Mercersburg Area History
Chambersburg, the county seat, was founded in 1764 by Benjamin Chambers for whom it was named. Franklin County (population 121,000) was created on September 9, 1784, from part of Cumberland County and was named for Benjamin Franklin.

Background: The 15th President of the United States of America, James Buchanan (1857-61), was born locally and resided in Mercersburg until he traveled to college in Carlisle, PA.  He was the predecessor to President Abraham Lincoln who led the United States into the Civil War.  President Buchanan made his presidential candidate speech from the Mercersburg Mansion House balcony in 1856.

Franklin County is Civil War Country. It sustained more military activity during the Civil War than any comparable area in the North. Because of its strategic location in the heart of the Cumberland Valley, the area was the target of three major Confederate cavalry raids.

1862 - Battle - Antietam Battlefield – first war in the North (Maryland, September 17).

1862 - Cavalry raid - Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart’s Pennsylvania raid and capture of Mercersburg citizens (October 10-12).

1863 - Battle - Gettysburg Campaign* (July 1 –3).  Mercersburg served as a temporary hospital for 700 captured Confederate Soldiers  *Zion Union Cemetery, Mercersburg, PA burial ground for the Massachusetts 54th United States Colored Troops (USCT).  Made famous in the movie “Glory”.

1863 - Calvary raid - Brig Gen. A.G. Jenkins’ “Border Rangers” 2 guns/ 1,175 men (July 5) at Mercersburg. 

1864 - Calvary raid – Lieut. John H. McNeill’s Virginia’s “Partisan Rangers” slave raid on  Mercersburg.

1864 - Gen. McCausland, on the way to burn Chambersburg, fought Gen.McLean in the Mercersburg area (August 28).

These events incurred severe destruction and economic hardship on the population. The final visitation by McCausland's cavalry left the county seat, Chambersburg, a smoldering ruin, the only northern town burned by regular Confederate forces during the war. At least 19 separate military engagements, most of them skirmishes, occurred in the county. This is more than any other county in the north. More than 150,000 soldiers, from both sides, camped at various locations in the area.

Because of all this rich heritage, Franklin County and Mercersburg can truly be called "Civil War Country"!