Decisions at Gettysburg

Decisions at Gettysburg: The Nineteen Critical Decisions That Defined the Campaign by Matt Spruill

Last Thursday at the Rocky Mountain Civil War Roundtable meeting Matt Spruill talked about his newest book, Decisions at Gettysburg. It was a great talk and having read the book since then it is also a great book. To be fair as a friend of Matt's I have read portions of the manuscript as he's worked on it. So I knew from the moment I got the book it was going to be a great book, but this was the first time I had seen it all put together, especially with the illustrations.

The idea for the book is that its one thing to know what happened at Gettysburg, that is what we all learn first. But it is more important to learn why the events happened as they did. There were many decisions made during the campaign and battle that left us with the Gettysburg we know today. Some of those decisions were more important than others, some had more influence on the direction the battle took than others. One thing Spruill stresses early is that changing the decision does not mean Lee could have won, just that the battle and campaign would have unfolded differently. Some of them might have lead Lee to victory but others might have made Meade's victory even more complete.

For example the first decision of the book is that Lee basically has four options in the summer of 1863. He can simply wait for the Union to regroup and attack him, he can maneuver in Virginia to bring on a battle, he can send send men West which would force him to be on the defensive, or he can launch an invasion of the North. Knowing Lee's character the obvious choice is that he will invade the North but it was a critical decision in that the other ones will not lead to a battle in rural Pennsylvania. The summer battle might then be Third Manassas or Second Chancellorsville, etc.

Another example is Sickles moving forward on the second day. His other option is to stay in position along Cemetery Ridge and Little Round Top. In his mind Sickles has valid reasons for moving forward, (the high ground of Hazel Grove at Chancellorsville that he held, was ordered off of and then was hammered by Confederate artillery probably came to mind as he saw the high ground of the Peach Orchard) but he still made the decision. The difference in flow of battle is that combat would have occurred closer to his other position. Also how would the Confederates have attacked this position? Would they have tried to flank it, or come straight at Sickles, or drive up the Emmittsburg Road like originally planned and hope Sickles doesn't come off the ridge to strike the flank. There likely would be zero mention of The Wheatfield or Peach Orchard, they would just be a wheatfield troops marched through or a peach orchard the Confederate artillery fired from.

An example of a decision that was not critical to the course of the battle is Howard leaving troops in reserve on Cemetery Hill when he first enters the fight on July 1. It was a good decision in that it gave the Union a reserve to fall back on. In an odd way its a good decision because it means less troops later trying to force their way through the congested streets on town when the Union had to retreat from its advanced positions. This is all just a commander doing a good job.

The critical decisions can also be strategic, operational, tactical and organizational. Two of the pre-campaign decisions Spruill discusses are Lee's reorganization of his army (going from two corps to three) and how the Army of the Potomac's artillery was reorganized after Chancellorsville. Both will have an impact on how the battle is fought and if the command structures had been left alone the battle probably would have unfolded differently.

I highly recommend the book to anyone who wants to better understand why things happened at Gettysburg like they did.

Sickles at Gettysburg

Sickles at Gettysburg by James A. Hessler

This is a wonderful book, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Daniel Sickles is someone I've always been fascinated by but had never read a biography about because they all seemed to be too pro-Sickles or too anti-Sickles, there did not seem to be a good even handed biography of him out there. I think Hessler has solved this.

The book focuses on Sickles actions at Gettysburg and how he spent the rest of his life defending those actions. There is of course some discussion of his life before the Civil War, probably most well known for murdering Philip Barton Key, and his military record in the Army of the Potomac prior to Gettysburg. But the bulk of the book concerns all aspects of Sickles' Gettysburg performance. Hessler does side with Meade's side in most of the Sickles-Meade arguments over Sickles' Gettysburg record.

The one area I thought the author could have devoted more attention to was explaining how the battle might have been fought if Sickles had stayed put like Meade wanted. Show exactly where his lines would have been and try to guess how Longstreet would have attacked the Union lines. My thinking has always been that Sickles forced Longstreet to use his men taking a position that did not imperil the main Union lines. Sickles was helped out by other Union units taking Little Round Top so that he was not flanked from that position but if Sickles had not been able to secure Little Round Top if he stayed put then it seems to me his position would have been flanked and a greater calamity fallen on the Union lines than actually did. And my own recollection (and Hessler confirms this) is that Hancock's lines ended well north of Little Round Top (near the present location of Pennsylvania state monument), so did Sickles have enough men to connect to Hancock's left and hold Little Round Top?

I think it would have been about a mile long line if it was straight and since the ground was not level, especially to cover Little Round Top, and the left should be refused at least a bit. Sickles had 10,675 men in the ranks. The men would form in two ranks, and if each man is allotted 18 inches of line (somewhere I remember reading that is about how much front a man occupies) then those men would cover a front of roughly 1.5 miles. Measuring on a park map it looks like the line is roughly 1.3 miles long so allowing for some refusal of the flank and some reserves it appears that Sickles could have covered Little Round Top.

Maybe someone has done a study that breaks down exactly how much front Sickles could have filled on the Meade line and also how Longstreet might have reacted, he certainly would not have assaulted straight up the Emmittsburg Pike. I have not read the study if it has been done, but I'm not a voracious Gettysburg reader so it is quite possible that I have missed such a study.

In any respect this is a great book. I only wish Sickles life was made into a movie. He is a fascinating character and Hessler has provided a pretty fair treatment of him. Buy this book.

The Complete Gettysburg Guide

The Complete Gettysburg Guide by J. David Petruzzi. Maps and photography by Steven Stanley.

