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Gettysburg Historical Journal 2023

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

Complete Issue of the Gettysburg Historical Journal 2023

To Bigotry No Sanction, To Persecution No Assistance: Jews In The American Revolutionary Period, Ziv R. Carmi

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

While Jews were a small minority in the American colonies, they nonetheless participated in the American Revolution on both sides. This paper aims to evaluate the role of Jewish people in the conflict, contextualizing the experiences of this small minority within the larger narrative of the American Revolution and establishing their importance in the development of religious freedom in the United States. Through the examination of these topics, this paper aims to explore the Revolutionary period from the perspective of the Jewish-American, discussing their often-overlooked experiences in this watershed period within U.S. history.

Secrecy In The American Revolution, Abigail N. Minzer

Student Publications

This paper analyzes how the use of various cryptographic and cryptanalytic techniques affected the American Revolution. By examining specific instances of and each country's general approaches to cryptography and cryptanalysis, it is determined that America's use of these techniques provided the rising nation with a critical advantage over Great Britain that assisted in its victory.

Ghosts Of The Revolution: Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, And The Legacy Of The Founding Generation, Amelia F. Wald

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

For the wartime generation, the Civil War in many ways represented a recapitulation of the American Revolution. Both the Union and Confederate civilian populations viewed themselves as the true successors of the Founding Generation. Throughout the Antebellum years and the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis frequently invoked the Founders and their legacy. The two future executives did so in order to both justify their own political ideologies as well as inspire their respective civilian populations. Their sense of ownership over the legacy of the Founders reflected one of the uniquely American conflicts of the Civil War Era.

The Sins Of The Father: “Light Horse” Harry Lee And Robert E. Lee, Savannah Labbe

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

In early 1862, Robert E. Lee was not yet in command of the Army of Northern Virginia. Instead, he was sent by Confederate President Jefferson Davis to inspect and improve the South’s coastal defenses. This job brought him to Cumberland Island, a barrier island off the coast of Georgia, and while there, he visited the ancestral home of Nathanael Greene, where his father was buried in the family plot. Greene was a famous and talented Revolutionary War general who led the Continental Army to success in taking back the Southern colonies. Lee’s father, “Light Horse” Harry Lee helped Greene take …

You’Ve Got Mail: Throwback To The American Revolutionary War, Abigail K. Major

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

A collection of approximately 150 Civil War era envelopes, mainly produced by Philadelphia publisher James Magee as well as the King & Baird printers, with patriotic Unionist themes is located in Gettysburg College’s Special Collections & College Archives. Of particular interest are the “throwbacks” and references to the American Revolution. The “Glorious Old Hall of Independence,” a depiction of Bunker Hill, and Mount Vernon are only a few illustrations from the collection that demonstrate this American Revolution era theme. [excerpt]

A Not-So-Distant Mirror: Bringing The Revolution To Life Through Interpretation, Jonathan G. Danchik

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

I have not been able to escape Freeman Tilden’s grasp over the course of my three summers with the National Park Service. His writings and ideas seem to be everywhere, not out of pure coincidence, but because of the fact that nobody has eloquently and concisely gotten at the heart of what historical interpretation is quite like he has. In Interpreting Our Heritage, a book so ubiquitous that it might as well be hailed as the interpreter’s holy scripture, Tilden asserts that “the chief aim of interpretation is not instruction, but provocation.” This isn’t meaningless fluff; rather, it’s an important …

Democracy And Nobility, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

Americans love revolutions. Our national identity began with a revolution, and a revolutionary war that lasted for eight years; and we cheer on other people’s revolutions, as though we find satisfaction in multiplying our own. “I hold that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing & as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical,” wrote Thomas Jefferson. “No country should be long without one.” An excited James Garfield, in his maiden speech in the House of Representatives in 1864, asked whether his colleagues “forget that the Union had its origin in revolution.” Ralph Waldo …

25425 & 20500: Zip Codes For A Revolution, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

