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Ayres also explores the politics of the times. The burning of Chambersburg all but spelled defeat for Lincoln in the election of 1864, then U.S. Gen. Philip Sheridan reorganized the Army of the Shenandoah and delivered victories in Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLincoln did not think in August that he was going to be re-elected,\u201d Ayers said. \u201cYou can\u2019t understand politics and military history divorced from each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In \u201cThe Thin Line,\u201d Ayers witnesses the Battle of Gettysburg and the Confederate retreat at a distance through the eyes and ears of Chambersburg and Staunton citizens. A Franklin Repository correspondent visited Gettysburg days after the battle. Confederate Brig. Gen. John D. Imboden, a native of Staunton, led miles of wagons full of soldiers wounded at Gettysburg over Pine Stump Road enroute to the Potomac River and Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ayers said he does not know if Pine Stump Road has survived as a modern road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI feel chills when I come into Franklin County,\u201d Ayers said. \u201cI know it from the 19th century.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said he hopes his book will make Franklin County less familiar to the people who live here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was quite interesting to see the continuities and discontinuities in your community in the 19th century,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The county not only embodies what the war was about, he said. It also was a witness to war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n