I am behind the times in reviewing this book, it already has received numerous highly positive reviews, but I’m sure one more won’t be too much in the way.

This is as complete a guide of Gettysburg as I’ve ever seen. What separates it from the other Gettysburg guides is its attention to the periphery. Besides chapters covering the main fighting of July 1-3 there are chapters on the June 26 skirmishes, the cavalry fighting on Brinkerhoff’s Ridge and East Cavalry Field, the fighting at Hunterstown on July 2nd and at Fairfield on July 3rd. But there is also tours of the town of Getysburg, the National Cemetery, Evergreen Cemetery, the various rock carvings around the battlefield and the plentiful hospital sites scattered around the town.

I especially enjoyed the chapters on the National Cemetery and the rock carvings. I loved the amount of detail given to the variety of mistakes in the cemetery. Some of these are simply stone cutters who made misspellings (and not just of soldiers’ names) but some are because the soldier was misidentified when buried. Since then researchers have found that no soldier by that name served in that regiment but that same name was found in a different regiment, or state which meant there are Confederates buried in the National Cemetery. Today that’s not a big deal but before the reconciliation of the 1890s veterans would have been quite upset to know that.

I also enjoyed the rock carving chapter because it looks like it would be a fun tour to do. I knew about some of the carvings but the tour created here has 21 stops and would be a fun extra tour to do next time I’m there, especially finding the dinosaur footprint and fossils with my young son.

The book itself is beautiful. Stanley’s beautiful maps grace nearly every other page. When there isn’t a map there is a great photo as Gettysburg is a very photogenic battlefield (that may sound odd but the right combination of monument and natural beauty creates amazing photos at many battlefields). The text is clear with good directions (giving odometer readings at tenth mile increments and longitude and latitude coordinates for GPS users). I haven’t had the good fortune to field test it yet but the directions are clear and informative so I do not foresee any problems in the field. The page stock is even different than most books, a nice thick page that feels very durable for field use. I’m not sure it’ll survive a rain storm but normal field use should be fine.

I only wish there was a Shiloh version of this book. I am excited to hear that an Antietam version is in the works.

Those Damned Black Hats!

Those Damned Black Hats! The Iron Brigade in the Gettysburg Campaign.
By Lance J. Herdegen

I am a fan of the Iron Brigade. I would feel this way if its only significance was a heavy number of Wisconsin regiments but they then ended up being one of the better fighting units of the war. When I heard Iron Brigade historian Lance Herdegen was doing a book focusing on the brigade in the Gettysburg campaign my only question was when I would add this book to my library not if I would. Then last year Herdegen was one of the speakers at the Rocky Mountain Civil War Symposium so I decided to wait until the event to buy the book (helping the event’s sales and also to get it signed).

While the focus of the book is Gettysburg Herdegen also does a good job briefly explaining the activities of the brigade both before and after Gettysburg. The battle of Gettysburg is the meat of the book but it was good to also have coverage of the post war efforts at memoralization and the various battle anniversaries the brigade survivors attended.

And as far as the battle goes expect a ton on the events of July 1st. There is some coverage given to the brigade’s activities on the other days but after July 1st there were too few men left to do much of anything. The brigade went into battle with 1883 men but on the night of July 1st the brigade quartermaster only issued 500 rations. The 2nd Wisconsin lost 77%, the 6th Wisconsin lost 48%, the 7th Wisconsin lost 51%, the 19th Indiana lost 72%, and the 24th Michigan lost 80%. Officially they lost 189 killed, 774 wounded and 249 missing (leaving 671 survivors yet only 500 rations were issued so apparently close to 200 men were separated from the regiment that night.

The book itself was a pretty quick read. It has 33 short chapters, none is more than 15 pages long. So it was quite easy to read a chapter or two during the small batches of free time that I have as a husband and father.

The maps are wonderful (done by Bradley Gottfried of Maps of Gettysburg fame) and plentiful. There are also a good number of pictures of brigade veterans.

Superintendent vacancy at Gettysburg

As you might have heard over the past day or so John Latschar, Superintendent at Gettysburg, has found himself in a bit of trouble over sexually explicit photos found on his computer. This morning it has been reported that he has been reassigned to a desk job within the National Park Service. Which means that there is an opening at Gettysburg.

Dear Jonathan Jarvis,
As you have probably read events for the Civil War's sesquicentennial have started to happen. The first event was the recent retracing of John Brown's night march to Harper's Ferry that helped bring the impending conflict closer to the minds of all Americans. And now you have a superintendent vacancy at one of the crown jewels of the National Park system, Gettysburg.

The most recent superintendent, John Latschar, did a tremendous job in returning the battlefield to its 1863 appearance. I know the locals and environmentalists didn't always agree with him but Gettysburg historians are generally very pleased with the condition of the field.

But this work is not done. It would be very troubling if the next superintendent came in and erased all of the hard work that has been in the recent years returning the battlefield to its original appearance. The work must continue. But there is an opportunity here to do so much more.

If you hire me to be the next superintendent I promise that by Gettysburg's sesquicentennial you will have a battlefield more closely resembling its 1863 appearance than at any time since then.

Here is my plan:
First we must continue the work of cutting down woodlots that were not there in 1863 and replanting the woodlots and orchards that have since disappeared.

Second, we should make an annual effort to plant each field with the same crop that it was at the time of the battle.