I put on my coat and headed out the door today around lunchtime. My excuse was to grab a sandwich to munch on at my desk, but I was really hunting something very different. The Post Office is right along High Street down the block from work and Tuesday was the first day they've been open this year. [excerpt]

Veterans Residing In Adams County, Pennsylvania, 1840-1930, Kevin L. Greenholt

Adams County History

The federal decennial census provides a wide-ranging set of data for analysis. The census forms for each ten-year cycle from 1790 until 1930 have been released to the public for access. The tabulations of 1840, 1910, and 1930 contain data relating to the military service of those interviewed by the census enumerator. Compiled here is a list of veterans, listed by Adams County township, who served in the American Revolution, War of 1812, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I, or other military actions from 1840 through 1930.

The Bermudian Creek Tories, James P. Myers Jr.

Adams County History

The history of the American Revolution which most Americans have learned and which is everyday reinforced in the public media is essentially but one of several competing interpretations of that conflict. We rarely think about this, so successfully has that particular history taken root in our culture. Common sense, however, should caution us that the British also possess a version or versions which differ in important ways from ours. The French, our allies during the Revolution, offer yet another construction, one stressing that war's place in their own long history of conflict with Great Britain. And had the northeastern American …

Anatomy Of A Log House In Adams County, Pennsylvania And Its Unspoken Language, Elwood W. Christ

Adams County History

Sixteen years after the end of the Revolution, and on the eve of the formation of Adams county, the United States became embroiled in a "quasi-war" with France (1797-1801) which strained the federal treasury. As a result of the diplomatic disagreement, Congress approved several bills to fund America's military build-up. One of these, the U.S. Evaluation Tax of July 9, 1798, was signed into law to raise two million dollars in revenues. The direct or "window tax" was levied based on landholdings, buildings and the number of glass lights, and slaves-in essence, a federal property tax.

Although the "window tax" …

6. Nationalism Develops In The United States, 1789-1871, Robert L. Bloom, Basil L. Crapster, Harold L. Dunkelberger, Charles H. Glatfelter, Richard T. Mara, Norman E. Richardson, W. Richard Schubart

Section XIII: Political Liberalism and Nationalism, 1815-1871

Nationalism as a political creed found roots also in the Western Hemisphere. The United States took a large step toward greater national unity in 1789 when George Washington became the first American President (1789-1797) under the new federal constitution. But just as citizens of the new republic debated the relative merits of aristocratic or democratic government, so they argued without essential agreement on the nature of their union -- whether the locus of authority should reside in the central government or be reserved to the individual states. The followers of Alexander Hamilton, the Federalists, interpreted the Constitution as permitting stronger …

Xi. The Revolutionary Years, 1776-1815, Robert L. Bloom, Basil L. Crapster, Harold L. Dunkelberger, Charles H. Glatfelter, Richard T. Mara, Norman E. Richardson, W. Richard Schubart

Section XI: The Revolutionary Wars, 1776-1815

The intellectual ferment of the eighteenth century gave rise to a popular discontent with the status quo which culminated in two major revolutionary upheavals near the end of that century. We may fully understand the distinctive features of contemporary Western society only as we consider the transformations wrought by the American and French Revolutions. Discontent deep enough to produce widespread resistance to constituted authority is not an infrequent social phenomenon, but rarely has it resulted in movements which so profoundly rent the fabric of society as in the years between 1776 and 1815. A logical fulfillment of the intellectual unrest …

1. The American Revolution, 1776-1789, Robert L. Bloom, Basil L. Crapster, Harold L. Dunkelberger, Charles H. Glatfelter, Richard T. Mara, Norman E. Richardson, W. Richard Schubart

Section XI: The Revolutionary Wars, 1776-1815

The long-range causes for the American Revolution may be found in the different social environment developing in England and America during previous decades. John Adams once wrote: "The Revolution was effected before the war commenced, in the minds and hearts of the people." For over a century and a half English colonists in North America had been transforming their Old World culture into something greatly different. The wilderness conditions of the new land generally promoted wider economic opportunity. England's colonial administration allowed extensive experience in self-government in her American possessions. Together these two developments introduced a high degree of social …