Photo of Scott Mingus's 15mm wargame of the Battle of Monocacy; click on the photo to enlarge it for better viewing.

Gettysburg, for the final time in the foreseeable future, hosted the annual Fall-In wargaming convention at the Eisenhower Resort and Conference Center on Business 15. More than 1000 gamers spend 2-3 days rolling dice and moving tiny model soldiers on model railroad / diorama quality tabletop terrain using rules that loosely simulate the tactics of combat.

The convention is moving from Adams County to Lancaster in November 2010.

For more photos, see my CHARGE! wargaming blog.

Glatfelter is a $1.3 billion global paper company headquartered in York, Pennsylvania. The company now operates paper mills and paper converting facilities in Ohio and Pennsylvania, as well as in Germany, France, England, Wales, and the Philippines. The company traces it roots to the Civil War era, having been founded during the first term of President Abraham Lincoln. Today, many first edition Civil War books are printed on Glatfelter paper because of its archival qualities that fully comply with Library of Congress standards for book permanence.

I have worked for the company as the Global Director of New Product Development since the summer of 2001 when I moved to York County from Cleveland's "Snow Belt." I knew the Spring Grove mill had been purchased by P.H. Glatfelter in 1863 and reopened in 1864 under new management, but I was determined to learn the "actual story behind the story."

Here is an excerpt from a book I wrote a few years ago in which I recount how Mr. Glatfelter built what became a leading international supplier of specialty papers and engineered products.

It's all because of the Battle of Gettysburg...

An aerial view of Glatfelter's sprawling paper and pulp mill complex in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania, not far from the city of Hanover (the site of the June 30, 1863 Battle of Hanover). Confederate and Union cavalry both passed through this region after the battle, and the First Troop, Philadelphia City Cavalry passed through the Spring Grove region (then Spring Forge) on July 4, 1863 looking for Confederate deserters who allegedly were roaming the Pigeon Hills region).

"Following the fighting at Gettysburg, a large number of looters and relic collectors swarmed onto the still festering battlefield, openly taking guns, swords, accoutrements, and other military and personal effects. According to contemporary accounts, "a number of nondescript scavengers of mixed nationalities" from the Spring Forge region of southwestern York County were persistent in traveling some 24 miles to the battlefield, collecting rags and clothing by the wagonload, and driving back caravan-style to the small hamlet. There, they sold their contraband to the Jacob Hauer paper mill, operated by a Philadelphia firm contracted by his heirs following Hauer's death in August 1855.

Since its founding in 1852, the single-machine mill on the Codorus Creek had been supplied by these vagabond peddlers, who had provided a cheap, but legal source of cotton fiber for the 1,500 pounds of paper produced each day. However, the raw material supply had dwindled during the Civil War as fabric had been diverted to the war effort. Now, with the debris of battle not far away, the rag dealers were harvesting a windfall of discarded clothing, bandages, and slings.

The scavengers did not endear themselves to the local populace. According to one eyewitness, "They even resurrected corpses from the shallow entombment in the hope that some valuables might be found on the festering body." Militia cavalry and infantry soon patrolled the Gettysburg area to prevent recurrences of such theft. Two weeks after the battle, a squad of 21st Pennsylvania cavalrymen accosted a trio of these rag dealers as they were departing for Spring Forge with their latest haul. They were quickly escorted back to Gettysburg, turned over to the provost marshal and summarily punished for their transgression of public orders against looting.

In particular, the thieves were ordered to dispose of the rotting remains of dead horses that still littered the battlefield. Some estimates suggest as many as 5,000 horses died during the battle, making the task of their disposal arduous and lengthy. The Confederate prisoners of war and local farmers who had been clearing the fields of these bodies were relieved to now have another source of captive labor. The prisoners were forced to unhitch their teams from the wagons. Using ropes and chains, they used their draft animals to drag the dead military horses into piles, which were then lit on fire to cremate the carcasses. The foul stench soured the air for miles. In several cases, the erstwhile peddlers also dug pits and buried the horses.

"The dose the rag gatherers received was an ample sufficiency to give them the shivers from all future life at the barest glimpse of a blue uniform," wrote one resident. "Their plunder was confiscated, their teams and they themselves put to work. The work they did was hard work; it was menial and repulsive work; but there were glittering bayonets to enforce activity and diligence in their tasks. It was a long time before the trio ever saw Spring Forge. When they did they were sadder men; likewise wiser. They had lost all desire for battlefield plunder.'

Their supply of contraband rags now cut off by the military and with the supply of clean rags and clothing diverted to the Camp Letterman military hospital for the wounded, the paper mill sank into insolvency. On December 23, 1863, the 101-acre complex was sold for $14,000 at an Orphans' Court sale to Philip Henry Glatfelter, a York Countian who had seven years of experience at a Maryland paper mill owned by his future father-in-law. The greatly expanded Spring Forge (now Spring Grove) mill is still operational as a key part of the current Glatfelter paper company."

