Community News
at Ball’s Bluff Regional Park - north of Leesburg VA
Don't miss our battle anniversary events on a new date Saturday October 29th.
Schedule of events Oct 29:11:00 AM - guided battlefield tour
12:00 PM - skirmish between reenactor units
1:00 PM - concert from The 8th Green Machine Regiment Band
2:00 PM - cannon firing demonstration
We'll be setting up the illumination event beginning at 5:00 so be sure to return at 7:00 PM for lighting of luminaria near National Cemetery.
World-renowned presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin will deliver the 32nd Rev. Thomas J. Furphy Lecture on Thursday, October 27, at DeSales University.
Goodwin is the author of seven critically acclaimed and New York Times bestselling books, including her most recent, Leadership in Turbulent Times, which incorporates her five decades of scholarship studying Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Baines Johnson.
Goodwin was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in history for No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II. She worked with Steven Spielberg on Lincoln, which was based in part on her award-winning Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. She also recently served as executive producer on Washington, a History Channel miniseries that chronicled George Washington’s journey from soldier to statesman.
The lecture will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Billera Hall. It’s free and open to the public but tickets are required. For ticket reservations, visit alumni.desales.edu/furphy. If you have any questions, please call 610.282.1100, ext. 1364. Goodwin will sign copies of her books after the lecture. She will also take part in a closed student session earlier in the day.
Established in 1983, the Furphy Lecture Series is named in memory of Fr. Thomas J. Furphy, OSFS, who distinguished himself as a teacher of “National Problems” during his 38-year career in education. The theme of the series is “National and International Problems.”
Goodwin joins an illustrious group of previous speakers, including Jeb Bush, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, John Cardinal O’Connor, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, William Colby, Abba Eban, Lee Iacocca, Antonin Scalia, George F. Will, Vladimir Posner, William J. Bennett, Shimon Peres, Zbigniew Brzezinski, George Mitchell, Louis Freeh, Benazir Bhutto, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, William S. Cohen, Richard Armitage, John Ashcroft, Trent Lott, Dr. William Poole, Tom Ridge, J.C. Watts, and Jon Huntsman.
Historians Allen Guelzo , Jon Meacham, Harold Holzer to appear at Dedication Day Events in Gettysburg Saturday, Nov 19. (Gettysburg, PA)
Three distinguished scholars of American history, Allen Guelzo, Jon Meacham and Harold Holzer, will appear at the 159th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address on Saturday, November 19, 2022. The Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania announced that this year’s Dedication Day keynote speaker will be Dr. Allen Guelzo, author of award-winning books on Civil War history.
Guelzo commented, “Abraham Lincoln was not a president who strayed much from his office in Washington, but he made his longest exception to that rule when he journeyed to Gettysburg in November, 1863 to deliver "a few appropriate remarks" at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery. That's how important Gettysburg was to him. That's why I am so pleased to be able to speak there, one hundred and fifty-nine years later: because Gettysburg, and what Lincoln said there, are the vital nerve of American identity”. Dr. Guelzo is a former Director of Civil War Era Studies at Gettysburg College. Now at Princeton University, Guelzo is the Senior Research Scholar in the Humanities and Director of the Initiative on Politics and Statesmanship. He is the author of Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America, Lincoln and Douglas: The Debates That Defined America, and Gettysburg: The Last Invasion. His most recent books are Reconstruction: A Concise History (2019) and Robert E. Lee: A Life (2021).
Historian Jon Meacham will be joining us on the rostrum to present the Gettysburg Address with comments, and will also be featured at the Lincoln Fellowship Annual Meeting and Luncheon at the Wyndham Hotel after the ceremony. Jon Meacham won the Pulitzer Prize for his biography American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. He is the Rogers Chair in the American Presidency at Vanderbilt University and is the author of several bestsellers. His new biography And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle will be released in October 2022, and he will sign books at the luncheon.
Harold Holzer, pre-eminant Lincoln scholar, will introduce Meacham at the podium during the ceremony, and will interview him during the luncheon. Harold Holzer is a National Humanities medalist and author of multiple books about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. His latest book is"The Presidents vs. the Press: The Endless Battle Between the White House and the Media -- From the Founding Fathers to Fake News," Holzer has been the keynote speaker at two previous Dedication Days and is a co-founder and chairman of The Lincoln Forum held annually in Gettysburg.
The Reverend Stephen Herr, president of the Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania, expressed the Fellowship’s enthusiasm for the participation of Guelzo, Meacham and Holzer. Herr shared that “The Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania is delighted to welcome three historians of their caliber to the dedication anniversary of Gettysburg National Cemetery. Their commitment to quality scholarship and passion for sharing America’s history have been hallmarks of their careers. Their participation in this anniversary event continues the long and distinguished line of historians who have contributed to the Dedication Day ceremony.”
The Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania has hosted ceremonies on Dedication Day since 1938. Over the years, many influential and noteworthy national figures, including Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Marian Anderson, Tom Ridge, John Hope Franklin, Shelby Foote, Carl Sandburg, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Stephan Lang, Sandra Day O’Connor, LeVar Burton, Ken Burns, Stephen Spielberg, and others have appeared at the ceremony to help new generations of Americans remember Lincoln’s words and to rededicate ourselves to the ideals at the core of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
This year, the Fellowship will partner once again with Gettysburg National Military Park, Gettysburg College, and the Gettysburg Foundation to offer this free event to the public. The program also features a U.S. Naturalization and Citizenship ceremony, which will allow us the special opportunity to celebrate together, as Americans, while we welcome a new group of citizens.
The 2022 Dedication Day events will begin at 10:15 a.m., with a wreath-laying ceremony at the Soldiers’ National Monument, inside Gettysburg National Cemetery, followed by the Dedication Day Program at 10:30 a.m. at the cemetery Rostrum. This event is free and open to all. A limited number of seats will be available to the general public, so feel free to bring lawn chairs. Parking for the event is provided at the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center in Lot #3, with free shuttle service on the Gold Line Shuttle to the Cemetery. The Gold Line will operate from 8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. In the event of severe inclement weather, the program will relocate to Gettysburg College’s Majestic Theater, 25 Carlisle Street, Gettysburg, PA. For more information, visit www.lincolnfellowship.org.
P.O. Box 3372, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania 17325
National Park Service Awards $150,000 Grant for Museum in Winchester
“One Story… A Thousand Voices” Exhibit to Open in April 2023
The Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation (SVBF) has been awarded a $150,000 grant from the National Park Service to support the creation of a new permanent exhibit at the Shenandoah Valley Civil War Museum in downtown Winchester.
This new exhibit, “One Story… A Thousand Voices” – which will open in April 2023 – will include the complete renovation of the second-floor exhibit space and the creation of additional exhibits in the first floor court room area. The exhibit will tell the Valley’s Civil War story through the experiences of the people who lived through it – using artifacts, individual stories, and captivating imagery to show history at a personal, human level. It will cover major battles and famed events, as well as the everyday lives of soldiers and free and enslaved civilians. The exhibit will take visitors from the path to war through the tumultuous years of combat and destruction, the post-war era, and the efforts to preserve that history today.
"Our plan is for a museum with exhibits that are thought provoking, impactful, and inspiring,” said Keven Walker, CEO of the Battlefields Foundation. “The grant from the National Park Service is going to make that possible.” The grant will be matched by recently appropriated state funds, major private donations, and support from Foundation members. Fundraising for this project, which will cost over $700,000, has been underway for a number of years.
It was the commitment of major funding by the James R. Wilkins Charitable Trust – the largest donor to the effort – that made the project a reality, and allowed the Battlefields Foundation to move forward and seek out additional funding.
The exhibit will use sensory experiences, three-dimensional walk-through exhibit spaces, interactive touchscreens, QR codes, and a cell phone application. At the heart of the exhibit will be a remarkable collection of artifacts – such as a pike from John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, a crude bullet-proof vest worn by a soldier, a mourning dress worn by the famed Mother Crim, a table given to the freed slaves of the Washington family, and arms and equipment of soldiers both north and south.
In addition to new exhibits, the historic courtroom on the first floor of the museum will also feature a 360-degree virtual reality experience on the trial of John Brown. Developed in partnership with Shenandoah University’s Center for Immersive Learning, the experience will place viewers in the middle of key moments of the trial.
The “One Story… A Thousand Voices” project is designed to promote partners and historic sites throughout the Valley, as the exhibit and its accompanying materials will foster increased visitation to those sites.
The museum, which was originally conceived by Harry and Trish Ridgeway, first opened in 2003 as the Old Courthouse Civil War Museum. The Battlefields Foundation assumed operation of the museum in 2015 and renamed it the Shenandoah Valley Civil War Museum. Since then, the Foundation has been developing plans and raising funds for this project. “We’re standing on the shoulders of the forward-thinking people who created the museum,” said Walker. Fittingly, items from the renowned Ridgeway Collection of Civil War artifacts will be prominently featured in the new exhibit.
The museum will be closed down on November 1 to begin renovations and installation. The “One Story… A Thousand Voices” exhibit will open in April 2023 – in conjunction with the Foundation’s 2023 National Conference in Winchester.
Purchase In-person Tickets Here
Watch From Your Own Home Here - Purchase the Zoom Link
When CIA employees walk into their headquarters in suburban Virginia, they are now greeted by a young Black woman. She’s holding a lantern and armed with a pistol in her belt, looking fearless.
The woman is Harriet Tubman, a hero of the Underground Railroad, portrayed in a striking bronze statue recently unveiled at the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley.
