Shelling of Carlisle

James Sullivan, fifteen years old at the time of the shelling of Carlisle on July 1, 1863, stated, " . . . Mother . . . convinced of the bombardment . . . decided we had better get away from our part of town . . . She . . . set out with her two reluctant children up Main Street [High St.] . . . We had reached but a short distance west of the Square when a lively firing by the Confederate batteries began . . . A shell exploded with a deafening force back by the First Presbyterian Church; another across the street from us . . . . A man . . . roared at us . . .

'For God's sake, woman, take them children off the street. Do you all want to be killed?' But it was not until we had reached the Methodist Church [southeast corner of Pitt and High] . . . that mother gave up going on . . . . "

"My further inquiries . . . that day brought me to conclude that most of the buildings were struck along the main street line. The term 'damage' might suggest exaggeration of the total effects of the shelling. Among conspicuous hits were two on the street wall of the First Presbyterian Church. In front of that building lay a dead horse . . . probably killed by the shell, the terrific explosion of which near us had so much frightened my mother . . . . "