History Commons^™

Silent Guardian: The 15th New Jersey Monument, Elizabeth A. Smith

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

This post is part of a series featuring behind-the-scenes dispatches from our Pohanka interns working on the front lines of history this summer as interpreters, archivists, and preservationists. See here for the introduction to the series.

He stands at rest, knees slightly bent, musket casually leant back. His hands loosely grip the barrel, one over the other, calm but prepared. His mustached face looks with weary eyes over the slaughter ground. In the background can be seen trees alongside a winding dirt road and a solitary wheel—perhaps from a cannon—beside his left leg. He stands immobile, forever gazing over the …

"Let Us Cross Over The River And Rest Under The Shade Of The Trees,": My Final Post For The Summer, Steven J. Semmel

Blogging the Library

As the summer comes to a close, the more I think about my experiences here at Special Collections. This internship was completely different compared to my past internships, going from giving tours to creating finding aids for collections. I lived a Civil War Era Studies student’s dream, being able to handle a wide range of artifacts and documents while helping preserve them at the same time. The Hosford Collection has portions of it digitized on GettDigital and I am currently working on reorganizing and editing the Civil War Vertical File Manuscript. The Hosford Collection helped me establish my understanding of …

Faces Of The Civil War, Steven J. Semmel

Blogging the Library

As the internship enters its final month of the summer, I’ve been processing and looking at various Civil War collections. This era in history is well known for the bloody conflicts that separated the nation. However, not much is known about most individuals that fought in different regiments across the country, or even what they looked like. Special Collections is home to a few faces that at Gettysburg, out West, prisoners at Andersonville, or stationed in places like Florida. The collections I have recently processed included photos of those soldiers at different stages in their life. [excerpt]

Making A Statement: The Alabama Memorial At Gettysburg, Matthew D. Laroche

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

This post is part of a series featuring behind-the-scenes dispatches from our Pohanka Interns working on the front lines of history this summer as interpreters, archivists, and preservationists. See here for the introduction to the series.

Every generation has plenty to remember about its time spent shaping the human story. But despite this, some generations are better at writing their stories than others. Or perhaps some generations leave more unfinished work for their descendants to sift through. Either way, the legacy of the Civil War still lays heavy on our shoulders. Here at Gettysburg, in particular, the memory of the …

Once More Unto The Breach: 2015 Pohanka Interns Engage Public History, Kevin P. Lavery

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Every summer, we feature posts on the blog that provide a behind-the-scenes view of what it’s like to practice history on the frontlines at some of the nation’s leading Civil War sites. Our contributors – Gettysburg College students doing summer internships under the auspices of CWI’s Brian C. Pohanka Internship Program – share their experiences giving tours, talking with visitors, and working with historical artifacts, educational programs, and archival collections. This summer, we’ve asked our Pohanka interns to reflect on an assortment of questions dealing with Civil War monuments and historical memory, broadening interpretation at Civil War battlefield sites, social …

Ms-181: Papers Of Aaron Andrews (Andreas), 16th Pa Cav., Co. E, Steven J. Semmel

All Finding Aids

The collection contains 31 letters from Aaron Andrews (Andreas) to his wife over a 3 year span during the war (1862 to 1865). Andrews was a Pennsylvania merchant from Luzerne County who enlisted in the army in August 1862. He followed his unit through the Eastern Theater, and was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant before mustering out in August, 1865. The collection also contains biographical information done by a family member, census records, and marriage records. Each letter is accompanied by a typewriter transcription by the same family member.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to …

Ms-176: Hoadley George Hosford, 44th New York Papers, Steven J. Semmel

All Finding Aids

This collection consists of diary entries spanning three years of Hoadley G. Hosford’s enlistment in the 44th New York and a brief time in the 146th New York and the 1st Division Sharpshooters during the Civil War. The entries give details about what camp life was like, the experience of battle, and the distance a Union soldier would march in the Eastern Theater during the war.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include historical and biographical information about each collection in addition to inventories of …

Memory On Parade: The Gallipoli Centenary And Anzac Day Commemoration, Kevin P. Lavery

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

On April 25, 2015, record crowds were drawn from across Australia and New Zealand to the annual Anzac Day celebrations. This year’s commemoration was extra special, for it marked the one hundredth anniversary of the First World War’s Gallipoli campaign. Several of my primary news sources reported heavily on the festivities and it all got me thinking again about how people rally around these patriotic, semi-historical holidays even if the holidays are often distorted reflections of the historic events that they are meant to commemorate [excerpt].

