Cove Contributions: 'Docile' State of Pennsylvania Target for Confederates

The year was 1863 and it was a time of widespread rumors. Every huckster passing through the area brought stories of death and destruction at the hands of Confederate troops in the south.

A trip to town brought Poppa scurrying back with plans to look for caves or other hiding places he could take the family if troops were spotted coming over the mountain east from McConnelsburg with all eyes on Blair County and Morrisons Cove.

To call it scary times for the farmers and shop keepers would be an understatement.

Woolen blankets produced at the mill on Potter Creek were hidden in the foundation of the old Lutheran church.

Caves on higher levels of Jack’s Mountain near an entrance point to Morrisons Cove were stocked with nonperishable foods.

The fear spread to higher levels with the Blair County Commissioners ordering the removal of all county records from the courthouse in Hollidaysburg for safe keeping.

A monumental task by today’s standards, Jim Snyder, president of the Blair County Geneological Society, said it was not the yeoman’s task one may think.

“Keep in mind Blair County was only a couple years old so it might have been 12 books or so,” Snyder said.

It was the Civil War with slavery and the future of a United nation at risk.

Brother was fighting brother. The rules were changing at warp speed.

Confederate troops were basking in the glow of southern victories, but they were in need of horses, cattle, blankets, even shoes, and Pennsylvania, a docile state, seemed an easy target.

“There were several reasons why the Rebels were interested in Blair County,” Cloyd Neely wrote in his perspective of the Civil War. “The Morrisons Cove area was a rich source of horses, cattle and food supplies.”

“Also woolen mills with their supply of blankets and clothing,” according to Neely.

Additionally one did not overlook the iron forges in the Cove supplying iron for the Union army artillery.

And making many of the decisions on where the battles were fought was Confederate General John D. Imboden who was an expert at destroying transportation facilities used by the Northern armies.

“The Cove mountain passes were the gateway to Altoona with its vast railroad facilities, which Imboden planned to destroy,” Neely wrote.

The railroads were key to the Union war efforts and following orders from General Robert E. Lee, Imboden and his troops had recently destroyed the Baltimore & Ohio facility in northern Maryland.

Neely, who had a lifetime interest in the Civil War, said that on June 17, 1863, Imboden’s troops took out even more railroad facilities in Cumberland, Md.

Determined to do its part for the war effort, the men of Morrisons Cove went into action.

Next week we’ll take a look at what was done to keep the enemy out.