Albert Gallatin Jenkins Monument, Mechanicsburg
Introduction
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In 2005, the Camp Curtin Historical Society created this memorial for Confederate General Albert G. Jenkins. The ten-foot tall monument is one of a handful of Confederate monuments dedicated in the 21st century and features a bronze portrait of Jenkins and a plaque with a short biography. Above the portrait is crossed sabers representing his command of a cavalry brigade. The decision to create a monument for Jenkins was controversial owing to his deadly raids on civilian communities throughout this region that included the theft of horses and other personal property. The forays of raiders into this area of Pennsylvania also included the kidnapping of former slaves and free people of color, with raiders selling these people into bondage. Jenkins is also a controversial figure he routinely withdrew rather than face equal or superior numbers of federal troops. While Jenkins and his raiders won important victories in the early years of the war and were usually victorious against small detachments of home guards, his decision to abandon supplies at Chambersburg rather than face federal troops in the summer of 1863 typified the final years of his military career.
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Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
In 1862 Jenkins went back to Congress once elected to represent the 14th Virginia Congressional District under the first Congress of Confederate States. He spent less than six months in Congress before being named to the position of Brigadier General. In 1864 Jenkins was appointed Commander of the Department of Western Virginia and he took his men to Cloyd's Mountain to defend against a Union offensive led by Brigadier General George Cook. General Cook's men broke through Jenkins defenses in a battle that began on May 9th, 1864 and left Jenkins severely wounded. Union troops captured Jenkins who succumbed to the wounds he received at Cloyd's Mountain and died 24 May 1864.
Sources
http://www.campcurtin.org/pdfs/Monument_Dedications.pdf
"Jenkins, Albert Gallatin," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/5976.
Johnson, Flora Smith. The Civil War Record of Albert Gallatin Jenkins, C.S.A. West Virginia Division of Culture and History. Accessed February 22, 2017. http://www.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh8-1.html.
The Invasions of Pennsylvania. Disunion Series, New York Times. . Accessed August 30, 2018. https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/26/the-invasions-of-pennsylvania/.