Gettysburg College Campus Purchased By Preservation Society, Kevin P. Lavery

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

The articles are satirical pieces meant to imagine the danger of a paradigm of preservation lacking in strategy and judgment. Preservation is a wonderful cause, but like any cause it must be approached with purposeful intent and not simply for its own sake. It is an excellent tool of meaningful historical engagement when done properly; when mishandled, it can do the surrounding region harm without accomplishing anything of value [excerpt].

Striking The Balance: Bringing Peace To The Battlefield Of Preservation, Matthew D. Laroche

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Most Gettysburg residents took note this past winter when the Appalachian Brewing Company’s branch restaurant near the Lutheran Seminary closed. The Civil War Trust bought the land for its historical value; the structure and an adjacent hotel surround the Mary Thompson House, General Lee’s Headquarters during the battle. From the moment of purchase, the plan had been to demolish the buildings, sow grass, and transfer the four-acre lot to the National Park Service as a prized addition to the park. Most onlookers probably think that the tale is told as soon as the land is bought, cleared, and promised to …

On The Fields Of Glory: A Student’S Reflections On Gettysburg, The Western Front, And Normandy, Kevin P. Lavery

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

I’m very fortunate to have had no shortage of opportunities to get out into the field and put my classroom learning into practice. I am especially lucky to have twice had the opportunity to travel to Europe. Two years ago, I went with my first-year seminar to explore the Western Front of World War I in France and Belgium. This year, I travelled with The Eisenhower Institute to tour the towns and beaches of Normandy where the Allies launched their invasion of Hitler’s Europe during World War II. Having experienced these notable sites of military history, and having taken a …

Noble Sacrifice Or Meaningless Death? Interpreting The 116th Pa Monument, S. Marianne Johnson

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Any visitor to the Gettysburg battlefield will no doubt be almost overwhelmed with the numbers of monuments and memorials to various Union and Confederate units strewn about the field. Sculpted soldiers with sabers, rifles, even fists raised in defiance of the enemy, ever charging forward into the heat of battle are commonplace. In the case of most Union monuments, a culture of just victory and celebration of noble sacrifice emanates from gray stones and bronze figures. One monument, however, tucked along Sickles Avenue in the Rose Woods, portrays a different message. The monument of the 116th Pennsylvania, erected by regimental …

Burnishing Buchanan's Brand On His Birthday, Michael J. Birkner

History Faculty Publications

James Buchanan’s brand needs refreshing.

Outside his hometown, his name does not much register with Americans today. When it does, the reaction is usually negative. What a comedown from the high hopes associated with Old Buck’s election to the presidency in 1856. [excerpt]

Men And Machines: The Psychological Impact Of Gunboats On The Fort Henry And Donelson Campaign, S. Marianne Johnson

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

During the course of the American Civil War, 1861-1865, ironclad warships developed a fearful reputation as powerful commanders of the Mississippi River. With the ability to pierce deep into the heart of the South, destroy Confederate property, and pull out with amazing speed compared to land assaults, the early Western Flotilla became the symbol of Northern industrial invincibility, boosting Northern morale and seriously damaging Southern psyches. However, an analysis of the Fort Henry/Fort Donelson Campaign of 1862 reveals a different story than the one that went into legend. Using the official records of the Union and Confederate armies and navies, …

