History Commons^™

In Gettysburg, The Confederacy Won, Scott Hancock

Africana Studies Faculty Publications

Almost every day, I ride my bicycle past some of the over 1,300 statues and monuments commemorating the Civil War in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where I live. They are everywhere. None of them are of black people.

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought over three days in July of 1863, is often considered the turning point of a war fought over the fate of slavery in America. Black people ultimately were the reason why over 165,000 soldiers came to this Pennsylvania town in the first place. But on the battlefield, as far as the physical memorials, they disappear. (excerpt)

Historical Society Has Tools To Dig Deep, John M. Rudy

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

"On last Wednesday night, Lincoln's Birthday," the Star and Sentinel reported in 1908, "a colored lodge of Elks was instituted in Xavier Hall this place with 45 members." The Improved Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of the World was originally formed as an African-American fraternal organization in the 1890s after a white elks lodge in Philadelphia denied local black men membership. By 1908, the organization was quickly working its way through Pennsylvania. And now Gettysburg had "Colored Elks," working as a social safety net for the black community of the Third Ward. They provided aid to the sick and the …

Interpreting A Commemorative Landscape: The Eleventh Corps And Cemetery Hill, Bradley J. Klustner

Student Publications

An analysis of the memorialization of the land on and around Cemetery Hill on the Gettysburg battlefield as it pertained to the Union Eleventh Corps.

A Gettysburg "Streetscape," North Washington Street In 1925, Zachary C. Polley, Andrew I. Dalton

Student Publications

This paper explores life in Gettysburg on North Washington Street in 1925. It was the final project for Dr. Michael Birkner's Spring 2017 Historical Methods class.

The Letters Of Stewart Winfield Herman Jr. An American Pastor In Berlin, 1936-1941, Lucy A. Marks

Student Publications

This paper provides an analysis of the experiences of Stewart Herman Winfield Jr based on a collection of his letters on loan to Gettysburg College from the Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary. This paper discusses Herman’s experiences as a student in Strasburg and Gottingen, and as the pastor of the American church of Berlin from 1936 – 1941. Born in Harrisburg, Herman attended Gettysburg College, and the Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary. Herman’s letters provide both a pastoral and an American perspective on the start of WWII and Nazism in Germany. Herman traveled frequently and witnessed the changes that Berlin faced during World War …

Longstreet’S Attack From Seminary Ridge To The Rose Woods, Caitlin T. Connelly

Student Publications

This is an overview of a theoretical tour at Gettysburg focusing on Longstreet’s attack on the second day from Seminary Ridge to the Rose Woods. The three tour stops are the Mississippi Monument on West Confederate Avenue, the Peach Orchard, and photos of dead Confederate soldiers in the Rose Woods. After a brief overview of the attack, the paper introduces several questions raised by the historical landscape concerning the sense of history it conveys, how well the landscape currently reflects the experiences of soldiers, what drove soldiers to fight, and how the landscape expresses its own changing meanings. The paper …

Ms-203: Louis A. Parsons Papers (1895-1957), Karen Dupell Drickamer

All Finding Aids

As the collection was created from five different accessions and four donors, over a period of four years and each accession was totally random and jumbled, the processor chose chronological order except when a complete subject file was identified. Parsons made carbon copies of most of his correspondence and wrote often to family, friends, and colleagues about both his personal and his professional life. His letters are filled with personal information, descriptions of life at the College and in the Community, as well as his issues with the administration, making it difficult to separate personal and professional correspondence. Anyone researching …

Delving Into Diaries Of The Past, John M. Rudy

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

January of 1856 was blustery and cold, but John T. McIlhenny had enough work to keep him warm. The 19-year-old typesetter dropped letter after letter into the frames to create the week's news. The Star and Banner office along Chambersburg Street was always a busy place. Beside the weekly issues of the paper, McIlhenny and his coworkers were job printers, making sure Gettysburg was plastered with broadsides, ads and published sermons galore. Outside the window, McIlhenny told his diary, those first few weeks of January had, "been extremely cold - exceeding anything we have had for many long years." The …

Adams County History 2017

Adams County History

No abstract provided.