Scott L. Mingus, Sr., Human Interest Stories of the Gettysburg Campaign (Ortanna, Pa.: Colecraft Books, 2006). Copyrighted text used by permission.

Twice a year Gettysburg's All-Star Sports Complex on Emmitsburg Road hosts the Gettysburg Militaria, Relics, and Book Show, an event that usually is packed with all sorts of interesting Civil War artifacts. As usual, I perused the tables looking for a dealer might have one of the Knights of the Golden Circle membership tickets that so many Confederates wrote about after their invasion of southern Pennsylvania.

For $1, con artists from New York sold these worthless certificates to unsuspecting farmers who were told that the papers and a series of strange hand gestures would notify any Rebel invaders that the farmer was a friend of the Confederacy whose personal property would be protected. Quite the opposite actually occurred, as the Rebels mocked the farmers who performed the hand gesticulations and waved the KGC golden tickets. Their horses were taken with far higher frequency than Unionist neighbors who headed for the hills when Jubal Early's and J.E.B. Stuart's Southern soldiers came calling.

For more photos of the Gettysburg relics sale, please continue reading. Click on the pictures to enlarge them for better viewing of the artifacts.

I was a guest of Jim McLean, owner of Butternut and Blue Books in Baltimore. Jim has been in business since 1983 and is one of the most respected and best known Civil War book sellers in the Mid-Atlantic region. I was at one of his tables from 10 until 2 signing copies of my new book, The Louisiana Tigers in the Gettysburg Campaign. Several park rangers from both Gettysburg and Antietam and licensed battlefield guides stopped by to say hello, and it was great to see them again!

The Collectors Showcase - CS00293 Wheat's Tigers Advancing Set

Jim is a leading dealer of 54mm Civil War collectible toy soldiers, and he had some gorgeous figures for sale of the Iron Brigade, the Louisiana Tigers, and other famous regiments. He also had quite a collection of 54mm World War II soldiers as well.

The Collectors Showcase - CS00294 ACW Wheat's Tigers Command Set

By the way, Jim is collecting information on the 14th Brooklyn (84th New York State Militia), the "red-legged devils" who were heavily engaged on Day 1 of the Battle of Gettysburg. Jim was telling me of an old account in the National Tribune of a group of Louisiana Tigers who attacked several Brooklyners who were defending a Union field hospital in the old Washington Hotel. I had not heard of that account before, but to my knowledge no formed regiment of Tigers went that far west on July 1. Scattered patrols might easily have did so, however.

At one time years ago, the show was only a Civil War-focused event, but over time other military periods were included. As you can see from the above photo, it is a "duke's mixture" of relics from all sorts of time periods. I saw dealers selling American Revolution memorabilia such as pine tree shillings and paper money all the way to more modern artifacts.

Naturally, Civil War and World War II dealers dominated the dealer community. I spoke with several of the ACW vendors hoping to find my elusive con artist KGC ticket but, as with every militaria show I have ever attended, none was forthcoming and I came home empty handed again.

Someday...

In 1863, this brick building in downtown Hanover, Pennsylvania, was the Central Hotel. It served as the nerve center for Union cavalry under Brigadier General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick during and after the Battle of Hanover.

Thousands of cars and trucks pass through downtown Hanover, Pennsylvania, each day, often creating a traffic jam that can back up the queue at the various signals. Patience is a must for the modern traveler visiting this historic town, as similar to the nearby town of Gettysburg, a network of roads converge in Hanover conveying traffic into downtown.

That network of roads led to the June 30, 1863, unplanned collision between Major General J.E.B. Stuart's Confederate cavalrymen coming up from Maryland and a column of Federal troopers from H. Judson Kilpatrick's division.

Like the modern traffic flow, the point of congestion and contention was the intersection of the roads in downtown Hanover.

This vintage photograph of the same building shows the Central Hotel during its heyday of operation. A businessman named Thomas McCausland was the proprietor during the Civil War. The light colored roofed, open structure to the left is the town's market shed, which served as a farmer's market in the 19th century. Image courtesy of the Hanover Area Historical Society, Pennsylvania Room, Hanover Public Library.

As he was riding northward into the Pigeon Hills region north of Hanover, General Kilpatrick heard the sounds of the growing engagement behind him in the town he had left earlier that morning. Spurring his horse to the point of mortal exhaustion, he reached the scene in mid-morning and personally took command of the situation. Kilpatrick established his headquarters in Room 24 on the second floor of the Central Hotel.

After the battle, Kilpatrick continued to use this room as his HQ until he and his men departed Hanover on July 1 to scout Stuart's movements and screen the Union right flank during the Battle of Gettysburg.

The historic hotel ceased operations in the 20th century and is privately owned. The first floor has housed a variety of diverse business interests since the hotel closed.