The idea for the statue came from CIA officers who studied Tubman in a leadership class, including her time spying for the Union Army during the Civil War.
….
“This is very meaningful,” said Cobbs, who wrote a historical novel about Tubman’s role gathering intelligence for the Union Army, "The Tubman Command."
“She was a kick-ass spy operating in extremely difficult circumstances with extremely high stakes,” said Cobbs, a professor at Texas A&M University.
Although school children are familiar with Tubman’s work helping rescue slaves and bring them to freedom in the North, when she was dubbed “Moses,” her time as a Union Army nurse and spy is often overlooked, Cobbs said.
In June 1863, Tubman played a crucial role in the planning and execution of a daring raid into Confederate territory in South Carolina, leading a team of eight scouts who gathered intelligence on enemy positions on the Combahee river.
Through her intelligence gathering, she learned that some Confederate gun emplacements had been removed and that defensive positions were lightly manned, according to Cobbs.
Tubman then took part in the raid, leading Union gunboats to strategic points near the shore where fleeing slaves were waiting.
The operation came off without a hitch and with no Union Army losses. More than 750 slaves were liberated, a pontoon bridge destroyed and troops disembarked to torch valuable Confederate property, including plantations, fields, mills, warehouses and mansions.
Newspaper accounts in the North hailed the raid and credited an unnamed Black woman as the mastermind of the effort, a “she Moses.” Her role in the operation made her the first American woman to command an armed military raid, and last year, Tubman was accepted into the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Corps Hall.
After the war, Tubman had financial struggles and was denied repeated requests for a Union Army pension, which was awarded to Black soldiers who took part in the same raid. After 30 years, she was granted a pension for her work as a nurse, not as a soldier and an intelligence officer.
Devil's Den circa 1909. NPS Photo
GETTYSBURG, PA. – Gettysburg National Military Park announces that Devil’s Den will reopen to visitors on Friday, September 30.
A six-month rehabilitation project was necessary to address significant erosion along walkways and unauthorized social trails that created safety hazards. The project reestablished the features that make up this segment of the battlefield and will allow visitors to better immerse themselves into the historic landscape that is essential to understanding the three-day Battle of Gettysburg.
Numerous safety measures were included in this project.
· The project provided a major increase in ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) trail surface by 214%, from 700 square feet to 2,200 square feet.
· The project decreased the overall hardscape (trail surface) by 70 square feet. The increase to overall greenspace, and additional water runoff mitigation efforts, will better absorb, deflect, and slow water runoff and decrease the chances for future landscape erosion.
· Slip resistant granite steps replaced uneven and worn stone steps throughout the project area. The slip resistant steps provide a consistent, rough surface (even when wet) that will provide a safer walking surface for visitors throughout the year.
Although the area will reopen to visitors, one central area will remain fenced to allow more time for further vegetation growth. The fencing in this area will remain until native grasses have fully established. This process may take up to two growing seasons – up to 2024. In the interim, all non-native vegetation will continue to be treated within the entire project area.
For more information about this project, including project timeline, photos, and maps, please visit our website at https://go.nps.gov/DevilsDenRehab.
Jason Martz, Communications Specialist
Gettysburg National Military Park and Eisenhower National Historic Site will conduct lethal removal of white-tailed deer as part of the White-tailed Deer Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement between October 2022 through March 2023.
This action addresses over-browsing of native vegetation and agricultural crops and is a management strategy that supports long- term protection, preservation, and restoration of critical elements of the cultural landscape and other natural and cultural resources while maintaining a deer population at both park units. The cultural landscapes of both park units are fundamental resources and critical to the interpretation of the events that took place at each park.
Hunting is not permitted inside the two parks--only qualified federal employees will take part in the effort to manage the deer populations affecting the parks. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Wildlife Services will be doing the work under an inter-agency agreement with the National Park Service (NPS). NPS closely coordinates all activities associated with implementation of the plan with the Borough of Gettysburg, surrounding Townships including Cumberland, Mount Joy and Straban, state law enforcement officials and with the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
In June of 2017 the Pennsylvania Game Commission designated a new Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Management Area which includes a portion of Gettysburg National Military Park and all of Eisenhower National Historic Site. For this culling season all culled deer will be tested for CWD regardless of which area they are taken from.
Once negative CWD tests are confirmed, all venison will be donated to local area food banks and non-profits via United Way of Adams County.
Jason Martz, Communications Specialist
Gettysburg National Military Park & Eisenhower National Historic Site
THE GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC (G.A.R.) CIVIL WAR MUSEUM & ARCHIVE
Presents a New Program via ZOOM Sunday, October 2, 2022 at 1:00pm
“Philadelphia’s Civil War Military Hospitals: Then and Now”
Presented by Walt Lafty
By the beginning of the Civil War, Philadelphia had already become the leading center of medical education and practice in the country. It would also become one of the largest and most influential military hospital departments in the Union.
