General Early's Demands on Gettysburg

Last summer, I had the opportunity to attend a reenactment of General Early making demands on the town of Gettysburg. It was a very difficult thing to see and even harder to hear due to the large crowds that had gathered at the doorway to the Courthouse. I hadn't heard anything about it occurring again this year, so I never got to see it again. But upon thinking back on it, I got to wondering exactly what were General Early's demands?

A little background information first. On June 26, 1863, General Early approached Gettysburg looking for supplies. This was one of the main reasons that the Confederates had even entered the north to begin with (there were other reasons also, but this was just one of them). General Lee needed to resupply his army. General Early was going through different towns and threatening to burn them down if they didn't give him what he demanded. Well, on June 26, he did just that to Gettysburg.

The list wasn't long, but the amounts were large. Here is the list that I have been able to find:
1) 1000 pairs of shoes
2) 500 hats
3) 1200 pounds of salt
4) 7000 pounds of bacon
5) 10 barrels of onions
6) 10 barrels of whiskey
OR
$10,000 cash

Most of the demands are things I would expect an army to want....but the one that kind of surprised me was the demand for onions. Onions??? I could see wanting fresh vegetables or demanding carrots or beans or things of that nature, but onions just seem a little odd. But that could just be me.

Gettysburg couldn't meet these demands. Most of the stores in town had heard that the Confederates were in Pennsylvania and heading their way, so they packed up and shipped their goods to Lancaster and points east. When the demands couldn't be met, the town council opened the town up to General Early and his men to look for whatever they could find. They found very little. So, instead of burning the town, they moved on. One thing they did locate, was some boxcars on the railroad on the east side of town loaded with supplies for the local militia unit. They took the supplies and then burned the cars.

Eventually, they wound their way to York, where the people did what they could to fill the demands. I believe they wanted $100,000 from the people of York and were able to actually get their hands on $28,000.

I guess the people of Gettysburg could be really happy that they had heeded the warnings. By listening to the tales of those passing through town, they were able to ship their goods off and thus able to save themselves the heartache of losing everything. The town needed those goods in the days following the battle, as everything had been stolen or destroyed. They had rough days ahead of them.