The Gettysburg Compiler

The Specter of Gettysburg

This photo serves as an homage to the flimsy inspirations for many Gettysburg ghost tours. Photo credit Kevin Lavery. — This photo serves as an homage to the flimsy inspirations for many Gettysburg ghost tours.
Photo credit to the author.

The story I am about to tell is entirely true. Several weeks ago, as I departed Musselman Library after a long night of intensive research, a sudden presence roused me from my intellectual exhaustion. I was chilled to the bone as they appeared before me: shadowy figures silhouetted against the dimly lit façade of our beloved administration building. Now, I had, of course, heard of the campus’ hauntings. Tales of the ghostly field hospital in Penn Hall’s basement, the spectral sentry watching from its cupola, and the Blue Boy of Stevens Hall are well known stories throughout our campus community and beyond. But I had never expected that night to encounter one of the most frightening entities known to frequent our campus: ghost tour groups. As I passed between two separate tours – one sitting audaciously on the steps of Penn Hall – I tensed.

Continue reading “The Specter of Gettysburg”

Featured Article: O.O. Howard’s Honorary Degree

By Ryan Nadeau ’16

“Oliver Otis Howard, 1830-1909, bust portrait, facing left; in uniform.” Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. Digital ID: cph.3b00473. Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-52494. — “Oliver Otis Howard, 1830-1909, bust portrait, facing left; in uniform.”
Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. Digital ID: cph.3b00473. Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-52494.

On 11 August 1866, Major General Oliver Otis Howard, Director of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands and former commander of the Union Army’s XI Corps, wrote to D. A. Buehler, Chairman of the Pennsylvania College Board of Trustees, to thank him for the award of an honorary degree. Only two days before, on 9 August 1866, the board had voted to confer unto Howard the honorary LL.D, or Doctorate of Laws.

Continue reading “Featured Article: O.O. Howard’s Honorary Degree”

Battlefield Correspondence: Sarah Johnson at the Virginia Monument

By Sarah Johnson ’15

In our first Battlefield Correspondence video of the semester, Sarah Johnson reports on the unusual circumstances surrounding the dedication of the Virginia Monument in 1917.

George Gordon Meade and Barnegat Lighthouse

By Brianna Kirk ’15

Tucked away off the coast of central New Jersey on the small stretch of land called Long Beach Island is a little piece of Civil War history. It is here that a largely unknown monument highlights a figure so well known by those four hours away in the small Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg. I have been visiting Long Beach Island since I was young, and yet had no knowledge of this Civil War connection that had been staring me in the face until my mother enthusiastically shouted to me, “Brianna! Gettysburg!” As I climbed the sandy hill towards a monument somewhat removed from the beaten path, I was shocked at what the monument was for, but more importantly, at the man to whom it was dedicated.

George Meade monument, Long Beach Island. Image courtesy of Susan Kirk.

Continue reading “George Gordon Meade and Barnegat Lighthouse”

History Alumni Lecture: Historic Homes and Audience

By Megan McNish ’16

"Panoramic image made from five photos taken Aug 2007 at Stratford Hall Plantation and merged together with AutoStitch," original uploader MamaGeek. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:StratfordHallPlantationPano.jpg — “Panoramic image made from five photos taken Aug 2007 at Stratford Hall Plantation and merged together with AutoStitch,” original uploader MamaGeek.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:StratfordHallPlantationPano.jpg

On the evening of October 8 in Gettysburg College’s Joseph Theater, Paul Reber ’82 spoke on the historic house museum. Reber presented for the History Department’s annual Alumni Lecture, despite the fact that when he was at Gettysburg College, he was a Political Science major. As Dr. Shannon, chair of the History Department, said, Reber eventually saw the light. Reber spent the majority of his talk speaking on various historic house museums he has had experience with, including Mount Vernon, the White House, and Stratford Hall, where he is the current director. Stratford was the home of the Lee Family on the Northern Neck in Virginia and is one of the sites of the Civil War Institute’s Brian C. Pohanka Internship Program. Stratford has a particularly interesting history. When it was taken into the hands of the historic preservation community in the 1930s, the home closely resembled what it had been like when Robert E. Lee was born there. During this period, however, the structure was restored to its Colonial appearance. Reber and his staff are attempting to restore various rooms in the home to their appearance based on various periods of the Lee family ownership.

Continue reading “History Alumni Lecture: Historic Homes and Audience”

The Right to be Forgotten . . . from History?

By Kevin Lavery ’16

Underwood & Underwood. Monument where Lincoln's famous address was made - 979 of the great battle's unknown dead, Gettysburg. 1903. Library of Congress, Washington D.C. — Underwood & Underwood. Monument where Lincoln’s famous address was made – 979 of the great battle’s unknown dead, Gettysburg. 1903.
Library of Congress, Washington D.C.

Some people seek to leave a legacy. They want to be remembered by others for doing something great, whether it be good or evil. But not everyone is alike in this respect. Others want nothing more than to go quietly about their business. They do not want friends or strangers prying into their lives. They do not want their inner, personal thoughts to be read and judged by those around them.