Third (and my most revolutionary step) we should remove from the battlefield area all things that would not have been there in 1863, with a few exceptions. The monuments, markers and tablets will remain of course, as well as the cemetery and museum. But then all concrete roads and power lines should be removed. Any building in the area between the first day's fight and the southern part of the battlefield that was not there on July 3rd needs to be removed. I realize this means a lot of gas stations, hotels, homes and restaurants will need to be removed but they can be relocated on the periphery. We then will need to build 2 small visitor's centers on the edges of the battlefield (most likely on near York Pike and Highway 15, and another west of the battlefield on the Chambersburg Pike) where people can park their cars and then choose to enter the park by foot, horse or buggy. The only place modern transportation will be allowed is on the Baltimore Pike between the current visitor's center and Highway 15.

I know my plan is expensive and will be met by opposition by people who will be forced to relocate. But they live in modern intrusions on the battlefield, the battlefield was there first, they choose to live in Gettysburg and many probably picked it for its historical value. Its time to return that historical value. We can create a battlefield that very closely resembles the way it was those three momentous days in July. People will flock to Gettysburg. Even if they recently visited the park they will want to come again to see its improved look. This increased visitation will allow us to slash the cost of the museum (and cyclorama and movie) and make family vacations more affordable. The new transportation visitor centers will also have some display room for artifacts so that more of the huge Gettysburg collection can be shown.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
Nick Kurtz

Symposium Presenters

First off let me apologize for not providing a full recap of what each presenter said. I took notes not to provide a verbatim account here, I took notes mostly of things I thought were important or thought provoking.

The first speaker was Russel Beatie and he covered the corps structure in the Army of the Potomac from the its beginnings through the battle of Gettysburg with some discussion of how it would look on the eve of the 1864 Virginia campaign.

Beatie said a few things I do not agree with, that's the beauty of an event like this, you can talk to him immediately about why he came to conclusions he did. The first thing he said I didn't agree with is that Lincoln was an "abomination as a military president." I think Lincoln did struggle figuring out how to be commander in chief, trying to be hands off at times but then thinking he needed to very hands on at other times. I'm not going to say he didn't make mistakes but he did pilot the Union to victory. Might it have come sooner if he made some better decisions? Possibly. Beatie pointed out that giving army commands to Pope, Hooker and Burnside showed Lincoln's poor personnel decisions, but on the other hand when he made those decisions he did not have a huge pool of leaders to choose from. Beatie also said that only experience identifies people who are qualified; Lincoln never figured it out while Grant and Meade did. Again, I don't think this is a 100% fair attack on Lincoln as some of his greater blunders in picking leaders came early in the war when the level of experience was low across the board. As the war progresses he does pick Meade and Grant for higher commands, so if Grant and Meade are his examples of leaders who picked good subordinates than shouldn't Lincoln get some credit for putting those two men in high command?

One thing Beatie said that I found somewhat funny is that Burnside was the worst performance at Antietam. I found this humorous because I don't agree with him, but also because the next presenter, Stephen Recker, said that Burnside was the hero of Antietam since he was the only corps commander to take the position he was ordered to take.

Recker used a prototype of Virtual Antietam during his presentation (Virtual Gettysburg is already done and sold well at the event) and it was amazing to see. If my own budget wasn't so tight right now I probably would have left with a copy of Virtual Gettysburg and had my name on a list for Virtual Antietam.

He focused on Burnside's final attack, calling it the Pickett's Charge of Antietam. Basing this on numbers involved and the ground covered. Another thing he said was that if the Union had captured Nicodemus Heights on the 16th there probably would not have been a battle at all. He thought this was probably the lost opportunity of the battle.

Next up was Bradley Gottfried who went through the best and worst performing brigades at Gettysburg. There were many reasons a brigade might fall into either category. They might benefit from a strong position on the ground, or have high moral. Or they might be fresh troops, attacking a tough position, or their commander might not be very good.

The slides moved too quick for me to take copious notes of the good and bad brigades but I did manage to write a few down. Gottfried gave high marks to Perrin, Vincent, Stannard, McCandless, Greene and the Iron Brigade. Some of the poor performers were Mahone, Smith, Fisher, Brockenbrough, Ames and von Gilsa.

Lance Herdegen then talked about the Iron Brigade from their inception through Gettysburg. This was a talk I was looking forward to as my family is all from Wisconsin and I've always enjoyed reading about the Iron Brigade's exploits. So I mostly sat back and soaked it all in and took very few notes. Luckily the college was videotaping the entire day so later I might be able to post some clips here.

Our final presenter was Tim Smith, a Western Theater historian who also has done a ton of work on the history of preservation and the formation of the battlefields into national parks. The method of preservation at Antietam, mainly buying roadways and not much other land, is usually called the Antietam Plan but Smith argues that it should be called the Chattanooga Plan as that is where it was first implemented. At Chattanooga it was the method used mostly because there were few large tracts left to buy in the 1890s, the town had grown over the battlefield already, while at Antietam the decision was based more on financial concerns. The other main method in the 1890s was buying close to 100% of the battlefield, as was done at Chickamauga (and later at Shiloh). Gettysburg was a bit of a hybrid of both methods as there are areas that large chunks of land were purchased and there are other areas were small strips were purchased.

