Gettysburg battlefield: December 2007 Archives

John S. Salmon has assembled an excellent collection of some of the most famous photographs of the historic Gettysburg battlefield and town, most taken with a couple of decades after the July 1863 battle. Included are some of the very best photographs, including some of the studies of dead soldiers, pictures of the key buildings and locations, early battlefield monumentation, and the various reunions of the veterans. The book is a very useful addition to the Civil War library and would make a fine "coffee table book" for display and browsing. The photo collection is varied and insightful, and the breadth of the pictures selected allows the reader to get a good feel for early photography at the battlefield and environs.

Visitor facilities at the Gettysburg National Military Park and the Eisenhower National Historic Site will close at 1 p.m. on December 24, in observance of the holiday, National Park Service officials have announced. The Visitor Center at 97 Taneytown Road will close at 1 p.m. on December 24th and reopen at 8 a.m. on December 26th. Eisenhower shuttle busses and house tours will end at 1 p.m. on the 24th and resume in the morning of the 26th as well.

The battlefield and cemetery will remain open on their regular schedules for visitors who wish to tour on their own. The visitor facilities will close again for the day on January 1.

For more information, please contact 717-334-1124.

National Park Service rendering of the new Visitors Center, opening in April 2008.

For those Cannonball readers who have not yet seen the final floor plans for the new Gettysburg National Military Park Visitors Center between Taneytown Road and Baltimore Pike, have a look at this schematic from the National Park Service's website.

A compromise has recently been reached to settle the recent dispute over the location of the old Rosensteel memorial plaques that had been in the old Visitors Center (they were scheduled to be placed into storage instead on display in the new building). Rosensteel had donated his massive relic collection to the NPS, which forms the backbone of the current Visitors Center's museum. The red X on the floor plans marks where these controversial plaques will be displayed.

Dwight Eisenhower remains an American icon - a hero of World War II who was thrust into the limelight following his success at D-Day, an American president during the 1950s, a strong proponent of creating the U.S. interstate system, and a land owner in Gettysburg whose farm is visited by thousands of tourists each year, many of whom were not even born when he was in the public eye.

"Ike" spent time in Gettysburg during World War I as the commander of the Camp Colt military base, situated on the grounds of Pickett's Charge. He came back after World War II in 1950 and bought a farm five years later in the rear of the 1863 Confederate lines.

Come to the January meeting of the York Civil War Round Table to hear Lt. Col. (ret.) Charles Teague, more popularly known as "Chaplain Chuck," talk about Ike's days in Gettysburg and his impact on the community and battlefield.

The meeting will be at 7:00 Wednesday, January 16, at the York County Heritage Trust at 250 East Market Street in York. Parking and admission are free. A hat will be passed to collect donations to defray the speaker's expenses.

Mark your calendars, and plan to attend this fascinating PowerPoint presentation!