But when they die, their personal belongings may pass to their children and perhaps eventually reach a local archive or historical society. There, their most private reflections become tools for professional and amateur historians seeking a greater understanding of these individuals and the past in general.

Continue reading “The Right to be Forgotten . . . from History?”

Point/Counterpoint: An Insidious Cycle

By Bryan Caswell ’15 and Heather Clancy ’15

Heather: In our last post, Bryan and I explored the unique challenges that the reenacting hobby poses to the interpretation and public understanding of the American Civil War. In it, we touched on just a few of the many motivations that inspire individuals to reenact. As we continue our Point/Counterpoint series below, we look to explore the relationship of the reenacting hobby with a particularly complex and problematic ideology–the Lost Cause.

Bryan: There are many breeding grounds for that despicable interpretation of the Civil War known as the Lost Cause. Perpetrated by Confederate veterans after the war, the Lost Cause teaches that the Civil War was neither caused by nor fought over the question of slavery, and that Confederates of all ranks, classes, and creeds were simply honest Americans nobly fighting for the doomed yet righteous cause of states’ rights. These claims are dubious at best; the importance of slavery in particular is universally agreed upon in academic circles due to the indisputable evidence for its centrality to the official Confederate justification for secession. One of the most interesting venues for the propagation of this questionable ideology is, I have noticed, that of reenacting. Continue reading “Point/Counterpoint: An Insidious Cycle”

To Preserve, Protect, and Defend

By Jacob Ross ’15

View of Baltimore Street from the Diamond from 1886. President Kendlehart's shoe/boot store was located about one block down the street on the left. — View of Baltimore Street from 1886. President Kendlehart’s shoe/boot store was located about one block down the street on the left.

A glance at the work of virtually any political philosopher, no matter the era, will often reflect the argument that the primary purpose of a government is to protect its people. That obligation, combined with the age-old adage that “all politics are local,” raises questions about the responsibilities and duties of Gettysburg’s borough government during the town’s fateful battle of 1863. Sadly, the duty felt by the borough’s leaders to protect the town and their actions in relation to that duty have long been overshadowed by what is considered by many to be the more exciting narrative of military glory. Other historians have written off Gettysburg’s local politicians as being too weak to have had measurable significance in the titan armies’ collision. Neither conclusion should be accepted, because their actions not only prevented the Confederate forces from gaining tactical supplies, but also saved the borough of Gettysburg from fiery retribution for not complying with Confederate demands.

Continue reading “To Preserve, Protect, and Defend”

Soldiers Past and Future: The Civil War and Great War Meet in Gettysburg

By Sarah Johnson ’15

This piece was originally posted on the blog “Gettysburg and the Great War: Discovering the First World War Through an American Town” and is reprinted here with permission from the author.

Gettysburg, a town already so intimately acquainted with war, was the scene of particularly interesting historical encounters. The still too present memory of the Civil War impacted the way Gettysburgians viewed the Great War. Many veterans of the Civil War were still alive, although very old, and it was not uncommon for The Gettysburg Times to run headlines about the death of a prominent Civil War veteran right alongside coverage of the war raging in Europe. As the Red Cross in Gettysburg began all-out efforts to raise money to aid refugees in Belgium, the town of Frederick, Maryland, just to the south of Gettysburg, was still pushing the United States government for war reparations amounting to $200,000 for damages done by Confederate General Jubal Early’s raid.

Continue reading “Soldiers Past and Future: The Civil War and Great War Meet in Gettysburg”

Stonewall Jackson: The Man, The Myth, The Lemons

By Megan McNish ’16

She stood staring into the room, tears streaming down her face. The quiet tick of the clock in the background was an appropriate melody for the sad scene. The woman mourned the loss of a great man who one hundred fifty years earlier had rested his tired body in the bed just feet from where she was standing. Today this site is the Stonewall Jackson Shrine Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania NMP in Woodford, Virginia. It is the death site of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, located twenty-seven miles south of the Battlefield at Chancellorsville where the famous Confederate general was shot. But the greater question is not where, but why. Why, after so many years, are people still mourning the loss of Stonewall Jackson?

Stonewall Jackson was an incredible phenomenon during his lifetime; he was one of the most well-known generals of the Civil War and his death on 10 May 1863 even made Northern newspapers. But what makes Jackson so appealing to people today? In many ways Jackson’s story is reminiscent of the American spirit, for it finds its beginnings in humble roots but ends in glory. Jackson was born in what is today Clarksburg, West Virginia (at that point still Virginia) and shortly after birth became an orphan. (1) He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, but only after another Virginia man returned home, thereby creating an opening. (2) By the end of Jackson’s four years of military education, the young man who had been woefully unprepared for West Point graduated in the top half of the Class of 1846. (3) Jackson would go on to gain recognition in the Mexican War, but it would be the American Civil War that brought true fame to Jackson.

Continue reading “Stonewall Jackson: The Man, The Myth, The Lemons”