Gettysburg books

Brett at TOCWOC, has tallied the results from the joint blogging effort I recently participated in concerning the top Gettysburg books. Click here to see the full tally, but here is a shortened version of the top 10:
1 Gettysburg Campaign: Study in Command by Edwin B Coddington
2 Gettysburg - The Second Day by Harry W. Phanz
3 Retreat from Gettysburg by Kent Masterson Brown
4 (tie) Gettysburg: A Journey in Time by William A Frassanito
4 (tie) Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
6 Gettysburg July 1 by David Martin
7 Pickett's Charge in History and Memory by Carol Reardon
8 Plenty of Blame to Go Around by Eric Wittenberg and J. David Petruzzi
9 Pickett's Charge: The Last Attack at Gettysburg by Earl J. Hess
10 Gettysburg by Stephen Sears

I think the list is right on with one exception, I don't think two Pickett's Charge books should be in the top 10 but that's a minor quibble. I am surprised how highly Retreat from Gettysburg was ranked. Looking over my list again I'm shocked that I forgot to include Killer Angels in any fashion. That was the book that got me hooked on the Civil War and started all this craziness. I'm glad others remembered to include it so that it ended up in a tie for fourth.

Here's my list again for comparison:
1 Gettysburg Campaign: Study in Command by Edwin B Coddington
2 Gettysburg - The First Day by Harry W. Phanz
3 Maps of Gettysburg by Bradley M. Gottfried
4 Gettysburg: A Journey in Time by William A Frassanito
5 Gettysburg Day Two: A Study in Maps by John Imhof
6 Covered With Glory: 26th North Carolina at Gettysburg by Rod Gragg
7 In the Bloody Railroad Cut at Gettysburg by Lance J Herdegen and William JK Beaudot
8 Lee's Real Plan at Gettysburg by Troy D Harman
9 Retreat from Gettysburg by Kent Masterson Brown
10 Pickett's Charge by George R Stewart

This was a fun event and I hope we do something like it again in the future.

Top Gettysburg Books

After much hemming and hawing here are my top 10 Gettysburg books. First the list and then some commentary follows below.

1 Gettysburg Campaign: Study in Command by Edwin B Coddington
2 Gettysburg - The First Day by Harry W. Phanz
3 Maps of Gettysburg by Bradley M. Gottfried
4 Gettysburg: A Journey in Time by William A Frassanito
5 Gettysburg Day Two: A Study in Maps by John Imhof
6 Covered With Glory: 26th North Carolina at Gettysburg by Rod Gragg
7 In the Bloody Railroad Cut at Gettysburg by Lance J Herdegen and William JK Beaudot
8 Lee's Real Plan at Gettysburg by Troy D Harman
9 Retreat from Gettysburg by Kent Masterson Brown
10 Pickett's Charge by George R Stewart

I made my list as if I had to trim my Gettysburg section to only 10 books these are the ones I'd pick.

1 - Coddington's Gettysburg Campaign. This is the classic book on the battle. Recently Stephen Sears and Noah Andre Trudeau have done very good books but its hard to knock Coddington off his perch. I didn't put Sears or Trudeau on the top 10 because I didn't want to have the list clogged with similar books. If I had made my criteria only the top 10, regardless of similarity then I think Sears and Trudeau would have made the list.

2 - Phanz's Gettysburg - The First Day. It was hard to pick only one Phanz book. he has also done good work with "Gettysburg: The Second Day" and "Gettysburg: Culp's Hill & Cemetery Hill." But I have an affinity for the first day so I picked this volume. Once again if I was picking just a top 10 of all time I'd probably have all three of these books in the list (but the list would already be 60% done and there are plenty of other good books out there).

3 - Gottfried's Maps of Gettysburg. I love maps, can't live without them, can't have too many. This book is perfect. I'm glad to see that Savas is making this a series that will extend to many other battlefields.

4- Frassanito's Gettysburg: A Journey in Time. At first I thought this seemed pretty high to have a picture book, but its become a classic. I cannot think of any other picture book I'd put in the top 10 at all. David J. Eicher's "Gettysburg Battlefield" was good, but has its own issues/irregularities that I can't rate it in the top 10.

5 - Imhof's Gettysburg Day Two: A Study in Maps. I realize that's two map books in the top 5 but if you've ever seen Imhof's book you'd understand why. Of course Imhof's book is exceptionally rare, only 1500 copies printed. I know 1500 is a pretty healthy sized print run but when the book is being listed for $575 to $1300 online (and not autographed copies) it indicates that the demand is still out there. I've heard that copies have sold in the $400 range so the $575 isn't a crazy figure, its high but not so out of line to absurd. For whatever reason the publisher has no interest in printing a second edition.

6 - Gragg's Covered With Glory. This is the story of one of the hardest hit regiment's in the war. They have a horrific experience at Gettysburg getting into a tough scrap with the 24th Michigan on July 1st and then making the attack on the Angle on the 3rd. I couldn't read books with such a detailed focus all the time but do enjoy them. Gettysburg has more of this small story books than any other battle.

7 - Herdegen and Beaudot's In the Bloody Railroad Cut. Once again I picked a small scale book. This time the focus is the fighting in the railroad cut, of which the 6th Wisconsin played a huge role. My family is from Wisconsin and I had a relative in the 6th Wisconsin (though he enlisted post-Gettysburg) so I have an affinity for all things Iron Brigade. Herdegen has also come out with a new book on the Iron Brigade at Gettysburg. I haven't bought it yet but will. If we do this list next year that book may edge out this one.

8 - Harman's Lee's Real Plan. It seems like a few years ago we had a bunch of books come out that were titled Lee's Real Plan, or something similar. Harman's book makes the point that Lee could never have seen "The Copse of Trees" and instead was focused on Ziegler's Grove. I think he makes a ton of sense and proves his point. I think the title is overplaying it a bit too much but this book does somewhat shift our understanding of Lee's plan. Of course it means the whole thing was messed up as the attack makes its penetration south of Ziegler's but after all the other mistakes of the campaign one more isn't such a big deal.