The Memory Of Battle Surrounds You Once Again: Iowa Grand Army Of The Republic Reunions And The Formation Of A Pro-Union Nationalism, 1886-1949, Peter Bautz

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

Following the bloody years of the Civil War, veteran organizations became a breeding ground for nationalism making and memory shaping. Historians, like Caroline Janney and David Blight, have debated what these memories meant for northern veterans. Did members of the Grand Army of the Republic [G.A.R.], the Union veterans association, reconcile with the South over a shared whiteness, as Blight suggests? Or were the memories of Northerners less reconciliatory, as Janney argues? Using Iowa G.A.R. reunions as a case study, this article demonstrates that Union veterans were shaping a pro-Union nationalism distinct from the Lost Cause. From songs praising the …

Book Review: With Malice Towards Some: Treason And Loyalty In The Civil War Era, Brianna Kirk

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

“Popular understanding of treason, not legal definitions in civil courts, guided actions by Union functionaries, both high and low, throughout the Union and Confederacy,” argues William A. Blair. Popular conceptions of treason – widely shared definitions of loyalty and disloyalty – merged with governmental policy and the military to determine the punishment of traitors both during and after the Civil War. Blair adds a flavor of localism to the traditional narrative of treason in the mid-nineteenth century in his newest book With Malice Toward Some, demonstrating that treason did in fact pervade public discourse during the American Civil War. [ …

Gettysburg College Journal Of The Civil War Era 2015

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

No abstract provided.

The Unfinished Work: Slavery Today, Kevin P. Lavery

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

2.7 million. That’s an estimate for the number of slaves in the world today. The true number is probably higher, even though the United States abolished slavery 150 years ago. Most of today’s slaves go unseen and unaided, victims of an opaque system of exploitation that conspires to keep them oppressed. [excerpt]

What If Abraham Lincoln Had Lived?, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

The lead .41-calibre bullet with which John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln on the night of April 14, 1865, was the most lethal gunshot in American history. Only five days earlier, the main field army of the Southern Confederacy had surrendered at Appomattox Court House, and the four dreary years of civil war were yielding to a spring of national rebirth. But by then, the man to whom everyone looked for guidance in reconstructing the nation was dead. [excerpt]

Take On Appomattox, Brianna E. Kirk

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

On April 9, 1865, Palm Sunday, Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant met in the front parlor of Wilmer McLean’s house in the little village of Appomattox Court House to discuss the status of their two armies. After swapping stories of the days of their Mexican War service, the two men finally penned their names on terms of surrender, effectively ending the American Civil War. Grant, magnanimous towards the now defeated Confederates, and Lee, humble in his loss, ushered in the era of reconciliation that would bandage up the past four bloody years and push the reunited country forward …

“Two Wars And The Long Twentieth Century:” A Response, Bryan G. Caswell, S. Marianne Johnson

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Drew Gilpin Faust, president of Harvard University and renowned historian of the American Civil War, authored an article in the New Yorker recently entitled “Two Wars and the Long Twentieth Century.” Taken primarily from her remarks in the Rede Lecture delivered at the University of Cambridge earlier in 2015, Faust’s article takes advantage of the proximity of the anniversaries of the First World War and the American Civil War to advocate for a dialogue of greater continuity between the two conflicts. [excerpt]

Maybe, Maybe Not: The Tao Of History, Kevin P. Lavery

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Many years ago, I read an old Chinese parable in one of my brother’s books. I haven’t been able to determine its precise origins, but it goes something like this:

One day, a farmer’s only horse broke loose and ran away from his stable. “What bad luck,” the farmer’s neighbors said to him. But the farmer merely replied, “Maybe, maybe not.”... [excerpt]

Business, Education, And Enjoyment: Stakeholder Interpretations Of The Gettysburg Museum And Visitors Center, Ava M. Muhr

