people of Greencastle freed some of them. Pickett's troops guarded some of these victims of war crimes (Coddington, p. 161).
There is a story coming out of Hood's Division (part of Longstreet's Corps, though obviously not Pickett's Division) somewhere in this part of Pennsylvania, which is perhaps something to think about: "A story went the rounds concerning a woman who stood looking defiantly at the Texans as they streamed past the door of her house. She had a huge American flag pinned to her 'ample' bosom. One of the men with a straight face said, 'Take care, Madam, for Hood's boys are great at storming breastworks when the Yankee colors is on them'" (Coddington, p. 157).
Judy Cook states that Longstreet's men were around Greencastle on June 26. This is correct: "Most of [Longstreet's] men camped on the night of June 26 about four miles south of Greencastle, and next day marched to within a few miles of Chambersburg. On the 29th Longstreet's corps, except Pickett's division which remained behind to hold the town, moved out of Greenwood [yes, a different town] on the Gettysburg Pike" (Coddington, p. 172).
It wasn't the last the Confederates would see of Greencastle. On July 4, after the Confederate defeat, Robert E. Lee started sending his wounded home. The first contingent went through Greencastle (Coddington, p. 538).
All of this makes this poem extremely unlikely (and none of my sources describe anything like it except for that story from Hood's Division). Her family, having seen the casualties, would certainly have kept "Jenny" from risking her life, given that it was clear that casualties could happen! But then, "Barbara Fritchie" isn't true, either. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 6.7
File: DPio303

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