9 - Brown's Retreat from Gettysburg. We've also been treated to a couple of books on the retreat from Gettysburg after it being widely ignored. I haven't read the book done by Wittenberg, Petruzzi and Nugent but have heard it is good too. One day I'll read it but for now I'll include Brown's on my list.

10 - Stewart's Pickett's Charge. Pickett's Charge is the iconic moment of Gettysburg. When I talk to average people they don't know about the Peach Orchard or Culp's Hill or Barlow's Knoll. But they will have heard about Pickett's Charge. How could I leave that moment off a top 10 Gettysburg list? I couldn't. The last spot was hard to pick as there were several good books I haven't mentioned but in the end I had to have Pickett's Charge here.

There are many other good Gettysburg books I have not mentioned. In addition to the other ones I listed in my notes above I'd also like to say that I enjoyed the following books (I guess I needed to do a top 25 list). In no particular order:

Brigades of Gettysburg by Bradley M. Gottfried
Pickett's Charge in History and Memory by Carol Reardon
Gettysburg Day Three by Jeffry D Wert
Pickett's Charge: Eyewitness Accounts edited by Richard Rollins
Lincoln at Gettysburg by Gary Wills
The First Day at Gettysburg edited by Gary W. Gallagher
The Second Day at Gettysburg edited by Gary W. Gallagher
The Third Day at Gettysburg and Beyond edited by Gary W. Gallagher
War College Guide to Gettysburg edited by Jay Luvaas & Harold W Nelson
Gettysburg's Bloody Wheatfield by Jay Jorgensen
North with Lee and Jackson: Lost Story of Gettysburg by James A. Kegel
Gettysburg by Lt Frank A Haskell & Col William C Oates
Battle of Gettysburg: The Official History by George R Large
Grappling with Death: Union 2nd Corps Hospital at Gettysburg by Roland R. Maust
35 Days to Gettysburg by Mark Nesbitt
Struggle for the Round Tops: Law's Alabama Brigade by Morris M Penny and J Gary Laine
The 19th Indiana Infantry at Gettysburg by William Thomas Venner
Days of Darkness: Gettysburg Civilians by William G Williams

Gettysburg cyclorama

Last October my dad was in Gettysburg without me. The Visitor's Center had just instituted their new fee schedule (which has since been raised). The restored cyclorama was fairly new as well so he took a bunch of photos.

Gettysburg Blog CoOp

Brett Schulte over at TOCWOC (The Order of Civil War Obsessively Compulsed) has decided to do a cooperative blog on Gettysburg on the anniversary of the battle. Some of us bloggers will post our top 10 Gettysburg books on July 1-3. Brett will then compile the results and post it on his blog, and I'll cross post it here as well.

I'm looking forward to it. I think I might also do a top 10 of favorite things to see at Gettysburg. I've only been there twice so this list will be a bit hard to pull off but I can also include places I want to see but haven't yet.

Hopefully this will inspire the group of us to do similar lists for other battles or personalities. Those will be tougher lists to generate as there are more books on Pickett's Charge than on Chickamauga or Shiloh, but it could still be a fun exercise with some modifications.

Gettysburg Address

As I'm sure most of you have heard John Latschar is stepping down from his post as Gettysburg's superintendent to take a the head role at the Gettysburg Foundation (which runs the new visitor's center).

With tongue somewhat in cheek I would like to throw my own hat in the ring to be the new superintendent starting March 1, 2009.

I have never been employed by the National Park Service, or any sort of government agency. I do have some management experience from my time as a retail manager and am used to keeping spending within budget parameters (both as a manager and in my personal life). But those experiences will certainly pale in comparison to whomever else applies for this wonderful position.

What I can bring to the table though is a true love for the park. I don't want to minimize how other candidates may feel about the park but being at Gettysburg (or any other battlefield) is a truly magical experience. Every time I go there the excitement builds as I pass the towns along the route. When I finally see the signs for Gettysburg the excitement has nearly built to a crescendo. I don't want to go to the visitor's center, I want to be on the ground. I want to feel the grass under my feet, the sun kiss my face, the wind in my hair. I want to stand where my Iron Brigade boys stood west of town. I want to gaze at Meade from the Virginia monument, walk over there and then look back at Lee. I want to criss cross the Wheatfield, following every attack in that sector. I want to stand at the 20th Maine monument and yell "Bayonets!" I want to stand next to Longstreet and apologize for him spending the rest of eternity on a pony.

Obviously as superintendent I wouldn't have the time to do that sort of thing every day but I'd be out there after hours soaking up the atmosphere. I'd want to complete Latschar's work and return the town to an 1863 appearance. I say lets get rid of the concrete roads and blacktop parking lots. All travel in town will be by horse or foot. Shops could stay in historic buildings but anything built after 1863 would have to go. Let's give Gettysburg that Harper's Ferry feel to it. One of the great things about Harper's Ferry is that in the park section of town the modern elements have been minimized and you get more of a historic feeling. In fact whenever I talk to someone about their favorite battlefields they almost always mention places like Shiloh or Antietam or Perryville, where you can feel like you've stepped back in time. Stones River, Franklin, Manassas and Fredericksburg just don't have that same feel to them (all great places to visit but traffic and urban sprawl makes them a bit less of an experience).