Student Publications

An anthropological study of the Gettysburg Museum and Visitors Center undertaken to understand the ways in which the visitor experience is conditioned by their own personal background, as well as filtered through the carefully constructed historical narrative created by museum historians, National Park Service rangers, and administrators. The Gettysburg Museum and Visitors Center is a site in which multiple stakeholders contend to ensure that their interpretations of the museum’s purpose is being upheld. This paper will examine the ways in which these various stakeholders – primarily NPS rangers, Civil War historians, and history buffs – interpret the catalyst(s) for constructing …

Assessing Reconstruction: Did The South Undergo Revolutionary Change?, Lauren H. Sobotka

Student Publications

With the end of the Civil War, came a number of unanswered questions Reconstruction would attempt to answer for the South. While the South underwent economic, political and social changes for a short period, old traditions continued to persist resulting in racist sentiment.

Playing Catch-Up: Jonathan Letterman And The Triage System, Bryan G. Caswell

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Gettysburg has more than its fair share of heroes. While the overwhelming majority of these larger-than-life figures was intimately acquainted with the conduct of the Battle of Gettysburg, a few stand apart from tales of martial valor. The most famous, of course, is Abraham Lincoln, yet he is not the only man associated with the aftermath of Gettysburg. In the immediate aftermath of the battle, provisions for the care of the wounded and dying left behind by both armies were organized by Major Jonathan Letterman, Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac. [excerpt]

Searching For Stevens, Kevin P. Lavery

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

You haven’t seen much from me yet this semester. For this I apologize. I have been knee-deep in preliminary research for a special project I’m working on for the blog – one that can’t be completed until the weather breaks. I originally meant to learn just enough about the topic of this project to share a brief overview with you all, but, as sometimes happens during the research process, I’ve become a little obsessed with the central figure of my research: one Congressman Thaddeus Stevens. [excerpt]

Crusading For The Truth, Kevin P. Lavery

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Last semester, I received a very memorable critique on one of my more polarizing blog posts. In it, a reader derisively referred to another of the CWI Fellows and me as “truth-driven crusaders” for our commitment to healthy historical engagement. Finding it an appropriate if not excessively romanticized description of the work we do as historians-in-training, my friends and I have since then appropriated the term to describe ourselves. I feel obliged to admit here that the antagonism signaled by the term “crusader” makes me a bit uneasy, but I like to think that we “crusade” against certain ideas, and …

The End Is Near: The Civil War In 1864, Brianna E. Kirk

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

In the minds of most Civil War lovers, the year 1864 marks the noticeable shift from a conciliatory war to a hard war. Most view it through the lens of Ulysses S. Grant’s Overland Campaign, through William Tecumseh Sherman’s March to the Sea, through the successes of the Union Army. After all, the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863 is seen as the ‘high tide of the Confederacy,’ marking the falling action point in the war when total Union victory became inevitable. But in actuality, 1864 was just as—if not more—critical to the outcome of the war than the prior …

A Useable Past: First World War Training Camps On Civil War Battlefields, S. Marianne Johnson

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

When visitors flock to America’s National Parks, the battlefields from the American Civil War are perennially popular. Every summer, thousands come to walk over the serene fields and forests where men suffered unimaginable carnage. These sites have become sacred in the American psyche, places to remember and honor the dead, educate the public, or engage in quiet personal reflection. The rolling plains, dense forests and impressive mountains of Civil War battlefields inspire awe and reverence for what author Robert Penn Warren tagged America’s only “felt history.” [excerpt]

“Children Of The Damned”: An Indie Band Remembers Andersonville, Heather L. Clancy

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

When alternative band Quiet Hounds released Megaphona in 2012, they presented an album peppered with an impressive range of styles, from folksy ballads to pseudo-manic hipster club tunes. The album’s most unexpected choice, though, came in the form of its closing song, “Beacon Sun.” In it, the band’s lead singer carries a mournful melody. A hypnotizing rhythm runs through the track, underscored by the tattoo of a lethargic tambourine. Indeed, the track is more akin to a jazzed-up hymn than anything else, an impression that is not surprising to listeners once they heave themselves out of the indie haze long …