McAllister Mill
Underground Railroad Site
     I stand at dusk on the old historic road bed where the ford cross Rock Creek and the road twists and turned around the old McAllister Mill foundation. You can truly feel the solemn history of the past. The whispers of the secret meetings held in the old mill to plot the way to freedom.  The baying of the hounds following the slaves along the creek.  The light from the lantern of the slave hunters, flickering through the trees.  The young McAllister boy, standing in the shadow of the mill, waiting, and then hiding those poor fugitives under the mill wheel for a short rest before they continued  their journey north .  The cries and moans of the wounded, both blue and gray, who laid on the floor of that old mill, and those who died and were carried to the hill beyond, to finally rest in peace.  The foot steps of the soldiers of the 2nd Mass. who crossed the old foot bridge to scout the Benner Hill area.  The metal rods and steps to the bridge still there today.  The roar of the cannon on the hill above, as they fired into Culp's Hill to repulse Johnson's boys.The old wagon, creeping past the mill with the body young George Sandoe lying in its bed. He was the first one to be killed.  The boys, jumping into the mill pond to cool off after their harsh march up the Baltimore Pike. The captured rebel wounded being sorted by the provost marshal to determine who was able to continue on down the Baltimore Pike to prison, and who went to the mills to be cared for. A soldier, who had died next to a tree, so emulsified that old man Benner and Tawny could not move him to a grave, but could only cover him with dirt where he was.   I then walk in the moon light, up over the hill, past the monuments, back to the house, hoping that those yet to come will be able to experience that moment.
                                                                                                                                                                                                    Dean Shultz, March 2006


McAllister's Grist Mill - Circa 1890 - 1900
View down road beside mill, showing gable and southwest walls of stone building and outbuilding in background. Woods across Rock Creek in background. 
McAllister's Grist Mill Ruins
Taken from a Gettysburg Tour Book from the early 20th century. 

Resources
"The Effect of the Confederate Invasion of Pennsylvania on Gettysburg's African American Community"    by Peter C. Vermilyea.
               from  Gettysburg Magazine
 "To Seek Freedom."   The Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania

National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
                              The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center will open on the banks of the Ohio
                              River in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, in the summer of 2004.