At Gettysburg the town is part of the battlefield (and I don't think gets the interpretation it deserves) so it only makes sense to return it to its 1863 appearance like most of the other fighting areas have been. Of course this won't be popular. Cutting trees was not popular. But I'm not going to be at Gettysburg to be popular, I'll be there to make historic interpretation and our understanding much better.

If that phase of the plan works out then I would also like to build a museum for the Gettysburg nuts. Not sure if there is enough room near the new visitor center to build this new museum but I think the devoted Gettysburg people need a museum to showcase as much of the collection as possible. The general public might find this one too tedious or boring to attend but us diehards would be thrilled to see every single variety of rifle the park possesses.

I am quite willing and able to have a Gettysburg address. If it helps my cause I'd be willing to work for free, just don't tell my wife I said that.

Gettysburg Daily

One of my favorite sites of late is Gettysburg Daily. I'm not sure who the author(s) is but they seem to be well connected among the guides there. Guides make frequent appearances in pictures and text. And they don't agree with the new pricing structure. At one point they had a post that explained how to get into the museum for free. But its a good way to keep in touch of what is happening in Gettysburg. A couple weeks ago they had several posts about the road repaving and how asphalt was touching a flank marker (and was eventually fixed). Yesterday's post was about the work being done on the Wills House. One great feature is that every picture tells you the compass direction the camera was facing, even on shots inside buildings.

I've added it to the blog list on the side but in some respects its not like a standard blog around here. It doesn't allow comments. It doesn't have a list of blogs, nor even previous entries. It does offer a list of categories but its pretty broad.

Gettysburg Fees

Once again my recent Shiloh focus has been shifted to Gettysburg. Today I read the horrible news that Gettysburg's museum is no longer free. Now its $7.50 a person, which also gets you into their new movie and the cyclorama. I would be fine in making a ticket package for the movie and cyclorama but including the museum really upsets me. Except for those parks that have an entrance fee I cannot recall being at a park that charged to see the museum. I feel that those items are held by the NPS for the public.

I will pay the fee the first time I'm there but doubt I'll ever do so again. Partly that is because when I go to the parks I go to see the ground. If the museum was free I'd probably rarely go through it. I love Shiloh and have been there more than any other battlefield and I probably rarely get into the museum part. When I do go its because I had a question about a display I remember seeing previously and wanted to do a quick double check. There is no way I'd pay $7.50 to do that.

I understand that the new visitor center is experiencing a financial shortfall (isn't all of America right now) but this seems like such a drastic move away from how I think the parks should be run. I think the parks should be open for the public. Even small entrance fees give me some pause, but I rationalize it that all that money stays at the park (probably 100% doesn't but in the case of a few bucks I don't worry as much). Our national treasures are there for our entire population to share. I'm sure people donate their artifact collections to NPS parks because they know it will be kept safe and will also be there for all to enjoy. Otherwise they'd either keep it in a private collection or sell to a fee-based museum.

I could understand starting to collect fees if the Gettysburg VC was operating like any other museum in town, but they are not. If revenues slump there is no chance of the park going bankrupt. They'll continue to get money to operate. They might not have enough to do all the things they want to do, like tree cutting or repaving roads, but they are not going to sell off the cannons for scrap metal or the monuments to be broken up for gravel. They are not going to have to board up the new VC. Congress will come through with the money to keep them open, they just might not get enough to cover much beyond the normal daily operations of a park.

I think that all the associated costs with the new VC were higher than anyone anticipated, plus the cash spent by visitors is down too, and the park came to a decision it probably didn't really want to make but didn't see any other way out. And now they took a step that they can never take back.

The other part of this is that revenue was down because fewer people were willing to pay $8 to see the new movie than they had anticipated. How confident are they that people won't turn away completely from $7.50? I'd guess that for the people who are making their first and last visit to Gettysburg they will pay the $7.5o. They'll figure that they came this far and might as well pay the fee even though they might wonder why no part of the new VC is free. But the repeat visitor will probably pay it just once and never again. And with the bad press the new museum has gotten there might even be some repeat visitors who will never pay the fee. They'll remember the old museum and figure that there can be nothing too exciting in the new one to be worth the cost.

Just some of my thoughts. When my dad returns in a few days from Gettysburg I'll see what he has to say. I bet he'll pay the $7.50, well $6.50 for him since he's retired military. But I'm not sure, I'm interested to find out.

Click here for the news story.

Gettysburg Visitor Center

I wanted to weigh in on the long simmering debate about the new Gettysburg Visitor’s Center in particular and how the NPS interprets the Civil War in general. I’ve seen this in print (Civil War News), on message boards (I belong to several, GDG, CWDG, TalkAntietam and CivilWarWest) and now on blogs (Eric’s and Kevin’s). Since I dont have anything else fresh today I thought I’d weigh in on this today.

I confronted this issue a few years ago on a visit to Chickamauga. The VC there had expanded and there was now an area that talked about the causes of the war. My first reaction was, “what the hell is this?” I was disappointed that display space was going to something other than the battle.

Since then though my opinion has shifted. I think part of it has come with talking to people and realizing that their grasp of big historical facts is sadly lacking. I don’t want to get a bunch of angry comments but anyone who believes states rights was the principal cause of the war is sadly mistaken. States rights had a part of it but more importantly to Southern leaders was protecting slavery. If there was one particular right they were worried about the federal government interfering with it was slavery, not tariffs (although I am willing to admit that the two main sections of the country had differing ideas on tariffs) or any other issue. I don’t think the Civil War was fought exclusively over slavery but slavery has to be the main cause.