This program will discuss many of the two dozen military hospitals that treated over 157,000 soldiers from 1861 thru 1865. Some military hospitals were known for their specialties, some known for other reasons. We will look at the locations of where they provided services then and what those locations look like today. We will also look at the organization and transportation system which helped provide support to those military hospitals.
Walt Lafty BIO
Walt Lafty has been active in various Civil War groups for many years. Those include the Delaware Valley CWRT where he is a board member as well as a member of the preservation committee. He also is a member of Baker-Fisher Camp 101 Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War in Hatboro and currently serves as the camp secretary. In addition, he is an active member of the Old Baldy CWRT, and at the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Museum Walt serves as the research administrator and volunteer.
Please send a request to reserve a virtual seat for this outstanding presentation by replying to this e-mail at garmuslib1866@gmail.com
You will be sent a link with a password that will enable you to access the program within 24 hours of the start of the presentation.
We will make every effort to reply, but G-Mail may be slow and our volunteer may be called away during the day before or the morning October 2.
As a lover of history, you know how critical it is to keep history alive, especially today! We very much appreciate your continued support for the Museum.
A FREE virtual program online
GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC MUSEUM & ARCHIVE
8110 Frankford Ave. (Holmesburg Neighborhood - N.E. Philadelphia)
• www.garmuslib.org
From the Gettysburg Connection
September 17, 2022 by Alex J. Hayes
The story of the three-day battle of Gettysburg, its aftermath, and President Abraham Lincoln’s immortal Gettysburg Address has been told thousands of times in hundreds of ways.
But the people who have lived in Gettysburg and the other 33 Adams County municipalities for hundred of years, and even the dinosaurs who once roamed here, have stories too. And the Adams County Historical Society is excited to tell them at its new 5,000-square-foot museum on Biglerville Road, Cumberland Township.
“There has never been a museum or historic site that truly paid tribute to the story of Gettysburg and Adams County,” said the society’s Executive Director Andrew Dalton. “This is a museum about the people of our community and how they dealt with events of national significance. They were ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events.”
The museum is part of a 29,000-square-foot facility that, when complete, will include a cafe, reading room, library, climate-controlled archive storage, event space, and conference room. It is currently an active construction site and the realization of a dream the society has had almost the entire time 25-year-old Dalton has been alive. Dalton and Education Director Tim Smith live and breathe the museum’s progress and can describe every detail without notes.
“Sometimes I come in here and stop to think this facility could be here in 100 years,” Dalton said. “It’s exciting to think about how many millions of people will come through here.”
Construction is expected to be complete in November and a soft opening is planned for February, in conjunction with filmmaker Ken Burn’s Film Festival at the Majestic Theater Feb 10-12.
The museum will be an interactive experience featuring videos by filmmaker and Gettysburg native Jake Boritt. Visitors will stand in a recreation of Samuel Gettys’ Tavern on Race Horse Alley, highlighted with audio recreating early 1800s tavern talk.
The Battle of Gettysburg is not ignored, but the focus is on how thousands of soldiers descending on the town affected the people who lived here. A 360-degree immersive experience will give museum goers an understanding of what it was like to stand in a home as bullets and cannon balls flew around it.
“We sunk the floor so we could have audio of a family hiding in the basement. You are basically in there and experiencing the battle with them,” Dalton said.
Adams County life after the battle is highlighted with stories about the apple industry, World Wars I and II, President Dwight David Eisenhower’s Gettysburg home, battlefield preservation, the evolution of tourism, and immigration. One wall is dedicated to people who made a large impact on this town, including former director of South Central Community Action Programs Jean Odom and teacher and battlefield guide Colonel Jacob Sheads.
The second floor will house archives, a library, offices, and the Battlefield Overlook Event Center. The event center will be available to rent for special events such as weddings, reunions and other parties. Giant windows present a beautiful view of Barlow Knoll, where fighting occurred on July 1, 1863.
“You need to make some means of making museum money besides museum admission,” Smith said.
Smith is most excited about expanding educational programming so he can share his love for Adams County history.
Dalton and Smith said the construction process has been going smoothly, mostly thanks to the support of many donors. The entire $10.5 million project is almost completely funded, but donations are still being accepted. The society must raise another $1 million by February 2023 to receive a $1 million “all or nothing” match from local philanthropists David and Pauline LeVan.
Loring and Jean Schultz, owners of the Farnsworth Inn in Gettysburg, excitedly presented a $5,000 check to Dalton on Sept. 15.
“We hope this inspires other people and other local businesses to step forward,” Schultz said.
More information on the Adams County Historical Society, including how to support the campaign, can be found at https://www.achs-pa.org.