Somehow this has been twisted in the public mind to the point that I wouldn’t be surprised if 50% of the general public could name slavery as the main cause. I think the NPS’s job at the parks is to educate the visitor’s. And interpreting the battle should be their main effort. On the other hand though when its all said and done that visitor should also know why two armies fought for a crossroads in Pennsylvania, or a railroad junction in Northern Georgia. They should have some understanding of why this great nation made a great effort for four years to kill each other.

And the general public is not likely to visit too many Civil War sites. If they are going to go to a Civil War site its likely to be Gettysburg just because they’ve heard the name before. Chickamauga or Vicksburg (or Fort Donelson, or Shiloh, or or or ad vaseum) might have had a great impact on the course of the war but they’ve likely never heard about Chickamauga. The people who live closer to Shiloh or Chickamauga might go there instead of the long trek to Gettysburg.

Since Gettysburg just got a new VC it should definitely have displays on the causes of the war. And as VCs are updated throughout the system they need to also have displays on the causes. It would have been a shame if the new VC had been built with no mention of why two American armies tried to destroy each other at Gettysburg. For the hardcore buffs no museum will ever be good enough. It won’t have enough guns or flags or maps or whatever else is for favorite thing to see. Also for most hardcore buffs the museum is one area we routinely skip. We’re there to see the battlefield. I make an effort to pop into the VC to see if there are any announcements about ranger led walks or something similar but I hardly ever look at the museum if I’ve ever been there before.

I think Gettysburg does have some issues as far as what is displayed and how much of the collection is displayed. I’ve heard stories that the displayed items are fewer, and that there are more reproductions on display. I have not yet seen the new VC so I cannot comment on that. My dad will be out there in less than a week and he’ll give me the news but I’m not sure when I’ll be able to see it with my own eyes. I’m sure the stories of doom and gloom are exaggerated, as are the stories that proclaim it the best VC in the system.

More on the 107th Ohio

Last night I got some time to do some reading on the 107th Ohio at Gettysburg, specifically on July 2nd. As I suspected they were in the Cemetery Hill area. In fact they were at the very northern tip of the line, Ames brigade formed a salient. They were attacked by Hays Brigade in the evening assault and were pushed back to a stone wall near Wiedrich's Battery (Battery I of the 1st New York Artillery).

Ames brigade had been positioned poorly, or maybe they just didn't have the men to form the position properly. At any rate when they were attacked their initial line crumpled. There was a bit of a gap in the brigade line which the Confederates were able to exploit. After falling back from this initial position they held their position at the stone wall and while it was a close affair they were not routed any further. During this fighting the 107th Ohio captured the 8th Louisiana's flag. This was the end of the main fighting for the 107th Ohio. They did some small skirmishing with Confederates in town on July 3rd but this was minor. Over the three days of battle they lost 23 killed, 111 wounded and 77 missing. A captain was the senior officer remaining and his report is a model of brevity. Basically he says they were engaged each day for a certain number of hours and that the fighting was severe. He gives very few details as to where they were or who was on their flanks.

Finally some clarification on how I'm related to Peter Reis. My dad's mother was Luella Goll, her mother was Caroline Illian, and her father was Lewis Illian. Lewis' father was Friederich Illian. Friederich was drafted in 1864 to serve in the 37th Wisconsin. At that same time his brother-in-law, Heinrich Kniebes was also drafted and served in the 6th Wisconsin. Both men were 44 years old and lived on the same farm. Friederich's mother and father in law also lived on the farm and when he was drafted were probably a big help to Friederich's wife, who had seven children aged 15 years to 14 months old to take care of. One of Friederich's daughters, Catherine married Wilhelm Reinheimer. Wilhelm's aunt Elisabeth was married to Peter Reis. Like I said yesterday, the relation is not direct at all but a line can still be traced.

Incidentally Wilhelm's uncles Jacob and Wilhelm were members of the Sandusky Schutzenverein (Rifle Club) founded in 1861. I don't know if the Sandusky Schutzenverein became a company in a regiment but these men did not serve in the army as both were in their 40s when the war began.

Here is a picture of Catherine Illian (my great-something aunt) and William Reinheimer with their three living children, William F., Cora, and Elmer (I believe that is the order from left to right). A fourth child, Elenor died at the age of 4 months.

107th Ohio

I recently found out I had a relative in the 107th Ohio. He was Peter Reis (Reiss) and served in company F of the 107th Ohio. The relation is not direct. His wife was the sister of the man who married one of my great(something) aunts. But relation is relation, I find it fascinating. Interestingly too his first wife (my connection) died in October 1854 and he remarried in December 1854 and his second wife was Martha Elisabeth Brazel. One of my friend's last names is Brazell, wonder if there is a connection there, that would be spooky.

Peter Reis enlisted on August 22, 1862 for 3 years. He was 39 years old. Their first combat was at Chancellorsville as part of the 11th Corps. At Gettysburg, on July 2nd, Peter was wounded. He would die eight days later from those wounds. What the wounds were I'm not sure. Since I found out about him I haven't even looked thru the OR to see where they were on the 2nd. Their monument is on Barlow Knoll and I'd guess that on the 2nd they were in the Cemetery Hill vicinity. I looked thru the Roll of Honor and if he was buried in the national cemetery he is in an unknown grave. I found a regimental history, reprinted in 2000, and have requested that from my local library. I thought this was interesting too because all my family is from Wisconsin. I have relatives in the 6th, 9th, 24th and 37th Wisconsin; and now I can add the 107th Ohio to the list.

Maps of Gettysburg Review & Thank You

Last night at the Rocky Mountain Civil War Roundtable meeting my buddy (and blog reader) Ian D. gave me a copy of Maps of Gettysburg by Bradley M. Gottfried as a gift for the hard work I do for the roundtable (its a labor of love, I don't mind doing it, but thanks to Ian for the book).

When I got home I looked through it. Can't say that I really read it. I read some areas but I looked at nearly every map, and that's what this book is for anyway. The basic layout of the book is that the right side page has a full page map and the facing page has the text for the map. So there is no need to flip from page to page to understand a map. Of course reading more than one at a time does make the whole make more sense but its not mandatory. In other words you could open the book at random and be able to understand that map without seeing any other pages.

As the son of a cartographer I know a thing or two about maps, having been around them my entire life. These maps are pretty good. There are a few design elements I'm not crazy about but those are very minor details. I only have one complaint, no times are listed on the maps. I understand that firm times are not possible but it would be nice to know that the action being depicted is at roughly 2-4 PM on July 2nd. I don't think that sort of vagueness is impossible to ask for.

Overall I like the book and would recommend it to everyone interested in Gettysburg. I had read enough good things about it that I intended to buy a copy, Ian just beat me to it. Thanks again to Ian.

Historic Photos of Gettysburg by John S Salmon

I recently received a copy of Historic Photos of Gettysburg by John S Salmon for review. It is mainly a picture book with some text, and captions of course. I liked it but not being a Gettysburg guy I wasn't sure if a Gettysburg nut would find it as interesting. Are there enough new photos to appeal to a Gettysburg guy? So I let my buddy Ian look through it and he said that there was quite a few new photos. More importantly he thought it was worth the $40 price tag.

In looking through it I only found two mistakes. The first is that the captions on pages 59, 64 and 65 don't quite mesh. The person identified as Captain John Hoff on 59 is not the same person as the person identified as Captain John Hoff on 65. The page 59 Hoff looks like the person on page 64 that is simply identified as an identified clerk of Hoff's.

The second mistake is on page 150 when Salmon says that "It was Howard, having directed much of the Union side of the battle on July 1, who selected the ridge as the Federal fallback position." I would disagree that Howard directed much of the Union side on July 1. I don't believe he ever offered much direction to the 1st Corps and once the troops rallied on Cemetery Hill Hancock was on the scene so Howard only had to direct troops on his half of the line. Second, I don't think Howard selected the ridge as the fallback position. Buford and Reynolds also saw the defensive potential of Cemetery Hill and while Howard was the first to leave troops for its defense I don't think we can say he selected the ridge as the fallback position.

The book is broken into four sections: the battle, dedication and remembrance, the 50th reunion and the 75th reunion. The battle photos are mainly photos that we've seen in Frassanito. I didn't compare the books side by side to see if this book has anything that Frassanito missed but I doubt Frassanito missed much. The rest of the photos are what really sets this book apart and makes it a worthwhile purchase. Two of my favorites are on pages 141 and 155. Both feature an equestrian statue with a metal sign that says to stay off the mound (apparently a huge earth mound had been built before the statue was placed). And in each photo there are veterans milling all around the statue. They probably figured that they fought for that ground and they were not about to let some sign keep them away from what they had bleed for.

On page 196 is a great quote from FDR at the unveiling of the Peace Memorial at the 75th Reunion:
"Men who wore the blue and men who wore the gray are here together, a fragment spared by time. They are brought here by the memories of old divided loyalties, but they meet here in united loyalty to a united cause which the unfolding years have made it easier to see. All of them we honor, not asking under which flag they fought then - thankful that they stand together under one flag now." I wonder how many of the Confederates in the audience bristled at those comments.

Antietam Trip - part 2, Gettysburg

After a hectic trip east we finally arrived on a battlefield on Sunday afternoon, Easter Sunday to be accurate. Its been nearly 6 years since I've been to Gettysburg and its amazing the changes they've made. And are still making. We saw fresh cuts near Devil's Den and Steven's Knoll. Plus I know from friends, and message boards, that there have been lots of other cuttings.

But we started at the visitor center and made a loop of the battlefield quickly viewing the changes. We climbed into the Pennsylvania monument which offers amazing views. Below is a view looking towards the Peach Orchard. The round tops would be just off to the left of the picture.

We also climbed the tower on Culp's Hill. The view there was great. This was due to some tree cuttings but also because very few leaves were on trees. I was surprised there were so few buds out but it made for great views. From there we also had a great view of the new Visitor's Center.

Mike and I then proceeded to climb Big Round Top. I had never been up there and was surprised there were so many monuments up there. We intended to sit on Little Round Top to catch the obligatory Warren at sunset photo but the wild was killer. It was definetly colder than advertised and I was thinking of buying thermal underwear. Mike has some footage from 6 years ago of Warren at sunset so we decided to try something new and went down by the high water mark. Mike got some beautiful footage there while I shot stills of some monuments and vistas nearby. We hung out here til nearly dark, at least dark enough that there best sunset shots were taken. (Sidenote: Mike is a talented film maker and hopes to one day shot a Gettysburg documentary. He's looking into grants and the like so maybe one day soon his dream will come true. In the meantime when he visits Gettysburg he trys to add footage that will later be useful in th documentary and he treats other battlefield trips as practice for the big movie. I hope he makes it. And I'll be his pack mule, just next time I'm packing way more clothes than I think I'd need.) We then headed down to Hagerstown which would be our center of operations for the next few days until the rest of the roundtable guys arrived.